bites out of life

Glazed Donut Cake

Donut cake.

Just sit back and let it sink in.

Donut cake. Donut. Cake. DONUT. CAKE. (I know, I know — you get it. I just relish any opportunity to use Caps Lock.)

Not a cake made of donuts. A cake that tastes like one big donut.

No messy frying. No vegetable shortening. Just a simple buttermilk cake infused with nutmeg and vanilla, a subtly spicy combination with an aroma that permeates your house, bewitching and enticing and distracting you from your all-important glaze-making duties. In my case, this led to a glaze that stiffened up so quickly that I barely had any time to spread it. This is why my cake looks like a sad mistake, and not the beautifully constructed beauty that I had planned to present to my dad for his birthday.

Looks aside, this cake is breakfast cake heaven. Dense and buttery, just barely sweet and even a little tangy, it begs for a strong cup of coffee. And if that isn’t the hallmark of a good donut, what is? …

Chicken and Pineapple Kabobs

I’d like to wax rhapsodic about how amazing these chicken and pineapple kabobs were, about the explosive combination of savory and spicy and sweet, about the vibrancy of the purple in the onion and the yellow of the pineapple and the verdant emerald cilantro-coated chicken, about the ease with which everything comes together and the overall summery perfection that is this dish.

BUT. It’s hot, my friends. And I have no air conditioning in my apartment. So my brain has effectively melted into a puddle of goo. (See? I can’t even write a real sentence.)

(On the plus side, I recently discovered that Jersey Shore is on Netflix, so now I have to re-watch. You know, just to make sure my recent weekend down the shore was authentic.)

So instead, I’ll just say make these. Because you know, they’re easy. And delicious. And kind of perfect for summer (at least on a day when it is mildly acceptable to turn on the oven.) …

Tomato, Arugula and Sausage Penne

One of my biggest kitchen challenges is finding creative ways to use ingredients, especially vegetables, before they go bad. It’s hard, especially when cooking for one, to find multiple uses for foods, especially since, given that one meal often creates multiple days of leftovers, it’s very easy for me to tire of one ingredient quickly.

My go-to recipe for clearing out the veggie crisper is a salad. I almost always have some sort of leafy salad green hanging out in the fridge — add some baby carrots, a little cucumber, a quarter of an avocado, maybe a sprinkle of cheese and some balsamic, and I’m good to go.

But salads can get boring, and sometimes, I’d really like something more substantial for dinner. Occasionally, I’ll try to think ahead, and plan two different meals with key quick-to-spoil ingredients, but that happens so infrequently that I can’t even find an example to share with you here. So most of the time I end up just sauteing or roasting the vegetables and then topping them with a fried egg. Delicious, but not exactly groundbreaking stuff.

A half-bag of leftover arugula posed a big problem for me, since I’m not a huge fan of this peppery, slightly bitter green. Eating it in a salad was too much for me, and it’s not something you can really cook down in a skillet.

A million “arugula recipe” Google searches later, I found a recipe for pasta that combined hot Italian sausage with slightly blistered tomatoes, arugula, garlic and cheese. I don’t need to tell you how quickly I ran to the store, even chasing down *gasp* tomatoes in pursuit of this fantastically light summer dish. The whole thing can be made in the time it takes you to boil and cook your pasta, and perhaps best of all, I’m all out of arugula. WIN.

What about you — what issues do you frequently face while cooking? …

Nectarine, Arugula and Prosciutto Pizza

One of my favorite fringe benefits of working at About is the free pizza we get on the first Tuesday of every month. My desk is strategically located right near the kitchen, so I can always smell when the pizza has arrived, and naturally, that’s my cue toÂ ~~race~~Â walk at a professionally acceptable speed to the front of the line.

While my enthusiasm for Pizza Tuesday is slightly less than my enthusiasm for my new favorite book series* or Bagel Thursday (we get free bagels every Thursday morning, and it’s seriously my favorite part of every week. Co-workers have literally sung songs about my love of blueberry bagels on Bagel Thursday), I do love me some free pizza.Â Because the people at work like to switch up their fun, this month, they swapped Pizza Tuesday for a cocktail-making class and free beer. Needless to say, sometimes I love my job.

But I’m also a world class pain in the boo-tay, so obviously, come this week, I missed my monthly dose of pizza. And though a normal person would have walked to the pizza place on the corner and gotten themselves a big ol’ slice of baked ziti pasta**, I decided I had to make the pizza myself.

My adventures in homemade pizza are pretty lame, starting and ending with this effort so long ago. I’ve still never made my own dough, I don’t have a pizza stone and beyond pepperoni and mushroom, I have very few ideas for toppings. It’s a shame, because while it gets a bad rap, pizza can actually be a robust, healthy meal. Use whole wheat dough, plenty of vegetable toppings, a wee bit of cheese and a little restraint when grabbing slices, and you’ve got a relatively guilt-free dinner that (if using store-bought dough) takes less than 20 minutes to make!

