Browsed by
Author: Joan

Shiso Gin & Tonic (and my obsession with shiso simple syrup)

Shiso Gin & Tonic (and my obsession with shiso simple syrup)

*If you like, pin, comment, whatever to this post you are acknowledging that you are legally allowed to drink alcohol in whatever country you inhabit!* I updated the pictures for this post in August 2018 but the recipe is still the same as it was in 2016! [Jump to Shiso Simple Syrup Recipe] [Jump to Drink Recipe] I used to be a bartender between college and graduate school. It taught me three things: 1. I am not a late night person,…

Read More Read More

Teriyaki Chicken Rolls

Teriyaki Chicken Rolls

[Jump to Recipe] Teriyaki chicken bowls are one of my go to dinners when I have company and I need something fast, easy, and have no idea what people like to eat. My recipe was modeled off of those teriyaki places you find in the mall food courts: coated chicken with cabbage and carrots over rice. Simple, but delicious, and I can make the components separately to satisfy the pickiest of eaters. Plus cabbage and carrots are veggies that last a…

Read More Read More

Apple Pie Tea

Apple Pie Tea

[Jump to Recipe] [Jump to Thai Tea Variation] I have never been in a town with so many apple trees. It seems like people choose to plant them as “ornamental” trees and that is pretty cool. The only small issue (and it is pretty small, also no pun intended) is that the apples aren’t quite crabapples but also not quite eating apples. I did not want to let all these small apples falling all over the neighborhood go to waste…

Read More Read More

Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies and a Cookie Lesson

Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies and a Cookie Lesson

[Jump to Recipe] Happy National Chocolate Chip Cookie day! But really who needs an excuse to make chocolate chip cookies? This post began about a month ago as I set out to make a chocolate chip cookie that was not super sweet, decently healthy, used my extra sourdough starter, and kept its shape pretty well. In other words, the perfect hiking and biking snack! The previous batches of cookies I had not photographed the process, just the end product. Rookie…

Read More Read More

Carrot Top (Green) Pesto

Carrot Top (Green) Pesto

[Jump to Recipe] The CSA has broadened my cooking horizons immensely. I get excited about certain produce I never thought would excite me before. The produce that falls in this category are greens of plants you usually don’t see in the produce section of the grocery store: cauliflower, broccoli, radish, turnip, and carrot greens. I don’t remember ever seeing carrot tops growing up. I must have, my mom planted carrots a few times, but I really only remember the topless ones…

Read More Read More

Tofu Lettuce Wraps

Tofu Lettuce Wraps

[Jump to Recipe] It was the first CSA (community supported agriculture) of the year from Isabelle Farms yesterday (2 weeks ago, I didn’t get this post out before vacation, sorry!) and I could not be more excited. Joining a CSA really appeals to me for many reasons: It is organic; I feel part of the community participating in it and love driving to the farm and picking up the produce. This one I don’t actually have to work on the…

Read More Read More

Avocado and Spinach (or Kale) Green Smoothie Bowl

Avocado and Spinach (or Kale) Green Smoothie Bowl

[Jump to Recipe] About two months ago my husband and I decided to add more vegetables to our diet. We were already pretty good but felt we needed to jumpstart it. And thus, we joined the green smoothie craze! Morning smoothies are not a new thing for me. My mom has made them, for as far as I can remember, every morning of my entire life. I always marveled, in both a good and a bad way, at what she could…

Read More Read More

Wilted Spinach and Crispy Tofu Salad with Sweet and Spicy Sesame-Miso Dressing

Wilted Spinach and Crispy Tofu Salad with Sweet and Spicy Sesame-Miso Dressing

[Jump to Sweet and Spicy Sesame Miso Dressing Recipe] [Jump to Crispy Tofu Recipe] [Jump to Assembling the Salad] This is my first year growing spinach or, I should say, successfully growing spinach. Greens have always been my achilles heal when gardening. I plant them too late or in too much sun and they just bolt and get bitter on me. I hoped to learn from my mistakes here in Colorado and planted them in mass earlier and then transplanted…

Read More Read More

Chocolate Sourdough Baked Doughnuts (Donuts)

Chocolate Sourdough Baked Doughnuts (Donuts)

[Jump to Recipe] I am guilty of following the National Day Calendar craze and look up all sorts of random national, mostly food, holidays. I do it mostly as an activator to get my mind thinking about recipes and things to make, since most of the holidays aren’t really all the legitimate. National Doughnut Day, however, is and writing this post led me down the Wikipedia rabbit hole as I tried to figure out if making it the first Friday after…

Read More Read More

The Great Gelatin Experiment!

The Great Gelatin Experiment!

Ok maybe not so great, but experiment none-the-less! As I was working on my last recipe, Lilac Coconut Milk Pudding, I noticed that there were a lot of different gelatin amounts out there for puddings and jellies. This made me curious for future pudding endeavors: how much gelatin results in what pudding texture, firmness, etc? Experiment: I made a full recipe of the coconut milk pudding without the gelatin. I then weighed it out into four equal portions. To each…

Read More Read More