After years of living in San Francisco, where beautiful farm-fresh produce is practically a given year-round, the adjustment to New York’s seasons has been a bit of a shock. The snow and cold hardly phased me (granted, the past winter was freakishly-mild); grocery shopping was a different matter. I’m not particularly proud of it, but I basically gave up on the farmers market after a couple depressing mid-January trips where I came home with naught but a couple sad, wrinkly onions and a few pounds of storage apples. On the flip-side, this seasonality makes the first peeps of spring produce all the more exciting. Absence makes the heart grow fonder?
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Baked Sweet Potatoes With Miso Butter and Scallions
Sweet-leaning vegetables like beets, butternut squash, and sweet potatoes have always been a tough sell for me. (Truly, it’s the earthy-sweet, vaguely-dirty flavor that I have trouble with, not the brix level of these vegetables.) That is, I had trouble with them before I learned how to treat them right. The secret is a classic flavor pairing principle: pair like with like; in this case, bold with bold. This can mean something acidic (think beets and yogurt), something spicy (think butternut squash and ginger), or, in this case, something deeply-savory, even funky (helloooooo, miso).
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Flourless Chocolate Walnut Cookies
You’d think I admitted to kicking puppies given the typical reaction to the following: I’m just not that into chocolate desserts. I love a high-quality bar as much as the next person — my favorites are TCHO’s Milk Chocolate “Cacao” 53% and Theo Raspberry — and I have a borderline obsession with Peppermint Patties and other chocolate-mint sweets, but classics like chocolate cake, ice cream, and chocolate chip cookies rarely do it for me. That said, my tastebuds make an exception for super-rich brownies, fudge, and other high-intensity chocolate desserts like these brownie-like flourless chocolate cookies.
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Banana Bread Baked Oatmeal
There’s no denying that banana bread is delicious; unfortunately, it’s not exactly the healthiest or most filling way to start the day. If you don’t have a big appetite in the morning, a slice might tide you over until lunch, but I prefer something more substantial (read: more fiber and protein, less sugar and flour). This banana bread baked oatmeal is the answer. Super-ripe mashed bananas and finely-chopped dates mimic banana bread’s sweet, almost-caramel-like, roasted banana flavor, while the half moon slices add visual interest. Toasted walnuts bring nuttiness and crunch, while a combination of whole milk, two types of oats, and an egg make it more satiating. While I’m not ready to give up banana bread as an occasional treat, this satisfies the same cravings all for less than 500 calories a serving.
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Brown Butter Gnocchi With Spinach
As some readers may know, this isn’t my first food blog. Years back, before my time at POPSUGAR Food, I created my first blog, BowlLicking. While BowlLicking no longer exists, a handful of the recipes I shared there are still in my rotation and deserve a second go-around. This ridiculously-speedy gnocchi dish is one of them.
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Cherry Vanilla Smoothie
Typically, I prefer a hot breakfast — scrambled eggs or steel cut oatmeal with lots of fruit and nuts — but on extra-busy mornings, smoothies are just the thing. My only gripe: many don’t pack in enough fat and protein to satisfy my appetite until lunch. This cherry-vanilla shake is bulked up with tangy, probiotic-packed kefir, and, while a bit lighter than my other favorite smoothie (banana almond), it’s quite satiating. Plus, it’s quite the looker.
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Radicchio Salad With Manchego
There’s much to like about Food52, Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs’ blog, culinary community, and shop, but if I had to choose just one area to highlight, it would be the blog’s aptly-titled Genius Recipes column, written by Kristen Miglore. Every week, Miglore highlights a recipe from a cookbook, restaurant, or other source that earns this title from both being ridiculously-tasty and clever in its preparation.
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Kale and Sweet Potato Soup With Cumin
In our pantry, you’ll pretty much always find a package or two of instant ramen stashed away. While it serves well as dinner in a pinch, especially when dressed up with a poached egg, sliced scallions, and sriracha, it’s really there for when either Andrew or I are sick with a cold. (Some might crave chicken noodle soup, but I prefer the sinus-clearing heat of instant ramen and other spicy soups.) Andrew recently had the flu, so our stockpile of instant ramen was raided. I only wish I had discovered this kale and sweet potato soup recipe before then, as ramen — while tasty — isn’t exactly the most nutritious option, and this would’ve been the perfect supplement to that.
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One-Pan Sesame Salmon With Shiitake Mushrooms
Over five years, my boyfriend Andrew and I have shared too many meals to count, but this simple, elegant salmon dish is one I’ll always remember. One of the first things I cooked for him, it felt like an unequivocal success, a meal enjoyed by all parties. Years later, when I made it again, Andrew gently revealed that he wasn’t too keen on it that first time; to his tastes the salmon was a bit too rare, something he was far too polite to point out at the time.
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Enoki Mushroom and Kimchi Bowl With Poached Eggs
Like a good Californian, I have a major soft spot for bowl food, especially in the form of vegetables topped with a runny-yolked poached egg. This particular combination of enoki mushrooms, kimchi, scallions, and sesame seeds is my latest fixation, as it’s super-flavorful, fast to fix, packs in the probiotics, and it feels at home any time of day (provided you’re down with eggs for dinner).
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