After that Blueberry Cobbler Cake, I needed a break. And a drink! I had plenty of extra blueberries left, so I decided to go with this Blueberry Martini recipe. It sounds simple, looks pretty, and fits this week’s blueberry theme. What more could I ask for? Nothing I can think of right now, so let’s give this one a try!
Hopefully you can sip these Blueberry Martinis over the weekend, next week for happy hour.
My kitchen check as I made my list told me I only had 2 ingredients for this recipe: granulated and coarse sugar. Fortunately, my usual plenty of blueberries along with blueberry juice. Unfortunately, the blueberry juice was pretty pricey at $11.99 for a 32-ounce bottle. At that price, I will either find a use for it or freeze it into ice cubes until I do.
I also had to hit up the liquor store for a bottle of plain vodka. I decided on Pinnacle and found a 750ml bottle on sale for $10.99.
Vodka, blueberry juice, granulated sugar, coarse sugar, and blueberries
The Process
Making my Blueberry Martini was a smooth process. It began with chilling a martini glass. The recipe doesn’t list a time, but I put my glass in for about an hour. I have read the minimum is 30 minutes, but at least an hour is best.
While I waited for the glass to chill, I sampled the blueberry juice. I’m glad the instructions added this step because the brand I bought was very tart. I added 1 tablespoon of sugar to the cocktail’s ingredients. It sweetened it some but didn’t completely take away the tartness, so it was nicely balanced.
Next, I set out 2 small plates and filled one with vodka and the other with coarse sugar. Once the glass was nice and frosty, I dipped the rim into the vodka and then immediately into the coarse sugar and set it aside while I mixed the cocktail.
Rimming a chilled martini glass with coarse sugar
This is a simple shaken cocktail, so all I had to do was fill a cocktail shaker with ice, add the ingredients, and shake well. Then I poured the chilled Blueberry Martini into the sugar-rimmed glass, added a quick garnish, and it was ready to serve.
The recipe says to simply float a few blueberries in the glass, but the photo shows a few speared onto a long bamboo cocktail pick. I went with the second option since it was more noticeable for photos.
Tip: If you want your glasses to be frosty when you serve them, you have to be quick! Make the garnish, set out the plates of coarse sugar and vodka, and shake the cocktail while the glasses are chilling. That way you can rim them, pour in the cocktail, pop on the garnish, and serve them up as fast as possible.
Blueberry Martini in a frosted glass
Timing
This recipe doesn’t list a time on the blog post, but it shows 5 minutes on the printable version. It doesn’t seem to include time to chill the glass, so I’m not counting that step in my rating. Here’s how my time was spent:
I think the Blueberry Muffins with Lemon Glaze I made a while back left me with a lingering blueberry craving. I decided to try another blueberry baking project, but I wanted to do something more advanced. A quick search and I found this beautiful Blueberry Cobbler Cake recipe. It looks delicious, but I think the blue cake was what really got me. Blue cake! Oh, and that they were layered with crumbles and blueberry compote. I couldn’t resist giving this one a try!
Blueberry cake layers with vanilla buttercream, blueberry compote, and cobbler crunch filling.
Recipe Author: Courtney Rich at Cake by Courtney Get the recipe
The Ingredients
This recipe had a looong list of ingredients, but I had a few on hand. I had a few things on hand like baking powder, salt, granulated sugar, vanilla extract, cornstarch, powdered sugar, brown sugar, and cinnamon.
I found almost all of the ingredients at my usual grocery store, even the vanilla bean paste. They even had a blueberry BOGO sale going on, so I bought 4 11-ounce containers and ended up using 2 of them for this recipe. The only item I had to order was the blueberry emulsion, but I was able to get it delivered the next day.
Baking isn’t my strongest point, but I am getting more comfortable with it. I was a little nervous at the start, but the instructions for this recipe were so clear and easy to follow. I quickly forgot my fears, fell into a rhythm, and everything went pretty smoothly.
One thing I noticed when I read over the recipe was some of the components can be made ahead of time. That was ideal for me since standing for long periods is quite painful for me, so I made my cake over a period of 3 days.
Blueberry Cake
Day 1 was the blueberry cakes and compote. I started with the cakes and made the compote while they were baking in the oven. Actually, the cakes have a blueberry puree that is made similarly to the compote. It was like a compote warm-up LOL!
I began by putting the berries into a medium saucepan and heating them until softened. Tip: When blueberries soften, they lose their mottled blueish color and turn dark purple with a slight sheen. Once they softened, I put them into my blender, made the puree, and moved on to step 3.
Making the cakes was pretty much what I was used to. First, mix the dry ingredients together. Next, cream the butter in a stand mixer with a paddle attachment. Then add the wet ingredients, followed by the dry ingredients and blueberry puree. I weighed the larger portions of cake ingredients for accuracy and used measuring spoons for the rest.
The batter was a very light lavender color, so I added some food coloring to darken it up. I really wanted the cake to look like the photos! I used 10 drops of grape, violet, and navy blue to darken it. Once I had the color done, I poured the batter into 3 prepared 8-inch cake pans and popped them into the oven.
When they were done, I let them cool in their cake pans for 10 minutes. After that, I moved them to wire cooling racks to finish cooling. You can see in the photo below that one of the cakes broke, but it didn’t affect the finished cake. I refrigerated the cooled cakes wrapped tightly in plastic wrap until I was ready to finish the rest and assemble everything.
