A Life in Food
Cherry Crisp is one of those obligatory summer desserts and I for one, happily oblige. Making a crisp couldn’t be easier. It’s nothing more than mixing a few things together and sliding it into the oven. This is a perfect dessert for those just learning how to bake and also those of us who happen to love cherries. No pie filling here or cake mix of any sort. This cherry crisp is made from scratch with only a handful of ingredients.
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The Divas are back, friends! It’s Friday and that means a week’s worth of dinner recipes along with 2 extras. From pizza to pasta, we have it all this week, including a fresh tomato tart and a gorgeous salad for lighter meals.
How it works: Every Friday morning, a new meal plan will show up in your email. It will consist of 5 dinner options, plus 2 extras. Those two extras could be side dishes, dessert, drinks, etc. The Dinner Divas weekly menu plans will feature (mostly) healthy, seasonal foods that don’t take all day to prepare. Getting the weekly menu delivered to your inbox on Friday morning gives you the chance to make your shopping list and get organized for the week ahead. We’ve got so much good stuff this week! I’d love to hear from you & see your creations! Post a pic using #DinnerDivas and tag @pookspantry! I hope this weekly menu plan provides inspiration and makes life a little easier… one meal at a time.
I am over the moon for this Pork Banh Mi Burger from Girl in the Little Red Kitchen, It has everything I love in a burger. Tons of flavor!
Next is this One Pot Pasta with Fresh Tomatoes and Spinach from The Chef Next Door. I don’t know about you, but Tuesdays are always harder for me than Mondays. This is the perfect low effort meal for me.
One of my favorite (and most popular) recipes. This Heirloom Tomato and Goat Cheese Tart is a serious stunner. Although it looks quite fussy, it’s not as difficult to make as you might imagine. It’s a beautiful way to use up those luscious summer tomatoes!
This beautiful Strawberry Mango Salad with Strawberry Poppyseed Dressing from Comfortable Domestic is a great option for a light Summer dinner when it’s just too hot to cook.
Friday means PIZZA and Pastry Chef Online does not disappoint with her Sausage Gravy Pizza with Peppers and Onions.
It wouldn’t be summer without an awesome recipe for potato salad. Girl in the Little Red Kitchen brings Potato Salad with Bacon, Corn and Peppers as an extra treat this week. I would be first in line for this!
Finally, we close out the week with The Best Strawberry Shortcake from Comfortably Domestic. I can’t imagine a backyard gathering without it. What a perfect way to wrap up!
Thank you all so much for being here! Next week, our theme will be RED, WHITE & BLUE! Just in time to plan your 4th of July menu.
Remember, if you make any of these recipes, use the hashtag #DinnerDivas so we can see your creations! See you next week!
Butter Pecan Biscotti are perfect for holiday cookie exchanges and for sharing! One of my favorite ice cream flavors is butter pecan, so I wanted to turn it into a biscotti for giving away as homemade gifts for friends this holiday season.
Normally, I am too busy to do much baking during the holiday season. This year is different. We just moved to a new city and I am still healing from surgery so my time in the kitchen is limited. Baking loads of Christmas cookies is something that I really enjoy and these biscotti are going to be in the regular rotation. They received rave reviews around here and this house is well versed in cookie consumption. Biscotti are an excellent option if you ship cookies to friends and family, like I do. They hold up well and remain fresh much longer than normal cookies.
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Eggs baked in mini bell pepper cups are the perfect brunch item. Make a few variations and your guests can help themselves, leaving you to enjoy your guests instead of being stuck in the kitchen.
I had bell peppers on my list. Not these sweet little things, but the grown up kind. When I laid eyes on these, somehow the big guys lost their appeal. I’m a sucker for cute little things.
As soon as I got them home, I started thinking about what I could do with them. The obvious was mini stuffed peppers or filling them with dip and sticking a few veggies in them. Then I went a completely different direction… I love the idea of these for a brunch. With the holidays right around the corner, these would be a perfect bite for Christmas morning or the day after Thanksgiving when any major cooking is off the table. The evening before, slice the lids from your peppers and wrap them up for the refrigerator overnight. In the morning, crack an egg into each pepper and slide into the oven. How’s that for easy and minimal cleanup?!
These are also perfectly portable, just toss a couple in a container and off to work or school you go! I’d much rather eat this than a dry granola bar. Looking for a light meatless supper? It’s got you covered there too! They are also a good size for little hands, no silverware necessary.
Back to brunch: I love the idea of a platter filled with a dozen of these, with different spices or seasonings, on a bountiful table for everyone to help themselves. (READ: I’m not waiting on you!)
Small servings work especially well for someone like me who is perfectly content to make a meal of several appetizers. I like to taste a few different things instead of having one entree! This allows me to have one baked egg and also a few other treats, which is really my goal in life… to try everything I can get my hands on.
Be creative! Try different combinations, different herbs, etc. Scallions, tarragon, chives and dill are great herbs for eggs. Curry powder, hot sauce, HP sauce (from UK) and of course hollandaise, if you’re feeling fancy, are delicious on eggs. Another option is putting a little cheese or bacon in the bottom of the cup, or whisking it all together and making an omelet baked in the pepper cup. Whatever your favorite egg combination, make it delicious!
