spring

Roasted Spring Vegetable Cobb Salad

May 17, 2016

Julian and I love a good cobb salad. Now there’s a salad to end all salads. Bacon, eggs, cheese, tomatoes, avocado, chicken and lettuce. That’s a salad I can get behind. It’s like let’s put everything and the kitchen sink on top of some lettuce and call it a day. I’m not complaining. It’s an entire meal on top of leaves, so it’s definitely healthy. That’s how this works, right? Just place anything on top of lettuce and you know you’re making the right choices in life. If we ever see a cobb on a menu, you better believe we’ll be ordering it and because I’m not classy at all, I also order a side of croutons. I don’t know about you, but I can’t have a salad without croutons. I know that croutons aren’t at all traditional when it comes to cobb salads, but I can’t help it. Cubes of toasted bread are just irresistible, let’s face it. We also ask for the blue cheese on the side because I’m not a fan, but Julian can’t get enough of it so he can add it to his portion.

For this month’s collaboration with Go Bold With Butter, I decided to take my favorite salad and give it a seasonal twist. Spring is all about the fresh vegetables that are just calling out to be eaten. So I grabbed a bunch of fresh spring vegetables and roasted them in the oven until charred and crispy. Then I placed them on a bed of butter lettuce and made an easy garlicy butter dressing to cover all the salad with because as we all know by now, butter is the answer to everything. I most definitely don’t have a problem drowning a healthy salad with a ton of melted butter. If you thought I did, then you don’t know me at all. The good news is that it’s incredibly easy to make so you can have dinner on the table in no time at all, but at the same time, the bad news is that it’s super easy to make. So you know what that means? You’ll be making it all the time and once you get a taste of that garlic butter dressing, you’ll want to add it on top of everything. This is a warning.

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Roasted Cauliflower & Red Pepper Soup + Giveaway!

May 12, 2016

It’s time for another giveaway on the blog! It’s my way of saying thank you for following along and thank you for sticking around for the ride these past four years! I say this time and time again, I would not be able to do this without any of you. I mean sure, I’d still be posting recipes up on this corner of the internet, no matter what, but you guys make it worth while. Your comments, feedback and suggestions mean so much to me. I read them all. There are so many great new cookbooks out right now, with even more on the way. It’s insane, and hard to keep with them. I’m trying my best though. The Love & Lemons Cookbook from the blog of the same name, is great if you love healthy, seasonal, produce-driven, gluten-free, and vegan recipes. It’s divided by produce beginning with apples, all the way down to zucchini! Now, I’m not at all gluten-free or vegan, I love my meat and chicken and bread, but it’s still very satisfying. This Roasted Red Pepper & Cauliflower Soup for instance, is so tasty, that I don’t even miss the meat. Plus, who doesn’t love cauliflower? I’m obsessed with it.

Just in case you’re new here and don’t know how the giveaways work, all you have to do is leave a comment below to enter, telling me what your all-time favorite vegetable is. (The last time we talked about fruits). Tell me what your favorite veggie is and what dish you like to cook or eat that features said veggie. You have until Monday night to enter, and as always, my mamma will be picking the winner at random and you’ll be notified via email! I like to keep things fair, so please only one comment per person. And anyone is welcome to enter, which is an added bonus! We love reading stories and memories, so if you can, leave more than just a one word answer, although those are okay too. But tell me everything about why you love this vegetable and/or vegetable dish. I want to know everything.

Speaking of cookbooks, if you haven’t already heard or read, my first cookbook, The Slider Effect, is up for preorder right now as we speak! For a limited time only, anyone who preorders the book will receive a free exclusive ebook with 5 recipes not featured in the cookbook (or anywhere else for that matter). All you have to do is forward your confirmation or a take a screenshot of it and send it to theslidereffect@gmail.com. Preorders are very important, so it’ll mean a lot to me if you grab yourself a copy ahead of time and tell all of your friends and family about it! Amazon has it for way less than the listed price…what a time to be alive! Take advantage of it now! Plus you get an ebook which seals the deal and makes everything right. Did I mention that the book is all about sliders?! There are four chapters on sliders (Meat, Poultry, Seafood and Vegetarian) with a chapter on homemade buns and a chapter on homemade sauces! It’ll change the way you look at sliders, I promise!

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Strawberry Skillet Cobbler + Giveaway!