Cooling the cakes on wire racks
Blueberry Compote
The blueberry compote is used as a filling between the slices of cake, and it was very easy to make. All I had to do was add all the ingredients to a pan and stir. The mixture seemed very dry at first, but the blueberries released a lot of liquid as they burst.
The mixture thickened as it heated, and the entire process took 15 minutes. Once it was done, I let it cool then put it into a sealed container to store in my refrigerator.
Making the blueberry compote
Crumble
Like the blueberry compote, the crumble is layered between the cakes. I didn’t make the crumble ahead because I was worried it would become soggy in the refrigerator. Instead, I made it the same day I planned to assemble my cake.
The crumble was almost as easy to make as the blueberry compote. I mixed the ingredients in my stand mixer, spread them onto a parchment-lined sheet pan, and baked them for 15 minutes.
The finished crumble cooled while I made the vanilla buttercream icing. I left it on the pan until I needed it to assemble the cake.
Freshly made crumble
Vanilla Buttercream
Stand mixer to the rescue again! My kitchen scale also came in handy here—must like it did when I made the cakes. I left my butter on the counter to soften for about an hour before I planned to make the buttercream.
When I was ready to bake, I began by creaming the butter and then adding the powdered sugar. Sifting the powdered sugar was a test of endurance! It took about 10-12 minutes to sift all of it, and it killed my hand! Once that was done, I followed the instructions and had a pale cream-colored vanilla buttercream icing.
Mixing the vanilla buttercream in my stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment
Assembly
I began assembling the cake by filling a piping bag and cutting off the tip. Then I added a layer to a cake board and placed it onto a rotating cake decorating stand.
Assembly went smoothly, and I made sure to take my time with it. It was a matter of adding some buttercream to the cake and then piping a thick rim of it around the perimeter to hold in the fillings. The fillings were a layer of blueberry compote topped with the crumble—I just spooned them on.
That process repeated with the second layer with the top layer covered in just buttercream. Next was covering the sides of the assembled cake with more buttercream. Tip: I used the rest of the buttercream in the piping bag to fill any gaps in the sides of the cake layers.
The next step was freezing the cake for 10 minutes. My cake board was a huge help for this step! I very, very carefully transferred it in and out of the freezer. And I have to say that freezing it and firming the base layer of icing made finishing it much easier than my past experiences.
I used all of the remaining buttercream to finish icing the cake (there was just enough). I tried and tried using my bench scraper to smooth the surface like the recipe’s photo, but I just couldn’t get it. Instead, I used my offset spatula to make a subtle pattern. A few of the extra blueberries pressed into the frosting added some decoration and finished things up.
Decorated and unsliced Blueberry Cobbler Cake
Timing
This recipe only lists 1 hour to prep and no time for cooking or cooling. I’m not going to include a time rating for it because of that, but this is how my time was spent:
I’m wrapping up my tofu-themed recipe week with this recipe for Spicy Tofu Burritos (pun intended!). I love a good burrito, and I’m always down for spicy food, so this sounds perfect for me. Burritos are frequently on my menu list, but they usually have chicken in them along with rice, beans, and various toppings to change things up. This recipe promises a spicy tofu filling wrapped in a flour tortilla stuffed with my favorite toppings. I can’t find anything wrong with that, so let’s get to it!
These Tofu Burritos are simple and easy to make PLUS they’re great for meal prep! Throw them in the freezer for lazy meals later!
Recipe Author: Brita Britnell at Food with Feeling Get the recipe
The Ingredients
These Spicy Tofu Burritos have quite a few ingredients even without the toppings. My pre-shopping check revealed several ingredients in my pantry. I had olive oil, broth, sea salt, cumin, chili powder, smoked paprika, apple cider vinegar, and garlic. That still left me with a good-sized shopping list, but it was no problem.
I found everything I needed for the burritos plus plenty of toppings. I have to admit I went a little wild with the toppings LOL. I added remain lettuce, sour cream, guacamole, salsa, and fresh tomatoes. I even added some cilantro at the last minute!
Extra firm tofu, sour cream, broth, salsa, guacamole, tomatoes, smoked paprika, chili powder, cumin, apple cider vinegar, maple syrup, olive oil, salt, chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, tomato paste, garlic, romaine lettuce, flour tortillas, and onion
The Process
This Spicy Tofu Burritos recipe is broken down into manageable sections, so the long list of ingredients felt less intimidating.
Pressing the Tofu
I tried a tofu recipe the day before I made my Spicy Tofu Burritos, so I used that method. Here’s how I did it:
Put the cutting board under one of the short ends of the sheet pan so it’s slightly elevated. Mine was about 3/4″ thick.
Place the tofu onto the sheet pan, preferably near the elevated end. Cover it with a paper towel (I folded mine into a square first).
Put the cast-iron skillet on top of the paper towel-covered tofu and leave it for 15-20 minutes. No cast-iron skillet? Just use any skillet and add 1-2 cans of food to weigh it down.
The slight tilt the cutting board created funneled the liquid away from the block of tofu so it didn’t sit in the liquid. I left it for 15 minutes while I prepped sofritas sauce.
Prepping the Sofritas Sauce
Talk about easy! This part was mostly adding ingredients to a blender and pressing a button to make the sauce. And what a lovely sauce it was!
I also diced the onion and added the oil to the skillet to preheat. I wasn’t sure how delicate tofu is, so I opted for a large 12-inch nonstick skillet.
