May 13, 2010
So here’s something that’s completely different. At least for me, it is. I tend toward baking and comfort food type recipes, so Chinese food is quite a departure. But I would say that these dumplings are the Chinese version of comfort food and honestly, I was really surprised by how much I liked them. And I should tell you that I don’t normally even like Chinese food. So that made liking these even more pleasantly surprising.
My boyfriend loves Chinese food, though. It’s probably his favorite kind of cuisine. So when I was flipping though my cookbook one day and he saw this recipe, he said “You should make those!” and I reluctantly agreed because I’m an awesome girlfriend like that (…and I’m so humble about it 
). But another reason I was weary about making this recipe, besides not liking Chinese food in general, and dumplings specifically, was that this is a recipe from my Weight Watchers cookbook
. And while I love this cookbook and have been happy with almost all of the recipes in it, I don’t exactly equate Chinese food with healthy cooking. But maybe that’s just because the only Chinese food I like is the fried stuff? Anyway, I was very glad to have my all my assumptions proven wrong. Seriously, even if you’re like me and you don’t really like Chinese food, give these a try because they are like little pockets of yum.
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May 5, 2010
I have an excuse for not posting in a while: finding a good recipe is hard! This is my third attempt at a cake in as many weeks and I finally have a winner to show you guys. I could have posted a couple weeks ago when I made that spongecake that turned out to be the blandest of bland, but I just couldn’t get myself to be excited about it. (It was so bland, it wasn’t even worth the calories to me and I wound up throwing most of it away. I’ve never thrown a cake away before!) So then I found a chocolate angel food cake recipe that sounded like it would be anything but bland, but I failed. Oh, I failed hard. The cake tasted ok, but I believe the word “brick” was used by my boyfriend when he saw said cake. As in “That’s supposed be an angel food cake? It looks like a brick.” So then I went online searching for why my cake turned out to be a brick instead of a cake and I found a similar angel food cake recipe that sounded better and from that I, finally, finally, made a successful cake. Not just successful in that it doesn’t look like a brick, but successful in that it’s one of the best cakes I’ve ever had in my entire life.
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April 7, 2010
I’ve been looking for this recipe forever. These Quaker granola bars
are just about my favorite snack and I’ve been eating them my whole life. I like them because they are soft and chewy and not hard and tooth breaking like other granola bars I’ve tried. I also like the rice cereal in them because it makes them seem more like Rice Krispy treats with granola in them rather than boring old “healthy” granola bars. Healthy food isn’t inherently fun, Rice Krispy treats are always fun.
But have you noticed how expensive those granola bars are? Especially if you buy a box or two every week like I do. I’ve been on the look-out for a recipe, but haven’t found anything before now. All the recipes I saw were just granola, no rice cereal; they were hard, not chewy. That won’t do! But finally after some serious googling I found this recipe and it’s perfect. It’s exactly the same. In fact, it’s better because you know all the ingredients in it and there aren’t any preservatives and whatever else they put into pre-packaged food. Also? It’s about the simplest thing that ever was. No baking. It takes about 5 minutes to mix together and 15 minutes to firm up in the fridge.
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March 31, 2010
Do you ever make roast chicken for dinner? A while ago a fellow food blogger I follow on twitter asked this question to her followers and said she was surprised to learn that many people had never roasted a chicken before. I also found this somewhat surprising but then I remembered that I used to be scared of making a whole chicken, too. After I roasted a chicken the first time, it became one my favorite dinners, but I can still understand why people would be apprehensive.
So for anyone still on the fence, I present to you: Cornish Hens. They’re basically miniature chickens and as such are even easier to handle and only take about 30 minutes to cook. Cornish Hens are a great stepping stone if you’re not quite ready to make the leap to a whole chicken yet. Plus…it’s pre-portioned! If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you know how much I love pre-portioned meals. If there’s one thing I dislike about roast chicken it’s having to carve/divide it up. With a Cornish hen you don’t need to bother with carving anything, you just dig right in like you would a chicken breast.
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