March 28, 2016

Happy Monday after Easter everyone! Let’s celebrate this great occasion by talking about an amazing new cookbook by a fellow blogger that I’m obsessed with, both her and this beautiful book. Sweeter Off the Vine by Yossy Arefi is a must have for anyone and everyone who loves fruit desserts. It’s broken up by season and by fruit, making it easy for you to pick what to make at any given time of the year. And even if you’re not much of a baker, these recipes are easy enough to make you feel like a boss in the kitchen. The photos alone will make you want to eat and make everything inside of it. As soon as I got the book last week, I bookmarked practically every recipe that I was dying to try out. I took a trip to the grocery store this past weekend, and the strawberries were calling out to me. I’m fortunate enough to live in California where there are strawberries pretty much all year round, but in early spring like right now, they’re out of this world. So I grabbed a few boxes and came up with a game plan. The one recipe that kept sticking out to me from the book is the Blueberry Skillet Cobbler with Whole Wheat Biscuits, but since blueberries aren’t in season at the moment, and since Yossy suggests in the notes of the recipe that you can try it with strawberries as well, that’s what I did. I can’t wait to make the cobbler with blueberries once it’s the right time of year again. I’ve decided to give it a try each season, but with different fruit. Let’s see how that goes for me.

Because I’m obsessed with this cobbler, this book and giving away free things, I’ve decided it’s about time for another giveaway on the blog. It’s been too long since the last one. Plus, it’ll make my mamma really happy to be able to read all of your responses and pick a winner once again. So here we are, I’m giving away a copy of the book so that you can have one all to yourself. You know the drill, and just in case this is your first time at the rodeo, I’ll refresh your memory. You enter the giveaway be leaving a comment below, answering a question. The question this time around is “What is your favorite fruit or fruit dessert?” I want to hear all about your favorite fruit. Give me all the details, memories or stories you have regarding your answer. The more detailed the better. Not because it’ll up your chances (because the winner will be picked at random) but because I love reading your answers. You have until the end of the week to participate, and keep in mind that it’s one entry per person. I like to keep things fair. I’ll let the winner know through email, and update this post at the bottom with the lucky chosen one. May the odds be in your favor and may you win. Good luck. I’m rooting for you!

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Spring Eggs Benedict

March 25, 2015

I make it a point to not cook eggs benedict all the time because let’s be real, it’s a lot of work. I mean poaching eggs and making hollandaise over a double boiler? That’s some intense skills right there that I don’t always have the strength or the energy to create such a fancy dish. I wish I could do it because I think a brunch meal with a big plate of eggs benedict is always the icing on the morning cake. It’s the dish I usually get when I go to a restaurant for breakfast or brunch, mainly because I like to order things I don’t make at home on a regular basis. I’ll usually eat that and wash it down with a few glasses of mimosas. I’ve never turned my nose down to bottomless mimosas. Whoever came up with that concept deserves a holiday named after them. Anyhow, I normally save this dish for a special occasion. I get away with only making it once a year for my family by saying something like, “We’ll all appreciate it more when we have it once in a blue moon. If I made it all the time, we’d take it for granted.” If you think about it, I’m doing everyone a favor really. All I’m doing is making sure that no one gets tired or bored of the dish. That’s very nice of me.

I think I’ve mentioned once or twice (definitely in this Fish and Chips post) that one of my sisters is extremely picky. Like doesn’t like mac and cheese because it’s too cheesy and hates peanut butter because it smells funky to her kind of picky. A weird alien pickiness that I’m glad I didn’t genetically inherit. Sorry Nick, but it’s true. Even with her crazy likes and dislikes, she happens to love eggs benedict and gave this one two thumbs way up. Now, this is really saying something. If it passed my sister’s taste test, the same sister who hates pie crust, then anyone and everyone will enjoy this dish. You can trust me on that.

This is day three of our Easter Brunch Bonanza post and we’re just getting to the really good stuff. Don’t get me wrong, Roasted Asparagus and Prosciutto Croissants and Cucumber and Strawberry Salad are great ways to start a brunch, but the real fun is in the entrée and dessert. Don’t even get me started on the cocktail. Come back tomorrow and Friday for the remaining recipes, you don’t want to miss them! I’ll tell you what else you don’t want to miss, these Spring Eggs Benedict. They’re calling out your name. Can you hear them? I can.

