Feeling a little blase about the same weekly meals you've been passing around the table for the past ... can't even remember how long? Do your family dinners need a pick-me-up? Maybe it's time to give that worn, stain-splattered cookbook a rest. And you can do so by checking out some online food blogs that'll put a little sass in your sauce and make that old standby chicken recipe chic again.
You've probably heard of or maybe even dabbled in blogging. (A "blog," short for "Web log," is any sort of online journal.) While blogging can make for an amusing lunch-time diversion, let's face it: Reading someone else's musings on life probably isn't going to help you get dinner on the table tonight.
On the other hand, many food blogs offer news you can actually use. Some are loaded with tried-and-true recipes from people who are crazy about cooking. Here are just a few of the blogs run by Utah residents or natives that are worth checking out.
Hot Off the Garlic Press
Hot Off the Garlic Press is a site for "homemade chic recipes for today's home chef." This stylish blog is hosted by Natalie Riley, a stay-at-home mom and current resident of Sydney, Australia. Riley grew up in Orem and has only been globe hopping with her husband and kids for the past five years. (She was back in Payson visiting family for the holidays, however, and has a strong local readership for her blog.)
The recipes on Riley's site range from practical to posh, including her popular Peanut Butter-and-Chocolate-Drizzled Popcorn and her swanky Roast Vegetable Mash and Mushroom Steak with Crîme Sauce. Hot Off the Garlic Press is a great blog to check out if you're looking for food ideas for a special occasion or a fancy meal at home.
"I love to inspire my home-chef friends out there to take a risk and try something new, to get out of that rut and just go for it," Riley said on her Web site. "I believe that you can make delectable creations that are easy on the hips. I also strive for a balance between quick and fussy, decadently rich and skinny, advanced and beginner. There is some of everything here."
Kelsey's Kitchen
Brigham Young University graduate and former contestant on the Food Network's reality TV show "Next Food Network Star" Kelsey Nixon (Egan) has a Web site that's so slick it transcends blogging. This site offers "basic cooking techniques and ideas that are fast, fun and affordable to a young audience." The "young-audience" focus probably stems from Nixon's days as a student at BYU when she started her own college cooking show and hosted 100 episodes featuring recipes that were "simple yet satisfying."
The idea has carried over to her current site, where you'll find recipes that appeal to beginner cooks using ingredients that won't break the bank. This site also has many ideas for simple breakfasts, dinners, desserts, salads and sides, as well as seasonal recipes and ideas for game-day grub.
Nixon describes herself as: "A local cooking show host and foodie who blogs about all things food; favorite recipes, local food finds, gadgets and the crazy adventures she encounters as she pursues a career in food media."
Prudence Pennywise
prudencepennywise.blogspot.com
This blog is for you dine-on-a-dime chefs out there who want to cook up "scandalously good food on a budget." Erin Mylroie, a part-time humanities professor at Dixie State College living in Santa Clara, has a blog that is a penny-pincher's paradise. And with its '50s-styled Web design and big band music, you'll be ready to tie on a paisley print apron and bop around the kitchen while whipping up a batch of Mylroie's Fresh Corn Tamales.
From one-of-a-kind dishes to comfort-food favorites, Prudence Pennywise has a variety of recipes that are all conscientious of your dollar.
"I'm a fun-loving girl, given to flights of fancy and spontaneous purchases," Mylroie writes on her blog. "But when it comes to grocery shopping, my alter ego Prudence Pennywise takes over. I want the freshest ingredients at the best prices, which I use to create healthful, beautiful, fast -- who has time? -- delicious meals."
Stephanie's Kitchen
If you love to bake or love chocolate or, the deadliest combination, love to bake with chocolate, may we suggest you click on over to Stephanie's Kitchen and check out the good-enough-to-eat photos and recipes for her Molten Chocolate Lava Cookies and Oreo Fudge?
Stephanie's Kitchen is hosted by food blogger Stephanie Younger, a stay-at-home mom who resides in Lehi. Though Younger has a variety of food recipes posted, from Mom's Homemade Applesauce to Fruit Salsa, the baked goods -- cookies, muffins and cakes -- are easily the essence of this blog. She's also got some tricked-out pizza recipes that mix up the traditional slice of tomato sauce-based pizza.
"I have learned that baking is my real passion," Younger says on her site. "It releases my inner creative spirit. I enjoy creating my own recipes. It is such a fun process and so rewarding when you get to take that first bite of something you created from scratch!"
Taste and Tell
What if you're a Gourmet magazine kind of chef who likes the guarantee of a published recipe? Well, expectant mother and Orem resident Deborah Harroun is the girl for you.
Her blog, Taste and Tell, has a cookbook-of-the-month posting that highlights a different cookbook. Every Friday, Harroun chooses a couple recipes from a featured cookbook and posts them to her blog with insights and suggestions. The tagline for Harroun's Taste-and-Tell blog is: "Working my way through millions of recipes and telling the journey along the way."
"I love cookbooks and love to collect and cook from them," Harroun says on her Web site. "I am not a food snob, I just love to eat and love to cook. I rarely cook the same thing twice because there are so many recipes out there that I want to try."
And that's great for frequenters to Harroun's blog, as visitors can try out her featured recipes without wading through a stack of cookbooks themselves or wondering if a recipe is worth the effort of making.
• 4 chicken breasts
• 1/2 cup flour (I used whole-wheat and added flax. Do whatever you like.)