This pizza feels like a salad, if all salads included bright, peppery arugula, warm, sweet nectarines, crisp salty prosciutto and the creamy tanginess that comes from a lightly aged Manchego. (Yes, I’m fully aware that I just sounded like a total food snob there. Sorry I’m not sorry — three-month aged Manchego is my jam.) The cracker-like whole-wheat crust just makes the whole thing a little more portable, which frees up a hand for, you know, an ice-cold beer or two.

*Whether it be a book, a TV show that I’m Netflix-ing or a movie, I like to know what happens (thank you Wikipedia) before I start reading/watching. BUT! Game of Thrones is so good that I refuse to read ahead or start watching the show, in case there are spoilers. I didn’t even look at that Wikipedia link in this post. It’s like I don’t even know who I am.

**This is exactly what you think it is: baked ziti on top of pizza. Pure. Evil. Genius. …

Tzatziki Chicken Salad

One of my more embarrassing secrets is the frequency with which I order takeout for dinner. For many reasons (I’ve got a limited budget / it’s less healthy / I need to fill this real estate with more than desserts and drinks / etc.) I really should be making most of my meals in my closet-sized kitchen.

While it’s slightly more acceptable for me to order pad thai, since I won’t be making that in my kitchen any time soon, the most pathetic of my Seamless Web go-to’s is a Greek salad from a diner around the corner. Yes, I have salads delivered to my home. I’m the worst, I know.

And I don’t even feel that bad about it. The romaine is crisp, the oregano-marinated feta crumbles are awesome, the gyro is always tender and they always give me extra olives. But let’s be honest, what I get really excited about is warm pita and glorious (GLORIOUS.) tzatziki. This Greek yogurt sauce, which usually includes cucumbers, dill, lemon juice and garlic, is refreshing — tart and bright and creamy. It’s a perfect pair for pita, for carrots, for celery, for cucumber sticks, for crackers … you can see where I’m going with this.

So, when faced with leftover yogurt, a cucumber, some dill (somehow, I always have dill, feta and olives in my fridge. It’s a little weird.) and a lemon, I knew what I needed to make.Â While thinking of ways to bulk it out into a full meal, my brain traveled back to the early days of this blog, when I tried to make a mayo-less chicken salad using Greek yogurt.

Thankfully this time, I didn’t have to try to make my own tzatziki chicken salad recipe up, since Cooking Light had done all the work for me. For once I actually planned ahead, cooking my chicken the night before, so that it was cooled and ready to be shredded the next day. The rest of the recipe takes only as long as it takes you to chop a shallot, a cucumber, some dill and a clove of garlic. So, ~~seconds~~ 15 minutes.

The end result is kind of perfect — cool and crisp and delicious, especially over a bed of salad greens. It’s pretty healthy to boot, and a great summertime lunch. Don’t take my word for it; you should definitely make this one yourself! …

Garlicky Potatoes, Green Beans and Cauliflower

What kind of sicko takes an easy-peasy, two-dish, 30-minute-meal affair and turns it into an epic journey involving turning on the oven on a 90-degree day? Hi, I’m Ishita and I’m here to admit I have a problem: I am utterly, completely, 100% opposed to boiled vegetables.

So when I found this JosÃ© AndrÃ©s recipe for boiled green beans, potatoes and cauliflower that then gets tossed in a garlicky paprika-infused oil, I of course thought, “Ew boiled. Who cares if the recipe author is a famous chef who knows a million times more about food than I do? I have to change it.”*

Famous last words, right?

Except, then they weren’t. Sure, roasting the cauliflower and potatoes and sauteing the green beans separately is more fussy, as is the additional step of toasting walnuts. But roasting the vegetables brings out their sweetness, a nice contrast to the smoky spicy flavors of the dish.

And the green beans! Crisp and bright with the slight bite that comes from copious amounts of garlic — even if I don’t make the potato and cauliflower part of this dish again, I will definitely be making these green beans all summer long.

*If you couldn’t tell already, I am always a colossal pain in the booty, especially to myself. …

Fresh Blackberry Brambles

It feels like the year has completely flown by. Wasn’t it just a few days ago that I was making beer cheese and complaining about the cold?

Well, apparently not, because now it’s summer. After four straight days of rain and clouds (in which I progressively got more and more gray-sky grumpy, culminating in a full-on temper tantrum on Thursday night), I flew the coop to sunny Maryland and ~~a bottle of gin~~ my family.

Blackberry brambles are a specialty of a friend of mine, who introduced them to me last summer knowing that gin is my drink of choice. He mixed gin, ice, fresh blackberries, sugar and Sprite in a shaker, poured it into a Solo cup (I like to keep it classy … ) and made me a very happy lady. He mentioned the specific recipe to me at one point that night, but I obviously forgot it instantaneously and instead, spent the rest of the summer trying to explain the drink to bartenders, getting frustrated and sticking to my standby* instead.

