I love to cook… Most days. But there are those hectic days when I’m exhausted by the time dinner rolls around, and I don’t want to come up with a meal plan. That’s when I reach for an all-in-one recipe that has the main and side. This Harissa Halloumi & Roasted Vegetable Wraps & Sweet Potato Wedges is exactly that. Whew, long name! But it promises a complete vegetarian meal in less than an hour, and it sounds all kinds of tasty. I’m looking forward to trying it!
Recipe Author: Hannah at Domestic Gothess Get the recipe
The Ingredients
I love that the ingredients are divided according to which part of the recipe they’re used for. A quick pantry check and I found that I needed everything for this recipe.
Fortunately, none of the ingredients were difficult to find at my usual grocery store. The halloumi cheese was in the deli cheese section instead of the dairy display. Otherwise, everything was where I expected to find it. I even found spicy harissa on the International food aisle.
Red bell pepper, sweet potatoes, harissa, olive oil, whole grain wraps, courgette (zucchini), cumin, smoked paprika, sliced cremini mushrooms, red onion, halloumi cheese, hummus, and plain Greek yogurt
The Process
Having the ingredients list divided into sections made following the instructions pretty easy. Marinating the halloumi cheese in the spicy harissa was the first step. I tried my best to cut the halloumi into 12 pieces, but I only managed 8. Any thinner, and I was afraid the cheese would fall apart.
Once the halloumi was marinating, I sliced up the vegetables for the filling and tossed them in the oil and spices. Tossing the vegetables was the only change I made to the recipe. Instead of tossing them on the sheet pans, I used my largest mixing bowl to toss them in olive oil and spices. I find this method coats the vegetables more thoroughly and isn’t as messy.
Slicing the sweet potatoes into eighths
Next, I cut the sweet potatoes into 8 wedges each and tossed them the same way I did the other vegetables. It felt weird not peeling them first, but the recipe explicitly said not to.
I mixed up the dipping sauce and fried the halloumi while the sweet potatoes and other vegetables finished roasting. This was my first time frying halloumi, and it didn’t turn out the way I imagined.
Halloumi has a high melting temperature, and the photos I’ve seen of it fried show a browned outside. Even though I preheated my grill pan, the cheese just didn’t brown. I think there was too much steam from the evaporating harissa to sear the halloumi. A little disappointing because I think it would have added some flavor, but the warmed cheese was still delish.
Assembling a Harissa Halloumi & Roasted Vegetable Wrap
Once everything was done, I assembled a couple of wraps for dinner. I spread on some hummus, topped it with the roasted veg, some arugula, and the fried halloumi. Then. I wrapped it all in a sheet of parchment. A side of roasted sweet potato wedges and the dipping sauce finished the meal nicely!
Timing
Here’s how my time was spent on this recipe:
8 minutes to prep
25 minutes to roast the vegetables
7 minutes to prep the sweet potatoes and sauce (done while roasting veg)
25 minutes to roast the sweet potato wedges
5 minutes to finish roasting the vegetables
1 hour 3 minutes total
That was a bit longer than the 50 minutes listed. I’m not sure where the slowdown happened. Either way, I would like to try this recipe again and roast the vegetables with the sweet potatoes to speed things up. I have a feeling that would make the time closer to 45 minutes.
I have mentioned this Easy Crusty French Bread recipe in other posts, but I haven’t had the opportunity to fit it in as its own post until now. And unlike most of my posts, this isn’t the first time I have made it. In fact, in between discovering the recipe and taking the time to document my experience making it, I have made it 3-4 times. A couple of those were Pinterest failures, and I’m hoping my failures will help you not to make my mistakes. Let’s get into it!
Easy dutch oven bread ready in just a few hours – no overnight rise needed.
Recipe Author: Jessie at Life as a Strawberry Get the recipe
The Ingredients
One day I was making a batch of Curried Cauliflower Rice Kale Soup when I decided it needed some bread on the side. I didn’t have any, so I zipped over to Pinterest to find an artisanal bread recipe.
This Easy Crusty French Bread recipe stood out because it could be made in a couple of hours, and I had all of the ingredients in my pantry. That’s right, absolutely no shopping was required. And although I had never made bread before, I decided to give it a go.
All-purpose flour, sugar, kosher salt, and active dry yeast
The Process
It does take a while to make this bread, but an hour and a half of that is simply waiting for the dough to rise. Another 40 minutes is baking, so the active time is pretty short.
Since I was (and really still am) a bread-making noob, I was so grateful for the tips, photos, and videos in the post. Once I read and watched, I felt like I could make bread (and I did!)
The recipe is long, but the author divides it into three manageable sections:
Mixing and first rise
Shaping and second rise
Baking
The total time listed is 2 hours 30 minutes. You also need to allow the bread to cool for at least 30 minutes before cutting, but it’s not clear if that’s included in the total time (I don’t think it is).
Here’s how my time was spent:
Mix the dough for 10 minutes
First rise 1 hour
Shape the dough for 5 minutes
Second rise 30 minutes
Bake 40 minutes
Cool 30 minutes
Total time 2 hours 55 minutes
Mix the Dough and First Rise
The very first thing you need to do is proof the yeast. It’s simple to do, but it will make or break your recipe. To do it, just add the yeast, sugar, and warm water to a mixing bowl. Then wait five minutes for the yeast to begin to foam.
Foaming yeast is what gives your bread those airy bubbles, and the opposite is also true. Tip: Hot tap water is perfect for this. I found out the hard way that too hot will kill the yeast, preventing it from foaming. The result will be a giant bread hockey puck that’s inedible.
Measure out your flour while the yeast is proofing. I took the author’s advice and weighed out the flour on my kitchen scale. I did measure everything else—getting used to measuring while baking is hard for me.
Once the yeast has proofed, add the flour and salt and mix. The recipe says to add the salt after mixing in the flour, but this led to my second bread failure. Tip: Salt is a must for the flavor, so I mix it in with the flour to make sure I don’t forget it.
There is an option to use a stand mixer with a bread dough hook, but I did it all by hand. A wooden spatula mixed the dough nicely. Once mixed, place a tea towel over the bowl of dough and take a one-hour break while the dough rises.
The shaped dough just before the second rise
Shaping and Second Rise
This is where the fun starts! I floured my largest cutting board and a linen napkin and got to shaping the dough. It went just like the video, and I was really feeling confident at this point.
Yes, the dough was sticky, but nothing a bit of cold water and flour couldn’t handle. Five minutes later I had my dough shaped and resting in a cloth-lined mixing bowl. I don’t have a proofing bowl, but that has never been a problem. Any old mixing bowl will do, apparently.
After folding the napkin over the newly shaped dough, I preheated the oven. Tip: Make sure you preheat your Dutch oven (lid and all) if it’s cast iron. I used a round 5-quart cast-iron Dutch oven and found it to be a perfect size. Don’t have one? The post gives a range of 4-6 quarts as the ideal size, and even links to a post with other methods.
After that, take another break! You have 30 minutes until the second rise is complete.
Sliced Easy Crusty French Bread
Baking
This is where the magic happens! I took the author’s advice and used a piece of parchment paper to lower my dough into the preheated Dutch oven. It was hot, so I kept my heavy-duty grilling gloves on throughout the process. Unlike oven mitts, they have fingers that make it much easier to use your hands.
Then I replaced the lid, put the pot back into the oven, and took another 30-minute break. Seriously, there is a lot of inactive time in this recipe, not that it’s a bad thing.
After half an hour, I removed the lid and continued baking for 10-15 minutes. Sometimes I found the bread was browned enough after 10 minutes, and sometimes it took 15. You really have to keep an eye on it at this point.
When the bread was done, the parchment made it easy to remove from the pot and transfer to a cooling rack. It smelled so good that waiting 30 minutes more for it to cool was torture! Believe me, I was right there with a bread knife when that timer dinged.
When we first got our grill, we used it constantly. One of the benefits of living in South Florida is that it’s grilling weather year-round. That changed during the pandemic, and we went from grilling a couple of times a week to maybe monthly if that. You know what? I miss it. Sure, a cast-iron skillet is a wonderful way to make steak, but I always say there is something magical about grilling. It just makes the food better, and I am determined to grill more this year. That’s a big part of why I am making this Grilled Picanha Steak. The other parts are: 1) picanha is freaking delicious, and 2) I have never tried making it myself. I’m a little nervous about messing up a $30 cut of meat, but I’m crossing my fingers and diving in. Wish me luck!
A slice of traditional Brazilian BBQ. This picanha steak recipe will go down a treat at your next cook-off.
Talk about simplicity! This recipe has three ingredients, and I had two in my pantry: kosher salt and black pepper. That meant all I had to buy was the picanha, and my regular grocery store had one waiting for me at the meat counter.
This recipe calls for a four-pound cut, but the largest available was just a touch over three pounds. Not a problem since I’m only cooking for two people plus it saved me about $10. The picanha was priced at $9.97 per pound, totaling $31.50.
Picanha, black pepper, and kosher salt
The Process
I like to season my food, and my collection of herbs and spices is massive. It was big even before I started this blog, and it has only grown since. That being said, I have learned that a good cut of meat doesn’t always need a ton of extra seasoning. Sometimes it’s nice to let the flavor of the meat shine through. I find that’s especially true with fattier cuts, and this picanha had a nice layer of fat (a.k.a. the fat cap) covering one side.
Tip: It’s not in the instructions, but I put my picanha on the counter to come to room temperature. I allowed an hour for this because cold in the center does not cook evenly.
I preheated the grill for 10 minutes on high and got started prepping the meat. It only took 3-4 minutes to score the fat cap (make sure to have a sharp knife for this) and season it with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper. Then it was onto the grill fat side down for 4 minutes.
Scored and seasoned whole picanha. The area at the bottom left wasn’t covered in fat and ended up being a little tougher than the rest.
I brought the roast inside to cut into steaks, and the middle was still raw and cool. Then I cut it into fairly thick steaks along the scoring lines, added some more salt, and it was back to the grill.
The picanha steaks were cooked for 20 minutes, and I flipped them every 5 minutes. I was sure they would be overcooked, but my trusty meat thermometer ensured that didn’t happen. Instead, I ended up with beautiful grill marks outside and a juicy warm pink center. Perfect medium grilled picanha steak!
