Summer beverage ready with Margaritaville and Yeti – and Jen’s frozen sangria!

Do you need a summertime splurge or a last minute Father’s Day gift? I’ve got you!

Sumac-Spiced Chicken Cutlets with Tomato-Onion Salad recipe from Milk Street Tuesday Nights Mediterranean

#MilkStreet @MilkStreet #177MilkStreet @177MilkStreet #CPKimball @CPKimball #Mediterranean #TNMEDBOOK @TNMEDBOOK

If you’ve been following my blog for awhile, you know that I love everything Milk Street does. Always phenomenal. If you’re already a Milk Street fan, you are going to love Milk Street Tuesday Nights Mediterranean. If you’re new to Milk Street, you’re in for a treat. They are absolute minimalists on everything but flavor. They’ll get you from the counter to the table in the easiest way possible. And they’re really strong flavorists.

I posted their recipe for Spaghetti with Lemon Pesto last week. If you missed that, you have to go back and make it! And you can see my full review of the book there. I wanted to share one more dish from this fabulous book with you. Sumac-Spiced Chicken Cutlets with Tomato-Onion Salad. Oh gosh. Are these ever fantastic. Don’t laugh, but if you’ve ever really enjoyed the pucker of a Sour Patch Kid, and you haven’t tried sumac, you’re missing out. The flavor of this dish is really unique and wonderful. 

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Spaghetti with Lemon Pesto recipe and cookbook review: Milk Street Tuesday Nights Mediterranean

#MilkStreet @MilkStreet #177MilkStreet @177MilkStreet #CPKimball @CPKimball #Mediterranean #TNMEDBOOK @TNMEDBOOK

If you’ve been following my blog for awhile, you know that I love everything Milk Street does. Always phenomenal. If you’re already a Milk Street fan, you are going to love Milk Street Tuesday Nights Mediterranean. If you’re new to Milk Street, you’re in for a treat. They are absolute minimalists on everything but flavor. They’ll get you from the counter to the table in the easiest way possible. And they’re really strong flavorists.

I get a super lemony bundt cake on my birthday every year, and I like their Spaghetti with Lemon Pesto even better. It’s terrifically lemony. The lemons, almonds and cheese play beautifully together. It is absolute perfection. And Milk Street’s letting me share the recipe with you!

The recipe calls for 4 lemons, but only the zest is used, so make plans for that juice or use them to infuse water.

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

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

#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

#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

#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.

Spicy Shrimp Twice-Baked Potatoes recipe. Cooking Whole30.

#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!

Chiles Rellenos with Mexican Picadillo recipe and review: Cooking Whole30

#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!

Dorie Greenspan’s Princeton Gingersnaps recipe from Dorie’s Cookies. Best ever!

#DorieGreenspan @DorieGreenspan #DoriesCookies @DoriesCookies #DavideLuciano @DavideLuciano #hmhco @hmhco

We thought 2020 could use a little extra Christmas, so on November 1st, Halloween came down and Christmas went up! We loaded Alexa with a fabulous Christmas playlist, and started watching all our favorite shows. With about a week to go, it was time to make cookies. We have traditional ones for sure, but I love doing family requests. They asked for pecan dreams, gingersnaps, and 7 layer bars. I have favorites for pecan dreams and 7 layer bars, but I didn’t have go-to gingersnap cookies. I decided to consult my very favorite cookie book, Dorie Greenspan’s Dorie’s Cookies. Sure enough, there was a gingersnap recipe in there and it had a triple-threat of ginger in it: fresh, crystalized, and powdered. Ooooo! Best gingersnap ever. Gobs of flavor and that perfect crispness.

She gives a dough chilling range of 2 hours to overnight, and a baking range from 14-19 minutes, depending on where you want to be on the scale from chewy to crisp. I made them once, chilling for 2 hours and once, chilling overnight, and the full spectrum of baking times. If you prefer them to really spread and get crisp, 2 hours chilling and 18 minutes baking hit that. If you prefer a little less spreading and a chewy crisp balance, chilling overnight and 17 minutes baking produced that.