Hamburger Broccoli Pie

I'm obsessed! Apparently, I cannot stop baking inside of this artisan receptacle I picked up from Donovan at Local Roots because, I mean, who wouldn't be obsessed with thinking up more ways to fill a pie plate that not only is super practical but so extremely beautiful I leave it on my counter so that I can gaze at it all day long?! As if I have nothing else to do than gaze at a pie plate — who says that!? 

Foraging 101 {How to Hunt for Morel Mushrooms}

• Morels are in Season When: 
• Lilacs and cherry blossom trees are blooming.
• Nighttime temperatures stay above 55ºF-60ºF. 
• Abundant rainfall creating a humid atmosphere -- you can bet the forest is growing mushrooms!
• Look for Morels Here:
• Gaze into the treetops to decipher dead trees from the leafed out trees. Go to the base of dead trees in search of mushrooms.
• On mossy slopes below dead trees — some say Elm trees, but I think any dead wood is a place to look.
• Where ramps, jack in the pulpit, & other wild flowers grow.
• In low lying, moist areas — You should see the ground covered in moss and 3"- 4" of grassy, patchy undergrowth.

Quick Asparagus Sauté with Caramelized Garlic + acoupla shots of Twin Cities Live

My whirlwind of a week is over and the diarrhea has mostly subsided my nerves have finally calmed to a place where I can begin processing that I cooked/spoke/appeared/didn't fall flat on my face on live television! Credit goes to wedge shoes and prayer and people I can count on, but I still find myself short on sufficient enough words to describe how amazing the experience felt. Adrenaline is one word I can think of, or, if I had the guts to skydive I would imagine jumping out of a plane to feel the same way I did on Tuesday. I confessed to my girlfriends it had to be the next best day of my life after the birth of my two children and the day I married the man of my dreams (no small thing!).

Beer Battered Asparagus with Greek Yogurt Tarragon Dipping Sauce

Tomorrow's the big day Steve and Elizabeth at Twin Cities Live will be helping me cook up my Finnegan's Beer Battered Asparagus with Greek Yogurt Tarragon Dipping Sauce for a chance to win a trip to Ireland! Do I have the cooking chops? Do I have the passion? Do I have the cutest hair best recipe!? The producers want to know why I love to cook and what gets me in the kitchen, I think both questions were answered when I revealed the news to you, showing you my adventurous, experimental kitchen recipes and my love of gathering people around the table!

Spaghetti Pie + acoupla shots of Florida Beaches

Today I'm unapologetically sharing another recipe similar to a recent recipe using the same ingredients of pasta, ground meat and cheese, but replaced lasagna noodles with spaghetti noodles, amped up the vegetable quotient in hopes of tricking little people's palates into submission adoring vegetables, and baked the lot into crispity, crunchity edges that not even the pickiest eater can deny as delicious. There are no apologies here, baby!

Grilled Yellowtail Snapper with Mango Salsa + NEWS

NEWS - that's right - N E W S. And an uncomplicated, fresh and fast recipe for Grilled Whole Yellowtail Snapper with Mango Salsa that you'll definitely want to try next time you run into fish that has been caught within 4 hours of purchase. 

Breakfast Pie {featuring Donovan's Pottery}

It's Easter Weekend. Things are happening in my kitchen. There are times when I get these bursts of inspiration to turn ingredients that might stump you into allowing them to turn rancid otherwise go unused, like a gigantic box of no-name cornflakes I thought were a good idea at Aldi or the Cost-co sized jar of roasted peanuts that may or may not have been sitting in my pantry for a minimum of 36 months. Now the cornflakes are atop a buttery bed of eggy hash browns and the peanuts ground into my own homemade peanut butter - have you ever done that? Genius! 

Skillet Lasagna

If this family ever eats anything closely resembling Hamburger Helper my Skillet Lasagna is as close as my children's childhood memories will venture to a meal that starts in a box. Believe me, for the sake of sanity I've tried the meals in a box, but they are seriously gross and I just can. not. 

Banana Caramel Layer Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting

So, cake! Yea. The best ever. My usual cake baking escapades have been of the 9x13 variety (all the Midwestern cooks out there catch my drift there, don't cha?) until I recently picked up these cake rounds which I'm loving because my cake baking is instantly elevated to another level of elegance!

Loaded Oatmeal Cookies

When my cupboards are becoming barer by the day (which actually I feel great satisfaction into a good self-directed challenge of Operation Bare Cupboard) with no hope for what the children will consume after a long day of school/playing Xbox/tagging along with mom, I can always rely on my talent to turn flour into something quasi-nutritious. 