The original bramble was created in London in the ’80s and floats crÃ¨me de mÃ»re (a blackberry liqueur) on a mix of gin, simple sugar syrup and lime juice. But with the full disclaimer that I’ve never tried a “real” bramble, I like having fresh fruit in mine. (I especially like eating the “drunk” fruit that’s been soaking in gin at the bottom of my glass.)

Though this is less traditional, the mix of fresh blackberries, lime and seltzer creates something tart and bright and fizzy, with a slight hint of sweet. Add a shot of gin and you’ve createdÂ summer in a glass, in a pretty garnet color to boot.

So while you’re grilling orÂ picnic-ingÂ or just lounging around on the deck this weekend, do it with a bramble in hand. It is the start of summer, after all — what better reason to celebrate?

*Are you as amused as I am that the G&T has its own Wikipedia? It’s literally just gin and tonic water. Reminds me of the Peggy line from Mad Men: “You need three ingredients for a cocktail. Vodka and Mountain Dew is an emergency.” Apparently some emergencies get their own Wiki ……

Baked Kale Frittata

I done did it again, folks: made another frittata, to go with this one and this one and this one and this one. I’ve already rhapsodized about the convenience of able to clean out the fridge with them (see: kale that I had mistakenly ordered and didn’t know what to do with), their transportability (we know how much I value that) and the fact that they can make for a hearty but still light meal, perfect for summer (also, let’s talk about how I really like parentheses).

BUT. One thing I haven’t previously mentioned (I don’t think [ooh, another one — let’s count how many I add!]) is the fact that unlike most egg dishes, frittatas are reheat-able — a major plus when trying to plan out lunch for the week. A kind of limiting factor when it comes to eggs is that they’re usually a “make and eat immediately” kind of affair. I can’t imagine that reheating a fried egg will lead to anything good, omelets get a little rubbery when reheated (same with scrambles) and since I don’t eat hard-boiled eggs, I’m wholly uninterested in what kind of appalling things happen when you stick a cold one in the microwave.

That becomes a bit of a problem at lunchtime. I try really hard to be good and bring my lunch to workÂ ~~95%~~ 60% of the time. (In my defense, I work a half-block from the Chipotle test kitchen and two blocks from Chelsea Market, so I sometimes buy my lunch.) Most days, that means leftovers from last night’s dinner. Some days, I get really um … creative and bring carrots, hummus, whole wheat pita and a piece of cheese.

And then I had the bright idea (this happens occasionally) of bringing in a frittata, since they’re so perfectly microwaveable. Tangy, creamy goat cheese, a little salty prosciutto, garlicky kale, plus a little rosemary and thyme equals something close to frittata perfection, especially since the kale on the top of the baking pan crisped up in the oven (and we all know how much I like crispy kale).

I got a little lazy this time and decided to bake the frittata the way I had for the crustless quiche. It requires zero effort and no difficult flipping, which is why I may refuse to make frittatas any other way from now on. There’s a million different ways to eat it too: with a side of greens, as I did for dinner on Monday night, straight up, as I did for lunch on Tuesday, or in between a multigrain roll, as I did for lunch on Wednesday, eliciting oohs and ahhs from a few coworkers.

(Final parentheses count: 8. Not too shabby.) …

Strawberry Streusel Bars

For someone who hates bugs, wet grass and many other things aboutÂ ~~the green spaces of NYC~~ the great outdoors, I’m a real big fan of picnics. I love lounging on a soft blanket and people-watching/cloud-gazingÂ with the occasional travel mug full of wine or two. (I mean no. I would never do that.)

With summer nearly upon us, picnic season is back. And since I live less than 5 blocks from Central Park itself, I hope to find myself lazing on grassy knolls more frequently. That’s where these bars come in.

Summertime, more than any other season, is a time for transportable meals that can be eaten or carried while on the move — without fuss or mess — whether you’re stuck in the back of a car (road trip!), headed to the beach or even to a neighbor’s backyard for a BBQ.*

While a little bread, meat and cheese will never disappoint, sometimes you want a little something-something: a hearty summer salad, say, or a veggie burger or two. (To me, it’s very important that whatever you’re transporting can be eaten at room temperature, since in all likelihood, you won’t be able to heat it or chill it properly when outside.)

And while the savory side of meals is important, let’s be honest — I’m only in it for the dessert. A good cookie, a mini tart, maybe even a bar or two can really top off an outdoor meal. They’re easy to carry, easy to serve and extremely easy to eat.

