finding time for cooking

for the time-starved or curious culinary adventurer

Best Milk Frothers For At-Home Lattes

Anyone who knows me is well aware of my love of good coffee.  It’s insanely well-documented (including in a detailed guide to Italy’s coffee and spending a morning exploring a Colombian coffee farm), and a great daily pleasure.

And while I love spending time in local coffee shops, I spend almost every morning sitting on my couch with my kitties…and I need that to include great coffee.  So one of the tools in my arsenal is a milk frother that helps me froth milk at home and make delicious cappuccino on my own!

The Best At-Home Milk Frothers (& Steamers) | I love good coffee, and for years have made my own lattes and cappuccinos at home on the weekend...perfect way to start the day! These are my favorite models ever, everything you need to froth milk at home. #coffee #cappuccino #kitchengadgets

And the thing is, they’re super affordable and easy to use—I highly recommend getting one to up your at-home coffee game!  I’ve had a few different ones over the past decade, and these are a few of my all-time favorites.

Chinya Automatic Milk Steamer & Frother

This one has been a game-changer for me.  It was recommended by My Cheese when I visited her in L.A. last year, and I loved how easy it is to use!  My milk steams and froths in less than 30 seconds with a great foam texture, and it’s super easy to clean (which is a major bonus).

BonJour Battery-Powered Handheld (with Case)READ THE POST

Food Travel Postcard: North Island, New Zealand

Wrapping up our trip with a few days in the Rotorua area of the North Island!

tui glen jetty

We’d planned to head down to Hamilton for one night so we could do a dawn hot air balloon ride, but the weather didn’t cooperate so we headed straight to our rental house on Lake Tarawera, about 20 minutes from Rotorua. It was dark when we arrived, but early the next morning Sarai and I took our coffee down the hill to our little jetty and watched the sunrise.

tui glen deck

Our deck had a great view! We were totally off the grid out there—no cell service or wifi—so we lit the fireplace, sat on the deck, drank wine and talked. It was so relaxing!

rotorua champagne pool

rotorua highlighter pool

The Rotorua area is famous for being a “thermal wonderland”. One day we visited Wai-o-Tapu, probably the most well-known of the thermal areas. The gorgeous Champagne Pool, with its “artist’s palette” came to life for us, and this highlighter-yellow lake was unbelievable! But everything smelled like rotten egg, which was really gross—I haven’t been up for eating eggs since then…

brioche ricotta

We found this awesome cafe called Capers in Rotorua. They had all sorts of great stuff, so we stopped there twice for brunch. The second time I had this amazing toasted brioche with ricotta and local honey.READ THE POST

Food Travel Postcard: Nelson/Tasman Region, New Zealand

We spent the last eight days in the Nelson/Tasman region of the South Island. We’d rented a lovely little house in Richmond and based ourselves there for various food and beverage explorations, as well as attending the Feast of Tabernacles. Nelson is one of the bigger cities in the area, about 46,000 people. It’s about an area from the Abel Tasman National Park, which has gorgeous coastal tracks and kayaking and seals and beaches. It and the Marlborough region are also acclaimed for their local wines and beers, so it was the perfect place for our foursome to stay!

jess beach reflection

The scenery in this part of the South Island was so different from where we were previously. Golden beaches, turquoise waters, green hills—it was like Hawaii up in here.

split apple rock

Split Apple Rock in Abel Tasman. Not an actual apple.

pinchgut trail

We hiked Pinchgut Trail in Nelson Lakes National Park, up Mt. Robert…it was crazy steep and we just about died. We rewarded our delirious, exhausted selves with a giant dinner and beer at The Vic.

abel tasman boat ride

We took a boat ride along the Abel Tasman coast and then had an awesome dinner of lamb and good wine at Ford’s in Nelson.

jess wine tasting

This area is particularly known for its wines, so I put on my comfy wine tasting skirt and got down to business…READ THE POST

Food Travel Postcard: Lake Tekapo/Mt. Cook/Aoraki, New Zealand

Greetings from the future!!!

No, really, it’s tomorrow here. I’m in gorgeous, sunny New Zealand, soaking up the unbelievable scenery, talking to awesome Kiwis (the people, not the bird), and hanging out with three cool friends. We’re here for the Feast of Tabernacles, but since we were coming so far (and spending so much money!) we wanted to cram as much awesome into our trip as possible. As always when I travel, I am also super excited about trying all kinds of local food and drink!

sawdon station house

We spent our first few days in the Mackenzie region, after flying into Christchurch and then driving a few hours down to Lake Tekapo. When we arrived at our first rental house, we were utterly charmed, and visions of coffee and wine in front of the fire danced in our heads.

lake tekapo

We immediately set out to explore, taking in the gorgeous turquoise waters of Lake Tekapo before heading into the village in search of sustenance.

oyster stout

We had decent pizzas and good local beer. Great, interesting beer is one of the things New Zealand seems to offer in abundance. This is a local oyster stout, and when I asked the waiter if it had oysters in it he said no, but then the internet told me otherwise. Oops… :SREAD THE POST

Food Travel Postcard: Croatia & Slovenia

It’s been a whirlwind two weeks! My parents and I spent a week and a half exploring the nooks and crannies of Croatia, Slovenia, and northern Italy.  We started our trip in the unreal beauty of the Plitvice Lakes National Park, a UNESCO world heritage site. We walked through the rushing waterfalls and gorgeous teal and green waters.

plitvice

For more foodie + travel adventures, try:

Devouring the Food & Wine of Argentina

A Food Tour on Istanbul’s Asian Side

Sailing & Snacking in Sweden

Cinque Terre, Italy:  The Birthplace of Pesto
READ THE POST

Time for a change of scenery…

Well. This has been a long time coming. Somehow it’s now August, when I should have posted it back in April, but better late than never. Right??

