Jalapeno-Apricot Glazed Chicken Thighs and Cookbook review: Milk Street: Cookish

October 20, 2020

#MilkStreet @MilkStreet #177MilkStreet @177MilkStreet #CPKimball @CPKimball #Cookish @Cookish

If you’re already a Milk Street fan, you are going to adore Cookish!! This is my 4th Milk Street book, and it absolutely delivers. It’s my favorite kind of food – lazy posh. To my delight, it opens with a really extensive vegetable chapter. The ingredients are few, and it’s always just a couple steps between you and a plateful of flavor. The dishes are imaginative and balanced. They give lots of alternatives so it’s easy to make it work with what you have on hand, and you wont feel like you need to have every vinegar and jarred sauce available. I recommend this to anyone who likes lots of global flavor and enjoys minimalism.

I’ve only had the book for a few days and didn’t want to start in with a review until I really cooked the book. I’ll share my thoughts and pics of the dishes we tried in a second, but first I wanted to share a fabulous recipe with you, Jalapeno-apricot glazed chicken thighs. They’ve got tons of flavor and are on the table in 20 minutes, and only 5 of those involve the cook. I made my favorite sweet potatoes to go with them and had to get them started first so everything would finish at the same time. A big thank you to Milk Street for letting me share it with you!

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Jen’s Roasted Tomatoes over Roasted Garlic Tzatziki

October 2, 2020

I love the changes of the seasons. Summer’s flipping wonderful, but fall’s here and I’m leaning into it hard with some cozy weather favorites. Does everyone roast garlic? It changes the flavor completely, with the sharpness giving way to a deep soulful sweetness. Oh baby! I roast a bunch at once, since I’ve already got the oven on. So good. My idea of meal prepping is creating a lot of awesome ingredients that I can throw into a variety of things throughout the week and make them better.

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Jen’s Garlicky Shrimp Stir Fry

September 25, 2020

I was craving a garlicky stir fry tonight. I found a pound of shrimp in the freezer, and broccoli, carrots, peppers, and snap peas in the veggie drawer. Perfect! And it’s great for the 800 gram a day produce challenge! There’s 443 grams of produce on that plate. WooHoo! Hope you love it, too!

*If you are visiting right now, I’m trying to adding search and printing functionality. I apologize for any weirdness my tinkering is causing.*

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Jen’s Pumpkin Spice Smoothie

September 20, 2020

It was a lovely cool day here in Ft. Worth, and it put me in a fall mood. I needed a pumpkin spice smoothie! I’m not calling it a pumpkin pie smoothie, because I don’t want a breakfast dessert, but this is filled with pumpkin, not just spice. It bangs out nearly a quarter of the daily produce goal, and it’s cheap and delicious, so I thought I’d share. Whole30 and Vegan. Hope you love it!

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Roast Beef with Debris Gravy and Roast Vegetables

September 19, 2020

The State Fair of Texas is cancelled for the year, and our family always has a great time there. There’s tons of fun food, but I always get a roast beef po’ boy with debris gravy. And weird beer. Texas and Louisiana are neighbors, so there’s a lot of sharing. Whenever I make po’ boys at home, I use this recipe. PARASOL’S STYLE ROAST BEEF PO BOY RECIPE from NolaCuisine.com. Great blog! You may look at it and your eyes may get huge in horror when you read about simmering the roast and using Kitchen Bouquet in the gravy, but you just have to trust her. It’s so flippin’ lickable!

Okay, so hopefully I wont offend the author with my completely inauthentic use of her insanely delicious beef. But I’m a tinkerer. I’ve made her po’boys exactly as she commands in the recipe. So yummy! But, I’ve also turned it into a po’boy salad when I was in a more salad-y, less bread-y mood. It was awesome. Tonight, I’m using it in my 800 gram of produce challenge in my roast dinner. 345 grams per plate, which puts me at 1003 for the day. Woohoo!

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Jen’s Garlicky Eggplant with Beef and Tomatoes

September 16, 2020

I went looking for a link to this blogpost yesterday, only to find I’d never blogged about it. Huh. It’s a family favorite. Super easy, delicious, and filled with all the make your body feel oh so good stuff. It has 447 grams of produce towards the 800 gram a day challenge. Hope you love it!

Jen’s Garlicky Eggplant with Beef and Tomatoes

Serves 4

2 Eggplants – Peel stripes and cube 
2-4 Tablespoons olive oil (go with your preference)
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper
Toss.  Roast at 400 for about 20 minutes. Set aside.

1 lb Ground beef
Brown. Drain excess fat if needed.

1 red onion, diced
4 Cloves garlic, minced
Add and saute a few minutes.

Diced tomatoes, 28 oz can
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
½ tsp Black pepper
½ cup Fresh parsley, roughly chopped
Add. Place eggplant on top.

½ c beef broth
Add and simmer for 20 minutes.

Toss and garnish with little more parsley if you like. I ran out.

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Escali Primo P115C Precision Kitchen Food Scale

My favorite knife. It’s a 7″ full tang Santoku. I chose the Ikon handle design, which is wonderfully ergonomic. I have spent hours on a produce sculpture before and my hand was just as comfy at the end. It’s worth the pennies.

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Wusthof WU4176 Classic Ikon 7-Inch Santoku, Hollow Edge, Black

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WÜSTHOF CLASSIC IKON 8 Inch Chef’s Knife

My favorite cast iron skillet is a 12″ Lodge dual handle pan. Why, the long handles are too heavy to hold with a single hand when they’re loaded up. Since you’re using two hands anyway, you might as well get the ones that take up less space and stack so much better!

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Lodge 12″ dual handle cast-iron pan

Best sheet pan

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Same sheet pan with a cooling rack/roasting rack insert. Ooooo!

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I get asked about my spice wall all the time. The magnetic tins on the wall are great for any spices or salt-free blends. Salt corrodes the tins, so anything with salt is in a glass jar on the counter underneath.

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20 magnetic spice tins

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Jen’s Buffalo Wing Tofu with Veggies, Gorgonzola Dip, and Sweet Potato Fries

September 15, 2020

#CVG #ConstantlyVariedGear #TTSL #ThickThighs Save Lives

I’m so excited! I won this darling hoodie for healthy recipe contributions for the month of August from my favorite active wear and crossfit programming company, Constantly Varied Gear. Silky soft, lighweight, warm, and cozy! I’m ready for leggings, hoodies, fire pit time, and warm mugs of deliciousness!

I post two or three meals a day on there. Certainly keeps me busy! Right now, we’re in the middle of an 800 gram per day produce challenge. I saw a few people worrying out loud about budgetary concerns with the 800 gram challenge. This should totally be for everybody. So, I thought I’d focus on really pocket friendly produce plates for a few days. Tofu, carrots, and celery are way cheaper than McDonald’s! 😀 Buffalo wing tofu and veggies with homemade gorgonzola dip and roasted sweet potatoes. Yummy as heck and there’s 574 grams of produce on that plate.

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