What does this mean?  To my husband’s sadness, it does not mean that I have diplomatic immunity in the continental US and parts of Guam.  It does mean that I am a total guru on how the average home cook can use this program in their own kitchens and wheresoever else their gastronomical fiefdom may extend.  Got questions?  I am here to help.  We can conquer the divide between dish and digital device together.

Because if there’s one thing I love, it’s barbecue.  Wait, that’s a different post.  Because if there’s one more thing I love, it’s inspiring people to cook.  That and really, really, really thin pancakes.  Thus, I invite you to join me and the worldwide Evernote community this Saturday for the first ever

Evernote Cookalong!

And the special dish of the day?  Crêpes!  Anyway you want them.  It’s a digital foodie’s dream come true.  There’s cooking, there’s crêpes, there’s picture taking, there’s drooling over said pictures, there’s prizes, there’s eating, there’s something for everybody!

You can read more about the event on the Evernote blog, or sign up on Facebook to participate.  Feel free to use my basic crêpe recipe to get started, or find your own (and share it with the rest of us!).

So come, join the fun.  Do a little dish, make a little crêpe, get down tonight.  (I promise, I’ll make better crêpe jokes later.  Or will I?  Only thyme will tell…)

No related posts.

You know what the best meal ever is?  Dessert.  But you know what the best meal ever after dessert is?  Brunch.  And do you know why?  Consider the Venn diagram below.  Study it closely.  Learn its truths.

Today was a grand and glorious celebration in the holy and delicious name of a meal time that occurs between 10am and 2pm.  We called it, Brunchapalooza! 

It’s something I’ve been wanting to do for a while–basically a giant potluck of everyone’s favorite brunch-time foods and drinks.  We had baked french toast casserole, corned beef hash, three kinds of quiche, polenta cake with glaze and whipped cream, sticky buns, scones, clotted cream, fruit, spicy Bloody Marys, you name it, we had it.  I captured a bit of it with Evernote Food.

More pics here

In addition to the traditional Bloody Mary, we also had (my favorite brunch drink) mimosas, with a variety of fruit juices available.  That’s what brings us to this post today.  Because these mimosas were no ordinary mimosas.  No, we raised the bar a little bit (no alcohol pun intended—or is it?) on these.

Remember that mango ice cream I wrote about last week?  Well you won’t forget it after this.

I made another batch of mango ice cream this morning, just before brunch.  Then, when everyone arrived, I put scoops of the ice cream into each wine glass.  Then everyone could customize their mimosa the way they liked—traditional orange juice, orange-pineapple juice or passionfruit juice, champagne, and even strawberries or other fruit dropped in.  So we ended up with mango mimosa floats.

I’ll say that again, a bit slower.  Mango.  Mimosa.  Ice cream.  Floats.  Or mangomosa floats, as I’m now calling them.

And it was freaking delicious.

So this is my gift to you, this simple suggestion to liven up your next brunch: add ice cream.  Oh and champagne.    Trust me on this one.

Related posts:

1. The Mango Tango, Pt 2
2. The Mango Tango, pt 1
3. What this new year needs is biscuits and pie

As Isha would say, “That’s a thing.”

So let me tell you about this dish.  It’s not a real tiramisu but rather a dish based on it.

It’s light, airy, sweet, citrus-y, delicious and really only requires a handful of ingredients. It’s three layers of lady fingers, pureed fresh mango and whole milk ricotta with a big of sugar and orange zest added.  That’s it.  It took me like 5 minutes to put together and then it just sits in the fridge for a few hours and voilà!

Impressive yet simple yet delicious yet light yet [insert adjective here] dessert.

If you like this dessert–and you will, I have no doubt–you might also like the strawberry version I usually make.

Related posts:

1. The Mango Tango, pt 1
2. The Mango Tango, Pt 3
3. Strawberry Tiramisu

So that’s pretty much what’s been going on here.  I made the first dish last night--mango ice cream, and mango-ancho chili ice cream.  Why ice cream?  Because:

• I got an ice cream maker for Christmas and have since gone a little ice-cream-making-mad
• It sounded delicious
• I had all the ingredients for that but none of the other items on my list and was too lazy to go to the store yesterday.

It was really easy to make, too, which was a nice bonus.  It also got the most beautiful texture of any ice cream I’ve made thus far, I mean just absolutely gorgeous texture.  Pale yellow color, light and airy and silky.  The flavor was a very light, sweet, fruity flavor, super refreshing.  The kind of thing you really want on a hot day, y’know?  To experiment a bit more, I tried a few different add-ins: coconut, chili powder, ancho chili powder.

