Ava was born in July on Friday the 13th and her daddy’s 35th birthday. If that isn’t good timing, I don’t know what is. We’ve had a pretty peaceful and gradual transition into parenthood given the circumstances. Friends have provided us meals three times a week for the past five weeks, meaning I haven’t really been in the kitchen much at all. Both friends and family have camped out on our couch around the clock to hold Ava and give her snuggles while I rest, clean, or simply get some adult time. My husband got three glorious weeks off from work, and since this is our first child and we have no other pressing issues to worry about, we sat around the house and napped all day. Like I said, this motherhood thing hasn’t been bad so far.

I met someone today who had read my blog before meeting me. That’s always a bit intimidating but in this particular case it was what encouraged me to put the metaphorical pen to paper and share once again my love of food with the world. I am starting out with this particular recipe for a few reasons. First, I can’t be the only person who has harvested a gazillion cherry/campari sized tomatoes this summer. Second, last year I discovered a scrumptious recipe for oven roasted tomatoes but I did not blog about it immediately and now I cannot find it. I am kicking myself for not posting it at the time.

Continue reading: oven roasted tomatoes

My friend Maile asked me to make peach muffins like the ones she discovered at her local grocery store’s bakery years ago and hasn’t seen since. That’s all I had to go on. “Can you make me some peach muffins like those? They were sooooo good!” Um, okay? I’ll try?

I have no idea if these muffins are exactly what Maile wanted me to replicate, but I do know that these have passed the “everyone loves them” test. I took them to a party and they vanished. It was like a Harry Potter trick, but in real life and without wands. I made them again today to share the perfected version with Maile. I sent her the above picture and her response was “YES!” so I think maybe we’re onto something.

Here’s to you, Maile. May it be the peach muffin of your dreams!

When Annie posted this recipe, I thought to myself, “What the heck? Annie suggests it. I’ll try it. But I don’t think I’ll like it!” Boy was I ever surprised! First of all, start to finish, this takes less than 20 minutes to make. If you burn the butter and the fire alarm goes off and you can’t figure out how to turn the fire alarm off and you have to stuff the alarm into the couch cushions to silence it, it may take 25 minutes. But if you don’t have fire alarm issues, I promise, it’s a super-fast meal. Weeknight dinner? I’d say so! And it’s healthy. And it’s delicious. It’s a new favorite in our house that I’ve served several times in the past few weeks! Try it with our summer tomatoes. You’re going to be delighted!

Do you love Groupon / Living Social / Google Offer deals as much as we do? We collect so many that we have a spreadsheet to keep track of them. Yes, we’re nerds, and we’re proud of it. One of our recent purchases was a deal at a local used book store. For $10 we were able to buy $20 worth of used books. I love books and if I had it my way, I would have an entire library in my house with one shelf devoted to cookbooks. While at the book store, I came across the book Big Fat Cookies and I knew I had hit gold. I showed the book to my students the week before finals and let them pick a cookie of their choice to eat on our last day together. One girl chose these black bottom coconut macaroons. I was skeptical (really? macaroons? for a high schooler?) but they were delicious! Total win! Not only that, they have to be among the easiest cookies I have ever made. How often do you have cookie batter ready bake before the oven is even preheated? Now that’s my type of cookie!

Continue reading: black bottom coconut macaroons

In case you were wondering where I’ve been lately, let me explain: growing a baby is a lot of work. Prepping for a baby’s impending arrival is even more work including rearranging the house, painting furniture, buying the necessities, and cramming in as much fun as possible before sleep deprivation begins! Add to that a 30+ person surprise birthday party for my husband and preparing students for finals and, well… you get the drift. I dropped off the planet for a while, but now that I am on summer break I have some amazing recipes up my sleeve to share with you.

Continue reading: cheater chocolate turtles (with fleur de sel)

My husband loves angel food cake and yet I have never made it for him. I think it’s because I have tasted only the Safeway version and the spongy texture creeped me out. How in the world can a cake be sooooo spongy? I found a recipe on Cook’s Illustrated’s website and a quick perusal of the ingredients answered my question: a dozen egg whites. Yowsers. That is a lot of egg whites! Fortunately, one batch of homemade vanilla ice cream uses a half dozen egg yolks, so all I need to do is time one angel food cake and two batches of ice cream and I am left with no waste at all!

This cake is heavenly. It is perfect topped with a mound of lightly sweetened whipped cream and some fresh berries. You can serve it at a formal occasion or for a weeknight dessert. Either way, it’s delicious! Now that I know how easy it is to prepare angel food cake, I will make this cake often throughout the summer to go with all those wonderful strawberries and blueberries at the local farmer’s market!

