Category Archives: Food + Drink

Apricot horn cookies

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apricot almond horn cookies

I have a grandma who is not technically my grandma. She is my cousins’ grandma. But she is my Grandma Irene. I’ve called her Grandma Irene since the time I was a little kid. If you were to meet her she just might introduce herself to you as Grandma Irene too because that’s who she is.

You see, she’s not technically related to me because she is my cousins’ grandma on their dad’s side and we’re related because our moms are sisters. It’s confusing to explain. She’s part of my family though.

She’s smart and determined. She took college classes when her children were grown. She walks three miles just about every day. She’s giving and kind. She cares for animals, including injured birds and the dog she loves so much. And just about every Christmas she would make these delicious apricot horn cookies.

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Chocolate peanut butter hearts

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chocolate peanut butter hearts

It’s almost Valentine’s Day and to celebrate I’m sharing an easy recipe for homemade candy that you can share with your love, your friends, or just keep to yourself.

Paul and I both love chocolate peanut butter candies, so I made some festive chocolate peanut butter hearts. I kept it simple by only using four ingredients, but I think the end result is still impressive.

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Oat oven meatballs

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My mom has made oven meatballs many times over the years, including for family parties. I’ll have to share that recipe sometime. This is based on her amazing meatballs but slightly different. I just always have to mess with a good thing.

I scaled down her recipe to serve about 4 to 6 servings instead of about 8. She makes hers with bread crumbs and red onion. I swapped the bread crumbs for oats and left out the red onion. You can almost get the original recipe out of this. Here I am pulling back the velvet curtain on recipe development.

barbecue oven meatballs

What I love about these meatballs is that they’re so juicy, but they get slightly crunchy on the bottom from the pan. Also, you must make them with the sweet and tangy barbecue sauce listed below. These meatballs would also go great with other sauces, such as marinara or teriyaki. I recommend serving them with rice or another grain.

If you’re making them for a party, I recommend shaping them smaller and keeping them in a slow cooker with the sauce to keep them warm.

The meatballs can be frozen without the sauce and the sauce can be refrigerated for up to a month.

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Wedding food

Posted in Food + Drink, Life & Adventures by

heres-to-forever

I guess I like the idea of options because all my favorite food ideas for the wedding involve the words “bar” or “buffet.” I’d be totally fine if the wedding ended up with just one of these elements. But I thought I would just share some food images that have been inspiring me in the planning process. People say you barely have time to eat on your wedding day and that time flies by. Even so, I think it could be cool to serve our guests some of our favorite foods like dougnuts, tacos, craft beer, and juices.

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Lavender chai latte

Posted in Drink, Food + Drink by

lavender-chai-latte

I’m not a pumpkin spice latte girl. I’d much rather have apple cider, hot cocoa, or a chai latte. Those flavors all say fall to me just fine. Now that I’m working in a cafe that serves a delicious lavender chai latte, and I’ve been into lavender lately, lavender chai lattes mean fall to me too.

The lavender chai latte is a sweet, warm hug in a mug. I highly encourage you to give it a go.

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Chocolate pear loaf

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chocolate-pear-loaf

Last week there was a heat wave in Southern California, but I still wanted to bake something. I had the day off last Tuesday, so I took the time to prep everything except the oven. I picked out a recipe, followed the directions until baking time, and then stuck it in the fridge to be baked on a cooler day.

By Thursday, it was in the 80s, so after work, I went ahead and heated up my apartment for a baked good in waiting.

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3 refreshing and easy coconut milk drinks

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3-easy-and-refreshing-coconut-drinks

Lately I’ve been trying to drink less milk. I’m not sure if I’m actually lactose intolerant but I’ve just been trying to drink less milk any way. Currently I have one bottle of almond milk and one bottle of coconut milk in my fridge to substitute in my coffee, cereal and smoothies. I decided that coconut milk in coffee is gross, but tastes great in a smoothie.

For these drinks, I used coconut milk beverage in a carton (from Trader Joe’s), not to be confused with thick coconut milk in a can.

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Banana coffee cake

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Banana Coffee Cake

Last weekend, I had company over and took that as a good reason to try out a new recipe. I wanted to make a coffee cake because it’s delicious and perfect for a relaxing brunch.

I like reading recipes and then combining them to get the outcome I’m looking for, and this banana coffee cake creation is a direct result of that. It’s made from combining three different recipes on three different websites to get exactly what I was picturing in my head when I started searching for recipes. I’m not experienced enough to completely develop recipes from scratch (if you are, please tell me your secrets/methods), so this is my work-around.

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