These strawberry streusel bars, a riff off the blueberry crumb bars I made almost two (!!) years ago, fall somewhere between a sinful breakfast and a wholesome dessert. There’s some whole wheat flour, walnuts, fresh fruit … and a whole lotta butter and sugar. The brown sugar enhances the nuttiness of the bars, and the slight kick of the orange juice adds a hint of citrus throughout. The bars are sweet but not cloying, and if you add oats to the crumb mixture, you may be able to pass this off as a true breakfast bar. (I didn’t have any — otherwise I would have.)

I somehow managed to make these bars at 7:30 a.m. after a long Saturday night out, which is all you need to know about how easy they are to put together. The hardest part is waiting before slicing into them, but your patience is rewarded, since it’s much easier to cut them when they’re cooled. When slicing, be sure to leave a few on the side for yourself, though — these bars go fast.

*I like these foods for none of these reasons. My love affair with transportable meals starts and ends with the fact that I can put them in my bag and carry them all around the city as my lunch and they won’t spill. I’m still bitter, pea soup. …

Garlicky Kale with White Beans and Sausage

Somehow when ordering my groceries last weekend,* I got confused and ordered two large bunches of kale. While the obvious solution was a kale chip extravaganza, I decided I wanted a little something heartier on a rainy spring evening.

Kale is actually a member of the Brassica family, along with my beloved Brussels sprouts, cauliflower and broccoli. But in my head, it’s more akin to leafy greens such as spinach and Swiss chard, which means it’s a natural for getting sauteed with a little onion, some crushed red pepper and a whole lotta garlic. When planning out my meals for the week, that was my idea: to top the garlicky greens with a fried egg and call it a night.

Then curiosity got the best of me. One “kale recipes” Google search led to another (“kale stew”), then “braised kale” then … 20 minutes later, I emerged from under a pile of links and websites and open browser tabs with the realization that if you’re not pairing kale with white beans, salty hard cheese and pork products, you’re really not cooking kale the way you should.

Even though I opted for turkey sausage instead of pork, the result was kind of awesome: spicy, salty, meaty, slightly sweet from the beans, the kale retaining a slight crunch. (That sentence makes no grammatical sense — that‘s how much I liked this stuff.) I’m not sure what to call it, as the end result is somewhere between a saute and a stew — similar to this chard, but since I didn’t add any liquid, it’s not really a braise … ? These are the things that keep me up at night. Yes, I know I’m ridiculous.

Whatever it should be called, this kale could be adapted a million different ways — tossed with pasta for a more complete meal, bacon or pancetta instead of sausage, topped withÂ a fried egg if I’m feeling particularly sinful or toasted breadcrumbs for an added crunch.

All I know is, this is the second kale recipe in a row that I’ve loved. Could it be? Is there a Brassica that I love more than Brussels sprouts? I’m not sure I can wrap my head around the implications of that statement, so I’ll stop for now.

*I have a very weird relationship with Fresh Direct. The packaging is so wasteful, they always mess up my bananas (I’m very particular) and I kind of like to examine what I’ll be eating myself. BUT it’s super convenient for those weekends when I’m away and don’t have time to do groceries for the week, or you know, when it’s pouring out or I don’t want to carry a million heavy things. What’s a girl to do? …

Quinoa Cakes With Lemon, Olives and Feta

One of my favorite parts of growing up is that you can eat whatever you want whenever you want. Cake for breakfast? Ain’t no one there to tell you no. Cereal for dinner? Sure, why not? I grew up eating three square meals a day with healthy snacks in the afternoon (boring!), so naturally my oh-so-rebellious self (not.) completely abandoned every single eating rule I was ever taught.

Unfortunately, aforementioned stomach ailments have forced me to at least try to shore up my diet a bit, as has that actual diet I was on (remember that? Me neither). So instead of breaking the “no dessert for breakfast” rule, I’ve started to focus on breaking the “no breakfast food for dinner” rule — a rule that shouldn’t even really exist.

Let me tell you, there’s nothing so satisfying as eating “breakfast” foods later in the day. And since, in my world at least, a runny egg is all I need in order to feel like a rule-shirker, anything from asparagus hash to Spanish migas to stewed lentils works, to say nothing of the baked eggs and omlettes and frittatas that I like to pass off as dinner.

These quinoa cakes are the perfect intersection of breakfast and dinner. They’re bright and herby, thanks to the lemon and dill, salty from the feta and olives, slightly spicy from the red pepper. While they’re a great bed for a fried egg, they’re also a delicious topping for a pile of baby spinach. The recipe comes from Life Tastes Like Food, the blog of a friend I met at the FoodBuzz Festival. Her pictures are gorgeous, so you should definitely check it out! …

Carrots With Feta and Dill

I’ll keep it short and sweet, salty and fresh today, to reflect the flavor of these carrots. While they’re not the greatest thing to ever come out of my kitchen, they’re easy, a welcome addition to a weeknight dinner when you’re not much inclined to do anything other than sit on the couch reading The Hunger Games.*

In reality, Mili and I made these carrots with feta and dill as a part of our Moroccan meal. While the spices we used to flavor the carrots — cinnamon, coriander, cumin and a pinch of cayenne — were similar to the spices we used with the pork chops, the finishing touches were all Greek: feta and dill, a beloved combination in my kitchen. The end result is the best kind of side dish: simple, full of flavor and delicious both when paired with a main dish and on its own.

