‘Tis the season for apple cider! Every year, I make sure to pick up some store-bought apple cider to enjoy. But this year, I wanted to try to make my own Fresh Juiced Apple Cider using my Hurom Juicer (paid link) and was surprised with how easy and delicious it was to make!
You can make this fresh juiced apple cider with whatever your favorite apple is, but I suggest aiming for a sweeter apple, like Honeycrisp.
I like to add rye to my cider to make a spiked cider. You can also add bourbon, spiced rum, or drink as is for a non-alcoholic beverage!
Ingredients (makes about 6 cups, multiply as needed):
12 apples, cored and sliced
10 whole black peppercorns
8 whole allspice berries
5 whole cloves
2 cinnamon sticks
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
the zest of 1 orange
the zest of 1 lemon
9 oz (or 6 shots) rye, bourbon, or spiced rum (omit to make non-alcoholic)
Now that it’s fall, it is the perfect time for me to share one of my go-to quick weeknight dinners: Chicken Pesto Meatballs.
This recipe for Chicken Pesto Meatballs is equally easy, quick, and delicious – you’ll be amazed at how flavorful these meatballs are!
The below recipes serves the meatballs with a pesto pasta, but we have also enjoyed the chicken pesto meatballs on a bed of salad greens, with rice and vegetables, or on their own as an appetizer.
Ingredients:
Chicken Pesto Meatballs:
1/2 cup homemade or store-bought pesto (if buying store bought, I strongly suggest going to the prepared foods section of the supermarket to see if they have any freshly made pesto rather than jarred)
1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs
1 large egg
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 pound ground chicken
1/2 cup grated parmesan
Pesto Pasta:
16 oz pasta of your choice (my favorites are fusilli and orzo for this recipe)
One of my favorite parts of being a member of a CSA is the abundance of tomatoes that they provide. During tomato season, I gobble up tomato sandwiches, salads filled with tomatoes, and basically any tomato-filled recipe I can. Recently, even I had more tomatoes than I knew what to do with, so it felt like the right time to make some homemade gazpacho, or more specifically, Juicer Gazpacho Shooters!
As I gathered my ingredients, my husband asked if I was using our Hurom H320 Cold Juicer (paid link) to make the gazpacho. Now, why didn’t I think of that?
let’s take a moment for my pretty tomatoes
These Juicer Gazpacho Shooters are so easy to make! Most ingredients are added straight into the hopper, and the juicer does the hard work for you.
The result is a beautifully silky-smooth gazpacho, perfect for serving in small shooter glasses (paid link) for a great summer party appetizer or a fun start to a meal.
Note: I have permission to share the below Fried Rice Carbonara recipe from Danny Freeman’s latest cookbook, Italianish (paid link)
Before I share this recipe for Fried Rice Carbonara, I want to give some background on its inspiration. Recently, I attended an event at Binding Agents, Philly’s only cookbook store, located in the Italian Market. The event included a talk, signing, and pasta demo with Danny Freeman to feature his new cookbook, Italianish: Modern Twists on Class Italian Flavors (paid link).
Danny Freeman, or Danny Loves Pasta, is known for creating fun and beautiful, colorful pasta shapes and recipes (his first cookbook, Danny Loves Pasta – paid link – is an absolute delight). His latest cookbook, Italianish, is a celebration of Italian American flavors reimagined for easy family-friendly and many weekday-friendly recipes.
During the talk, Danny spoke of his inspiration of this latest cookbook, growing up in an Italian American home, and adapting those flavors and recipes for his own family. Italianish is filled with creative, inventive, and playful takes on Italian classics, including recipes for Lasagna Soup, Rigatoni alla Vermouth, and Rainbow Cookie Cookies.
The cookbook includes a bunch of indices that make this cookbook so incredibly useful. There is a time index so you can quickly scan recipes based on how much time you have – some recipes can be made in as little as 15 minutes! There is also a sauce index and a meatball index to help you better mix and match to create multiple versions of the recipes within the cookbook. Italianish also includes three “intermezzos” which highlight cicchetti (small snacks originating in Venice), fresh pasta, and farro bowls.
While providing insights into his latest cookbook, Danny Freeman also gave a demo on different fresh pasta shapes, which I can’t wait to try for myself at home!
Danny Freeman was kind enough to allow me to post one of the recipes from his cookbook on my blog.
To highlight the imaginativeness of Italianish, I’ve chosen to recreate Danny’s recipe for Fried Rice Carbonara.