Finishing Up & Serving
I made sure to let them sit for 5 minutes, bringing the total time for this recipe to 27 minutes. That’s well within the 45 minutes listed even if I include time to preheat the grill.
I served them up with a simple side of sauteed spinach. I wish I had planned to make black beans and rice too, but it completely slipped my mind. Next time for sure!
Oh, and I have to add that these picanha steaks were not only good right off the grill but reheated too. Tip: Just 4-5 minutes in my air fryer at 350℉ and they were so close to freshly cooked. Mine has a Reheat setting, but I used the Air Fry setting.
I love that I have so many new recipes on Pinterest! It’s responsible for me cooking more, starting this blog, and learning food photography. Those new recipes have let me discover new cuisines, ingredients, and cooking methods. This Bourbon Cherry Chocolate Galette recipe is a good example of that last one. Before Pinterest, I had never heard of a galette. If you haven’t either, it’s a deconstructed pie (or tart, I suppose). The filling is placed on top of rolled-out pastry dough, topped with a sweet filling, then the ends are folded up to contain it. Sounds simple enough, even for a baking-impaired person like myself. Let’s give it a try!
Pucker up and indulge in this chocolate galette of fresh tart cherries with an added splash of bourbon and a heaping scoop of bourbon whipped cream!
The first page of this 2-page recipe is a list of ingredients. I know, it sounds like a lot, and these long lists used to intimidate me big-time. But the more I cook, the less it bothers me. The key is to have everything set out in the order needed. Extra points if you actually measure it out before you start cooking. I tend to measure as I cook, but do what’s comfortable for you!
But back to the Bourbon Cherry Chocolate Galette. I had nearly all of the ingredients on hand. Surprisingly, bourbon was not one of them, so I sent my husband to the liquor store for that (he has excellent taste in bourbon).
The rest was found by yours truly at my regular grocery store. I had to buy the fresh cherries, of course, and some whipping cream. That’s it. I had the flour, sugars, and everything else in my kitchen. I even broke out the really nice Dutch cocoa powder that I save for special recipes.
One thing that did confuse me a little was the way brown sugar was listed. The Crust section specified dark brown sugar, but the Filling section just said brown sugar. I took that to mean light brown sugar for the filling. I’m sure either one would work, though.
Fresh cherries, Dutch cocoa powder, granulated sugar, lemon zest, heavy whipping cream, dark brown sugar, light brown sugar, bourbon, cornstarch, flour, butter, and vanilla extract
The Process
This Bourbon Cherry Chocolate Galette has several parts: making the crust, making the filling, assembly and baking, and whipping up the topping. Some of these steps overlap a little, like making the filling while the crust dough chills. I’ll break that down next. For now, here’s how my time was spent:
15 minutes to make the crust
30 minutes to chill the dough (filling & topping were made at this time, 13 minutes)
7 minutes to roll out the dough and assemble
40 minutes to bake
10 minutes to cool
1 hour 37 minutes total
The total time listed is 1 hour 30 minutes. I got pretty close to that.
Making the Crust
The first part of this recipe is making and chilling the crust. Flaky pie crusts involve cutting cold butter into a flour base, and it can take some elbow grease to do that. I love that the recipe gives the option of using a pastry blender or a fork, but I think a pastry blender (a.k.a. dough blender) is so much easier to use.
The first time I made this recipe (more on that at the end) it took me 15 minutes and all 6 tablespoons of ice water to get the crust to come together. I was worried it was too grainy for a while and thought about adding extra water. But I kept cutting the butter with my pastry blender, and it finally formed an actual dough.
From there the dough needed to be formed into a flat disc wrapped tightly in plastic wrap and chilled for 30 minutes.
Making the Filling
I made the cherry-bourbon filling while the chocolate dough chilled. I don’t have a cherry pitter, so I used a straw and a bottle to pit the cherries. It’s a simple process! Place a cherry on the bottle opening stem side down. Place the straw over the dot on the bottom of the cherry and press down. The pit and stem should be pushed out into the bottle.
Pitting the cherries with a drinking straw and a bottle
I say should because the pits kept getting stuck in my straw. I guess the diameter was too big, but I was able to pull them out by their stems. No stem? Just squeeze the straw until the pit pops out. Either way, this can be a messy process with juicy red cherries, so be warned.
That was the hard part of this section. The filling took me a total of 13 minutes, and 9 minutes of that was pitting the cherries. The rest was simply measuring the rest of the ingredients and stirring them all together.
Assembly & Baking
After half an hour it was time to roll out the dough and assemble the galette. My plastic wrap was stuck together, so I put a fresh sheet down onto my largest cutting board and got rolling.
My old-fashioned wooden rolling pin got the job done, and I had a large, if somewhat rough-looking, disc of dough in no time. I used the author’s tip about using a large plate to cut out a neat circle to pretty things up. It worked beautifully! Tip: Use the dull side of a table knife to cut out the dough so you don’t tear the plastic wrap.
Rolling out the pastry dough
The dough held together with I turned it onto a parchment-lined sheet pan. Then I spooned the filling into the center and turned up the edges of the dough to contain it. A pinch every so often helped keep the shape.