*After being told for years and months and weeks that I should be reading The Hunger Games, I finally broke down and read all three. I thought the first one was pretty gripping, but by the end, I was kind of reading to finish the series. Somehow, I could not care less about the love story … I think this means I’m growing up and no longer interested in Young Adult novels. Tres sad. …

Moroccan-Spiced Pork Chops

When I studied abroad in Madrid, I had the opportunity to go to Morocco but unfortunately I didn’t take it. The price was too high, the timing wasn’t right and I ended up going to Barcelona instead. While Barcelona was amazing, a part of me is still kicking myself for not going to Morocco.

So instead, I’ll travel there via the cuisine. We’ve recently created a number of Moroccan Food videos at my day job, and though I’ve learned about mechoui, couscous, tagines and more, my favorite video of the bunch was the one on Moroccan spices. Many of the spices — turmeric, cumin, coriander, ginger, fenugreek — are common in Indian cooking. But Moroccan cooking also involves olives and olive oil, fresh herbs, lemons — hallmarks of Mediterranean food. It’s kind of the best of both worlds.

So when Mili proposed this Moroccan-spiced pork chops recipe for a night of cooking and Arrested, I jumped (I was in a crowded Fairway and almost knocked over an orange display, but let’s not talk about that … ). Added bonus: the recipe involved only one dish and less than 10 minutes of cooking, which means there was plenty of time for watching this. …

Spicy Kale Chips

I try to keep it on the down low, but there’s something you all should know about me. My name is Ishita and I am an addict. Potato chips are my downfall, especially when they’re coated in a sodium-laden jalapeÃ±o spice mix.

Growing up, we often ate plain potato chips with rice (add a bit of ghee or butter and seriously, it’s the best easiest lunch ever.) but it wasn’t until about a year ago that I became completely obsessed with them. They’re crisp, salty, crunchy crack — I could go through entire bags in a sitting. In fact, for my 23rd birthday, my cousin gave me 4-5 different big bags of different brands of jalapeÃ±o chips, and we ate through them in one week. It’s disgusting, I know.

Given my ability to power through them, I’ve searched far and wide for a healthier alternative to the potato chip. Reduced fat options are good, but they’re not quite healthy. Neither is the oft-lauded pita chip, nor those weirdly styrofoam-y veggie crisps. But while recipe hopping on the Interwebs the other day, I found a million kazillion recipes for kale chips, and it appears I have found my answer.

Yes, I know I’m extremely late to the party — these chips were all the food blogger rage more than 2 years ago, and kale has been the new “it” vegetable for a while now. But there’s a reason they were so popular. These chips areÂ crisp and crackly and shatter into a million glorious pieces in your mouth.

I had to indulge my inner spice craving, so I made mine with cayenne and smoky chili powder, but you could go a million ways with these: garlic, Parmesan, salt and vinegar, smoked paprika or cumin, plain sea salt, etc. etc. etc. Really, the only thing that you need to remember is that the kale leaves must be 100% dry before you toss them with the oil, and that you shouldn’t overcrowd the baking tray.

The whole thing takes maybe 30 minutes from start to finish, and the most “laborious” part of that task is ripping up the kale leaves. Any time food delivers maximum results for minimal effort, I’m sold. And I may or may not have eaten the entire bunch of kale. The best part is I don’t even feel bad about it. …

Lemon Yogurt Pound Cake

Why do we bake? Sometimes, for reasons of necessity: a birthday or a party. Other times we (or maybe just me) bake because of ennui, as something to do to pass the time in between grander adventures. And occasionally, I use the combination of butter and sugar to bake away the blues.

After a frustrating morning (hint: taxes and the post office were involved), I needed a pick-me-up. Since it was a wee bit early for a glass of wine, I went with sunny yellow lemons instead. Oddly enough, it was almost exactly a year ago that I baked lemon bars, in an attempt to introduce lemony things to my life. Somehow, whenever mid-April hits and sunshine and sundresses are en vogue, I crave lemon-y things. If it’s finally bright and cheery outside, it might as well be bright and cheery in my kitchen too, no?

My mom wanted pound cake, and while a pound of sugar + a pound of butter + a pound of flour + a pound of eggs has its appeal, it was getting me nowhere near my diet goal. So when I found a recipe for citrus yogurt pound cake from Food & Wine that looked promising, I jumped. An opportunity to let lemons shine, plus a lightened up pound cake? Done and done.

