Thick, rich, sweet and salty—it’s everything you’ll find in a teriyaki sauce. But it may not be the syrupy bottled sauce you’re used to. I’m using a traditional Japanese recipe for the sauce used to baste some type of meat, like chicken, as it is cooked over high heat to create a succulent, flavorful dish. This sauce, whether you use it for basting or as a sauce for a rice bowl, only uses four ingredients and requires very little prep, but produces a rich, deeply flavorful sauce full of both bright and salty notes. It’s really unlike anything you’ve tried from a bottle!…
Simple Weeknight Pasta
Sometimes you just need a big bowl of pasta, am I right? I know I do. Whether it’s regular pasta, whole wheat pasta, gluten-free pasta, Paleo pasta—there’s something about a big bowl of noodles in front of you that makes the evening more comforting (and more delicious). This simple weeknight pasta is full of layers of flavor from fresh and dry herbs, really good Parmesan cheese, garlic, good olive oil, and salt and pepper—that’s it! It’s done in under 20 minutes, and you can use it as a base for any type of protein (or not) and even additional vegetables. It’s also perfect with a simple side salad, like the winter citrus salad from a few posts back, and maybe some wine and either a good movie or TV show while you cuddle under a blanket or maybe put some candles on the table. Warm, comforting and delicious—this recipe for simple weeknight pasta is perfect for unwinding from a busy day!…
Compound Butter Two Ways
So, butter. I admit it, I love good butter. I love it on toast, I love it on buttered noodles, I love it in potatoes and sweet potatoes and over roasted veggies. I love a little bit in my oatmeal or my cream of wheat or on a piece of fresh-out-of-the-oven cornbread or melted over waffles and pancakes. It’s even great over a grilled steak. I also just adore European butter over a piece of really good crusty bread with a little bit of salt sprinkled on top—heaven!
What can make butter even better? If you add to it in the form of compound butter.
Compound butters are simple to make, but the results are so delicious! And you can make them either sweet or savory.
The two recipes I have today are for a berry-cinnamon-honey compound butter and a roasted garlic compound butter.
So what, you’re probably (not) asking, does this have to do with the summer ’16 dessert series? Imagine this: berry-cinnamon-honey butter melting into every little nook and cranny of a pound cake or angel food cake that’s been grilled (for more on grilling cake you can check out my recipe for grilled peaches and angel food cake). There may possibly be ice cream and berries involved. There you have a fusion of warm, cool, sweet, and tart with a touch of salt that is absolutely heavenly.
And because it’s summer, I’m including the roasted garlic compound butter recipe because it really is perfect over grilled meats, grilled veggies, and melted over rice.
Whether it’s dinner or dessert, these two recipes are the perfect addition to dining al fresco this summer!
Quick Note: I use salted butter for my compound butters, including the sweet butters, because I love the flavor dimensions a small bit of salt creates without overpowering any other flavor. Salt can really bring out the best in other ingredients. If you don’t want salt or can’t eat the salt, however, buy unsalted butter.
- Berry, Honey, and Cinnamon Compound Butter Recipe:
- 8 Tbsp. butter, softened
- ¼ cup fresh or frozen berries (thawed, if frozen)
- 1 to 2 tsps. honey
- 1 tsp. cinnamon
- ½ tsp. vanilla
- For the Roasted Garlic Compound Butter:
- 8 Tbsp. butter, softened
- 4 to 6 cloves of roasted garlic (to your taste preference), mashed
- 1/16 tsp. delicate finishing salt, like Himalayan pink salt, Maldon’s, or grey salt
- Combine all ingredients for your particular butter in a bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer.
- If mixing by hand, use a spatula to stir and mix all ingredients together until thoroughly combined. If using a stand mixer, use the paddle attachment at medium-high speed for a two until everything is well combined.
- At this point, you can taste the butter to see if it needs additional ingredients or seasoning.
- Scrape the butter onto the far end of a piece of wax paper and start rolling the wax paper tightly, shaping the butter into a roll as you go and pressing the ends in.
- Twist the ends of the wax paper tightly, giving the butter one last shaping, and place into the fridge for at least two hours.
- Slice into the butter and serve over whatever you wish!
Compound butters can be stored in the fridge for two weeks.