The pure mango ice cream was my favorite.  The mango-coconut combination was Josh’s.  The chili powder was ok, but the ancho chili powder was pretty good, giving the ice cream an interesting, unexpected savory flavor.  Other mix-ins and toppings could include fresh mint or cilantro, strawberries, cashews, pecans, caramelized banana, candied bacon…really, anything.

P.S. Put your leftover mango peels in a pot with 1 cup of water and 1 cup of sugar and boil…voilà! Mango simple syrup.  Strain and bottle. 

Related posts:

1. The Mango Tango, Pt 2
2. The Mango Tango, Pt 3

I’m ashamed to say that I think that is only the second headline reference to Spaceballs on this blog.  I’m sorry about that.  I’ll do better.

Anyway, how are you?  How’ve you been, Internet?  Oh, really?  Interesting.  I’d love to hear all about that.  We should get together and you should tell me about it over a nice glass of raspberry soda. 

Just one glass, though.  Any more than that and I fear you might fall so madly in love with this homemade soda of mine that you might never leave my house.  You’d become a recluse, unable to eat or drink anything else, disheveled and sad, roaming the halls of my house moaning “Moooore Raaaaaaspbeeeerrry,” a pitiful, red-teethed, pre-diabetic shell of your former self.  And I would never do that to you.  Knowingly.  Well, maybe.  But probably not.

Now how about that drink?

Related posts:

1. Poms Away
2. Do you know the muffin man?

I had a few odds and ends in the fridge, including a tub of cremini mushrooms that I’d originally bought to make this garlic butter roasted mushroom recipe from Smitten Kitchen.  Instead of making the recipe as is, I decided to use it as inspiration for this pasta dish.  I want all of you health enthusiasts to note that there is no butter in this dish at all.  So there.

Oh, but there are two tablespoons of duck fat. Yeah.

Also, as my gift to you (and Josh…mostly Josh), I’m going to leave you with this inexplicable, time-honored internet meme:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIyixC9NsLI

Related posts:

1. Mushroom Ragout, from the “Keep Going Til It Tastes Good” Cooking School
2. Salsa + Spaghetti = Salsagetti
3. Garlic-Mushroom Chicken: Drive away those pesky vegetarian vampires

Wait, what’s that?  You don’t brine your turkey?  Mother of God.  That’s like saying you hate puppies, or that Ron Swanson isn’t a god amongst fictional and nonfictional men.  Brining is essential.  It is the easiest way to awesomize a turkey that there ever was, and it won’t burn down your house either (unless you’re doing something really, really wrong).  I know you’re already stressed out and, like Jack Bauer, you’re running out of time! (I’m full of tv references today), but that’s ok.  This will only take a few minutes and you probably already have everything you need to do it.

So let’s tart with the basics.  What is brining anyway?

At the very least, you need water and salt.  That’s it.  You would have a perfectly moist, delicious turkey once you’re done.  I like to add other flavors though.  You can either buy brining mixes or make your own–I’ve added links to some recipes below to give you ideas.  Josh and I brine all of our turkeys, and sometimes chickens too.  For Thursday, I’m doing an apple cider brine.  Basically, I’m going to

• use apple cider and chicken stock in place of water, and mix in salt, brown sugar, pepper, sage, a cinnamon stick and apple peel.  All of that will be boiled together until the salt dissolves and then cooled downl
• put a fresh garbage bag in a bucket or a clean trash can.  Put the turkey, cleaned (and empty the cavity, too) inside the trash bag.
• pour the brining liquid over the turkey, close the bag and let it sit overnight or up to 24 hours in a cool place.
• pull the turkey out of the brine when I’m about ready to put it in the oven, drain the water and pat it dry
• cook my turkey as normal (which in my case is roast it first at a high temp of 450-500F for a half hour, then lower the temperature to 350F and cook for about 20 minutes per pound).
• nom nom nom!

That’s easy, right? Right.

Well here’s some recipes to get you started:

• Cider Brine from MyRecipes
• Apple-rosemary brine from Babble.com
• Maple brined turkey from Burp Recipes
• Citrus and herb brine from SkinnyTaste
• PatioDaddioBBQ’s Ultimate Thanksgiving Brine
• Soy sauce brined turkey from Gastronomy Blog
• Hate a wet bird?  Try this dry brine from The Galley Gourmet
• Or this orange dry brined turkey from The Local Kitchen Blog

So try it.  Believe you me, your tastebuds and grateful family members will thank you.  And most of all…have a happy, healthy, tasty holiday and try not to stress too much.  It’s just a bird.

