The hallway bathroom project is nearly done... and it felt time to splurge on a new shower curtain. When I first moved in 18 months ago, I tossed up the shower curtain from my old North End apartment. There was zero emotional attachment to this chevron shower curtain... it was free and houses are expensive. BUT - with the board and batten project wrapping up I knew the time was coming for a new shower curtain. I had done all the labor for this project myself (with help from my dad) so a new shower curtain was a reasonable expense. Goals: don't stray too far from the traditional style of the bathroom bring in some color to the black / white / gray bathroom maybe  be a little bit different than some of my normal design decisions After probably about 2 hours on Target and Amazon, I bought 11 shower curtains. Was this excessive? Yes. Was it a fun way to spent quarantine? Almost. Was this the only way to shop for shower curtains in a pandemic? Also yes. Here are all t...
In the last couple years, I've become more of a dessert person - but not just any dessert. I'm still not choosing a piece of pie after my dinner but I'll rarely push away a piece of chocolate or cookie. Given my lack of self-control, I have removed all of the Reese cups from my house for the last couple months. The seasonal shapes are my weak spot for sure. With the recent shift to a quarantined lifestyle, I have been doing a fair amount of baking. A friend of mine dropped off some of the most amazing chocolate chip cookies of my life. These are not that :-) but they are still quite great and gluten free. So, if you are like myself and accidentally bought gluten free flour from Whole Foods delivery.... you can also make these cookies tonight.  When I made these, I did freeze nearly 75% of the dough for another night. This worked quite swimmingly. I just put a ice cream scoops of cookie dough on a sheet and set them in the freezer to harden a bit before tra...
How many posts in a row can I reference quarantine cooking? The answer is probably a lot - and probably more for the next two months or so. As we prepared to eat more out of our houses and with less trips to the grocery store, I impulse bought a couple cans of tuna fish one day at the local grocery store. It had probably been at least three years and maybe five since I last bought a can of tuna fish. Since then, I have probably crushed a can of tuna each week either in the form of a tuna melt... or these very tasty tuna cakes. I actually got the idea for these from watching an episode of British Home Chef on Hulu. The essential idea of the show is XYZ. In one of the final episodes of season 2, the "rustle up challenge" was to create a meal based on a can of tuna fish. Nearly everyone failed but thankfully the hosts commentary gave good ideas ... and tuna cakes was one of them. Tuna cakes will come together in probably 15 minutes max - including all prep and coo...
I've been making pancakes on Sunday evenings for probably 2 months now... or perhaps more honestly. Sometimes figuring out what to eat for dinner every night can be a lot, so knowing that Sunday is for pancakes makes life a bit easier. Plus it normally means bacon is also on the menu.  Given that I recently adopted a sourdough starter, I've been looking for ways to use it that aren't bread. I love the bread, it's delicious. But it's also addicting. One slice always leads to three slices.  A quick google search lead to a sourdough pancake recipe  from Tastes of Lizzy that used all my extra sourdough starter. I tweaked the recipe a bit to be a little sweeter and saltier - my favorite things. I have never seen such fluffy tall pancakes in all my life. They are perfect for your favorite mix-ins: chocolate chips, blueberries, sprinkles... whatever makes you happy. Here's how it goes. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and soda,...
Yes, that is a really loaded name for these small donuts... but it is all the truth. Donuts were not on my list of things to make during this quarantine but I had some fresh buttermilk... and I'm trying very hard to reduce my waste. Why the fresh buttermilk? Well, I obviously had to make fresh butter because the store was out of butter and toast without butter is lunacy. Last week I made my mom a batch of butter and split it between three flavors: cinnamon sugar, salted honey, garlic thyme. She has not complained about any of them. The original call for this recipe  (from Nourished Endeavors) was just a simple dip in cinnamon sugar. That was nice. It tasted fine - but then I had a flash of brilliance to do a simple glaze of peanut butter... and then sprinkle cinnamon sugar on top. HOME RUN. The creamy peanut butter gives the otherwise cake donut a silkiness and amps up the heavenly level. I'm really pleased with it. For the peanut butter topping, here are some sp...
