With the birth of my second child last month, I’ve had less and less time to work on the blog. It seems that as soon as I pick up my laptop, one kid or the other has an imminent need. With my toddler, that need is generally to push a button on my keyboard. With my infant, the need is usually just to eat. Occasionally, their needs are simultaneous; while I leave the computer to feed my daughter, my son finds that he can’t contain himself, and pushes all sorts of buttons on my keyboard. Most recently, this resulted in him deleting the Christmas card I had been working on last weekend. The one I had been working on for an hour. Isn’t parenting joyful? As you can probably guess, my blog has sadly been moved to the bottom of my to-do list, along with cooking new and creative meals. Sigh.
Since I’m haven’t been too inventive lately, I thought I would post some recipes from other people; blogs, cookbooks, and other websites that I love. These are things I’ve made within the past few months that have been easy to prepare and tasted great. I often take only a few pictures of each dish (and in some cases, only mid-preparation), so please refer to the original source for more beautiful photography. I hope you all enjoy these recipes as much as I have!
With Two Spoons: Mediterranean Salmon Farro Bowls
This recipe is from the blog www.withtwospoons.com. These ladies post amazing recipes for everything from appetizers to desserts. Their mouthwatering photos, especially for this easy to make salmon recipe (again, refer to their original post for pretty pics), would entice anyone to try their dishes.
I made these Salmon Farro Bowls at the end of the summer, when my garden provided plenty of tomatoes and cucumbers. It was such an easy and healthy weeknight recipe, that we made it again only a few weeks later! I can’t wait to make this in the next few weeks when I’m craving a little taste of summer.
Food & Wine: Aleppo Pepper and Mint Roasted Chicken
There’s a beautiful photo of this dish on the cover of the Food &Wine Annual Cookbook 2012 that I’ve admired for…well, since 2012. I finally pulled the trigger and made this chicken, since I actually have Aleppo pepper (thanks to my sister, Valerie, who gave me spices for my birthday! Some people just get me). Roasted chicken is one of my favorite chicken dishes, but I always use the same ingredients: garlic, lemon, salt and pepper. It gets boring. This recipe totally elevates boring roasted chicken by using (as the title suggests) Aleppo pepper and mint, along with garlic and lemon. I added a little bit of allspice and parsley to be creative, and roasted the chicken on top of potatoes and squash. The end result was tasty and a little unexpected; roasted chicken with a Middle Eastern flare. As a bonus, the whole meal cooked in one dish, and required very little prep time (maybe 10 minutes).
The Pioneer Woman: Cinnamon Baked French Toast
This one was a bit unexpected, but only because I don’t generally make elaborate breakfasts. I wanted to find something I could make ahead of time that would feed a crowd for brunch, and wouldn’t make me a short-order cook. This recipe was definitely it. In fact, it is going to forever be my go-to brunch recipe, since everyone loved it! This baked French toast was more like bread pudding, with a crumbly, cinnamon topping. It would be very easy to improvise by adding fruit, nuts, or different spices for new flavors. You prepare the whole recipe the night before, and just add the topping and bake it in the morning. It would be perfect for Christmas morning, and would almost guarantee to fill you up until your mid-afternoon dinner. I can’t wait for an excuse to make it again!
That’s it for now! Stay tuned for more original and borrowed recipes 🙂
I almost never cook, but your dishes look so inspiring!
Thank you, Yana!