Related posts:

1. Sriracha-brined chicken and oil poached tomatoes
2. Apple Syrup. Yes, that’s a thing.
3. OMGWTFBBQ

I don’t claim to make sense. 

I can now claim to have made pizza crust, though.  And not just any pizza crust, but a very quick pizza crust that comes with a bonus: beer.  The recipe is originally from King Arthur Flour and, I have to say,  as easy as they said it would be.  Also, the taste and texture were great.  It’s the kind of crust that would lend itself really well to a generous seasoning of butter, garlic and parmesan.  Sadly I didn’t think of that til after, but I’m going try it on the next one.

Josh, being the resident beer expert in this house, got to select the beer that went into the dough and he picked Bell’s Oarsman Ale, a sour wheat ale. I didn’t have any “pizza dough flavor” (what is that, anyway?) but I did have a ton of fresh thyme, so I threw several sprigs worth of that in there too.  Also at Josh’s request, I made a bbq chicken pizza with Sweet Baby Ray’s bbq sauce, a blend of mozzarella and cheddar cheese, crumbled bacon and chicken that had been marinated in harissa oil, paprika and chili powder and then broiled.  It was pretty delicious.

I was very happy that the crust was so easy to make.  I’m actually on vacation from work for the next two weeks so I technically had time to try a long, convoluted recipe but I didn’t really have motivation to do that.  With this recipe, I just put everything in my mixing bowl and let the dough hook on my mixer do all the work.  Then I let it rise for a couple of hours, divided it into two, rolled out one half and froze the other.  It cooked in the oven at 450F for about 5 minutes, then I added the toppings and let it bake again for another 12.  And that was it.  Yummm.

Related posts:

1. When life gives you leftover bread, make pizza
2. There’s a Wocket in My Pizza Pocket
3. When the moon hits your eye like a grilled pizza pie….ow. That’s gotta hurt.

It’s been a very soup-y fall for me, for a couple of reasons.  1)Fall just seems to need soup.  I don’t know what it is but for some reason, fall is a soup season.  2)Soup recipes make a lot and it’s great for pouring leftovers into a jar and taking it work a couple days for lunch.  3)I rarely made soup before last year because I was convinced I was a failure at it.  I’m not nearly as nervous now.  Clearly if I can do, any idiot can.  But I repeat myself.

This is one of my new favorite stews because it has everything in it that’s yummy.  Cheese tortellini.  Italian sausage.  Spinach.  Tomatoes.  Garlic.  Parmigiano.  I feel warm and fuzzy just thinking about it.  I took some to work for lunch today and no joke, sat at my desk just slowly savoring the yumminess in a happified stupor.  Happified wasn’t even a word before this soup came along.  So there you go.

Note: This makes an excellent meal with maybe a small salad beforehand, a good chunk of bread drizzled with olive oil and herbs and a slice of plum tart with a dollop of whipped cream for dessert.

Related posts:

1. Cheesy Chicken Stew
2. Pork, Poblano and Black Bean Stew: the Blustery Day Fix
3. Comfort Food: Three Little Pig Chili

You know what I like about these bars?  Everything.  They were easy to make, very fast, tasty, they made the house smell delicious and they are a perfect fall treat for noshing on with a good sized mug of hot cocoa and whipped cream.

They came about because I was sitting home alone, bored, getting over a cold and therefore in sore need of some comfort food.  I didn’t want the usual sort of snack–cookies, brownies, etc.  Or more honestly, I didn’t have enough chocolate on hand for the usual snack.  Instead, I sifted through the 300 or so recipes in my Evernote cookbook tagged with “dessert” and found a recipe for pecan pie bars.

I didn’t have pecans…but I did have a Costco-sized bag of almonds.  Plus I knew that with a bit of extra cinnamon thrown in, the bars would basically be like eating candied almonds atop a shortbread crust.  And yep, that’s pretty much what they are.  Delightfully, they’re not too sweet at all–so they won’t push you into sugar shock if you eat one or two with a good helping of my homemade cocoa.

Related posts:

1. Double Chocolate Chip Almond Cookie Pie
2. “It happens every time; they all become blueberries.”
3. Lemon Bars, or How Many Lemon Jokes Have You Got?