finding time for cooking | for the time-starved or curious culinary adventurer

Whole Wheat Cranberry Pistachio Orange Shortbread Cookies

December 9, 2018

A couple years ago, my sister sent me an email out of nowhere with this recipe and a note that said “This has to be on your blog!” And I’ll be honest…it kind of took me a while to get to it.

But I played around with the recipe, making for a co-worker on maternity leave, for my own personal consumption, and then to take to work. And somehow never got around to posting the final version that I love dearly.

And guys, these cookies are weird. They have no leavening agent and no eggs…which shouldn’t work, but it totally does. In fact, they could be vegan if you substituted coconut oil for butter (though I haven’t tried that from a texture standpoint).

Side note, this cookie dough is AMAZING. Like, try not to eat it all raw before baking it, I DARE YOU. And because there are no eggs, you don’t have to worry about raw egg in it (which…I don’t, but I know some people do).

One of the great things about this kind of recipe, where you make the dough into a log and then slice pieces off, is that you can make parts of it at a time super easily. So the last time I made this, I baked up about half the dough right after dinner, and then two days later sliced up the rest and baked it when I had my whole family over for dinner again. Bonus points because they’re really quite healthy.

Crushing. It.

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Peanut Butter Banana Bread

December 1, 2018

Elvis was onto something.

Not that it was news to me, but peanut butter and banana will always be a magic combo. This bread just emphasizes the point. That’s right, friends, we’re talking about peanut butter banana bread today!

I’ve gotten to the point where I now just buy bananas every couple weeks, knowing full well I have no intention of actually eating them while they’re good. So expect some more tasty banana treats coming your way!

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Apricot Balsamic Rosemary Chicken

November 18, 2018

I’ve been accidentally keeping this recipe a secret the last couple months. I know, I’m sorry…that’s not what friends do.

It wasn’t not on purpose. It’s just that life’s been so crazy, and this chicken has been one of the things getting me through. As the weather has gotten too cold for my normal nightly grilling, I had to try and find something else super easy but still healthy to have regularly. And once I tried this once, I was totally hooked.

This apricot balsamic chicken recipe comes courtesy of Joy the Baker (link at the end of this post), and it’s so simple but feels kind of fancy. The original recipe calls for chicken thighs, and it probably is best because thighs stay more moist and bring more flavor. But I use chicken breasts sometimes, just because I struggle with the texture of thigh meat and don’t typically have it on hand. Chicken breasts work just fine, and my biggest tip is to make sure they’re sliced or pounded thin and even, so they cook quickly without drying out. I also swapped out the thyme the original recipe calls for and added rosemary instead, which I think gives it a punchier flavor.

This is the kind of recipe you can actually whip up on a weeknight after a frantic day of work in less than 30 minutes, then sit down with a glass of wine and take a deep breath.

You know you know what I’m talking about.

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Lemon Elderflower Cake With Strawberry Jam (Happy Birthday To Me!)

November 10, 2018

When I saw that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were having a lemon and elderflower cake at their wedding, I may or may not have fist-pumped.

The second I heard that flavor combo, I was SOLD.

As I’ve mentioned before, I started a tradition several years ago of finding a recipe that seemed a little fancier and more complicated than I typically tackle, and making that for my birthday. It’s given me absolute gems such as:

I MEAN YUMMMM. I don’t mean to toot my own horn, but I’ve got pretty great taste.

So this year I was kind of waffling, looked through tons of recipes but nothing was really jumping out to me until I saw two different recipes for an elderflower lemon cake. I took both and kind of combined and adapted, and loved the result! But con’t let the amount of ingredients and steps put you off, I actually threw this together pretty easily in between making dinner and pausing my TV show for a bit. Since my birthday is in September, the actual posting of this is *even* more belated that the making of it (which was about a week behind, since I was out of the country on my actual birthday).

I mean, if it’s good enough for Harry and Meghan, it’s good enough for me 🙂

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Za’atar Roasted Cauliflower with Pine Nuts, Dates, and Thyme

November 3, 2018

I am a well-known lover of cauliflower, but even I was surprised by how fervently I fell in love with this recipe. I tried it kind of on a whim, just to mix things up from my normal grill foil packet cauliflower (which is bomb, and I’ve made literally every night for like four months).

But I took one bite and said out loud (in a room by myself), “OH MY WORD THIS IS AMAZING!” My cats looked at me weird. Whatever, they’re totally missing out.