Crisp fall air and leaves turning shades of red and burnished orange, the crackle of them under your feet as you walk down the street with hands snuggled deep inside your pockets. Autumn is by far my favorite season. The temperatures begin to cool down at night, calling for an extra blanket or a down comforter. This is something I miss now that I live south of the Mason Dixon line. It’s only been 3 and a half years, but I doubt I’ll ever really get used to the lack of (distinguishable) seasons.
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Labor Day weekend is behind us, and for me that marks the “unofficial” official end of summer. I’m not quite ready to “pumpkin spice all the things”, and I’m grasping onto the last ripe tomatoes, corn and veggies that summer has to offer, but fall is right around the corner. This summer has brought sweltering temps with it and I for one, am ready for it to cool down just a bit.
This recipe came to fruition based on 2 things: I had puff pastry in the freezer and I had figs that were on the verge of being too soft. Wasting food is a Cardinal Sin in my book, and I needed desserts for a client so it was a no-brainer. I looked through the fridge to see what I had on hand to make this come together; it wasn’t much. Luckily, I had cream cheese and I figured if I sweetened it up just a touch, the finished product would be almost Danish-like.
You want dessert, but you don’t want to spend hours making it… However, if said dessert gave the appearance you had spent all day making it that would be a bonus. Amiright?!
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I love my “swirly” bundt pan, but it’s a tad smaller than the average bundt and I always have leftover batter. This may not seem like an issue, but sometimes I don’t want to make extra cupcakes or little cakes. I just want One Big Bundt! So, after dropping a few subtle hints and finally telling my Mom that I was planning a heist and the prize was her Classic Bundt pan… Voila! She told me that one was on it’s way to me! Thanks, Mom! (sometimes, a girl needs to resort to extreme measures)…
Remember a few months ago when I went to a food conference and was assigned as brand ambassador for Idaho Potatoes? They asked me to come up with a recipe using dehydrated potatoes and after bouncing around a few ideas, we settled on this biscuit. 
When I was in the “testing phase” of this recipe, The Girl asked me why would I use dehydrated potato instead of leftover homemade mashed potato. She had a good question and I figured if she was wondering that, someone else would be too. Here’s the answer:
Other than Thanksgiving (when all of us make extra on purpose), when do you have extra mashed potato hanging around? Not very often, I’m guessing. Also, I don’t want to wait for the occasion to have them just to make these biscuits and furthermore, I don’t want to make them just to wait for them to get cold so I can make biscuits out of them. All that being said, the biggest reason for using the dehydrated potato instead of leftover mashed: THEY WORK BETTER! I kid you not, the biscuits are amazing.
If you’ve had potato bread or rolls, you know that sweet smell and soft, fluffy texture that can only be found by using potato. It works in breads, so it stands to reason that it would be great in a biscuit as well. And it is.
I wanted to flavor these biscuits with some kind of herb and dill was my first choice. If you aren’t a fan of dill, swap it out for rosemary, thyme or whatever herbs you prefer.
The texture of the potato biscuit is fluffy and tender. The crust is beautifully golden and when you break them open, they smell of sweet, buttery mashed potato. You can’t beat that.
Potatoes do not have gluten (the protein that gives bread its chewy texture), so these biscuits remain tender and moist. They are a smidge denser than regular biscuits, but are by no means heavy. They are my new “go-to” biscuit. They are easy as can be, because it is a simple drop biscuit, which means no rolling out and cutting dough. I’ve made a rather big batch and froze about half of them to use in another recipe that will be coming soon! I’ll give you a hint: breakfast.
I’m already planning ahead for the holiday season and these potato dill biscuits will be on our table this year. I can already imagine stuffing them with turkey for a little afternoon snack…
Thank you again, to Idaho Potato® for sponsoring this post! They are wonderful to work with and it allows me to share tasty recipes with you!
Sheet Pans
Parchment Paper
Kitchen Scale
Thank you for spending a little time with me today 🙂
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Did you know that July is National Blueberry Month? Let’s make a cake and celebrate!
Last week, I was flipping through an old book and 2 things fell out onto my lap: this recipe and an old black & white photo from a birthday party.
That’s the story of my life. I’m usually a fairly organized person, but little scraps of paper plague my existence. I find them everywhere. I mean, literally everywhere. I scribble down notes or ideas and shove them into a bag or toss them onto the dining room table or kitchen counter. I’m staring at a handful of them as I type this…
I’ve given this recipe a permanent home now, which makes me quite pleased because this cake happens to be one of my very favorite things in all the world. In my humble opinion, crumb cakes are absolutely one of the recipes that should be in everyone’s back pocket. A good crumb cake is a crowd pleaser. Have you ever met someone that didn’t like crumb cake? Me either.
It almost guarantees you’ll get another invite if you bring it to someone’s house. Ask my friends, I’ve taken it a few times 😉
This cake has a Very Generous crumb topping, which is mandatory in my book. The cake itself is surprisingly light, but sturdy enough to support a hefty amount of fresh blueberries. Get them while they are in season, because those plump little blueberries are best in the summer months!
The time between Thanksgiving and Christmas is usually a blur for most of us, which is why I’ve complied a dozen recipes that could come in handy for this time of the year. There are cookies, cupcakes, homemade sanding sugar, hot chocolate and an adult beverage or two to enjoy.
Happy Holidays to you & yours! Thank you so much for stopping by!