Roasted Yukon Gold Potatoes + Secrets and Discovery of Raw Milk

I have really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really exciting news, but I can't tell. Not yet. I'm absolutely, downright horrible at keeping secrets, the suspense kills me! Never give me your secrets unless you want the secret no longer to be a secret because my excitement over secrets always wins, I'll spill the beans to the very next person I converse with no matter who they are I cannot contain joy! So why am I showing you a picture of a cow? Because this secret I can tell - whew! I thought I would explode at the thought of keeping all my secrets. Here it is: I've converted my family to raw milk and IT. IS. SO. FANTASTIC! Oh, yeah - and I roasted some potatoes that were kinda really fabulously delicious and I want you to have the recipe because it was really ridiculously easy. 

Kids in the Kitchen {Community Education Class}

Did you know inviting your kids into the kitchen will help them make healthier eating choices? Involving your child in mealtime prep allows them to feel pride and accomplishment in the task at hand - like chopping broccoli. Take a peek into my latest community education class, Kids in the Kitchen. We had a blast making Homemade BBQ Sauce, Broccoli Medallions, Honey Mustard Pretzel-Crusted Chicken Tenderloins and Coconut Date Balls. The kids had SO much fun, and I think the adults did, too! The recipes for all the "kid-tested and approved" items are at the end of the post - you don't want to miss 'um - maybe dinner tonight?

Beef Yakitori {Paleo, Gluten-Free, Quick & Easy Dinner}

Isn't this exciting?! I'm grilling! It's sunny! Grilling! Sunny! In a blink of an eye Minnesotans forget the snow for all the joys of sunshine and the deliciousness of Spring. My newest recipe is simple, uses only five ingredients that should surely be stocked in your pantry, it's drop-dead fast from prep to done, and it. is. so. so. so. yummy. 

Winter Salad {Local Greens from Local Roots Food Co-op}

Daylight savings time is on Sunday. The calendar says March. And green (edible) things are growing within a 10 mile radius of my being (your being, too) because of a stupendous green house that producers from the Local Roots Food Co-op are tending day and night. It's really fantastic. Today for lunch I created a Winter Salad with a mix of beet greens, tat soi, radish greens, red sail lettuce, young spinach and young kale all freshly harvested by Dan who owns the Farm of Minnesota. Read on for the recipe and a fun shot from inside the greenhouse.  Would you leave me a comment on what you'd like to see grown inside the greenhouse? The producers want to know! 

On My Bookshelf Now February 20th, 2015

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt is an astounding, all-consuming, MUST READ novel. If you are a lover of the written word please pick this book up and leave yourself nothing to do but read for about four and a half days. What I think I love most about this book is the way the story is a mirror image of our post-9/11 society. But beware, there is such deep sadness in the characters of this book your thoughts will be consumed by them.

 

Vegetable Soup

A recent trip to Costco awakened me to the once ridiculous sounding possibility of my children eating salad with stinky cheese, mayo enhanced albacore on crackers and smokey chipotle sauce on cream cheese slathered crackers. Yes, all of those foods sound like the absolute dead last thing a four-year-old would say yum to, but not if the cute Granny at Costco serves it with a smile and a my aren't you cute? 

Raw Carrot Cake Truffles

I have a new thing. Raw Food. But not raw like a carrot you crunch away on - no not that simple - raw food that tastes like candy. Raw food disguised as healthy adult candy for people who adore licorice have been known to hound a sweet tooth. I know, Gwyneth Paltrow has been touting the raw food movement since 2003, but I live in the Midwest - trends hit us 10 years behind the rest of the planet. And I'm all raw baby.

Spring Rolls + acoupla shots of Cancún

Hello! Are you withstanding the doldrums of winter? The month of January had me hanging on for dear life - I wasn't fairing so well (remember when I told you dates were the highlight of my life and no, not a date with my husband) - pretty sure my Vitamin D stores were in negative deplete stage, but recently was able to travel to Cancún with some girlfriends from church to celebrate 40th birthdays! 

Sweet & Salty Chewy Date Bites

I'm having a serious love affair with dates right now. Where have dates been all my life? The way dates trick you into thinking you're eating something so much more sinful then it is has got to be the highlight of my…of my…of my….of my day, of my kitchen, of my life? It can't possibly be life because that would be so sadly pathetic. I wouldn't want you thinking dates can actually be the highlight of someone's life. No, people have much more important life highlights. Like drinks with friends, or cute new hairdo's, cozy Saturday mornings. Now friends, hair and family sound like things people might highlight - not dates. Unless it's a date with this guy. 

Skillet Popover {Quick & Easy Panekkoeken}

A couple things I'm absolutely loving right now and have been wasting, no literally dragging my feet through the thickest, darkest, murkiest thick sand letting time tick by without telling you about essential beauty items I've been adoring and with every tick my brain says TELL THEM. Come, let's talk. Your fabulous self awaits with this face wash by Dessert Essence. My skin has never glowed so - it's so glow-ey my skin has literally outshown itself - I almost need to tame the sheen. And speaking of skin, I've been needling - not sure if I'm really satisfied with the results for the amount of pain (yes, this is a mini torture device). 

Coconut Oil Popcorn

Who doesn't love popcorn? Show me the man who doesn't love popcorn and I'll show you the man deprived of life with je ne sais quoi, or the joie de vivre as the French say. Oh, la la I'm Lady Marmalade. And my knowledge of French sayings ends. My girlfriend hosted Ladies Night and served her version of Coconut Oil Popcorn which I had to immediately recreate in my own kitchen, because if you know me - I. Adore. Popcorn. Like, a lot. The popcorn I used is from the co-op I serve as a Board Member to - the Local Roots Food Co-Op. It's organic and local - score and double score. Guilt free snacking - think after school snack, kids are home for the weekend - big bowl of popcorn sitting around, or an in-home moving night - of course! Getting your fill on healthy fats, fiber-licious, crunch-tastic, salt-lastic, hmmm-mmm, yummy-lation. Love these cute dollar store popcorn bags I picked up, too! Start poppin' people. 

Chocolate Coconut Cream Cups

Discovering an unbeknownst bag of sugar coated high fructose corn syrup Peanut Butter Crunchy Bars in the backside passenger seat while trying to stow Aussie Licorice into same passenger seat pocket has me incredulous at my candy hoarding abilities. How did I forget that bag!? Sweet Tooth Insanity. And when Sweet Tooth Insanity nags at my being, but I'm (lamely) trying to be wholesome because a trip to the Yucatán Peninsula is very near in my future, candy cravings have to become really truly wholesome. 

White Sangria {A Big Bowl of Booze}

It's Friday! Guess what I forgot to do? Yep, you guessed it - forgot to turn the TV on Wednesday night for the replay of Downton Abbey. Lame! Loser! Can NOT remember when shows are on! I need my British accent // rich lady mansion tea party // dinner party dresses // English etiquette cup filled!! And I'm really failing. Why don't I throw a party for Buffalo housewives with a big bowl of booze to solve my problems!? Just kidding - bowls of booze don't solve your problems. But they should! Just kidding again (that is, if Travis' Mom or my Dad is reading this). I know one thing bowls of booze do - cause giggles. Lots of um.

Buffalo Chicken Dip

Between Saturday morning playdates and gym sesh's, plating up Saturday night Thai Coconut Shrimp Soup, and getting to church on time, without having any slick television show recording systems how do normal, organized people remember when their favorite shows are on?? I missed Downtown on Sunday evening! My world is OVER! Thankfully TPT recognizes spazzes like me and replays Sunday's episode on Wednesday night. I may need to program a reminder into my phone. 8pm Wednesday. 8pm Wednesday. 8pm Wednesday. If Downton isn't your thing, turn on some football and make this dip - the (wo)men in your life will be ever so grateful. 

Cabbage Steaks

DOWNTON IS BACK! Hoooooorahhhh! My snark cup has been filled to the brim as TPT replayed Season Four Downton Abbey leaving me completely up to date on all the drama (Lady Mary - what a slut!, poor Anna - another rape?, Oh, Daisy!, Oh, Lady Edith!, the black musician and Lady Rose - how hot!?) and ramping us up for the big hurrah Season Five which premiered last Sunday. In anticipation, my beloved Grandma sent a newspaper clipping basically foreboding Julian Fellowes may not write another season of  Downton and may be in its last season - say it isn't SO! How did you like the Season Premier? I CANNOT believe James was fired! He is way too hot to ex off the show! I mean, really! In other unrelated news, I'm eating healthy after all the merriment, eating, and eating and by eating healthy I mean vegetables atop vegetables atop lean protein with a side of 60 minutes of cardio. Amen. Eat Cabbage.