Eat Your Heart Out

BLT Panzanella

Stephie — Wed, 22 May 2013 23:14:25 +0000

It’s no secret – at least to those of us sane people who like tomatoes – that one of the best summer lunches is a good ol’ BLT. Toasted bread, crisp lettuce, juicy tomatoes, crunchy bacon…it just doesn’t get any better than that.

During a recent texting conversation with my blogging sounding board, it was decided that it would be entirely possible and utterly delicious to turn the traditional BLT into a panzanella, a Florentine salad traditionally made with stale bread and tomatoes dressed with olive oil and vinegar.

Basically, we are looking at a salad made of carbs. There’s no way you could possibly go wrong with that.

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Coconut Mango Cupcakes {Cupcake Couture Blog Party}

Stephie — Tue, 21 May 2013 10:00:06 +0000

I know I promised you a savory recipe last week.

I accidentally lied.

I say “accidentally” because I really did intend to give you my great-grandmother’s pimento cheese recipe at the end of last week. But has anyone else noticed that life has the fun habit of not going quite according to plan most of the time? So you’ll have to wait for pimento cheese (it’s coming, I promise you) and take cupcakes for now.

Today I am joining 20 other awesome bloggers to bring you these cupcakes as part of the Cupcake Couture Blog Party. Dreamed up by Carrie from Bella Cupcake Couture and Betsy from Java Cupcake and Cupcakes Take the Cake, the idea behind the blog party is to show all of our readers not only how easy it is to make gorgeous cupcakes, but how simple and affordable it can be to create a lovely cupcake display for any party or event.

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Lemon Bar Tartlets

Stephie — Mon, 13 May 2013 23:48:16 +0000

I know I totally bombarded you with desserts last week. Angel food cake with lemon curd. Coconut cake. Deliciousness (and a sugar coma) abounds.

Buuuuuut…I’m totally not done bombarding you with desserts. Hang in there with me for just one more bit of lemony goodness? And then I promise to give your sweet tooth (and blood sugar) a break with a savory recipe.

Besides, these little tartlets are adorable. You can’t not love an adorable dessert…right? And guess what: They’re totally easy.

You all know I’m not exactly what we would call a “semi-homemade” kind of girl. First of all, Sandra Lee is a nutcase. Secondly, it really opens the door for a lot of creepy preservatives and unidentifiable ingredients. Sketchy at best. So hang onto your hats when I tell you that the crust for these tartlets? Totally a shortcut.

As part of the Walkers Blogger Buzz ambassador program, I recently received a shipment of more shortbread cookies than my waistline knew what to do with. Ok, that’s a lie. I knew exactly what to do with them. I immediately ripped open one of the boxes and tore into those cookies with a voracity rarely seen outside of National Geographic documentaries. When I came up for air, I suddenly knew I wanted to make some sort of lemon bar and use the cookies as a shortcut shortbread crust.

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Coconut Cake {and a Fair Trade Giveaway!}

Stephie — Fri, 10 May 2013 05:01:56 +0000

Happy Friday, loves! Before I jump into talking about cake and giveaways, I want to make a quick little mention.

Tomorrow – that would be Saturday, May 11, 2013 – I am joining My Daily Find Chicago and some of Chicago’s best bloggers, writers, and foodies for the 4th Annual Chicago Pop-Up Bake Sale benefitting No Kid Hungry. We will be at 900 North Michigan Shops, Level 2, from noon-3 pm with a number of gorgeous, homemade treats to help eliminate childhood hunger in the United States. If you are in the city tomorrow or would like to take a day to explore downtown, make sure to stop by and say hi! I’d love to meet you and sell you a cupcake or two.

And now, for our next order of business…

Since this week has been all about Mother’s Day desserts, let’s talk about moms for a minute, shall we?

Did you know that this year, Mother’s Day and World Fair Trade Day fall on the same weekend? To celebrate, Fair Trade USA is highlighting stories of moms around the world – just like Maria, pictured above – who, because of fair trade cooperatives, are better able to provide for their families and see their dreams realized.

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Angel Food Cake

Stephie — Wed, 08 May 2013 01:17:45 +0000

When my great-grandmother got married, she knew how to make exactly two things: fried chicken and angel food cake.

How these were the only two things she knew how to cook, we will never know, but the angel food cake was pretty convenient, given that it was my great-grandfather’s favorite dessert. All these years later, it is now my mother’s favorite dessert and her birthday cake every year.

Homemade angel food cake seems to have a reputation for being difficult or unapproachable, mostly likely due to its light, airy nature. Yet the recipe is really quite simple – you just need to understand what you are doing, and be gentle with your batter. Angel food cake batter is essentially a foam, so it relies on those little air bubbles you create when whipping your egg whites. Gentle folding will keep those in place. To fold in your flour, sprinkle it over the top of your whipped whites in installments; then, with a large spatula, cut down the middle of the batter to the bottom of the bowl and bring the spatula up the side, folding the batter over as you bring the spatula up. Turn the bowl 90 degrees and repeat. This will incorporate your dry ingredients without dismantling the foam you have already created.

Also helpful: setting your oven to the correct temperature. Not that I set my oven 50 degrees too high the first time or anything…just don’t pay attention to that extra carton of eggs I went through making this…but DO pay attention to your recipe. *cough*

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Lemon Curd

Stephie — Mon, 06 May 2013 05:20:34 +0000

Consider this “Mother’s Day Dessert Week” here on EYHO. I know that a lot of times the focus gets put on brunch for Mother’s Day, but I think by now you may have figured out that my family has a tendency to shift our focus to dessert more than anything else. And so this week I have a couple of beautiful desserts for you to pick from when looking to show Mom how much you love her this weekend.

While this lemon curd is a component of a dessert that we will be completing later this week, it’s getting its own post because it is a recipe that you can use in about a million different ways. Use it as a filling for a cake (or cupcakes). Spread it on slices of pound cake. Serve it with fresh berries. Whisk it into a salad dressing. Spoon. Jar. Mouth. Repeat. Once you know how to make lemon curd, the possibilities are limitless.

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Slow Cooker Black Beans

Stephie — Fri, 03 May 2013 00:05:41 +0000

For someone who majored in Spanish, I have never really paid much attention to Cinco de Mayo.

I don’t think there is really any particular reason; you would think that any day that encourages drinking plenty of margaritas and eating lots of Mexican would be at the top of my list. And yet, I seem to forget about it every year.

This year, though, I did get myself organized enough to make a pot of black beans for the occasion (don’t I know how to live it up). These beans are as easy as they could possibly be: just throw everything in the slow cooker, turn it on, and come back in 8 hours. And the best part? You don’t even have to soak the beans overnight first.

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{Friends First with Seaweed & Sassafras} Wild Salmon with Dill-Mustard Sauce and Sautéed Asparagus

Stephie — Wed, 01 May 2013 05:01:43 +0000

Holy moly, you guys, I am so, so, SO excited for today’s post because I am introducing what I think will be a fun new series for y’all: Friends First. On the first of each month, I will be introducing you to one of my favorite blogger friends and you’ll get to hear directly from them in a fun guest post. While most of these bloggers are primarily food bloggers, they’ve been given free rein to write about anything they feel shows their personality and what they’re all about – food or not!

Up first is the ahhh-dorable Abby from Seaweed & Sassafras! Abby is a military wife, mom to bulldog Watson (I love bulldogs!), fashion-lover, and big believer in eating seasonal foods and avoiding processed foods as much as possible – love that! And to top it off, she’s as sweet as can be. She has the most divine salmon recipe for you, so I’ll let her take over!

____________________

Hi! I’m Abby from Seaweed & Sassafras. When I first saw Stephie’s email inviting me to be a part of her Friends First project, “yes!” flew right out of my mouth. Pretty sure I startled my bulldog. I signed right up, excited to hang out together today. Thanks again Stephie for including me!

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Copycat Velveeta Shells and Cheese

Stephie — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 00:40:05 +0000

Remember when I teased you with this photo on Instagram and Facebook?

I know, it was mean to make you wait so long for the recipe. But trust me, this one was well worth the wait.

I honestly wasn’t sure if I would be able to successfully recreate Velveeta Shells and Cheese without all of the suspicious ingredients (maybe you don’t find it suspicious that you can keep an open package of Velveeta in your fridge for over a year without it going bad…but I sure do). I have some pretty strong childhood memories connected to the stuff – many an evening was spent at my best friend’s house, eating shells and cheese and watching trashy reality TV.

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{Momma’s Meals} Featured Friday

Stephie — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 12:30:44 +0000

Hey, all! Happy Friday! After a couple of tenuous weeks (all of the nationwide events of last week and the horrendous flooding in my hometown this week have me mentally drained, to tell the truth), it’s nice to be heading into another weekend. What exciting things do y’all have planned? Let me live vicariously through your adventures.

Before we catapult ourselves into the weekend, I want you to pop over to Momma’s Meals, where I am being featured as a part of Tammi’s Featured Fridays series! Every Friday, Tammi gets to know one of her fellow bloggers and makes one of their recipes. So head on over and see what she has cooked up from EYHO, and be sure to follow Momma’s Meals on Facebook and Twitter to keep up with future Featured Fridays bloggers!