Naturally, I had to make a few changes. I swapped out the grapefruit juice for lemon juice, added some vanilla extract and omitted the glaze altogether. The result is a pound cake that is a cinch to make, has a springy, moist crumb and, shockingly enough, a crisp, almost crunchy exterior that I couldn’t get enough of. This might be the only time in life that I actually wanted the bread butt.

While the sting of dealing with the IRS has yet to fully subside, slicing into warm lemon yogurt pound cake certainly eases the blow (and those 80-degree forecasts don’t hurt either). Here’s to sunshine, both Â indoors and out! …

Southwest-Style Stuffed Poblano Peppers

I’ve been craving Mexican food something fierce lately. In the past few weeks, I’ve taken trips to Chipotle, Blockheads, Cascabel, Chipotle again — the combination of black beans and cumin and smoky chipotles and cheese and corn tortilla and my new found love for avocados has become something of an addiction for me. I’m not proud, as my penchant for adding margaritas to the mix means that my aforementioned diet plan is not going well. But I just can’t get enough.

So when trying to plan a meal with ground beef, I immediately thought tacos. But in an effort to be more creative, my thoughts turned to stuffed peppers. The most traditional versions involve mixing ground beef and rice in a tomato-y sauce, and stuffing bell peppers. (Clearly we don’t do traditional around here, since the only other time I’ve made stuffed peppers, they were very Mediterranean.)

I wasn’t in the mood to make rice, so I created a pseudo-chili filling instead. Black beans, corn, cumin, cheese — all the best parts of a burrito, stuffed inside a fiery pepper. I couldn’t scoop out the innards of two of the peppers cleanly, so I sliced those in half lengthwise, creating jumbo-sized jalapeÃ±o poppers. The best part of that situation? You get to top the popper-style peppers with cheese. Lots of cheese. Diet be damned, some days you just want to eat a ton of melty cheese.

While we didn’t do this, I guarantee that these stuffed poblano peppers would pair well with an ice cold Corona. Don’t take my word for it — just go try. …

Citrusy Shrimp and Avocado Salad

It’s time to finally shed the layers of winter and lighten up for spring. While I mean this about clothing (I am so sick of coats, coats and more coats), I also mean this about the cold weather “padding” I’ve put on over the past few months. Gorging on beer cheese and hearty ragÃ¹ and short ribs (not to mention chocolate and cookies and cake) has left me with pants that are ~~impossible to squeeze on~~ slightly on the tight side.

So, while I contemplate starting a cleanse or two, I’ve decided to at least try to eat healthy on occasion. Unfortunately, I have zero willpower around food, and therefore, in the past week, I’ve already consumed one mini chocolate cupcake, a quesadilla grande, my weekly cream cheese with a side of blueberry bagel, my favorite veggie burger and fries, pizza and one too many Pinot Grigios. Some diet plan, huh?

In the meantime, I’ve fallen in love with a new blog, Skinny Taste. While I was drawn to the blog for its pictures (Pinterest wins again!), I stayed because of the recipes, and the promise of delicious food that didn’t break my calorie budget. Naturally, the first recipe I made features both shrimp and avocado, neither of which is exactly a low-fat food …

But one look at this citrusy shrimp and avocado salad had me hooked. Forget spring, this is just straight up summer. The base is a chunky guacamole — avocado, tomato, serrano, lime, cilantro — made better by the addition of chopped shrimp. Really, the only thing that would improve it would be a margarita.* And when you consider the fact that the entire instructions consist of four letters (toss), well, why aren’t you eating this right now?

*I may or may not have started digging around for marg fixin’s on the Sunday afternoon when I made this. And when I found margarita mix but realized that we had no tequila, I may have contemplated using gin instead. I’m not proud. …

Cream Cheese Hamantaschen

No, this is not some sort of weird April Fool’s joke I’m playing on you all. Yes, I am writing about hamantaschen a full month after most of the world cares about these tri-cornered cookies with bellies full of fruity jams and jellies.

They are traditionally eaten around the Jewish holiday Purim, as their shape mimics the shape of the hat of Haman, the “bad guy” in the story of Purim. I don’t know anything else about the holiday, other than that Mordechai and Esther were also involved and Purim is usually celebrated in early springtime. (All this I learned from a 4-year-old I used to tutor when I asked him if I could have one of his hamantaschen. He half-explained the story of Purim and then said no.)

But I don’t think there should be an “expiration date” on when it’s acceptable to eat hamantaschen. (I also feel this way about chocolate-peanut butter eggs, which can and should be eaten every day.) They’re delightful — the cookie dough itself is barely sweet, allowing the fillings to really shine. And while traditional fillings include prune, poppy seed and apricot, when I made these with friends a few weeks ago, we chose raspberry and Nutella.

My first hamantaschen-making experience was in preschool, so as you imagine, I didn’t do much more than fold and pinch corners. I can’t remember what those looked like, I’ll assume they were ugly, since folding and pinching doesn’t generally hold the corners together. Instead, I found a folding and overlapping technique from Melissa Clark that promised better results. Helen was a hamantaschen folding machine, so our perfect triangles are her handiwork.