My Bourbon Cherry Chocolate Galette’s diameter seemed small before I baked it, but it spread out as it cooked (like cookies do). I ended up with a much larger galette, so make sure you have some extra room on your sheet pan.
Making the Toppings
I made the whipped cream and sweetened cocoa toppings while the galette baked. My stand mixer came to the rescue again and allowed me to multi-task. I placed the whipped topping ingredients into the bowl, added the wire whisk attachment, turned the mixer on medium-high, and walked away.
I didn’t go far, though, since I had to make the sweetened cocoa powder. Tip: Instructions for that aren’t included in this recipe, but a quick search gave me the recipe: 1 part unsweetened cocoa powder to 2-3 parts sugar, depending on the sweetness you prefer.
I like sweet, so I went with the 1 to 3 ratio. You don’t need much, so I used a 1/2 teaspoon of cocoa powder to 1 1/2 teaspoons of sugar and still had some leftovers. I used the extra in my coffee over the next few days. It made a nice cafe mocha!
Once the galette was done, I let it cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Then I spooned on the bourbon whipped topping, sifted on some of the sweetened cocoa, and served it up fresh and warm. Mmm, mmm, mmm!!
So Nice I had to Try it Twice
I ended up making this Bourbon Cherry Chocolate Galette recipe twice because I wasn’t sure about Step 6. Specifically, there was some liquid left after I scooped the cherry filling into the dough, and I wasn’t sure if I should add it or leave it out. I tried it both ways to see if there was a difference, and there was.
The First Try
There were no real problems, with the recipe, but I did have a question at Step 6. I wasn’t sure if I should add the liquid part of the filling with the cherries. Based on previous experience with apple pie, I decided to skip it. Instead, I used a slotted spoon to scoop the cherries, leaving the excess liquid in the bowl.
The resulting galette was good but a bit dry, especially the crust. It was okay, but it didn’t really do it for me. I was shocked since I love chocolate, cherries, bourbon, and whipped cream!
My first Bourbon Cherry Chocolate Galette was a bit dry
The Second Try
I couldn’t shake the feeling that the extra liquid would have made a difference, so I made this recipe again a couple of weeks later. I used the exact same technique, but I admit that I lost patience with the dough.
The dough just wasn’t coming together, no matter how I worked it. I ended up adding an extra tablespoon of water, and it seemed fine. I rolled it out, added the cherries, pinched up the edges, and poured the remaining liquid over the cherries before putting the galette into the oven.
Baking didn’t go as smoothly this time. I have a few ideas why. I think it may have been one or all of the following:
Adding the extra filling liquid
Adding extra water to the dough
Letting the dough warm up too much (I stopped to take photos)
About 10 minutes into baking I noticed the liquid filling broke through the crust and flooded the sheet pan. I took the pan out and used a spatula to fold the dough back up. That solved the problem, and I ended up liking this version much more than my first because the crust and center were much moister. The extra brown sugar and bourbon probably helped too. This was the galette I was expecting!
My husband bought me an air fryer a while back, and I am loving it! I never expected that I would use it much since the toaster oven it replaced was really just gathering dust on my countertop. Oh, how wrong I was! I don’t even flip it up anymore because I use it several times a week. Mostly for roasting meat and vegetables for dinner or making toast for breakfast, but I want to expand my air fryer repertoire. I’ve made chicken wings a few times, and I roast chicken breasts and steaks all the time. Now I’m going to try this Air Fryer Southern Fried Chicken. I need to find out if my air fryer can really fry!
Southern-style Fried Chicken cooked in an Air Fryer! Easy recipe that creates a crunchy, golden, crisp fried chicken.
The recipe doesn’t specify the type of chicken used, but the author does say she used 6 chicken legs. I did the same to make sure this was a fair comparison. I found a 2.35-pound package of 6 meaty drumsticks for $5.71 at my local market.
I also picked up a dozen eggs, and that was it for this recipe. I had all the spices, oil, and even some powdered buttermilk in my pantry.
Chicken drumsticks, eggs, cornstarch, olive oil, buttermilk, flour, hot sauce, garlic powder, salt, Italian seasoning, onion powder, paprika, and pepper
The Process
I broke this recipe down into chunks to keep things manageable. Here’s what I did:
12 minutes to prep
15 minutes to rest
3 minutes to finish prep
18 minutes to cook
5 minutes to cool
53 minutes total
The recipe lists a total of 40 minutes, and I clearly went over that. I’m not sure where the slowdown happened, though.
I started off by mixing up the spices and rubbing some onto the washed and dried chicken legs. Then I mixed up the remaining spices with the flour and cornstarch in a large ziplock bag.
I was ready to get breading after mixing up the liquid ingredients in a small mixing bowl. I followed the instructions to the letter, flouring the chicken and letting it sit first. Then I dipped it into the egg mixture and again in the flour.
Step 10, after the breading has soaked into the chicken for 15 minutes
Once the chicken had 15 minutes to absorb the spices and flour, I brushed it with oil. My oil sprayer finally bit the dust, and I think I went a little too heavy on the oil. I have a feeling it kept the breading from crisping as it should have.
