This one is inspired by pain au chocolat, one of my favorites, but instead of a croissant dough I used a sweet yeast bread. It may look challenging but in reality it isn’t any harder than any other loaf of bread. I wanted a sweet and tender dough for this recipe so I opted for…
Broiled Salmon with Brown Sugar Soy Glaze
This sweet, sticky, tangy, Asian inspired sauce can be used on a wide range of foods: poultry, pork, beef, vegetables, or noodles, for example. For dinner tonight, salmon was on the menu! While I love an elaborately cooked meal, it is also nice to have something quick and simple to throw together. The sauce itself…
Whole Wheat French Bread
There is nothing like fresh baked bread. French bread can be used for crostini, French bread pizza, or even just a snack. For this meal I served it with an herb garlic olive oil dipping sauce as a side for a hefty helping of creamy fettucine alfredo. It was definitely a satisfying meal! As with…
Herb Garlic Olive Oil Dipping Sauce
This is a simple sauce to make but has so much flavor! You can use a variety of herbs and spices, add red pepper flakes for heat, or even sprinkle on some cheese! Simply pour your oil, And sprinkle your salt, garlic, and seasonings on top. Let sit for at least 5-10 minutes for flavors…
Fettucine Alfredo
I had a craving for a hearty, creamy, alfredo sauce for a couple weeks before I finally got around to adding it to our meal plans. Cream sauces from scratch are more time consuming than opening a jar of pre-made sauce but it is well worth it. Sauces can be made from heavy cream, whole…
Making Yeast Breads 101
Most yeast breads follow more or less the same method: active the yeast, mix and knead the dough, rise, shape, rise again, and bake. This is just a reference post for a closer look at these steps. Activating the Yeast To activate the yeast, make sure your liquid (milk, non-dairy milk, or water) is about…
Red Bean Étouffée
I like Cajun food in general and my Alabama-born-and-raised husband pretty much has cayenne pepper flowing through his veins so we eat Cajun foods fairly often in this house. Like our pepper shaker has cayenne in it instead of black pepper. Out of all the Cajun dishes I have tried, étouffée is one of my…
Cajun Spice Roasted Vegetables
The rich flavor of roasted, caramelized vegetables reminds me of grilled kabobs in the summertime. Roasting is one of my favorite but most underused ways of cooking vegetables. For some reason, it seems like it would be more work than quickly sauteing but generally the opposite is true: cut, season, mix, roast. Another great thing…
Roasted Garlic Pilaf-Style Rice
I make rice a couple times a week, usually, but never plain simmered rice. The flavor and texture of pilaf style rice is too good to ever go back to eating plain. You might be wondering where the little ‘pilafs’ are in my rice but as it turns out, pilaf refers to the method of…
Kale Pesto Linguine with Mushrooms and English Peas
One of my favorite things about this recipe is that my little kids LOVE it which means they get some healthy greens in their system. Pesto is great to me because it is… easy to customize! I love recipes like that, although I can’t think if any recipes that really aren’t like that. In any…
Lavender, Lemon, and Sage 