So there you have two recipes for compound butters, but you don’t have to stop here! There are so many different combinations you can try, such as dried or fresh herbs, roasted garlic with fresh or dried herbs, cinnamon and honey, maple butter, cilantro lime, pumpkin spice—it’s up to your imagination!
‘Till next time!
All About: Chocolate Basics
Apologies for being away for so long! As usual, real life got in the way. I should be back posting regularly from now.
Anyway, I’m not sure about you, dear reader, but I am a chocoholic. I’m not afraid to admit it. While I’m not a big candy person and never have been, I adore chocolate of almost any kind.
And there are many different kinds. So many, in fact, it can get a little confusing. In this primer, I’m going to focus on the basics of chocolate (I’m guessing no one is surprised…). Answers will include: the different between dark and milk chocolate; what those percentages actually mean; is white chocolate actually chocolate?; and what exactly “Dutched” cocoa is (it’s not made by someone from the Netherlands, which I may or may not have believed when I was a child…)….
Sweet and Spicy Maple Roasted Butternut Squash
This sweet and spicy maple roasted butternut squash is a little bit sweet and a little bit salty with a pinch of heat. Roasting brings out the deep color and richness of the butternut squash, and the crispy edges from roasting add an extra layer of flavor. It’s a perfect fall side dish next to almost anything, even mixed in with a salad!
Autumn is definitely squash season, and this recipe is the perfect way to celebrate! Not only that, but I’ve included a tip that makes cubing butternut squash so much simpler!…
Oh So Perfect Basic Granola Recipe
I love cereal of some sort in the morning. Lately, my husband and I have been eating oatmeal in the morning and one of our favorite things to add to the oatmeal is granola. We just sprinkle it on top to get an extra boost of flavor, sweetness, and crunch. And the best part is, it’s homemade granola!
Despite the long name of the blog, this recipe is simple and results in a sweet, crunchy, an oh-so-satisfying morning (or afternoon, or evening) treat! It’s so perfect by itself as a quick snack or with milk, mixed with yogurt, or even sprinkled over ice cream!
This recipe is the very basic building blocks of granola. From here, you can add almost anything you want to change up the flavor! You can choose how sweet your granola is, how toasted it gets, etc. More on that below.
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Tips for Cooking Dried Pasta: Pasta Primer Part Two
So the renovation of my grandmother’s house/our rental home is really coming along! There are a few changes from the last update, although they’re not incredibly visible on pictures, like the wall paint, trim paint, and we’ve painted the walls downstairs as well.
The kitchen cabinets and appliances will come in next week. Then comes installation, then countertop installation, and then finishing touches. If all goes well, we should be moving in at the beginning of July
Anyway, on to the actual point of this week’s blog.
Cooking dried pasta—you stick it in a pot of boiling water and wait for it to be done. But there are tips and tricks to make the pasta, and whatever you do with it, taste better:…
Pasta Part One: A Pasta Primer
So the renovation of my grandmother’s house/our rental home is really coming along! There are a few changes from the last update, although they’re not incredibly visible on pictures, like the wall paint, trim paint, and we’ve painted the walls downstairs as well:
The kitchen cabinets and appliances will come in next week. Then comes installation, then countertop installation, and then finishing touches. If all goes well, we should be moving in by the end of June!
Anyway, on to the actual point of this week’s blog.
This post begins a new series all about that pantry staple, pasta! I’ll cover the basics of pasta, how to cook store-bought pasta, how to make pasta from scratch, and finally a pasta recipe! I won’t be covering other types of noodles such as Japanese soba, Japanese/Chinese ramen, and rice noodles. That will have to wait for another post.
On this week’s blog, I’ll go over a general overview of pasta types (if I wrote about every single type of pasta, we’d be here forever…), pasta flours, and a few extra bits like how to store different types of pasta….
Pantry Basics: Pantry Staples
The pantry. Kind of a big subject. You could talk about the types of flours you could have, or the range of spices, or even how to organize your pantry. That’s why this blog is the first in a multiple part series wherein each blog will cover a very specific part of the pantry.
For this first blog, I’m going to talk about the very, very basic dry ingredients that I have in my pantry at all times: pantry staples. So part one of the ” Pantry Basics: Pantry Staples” series starts with……