The sofritas added a smoky and spicy flavor to the tofu
Cooking the Sofritas
Once the tofu finished draining, I crumbled it into large pieces. The recipe does warn that it breaks up during cooking, and it was right about that. The large pieces did break into smaller, more bite-size bits.
Cooking them was a simple process. I let the tofu sit for 3 minutes and flipped it. I repeated that 3 times for a total of 9 minutes. The tofu had browned and the onions were softened when it was done. The final step of cooking for the sofritas was to add the sauce and cook for another 2 minutes.
Crumbled tofu and diced onion in a 12″ non-stick skillet
Assembling the Spicy Tofu Burritos
Talk about colorful! I had the rich reddish-orange sofritas with so many vivid shades of green and red toppings plus the bright white sour cream. The cream-colored burritos made a wonderful canvas to show off the variety of colors and textures.
My only worry was if I would be able to roll the burritos, but it wasn’t difficult at all since I was pretty sparing with each item. This is definitely an extra large tortilla kind of recipe, though! I had enough of everything to make 4 large burritos, and 1 was enough for a filling meal.
I topped my Spicy Tofu Burritos with lettuce, guacamole, salsa, sour cream, chopped tomatoes, and cilantro
Timing
This recipe lists a total time of 40 minutes. It doesn’t break down the times, but I did that as I tracked my progress. I took a touch longer than the time listed, but I did add a ton of toppings. Here’s how my time was spent:
I love to order tofu when we get takeaway, but it’s not something I cook at home. I think I tried it once and failed brilliantly, though I don’t remember the recipe. It was a long time ago! But I recently found a couple of tofu recipes that sounded so good! This Tofu Satay with Peanut Sauce recipe is the first one I’m trying this week. The peanut sauce in the Rice Noodle Salad with Spicy Peanut Sauce I made recently must still be on my mind. Let’s give another recipe with peanut sauce a try!
Oven-baked marinated tofu skewers served with tangy, sweet, rich, creamy and extremely delicious peanut sauce.
As ever I began this recipe with a quick pantry check while I made up my shopping list. I found I had peanut butter, Sriracha sauce (always!), brown sugar, soy sauce, garlic and ginger powder, and rice vinegar. I even had a few limes.
That didn’t leave me with all that much to buy for my tofu satay, and I found everything at my usual grocery store. Since I have never bought tofu I wasn’t 100% sure where to find it. I guessed the produce department, and I was right. I found it there in the refrigerated section.
Firm tofu, lime juice, peanut butter, maple syrup, Sriracha sauce, brown sugar, coconut milk, rice vinegar, soy sauce, garlic powder, and ginger powder
The Process
First up was pressing the tofu. I put mine onto a sheet pan with a cutting board under one end to create a slight tilt. Then I added the tofu and pressed it with my 10-inch cast-iron skillet. I ended up pressing out about 1/4 cup of water over 20 minutes. The slight tilt the cutting board created let all that water drain away from the tofu.
Pressing the tofu with a cast-iron skillet on a tiled sheet pan
I was able to mix up the marinade and the peanut sauce while the tofu drained. Prep work for the marinade and sauce was the same: just whisk all the ingredients together until smooth. The “hardest work” of this was just slicing and juicing a lime.
Once the tofu finished, I sliced it into 6 long rectangles. First, I sliced it in half horizontally to create 2 large slabs of tofu. Then I sectioned each of those into 3 pieces each for a total fo 6.
Tofu cut into 6 pieces
I used a small container that was just big enough to lay out all 6 pieces of tofu in a single layer (it was a 3-cup Snapware I use all the time). First, I spread some marinade onto the bottom of the container, then I added the tofu and poured over the rest of the marinade. That coated most of the tofu, and I used a basting brush to spread it over any uncovered sides.
Marinating the tofu
The tofu finished marinating 20 minutes later, and it was ready to bake. I spread the pieces onto a sheet pan and baked them for 10 minutes. They didn’t seem to have crisped much, so I added another 2 minutes before turning them.
Another 12 minutes later my Tofu Satay with Peanut Sauce was done. I added the bamboo skewers and transferred them to a serving plate. Then I topped my peanut sauce with some crushed peanuts and added some sliced green onions before serving. I also added a couple of lime wedges since they were in the recipe’s photo.
Timing
This recipe lists a prep time of 15 minutes, a cooking time of 20 minutes, and 50 additional minutes to drain and marinate the tofu. That comes to a total time of 1 hour 25 minutes. I came in 10 minutes under that:
Happy National Watermelon Day! Today is all about celebrating this sweet, and juicy fruit that’s just perfect for these hot days. I had a few ideas for recipes, but this Watermelon Kiwi Mocktail blew them all away. It’s so colorful, and I love that it has red and green worked into it. Plus it’s a mocktail, so everyone can partake. Let’s give this cute drink a try!
Summertime has its favorite flavors, and watermelon is high on the list. Add refreshing kiwi, and it becomes one of the tastiest combos around.
Recipe Author: Jennifer at Hill City Bride Get the recipe
The Ingredients
With only 4 ingredients, this was an easy recipe to shop for. I had ice, of course, and sugar on hand, so my shopping list was only 2 items. My usual grocery store had kiwi fruit and a small watermelon. I bought 4 kiwis: 3 to make the kiwi slush and 1 for garnishes. It worked out perfectly.
The kiwi fruit wasn’t quite ripe when I bought it, so I let it ripen on the counter. This can take as long as 4 days, but I sped up the process with a little help from a banana and a paper bag. Bananas (and apples) release ethylene gas as they ripen, and that gas causes some fruits to ripen faster. I put the kiwis and banana into a paper bag, folded it closed, and left it on the counter for 2 days.
