Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes

These cupcakes are the greatest cupcakes I have ever made. They don't have much competition, as I do not like to bake all that much, but out of all the cupcakes I have made, these are the best. I'm not a big fan of pumpkin pie, and these cupcakes are a great way to have pumpkin pie spice (so delicious!) without having to have the pie. I also added some pumpkin pie spice to the frosting, which only added to the awesomeness.

Make these. Trust me.

Beef Tacos

There is only one thing that can come close to the love I have for pizza, and that is the love I have for tacos. Tacos combine a few of my favorite things like beef, cheese and not using a fork. Which brings me to the real reason why I love tacos so much, which is that no one can eat tacos neatly. It is the only meal where I am not the only person at the table making a hot mess of themselves.

The following is for my sister E, who loves when I demonstrate my mad Paint skills on the Internet.

Sad but true. I am a mess.

Cobb Salad

I have tried giving blue cheese a fair chance. I have tried it multiple times, in multiple things and each and every time it has left me with a bad taste in my mouth. Literally. The entire time that I ate this salad I couldn't help but think it would be so much better if I had made it with feta instead. Feta is the greatest, whereas blue cheese tastes like feet.
If you like the taste of feet, feel free to keep the blue cheese in this salad, but if you would rather eat something delicious swap it for feta.

Pork Fried Rice

I'm beginning to think I should just name this blog after Everyday Food. Most of the recipes that I cook come from there. I can't stop recommending this publication. (They don't even pay me for my glowing reviews, I honestly just think everyone should buy it) By now, if you haven't listened to me and picked up an issue, it's about time you do!

Mediterranean Chickpea Burgers

Most of the time when I check my mail there's nothing exciting in there, mainly just bills or flyers. Sometimes, though, the newest issue of Everyday Food is in there, and it's a beautiful day. Their March 2011 issue has page after page of recipes that I have to try, and the first one I made is the Mediterranean Chickpea Burgers. I have had a recent obsession lately with burgers, especially bean burgers. I had to text my roommate sister the other night to see if she was sick of the Veggie Burgers with Tahini Mayonnaise yet, because I felt like making them again for the third time in two weeks. (Side note: The veggie burgers are even better when a little Sriracha sauce is stirred into the mayonnaise. Also I discovered that butter lettuce is good on them, and I hate lettuce on burgers)
The chickpea burger that I made last night, does have beef in it. The patties are roughly half ground beef and half chickpeas and bulgur wheat. NOM NOM NOM. When I was buying the ground beef I managed to give myself a heart attack and embarrass myself all at the same time. What you need to know is that I am half Dutch, which means I am half cheap. I have zero issue paying lots of money for Lululemon, but I will not spend lots of money on other things, like ground beef.
I was looking at the ground beef and for roughly a pound of it, the price was $9 or so. Usually it's about $5, so this sent me into a panic attack about food prices going up and how I would no longer be able to afford one of the cheapest meats to buy. I spotted a butcher and I said "Hey, why is the ground beef so expensive?" and he said "That's ground bison". I'm an idiot.

Sriracha Glazed Chicken Burgers

Generally when I see a recipe for chicken wings that I want to make, I make it as a chicken burger. I do love chicken wings, but I really love burgers, especially chicken ones. In a recent issue of Everyday Food, they had a recipe for Sriracha Glazed Chicken Wings. I took the same sauce, and adapted the recipe to make chicken burgers. These were AMAZING.

Pineapple and Ginger Smoothie

Smoothies can be a deceitful drink. Sometimes people like to think they are doing themselves a big ol' favor drinking one. Those people can be wrong. Some smoothies are made thick and creamy by adding ice cream, some are made sweet by adding a lot of sugar. This smoothie is actually good for you, and, like most things out of Everyday Food, it tastes good.

Spice-Rubbed Fish with Lemony Rice

Yesterday was not my day. I woke up, got ready and came to work. Once I got there someone (clearly a male, since no woman would say this) said to me "rough night?". No, it was not a rough night. I slept well, and for a decent amount of time. So clearly, it was just my appearance that was rough.
I work in a field that is pretty well dominated by men. They have this ability to say or do the dumbest things. One of my favorites is "did you get your haircut?" and then when I say yes, their reaction is a nod or grimace. A woman would know that even if you hate the haircut, if you brought it up you still say it looks great.
So that was the start of my morning, and the "badness" ended up snowballing until the end of the day when I was making supper at 9 pm. And then things got better, because I made a one pot meal, that took 35 minutes from start to finish, and it was only 348 calories per delicious serving!

