Mushrooms are super anytime of the year, but winter affords us an opportunity to pair them with intense ingredients like blue cheese and serve them alongside everything from roasted meat to slow-cooked soups. What's more, if you happen to have a gluten allergy, this approach doesn't leave you in appetizer limbo since they are entirely gluten free!
Crockpot cooking is one way to keep your family all warm and well-fed during the cold winter months, and planning a weekly menu keeps you out of the cold and icy weather more often. By planning just one weekly shopping day with one goal in mind - creating enough crockpot meals for a week - you can feed your family hearty meals and stay toasty warm indoors, coming home to those wonderful aromas of a delicious, slow cooked meal all ready for you and your family to enjoy.
Dried beans are inexpensive, healthy, and usually annoying to use in cooking. Between soaking overnight and hours and hours of cooking time, most people just opt to use canned versions of the same. But if you have a heavy, lidded pot and a working oven, you can take advantage of dried beans without all the fuss. And you can enjoy South American Black Bean Soup on a day when winter has you chilled to the bone.
Did your resolutions this year include making better use of your space? The kitchen is a great place to start with that and we're helping you out with some great ideas for doing just that! Pick one or two ideas or get great space-saving by mixing and matching lots of options.
When the season of many pumpkins continues, it's time for the pooch to get involved. And, if there are going to be puppy treats, we might as well go all out and make them dog biscuits made with the puppy's own cookie cutters. What? Are you saying your dogs don't have their own cookie cutters? Okay … maybe he's a little spoiled. Still, make these fun dog biscuits for your furry friend and you'll be rewarded with canine adoration.
When we decide it's time to celebrate at our home, we find ways to take it to a delightful level of deliciousness. Whether that means topping our seared steaks with creamy blue cheese or sipping port with fresh berries, enjoying flavors is just part of living in my sphere. So when a birthday presents itself and the birthday boy loves mint and chocolate, it is only appropriate that a cheesecake featuring both flavors takes center stage.
As the holiday season wanes, people think about finding healthier foods for their tables. But you need not do so at the expense of flavor. In a fun recipe featuring roasted vegetables and tahini, a side dish come salad option shows off versatility, health value, and incredible taste. What's more, the dressing for it is so addictive, I've taken to drizzling it over everything from bread to omelets!
Eating vegetarian meals, or simply increasing the amount of vegetables and legumes while also decreasing the amount of meat in your diet can be a great choice for your overall health. However, if you think your wallet cannot handle such a decision, you simply need to consider what vegetarian cooking means to you and how you can approach this diet without adding a lot of expensive, fad foods to your grocery cart.
As the year draws to a close, a pause to reflect upon the cooking that took place in the last year seems appropriate. What's even more appropriate is taking some time to think about the people that cooking has been shared with throughout the year. It only takes a little bit of time to realize just how precious those events are, whether they are routine family dinners or one-in-a-lifetime festive events. They are definitely something to celebrate, in the old year and also in the New Year!
With kids all over home for the holidays, now is a fantastic time to make a big batch of caramel popcorn. Making it can be a project and it's fantastic for settling down and enjoying while you watch a movie as a family, play board games that made their way under the tree, or gather together with friends and loved ones you haven't seen much over the year. What a sweet treat!