The flavor combo of this roasted cauliflower is crazy and intense. It’s such a perfect blend of sweet, savory, crunchy, and earthy. I would never have thought to pair really ANY of these together, but the result is absolutely sublime.

And you know what’s bonus?? It’s super easy too. There’s very little hands-on time, and it can all come together in under half an hour—basically the time it takes for the cauliflower to roast. It makes a perfect side dish alongside simple things like grilled or baked chicken, and I’ve even had it as a lighter vegetarian dinner as well.

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Cherry Almond Scones

October 14, 2018

This recipe is…there are no words for how good these scones are.

No. Words.

I’m a noted lover of scones (as seen here, here, and here), and there are very few flavor combinations I love more than cherry and almond. So as I was poring over various cherry recipes to use my plethora of fresh cherries (and awesome new cherry pitter), I came across this one and it immediately jumped to the top of the “must make” list.

I made a few small tweaks to the original recipe, most notably cutting way back on the glaze. I don’t think they need a ton, just enough to get a bit of extra sweet and a punch of almond flavor. I’m well known for adding almond extract to EVERYTHING.

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Absolutely Addictive Marinated Feta Cheese

October 4, 2018

Marinated feta where have you been all my life?!

That was basically what my brain was yelling the first time I made this. It was meant to be just an ingredient in garlicky farfalle with marinated feta and arugula (now a fave of mine), but I pinched a little bite while I was cooking the pasta, and my mind was blown.

Easy, Amazing Marinated Feta Cheese | finding time for cooking blog

Since then I’ve made it on its own, either for tossing in a salad, for eating on crackers, or for just obsessively snacking on by itself. The key to making it especially amazing is to use a really good block feta (not the pre-crumbled stuff). Any block will do—and don’t go fat-free, bring on that fat—but I recently fell in love with the Pastures of Eden feta at Trader Joe’s (and wherever else you can find it). Amazeballs.

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Orange Cinnamon-Sugar Twist Bread

September 20, 2018

Every time I go to Chicago for work lately, I’ve stayed at The Godfrey for convenience, and had a lovely run along the River Walk in the early morning. Then, as a reward, I’ve stopped at Beatrix and gotten the biggest latte they have a morning bun. Their morning buns are an inspiration, like a cinnamon roll’s way cooler cousin…dough that’s slightly sweet with some lamination and a hint of orange zest, a cinnamon-sugar filling that’s positively gooey inside, and some sugar on the outside. No frosting, nothing overly sickly. Perfection.

So I’ve been lingering on this particular recipe on Pinterest lately, since it ticks the same flavor boxes as my beloved morning buns. I finally decided to tackle it a couple weeks ago and was SO happy I did!

One of the biggest changes I made was adding orange zest into the dough itself, versus just in the glaze. That slight hint of orange in the dough with a subtle cinnamon-sugar filling is just sublime. Additionally, I adapted the glaze by eliminating the butter and decreasing the amount quite a bit. I think the changes work SUPER well and make it a little less sweet, which is more my style.

I’d also recommend not being daunted by the number of steps in the recipe. It’s not a difficult recipe, and other than braiding the split layered dough ropes (it’s a bit messy!), it’s totally doable as long as you have the time. Don’t rush it and it’ll be a breeze!

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Bourbon Cherry Crisp with Brown Butter Streusel

September 12, 2018

This is one of the better ideas I’ve had in a while…

I’ve been totally obsessed with cherries lately, partly because they’re absolutely delicious and have been everywhere at the grocery store, and partly because I recently got a cherry pitter and can now have this fruit candy easily anytime I want (without hand-pitting and looking like I’ve murdered someone…).

Bourbon has also been everywhere in my life lately, since starting my new job at Brown-Forman in Louisville. Pretty much any bourbon will work for this, I used the bottle that happened to be open, which was a lovely Old Forester 100 proof. Combined with the brown butter, cinnamon, and cherries, this was BOMB.

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Browned Butter 101: How To Brown Butter

August 26, 2018

The cooking and baking world has long been obsessed with brown butter. Very charmingly called “beurre noisette” (or hazelnut butter…and it’s actually delicious *with* hazelnuts), it’s basically butter that’s been gently boiled until the milk solids evaporate, leaving you with a clarified, brown, nutty pool of YUM.

It’s useful everything from baking to simple, rich pasta sauces, and is actually super simple to make as long as you know what to look for. So today we’re going to talk about how to brown butter.

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