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The Future of Eighteen Almonds
Oh hey… It’s been a while hasn’t it? Last time I was here, I was trailing off into oblivion. I started this blog with the intention of writing about my hobbies and quickly found that I had failed to find a narrow enough focus to really create a topical niche blog. While I enjoyed food and running, neither consumed my every waking thought and thus neither really seemed to inspire the type of passion necessary to be a _____ blogger. (Insert whatever topic you may.) Around the time my blog trailed off, two things were starting to consume most of my time, and thus most of my conscious thoughts, squeezing…
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Fish Taco Bowls: Give Me Anything in a “Bowl”
Is it just me, or are “bowls” so in right now? When I say “bowls” I mean these one-dish meals with a bunch of delicious ingredients heaped together. Smoothie bowls, veggie bowls, Buddha bowls, rice bowls… I’m not complaining. I haven’t had one I didn’t like yet. These are right up my alley. In the realm of dinner options, usually we’re talking about some kind of grain, some veggies, a protein, and perhaps a sauce. What’s not to love? I’d eat a version of this every night for pretty much as long as I can imagine… So take a good I already love and turn it into a bowl, and…
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Dark Chocolate and Peanut Butter Cup Layer Cake
Been a while, am I right? Not doing a ton of cooking these days because … 5 month old. This means most cooking is either completed with one hand or squeezed into occasional brief moments of baby’s relative contentment when playing in his Exersaucer. This week, however, I decided I wanted to amuse myself by baking a birthday cake for my friend and business partner. I had Tuesday off, and baking and decorating this cake was LITERALLY my only accomplishment, performed in incremental steps throughout the day (and the day before). He night before, I hastily measured out my dry ingredients and left them in the bowl of the stand…
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My First Shakshuka
Just a quick post today. It’s been a while, and I’ve been cooking a lot, but taking very few pictures. So I’m sharing a rather unimpressive one, but it made for a delicious meal! Hasn’t everyone been talking about shakshuka lately? I feel like it’s on every brunch menu and in every food magazine. That’s not a complaint. I only wish I’d known about it sooner because baked eggs smothered in spicy tomato sauce is something I can really be all about. Isn’t it crazy how some kind of amazing delicious food can exist in the world, and we never hear about it until it becomes and Instagram trend? I’m…
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Lemon Blueberry Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting
As promised, I took another set of cupcakes for a test drive last weekend in preparation for my upcoming baby shower! I thought it would be appropriate to complement the chocolate peanut butter cupcakes with something very opposite. I chose Lemon Blueberry Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting because they seemed the perfect counterpart. Instead of rich and heavy, they are light and fresh! Pick your poison! (Oh, that actually makes me feel kind of glum when I consider the fact that sugar is actually poisoning us. #tryingnottothinkaboutit ) Well, moving on! My husband was my co-taste-tester. His memory is somewhat selective when it comes to trying my food. If he…
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Ina’s Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting
Do you ever experience recipe overwhelm? Like, how many different ways are there to make chocolate cupcakes? Obviously, as a certified Type A lunatic, I envision myself finding 20 recipes and testing them all side by side because I want to be sure I found the best one. How can you just randomly point your finger into the ether and choose a cupcake recipe if you haven’t taste-tested it alongside all its competitors? (Maybe you’ve seen the Crate and Barrel commercial with Reese Witherspoon testing cranberry sauce recipes? So relatable.) Most recently, I wanted to find, as I mentioned above, a great chocolate cupcake recipe. I searched the internet as…
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Patience: My Word of 2018
Gretchen Rubin’s Happier podcast has been one of my favorites for a long time, and recently Gretchen and Elizabeth inspired me to choose a word of the year for 2018. Normally I would deliberate over a decision like this for days or weeks, come up with a few options, have trouble narrowing my options down, end up choosing several, and then having trouble committing fully to any of them. This year, however, I found one that resonated right away, so I decided not to over-think it. Patience. I need it. I haven’t mastered it. Ever. And this is a year when I’ll require more than I’ve perhaps ever required before.…
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Arancini – A New Holiday Tradition
I love the holidays for one billion reasons, but perhaps one of the most significant is the food. It gives me an excuse to try new and elaborate things that you would just never bother to make on a weeknight, or even a normal weekend for that matter. Holidays give you an excuse to make true special occasion food. (And luckily we have “Januarys” every year to give us an excuse to omit all special occasion food and become pious again… but that’s another story for another day.) This year, I decided to try a recipe for a traditional Italian food, arancini. Arancini, as far as I understand them, are…
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Being Present Vs. Being Goal-Oriented
Are they at odds? That’s what I’ve been wondering. I’ve been trying to live “in the moment” and to focus on being present and being mindful. However, my nature is to obsess about the future, to carefully plan and ponder and set goals and worry and live in a constant state of anticipation over what’s to come. (Usually pensive anticipation.) I have no desire to avoid being goal-oriented. I fear that this would result in finding myself ten years from now in exactly the station in life as today. And that’s something I don’t want. There’s something about the idea of “living in the moment” that makes it sound as…
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Snowball Cookies
It’s about that time of year again when I throw caution to the wind and forget all my resolutions to eat and be healthy and refocus my attention on cookies instead. It’s the time when I indulge in nostalgia and buy extra sugar, flour, and butter, casually forgetting how I told myself maybe it would be best not to have much of these things in the house. When the holidays roll around, all bets are off. (And I’m easily swayed by the manipulative world of the Food Network telling me that eating indulgent food will improve the quality of my life.) We kicked off the season with this recipe for…