On a hunch, I also looked up how to ripen a watermelon faster, and you can’t. Watermelons stop ripening when they’re picked, so it’s important to pick a sweet watermelon at the store. Fortunately, I managed to pick one that was sweet and juicy.
Watermelon, sugar, crushed ice, and kiwi fruit
The Process
My Watermelon Kiwi Mocktails were so easy to make! Making each type of fruit slush was the same. I started out by cutting up the watermelon into chunks and filling a 1 cup measuring cup. Then I added the chunks to my blender with 2 tablespoons of sugar. A quick step over to my freezer let me fill the same measuring cup with crushed ice.
A press of a button, a short pause, and I had watermelon slush. I poured the watermelon slush into a temporary container and set that into the freezer while I made the kiwi slush. With a quick rinse of the blender pitcher first!
Chopping up the watermelon to make kiwi slush
Kiwi is nice and soft making it easy to peel. I cut the fruits in half and used a spoon to remove them from their fuzzy peels. Then I roughly chopped them until I had 1 cup. It took me 3 kiwis and left me 1 for garnishes. Actually making the kiwi slush was the same method as the watermelon slush. Add the fruit, sugar, and ice to the blender and blend until smooth. Easy!
To make the mocktails I began by spooning some kiwi slush into the bottom of each glass. I tried to gently spoon the watermelon slush over the kiwi slush, but it wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be. My mocktails didn’t end up looking as perfect as the photos, but they were close enough.
By the way, I used 2 12-ounce balloon glasses and had plenty of kiwi slush—even some leftovers. However, I didn’t have quite enough watermelon slush, so I had to make another batch. Oh, and I didn’t use any food coloring. The colors are au naturel.
Chopping up the kiwi fruit to make kiwi slush
Timing
This recipe lists a total time of 5-10 minutes, and I came in at 10 minutes. However, that does not include time to make the garnishes or the second batch of watermelon slush. It’s the time it took to make the recipe as it is written. The extra watermelon slush took 3-4 minutes, and the garnishes were 4-5 minutes because I had to finagle them a bit.
I love fried rice! Beef and chicken are good, but pork and shrimp fried rice are my favorites. But I always like to try new things, and I have found some new fried rice recipes over the years I’ve been blogging. There was vegan Kimchi Fried Rice which had a spicy kick to it and, of course, fermented cabbage. And I loved Nigerian Fried Rice with beef liver or shrimp (I’ve made it both ways). But today I’m back to Asian fried rice with this Thai Style Crab Fried Rice. Since I love shrimp fried rice this seemed like a natural for me, but adding crab surprised me for some reason. But I do love crab, and it’s not something I get to eat often, so I had to give this a try!
For something ultra-delicious in minutes, try this crab fried rice for a one-pan meal that is bursting with delicate seafood flavor!
Recipe Author: Maggie Zhu at Omnivore’s Cookbook Get the recipe
The Ingredients
My pre-grocery shopping pantry check showed me I had several ingredients for my Thai Style Crab Fried Rice. I had fish sauce, sugar, eggs, limes, garlic, carrots, butter, vegetable oil, and butter. I also had some jasmine rice, which is a staple of Thai cuisine.
My shopping list for this recipe wasn’t too long, and I found everything I needed at my usual grocery store. They had several types of crab available, so I stopped to ask the fishmonger what would be best. He recommended their mid-priced swimming crab claw meat ($12 for 8 ounces).
Since this recipe had plenty of other strong flavors, he said the taste would be very close to the more expensive lump crab ($24 for 8 ounces) and jumbo lump crab ($31 for 8 ounces). They also had canned lump crab ($8 for 6 ounces) and imitation crab ($4-$6 per package). Or I suppose you could do it the hard way with crab legs LOL!
Day-old jasmine rice, eggs, sugar, lump crab meat, white pepper, light soy sauce, fish sauce, unsalted butter, vegetable oil, white onion, cilantro, English cucumber (substituted for Persian cucumber), green onions, carrots, serrano pepper (substituted bird’s eye pepper), garlic, and lime juice
The Process
This recipe started the day before I planned to make it by cooking up some rice. This recipe (and all fried rice) needs dried-out day-old rice so it doesn’t turn to mush while it cooks.
Rice triples when cooked, so 1 cup of dry rice gave me the exact amount needed: 3 cups of cooked rice. Then I spread the rice onto a sheet pan and put it into the refrigerator uncovered.
This is a quick recipe, so things move fast once cooking starts, I made sure to have all the ingredients prepped before I began. It paid off! The cooking went very fast, especially at the start with the eggs.
This recipe moves fast, so I prepped all of the rice ingredients before I started cooking
The first time I made this Thai Style Crab Fried Rice recipe didn’t go as planned. I made some jasmine rice one night, intending to let it dry in the refrigerator so I could make the recipe the next day. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to do that.
Instead, I put the dried rice into a sealed container. I finally got to make the recipe after a couple more days. It went well at first, but my rice quickly turned mushy. My guess is the condensation in the sealed container rehydrated the dried rice.
The rice I used for my first try was too wet and turned into mush
The good news was the rice tasted great! But I wasn’t satisfied with mushy rice, and I had just enough ingredients to make it again. That night I made more jasmine rice and once again spread it on a sheet pan to dry overnight in the refrigerator.