As Danny writes, “With the pork and the eggs, [fried rice] is not so different from a carbonara! The classic pasta dish is made with guanciale, Parmesan, and egg yolks, and we can use those same flavors to whip up this quick carbonara fried rice.” I absolutely love Spaghetti Alla Carbonara, so I couldn’t wait to try this recipe!
Ingredients (serves 2 as a main dish, or 4 as a side):
3 cups cooked rice
4 oz guainciale or pancetta, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
If you’ve never had Homemade Corn Ice Cream before, you’re in for a treat!
It’s summer, which means there is an abundance of corn at the moment. I am a member of a CSA (Penn Farm CSA in New Castle, DE run by students at William Penn High School), so I’ve received about half a dozen ears of corn the last few weeks — that’s a lot of corn! So I decided to use some of those sweet cobs to make Corn Ice Cream. (If you, too, have quite a bit of corn on hand, try one of my corn-filled recipes!)
The natural sweetness of corn makes it a perfect choice for ice cream. The addition of egg yolks to this recipe makes a beautifully creamy and decadent Corn Ice Cream!
Note: I was sent tins of Fishwife Smoked Rainbow Trout in order to write this Smoky Pantry Pasta post. Opinions are my own.
There are so many occasions when a pantry meal, like this recipe for Smoky Pantry Pasta, can be a real life saver.
I try to have a couple of pantry meals on hand for busy weeknights, the first meal back after a vacation, or, most recently, when we are in the process of moving to a new home. Preparing for the move meant that we were in cleaning out mode and doing our best to not have to go to the grocery store for any additional items.
Mid-move, I was sent the most beautifully packaged tinned fish from Fishwife – three tins of Smoked Rainbow Trout (affiliate link).
Fishwife is a female-founded and led food company aiming to make ethically sourced, premium, and delicious tinned seafood a staple in every cupboard. Founded in 2020, Fishwife sources from healthy fisheries and certified sustainable aquaculture farms to bring the vibrance of conservas culture to the North American table.
The Smoked Rainbow Trout is raised in an ASC-certified sustainable farm in the Denmark countryside and is slow-smoked in small batches over beechwood to give it that beautiful smoky flavor. The Fishwife website suggests enjoying their Smoked Rainbow Trout stirred into a lemony pasta, as smoked trout dip with potato chips, or in a savory sandwich.
source: eatfishwife.com
I adapted this Smoky Pantry Pasta recipe from a pantry pasta recipe on Fishwife’s website, making it only with items I already had on hand. Although the original recipe calls for anchovies, I thought the smokiness of the Smoked Rainbow Trout would enhance the recipe even more!
Ingredients:
1 (16 oz) box pasta (I used gemelli because that’s what I had on hand)
Why yes, I am still making ridiculous amounts of ice cream in my spare time. There are so many different flavors to try to make! I was inspired to make my latest recipe for Homemade Blueberry Ice Cream by my mother-in-law who loves all things blueberries.
With blueberries in season, what better time to make this delicious treat?
To make this Blueberry Ice Cream, you unsurprisingly need a lot of blueberries – 4 cups – not including adding optional whole blueberries at the end. So it is truly filled with blueberry goodness!
Ingredients:
4 cups fresh blueberries, plus more if desired for mixing in
Today I am sharing a super versatile recipe for Cheesecake Ice Cream that is a result of, well, me having way too much cream cheese on hand.
Recently, some of my husband’s friends came to visit and brought us New York bagels (always a welcome gift in our house!), and a good 1 1/2 pounds cream cheese. Even after all the bagels were gone, we still had 12 oz of cream cheese left!
So what better way to use up all that extra cream cheese than with this recipe for Cheesecake Ice Cream?
You may recall that I made a cream cheese-based ice cream with my recipe for Irish Potato Candy Ice Cream, and I loved it so much, I knew I’d be making more cream cheese-based ice creams soon!
This recipe is very simple and works well on its own or as a base for some more creative Cheesecake Ice Cream recipes — strawberry, cherry, chocolate, whatever makes you happy!
Everyone needs more weeknight dinner recipes, and this recipe for Grapefruit Miso Butter Chicken is nice and simple for those weeknights you really don’t feel like cooking.
With just six ingredients, you can have the super tasty Grapefruit Miso Butter Chicken on the table in 40 minutes!