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My apologies. I had NO IDEA that I had not posted this recipe yet. I’m so glad an observant reader brought this to my attention as I thought I had posted this recipe ages ago. While I love my yeasted waffles recipe for Saturday morning simplicity, I’m always so disappointed when they go limp minutes after taking them out of the waffle maker. Pam Anderson’s recipe for super crunchy waffles that stay crunchy for up to an hour after taking them out of the waffle maker is my new favorite. The secret is the corn starch and the 5 minutes in the oven. I absolutely adore these, topping mine with syrup, fresh berries, and whipped cream. Give them a shot and tell me if they don’t become your new favorite waffle recipe too!

Continue reading: super crunchy waffles that *stay* crunchy

I am an avid mayonnaise hater. Are any of you out there with me on this? Surely I am not the only one. There is something off-putting about eating a gelatinous white goo that is known for clogging arteries. I would never, ever buy potato salad from a grocery store given that they all look like they are swimming in mayo. (Want an amazing potato salad with minimal mayonnaise? My mom’s is my favorite. Instead of containing gobs of mayonnaise, this recipe uses sour cream with only a hint of mayonnaise!) When I order sandwiches, I ask the waitress to tell the cook to hold the mayo because no matter how much I emphasize that I want “just a little bit of mayonnaise, please” they always end up putting on more than I like. So it is no surprise that when I was getting ready to bake a dessert that called for mayonnaise as a moistening agent, there was nary a tablespoon in my refrigerator. When I find myself without an ingredient on hand, I often Google a recipe on-line before going to the store. This recipe for mayonnaise is from Food Network. It was rated super well and looked easy to make. I took other reviewers’ advice and altered the recipe to my own taste. I never buy mayonnaise now as I can make my own in one or two minutes. There is something comforting about knowing that it’s nothing more than an emulsion of a few simple ingredients that I use every day when cooking. Try this recipe and I think you will agree: homemade mayonnaise is easy and far tastier than its store-bought counterpart!

I love my mom’s potato salad, but it takes several hours to make and sometimes I don’t have that much time (or energy! phew…. this pregnancy stuff is draining!). I came across this potato salad recipe eons ago on Brown Eyed Baker and its simplicity intrigued me. I have made it twice in three weeks, which is not something that I generally do. Because it is so easy to make, so tasty, and it goes well with so many main courses, this will be a mainstay in our house. Best part? No potato peeling required! Yahoo!

Continue reading: herbed vinaigrette potato salad

It’s been a long while since I’ve posted a new recipe! I’ve been vacationing in Hawaii celebrating one last big hurrah before baby comes!

One of my favorite local restaurants is Lettuce because I can order a HUGE salad heaped with fruits, veggies, cheese, and nuts and still leave feeling healthy with money in the bank. I love a great salad, but when it comes to chopping ingredients, I am super lazy. I tend to serve “greens with dressing” more often than not because the idea of pulling out a cutting board and chop, chop, chopping for the next 15 or 20 minutes just to make something that will be a side dish is incomprehensible.

The last time I went to Lettuce a girlfriend suggested that I try the half salad, half sandwich combo. She assured me I’d still get plenty of salad along with a hearty sandwich. I just had to be willing to take a leap of faith and try it. And so I did! I was served my usual salad with a side sandwich comprised of layers of prosciutto, fresh mozzarella, roasted peppers and fresh basil all on a thick, fluffy cloud of focaccia bread. Oh. My. Gosh. It was heaven. The sandwich/salad combo is now a new favorite and I decided to replicate the sandwich at home. This of course meant that I needed a decent focaccia recipe. I have a few favorite blogs that I use to find fail-proof recipes and one of those is Annie’s Eats. Her promise that this focaccia would bowl me over was not in vain. It really is amazing, even if you should get a doctor’s note before you can eat it.

I don’t often make fancy sandwiches for lunch but this was a special occasion. My dear friend Michelle spent 7 hours with me one Saturday painting the nursery and helping me register at Buy Buy Baby. I value time more than almost any other resource, so I wanted to make Michelle a lunch she wouldn’t soon forget. I re-created the salad/sandwich combo from Lettuce (yes! all that chopping!) and we feasted like kings… or, in my case, like a pregnant lady.

This focaccia is out of this world. It is absolutely worth the effort to make it. It is moist, delicious, and stunning both as a sandwich bread and as a bread for serving alongside a hearty soup. You won’t be disappointed.

Continue reading: herbed focaccia bread