The next day I made sure that rice got cooked! I gave this recipe one more time even after a tumultuous day, and I’m happy to say the texture was just right. There was no clumping or mushiness to it at all, and I ended up with a big ‘ole skillet full of lovely fried rice.
Using dried rice for my second attempt gave me the right texture
Timing
This recipe lists 10 minutes to prep and 5 minutes to cook, for a total time of 15 minutes. Mine was not that fast. Here’s how it went:
4 minutes to make the sauce
10 minutes to prep the rice
7 minutes to cook the rice
1 minute to garnish
22 minutes total
Adding the sauce, prepping the rice, and garnishing make the total prep time 15 minutes. I also cooked the rice for a couple extra minutes trying to get it nice and brown. Maybe some practice or using pre-diced carrots and onions would speed things up? But dinner in 22 minutes isn’t bad at all!
The Rice Noodle Salad with Spicy Peanut Sauce recipe I just made had an Asian flare, so I thought I would keep up the theme. When I happened on this Trà Dà o (Vietnamese Peach Tea) I knew it would be the perfect followup. It’s summertime, and it’s hot here! With the temperature in the high 90s and the heat index over 100, I need a tall cool iced tea or two in the afternoon. Adding fresh peaches to that sweet, refreshing drink sounds like a plan. Let’s find out how good of a plan!
This lightly sweet Vietnamese Peach Tea is made with real peaches for a perfectly refreshing summer drink!
Recipe Author: Sarah at Curious Cuisinière Get the recipe
The Ingredients
This Vietnamese peach tea recipe has only 4 ingredients, and I had 2. I had to buy fresh peaches and tea since all I had on hand was herbal and Earl Grey. The notes say Earl Grey and breakfast blend will change the flavor, and I keep to the recipe on the first try.
My local grocery store had what I needed. I bought 4 peaches to be on the safe side since they bruise so easily. A box of tea was the second item on my list, but when I got home I discovered I grabbed a box of breakfast blend by mistake. I swear I reached for plain black tea! I’m not even sure what a breakfast blend tastes like… Wanders off to the kitchen to make a cup…
Not to worry, my mother-in-law had me covered. Hubby stopped by to visit his parents and she sent him home with a few teabags for me. What a peach! 😂
Fresh peaches, water, tea, and sugar
The Process
I started off making my Vietnamese Peach Tea by boiling a pot of water for the peaches. It helps loosen the skin for peeling. There are no instructions on how to peel the peaches, but this is how I did it:
Boil a pot of water deep enough to submerge the peaches.
Make a shallow “X” in the bottom of the peaches with a paring knife.
Submerge the peaches in the boiling water for 30 to 60 seconds.
Immediately transfer the peaches to an ice water bath.
Peel the peaches with your fingers; use a paring knife to remove any small bits that remain.
Pit and slice as needed.
Peeling the fresh peaches
While I waited for the water to boil, I heated another 2 cups for the tea and steeped it for 5 minutes. Once the tea was steeping, I measured another 2 cups of water and added ice to chill it. I strained out the ice before adding it to the tea later on—the ice was just to chill it.
The peaches peeled easily, and I sliced the fruit off the pits for the syrup. Making that was a matter of simmering them with some sugar in a small pan. Most syrups also need water, but not this one. The peaches released plenty of moisture as they warmed, so no extra water was needed.
Making the peach syrup with fresh peaches and sugar
I initially used the same amount of sugar listed in the recipe (2 tablespoons). A quick taste told me it wasn’t quite sweet enough, so I stirred in more sugar 1 tablespoon at a time. It was to my taste at 4 tablespoons or 1/4 cup total.
I also made a second batch with 1/4 cup of sugar to use up the last 2 peaches and make sure the amount was on point. That batch could have used a touch more sugar. I’m betting it all depends on how sweet the peaches happen to be, so be prepared to adjust each batch a little.
When the peach syrup was finished, all I had to do was mix it with the brewed tea and ice water in a 50-ounce pitcher. Then I let the mixture chill for a few hours before giving it a try.
Timing
This recipe lists 20 minutes to prep and 5 minutes to cook, for a total time of 25 minutes. My first try at this recipe went a little over that at 34 minutes total. I imagine the slowdown was peeling and slicing the peaches. I haven’t done it in a while and I guess I’m out of practice.
My summer salad craving is in full effect! I have been making salads almost weekly, especially kale salads. Easy Kale Salad with Lemon Dressing is a good one and so is Apple Cranberry Bacon Kale Salad. I make that second one all the time! But today I’m trying a completely different type of salad: rice noodle salad—specifically this Rice Noodle Salad with Spicy Peanut Sauce. It’s cold noodles topped with tons of veggies and served with homemade peanut sauce. I love peanut sauce, and adding a little bit of spice to it sounds so perfect. I can’t wait to try this one!
Rice Noodle Salad is a quick and easy summer meal. Tons of crunchy veggies, flavorful herbs, crispy toppings, and a creamy spicy peanut butter sauce make this dish absolutely irresistible.
I had a few things for this salad on hand like honey, hot sauce (Crystal, my favorite), crunchy peanut butter, maple syrup, and salt and pepper. I even had some leftover rice noodles, but not quite enough for this recipe. That left me with a good-sized shopping list.
I found almost everything at my regular grocery store. They didn’t have Persian cucumbers, so I went with half of an English cucumber. And they did have edamame, but it was frozen steam-in-bag still in the pods. I cooked them in my microwave and shelled them the day before I made the salad.