Pork Bolognese

When I am looking at a recipe and see the words ground pork, milk and wine listed in the ingredients, I am skeptical about how it will turn out. If I see a pasta sauce with milk in it, and the sauce is tomato based, not cream based, I am hesitant to try it.
This past week has been pretty chilly in Edmonton, one that makes you want to turn the fireplace on and have a bowl full of soup, or chili, or pork bolognese. This recipe comes from, no surprise, Everyday Food.

Quinoa Cakes with Maple Pear Topping

In one of the more recent issues of Everyday Food there was a recipe for Quinoa Cakes. Similar to pancakes, but made with the goodness of quinoa, which is quickly becoming one of my favorite ingredients. The batter gets dropped into the pan in a heaping tablespoon, which will seem small, but it spreads out and puffs up quite a bit. They aren't as light or fluffy as pancakes, but I would go so far as to say that I like them better.
I topped it with a maple pear topping. It is a creation from my friend M, who is a genius in the kitchen. The recipes for both are after the jump.

Pasta with Pancetta, Tomatoes and Onion

Before we get to the food, I must share some of the latest things on my blog. I have added share buttons, which means if you really like my post you can share it by emailing it to a friend, posting it on Facebook, or Twitter. Speaking of Twitter; I have joined the masses. You can follow me, username missnoladyblog. Finally, on the right side of my blog there is a widget that makes it possible for you to tweet or Facebook my blog itself, not just a link to the individual post. Remember kids, sharing is caring, so if you like what I cook, share it!

Ok, let's get to this pasta. This is an Everyday Food recipe, they call it Bucatini with Pancetta, Tomatoes and Onion. I changed it to pasta since I made it with bowties, not bucatini. This was such a cinch to make, most of the ingredients are listed in the title, and the most time consuming part was dicing the pancetta.

Salmon Burgers With Yogurt Dill Sauce

I was flipping through some of my older issues of Everyday Food when I found this recipe for salmon burgers. I know that there are some great benefits (omega 3 fatty acids, for instance) to eating salmon, and I generally like it, but I don't eat it very often. I tend to overlook salmon as a protein that I could be eating for dinner. This recipe caught my eye though, and I made it that night.
The salmon is mixed with horseradish which gives the patty a considerable bite of flavor, but doesn't completely cover up the taste of the salmon. The yogurt dill sauce is a fantastic condiment, and the whole burger comes in at roughly 330 calories. What's not to like about a healthy, filling and delicious meal?
(click "read more" for the recipes for the sides I served with the burgers, and a demonstration of my awesome Paint skills)

Onion and Bacon Soup

I received a text from my friend C the other night, she was asking if I had read the new December issue of Everyday Food. She went on to say that she made the Onion and Bacon Soup, and that her and her husband loved it more than Julia Child's recipe. Which, given how I knew she felt about Julia Child's recipe, meant the recipe had to be really good.
One thing about Julia Child's recipes is that there can be a lot of steps and ingredients involved. Great recipes for the weekend, but if being made in the work week you could end up eating at 9 or 10 pm. This particular Everyday Food recipe has 5 ingredients, and only uses about 10 minutes hands on time.
It is the perfect recipe for supper on a cold, wintry day.

Asian Meatballs

It's no secret that I love Everyday Food. When I received the newest issue in the mail, I immediately flagged a few recipes I wanted to make. The Asian Turkey Meatballs with Carrot Rice was the first one that I tried, though I made it with ground pork instead of turkey. (Ground pork is cheaper)
I was skeptical of how flavourful the meatballs would be, but I needn't have worried. Everyday Food recommended serving them with lime wedges and a squeeze of lime on the meatballs was perfect, it balanced out the spiciness from the hot sauce.

(also hit "read more" for a Sweet Marie bar recipe)

Pasta with Leeks, Peas and Prosciutto

This is one of the easiest pasta dishes I have ever made. The dish is one of those that takes no effort or time, but the results are impressive. The most time consuming part of this was slicing up leeks, and since leeks cooking in butter is the greatest smell ever, it's well worth it.

Spiced Carrot Cake

I have been on a bit of an Everyday Food kick lately. I have over four years' worth of issues piled up and I have started feeling bad about how little use I get out of them. I made this spiced carrot cake the other night and I was thrilled with the results. I could still taste the carrots, but it was very subtle. The glaze kept the cake moist, even over the next couple days. I topped it with a bit of Cool Whip that I had lying around, but it wasn't necessary.

Veggie Burgers

If you ask me, a burger without meat is not really a burger. Even though Everyday Food calls these bad boys a Veggie Burger, I call it a tasty sandwich. The patty is mainly made of bulgur and beans, with a few mix-ins to give it some flavor. The patty is pan fried to give it a crisp outside, and it remains soft in the middle. I really enjoyed them, they had great texture and taste.

