Food & Recipes

Thanksgiving Dessert: Cranberry Bars with Ginger & Orange

~ Julia ~ 3 Comments

Cranberry BarsGrowing up, my favorite part of Thanksgiving dinner was always the cranberry sauce. To be clear, we’re not talking healthy or homemade, but good, store-bought, from a can cranberry sauce. You know, the kind that is mostly sugar and takes the shape of the container when you plop it into a bowl? Yep. That one. Left to my own devices, I could (and sometimes did) consume a whole can of the gelatinous, tangy mass. Delicious!

Thankfully, over the years my tastes (and sugar tolerance) have evolved And while I still love the refreshing tartness of cranberry, I choose to get my fix from slightly more refined (less sugary) sources. That said, I’m super excited to bring these Ginger Cranberry bars to Thanksgiving dinner this year. The buttery, shortbread crust is just the right amount of sweet, and while you can certainly choose to omit the ginger, I love the spice it adds to the cranberry filling.  Continue reading →

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Creamy Sweet Potato & Butternut Squash Soup

sweet potato soup recipe
~ Julia ~ 2 Comments

I woke up today to the first big snow of the year. It wasn’t even the fun, pretty kind that gets you excited for the holidays, but the slick and slushy snow that makes the cold feel like it’s seeping into your bones. Fail. Despite our mutual desire to snuggle indoors and binge-watch Jessica Jones on Netflix, Eric and I were forced to venture out and get some errands done (adulthood is overrated).

We trekked into the city, where I quickly discovered holes in both soles of my boots, so those will have to be replaced. By the time we got back home a few hours later, my feet were numb and the snow had gone from slushy, to full on winter wonderland. Continue reading →

Top 5 Paris Food Moments

~ Julia ~ 1 Comment

Hot Chocolate at Angelina’s OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
To put it mildly, I have a deeply rooted love of all things chocolate. With that in mind, to say that I was excited to sample the rich and creamy chocolat chaud at Angelina’s is a bit of an understatement. Fortunately, this infamous Paris cafe lived up to it’s reputation.

There are several locations in Paris, including one in Versailles, but we decided to go to the original on Rue de Rivoli right near the Louvre. This is definitely a major tourist attraction, so we were surprised to see that there wasn’t any wait – we were pretty much able to walk right in and be seated. The space is very charming, though the tables are definitely on the small side and you are essentially sitting shoulder to shoulder with other patrons. Continue reading →

Pumpkin Bread

~ Julia ~ 4 Comments

pumpkin bread
It was a hard week at work and I didn’t sleep particularly soundly last night. I am in the midst of planning a fundraising event and that, coupled with adjusting to the end of daylight savings and losing that last bit of much-needed sunlight on my commute home, has been wreaking havoc with my sleep. Waking up at an unreasonably early hour for a Saturday morning, I decided to busy my mind with something constructive (and yummy) and put my nervous energy to good use. Continue reading →

Comfort Food: A Perfectly Easy Pot Roast

~ Julia ~ 1 Comment

Tuesdays are my least favorite day of the week, and the one where my enthusiasm for anything kitchen related seems just about nill. The Monday energy and excitement for a new week has generally dissipated and the hours until the weekend are far too great. This is especially true this time of year, as the days are getting shorter and colder. That said, it helps to have something warm and reliably tasty to come home to after a long day at work.

Enter, the perfect slow cooker pot roast.

crock pot post roast

I will usually prepare this a day ahead of time so all I have to do in the Continue reading →