I’m back with yet another new ice cream recipe that I’ve been dreaming about for months: Strawberry Basil Ice Cream.
As the weather gets warmer, the in season produce just gets better, which means a bunch of new inspiration for ice cream flavors. We are entering the beginning of strawberry season now, so I was excited to make this Strawberry Basil Ice Cream!
This recipe for Strawberry Basil Ice Cream steeps fresh basil in the cream and sugar base, which adds a subtle basil flavor under the more prominent strawberry flavor. If you want a more prominent basil flavor, you can absolutely mix in some freshly chopped basil when churning your ice cream!
Ceviche is a surprisingly easy meal to make at home, and this Salmon Ceviche is no exception! I know it seems like it would be super intimidating but trust me, you can have this seemingly fancy dish ready in 30 minutes!
The one thing to keep in mind when making salmon ceviche is that it is strongly suggested to use salmon that has been previously frozen to help ensure food safety. Ceviche is raw, after all!
For recipes like this Salmon Ceviche, I use my salmon filets from Sitka Seafood Market. (I have a subscription, and have had one for years, but the link is not an affiliate link) Sitka Seafood Market’s Salmon is wild caught and quickly frozen, so I know it is safe for raw consumption.
This Salmon Ceviche comes together quickly. Once you have prepared your ingredients, just add them to a non-metal bowl and let marinate for up to 30 minutes and you’re done!
Ingredients:
the juice of 1 lemon
the juice of 1 grapefruit
the juice of 3 limes
1/2 red onion, minced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 bell pepper, diced
1 avocado, diced
1 to 2 salmon filets, pin bones and skin removed, cut into bite sized pieces
This recipe for Tahini Millionaire Ice Cream is inspired by one of my favorite dessert recipes on this blog: my Tahini Millionaire Bars. If you haven’t tried my Tahini Millionaire Bars yet, I strongly suggest you check out that recipe!
So what is Tahini Millionaire Ice Cream? It is tahini flavored ice cream with homemade salted caramel and chocolate ganache swirls, and it is going to be one of your new favorite ice cream flavors!
Ingredients (makes about 1 quart):
Tahini Ice Cream:
1 cup tahini, stirred well
1 cup sugar
2 cups heavy cream
2 cups whole milk
1/2 tablespoon almond extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
Homemade Caramel (you can also use store bought):
1/2 cup sugar
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
Note: I was sent samples of Goldswarm Honey in order to make this Honey Glazed Orange Ginger Shrimp. Opinions are mine alone.
Just wait until you try this Honey Glazed Orange Ginger Shrimp! The shrimp is marinated in a garlic-ginger-Chinese five spice, then tossed in an orange honey glaze and is served over rice for a wonderfully flavorful weeknight meal!
I was sent this recipe along with some absolutely delicious honey from Goldswarm Honey, a luxury honey sourced from the wildflowers of West Africa.
With its bold floral notes and deep caramel undertone, Goldswarm elevates any dish or drink into a gourmet experience. Unlike mass-produced honey, Goldswarm is ethically harvested from Nigerian beehives and completely free of preservatives, additives, and heat processing – preserving its rich antioxidants and nutrients.
This recipe for Honey Glazed Orange Ginger Shrimp seemed like the perfect way to test out (and highlight) Goldswarm Honey!
Ingredients (serves 4):
1 lb. large peeled and deveined shrimp (20-25 count)
5 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon finely diced ginger or ginger paste
2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
½ teaspoon Chinese five-spice powder, plus more for garnish
There are few things as good as crispy, seasoned, flavorful roasted potatoes that still have a soft center. This recipe for Crispy Air Fryer Potatoes is the ultimate way to make the best crispy potatoes I’ve ever had!
This Crispy Air Fryer Potatoes recipe does require you pre-boil your potatoes before adding to your air fryer, but the whole recipe still comes together in under 45 minutes.
Serve with your protein of choice. I love these with some roasted salmon and a salad for a simple weeknight meal.
Ingredients:
2 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes, cut into bite sized pieces
I know St. Patrick’s Day was a week ago, but these Irish Soda Bread Scones are so tasty, they need to be shared! Plus, who needs a specific holiday to enjoy something as yummy as Irish Soda Bread Scones? These can (and should) be enjoyed all year round!
Inspired by one of my favorite Irish treats, these Irish Soda Bread Scones are really easy to make. Just like traditional Irish Soda Bread, these are best eaten with softened butter, and maybe a smear of your favorite jam.
