Zucchini & Yellow Tomato Fritters
Fritters had been on my list of things to make for a while before this, but I just never seemed to be able to find the time to make them. When I was invited to my first stage at SALT, the restaurant I now work at!, I was freaking out about it. I had never done a stage before; for those of you who do not know what that is, it is a working interview in a kitchen. The day before my stage, I looked over the SALT lunch menu and decided I would make anything that I hadn’t made before or thought I could use work on. I ended up making fritters and risotto and decided I could cook the rest of the things on the menu without practice. The funny part about this was that my stage did not involve hardly any cooking! I just made salads, made po’ boys and prepped food. I was so nervous for nothing!
Champagne Cake w/ Raspberry Buttercream Frosting
This summer has been filled with friends’ 21st birthdays. Besides being suckered into going out to bars more than I probably should, I have also been consuming ridiculous amounts of junk food and desserts at all of these birthdays. I have had baked mac ‘n’ cheeses, spinach artichoke dip, ice cream cake, way too much hummus (recipe coming soon!) and this lovely champagne cake.
Spicy Caribbean Pork Chops w/ Rice & Peas
If you have been reading my blog for a while, you already know how much I love trying new exotic flavor combinations. The weirder the combination, the more interested I seem to be. I’m not sure why this is but it’s kind of funny to me now because I was such a picky eater as a kid and never was interested in trying new things. The only vegetables I ate until about high school were peas, corn and mashed potatoes… how things have changed.
Easy Chicken & Dumplings
When I think of homestyle cooking, I usually think of some sort of chicken, carrot and pea dish. Either chicken noodle soup, chicken pot pies or, in this case, chicken and dumplings. You can really use whichever combination of vegetables and meat you want for a recipe like this. I chose these specific ones because I was moving out of my house and needed to use up the things in my fridge.
Baked Tex-Mex Egg Rolls
I recently saw the idea for Southwestern egg rolls on Mel’s Kitchen Cafe and was instantly interested. For one, I have never made egg rolls; they are still on my list to make. Secondly, I love Mexican food. I was surprised to see that they were inside tortillas instead, but figured that is probably a better idea anyway. I decided to make my own combination of ingredients for the filling, because I wasn’t a huge fan of the black beans in the recipe I saw.
Spicy Adobo Shrimp Cocktail
This spring I worked at Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage for a few months before heading to Africa. After being in restaurants for so long, this job seemed unbearably slow at times. In order to pass the time, I would read through all of the cooking magazines at the registers for recipe ideas; probably not what I was supposed to be doing in my down time, but nobody ever said anything. Over these few months I accumulated a giant stack of torn out magazine pages and recipe notes. I am still trying to work my way through them without adding too much to the stack.
Buffalo Style Chicken Breasts w/ Bleu Cheese Sauce
There are very few things that I would not put Buffalo sauce on. I love the flavor and all the varieties of it. I have made all sorts of buffalo recipes, including one of my favorites the Buffalo Chicken Mac’N’Cheese Casserole. That recipe was some serious comfort food, but this recipe is a bit fancier and not so hard on your arteries. It is a good idea to grill the chicken for this recipe, but you can also bake it if you do not have access to a grill. I baked it when I originally cooked it.
Spicy Cheddar Pecan Dip
I know the title of this post may sound like a handful, but the recipe is actually really simple. My mom recently had a little get together for all of the women she used to work at IBM with. Lucky for me I was crashing at her house this night, which meant all the Sangria and appetizers I could ask for in exchange for playing with an adorable three-month year old puppy all night (rough I know).
San Francisco Restaurants Pt. 2: The Franciscan
The second day of my birthday weekend in San Francisco was filled with (surprise!) more food, drinks and walking. The restaurant we went to on Sunday, The Franciscan Crab Restaurant, was right on the water in the Fisherman’s Warf. There were large windows all around the restaurant which provided beautiful views practically anywhere you sat.
San Francisco Restaurants Pt. 1: Perbacco
I wish I could have posted this earlier, but things have been a bit chaotic since I got back to Colorado from San Francisco. For my 21st birthday weekend (the 25th-28th), my mom, dad, two brothers, best friends and brother’s girlfriend spent the weekend eating, drinking and walking our way through San Francisco. I was surprised that the weather was only a high of 70 degrees! So much colder than in Colorado, I am currently sweating and slowly dying in the Boulder summer heat (almost 100 degrees last week!).