Most everything was easy to find except the fried onions. I have never had them before, but I found them on the aisle with the salad dressing. They are salty savory goodness! I swear I could eat them like potato chips.
The only item I couldn’t find was the red cabbage. All they had was bags of shredded green cabbage with carrots and a few other veggies mixed in. I ended up sending hubby to another store to find red cabbage, and my shopping was complete.
Rice noodles, edamame, salt, pepper, crunchy peanut butter, peanuts, hot sauce, fried onions, maple syrup, carrots, cucumber, lime juice, garlic, red bell pepper, purple cabbage, cilantro, and toasted sesame seed oil
The Process
Most of the prep work for my Rice Noodle Salad with Spicy Peanut Sauce was slicing the vegetables. I put on a medium saucepan of water to boil and added a colander and bowl of ice water to the sink and got to it.
A sharp knife and mandoline made it easy and relatively quick. The mandoline was very handy when it came time to julienne the carrots, slice the cucumber, and shred the cabbage. I used my chef's knife for the rest.
Prepping vegetables for the rice noodle salad
The water boiled while I was slicing the veggies, so I took a short break from that to boil them. They were done in 5 minutes, and I strained them using the colander and then popped the colander into the bowl of ice water. A quick swish with my hand a minute or two later told me they had cooled, so I transferred them to the bowls.
Pasta bowls were perfect for this salad. They are shallow but have a very large circumference. This salad has a lot of veggies, and I was able to fit everything (even the dressing bowls) thanks to their large capacity.
Cooling the rice noodles in an ice water bath
Next, I finished up the vegetables and made the dressing. The instructions say to whisk it, but I put it into a sealed container and shook it to blend. It took some work to break up the peanut butter!
When that was done I was ready to assemble. That meant adding the dressing to small condiment bowls, then surrounding it with all the veggies. I noticed the recipe’s photo had lime wedges to garnish, so I added some to my salads too.
Cooled rice noodles in a shallow pasta bowl
Timing
This recipe lists a total time of 15 minutes. I took a bit longer than that:
14 minutes to prep the vegetables and cook the noodles
5 minutes to mix the dressing
5 minutes to assemble 2 salads
24 minutes total
I’m not sure where the slow-down happened. It might be that I julienned the carrots myself instead of buying them pre-done. I took the time to peel them, cut them into small sections, and julienne them with my mandoline. It also roughly chopped the cilantro. Neither seemed to take long, but that’s the only thing I can think of that caused me to take an extra 9 minutes.
I have wanted to try this Kentucky Bourbon Vanilla Bean Pudding recipe for a while. Well, I should say try it again. You see, I gave it a shot about six weeks ago, which led me to discover my refrigerator was dying. I made the pudding and put the dishes into the fridge to set overnight. And they were still liquid the next day.
Two repairs, two additional breakdowns, and a lot of money later, I have a new refrigerator. Actually two new refrigerators. I bought a tiny little 1.6 cubic foot refrigerator to get us by while we waited two weeks for the new one to be delivered. Thank goodness for credit card points and Amazon Warehouse! The tiny fridge has been rehomed to our upstairs bedroom to hold cans of seltzer, and now it’s time to give this pudding another try. Here goes!
Kentucky Bourbon Vanilla Bean Pudding ~ this thick, classic, creamy vanilla pudding spiked with bourbon is an irresistible and comforting adult dessert!
Recipe Author: Sue Moran at The View from Great Island Get the recipe
The Ingredients
Shopping for this recipe was about the same both times. I had bourbon, sugar, cornstarch, salt, and vanilla extract on hand. There were even extra vanilla beans in my pantry although I don’t remember what from.
That left me to shop for the perishables. I had to buy whole milk, half and half, and eggs. A short shopping list that was easily filled at my regular grocery store. I don’t imagine it would be a problem in most grocery stores. You might even find all that at a well-stocked convenience store.
Sugar, eggs, vanilla beans, bourbon, cornstarch, vanilla extract, half and half, whole milk, and salt
The Process
I’m glad I got a second chance at this recipe because I have a feeling the first one would have failed even if my refrigerator had been working. I’ll explain a little bit later…
Making this pudding was a simple process, but you have to follow the steps as they are written. I improvised the first time, and I think that was part of the problem.
This pudding begins with simmering the milks and vanilla bean then they are poured into a heat-proof bowl of the dry ingredients. The eggs and last of the milk are added to the pan just before the liquid is drizzled into the dry ingredients. Then the lot is returned to the pan for more simmering until it thickens.
The first time I made this recipe I decided it would be quicker to simply add the dry ingredients to the pan. I also don’t think I let the mixture simmer for long enough because I was worried it would burn. I ended up with a thin, watery mixture at the end of my first try.
On the second try, I followed the recipe as written and had an a-ha moment. During step four, the final simmer and stir, I felt the pudding thicken. It seemed as if it was thin as water one moment and suddenly thickened in a flash.
The pudding requires almost constant stirring with a balloon whisk (shown) or a spatula
Tip: The thickened pudding behaves like lava, so be careful! While it simmers, bubbles will rise to the surface and pop, splashing the hot liquid quite far. It makes a mess and feels lava-hot when it hits your skin. I used a large spatter screen to protect myself while I stirred.
Chilling
Once the pudding finished cooking I filled my dessert dishes and placed them into the refrigerator to set overnight. They seemed set when I checked about 90 minutes later, but I left them until the next day to be sure. By the way, the dishes hold 6.8 ounces, and I would say I filled them 2/3 full.
