Beef and Mushroom Stew

This week has been a bear. We’ve dealt with illnesses, doing taxes, more illnesses, a lot of driving to places we didn’t really feel like going, and just general displeasure in our household. So it’s Friday, and I look back on the week and I see that I only actually cooked two times. Pretty miserable week, if you ask me. But this beef and mushroom stew? No, that’s not miserable. That’s quite homey, actually.

Two-Minute Chocolate Mug Cake

I don’t fancy myself much of a baker. At one point in my life, I was a dessert fiend, baking chocolate chip cookies and other sweet treats every weekend. These days, however, I always manage to mess up any baked goods. I’ve forgotten to add eggs to peanut butter cookies, burned the edges of chocolate-peanut butter bars, and neglected to add baking powder to muffins. So when I  signed up to participate in a recipe swap on one of my favorite websites and was assigned to make a recipe from a blog entirely about baking, I was pretty nervous! But after browsing Eva Bakes, I was happy to find this recipe for Two-Minute Chocolate and Caramel Mug Cakes,which seemed impossible to screw up…right?

Coconut Muffins

Do you need a tropical vacation? I sure do. Luckily, it’s only one month and one day until my husband and I go to Jamaica for our long-awaited “honeymoon” (aka our one-year anniversary). But I needed a little tropical pick-me-up, and these muffins did the trick. I look forward to experimenting with additions to these, perhaps adding blueberries, pineapple, even chocolate chips!

 

Simon’s Cat // Savory Fruit Salad

Have I ever mentioned the remarkable similarity between the infamous Simon’s Cat and Crouton? I think I did on the “Who is Crouton?” page, but every time a new video is released, it reminds me how eerie it is.

The One Where Crouton and David Have a Standoff // Dijon Pork Chops

Crouton thinks she rules the house. So does David. This sometimes creates a problem.

So, they occasionally have stand-offs, like last Friday night.

They begin by staring at each other. Crouton is an excellent starer.

I actually can’t handle when she stares at me because it means there’s a good chance she’s about to attack my face.

Porter’s Pub: A Visit to Philadelphia Brewing Company

“Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.” – Ben Franklin

Ahh, the seminal quote by the elder Philadelphia statesman that has been championed by college students and weekend alcoholics (like myself) for generations. Just reading it, you can picture old Ben standing there with a tankard ale and his bifocals playing flip cup and doing beer bongs. Erroneous! Erroneous on both accounts!!

Continuing My Oyster Education

In my last post, I shared a recipe for spicy oyster pasta. That was, in fact, the first time I had ever cooked with oysters. As I believe I explained, the magazine is running a spread on oyster recipes in our August foodie issue, so it was up to me to create, make, and photograph these bivalves in a number of ways.

 

Spicy Oyster Fettuccine // The one where Crouton gets a bag stuck on her head

Whenever I come home from the grocery store, you can bet Crouton is waiting for me in the kitchen, ready to “help” unload the bags. From what I’ve seen, there are two reasons for this. One, she knows that I’ll probably be leaving the refrigerator door open, so she can go foraging for food. Like this: