I made three really easy and successful dishes in the instant pot. Here are the links: chicken chile verde, black beans, and Spanish rice. These led to some delicious taco nights this week!

I also made quick rolls to eat with butternut squash soup. Yum! Hope you all have a lovely week!

First up, I made two loaves of banana bread. My current favorite recipe is this one from smitten kitchen. I make three changes: 1) I replace the egg with 1Tbsp ground flax seed mixed with 3 Tbsp warm water; 2) I use coconut oil instead of butter; and 3) I add about 1/2t salt to make up for the lack of salted butter.

I’ve been fighting a cold, so when I read this recipe for a ginger brew, I had to make it ASAP. I mixed it with bubbly water – delicious and really similar to Rachel’s Ginger Beer.

Then I made a batch of my mom’s oatmeal, but without any fruit – my boys like it plain.

Finally, I tried out a new recipe – orzo with mushrooms, sweet potatoes, and kale. Don’t wait to try this dish – it’s amazing!!

I hope you all have a lovely week!

Our boys turned three this week – I’m honestly not sure how it’s possible that they’re this old. Or that they’ve only been in our lives for three years. Both thoughts are mind boggling.

C and H couldn’t care less about my mind boggling thoughts – they just wanted to talk about cake in the month leading up to the big day. They were definite that they each wanted their own cake, and initially they each wanted a pink cake. I had no idea what to do with this request (I’ve never made a pink cake!), so we spent time looking through cookbooks with pictures of cakes. They ultimately decided they both wanted chocolate cake with sprinkles – but one wanted vanilla frosting and the other wanted chocolate frosting (and which one wanted which frosting switched right up to the slicing of the cake, so I decided not to write any names on the cake and just stick to the sprinkles).

I turned to my favorite chocolate layer cake from smitten kitchen (link is here). I can’t say enough great things about this cake:

1. It’s incredibly chocolatey and rich;

2. The recipe is simple and only requires one bowl;

3. You can make it up to a week ahead and freeze the layers; and

4. I just doubled the filling to frost the chocolate frosting cake, so I only had two bowls of frosting to make.

And, so I don’t forget for future years: not only do the layers freeze beautifully, but frosting a layer cake while frozen is very easy, since the frosting cools and solidifies fast. I followed smitten kitchen’s suggestion and brushed each layer with a 1:1 ratio of water and sugar before frosting, and by the time we cut into the cake about 24 hours after frosting, there was no hint of dryness or indication that I had baked it a week before or frosted a day before. I hope you have great success with this recipe, too!

It’s definitely fall in Seattle, and all I want to do is bake and eat comfort foods. This morning I woke up thinking about blueberry muffins and then realized that I haven’t posted that recipe here. What an oversight!

The recipe from my mom is above – I blended the butter and sugar together with an electric mixer, then added the eggs. Next I added the flour and subbed in 1/2 whole wheat flour. I stirred the salt and baking powder into the flour, then blended for a really short time on low. Next, I added the milk and blended again until just combined. Last up was the blueberries – I don’t thaw them any more, then I scooped them into muffin pans with an ice cream scooper.

Luckily, H approves (so does C, but he declined to be photographed this morning).

Why hello there. It’s been a long time, huh? Since I last posted about being pregnant with twins (I think I was still in shock about the surprise of twins when I wrote that post!), things have been awfully silent around here. And that, unfortunately, is because I was barely able to cook while pregnant.

After the morning sickness (read: all day nausea) wore off, I had a month or two of feeling pretty good, and I spent all of my free time frantically prepping our home for our babies. And then I became so physically exhausted that every spare minute was spent napping. Thank goodness for my amazing husband, who made almost all of our food for essentially the whole nine months. Because he was flying solo, we relied on old familiar staples and food without a lot of spice (hello, pregnancy heartburn) that he could make quickly without trying to learn a whole new recipe (pizza, sandwiches, tacos, and yam, quinoa, & avocado bowls were our staples).

In early November, at 36 weeks and 4 days of pregnancy, I was induced. After many hours on pitocin and six crazy hours of active labor, I gave birth to two amazing boys, and our lives changed forever. In their first eight weeks of life, we relied on family and friends for all of our food. But I went to the store with the twins alone for the first time last week! It was the first time I had been in a grocery store since October! And now that they’re napping in longer stretches and the grandparents and aunts and uncles have all gone home, I’ve been venturing into the kitchen again. Mostly to make salads and sandwiches, but I have hope that someday soon I’ll be cooking and trying out new recipes again.

There are a few new recipes that we did make while I was pregnant, but since I didn’t have the brain power or energy to modify the recipes, I’m just going to link to the original websites below. These recipes are winners, all of which I left open in tabs on my iPad for months because I wanted to remember them and didn’t have the wherewithal to post them here. I hope you enjoy, and until I am cooking and posting regularly, I hope the archives on my blog serve you well!

Quinoa Avocado Salad. Looking for a quick dish to take to a potluck? You can’t go wrong with this recipe. We made it for our block party, and people were raving (the perfect introduction to our new neighbors!). We also made it for our babies shower (see what I did there? Two babies!) and it was completely consumed. It’s that good. We love it on the side of field roast sausages, or simply as a snack with tortilla chips. It’s best when fresh corn is in season, but you could probably make due with frozen or canned corn in a pinch.

Tarragon Chickpea Salad. Sandwiches were my saving grace while I was pregnant. Besides being quick and easy to make, they sat well even when I was nauseous. Egg salad and avocado & cheese were in heavy rotation, and I remember wanting something a little different for a change of pace. We were at Trader Joe’s one weekend, and I saw a container of their Tarragon Chicken Salad. The combo of grapes, celery, and walnuts sounded delicious. I searched high and low and landed on this recipe. I think it’s absolutely perfect.

Lentils with Vegetables. The last time I had friends over for dinner, I made this. It was right in the sweet spot of my second trimester, and I was craving hearty, healthy foods – quite a change from my first trimester! These lentils are the perfect combination of simple to make but complex-tasting. We served the lentils with goat cheese, rice, and some fresh arugula. This might just be one of the first things I cook again…

Spinach Torta Rustica. A good friend gave birth to her adorable baby in July. I wanted to bring something over that could be eaten with one hand if needed, was nutritious, and tasted great. Then I remembered this recipe! My mom used to make it for all special occasions, and I love that the recipe calls for lots of rising time, because rising time = nap time.

Bee Sting Cake. One of my close friends got married at the end of May, and I helped bake desserts for her wedding. Her now-husband is from Germany, so her awesome idea was to surprise him with traditional German desserts. Although my mom’s family is German, and we grew up eating pflaumen kuchen (a yeasted plum cake), I had never heard of Bee Sting Cake (or Bienenstich), but it’s a cake that I will definitely make again. The cake itself is yeasted and not too sweet, which complements the sweet topping and custard in the middle. Deb at Smitten Kitchen writes such an amazing blog, and her recipes are always spot-on. She gives very thorough and precise directions about how to cut open the cake and fill it. We questioned the directions when we were making the trial version, but they were totally right. The moral of the story: trust Deb! And make this cake. My only regret is that I didn’t make two, because it was eaten so quickly by the guests at the wedding!

Black Forest Cupcakes. I made these for M & P’s wedding as well. Just like the Bee Sting Cake above, the cupcake isn’t too sweet, which perfectly complements the sweet cherry filling and whipped cream. We couldn’t find kirsch (a cherry brandy), so we just used regular brandy, and they still turned out great. We also found that Trader Joe’s has the best pitted cherries (stored in jars in their own syrup) for this recipe!

happy fourth of july, everyone! as you may have noticed, it’s been a long time since I’ve posted. and I’m going to commit the cardinal sin of blogging and give you an excuse about why I’m not blogging.

see, there’s two reasons. and they’re pretty big. well, no, that’s not the right adjective. they’re actually quite small. but they’re going to change our lives in a big way. those two reasons? Baby A and Baby B.

yep, I’m pregnant with twins. wow. every time I say (type) that, I can’t believe that we’re really having twins and not just one baby. finding out I’m pregnant with twins was the biggest surprise we’ve ever experienced, especially as they don’t run in my family…although i guess they do now. :-)

since april, I have been pretty down and out and have not cooked much at all. luckily, Mike is an amazing cook, so I’ve still been eating very well…after the first
trimester of eating saltines, peanut butter, ginger ale, and not much else, that is. but I’m feeling better and my energy is returning, and I’ve started cooking every so often. so I promise I’ll be back here with updates and new recipes soon! thanks for hanging with me as we begin this next adventure! oh, and if you want this recipe for popovers, click here, and make sure you use real milk and not soy or almond (thanks for the tip, linn!)!

although we’ve been cooking dinners regularly since we moved into the new place, i haven’t been baking much. most of my extra time has been spent working on projects around the house and garden, and not in the kitchen. it’s amazing how owning a home changes all of my priorities!

when i had a couple of extra hours last week, i decided to throw together banana muffins from ingredients i had around the house, because i miss baking so much. i borrowed the recipe from hannah kaminsky’s my sweet vegan.

the original recipe called for using dried bananas and rehydrating them, but i substituted the dried bananas for regular, ripe (but not overripe) bananas, and i like how it turned out. if i had dried bananas on hand, i probably would have used them…but i did not feel like running to the store to make these. i hope you’re all having a happy easter, and i’ll be back soon!

• one year ago:
  • irish soda bread
  • fresh spring roll bowls
  • mushroom barley soup
• two years ago:
  • brussels sprouts with dijon
  • taco night
  • chunky spaghetti sauce
• three years ago:
  • lemon meringue pie
  • sourdough blueberry pancakes
  • sourdough bread
  • whole wheat bread
• four years ago:
  • potatoes and coleslaw
  • sweet potato tacos
  • healthy brownies
  • muhammara
• five years ago:
  • waffles
  • banana chocolate chip bundt cake
  • thai “chicken” pizza
  • carrot oat coconut cookies

banana muffins

yields 12 muffins
slightly adapted from hannah kaminsky’s my sweet vegan

• 1/2c plain soymilk
• 1/2t apple cider vinegar
• 1c all purpose flour
• 1/2c oats
• 1t baking powder
• 1/2t baking soda
• 1/4t salt
• 1/2t cinnamon
• dash nutmeg
• 1/4c canola oil
• 1/4c brown sugar
• 1/2t vanilla extract
• 2 overripe bananas, mashed
• 1c ripe (but not overripe) bananas, diced
• 1/2c walnuts, chopped
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