The breaded and oiled chicken went into the air fryer basket to cook. I flipped it halfway through and, unfortunately, a lot of breading stuck to the basket. I was a little irritated because I had carefully oiled it 🙁
But once 18 minutes was up I removed the chicken and let it cool on wire racks for 5 minutes before serving. The author does say it cools fast, but it was piping hot when we ate, even after taking time for a few quick photos.
Update
I just had to give this recipe another try, and this time I think I got it just right! I cut up a whole chicken this time and finagled the time and temperature. Increasing both made the difference. Cooking for 20 minutes at 370℉ was perfect for my air fryer.
Coming up with menus has always been a struggle for me. It seems that if I have a main course in mind, then I don’t know what to make for the side dish. I end up doing steam-in-bag veggies a lot. Then there are times when I have the opposite problem: I have a great side dish recipe but no clue for the main. On those days I break out my cast-iron skillet or grill pan and pan fry a couple of steaks of chicken breasts. That’s what happened here, and I have to tell you I’m not mad at it. In fact, this Roasted Aubergine and Courgette with Sumac and Herbs recipe paired with a couple of steaks was one of the best meals I’ve had in a while!
These easy Roasted Aubergine and Courgettes are sprinkled with sumac and tossed with fresh herbs and a squeeze of lemon before serving. A wonderful vegetable dish which can be eaten hot or as part of a salad buffet.
Recipe Author: Georgina Hartley at From the Larder Get the recipe
The Ingredients
First, this recipe needs some translation. Aubergines are eggplants and courgettes are zucchini. I’m going to call them eggplant and zucchini in this post, so let’s think of this Roasted Aubergine and Courgette as Roasted Eggplant and Zucchini from now on.
As usual, I had the spices and olive oil in my pantry. I even had a fresh container of sumac that I ordered just for this recipe (I can’t find it in my local grocery store).
I had to buy the vegetables and herbs, but my regular grocery store had them all in stock. The eggplant and zucchini seemed quite large (huge!), but I bought 2 each since that’s what the recipe called for.
Oh, and one more thing to translate: coriander is cilantro. It’s UK English vs. US English, but you get used to it.
This was designed as a simple recipe, so there isn’t a ton of work here. I’m not complaining! In fact, I happened to make it on a night when I was worn out, and I was impressed that something this good came out of my kitchen when I really wanted to order takeaway and be done with it.
Gotta start with preheating the oven, and that required me to convert Celcius to Fahrenheit. Thank goodness there’s an app for that! The recipe gives a range of 320℉ to 356℉, and I decided on 350℉ to be cautious.
Cutting the eggplant and zucchini into wedges
Prep Work
Next up was cutting the veg into 16 wedges. I wasn’t sure if that was 16 of each vegetable or 16 of each kind of vegetable. I probably thought about it too much, but I was really tired! Since the eggplants were so big, I cut each one into 16 pieces. The zucchinis weren’t too big, so I cut them into 8 wedges each. That made the pieces somewhat uniform in size.
Having giant vegetables meant I ended up with a lot of wedges when I was done. There was just too much to fit on a single sheet pan, so I split the wedges between 2 sheet pans. Then I proceeded with drizzling the olive oil and sprinkling the seasonings per the instructions. I tossed them with my hands to keep things quick and simple.
Eggplant and zucchini wedges tossed in olive oil and spices
Cooking and Finishing Up
I popped both sheet pans into the oven on separate shelves and roasted them for the minimum time of 30 minutes to start with. Even with a quick toss at the 15-minutes mark, they hadn’t browned by the time the buzzer went off. I gave them another toss and put them back in for another 10 minutes. That did the trick.
I finished the prep work while the veggies were roasting. It took me 3 minutes to weigh and chop the parsley, cilantro, and mint leaves as well as slice a lemon into wedges. Tip: If you don’t have a kitchen scale, I’d say it was a good handful or about 1/3 cup (packed) of each herb.
Finally, here’s the breakdown of time spent on my Roasted Aubergine and Courgette with Sumac and Herbs:
12 minutes to prep
40 minutes to cook
52 minutes total
The time given is a range of 45-55 minutes, and my time was right in line with that.
I love everything about this Olive Oil Chicken Thighs Mediterranean Style recipe! Mediterranean anything is an automatic must-try for me. The spices, lemon, olive oil, and chicken thighs are all tops in my book. My husband, not so much. He’s iffy on chicken thighs, so I don’t cook them often. But every once in a while I have a craving I need to indulge. That’s exactly what happened this week. But don’t worry, I make sure he has something else to eat. I’m a sweetie like that!
These Olive Oil Chicken Thighs are rubbed with a Mediterranean spice mixture, then marinated in a mixture of Extra Virgin Olive Oil and lemon, then seared to golden perfection on both sides, and finally finished by baking in the oven and then drizzled with more olive oil, lemon, and fresh garlic.
A good chunk of this recipe’s ingredients are spices, and I had them all on hand. They’re all basics that I cook with regularly around here.
That left the fresh ingredients for my shopping list. None of those were unusual, though, and I didn’t have any trouble finding them. Lemon, parsley, and garlic are the kind of things you can find at any grocery.
This recipe is written for 8 servings, but you can scale it up or down on the blog page. I did just that since I’m cooking for 2. Well, 1 since my husband doesn’t really dig chicken thighs with bone and skin. Anyway, I set it to 4 servings so I wouldn’t end up eating chicken thighs for lunch for a week.
A simple marinade, searing on the stove, and roasting in the oven are the basic steps for this recipe. Here’s how my time broke down for these olive oil chicken thighs:
7 minutes to prepare the marinade
30 minutes to cook
37 minutes total (not including time to marinate)
The Marinade
When it comes to marinating meat and poultry, I’m in the the-longer-the-better club. This recipe says to marinate for 20 minutes to 8 hours. Guess which one I picked? Actually, I’m sure I went over 8 hours since I made the marinade in the early evening and cooked the chicken later the next afternoon.
But the marinade itself was as easy as mixing up and applying a spice rub and topping it with a mixture of lemon juice and olive oil. I chose a small container with a sealed lid that would fit all the chicken and leave very little extra room. That ensured the marinade would hit both sides of the chicken.
Chicken thighs rubbed in spices
Finishing the Chicken
The next day, I got out my 10-inch cast-iron skillet and got to cooking. After preheating it with some olive oil (electric setting 5), I seared the chicken on both sides then put the pan into the oven to finish it up.
My meat thermometer came in handy because my chicken was done after 13 minutes in the oven. The recipe says 20-25 minutes, so I was very glad I had the thermometer.
I made the finishing sauce while the chicken cooked. It was the simplest part of the recipe, but don’t skip it! Just 3 ingredients (olive oil, lemon juice, and garlic) add so much flavor to the finished chicken.
I’m a big fan of iced tea, and it’s a regular around here. The classic plain black tea is always good, but I do like herbal teas and fruit and herb infusions too. But one thing I have been curious about is iced Earl Grey. I love a cup of hot Earl Grey tea with honey and cream, but I have never had it cold. That kind of surprised me, because I’m always up for trying new things. Well, this Iced Blackberry Infused Earl Grey Tea sounds like something that’s right up my alley. Earl Grey tea, honey, cream, and blackberries—one of my favorite foods. I have to give this recipe a try!
Spotlight this Iced Blackberry Infused Earl Grey Tea with its rich, plum color and sweet, bright flavor as a beautiful addition to your summer table.
Recipe Author: Tristin Rieken at Fresh Flavorful via SoFabFood Get the recipe
The Ingredients
I had a couple of bags of Earl Grey and a little honey in my pantry, but not enough for this recipe. That meant I had to pick up more of both plus some fresh blackberries. Never a problem at my usual grocery store. By the way, this recipe does give the option of using sugar, but I just love honey with Earl Grey.
I don’t remember what I made, but I had heavy cream and half-and-half in the refrigerator, so I was set there. I even busted out the proper ice cube trays instead of using ice from the automatic maker. Fancy!
Ice, honey, blackberries, cream, and Earl Grey tea
The Process
This Iced Blackberry Infused Earl Grey Tea was so easy to make and had a clever way to keep the tea chilled. Here’s how it went:
6 minutes to prep
5 minutes to steep
4 minutes to finish
15 minutes total
The first step was to place half the blackberries onto a sheet pan and freeze them. I let mine freeze overnight. Why? They replace ice cubes, keeping the tea cold without watering it down. Genius!
I made the tea the next afternoon. I started off by heating the water in a saucepan. While that was happening, I used a potato masher to crush the remaining blackberries with the honey. Then I added the teabags and hot water and allowed the tea to steep for 5 minutes.
Once it was ready, I poured the mixture over an ice-filled pitcher using a mesh strainer to remove the blackberry pulp. That’s it. The tea was ready to serve up in a tall glass over the frozen blackberries with a bit of cream.
I tried it with heavy whipping cream and half-and-half since I had both in hand. The heavy cream tended to float at the top while the half-and-half diffused throughout the tea. I preferred the latter, even if I did get a little heavy-handed with it for the photos. But that is another part of this recipe I liked—it gives the option of adding as much or as little cream as you like. It’s even delicious without!
Frozen blackberries to keep the tea cold without watering it down
I eat much less meat than I used to, but every once in a while I just need a big, juicy steak. I love red meat! When I found a couple of NY strip steaks on sale, I knew I had to give this Grilled NY Strip Steak with Coffee Rub a try. I have seen coffee rub recipes all over Pinterest, and I have been curious about them for a long time. Coffee and steak. Really? Really. This recipe uses brewed coffee in the marinade and coffee grounds in the spice rub. It doesn’t get much more coffee-er than that. Let’s give it a try!
Grilled New York Strip Steak marinated in a rich coffee and wine base, seasoned with a coffee rub, then grilled.
As with most recipes, this was a mix of ingredients I had on hand plus a few I had to buy. I had everything but the steaks, so shopping was very easy. I even found 2 NY strips on sale for just under $20. They were bone-in, though, so I did have to debone them.
While I deboned them (it only took a minute or two) I heated some water and made a small batch of coffee in my French press. Once it was brewed, I put it into a small container and refrigerated it until I was ready to make the marinade.