Tip: I set the dishes onto a sheet pan lined with a silicone baking mat to make moving them into the refrigerator easier. The mat kept them from slipping on the sheet pan and caught any messy drips. I did not cover the warm pudding, but I did add some clingwrap the next day.
I filled 6 6.8-ounce dessert dishes about 2/3 full
Timing
This recipe listed 15 minutes to prepare and 5 minutes to cook, for a total of 20 minutes. Chilling time was not included, so I will not include it in the rating. As I mentioned above, the pudding seemed to be set after 90 minutes but I let it chill overnight. I’m also using the time from my second attempt at this pudding for the rating. Here’s how that time was spent:
I remember everyone getting into Dalgona coffee during COVID, but I never gave it a try. It went on to my list of things I wanted to try, though. Well, I’m finally getting to it! Mostly because I wanted to follow up those Blueberry Muffins with Lemon Glaze from earlier this week with a breakfast drink. Coffee seemed like a great idea, so why not Dalgona coffee? This recipe stood out because it also incorporates boba, which I love and have never made myself. This is going to be fun!
Take dalgona coffee to the next level and make Dalgona Coffee with Boba! This whipped coffee drink has layers of sweet tapioca pearls, icy cold milk, and dalgona coffee whip for the ultimate pick me up!
Recipe Author: Liren Baker at Kitchen Confidante Get the recipe
The Ingredients
There aren’t a lot of ingredients in Dalgona Coffee with Boba, and I had a few. I used instant espresso since I keep it around. It’s granulated just like instant coffee, but I prefer the taste. I also had sugar, maple syrup, and, of course, ice and water.
That left me with a dual-item grocery list for milk and boba pearls. Milk was easy to find, and I chose whole dairy milk because I use it to bake.
The international section of my favorite grocery store is pretty diverse, but boba pearls were nowhere to be found. And while it is possible to make them, I decided to order them instead. An 8.8-ounce bag was around $5. I used Hungry Huy’s post How to Cook Tapioca Pearls to choose the brand I used, WuFuYuan black sugar flavor.
Maple syrup, granulated sugar, boba pearls, instant coffee, water, milk, and ice
The Process
This Dalgona Coffee with Boba recipe looked simple enough when I read through it, but it wasn’t successful the first time I made it. That was due to an equipment choice I made, not the instructions or the ingredients.
I decided to start on the Dalgona part of things while the water for the boba boiled. I had been planning on using my immersion blender since this was such a small recipe. But at the last minute, I swapped out a small mixing bowl for a large coffee mug.
Mixing in a small mug or container does not allow enough air to be whipped into the Dalgona so it will be flat, not fluffy
The coffee seemed to be whipping up, and I paused it periodically to make the boba. It cooks fast and took 4 minutes to cook once the water was boiling. Tip: Keep a colander and bowl of cold water ready in the kitchen sink so you can strain and stop the boba from cooking immediately when the timer goes off.
With the boba cooked and the maple syrup stirred in, I thought I was ready to assemble my drink. I used a pint glass and poured in most of the boba, 1 cup of milk, a few ice cubes (there wasn’t much room, TBH), and the whipped coffee. As you can see, the Dalgona floated on top but was flat.
My first attempt at Dalgona Coffee with Boba literally fell flat (but tasted good!)
As I enjoyed my flat but delicious beverage, I went online to troubleshoot and discovered my error: the coffee mug. The mug was too small to allow air to be whipped into the coffee and create a fluffy texture.
I gave this recipe another try the next day using a hand mixer and a small mixing bowl. The results were much better though not quite as fluffy as the recipe’s photo.
Timing
This recipe lists 5 minutes to prep, 5 minutes to cook, and 10 minutes total time. I came in way over that both times I made it at 17 and 21 minutes respectively. The slowdown both times was me fussing over the Dalgona. I wanted to make sure it was whipped enough, especially on the second try.
But I have to say flat Dalgona isn’t the worst thing in the world. The under-whipped stuff was easier to mix into the milk while the fluffier version floated on top much longer. A boba straw was enough for the first try while I had to grab a spoon to mix it for the second.
It’s National Blueberry Muffin Day, so I gotta celebrate! But not with plain old blueberry muffins, but with these Blueberry Muffins with Lemon Glaze. How perfect are blueberries with lemon? I love that combo, so I couldn’t pass up giving this recipe a try. Not only do the muffins have blueberry and lemon, but they are topped with a sweet lemon glaze. That sounds like off the charts yum, and I need a sweet treat right about now. Let’s find out if this recipe is as good as it sounds!
These Blueberry Muffins are bursting with juicy blueberries. They have a soft and moist crumb and puff up perfectly. The lemon glaze makes them completely irresistible and they always disappear fast!
Recipe Author: Natasha Kravchuk at Natasha’s Kitchen Get the recipe
The Ingredients
My new refrigerator was finally delivered after a 2-week wait, and I’m still filling it with, well, everything. That meant I had to buy all the perishable ingredients like lemons, sour cream, eggs, and blueberries.
I am never sure how to match up recipe measurements like 1 1/2 cups to berry packages measured in ounces and pints. To be safe, I bought 2 11-ounce containers of blueberries. I ended up using 1 container with a few berries left over to nibble on.
I also bought a bag of lemons since I wasn’t sure how much I would use for this recipe. Boy, did I overbuy! I used exactly 1 lemon for the zest and juice for the muffins and the glaze.
Everything else was in my pantry just waiting to be turned into Blueberry Muffins with Lemon Glaze.