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Roasted Asparagus and Prosciutto Croissants

March 23, 2015

I really like croissants. Who doesn’t? I find myself never buying croissants at the grocery store or bakery because I’ll never not just have one. I’ll end up eating about ten while standing over the sink losing all dignity and sense of worth, and later on I’ll feel bad about the entire situation. Never enough to not eat again for the rest of the day or anything like that. Nothing that extreme. I’ve had this idea stuck in my mind though, more like a fantasy, where I make fresh croissants at home and they’re absolutely perfect and I get a standing ovation with a never ending applause from an invisible audience. That idea is quickly abandoned and the feeling of excitement quickly vanishes when I realize that making homemade croissant pastry dough is sort of hassle and quite time consuming. I’m no Martha Stewart and therefore I will not spend all day in the kitchen for anything. Nothing is that worth it. Maybe french fries, but those are quick to make. Although, the sound of spending all day in the kitchen making and eating fried potatoes does sound like the best day in the world.

Since I do have a life that doesn’t revolve around me folding cold butter into dough all day long and letting it rest for various amounts of time during the day, I’ve always cheated my way through “homemade” croissants. Have I talked to you guys about my love for frozen puff pastry yet? It’s the greatest thing ever invented and I use it all the time, especially when I want homemade chocolate croissants super fast without all of the work. Let’s get one thing straight, I am aware that it’s not the same thing as a pastry dough and it doesn’t get as flaky as traditional croissants, but you know I have to tell you, it’s pretty darn close and it gets the job done. Now I’m not trying to deter you from making traditional croissants at home, if you have that time and energy, then go for it! If you’re like me, however, and don’t have the patience, then get yourself over to a grocery store ASAP and pay the frozen food aisle a visit. While you’re there do yourself and everyone around you a favor and buy all the boxes of frozen puff pastry.

They’re great to have on hand for a lot of things really. You can use them to top off pot pies or make fruit filled hand pies or fake out danishes for breakfast or make puff pastry tarts topped with all sorts of delicious ingredients for appetizers. It’s a versatile ingredient and a pantry (freezer) essential. It’s gotten me out of many a last minute cooking/baking situation and I can’t recommend it enough. As I said earlier, the best thing to use puff pastry for is to make faux croissants. My friend Joy taught me to make quick croissants by filling puff pastry with chocolate chunks and rolling them around in cinnamon sugar and baking them off until golden brown and flaky. It’s an irresistible treat warm right out of the oven. This time around I’m filling them with a few spring ingredients like roasted asparagus and prosciutto and shredded gruyere cheese and champagne mustard. They’re part of my big Easter Brunch Bonanza going on right now. It’s the first recipe in our five recipe Easter bash and I think it’s a great way to start.

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Easter Brunch

March 22, 2015

Ever since I was a little kid Easter was always a big deal in my household. My mom loves to go all out for Easter, hiding eggs for my sisters and I, filled with lottery scratchers, frozen yogurt gift certificates, money and candy. She actually still does an egg hunt for us even though we’re all older than dirt. The funny thing is that none of us really want the eggs filled with candy. Those aren’t nearly as fun as the others. Give me all the lottery scratchers, those are my favorite. She also gives us baskets filled with goodies. It’s something small and silly if you think about it, but it means the world to us still. We grew up looking forward to Easter, just as much as Christmas. It was a time for the four of us to really hang out and listen to music and play games and eat food, of course, and just have a good time. Not much has changed since then. We don’t really have a set menu or a particular dish we make and eat every single year. My two sisters don’t like ham so my mom and I never make it because it seems like such a waste to make a big ol’ ham just for the two of us. The menu sort of changes from year to year based on what my mamma wants to make and what my sisters and I want to eat. Trying to get us all on the same page can be difficult sometimes, luckily though, we all decide on one thing eventually. I think it’s nice that we switch it up.

I decided that this year, I’d do a big Easter Brunch Bonanza on the blog for you guys. I’m doing it a couple weeks early because I wanted to make sure I give you enough time to plan things out and get your grocery lists together so you can be prepared on the day of. I’m starting to get smarter with these themed posts because I feel like sometimes I spring the recipes and ideas on you out of nowhere and without plenty of time to make it for yourselves. What’s the point in that?! This time around though, we’re all going to be prepared and on the same page.

You don’t have to celebrate Easter necessarily in order to enjoy these recipes. They’re all Spring time favorites of mine that utilize some very delicious seasonal ingredients. You can make them as an entire brunch menu, using all five recipes, or you can showcase them individually and have them each shine on their own, amidst all of your other favorite recipes. I promise they’re all delicious and got the seal of approval from Napoleon who has deemed himself my official taste tester, whether I like it or not.

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