This recipe for Creamed Carrots is an adaptation of the creamed carrots that my grandparents used to make for our family dinners every Sunday when I was a kid.
We no longer have extended family dinners once a week, but the creamed carrots still show up at all holiday meals and are my dad’s absolute favorite veggie side!
The carrots are cooked until they are very very soft after absorbing a delicious creamy base. The end result is melt-in-your-mouth, flavorful creamed carrots!
Note: I was sent a DREO ChefMaker Combi Fryer for review, which I tested using this recipe for Teriyaki Chicken Wings. All opinions are mine alone.
I am super late to the air fryer band wagon, but I am kind of happy I held out long enough to instead try a DREO ChefMaker Combi Fryer (paid link)! I am still becoming acquainted with all of the delicious options this appliance has, but I was so impressed with my first test run making these Teriyaki Chicken Wings that I had to share it immediately!
The ChefMaker is described on DREO’s website as “the most professional air fryer for making Michelin-starred meals.” The appliance uses “CombiCook technology” which translates professional cooking methods into intelligent algorithms that allow ChefMaker to become a fully automated master cooking machine that handles temperature, time, and atomization by itself. It also includes a water atomization system that replenishes evaporated moisture and reduces the chamber temperature to prevent food from charring and ensure the core gets evenly cooked.
There are a ton of ingredient-based presets to take a lot of the guesswork out of cooking, as well a three professional cooking modes: Chef Mode (ingredient-based master chef presets), Classic Cook (choosing a cooking style including air fry, defrost, reheat, broil, roast, toast, bake, and dehydrate), and Probe Cook (take full control of cooking temperature to create new recipes).
In addition to the appliance itself, the DREO app includes step-by-step videos for recipes while also tracking the cooking process on your phone.
Sounds kind of awesome, right? I wanted to try the ChefMaker out as soon as possible! Using the app, I found a recipe for Teriyaki Chicken Wings that I miraculously had all ingredients already on hand. I adapted the recipe slightly, but tried to stick to the step-by-step videos as possible to get a sense of the benefit of the app as well.
Pureed Rutabaga is a staple of basically every extended family gathering I have ever been to. But my family always refers to this dish as Turnips, which used to confuse me quite a bit because, well, there is also a vegetable called a turnip.
Apparently, rutabagas are also known as yellow turnips which is where this confusion comes from. Rutabagas are actually a hybrid of a turnip and a wild cabbage!
Anywho, I love pureed rutabaga / turnips. They are fluffy, creamy, with a little bit of spice.
This recipe is particularly perfect for large gatherings because you don’t have to use your stovetop or oven at all, saving space for other dishes.
A friend reached out to me with a food challenge: how to make baked ziti that will be hot and ready when they come back from a christening. A Slow Cooker Baked Ziti recipe seemed like the perfect solution!
Naturally, I had to do some experimenting so that I could give her a recipe to use that I know will work for her needs.
This recipe for Slow Cooker Baked Ziti involves layering ingredients in your slow cooker (paid link). letting it cook for 2 1/2 hours, and then adding some mozzarella cheese on top for ultimate cheesiness!
Note: I received free cow cash from Crowd Cow to try some of their products in order to write this post. Opinions are mine alone. This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links
As much as I love a nice, quick weeknight meal option, I really enjoy when I have a free Saturday or Sunday to slow it down and make an oven-roasted dish, like this recipe for Boneless Leg of Lamb with Roasted Vegetables.
We’ve had some sporadic fall-like days in Philadelphia recently, so I made the most of a cooler weekend day and tapped into one of the proteins I received in my Crowd Cow box! Crowd Cow is a frozen protein delivery service that partners with ethical farms, fisheries and producers globally. They hand select independent farms to deliver the best craft meat from the farm to your table.
I was super impressed with the selection on Crowd Cow. They have staples like free-range chicken, pasture-raised beef, and sustainable seafood, but they also have some options that caught my eye, including wild boar, elk, bison, and, of course, boneless leg of lamb.
I will have future posts highlighting some of my other purchases, but today, it’s all about the boneless leg of lamb. Boneless leg of lamb is surprisingly easy to make, and doesn’t require a bunch of ingredients to make a great meal. This one-pot recipe cooks the leg of lamb, then tosses some vegetables in the drippings and roasts them to perfection!
Note: I was sent samples of Bear Mountain BBQ Wood Pellets in order to write this post. Opinions are mine alone.
I’ve mentioned many times in the past how much I love to grill, but last summer I began dabbling in smoked foods. I don’t own a smoker, so I just use my grill, and Bear Mountain BBQ Pellets make it super simple to do so! Last year I made an awesome recipe for Smoked Potato Salad using Bear Mountain’s Gourmet Blend. This time around, I’m sharing a more traditional smoked food recipe: Smoked Chicken Wings!