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/4 cup fresh herbs, minced (I grabbed whatever I could out of my garden; it was raining. I think I managed to grab parsley, oregano, sage, thyme and marjoram. It really doesn't matter if you use one or if you use more. Just pick something you like the flavor of.)
• 1 clove garlic
• olive oil
• salt
• 1/2 cup mushrooms of your choice, sliced
• 1/2 cup Marsala wine (I have used white wine in other versions. Or just use more stock.)
• 1 cup chicken stock
• 2 cloves garlic
• beurre maniere, enough to thicken
• A healthy drizzle of cream
Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Prepare the breasts by trimming the fat. I like chicken in smaller pieces, so I go a step further and cut each breast into three smaller pieces.
Pour the milk into a shallow dish for dipping. Prepare the flour by placing it in a shallow dish and use your fingers to mix in the fresh herbs and press in one clove of garlic. Dip the chicken into the milk, take it out and give it a little shake of salt. Dip into flour and herbs to coat. Place each chicken piece into a heated sauté pan drizzled with olive oil. Gently sauté the cutlets, turning once, until golden brown on top. They won't need to be cooked through. Place the golden cutlets on a serving or other oven-proof plate or dish. Place in warm oven to finish cooking through.
Meanwhile, keep heating the pan and add another drizzle of olive oil. Sauté the mushrooms until browned. Throw in the wine, deglazing the pan. After a minute, add in the stock and two more pressed cloves garlic. Reduce for a few minutes and then thicken by whisking in the beurre maniere. At the last minute, add in the cream and remove from heat.
Remove the chicken from the oven. It should be done just as the sauce is completed. Serve and garnish as desired.
*Make a beurre maniere by using a fork to blend together equal parts of flour and butter (I use more flour, probably 2-3 tablespoons of butter and 1/4 cup flour).
-- Courtesy Natalie Riley, hotgarlic.blogspot.com
• 8 fresh won ton or 6 egg roll sheets
• cooking spray
• 1 tablespoon sesame seeds
• 8 cups chopped romaine lettuce
• 2 cups chopped cooked chicken
• 1 large orange, peeled, or canned mandarin oranges
• 1 large avocado, peeled, pitted and chopped
• 1/2 cup chopped cilantro
• 4 green onions, cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1/3 cup roasted, salted peanuts
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Coat won tons with spray and cut into strips. Bake on foil-lined cookie sheet until crispy, turning once, about 8 minutes; sprinkle with sesame seeds. On serving plates, layer greens, chicken, cucumber, oranges, avocado, cilantro, scallions, peanuts and won ton strips. Drizzle with dressing and serve.
Ginger Soy Dressing:
• 4 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 4 tablespoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 generous teaspoon grated fresh ginger, or 1/4 teaspoon dried ginger
• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
pinch of salt
Whisk all dressing ingredients in a small bowl.
-- Courtesy Erin Mylroie, prudencepennywise.blogspot.com
Yield: 12 servings
• 1 cup fresh blackberries
• 1 cup fresh raspberries
• 1 cup fresh blueberries
• 3 tablespoons white sugar
• 11/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 11/2 cups rolled oats
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 cup butter, cold and cubed
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, gently toss together blackberries, raspberries, blueberries and white sugar; set aside. In a separate large bowl, combine flour, oats, brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. Cut in butter until crumbly. Press half of mixture in the bottom of an 8-inch by 8-inch pan. Cover with berries.
Sprinkle remaining crumble mixture over the berries. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 to 40 minutes, or until fruit is bubbly and topping is golden brown.
*Fresh berries may be substituted for frozen with the addition of 1 tablespoon of flour.
-- Recipe courtesy Kelsey Nixon, kelseyskitchen.com
Yield: 8 mini frittatas
• 4 eggs
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 1 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped
• 1/2 cup cheddar cheese
• 1/4 cup parmesan cheese
• 3 strips cooked bacon, chopped
Beat eggs in a medium bowl. Add remaining ingredients. Grease a mini muffin tin. Fill cups with egg mixture until almost to the rim. Bake at 375 degrees for 10-15 minutes or until centers are set.
-- Courtesy Stephanie Younger, stephanieskitchen.com
Yield: 16 empanadas
• 2 bananas
• 1-2 teaspoons super-fine sugar
• juice of 1/4 lime
• 6-7 ounces of semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 8 sheets of phyllo pastry, thawed and halved lengthwise
• melted butter
• cinnamon
• powdered sugar
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Peel and dice the bananas and put them in a bowl. Add the sugar and the lime juice and mix all together. Stir in the chocolate.
Lay one long rectangular sheet of phyllo out on a counter and brush with butter. Keep the remaining phyllo covered with a clean, damp kitchen towel. Put a couple of teaspoons of the banana and chocolate mixture in one corner of the pastry, then fold over into a triangular shape to enclose the filling. Continue to fold in a triangular shape until the phyllo is completely wrapped around the filling. Put on a large cookie sheet. Repeat the process with the remaining phyllo and filling.
Bake in a preheated oven for 15 minutes, or until the pastries are golden. Remove from the oven and dust with cinnamon and powdered sugar. Serve warm, but be careful, the filling will be very hot!
-- Courtesy Deborah Harroun, workingwomanfood.blogspot.com, adapted from "Sweet Treats (30 Minutes or Less)"
Posted in Lifestyles on Monday, January 5, 2009 11:00 pm
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