This recipe broke down into 2 sections: making the muffins and making/applying the glaze. It began with the muffins and all went quite smoothly.
There was the usual preheating of the oven and preparing the muffin pan at the start. Then it moved onto the muffin batter. My stand mixer helped with the first part of the batter, the liquid ingredients.
Once it was time to add the dry ingredients I switched to a whisk to add it to the liquid mixture. It also came in handy when adding the lemon zest and juice. Lastly, I folded in the blueberries with a spatula.
There was so much batter that all the cups were filled to the top
As I added the batter to the prepared pan, I was afraid there would be too much. I was ready to whip out my extra muffin pan, but I didn’t need to. Instead, I filled all 12 cavities in the pan completely full and used up all the batter.
I popped the muffins into the preheated oven for 20 minutes and cleaned up a bit before I began making the glaze. The glaze was the easiest part, and I had it mixed up in just 4 minutes, though it was more yellow than the recipe photo (which was white) and there were some tiny lumps in the powdered sugar. They mostly dissolved as I mixed in the lemon juice, but next time I would take the time to sift the sugar before making the glaze.
I cooled the muffins on a wire rack for 20 minutes
The glaze was ready before the muffins were, but they didn’t pass the toothpick test. I ended up baking them for another 5 minutes to set the middles. Then I let them cool in the pan for 10 minutes before removing them and cooling them on a wire cooling rack for another 20 minutes.
Once they were cool I gave the glaze a quick stir and drizzled it over the muffins. I was afraid they would get soggy, but the glaze hardened a little and the muffins’ texture was just fine.
Mixing up the lemon glaze
Timing
This recipe lists 8 minutes to prep, 22 minutes to cook, and a total time of 30 minutes. Cooling time isn’t listed with those times, but it is mentioned in Step 5. Although I’m listing it with my times I didn’t count it for my time rating. If I omit the cooling time my total time for prepping and cooking was 48 minutes. Here’s how it went:
23 minutes to prep
25 minutes to bake
4 minutes to make the glaze (made while the muffins baked)
30 minutes to cool (10 minutes in pan and 20 minutes on cooling rack)
1 hour 18 minutes total
I forgot to time actually glaze the muffins, but it was really fast—probably about 1 minute, 2 at most.
That Crispy Hawaiian Garlic Chicken recipe I just made was such a terrific introduction to Hawaiian cuisine that I wanted to try more. A quick scan of my Pinterest boards, and I found my next Hawaiian recipe: Hawaiian Coconut Pudding (Haupia). I love love love coconut! That alone was enough to pique my interest, but there’s more. This recipe has only 4 ingredients and takes 17 minutes to make. How can I not give this easy coconut dessert recipe a try? I simply must!
Hawaiian Coconut Pudding (Haupia) is a Hawaiian dessert almost similar to a gelatin. It consists of 4 simple ingredients: water, sugar, cornstarch and coconut milk.
So haupia has 4 ingredients, and I found 3 of them during my pre-shopping check through my kitchen. Cornstarch and sugar are always in my pantry, and it’s not unusual for me to have coconut milk too. This week I was out, so I added that to my shopping list and found it at my usual grocery store.
The recipe doesn’t say what type of coconut milk to use. I chose full-fat unsweetened for a couple of reasons. Firstly, the recipe calls for a 1/2 cup of sugar, so I assumed that would provide plenty of sweetness.
Second, the haupia has to set in the refrigerator so it can be cut into squares for serving. When you open a can of full-fat coconut milk you find chunks of fat floating in the liquid. That fat melts into a liquid when heated and returns to its solid form when cooled, and that’s exactly what this recipe needs to hold together.
Water, sugar, coconut milk, and cornstarch
The Process
Making this recipe was as easy as I thought it would be. The instructions are written clearly, and I didn’t have any trouble working through the steps.
I began by heating the coconut milk and sugar in a 3.3-quart pan (it had plenty of room, and I could have gone a little smaller). While it came to a boil, I mixed the cornstarch and water together, then I slowly stirred it into the coconut mixture once it came to a boil.
My only problem was I didn’t have an 8″x8″ pan. I tried pouring the pudding into a 9″x9″ baking dish, but it was very shallow. It just wouldn’t have produced the nice squares shown in the recipe.
A quick check through my cabinets and I found the perfect solution. I had a set of ceramic baking dishes, and the medium-sized dish was perfect. It’s 8.7″L x 6.3″W x 2.1″H, so the haupia was deep enough to cut into squares once it set.
I did briefly consider spraying the dish with canola oil, but I decided not to since the coconut milk had plenty of fat. I bet that would ensure easy removal from the pan, and it did.
The set haupia cut into 12 pieces
The pudding did have some cracks on the surface when I removed it from the refrigerator the next day. That didn’t seem to affect it, though. I ran a paring knife around the edges to loosen it, cut it into squares, and tipped the pan onto a cutting board to remove the pudding. And nothing happened.
I ended up using a cake server to remove the pieces of pudding. The tapered end helped to get the haupia squares out intact, though the bottom was softer than the surface so they tilted a little when I plated them. I’m guessing the coconut fat floated to the top as the pudding cooled causing the top to be a bit firmer than the bottom.
Timing
This recipe lists 10 minutes to prep, 7 minutes to cook, and 17 minutes in total. I came in well under that with a total time of 9 minutes.
Neither time includes setting in the refrigerator, nor do the instructions list a time. I let my haupia set overnight.