My husband is kind of chicken wings obsessed. His current favorite wings dry rubbed smoked wings from our local pizza place, Pizza Plus, so I decided to try to make some of my own at home. I used Bear Mountain Bold BBQ Pellets for this recipe, but their Gourmet Blend would also work.
Ingredients (makes 3 lbs wings, or 2-4 servings. Multiply as needed):
Before I get to this awesome recipe for One Pot Jamaican Curry Chicken and Potatoes, I wanted to share with you a new addition to my kitchen that I’m madly in love with. One of the most important tools in any cook’s kitchen is a skillet. I use my skillets more than any other pot/pan in my house (although my Dutch oven gets a pretty good workout too). So having a good, sturdy, evenly cooking skillet is super important. I’m not exactly kind to my pots and pans… they get frequent use, and my husband isn’t the best at remembering not to use metal utensils on my non-stick cookware (sigh)… so having a skillet that can put up with some abuse is really important to me.
Which is why I’m so excited to share the 11-Inch NanoBond Skillet from Hestan Culinary, handcrafted in Italy. Not only is it beautiful, the NanoBond technology makes this skillet darn near indestructible.
Here are some of the features:
Molecular titanium bonds thousands of nanolayers for a lifetime of beauty
400% stronger than stainless steel
35% better heat conduction than aluminum-clad cookware
Additionally, the skillet is high-heat tolerant to 1050°F! So it’s perfect for searing meats or even cooking right on the grill.
To test out my new skillet, I wanted to make something I’ve been craving for a while now: Jamaican Curry Chicken and Potatoes.
This one pot (or skillet) wonder simmers chicken and potatoes in a seasoned curry sauce until the chicken is fall-off-the-bone tender.
Ingredients:
1/2 tablespoon garlic powder
1/2 tablespoon onion powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
2 pounds bone-in, skinless chicken thighs and drumsticks
2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 large onion, sliced
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/2 tablespoons Jamaican mild curry powder (I used Jamaican Choice)
1 habanero pepper
2 medium Yukon Gold Potatoes, washed and cut into bite sized pieces
I have used Butcher Box(note: affiliate link) for a while now, and love the quality of the meat and seafood they offer. I tend to switch up what comes in my boxes so I can work with different cuts. My latest box had a boneless pork butt, so I figured it was about time I created and shared a pressure cooker pulled pork recipe.
I do have a few other pulled pork recipes on my blog, and they are all fantastic, but they are slow cooker based. So here’s a recipe that helps get that yummy pulled pork on your table a bit faster using an Instant Pot or other multi cooker without losing that cooked-all-day flavor!
Some traditional dishes eaten on New Year’s Day have less to do with the new year and more to do with a country’s history. So this year, I’m sharing my adaptation of an Independence Stew from Haiti. Celebrated every January 1, Haiti proclaimed independence from French colonials on New Year’s Day 1804 following a 13 year revolution. Soup Joumou, a comforting stew traditionally made with beef, pumpkin, pasta, and a bunch of veggies and spices, has become a New Year’s Day dish to commemorate Haiti’s independence.
I adapted this recipe from Epicurious, scaling it down quite a bit and swapping butternut squash for the pumpkin because I couldn’t find any pumpkin that wasn’t already pureed.
Ingredients:
Marinade:
1/2 small onion, coarsely chopped
1 bell pepper (any color), coarsely chopped
1 scallion, coarsely chopped
1 garlic clove
1/4 cup parsley leaves
1 basil leaf
the juice of 1 lime
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/8 teaspoon sweet paprika
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
1/8 teaspoon onion powder
1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper
Remaining Ingredients:
1/2 cup plus 1/2 tablespoon distilled white vinegar, divided
1 pound stew beef cubes
7 cups chicken or beef broth, divided
2 beef bones
1 pound butternut squash, cut into cubes
2 medium russet potatoes (about 1 pound), finely chopped
1 large carrot, sliced
1/4 small green cabbage (about 1/2 pound), very thinly sliced
1/2 small onion, sliced
1 celery stalk, coarsely chopped
1 leek, white and pale-green parts only, finely chopped
1 small turnip, finely chopped
1 teaspoon habanero chile hot sauce, or to taste
1 cup uncooked rigatoni
3 whole cloves
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 parsley sprig (optional)
1 thyme sprig (optional)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon unsalted butter (omit to make dairy free)
I honestly don’t make pork tenderloin much. Unless I’ve slow cooked it, or wrapped it in bacon, I feel like it comes out pretty dry. Which makes it the perfect meat to make using a precision cooker! So since I’ve gotten a precision cooker, this recipe for Sous Vide Herb Crusted Pork Tenderloin has become a staple in my house.