So, I am continuing to experiment with macarons... and this might have been my best batch to date. They were great for so many reasons. One, the flavoring was very solid. Two, the consistency and shell structures were real good. What did I do differently? I finally bought a scale. I always thought using scales would be more work than I wanted to spend... but boy was I wrong. I love using a scale now. It is so easy and making cooking cleaner some how. For example, it was really clear to me that 120 grams of egg whites was significantly more than 3 eggs worth. It ended up being close to 4 eggs. The other difference was that I added a little bit of granulated sugar to the whipped egg whites. This is the website that I used as a guide. Although not a video, there are a lot of detailed pictures to show progress. I made these babes for a Galentine's Day dinner with family ladies. They were rather perfect and it was hard to not keep eating them. I think the next time I make macar...
Let me introduce you to a very easy and impressive brunch recipe. I honestly have no idea what to call it - but perhaps a "bagel egg bake"? I've attempted several different brunch casseroles over the years and this is one of the best. It is also one of the easiest. There are only 6 ingredients! I ended up making a slightly larger batch than the recipe called for... which necessitated in getting some emergency eggs from my neighbor. This made for a great accompaniment to the brunch. It was not too eggy and the green onions made a great addition. I also made a blood orange cardamom cake to go with it... and some other nice ladies brought a fruit salad and tasty pink donuts. The best and worst part about hosting brunch is that I'll be eating all these leftovers for two more days.  A few notes: prepare the dig the night before for ultimate ease I bought fresh bagels from Trader Joes... but this would be a great opportunity to get a bargain on some day o...
Hello there beautiful. That is what you can say to this cake once you flip it out of the pan.  I was looking for something a little bit red and a little bit fun to make for a galentine's brunch this weekend. It was incredibly easy to make and a bit of a shocker to me honestly. I am probably now going to see what other fruits I can put in cake pans and flip upside down. A few takeaways: amount of fruit? I saw some versions of this cake with a ton of overlapping oranges... and then a lot less. I think somewhere around my amount was correct. Perhaps a little bit more so you are guaranteed some in each slice crazy moist? I accidentally left this cake out on the counter overnight... and you'd never know. rind on the fruit? I left mine on because I liked how it looked on a baked cake. The rind completely bakes down and is very easy to cut through. The internet says that sometimes it could be a bit bitter, but I didn't notice. the original recipe  from "The Bro...
I am fully committed to merengues as a household staple. I believe that I have now made them weekly for a month? The minute I eat the last one in the container.... I just start to whip up some egg whites for a fresh batch. The recipe isn't wholly different from the peppermint merengues that I made over Christmas... the difference is that I discovered the magic of dipping them in chocolate. I didn't stop there either. I started to then dip them in nuts and shredded chocolate. And then just this past weekend, I mixed some peanut butter into the chocolate and that was delightful too. Here are the iterations I've done: (1) regular peppermint merengue (2) coconut merengue dipped in chocolate (3) coconut merengue double dipped in chocolate and then sea salt pistachio or shredded coconut (4) almond extract flavored merengue dipped in chocolate peanut butter (5) vanilla extract flavored merengue dipped in sea salt pistachio And if I'm being honest, I've got ...
I believe I first saw this recipe on Instagram back in the Fall. I was immediately enchanted by the idea of "moon milk" and had to know more. After reading the Bon Appetit description , I was sold. I love sleep and this promises more sleep. While I had all the spices at my disposal, it did take me a little bit to get the last ingredient: ashwagandha. Whole Foods does sell several different options but I held off for a sale to save a few extra dollars. The recipe calls for ashwagandha powder but you can also just open one supplement pill like I did. Turns out one pill is exactly the amount called for in this recipe. I have now made this 3 times and enjoyed it more each night. The first night that I drank this milk before bed I slept over nine hours.  1st batch = made it a little too hot and wasn't patient enough to let it cool 2nd batch = perfect temperature 3rd batch = good temperature again... and I actually strained the hot milk to remove some of th...
I haven't stopped talking about how good this chili / soup is. It is so good that I even bought more lentils at Whole Foods yesterday. That should be a clear testament to the gold star status. Each year for Christmas my sister and I make new recipes for my grandfather as presents. In the past I've made some other low sodium or otherwise inspired meals. 2018 was a delicious turkey posole  inspired by his love of San Diego. 2017 was a chickpea tomato soup . It was so long ago that I forgot I made that soup and almost made it again quite recently. Time flies when you are having fun apparently. I will absolutely be making this soup again soon. I treat it like a chili and there is nothing bad about enjoying some melted cheddar cheese in the winter. While it is great as a vegetarian option, I think you could easily some ground turkey or chicken to the base if you feel that is needed. I'll pretty much be using it as a way to trick myself into eating lentils. here you go...