While the recipe is a bit of a challenge, mostly due to the crumbliness of the dough (and also our lack of counter space and a rolling pin), the effort is all worth it. The raspberry ones were the perfect mix of sweet and tart, and the jam is a little caramelized from the oven and I may or may not have fought my roommates over them.

The Nutella ones were surprisingly not as good as I thought they would be — they were too sweet and one note for my taste. A dark chocolate ganache with some orange in it would work here if you wanted to go the chocolate route, but just using store-bought seedless raspberry jam creates superstars, so I’m not sure it’s worth the trouble.

I suppose you could wait until next year’s Purim in order to make these. But who really wants to miss out on a year’s worth of delicious cookies? Not me friends, not me. …

Easy Baked Eggs with Spinach

Eggs and I have had a rocky relationship. As a young child, my favorite Saturday morning breakfast was an egg sunny side up with a side of buttered toast, all seasoned with nice heaping of black pepper. (I once thought it would be funny to top the toast with so much pepper that it looked black. Neither my mom nor my stomach were pleased. [I was such a delight as a small child.])

Then there was a phase where I hated them — everything about them, in any shape or form. I especially hated the hard-boiled yolks that everyone in my family went gaga for. My mom called me crazy and my dad called me ridiculous (these things are not out of the ordinary) and people shook their heads in dismay when I revealed my shocking secret.

Slowly, worn down by my parents’ constant refrain of “you need the protein,” I started eating the whites. Fried eggs with a discarded yolk became a daily breakfast ritual, though friends hated eating eggs with me because I very ~~time-consumingly~~Â meticulously ate around the yolks. Finally, too lazy to eat around another yolk at The Smith one day, I cracked it onto a potato waffle, allowing the yolk to mingle with the spinach and caramelized onion.

One bite, and I was hooked. The runny yolk becomes a velvety sauce that is slightly sweet and slightly salty and coats everything with a sunny-hued glow. Suddenly, I began using eggs in everything. There were the obvious frittatas and tortillas, plus a fried egg on top of every type of roasted vegetable imaginable, a quick scramble on weekend mornings, deviled eggs here and there, and my favorite quick breakfast, lunch or dinner: Â a fried egg atop salad greens lightly tossed with olive oil, a squeeze of lemon juice, salt and pepper.*

Recently, I’ve discovered baked eggs. Mili and I made this spicy, hash-like version a few months ago, and it is absurdly delicious and would be up on this site if I had brought my camera. The idea of not having to watch an egg on the stove and letting the oven do all the work for you, well that’s right up my lazy alley. Pairing this whole situation with garlicky spinach and Parmesan? I think you know how this ends …

*I’ve tried and failed to poach eggs about 1 million times. I have no idea what I’m doing wrong, but I’ve given up. I’m tired of tossing out egg after egg, so I’m sticking to frying them instead. …

Asparagus and Chorizo Hash

Sorry peeps to be so AWOL. I’ve been a little busy drinking iced coffee, strolling through parks, basking in sunshine and smelling the beautiful flowers that have recently sprung up. The warm weather leaves a grin perma-plastered on my face and adds a new ailment to my string of health issues: spring fever.

I even managed to carve out a spring break of sorts, using a few extra vacation days to head home to Maryland for some quality “reading outdoors” time. Unexpectedly, my visit coincided with peak cherry blossom season, one of the most beautiful times of the year to visit D.C. Naturally, I dragged my family to the Tidal Basin because I wanted to take pictures … and maybe sit by the water in the sun for a few hours.

Buoyed by an afternoon of springtime perfection, I’ve craved light, refreshing fare all week. I’ve got my eye on this salad (I’ve become quite the avocado fan lately!) and these tarts, but I couldn’t resist leaping on the pencil-thin asparagus bundles I spotted at the store the other day.

I have a special place in my heart for hashes, since they can be eaten at any time of day or night, form a delicious bed for a runny egg yolk and can be dressed up or down in a million ways. The only necessities are crisped potato cubes, fried onions and usually, some meat. I’ve had beet hash, carrot hash, bell pepper hash, Brussels sprouts, mushroom … hash with corned beef, short ribs, turkey, sausage — basically, anything and everything goes.

This asparagus and chorizo hash, with crisp, verdant asparagus and spicy, smoky chorizo, is kind of perfect. While I didn’t top it with a fried egg today, thankfully, I’ve got a skillet full of leftovers. I think this would also be delicious with chopped hard-boiled eggs, if you’re packing it for a work lunch and don’t have the ability to fry up an egg on the spot.

Asparagus is ubiquitous this time of year, so while I’m sure you have your go-to recipes, I highly recommend you add this to your breakfast or lunch or dinner rotation. Or you could be like me, and add it to all three.