Everything else was just hanging out in my pantry, waiting for this recipe. I wasn’t sure what the SPG rub was, but it turned out to be equal parts of salt, pepper, and granulated garlic. I mixed up a tablespoon of each and ended up with some leftover. It won’t go to waste!
NY strip steaks, coffee, shallot, garlic, SPG rub, red wine red pepper flakes, brown sugar, and Worcestershire sauce
The Process
I have to say that this recipe was amazingly easy, and the results were spectacular! Here’s how my time was spent:
6 minutes to make the marinade
2 hours to marinate
22 minutes to preheat the grill and apply the coffee rub
10 minutes to rest
2 hours 47 minutes total
The NY strip steaks I bought were bone-in, but the steaks in the photos looked like they were boneless. Bone-in meat takes longer to cook, so I removed them before I made the marinade.
The process for making the marinade was typical. I added the ingredients to a ziplock bag, zipped the bag, and mixed the ingredients together. Then I added the steaks and popped the bag into the refrigerator for a couple of hours.
When I was ready to grill, I removed the steaks from the refrigerator, patted them dry, and applied the coffee rub. I let that sit for 20 minutes while the grill preheated.
Grilling the steaks went according to the instructions except mine reached an internal temperature of 125℉ in just 9 minutes. It’s a good thing I had my meat thermometer, or I would have overcooked them.
I’ve recently started making my own bread, and I’m enjoying it. So far I have only tried two recipes: a no-knead baguette and Dutch oven bread. The Dutch oven bread has become a favorite since it is ready in only a couple of hours. That’s part of what attracted me to this Cinnamon Swirl Bread. Time-wise, it falls between the two recipes I just mentioned. It’s not as quick as the Dutch oven bread, but it doesn’t need an overnight rise like the baguette recipe so I’m expecting this to be same-day bread. I’m also a little nervous because this recipe is a touch more complicated than the others I have made. Things didn’t go so well the first time I made the baguette, and I’m hoping that’s not the case here. Let’s find out!
This deliciously fragrant, homemade cinnamon swirl bread is beyond delicious fresh and even better as toast!
I usually have a few ingredients on hand, but I was pleasantly surprised to find I had all of this recipe’s ingredients. Since I don’t keep dairy milk around, I did use powdered milk. I did have to mix it up as I baked, but I would have had to warm up regular milk anyway. Not much of a difference, really.
All-purpose flour, warm milk, egg, light brown sugar, instant yeast, butter. cinnamon, granulated sugar, and salt
The Process
This recipe has several phases since it needs 2 rises. Here’s how it went:
25 minutes to prep
1 hour 30 minutes for the first rise
6 minutes to prep
1 hour for the second rise
50 minutes to bake
10 minutes to cool
4 hours 1 minute total
The recipe lists a total time of 3 hours, but that only includes time for the prep work plus both rises. I have a feeling it’s an error.
Prep & The First Rise
The prep work for this recipe actually wasn’t too difficult, but I did make sure I read and re-read this recipe before I started. The notes mention the recipe can be halved to make a single large loaf, so that’s what I decided to do.
First up was making the cinnamon sugar. All I had to do was mix up the ingredients in a small bowl and divide it. The real work was still to come.
This is one of those situations that makes me even more grateful for my stand mixer. And that it came with a dough hook. After adding the dry ingredients to the mixer bowl, I slowly added the milk. Once the dough cleared the sides of the bowl, I set a timer and let the mixer knead it for 8 minutes.
Step 2: The dough has come together and cleared the sides of the bowl
When it was ready, I put it into a greased bowl and covered it with greased plastic wrap. Tip: Sprayable canola oil comes in very handy for this recipe. I set the bowl by the window and let the dough do its thing over the next hour and a half.
Step 2: Kneaded dough before the first riseStep 3: Dough has doubled in size after the first rise
More Prep & The Second Rise
The dough had easily doubled in size by the time I returned. It was time to make it into a loaf. The dough needed to be stretched into an 8″ x 14″ rectangle for this step.
Tip: To keep things accurate, I used a paper guide (there was no way I could eyeball it!). I wrapped a large cutting board in plastic wrap and slid the paper guide under the clear plastic. Then I shaped the dough into the size and shape of the paper. Perfect!
Step 4: Dough sprinkled with cinnamon sugar mixture. You can see the paper size guide underneath the plastic wrap.
Next, I lightly sprayed the dough with water and added the cinnamon sugar. I didn’t take into account that the original recipe is for 3 loaves, so I only added 1/3 of the mixture. I could have used it all. Oh well, I have leftovers for cinnamon toast.
Anyhoo, once the cinnamon sugar was added, I rolled the dough, pinched the edge closed, and placed it into a greased 9' x 5' loaf pan for the second rise. Once again, I covered the dough with greased plastic wrap and left it to rise for another hour.
Baking & Cooling
My Cinnamon Swirl Bread was finally ready to bake! I brushed the top with melted butter, sprinkled on more cinnamon sugar, and put the pan into the oven. The recipe says the bread can bake from 40 to 60 minutes. I’m a bread novice, so I chose 50 minutes and crossed my fingers.
The top of the loaf was pretty brown after 30 minutes, so I tended it with a piece of foil and let it finish. Then I let it cool for 10 minutes, removed it from the pan, and let it finish cooling to room temperature on a wire rack (I didn’t time that).