Cooking the pork tenderloin sous vide keeps the meat juicy and tender. Plus, it infuses the meat with whatever herbs you add!
Note: I was sent a Flying Fish Can Variety Pack in order to write this post. Opinions are mine alone.
There are some recipes that almost instantly become a go-to comfort food. One of those recipes for me is arroz con pollo. It has a ton of flavor, an assortment of different vegetables, and is wonderfully filling. Plus, it can be made ahead of time and reheated. What more could you ask for?
My husband has recently taken a liking to quinoa, so I thought making a quinoa version of arroz con pollo, or Quinoa con Pollo, would be an awesome spin. Flying Fish’s Can Variety Pack features five different beers including their OnShore Lager. One sip, and I knew it would be the perfect ingredient in (and accompaniment to) my quinoa spin!
If you follow me on Instagram, you have probably seen a couple of posts / stories about the variety pack. The outdoor themed variety pack truly has something for everyone, including two IPAs (Hopfish and Outside IPA), a Pale Ale (XPA), a Session Sour (Salt and Sea), and a Lager (Onshore Lager). The Hopfish is awesome with spicy food, and the outside IPA has been my go-to when I’m relaxing in my hammock, or hanging out with friends on my roof deck. The XPA is Flying Fish’s original beer, and continues to be a staple for a reason; it goes great with everything! The Salt and Sea was the perfect complement to our friend’s crab feast and barbecue. And the Onshore Lager has a crisp, clean finish making it perfect for both cooking with and drinking.
So let me show off that lager!
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons unsalted butter (or olive oil to make dairy free)
6 boneless skinless chicken thighs (about 2 lbs)
1 medium onion, chopped
6 garlic cloves, minced
2 bell peppers, sliced
2 teaspoons onion powder
2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 teaspoons dried oregano
2 teaspoons dried parsley
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 teaspoon ground cumin
2 1/2 cups chicken broth
1 (12 oz) can lager (I used Flying Fish Onshore Lager)
3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce (omit to make gluten free)
I love a good dip. It’s one of my favorite snack to bring to a party — it travels well and are always a hit! As a somewhat recent owner of COSORI 6 Qt Electrical Pressure Cooker and I had yet to use it for beans, so I needed to change that! In case you didn’t know, you can use an electric pressure cooker (or multi-cooker) to cook dried beans relatively quickly, without needing to soak them overnight or boil them for an hour.
This Pressure Cooker Black Bean Dip can be made in about 1 hour, and is creamy and flavorful, and comes topped with all the fixins!
Ingredients:
Seasoning blend:
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
Other ingredients:
1 1/2 cups uncooked black beans, rinsed
1 red onion, chopped and divided
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes, drained
2 cups vegetable broth or water
1 tablespoon olive oil
seasoning blend (above), or 1 1/2 tablespoons taco seasoning
the zest and juice of 1 lime
1/4 teaspoon hot sauce
For serving:
bell peppers, finely chopped (I used mini sweet peppers for more color)
This recipe actually builds from the two previous, with some minor changes. For simplicity, the entire recipe from start to finish is below so you don’t have to go to multiple posts to make it. The multi-pot shortens the time of making a solid chicken soup, but it is still a labor of love. Total time to cook is roughly 3 hours.
It freezes well, so it’s a great recipe to make now to have on hand for sick days!
Ingredients: (serves 8)
Chicken:
1(3 to 4 pound)whole chicken – I used a 3 pound chicken
My husband has been on a pretty solid streak of making himself salads for weekday lunches. Nothing terribly fancy: lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, a protein, and some olives or cheese with homemade dressing. For the protein, he tends to use canned tuna, beans, or rotisserie chicken. So when I heard that you can make your own “rotisserie” chicken in a pressure cooker, I knew I had to try it! May I introduce you to: Pressure Cooker Whole Chicken!
The recipe is quite straightforward… season your chicken, brown on all sides, and then pressure cook. Pressure cooking doesn’t result in crispy skin, but boy does the meat stay juicy!
Because I usually have a recipe in mind when I go food shopping, it’s pretty rare that I come home with a rogue ingredient. But recently, while picking up ground beef and sausage for my Meatballs and Tomato Sauce at Primal Supply, I noticed that they had ground lamb, and felt compelled to buy it.
I didn’t exactly have a goal for the ground lamb, but decided to work with ingredients that I know work well with the flavors of lamb: cumin, saffron, mint, and cinnamon.
The result was Spiced Lamb with Saffron Couscous: saffron couscous, topped with flavorful ground lamb, pistachios, feta, dried apricots, and fresh mint!
Ingredients:
Couscous:
1 1/4 cups chicken broth
1/4 teaspoon saffron threads, crushed between your fingers