…

Irish Soda Bread

Remember how, about this time last year, I was really gung-ho about making bread? I wrote about it, found a bunch more recipes that I wanted to make, and then … never made another loaf. It’s that whole yeast thing. I don’t even like saying the word. It’s a fungus. And I have yet to find a discernible shred of fun in fungus.

Thankfully, the Irish seem equally uninterested in yeast, since their brown breads and soda breads don’t use any. And any time you can create a hearty, slightly sweet, subtly salty, crisp craggy-crusted, plush-interiored loaf without fungi, I’m ready. The fact that it pairs equally beautifully with salted sweet cream butter, raspberry jam or sharp Irish cheddar is just another reason why you should start your St. Patrick’s Day with a little soda bread.

The recipe, from Barefoot Contessa, is ~~easy as pie~~ easier than pie.* It requires only one bowl and a spoon, minimal effort (my biceps barely got a workout!) and aside from extreme stickiness, no drama. The stickiness is very serious though — make sure that your work surfaces and hands are well-floured. It’s the kind of thing that’s perfect for preparing yourself for day’s worth of drinking — and if there are leftovers, for topping with a fried egg and bacon for a modified Irish breakfast the morning after.

*I’ve always wondered about this phrase. To me, pie is not particularly easy, as pie dough can be extremely tricky and then you have to figure out a filling. Meanwhile, this bread requires only one bowl and zero fussiness. But perhaps “easy as Irish soda bread” doesn’t quite have the same ring … …

Salted Dark Chocolate Shortbreads

Today, I bring you dispatches from the doctor’s office. And the pharmacy. And my apartment. (Also known as basically the only places I’ve been this week, not counting work.) Our Netflix has been in overdrive recently, as I’ve been almost exclusively laid up on the couch with a string of stomach ailments.

The whole situation has been zero fun, not least because I haven’t been able to eat much other than plain rice and water crackers. (Discovery of the week: Carr’s water crackers have 3 ingredients in them. Not one is water.) But hopefully answers are forthcoming, and in the meantime, to ease my growing boredom and to make up for my prolonged absence here, I’ve baked some salted dark chocolate shortbreads!

I don’t need to tell you anything about these. Not about their crisp, crumbly texture. Or their perfect mix of salty and subtly sweet. Or the deep, delicious chocolate flavor that permeates each bite. You probably could have guessed about all of those things no?

Maybe I’ll just say that the dough takes less than 20 minutes to come together, and the longest part of the whole shebang is waiting for the dough to chill. Thankfully this can be done while ~~doing laundry~~ ~~working on something important~~ watching Greek. Don’t judge — I’m sick … …

Baked Black Bean Quesadillas

In the “sad, but true” category, aside from these blondies earlier this week, I haven’t cooked anything since the cake and bangers from two weeks ago. It’s been a busy, busy few weeks, punctuated by one weekend in Maryland celebrating 25 years of parental wedding “bliss,” the start of a Video Production class, lots of work and plenty of takeout.

I miss real, freshly cooked food that doesn’t come out of a plastic box or paper bag. These baked black bean quesadillas come from an even earlier date (Super Bowl weekend), and while they were pretty good a few weeks ago, I remember them more and more highly with every passing day.

It will surprise exactly no one that I loved the combination of black beans and cumin here, as I’ve also loved it here and here. No eyebrows will be raised by the fact that anything topped with a hefty helping of cheese appeals to me.

But the best part about the recipe, especially given my current lack of cooking time, is that it takes about 15 minutes to make start to finish* and so, these quesadillas have joined this quinoa and this salmon as easy weeknight recipes.

To that end, I have a favor to ask, friends. Are there any go-to recipes that you have for those nights when you’re too tired to move? Please share — I could use some inspiration!

*Excluding the shredding of the cheese. Obviously an easy solution would be to buy pre-shredded cheese, but when faced with the simple path and the “shred a pound of cheese using a small handheld grater” path, I obviously opted for the latter. Hello biceps! …

Basic Blondies

Yesterday, I bought five different kinds of vegetables and two different kinds of fruits as a part of my groceries. Healthy, right?

Today, I came home from the office and made blondies for dinner. As in walnut-and-chocolate-chip-laden blondies, packed with butter and brown sugar. As in not a single vegetable was consumed. As in this is why I go to the gym five days a week and yet haven’t lost a single pound.

But if you’re going to forego a wholesome meal for dessert, you should probably make these blondies. You can class them up with fancy dried fruit and specialty chocolate, or you can go the tried-and-true route of chocolate chips and walnuts. (I’ll let you guess what I did.) They are soft and sweet without being cloyingly saccharine — like gooey-er chocolate chip cookies.

I’m sure I’m doing myself zero favors health-wise by opting for baked goods over an actual meal. But isn’t that one of the best parts of being a grownup, that blondies can be a totally acceptable dinner? …

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