Do It Yourself and create arts, decorations, projects and more with the Feast guide.
I am a person that loves a plan. So I have always meal planned. I know that for some it is not that easy. It can be overwhelming as to where to start. Don't let yourself get overwhelmed with what to do, how to do it or where to start.
Ever since I was a small girl, the lunchables with the meat, cheese and crackers have been my thing. What pairs well with that meal, grape juice of course!!
Nothing makes me happier than a nice juicy steak, seasoned to perfection. A delicacy that should only be cooked medium rare, but that’s neither here nor there, or maybe it is. Either way you slice it... it should never be sliced well done, you freaking lunatics. Observe perfection below.
This is a partial sampling of my mostly carnivore diet that I eat each week. The top picture up there is spicy beef meatballs stuffed with cheese my little sister made along with some shallots and smoked paprika and garlic. Baked at 350 degrees for I think a half hour. The beef is just regular ground beef, because the fat content is really important for your diet, especially if you’re a carnivore (or mostly carnivore).
Asking the Right Questions I have worked in many different restaurants. One day, I had become tired and annoyed about how the business I was in charge of was being run. I came to terms with this simple truth. I did the same thing day in and day out. I had mastered all the different stations, completing tasks at speeds that can only be considered superhuman, wearing my body down. I started doing things like flipping cups around and catching them to entertain myself. I created a better way to stuff French-fry boxes and learned to handle fry baskets one-handed. Even these gave way to boredom and my mind once again started to wander. My mind was always struggling to find the next new thing. I began to look around my job, and my brain commenced to ask questions, “How do I stop stray lids from falling back behind the drink station? How do I keep napkins, straws, and stray cups from being kicked under the counter?"
There is one thing that me and my littles love making, and it's cookies. Now I am by no means a master baker. I fully believe in if you have a good attitude while baking it will be amazing in the end. I never used to believe this until my mom made a very good point. My father is the real baker in the family, any baked goods the first time he tries making something it's amazing from the beginning. Now every year around Christmas time, my dad makes the best cookies. He's always tweaking the original recipe and making it his own. Now I'm not the biggest fan of the holidays, actually my family will call me the Grinch of Christmas and honestly I'd have to agree. But me and my mom always say that my dad has the most Christmas spirit and that is why his cookies come out amazing each time. When I was young I just believed I wasn't good at making cookies, that I just didn't have that special touch like my dad. Until I met my now fiancé, and his sweet little angel. Obviously kids naturally love cookies and are typically happy when they get a chance to help out in the kitchen. So for a long time she would beg me to make cookies, and I would always say well lets get your grumpa (that's what my kids call their grandfather.) and you can make cookies with him because I'm not good at making them. But she insisted that me and her needed to make them, so obviously looking at that sweet face how could you say no? I knew that they would probably come out terribly, but it made her happy so I figured why not. So we set up the kitchen kicked her dad out of the kitchen and we went to work. On a side note, I really hate making a mess like it really unnerves me and I typically clean as I go. But when you have a child that wants to help out, messes happen. So even though it unnerved me to watch her spill stuff everywhere I put on a smile and told her she was doing amazing. I don't know about all of you, but I like to ask simple questions to get my kids thinking. Such as if we need 4 cups of flour, and you just put 1 cup in the bowl how many do you need to get to 4 cups? And she really enjoys it, when she gets the answer right you just can see the happiness radiate out of her. So fast forwarding to the final product, we take a bite and I swear it taste just like my dads. I was so surprised we called my dad immediately after and told him all about it! After getting off the phone, my daughter (yes I say my daughter because I have helped raised her for years at this point.) asked me why I felt that our cookies wouldn't come out good. I looked at her, and I told her that I have never been able to make a cookie that ever tasted as good as the ones we made. She sat there for a second taking in what I said. And I will never forget what she told me, she looks at me and goes, "Mom what do you always tell me?" and honestly I blanked for a second, "That we don't say we can't do something, just because we didn't get it the first time or even the third time doesn't mean we won't figure it out eventually. You also tell me I can't say that I can't do something just because it didn't work out the first time." I looked at this sweet little face and she was right. I always tell her just because we didn't succeed the first time, means we give up and not try again. Since then I've tried looking on the brighter side of things, and to start taking my own advice and to relax a little. Messes and learning are apart of life, and it's okay that we don't get it right away. That doesn't mean that we can't learn how to make something amazing in the end.
Home is where the heart is and so should your eating be. Over the years including this one, I have taken a few moments throughout the week and would just grab a bite to eat at my local fast food drive-thru or local take-out restaurant especially during my work lunch hour. Why? Because I felt it was easier, quicker and would also spice up my food palette a little bit if I ate more food with different ingredients in it than what I had in my refrigerator (at least so I thought). But since I've been on work furlough for the past few months AND was on previously work-from-home status due to COVID-19, I've realized that the only way I'm going to learn how to cook better and save more money is simply by taking more time out and consistently cook from home instead of letting everyone else cook for me everywhere else.
Chapter 1: The Harbinger of Fall There is was on the shelf of the grocery store, packaged humbly in a translucent milk jug. Every year, that simple site excites me. Apple cider is, in my mind, the taste of pure fall, and a sure sign that my favorite season of the year is approaching. It's one of those few items that grocery stores only sell at one time of the year. In other words, apple cider is to fall as eggnog is to winter. And as much as I would love to enjoy that sweet taste all year long, there's something special about the exclusivity. If Christmas lights adorned houses all year long, they would no longer be Christmas lights, and if apple cider graced the shelves of grocery stores all throughout the year, it would lose its role as the harbinger of fall. There's a spark inside me each year the first time I see the apple cider jugs on the shelf.
This week on Eating Through the Alphabet, things took a spooky turn for the letter H! During Thursday's episode, The Hendersons were taken over by witch Zenith and warlock Pilitar (don't ask where his name came from). And their little dog, Teddy, was turned into a cat named Catrick!
Happy Autumn, fellow culinarians! When the leaves start to fall, it's time for the dough to rise. Every Fall, the frisky cool air always inspires in me a baking spirit as short-lived as the changing leaves. This typically extends for one disastrous October week leading up to Halloween where I try to make uncooked brownie balls that look like eyeballs or cookies topped with black licorice that make it look like a spider.
It is amazing what ideas you get when you binge watch the Great British Bake Off on Netflix. I always associate pumpkins with Halloween. When I started travelling, I began to see Pumpkins in a new light. I had childhood memories of carving pumpkins, but never actually tasted one before. “Maybe we’ll have some pumpkin pie” whistles on the radio. The lyrics from Walking Around the Christmas Tree felt weird to me when I was younger because I would always associate pumpkins with Halloween. Now I’m a fan. It’s not just Pumpkin Spice Lattes that should have all the glory. Pumpkin is a really good thing to have in any cuisine. The pumpkin salad I had at a hotel in Japan, was one of the best salads I ever had in my life. Pumpkin curry works a treat. Pumpkin pie is lush. Having been a big fan of the sweet potato pancakes from Korea, I decided to try and make some myself at home. It worked out really well, so I thought maybe try pumpkin ones too.
My mom used to always say that if she could have cheese and crackers for dinner every night, she would be the happiest woman alive. Clearly, I didn't have my priorities straight back then because I distinctly remember thinking, Wow, that sounds seriously boring, but also wanting to be cool so I just replied, "Oh, yeah, that sounds good" in what you can assume was in a very monotone-like voice.