Tag: dinner

Pasta attachments for the stand mixer, fresh pasta 101 demo, and Cacio e Pepe

April 3, 2021

The guy from Gvode asked if he could send me a meat grinder attachment for my stand mixer to try. My KitchenAid stopped rotating after about two years. Breville, Vitamix, Wusthof, and FoodSaver make things right if there’s a malfunction. KitchenAid walks away whistling like the cable companies used to. They are way too expensive to die that quickly. Not to mention landfills. Where are you going to go, though? It’s essential equipment. My injustice bells went off. So I took it apart and popped up a blogpost teaching how to change the gear, step by step, in case it happened to someone else. It’s one of my most popular posts, so I know it’s common. So will I test out a far cheaper off-brand attachment? Heck yes! The Gvode meat grinder functioned exactly the same as the pricey one and had more accessories. When I blogged about it, the manufacturer came on and commented on my post that he puts it on a sale price every other week on Amazon so my readers can watch for a discount. Class act. He sent a pasta roller and cutter, too. I’m testing that, too, because it can potentially save people money. So let’s make some pasta!

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Mojo-Marinated Cuban-Style Pork recipe and Cookbook review: Instant Pot Miracle

March 31, 2021
#HMHCO @HMHCO

Instant Pot Miracle is a super neat Instant Pot book with a huge range of Instant Pot recipes. It’s pretty much one stop shopping. We loved everything we tried. Note that we found the salt measures really light, and generally doubled the salt. You can tailor the sauciness level afterwards by pulling out the meat or whatever and reduce the sauce to your perfect level using the saute button.

We loved the Mojo-Marinated Cuban-Style Pork, so I wanted to share that recipe with you. It marinates for a day before you make it, so be sure to budget the time. The flavors are spot on. Delicious! I served it with rice and sweet plantains.

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Mole Chicken recipe and cookbook review: The Whole Smiths Real Food Every Day

March 8, 2021
#TheWholeSmiths @TheWholeSmiths #HMHCO @HMHCO

Mole chicken. Did you just respond, “Yes, please!”? Mmmmm. Mole chicken is *usually* a really time consuming dish. It’s the kind of thing that makes most cooks just keep flipping through the book to something easier. This is about 1 1/2 hours start to finish, and an hour of that is the Instant Pot doing the work. This has great flavor and is comparatively very easy. Let’s do this!

The Whole Smiths Real Food Every Day. I love love love this book! Everything’s delicious, easy, and nutritious. Perfect! I’ll tell you all about the rest of the book after the recipe. Please note ~ I think the author must be using Diamond Crystal Kosher salt because the numbers are at the high end. I’m using plain old salt, so I cut the salt to 2/3 in everything which worked perfectly. Thought I’d share in case you use table salt, too.

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Steak Marchand De Vin (Wine Merchant Steak) recipe and cookbook review: Jacques Pépin Quick & Simple

February 14, 2021
#JacquesPépin @JacquesPépin #Quick&Simple @Quick&Simple #HMHCO @HMHCO

Jacques Pépin Quick & Simple. Jacques is not overpromising with that name. The recipes are just as delicious as you’d expect from him, but they are truly quick and simple. The book is totally newbie-appropriate. Most of them are super wallet-friendly, too, with ingredients like frozen vegetables. I’m so excited to share his recipe with you for Wine Merchant Steak. I’ve made many of Jacques’ different wine merchant steaks and this one is my absolute favorite. I love the addition of the Spicy V8. It’s fantastic. I’m going to try this as a bbq sauce, for a really flavorful, sugar-free option. I just bought crab to make his crab cakes and I’ll add that in later, but it’s Valentine’s Day, and this steak is perfect!!!

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Kung Pao Lettuce Cups recipe and cookbook review: The Primal Gourmet Cookbook by Ronny Joseph Lvovski

January 21, 2021
#Whole30 @Whole30 #PrimalGourmet @PrimalGourmet #HMHCO @HMHCO

The Primal Gourmet Cookbook. He is not overpromising with that title! This is a fun new Whole30 book. He has a great range to suit your mood. There are easy, casual and loose recipes when you’d like to keep it simple and those that are more interesting and involved when you feel like it. The food is fresh, delicious, and nutritious. Perfect!

I’d love to share his recipe for Kung Pao Lettuce Cups with you! I’m making you concerned because it’s a health book? Don’t be! You won’t make them because they’re good for you. Make them because they’re awesome! He says this serves 4 as an appetizer. Double it and serve 4 for dinner. Or breakfast. You do you! A quick note on two ingredients you might not be familiar with: coconut aminos and arrowroot starch. Coconut aminos function like soy sauce and arrowroot starch functions like cornstarch.

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Spicy Shrimp Twice-Baked Potatoes recipe. Cooking Whole30.

January 15, 2021
#MelissaUrban @MelissaUrban #ThisAfricanCooks @ThisAfricanCooks #Whole30 @Whole30 #hmhco @hmhco

I blogged about the updated Whole30 Cookbook, Cooking Whole30, last week. I’m so in love with this book that I wanted to give you one more recipe to try!

Spicy Shrimp Twice-Baked Potatoes. All the yes! The coconut cream instead of the traditional dairy in the twice-baked potatoes made this even more decadent! The shrimp are wonderful! Both of my teenagers proclaimed this to be their favorite shrimp. I’m making the shrimp again with green vegetables. Hope you love it, too!

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Chiles Rellenos with Mexican Picadillo recipe and review: Cooking Whole30

January 9, 2021
#MelissaUrban @MelissaUrban #DashofColorandSpice @DashofColorandSpice #Whole30 @Whole30 #hmhco @hmhco

Do you want delicious food, high energy, great sleep, or to just feel great in general? Why pick just one?! Cooking Whole30. This is the new updated version of the Whole30 Cookbook. I have both, and this one has more cultural information behind the recipes and bonus recipes! I’ve got all of the Whole30 and Whole30-endorsed books with the exception of the slow cooker title, and they are all fabulous. Melissa Hartwig’s dishes are fantastic, and she has a lot of other contributors, which is really nice, because you can taste a bunch of people’s recipes and have a good idea of what works for you. This is filled with easy, healthy, delicious, make you feel oh-so terrific food. Food preppers strapped for time will be excited because there are a few of what I call “Mother recipes” in here. You make the base recipe and use that in a few different ways over the course of the week. Shortcuts without boredom. Ahhhhh. Totally recommend!

I’d love to share Jessica McMullen’s recipe for Chiles Rellenos with Mexican Picadillo with you. Mexican picadillo is a lot like Cuban picadillo, with potatoes and carrots instead of olives and raisins. To keep it Whole30, she uses cloud-like eggs as her coating. The result is souffle-like. It’s just wonderful. I hope you love it, too!

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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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