Mac n Cheese

I was on holidays this previous week. Normally I would try to make write a couple posts and set them up to post throughout my holidays, but I am an idiot. I thought I was on holidays this current week, and found out last Saturday that I was actually gone this past week. So it was a mad scramble to get ready to go, and preparing blogs fell to the wayside.
I made individual mac and cheese before I left. The recipe is from Everyday Food.

Stir Fries/Frys?

Today is Friday, and not only is it Friday, but it's also my friend K's birthday! If there's something I love more than Friday, it is birthdays. And if there's something I love more than birthdays, it's eye candy. Today I combined them:

Nice. Although it kind of looks like he went swimming in the Gulf that BP is ruining.

Recently I have made two similar dishes from Everyday Food. First up is Sweet and Sour Pork. The basic ingredients are pork tenderloin, canned pineapple, bell peppers, broccoli, green onions, rice vinegar, and soy sauce. I know some of you are like "WHAT? Rebek you hate broccoli!" It's true, I do. So instead of broccoli, I used sugar snap peas.

According to my sister roommate, she said that this sweet and sour sauce was better than some of the ones she tried in China. I can't confirm if this is true, but it was really good. (The picture of this dish is at the top of the post).

Next up, Stir-Fried Honey Ginger Chicken. The ingredients for this stir fry are chicken breasts, bell peppers, garlic, and ginger. The sauce is made with honey, soy sauce and rice vinegar. There is a lot of ginger in this stir fry, and I am not crazy about ginger. I like it in small doses, but I made the stir fry according to recipe, and it was delicious.

Both of these were really quick to put together. When making any stir fry, it's important to assemble the ingredients before starting the cooking process. Food doesn't take long to cook this way, and you don't want to be stuck chopping up an ingredient while another burns in the pan.

Overall, both of these were great, though that isn't a surprise because Everyday Food has yet to disappoint me.

Buffalo Chicken Wraps

I love buffalo sauce. If I had my choice any time I had wings, I would always order the buffalo style. Usually though, I am having wings with anti-buffalo flavor people and have to settle on one that we both like.

One of my biggest pet peeves about recipes with buffalo sauce, they feel that taking any hot sauce and adding some butter results in the same flavor as buffalo wings that you would order in a pub or restaurant. It doesn't. It still tastes exactly like whatever sauce you used. Only a bit richer. This made me a bit frustrated, as I tended to avoid recipes that I would have loved to try. Then one day I was at the grocery store and saw:

There is no need to add butter, and it tastes exactly like how a buffalo wing should taste! Although in the image above, the seal looks weird to me. Like someone used Paint to make it look like there is a seal. Am I wrong? (It wasn't me, obviously, since my skills in Paint are awesome, and no one would be able to tell it was fake)

I received my new Everyday Food in the mail the other day, and they had a section of sandwiches and wraps recipes. There are no links to the actual recipe, and I tweaked some things around, but the following is an adaptation from the recipe in EF for Buffalo Chicken Wraps.

I had planned on using actual chicken breasts, like in the recipe. I order chicken breasts through work, and I just got a new box on Monday (when I was making the wraps), but I left it at work. Of course. So I bought a rotisserie chicken and shredded the meat. Since I was only making two wraps, I reserved half the meat for later this week.

The half for the wraps I placed in a sauce pan, drizzled some of Frank's Red Hot Buffalo Sauce on top, and heated it over medium just to warm the chicken and sauce.

The original recipe made a blue cheese dip by combining crumbled blue cheese and plain yogurt. I had some sour cream on hand instead. I crumbled the blue cheese, and put it on my food processor with about 4 tbsp of sour cream.

I own one of those mini food processors, and it is my favorite thing. I use it all the time, since it is small and doesn't take up a lot of room in the dishwasher. I think everyone should own one.

I spread some of the blue cheese mix on a tortilla, and then topped it with some of the chicken mix, some sliced celery, carrot ribbons and shredded iceberg lettuce. (Luckily this time I bought the inorganic and it wasn't brown)

To make carrot ribbons, use your vegetable peeler as if you are going to peel the carrot, only just keep going until there is no carrot left.

These were really good. I think what I would do next time is make sure I used chicken breasts that were cut into chunks and then cooked in a pan. Rotisserie chicken was good in a pinch, but I think it would be better the other way.

I am also not the biggest blue cheese fan, I find it to be very overpowering so next time I might use a ranch dressing instead. Overall though, I really thought this was a great summertime supper.