Some of you may have noticed that I changed my blog’s subtitle—though most of you probably didn’t, because who reads blog subtitles anyway? It used to be “adventures in a tiny kitchen”, but that’s not really true any more. Because I bought a condo (that’s right, I’m a grown-up) and now have an awesome kitchen!

new kitchen

The kitchen is really what sold me on this place. New, stainless steel appliances, gas stove and oven, nicer cabinets (and lots of them). And most importantly, lots of counter space. I’d lamented my one square foot of counter space in my old apartment enough times that you know how much that means!READ THE POST

Random Musings: “If I were stranded at home during a natural disaster” food must-haves…

A week ago today, I was seeing people mention on Twitter that the Northeast was preparing for a hurricane. Having not paid much attention to the news recently, I assumed it was typical overreaction.

Spoiler alert: it wasn’t. It’s the first time I remember watching a natural disaster through the Twitter lens, seeing everyone’s reactions in real time. Most fascinating/horrifying for me is this one of the waters breaking into a New Jersey transit station—like the waters flooding through the rooms of the Titanic.

But I digress. It got me to thinking about the more fortunate of the hurricane victims, all the people who rode out the storms safely in their homes without any major damage, but now are kind of stranded until all the stores open up (and get more supplies in). If the Yankees were anything like Atlanta preparing for a storm, all the stores have been out of alcohol, milk, bread, water, and toilet paper for quite some time. A few years ago, the South was hit by a “Snowpocalypse”. Atlanta has like eight snow plows for the entire city, four of which are generally out of repair at any point in time. It also has insanely curvy and hilly roads. So any time there’s even the slightest hint of winter precipitation, the city just pre-emptively shuts down. Schools close before there’s even a snowflake, stores are emptied, everyone leaves work. And probably nine times out of ten, it ends up being a false alarm.READ THE POST

Amuse Bouche: I inadvertently made the world’s largest loaf of French bread

So, if you’ll remember, I tried out a 1-Hour French Bread recipe a couple weeks ago for my family, and it was awesome. This morning was my breakfast day at work (we take turns bringing in breakfast for our department), so I decided to make the Kale, Bacon, & Egg Breakfast Casserole and (given time restraints) the French bread and also some fresh strawberry jam. I also ended up having unannounced company last night, so I was a little distracted when I was making everything.

Funny story…I forgot that I’d halved the recipe last time I made it, because I didn’t need two loaves of bread. When I rolled the loaf out, I was thinking, “man, this is huge!” (that’s what she said…). But then it just kept expanding as it baked. Needless to say, I’m pretty sure I set a record for the world’s largest loaf of French bread.

Just meant I could feed half the office, not just my department…

Current Obsession: Trader Joe’s Mini (Soft) Almond Biscotti

This one will be short (and—promise—isn’t sponsored or anything).  When I was on the West Coast last weekend for a girls’ weekend with my best friend, she loaded up on Trader Joe’s snacks to keep in our hotel room for when we were feeling peckish.  Our first morning at the resort, she brewed up some french press coffee & busted out these gems.

They’re soft, crumbly awesome biscotti. About three of them equals one regular biscotti (both in size & calories), and what I love about them is that you don’t have to gnaw on them to be able to bite into them. They have them in almond and chocolate. Delicious!

While we’re on the subject of things I absolutely love, this is the only coffee I drink at home. Eight O’Clock hazelnut whole bean coffee, brewed extra strong. It’s like $3-5 at most grocery stores. Add some frothed milk, a little cinnamon, and you’re good to go! [Note…it’s almost 2019 and this is still what I drink every single morning, with a bit of French roast added.  That’s true love.]

Perfect weekend morning!

Great last-second dinner (Kashi Frozen Pizzas)

Weekdays are long. I mean, really long. As much as I love cooking, it just plain doesn’t happen most weeknights. And since I don’t want to live on takeout and cereal all the time, I’ve found a few great weeknight pre-made meal options that are delicious and not quite as bad for you as some of the others. Behold, the Kashi frozen pizza.

I’ve tried several different kinds, but my two favorite (by FAR) are the roasted vegetable and the Mediterranean. They bake in 8-10 minutes, and are a great standby for those nights when you get home from work at 8:00 and feel like your stomach is eating itself.

An entire pizza (which, let’s face it, I eat) is about 750 calories, over half your daily fiber allotment, almost 60% of your daily protein, and full of veggies and whole grains. The only things you need to watch out for are saturated fat and sodium intake–about 60% and 70%, respectively, of your daily needs. Since my regular diet doesn’t have tons of these, I don’t worry about it on a once-a-week basis.

Plus, you get a few good servings of veggies, which can be a struggle on any given day. Mostly a win all around!