My friend Jordan summed up yesterday very nicely: “You know it’s gonna be a good day when Kiss Me by Sixpence None the Richer comes on the radio”

Weeeellll she’s right. Yesterday was a wonddderrrful day of spontenaeity. With Valentine’s Day coming up shortly, my friend Andrea decided she wanted to celebrate by making chocolate-covered pretzels for everyone she loved! Luckily, I also happened to have some strawberries on hand for those feeling a little more romantic. (or healthy?)

Dousing sticks of pretzels in chocolate and drizzling the opposite color over each turned out to bring much enjoyment and carried us through much-needed giRL tALk

What are YOU doing for zee day of love?! 

What a cutie

 

My 3 cookbook Christmas presents are currently my prized possessions. And if you come over to my apartment, be wary that I WILL make you look at them. My friend Kelly proceeded to bookmark all of the recipes in my new Smitten Kitchen cookbook that she wanted us to make together. I’m so glad she did, because it’s making us dedicated to actually making plans.

This galette, paired with a spinach salad, was the perfect hearty winter meal. The dough has only a bit of whole wheat flour, yet it tasted really grainy (so it cancels out the 2 sticks of butter in the dough, right?). As you may see in my other posts, I love to cook with others as a bOnDiNg activity. This one is great, because if you’re good at the pastry stuff, go for the dough. But if you aren’t, someone can take charge of the chopping, grating, and stove-top cooking.

I love actually putting the galette together, because you’re anticipating this beautiful wreath but it takes a bit of work to get there!

Here’s some pics of our adventure:

Butternut squash gets roasted at 400 and thinly-sliced onions cook on low-med heat for 25 minutes

fontina + asiago cheese

I’ve been trying to do stuffed poblanos ever since I read about a beer-bean risotto stuffed one from the Sprouted Kitchen cookbook. But, of course I never have any of the ingredients to make it.

Since Trader Joe’s opened, I, along with many, have been scouring the obscure TJ products found no where else. I found this soy chorizo and decided it would be a good pepper-stuffer.

Here’s what I did, but I would follow a recipe looking back because mine was wayyyy to greasy and should really be a post-triathlon meal (okay so maybe I will recommend this for men…):

Slice a poblano pepper down the seam, removing the seeds and pulpy stem. Char on the stovetop if you have a gas stove, but if you’re like me, just set the oven on broil and put the pepper on the highest rack for about 15 minutes. Once the outside has charred, you can scrape off the black stuff. (One trick I learned was to stick the pepper immediately into a plastic bag and seal, which will help it sweat off the char)

While the pepper is in the oven, heat up some onions and garlic, chorizo, jalapenos, really whatever you’ve got. I think I would put some rice, beans, and tomatoes and had less chorizo. I would also recommend some frozen spinach. I ended up just wilting in some spinach at the end.

When the poblano is ready to be stuffed, mix your filling with some cheese and salsa, and stuff away! Bake in the oven for ~15 mins at 400 degrees F.

Here are some recipes that I tried to follow:

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2012/03/grilled-chorizo-stuffed-poblano-peppers.html

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/guy-fieri/poblano-stuffed-with-chorizo-shrimp-and-rice-recipe/index.html

http://www.slenderkitchen.com/chorizo-stuffed-poblano-peppers/

I think that this cookie bit can never get old. There is always someone out there craving BUTTTAHH. Well, at least Paula will always support cookie-making. This picture above sums up my afternoon on Tuesday. The freak warm weather we had in Charlottesville spurred a walk to retrieve a six-pack and of course, cookie-baking. Yet again, Arianna and I are into the banana-chocolate-peanut butter craze that the rest of the female population in America obsesses over. 

We baked most of these for a friend who just had surgery, but they turned out to be a great pairing with this classy beer “importada.” Find the recipe here at HowSweetEats!

Nice weather + chacos + beer + cookies. Good day.

These wintry days have given my cumbersome industrial-size soup pot some actual use! Spurred by a plethora of random ingredients, a desire for a cozy dinner, and a necessary few hours of Girls re-runs, this italian soup was quite a success!!

I love making soups because you can really eyeball anything you want and toss it in. We sort of adapted this from Ina Garten’s Italian Wedding Soup, but we didn’t have any meatballs. Here’s our “recipe:”

Chicken:

Bake 3 chicken breasts at ~425 degrees F for around 25 mins. Cover it in some EVOO, salt, pepper, and whatever seasonings you’ve got that seem Italian-y. We used a  mix of garlic powder and herbes de provence. Ours didn’t quite cook all the way through, but that’s cool because it cooks through in the soup!

Soup ingredients:

2 TBS EVOO

1 onion, diced

4 cloves garlic, minced

5 stalks celery, diced or however you like it

5 smallish carrots, half-mooned, or however you like it

2-3 cups fresh spinach or kale or other greens

1 cup noodles (we used rotini+shells)

1/2 TBS herbes de provence or italian seasoning

1/2 TBS pepper

1.5 tsp salt

5.5 cups chicken stock

1/4-1/3 cup white wine

To start, heat some EVOO and let the onions sweat until translucent. Add your garlic and sautee for 1-2 mins. Add the carrots and celery, a dash of salt, and let cook for around 4-5 mins until the veggies get soft. 

At this point, our chicken was about ready, so we diced it and added the chicken in. Add your herbs, the rest of the salt and pepper, chicken/veggie stock, and WINE (this was our fave ingredient)! 

Luckily, Katherine showed up with the pasta right as we added the cooking liquid, so in goes zeee pasta! If you have too little liquid, make sure to add some water at this point, because the pasta will absorb a lot of the stock and you don’t want it to turn into a lot of pasta and a little soup. 

Bring your soup to a boil and then let simmer until the pasta is done. Right before serving, wilt in some spinach leaves. We had some parmesan cheese as a topping as well.

Enjoy with some hearty bread or if you don’t have it, make Jiffy corn bread like us! Post-dinner we had some gluten-free brownies tricked up with some leftover reeses and york peppermint patties!