Jennifer Guerrero

Green Springtime Pierogi with Spinach Kasza and Cheese recipe and cookbook review: Polska by Zuza Zak

jenniferguerrero1 April 22, 2019

#ZuzaZak #Polska #Polish #pierogis #QuadrilleBooks #HardieGrant

Polska is a wonderful book filled with gorgeous, inspirational photos, homey, delicious Polish comfort food, and special-occasion dishes. It filled our home with the inviting scent of marjoram and onions. Zuza’s tone is very casual and inviting, and her instructions are clear.

The simple and delicious Turkey Escalope is going to find its way to the table often in this house, but her lovely Green Springtime Pierogi with Spinach Kasza and Cheese were over-the-moon good. A big thanks to Quadrille for letting me share the recipe with you! I’ll tell you all about the other dishes we tried after the recipe.

Smoky Chocolate Baklava recipe and cookbook review: Orexi! by Theo A. Michaels

jenniferguerrero1 April 10, 2019

#TheoCooks @TheoCooks #Orexi @RylandPetersAndSmall @RylandPeters #RylandPetersAndSmall #RylandPeters

Smoky. Chocolate. Baklava. I’m listening. Theo Michaels has you smoke chocolate on the stovetop for a few layers in his baklava. Then there’s a few layers of pistachios, hazelnuts, walnuts, and cinnamon. Encased in flaky, buttery phyllo. Obviously, that needed to happen. I have one of those big old macho smokers in my backyard, so I smoked the chocolate in there. Then I made it a second time baking the whole baklava right in my smoker. Yeah. Either way, that baklava is even better than the title sounds. A huge thanks to Ryland Peters and Small for letting me share that recipe with you! I’ll tell you all about the book after the recipe. I have a terrible fondness for Greek cookbooks, and that shelf is extensive. Orexi! is my personal favorite to date. Hope you love it, too!

Where the Crawdads Sing, Whiskey in a Teacup, and Crab Puffs

jenniferguerrero1 March 31, 2019

#WheretheCrawdadsSing #DeliaOwens #WhiskeyInATeacup #ReeseWitherspoon #BookClub #southern #crab

My book club recently read Where the Crawdads Sing, by Delia Owens. I was hook, line, and sinker in love with that book. It’s the story of a young girl, who spends her whole life struggling against the current, trying to find her way. It has everything – beauty, scientific curiosity, adaptability, trust, distrust, murder, plotting, hope, hopelessness, love, rejectance <I’m doubling down on that being a word>, and acceptance. She has a profound love and appreciation for her marsh, deemed unloveable by everyone else, echoing the world’s view of her.

Road trip! Big Bend, Terlingua, and Jen’s Chili recipe

jenniferguerrero1 March 21, 2019

#Texas #RobbWalsh #FoodwaysTexas #Terlingua #BigBend #hiking #chili #SummitMaps @SummitMaps #TMwanders

West Texas is my favorite part of the state. * There’s a killer dark sky program, with a museum and night sky party at McDonald Observatory in Fort Davis, right in the Davis Mountains. * Or go try out all the food trucks and play with outdoor art installations at the Chinati Foundation or Prada in Marfa. At night, you can go see the Marfa lights. I’m not saying it’s aliens. But aliens. * And Alpine is a cool little college town with lots of outdoor murals, galleries, Big Bend Brewery (NOT affiliated with the park), and a fabulous museum at the University. We once saw Monty Python’s Holy Grail performed at their amphitheater.

That’s not what this trip was about. This trip was all about hiking. Six days filled with it at Big Bend National Park and Big Bend State Park. Ahhhhh. We stayed at a darling cabana with a great view of the park just outside its entry in Terlingua.

Spanish Tortilla/Tortilla Española recipe and cookbook review: Tapas and other Spanish plates to share

jenniferguerrero1 March 7, 2019

@RylandPetersAndSmall @RylandPeters #RylandPetersAndSmall #RylandPeters #tapas

A million years ago, or 23 to be slightly more accurate, my husband and I traveled around Spain, Portugal, and Morocco on our honeymoon. The trip was beyond amazing! The Prado Museum and Plaza Major in Madrid were fabulous. The salt-crusted fish and possibly skinny dipping on the coast in Marbella were delicious. And in Seville, we fell desperately in love with the flamenco shows and Maria Luisa Park. And the tapas and thick hot chocolate. Tapas everywhere. It’s a garlic-lover’s dream.

Spicy Chocolate Chip-Hazelnut Cookies recipe and cookbook review: Season by Nik Sharma

jenniferguerrero1 March 1, 2019

#Season #ABrownTable #NikSharma #ChronicleBooks #chocolate #cookies

Nik grew up in India, then lived in the Midwestern and Northeastern U.S., and finally settled in California with his husband from the Southern U.S. All of those influences are very present in his food, and it makes for the most delightful fusion. I was thumbing through Season: Big Flavors, Beautiful Food, oohing and aahing, flagging recipes to try. His spiced, roasted potato salad called for paneer and chourico as ingredients, but listed page numbers for their recipes. I’d never made cheese before and was delighted that he thought it was simple enough to be just a lead-in recipe. I hopped right in the car to go grab a gallon of milk to get started, and I’m so glad I did! It really was that easy. I can’t tell you how many recipes I’ve passed by in Indian cookbooks if I wasn’t going to have time to pop by a specialty market. That wont happen again! But that’s just background preparation. His dishes have wonderfully complex, deep flavors, and are creatively inspirational. This book was a joy to explore.

Jen’s West African Peanut Soup and a stunning knife

jenniferguerrero1 February 22, 2019

Twenty-something years ago, when we were still newlyweds, I asked my husband if there were any favorite foods he had that I wasn’t making. He thought for a minute and said, “Yeah. Peanut soup. When I was in basic training, we had it once when we were out on leave, and it was one of the best things I’d ever eaten.” Huh. I’d never heard of peanut soup before.

It’s a West African dish, filled with all kinds of nutritious stuff. I had to make it. It was amazing! I kept it constantly in the rotation, tweaking it to my heart’s content, because it’s just as delicious as it is good for you. Perfect.