Category: Tutorial

Food Experiment: Salted Almond Joy Protein Bars

RippleI crave two things: salt and chocolate.

I love salty, crunchy snacks (*cough* Herrs Ripples Potato Chips are not permitted in my house right now) and rich, dark chocolate (also no Ghirardelli 60% Chocolate Chips around here). Needless to say, most of my favorite things involve salt. But in order to stay near my goal range (note I did not say IN it because I’m not right now) I need to be creative. Plus I’m always looking for ways to get more protein in my diet, especially in my snacks. This recipe is not perfect, but it’s tasty AND edible!

Salted Almond Joy Protein Bars

I think maybe these need a chocolate coating to hold them together instead of putting the chocolate on the inside. I’ll experiment again with these later and update. Hope you give it a try!

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So You Want to Host Your First Christmas Dinner

christmas-dinner-rk1azhycSo maybe you’re not the most confident cook, but you’re stuck at home over the holidays while family is far away. Maybe you want to try having a few people over and sharing in that holiday spirit. (Okay, maybe this my MY story, except it ain’t my first rodeo. But I’m stuck at home AGAIN this year, so instead of spending the entire day in my pajamas pouting I invited my friend Sharon over for dinner!) So I thought I might write up a little tutorial on how to plan for a small holiday dinner party.

Step One

Keep it small. Starting off with too many guests is a recipe for disaster. We’re just having one guest, but I’d say if you’re in a couple, choose another couple and stick to just the four of you. You’re going to enjoy yourselves even if it’s a small group, and only having to worry about one or two extra people really helps reduce the stress, especially if you’re close friends! Bonus if those people are willing to be involved in the prep.

Step Two

Keep it casual. Please do not decide you’re going to make beef wellington for a dozen guests. This is the definition of insanity. I’m an intermediate cook, and beef wellington is HARD. Choose dishes that don’t require you to spend a lot of time in the kitchen, out of sight. I plan on making a lot of things that can be prepped ahead of time. Here’s my menu:

  • Baked Ham
  • Cheesy Potato Casserole (Boiled potatoes, cubed and mixed with sour cream, cheese and chives)
  • Brown Butter Balsamic Green Beans
  • Russian Black Bread
  • Pear, Pomegranate & Spinach Salad

The only thing that needs to be prepped last minute are the green beans.

I’m also not going to worry about fancy place settings or courses. Everything’s going on the table at once, and we’ll help ourselves.

Step Three

Make it personal. Do you have an ethnic family recipe that you can share with your friends? I plan to make potica for dessert, as long as I remember to ask my grandma for the recipe! Sharing your cultural background with friends is a great way to show you care. What about a family tradition you can share?

Step Four

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Okay, maybe not this much fun. Source

Make room for fun! Do you have board games? A Wii? Be goofy and have some fun!

So, are you hosting anyone for the holidays this year? What are your tips for keeping your cool? Let me know in the comments!

Homemade Light Box – Part II

Hey ya’ll!

Okay I suppose I should not pretend to be Southern and instead embrace the local colloquialisms.

HEY YOUSE GUYS.

Ugh, okay, I’m never saying that again.

Ready for part deux of my light box project?! I AM!!!!! (You can read Part I here.)

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!SAFETY DISCLAIMER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

IMG_20150930_070117610X-Acto blades/knives are DANGEROUS!!1!!!eleventy!!!one!!! Please use them with CAUTION! During my years in architecture school I used one of these things daily and I have had my experience with finding one of these extremely sharp blades in a part of the body where it doesn’t belong, such as embedded deeply in the pad of my big toe or in the fleshy bit of your hand between the thumb and index finger (right about where the point of the blade is in this photo). Trust me, YOU DO NOT WANT THIS EXPERIENCE. It is NOT FUN. So please, please, PLEASE be careful. Thank you. Now, onto the light box!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!END SAFETY DISCLAIMER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Step 4 – Line the box with your solid white paper. This is a royal pain in the ass. You may want to do a better job than I did. Just saying. Be liberal with your clear tape, especially in the corners!

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Step 5 – Use a piece of translucent paper to cover the angled hole along the back of the box. I used a piece of drawing vellum, because that’s what I had! I taped only the top and bottom and not the sides.

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Step 6 – Set up your lamp so that the light shines through the translucent paper.

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Then you’re all ready to go! The bottom of the box is left open so you can use pretty tablecloths or a big block of barn wood, etc to jazz the place up a bit. Here I set up a little still life to show you how it looks:

Not bad, eh? It’s no substitute for natural light but I don’t think my boss would take kindly to me leaving work in the middle of the day to blog about food. And here’s tonight’s dinner, lovingly referred to as cabbage slop (it tastes like a bowl of stuffed cabbage, mmm):

IMG_20151005_180213561 (1)So there you have it, my DIY light box project!