It was too late to take photos by the time the bread had cooled. I ended up wrapping the loaf tightly in plastic wrap and taking them the next day. I was so relieved when I sliced into it and found it had baked perfectly!
The summer heat is in full swing down here, and I find myself craving lighter foods than I did in the fall and winter. The heat really takes it out of me. Light pasta and seafood dishes are up there on my list of warm-weather foods. I can’t get enough of them! That’s why I’m giving this Simple Squid Piccata recipe a try. It covers both categories and promises to be quick and easy to prepare. Just what I need right about now!
This dish is something ELSE, y’all. I know it might seem a smidge unapproachable, but a) you won’t rightly believe how little time it takes to pull together, and b) how inexpensive it is. And c) tentacles.
I had a 10.6-ounce package of frozen squid in my freezer along with some homemade chicken stock. I had to buy everything else, but it was all easy to find at my regular grocery store. I even sprung for a wedge of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese (about $10) instead of buying it already grated.
Whole squid, chicken stock, linguine, parmesan cheese, butter, lemons, parsley, and red onion
The Process
Things started off with frying the squid in butter for about 6 minutes. The recipe specifies a large skillet, so I used my 12-inch nonstick. Eventually, you will be adding the pasta to this pan, so it needs to be big enough for it plus room to stir.
The pan was the perfect size, but I wasn’t able to get the squid tubes to blister. Perhaps because of the nonstick coating? I was a little dismayed but I kept going, adding more butter and charring the lemon slices.
While all this was going on, I used a large Dutch oven to cook the pasta, reserving a cup of the water when it was done. I also used my mandoline to thinly slice the red onion and sliced the squid tubes into rings (I left the tentacles as they were).
After all that, finishing this dish is as simple as mixing things up. I added the drained linguine to the skillet along with the grated parmesan, sliced squid, and red onion. Then I mixed in the pasta water until a thin sauce formed and everything was well coated.
Shallow pasta bowls were the perfect way to serve this dish, along with a garnish of the charred lemon, chopped parsley, and more grated parmesan. This Simple Squid Piccata recipe didn’t have any times listed, but it was relatively quick to make. Here’s how my time was spent from start to finish:
I usually plan my posts well in advance, but every once in a while I stumble upon a recipe that just has to be tried. These Healthy Buffalo Cauliflower Bites are one of those recipes. Let me explain. I love, love, love these Buffalo Cauliflower Tacos with Avocado Crema, but my husband not so much. He once mentioned he would prefer the buffalo cauliflower without all the taco fixings (I know, he’s nuts!). Well, when I happened to find one, I pounced on it and changed up my whole schedule to fit it in. I knew we would both like this recipe, and I had to find out if my intuition was correct.
These bites are addicting, spicy (to some), and surprisingly fantastic! Grab your favorite dip and let’s dip in! Delicious as a main dish or as an appetizer.
Recipe Author: Chelsea at Gal on a Mission Get the recipe
The Ingredients
I had the butte and spices on hand (hello, basics), so all I needed was the cauliflower and Frank’s hot sauce. The original flavor is a must for that authentic buffalo sauce taste.
I have to tell you that I underestimated how much cauliflower was in one head. My best estimate is 3 cups of cauliflower florets once I had them cup up. That meant I had more than enough sauce, but I would have preferred more of these cauliflower bites!
Cauliflower, Frank’s RedHot Original Cayenne Pepper Hot Sauce, garlic powder, butter, salt, and pepper
The Process
Talk about easy to make! The hardest part of this recipe was cutting up the cauliflower, and that wasn’t bad at all. Of course, you could always buy your cauliflower already cut up to save some time. Here’s how my time was spent:
7 minutes to prep
20 minutes to cook
27 minutes total (a touch more than the 20 minutes listed, but not too bad)
Moving on! I melted the butter in the microwave, mixed in the hot sauce and spices, and gave it all a good stir. Then I put the cauliflower into a gallon-size ziplock bag, poured in the sauce, sealed the bag, and shook it until the florets were coated.
Since there was a lot of sauce left in the bag, I used a pair of tongs to remove the cauliflower bites and place them on a greased sheet pan. I wasn’t about to get hot sauce on my hands because I would inevitably rub it in my eye. Trust me on that LOL!
Then it was into the preheated oven for 20 minutes, and my Healthy Buffalo Cauliflower Bites were done. But wait, I wasn’t really done!
Emergency! I forgot the ranch dressing…
The last step of the recipe says to serve with ranch or blue cheese dressing. Well, I completely forgot about that part. What to do? Make my own ranch dressing since I didn’t have blue cheese lying around.
A quick google and I jumped on the first result. I was desperate, my cauliflower bites were at risk of getting cold! But no worries, the recipe I found—The Best Homemade Ranch Salad Dressing—came through.
I had all the spices and happened to have sour cream in the fridge. I also keep powdered buttermilk on hand, so I was set. This recipe makes a lot of dressing, so I halved it and had more than enough ranch to dip my cauliflower bites and celery sticks (they were a last-minute addition too). Disaster averted, and I got to sit down to a plate of healthy deliciousness!
