Jello for Adults

This past Saturday I was a Parrot Head at the Jimmy Buffett concert. If you've ever been to one, you know that the tailgating scene before the concert is actually the event...the concert itself is just icing on the cake!

For the occasion, I was in charge of making jello shots. So that I didn't feel like I was in college again, I decided to jazz them up a bit — and I must say they tasted pretty awesome! My kitchen was like a jello shot science lab, complete with intoxicating fumes...

Even though it's not "cooking" by definition, I thought I would include the recipes (if you can call them that) on here. For the most part, I simplified them to 1 box of jello — obviously you can multiply the amounts by the number of boxes you're making. Just keep in mind the basic principle behind making jello shots — for every box of jello, you want 2 cups liquid total. You can use sugar-free jello for a lot of these, but the fancier flavors of jello (e.g., Melon Fusion) don't usually come in sugar-free varieties.

Healthful Zucchini Bread

Living in Philly, it's easy to find fresh New Jersey (i.e., the Garden State) produce all summer long. This time of year, zucchini is especially plentiful, as it grows like a weed in these parts! Wondering how I'd use the zucchini I bought, I came across a recipe for zucchini bread on Whole Foods' website.

I was happy to see that the recipe incorporated substitutions to make it lower-fat and higher-fiber. And despite this fact, it is one tasty treat! If you find yourself elbow-deep in zucchini, here's a good way to use up some of it. It's also a great way to sneak some veg into a delicious snack!

Restaurant Reviews

I've decided to start logging our experiences dining out. We eat such delicious food here in Philadelphia! And since this blog was inspired by just that, what better place to write about it?

Just wanted to let you know... :)

Spicy Grilled Shrimp or Chicken

This is a great marinade that I've been using a lot lately! It has nice heat to it and is great with shrimp or chicken. It's also a rather attractive marinade...

As I often do, I started with someone else's recipe and adjusted it to my liking (as follows).

Easy-as-Pie Apple Cake

This recipe is as easy as it gets, and it's quite delicious! We're not quite into apple season yet, but the granny smiths (my apple of choice for this recipe) were cheap and I couldn't resist.

The recipe came from my mom who got it from someone named Donna — and that's all the information I have about its origins. I did, however, come up with the name all by myself...I'm just sayin. This cake is a tasty treat to follow a meal (maybe with a cup of tea or coffee). And this morning at work, I passed it off as breakfast food — so it's versatile too!

Indonesian Grilled Swordfish

We were looking to make something "of the sea" and found beautiful swordfish steaks at John Yi's in Reading Terminal Market. I was a little unsure since I'd never made swordfish and had no recipe in mind yet.

I remembered seeing Ina Garten making swordfish on one of her episodes of Barefoot Contessa, so I decided to start off with her recipe. It happened to use several of my favorite ingredients — fresh ginger, lemon zest, and garlic — and seemed promising! The smell of the ginger alone was enough to make me enjoy the recipe!

As usual, I made a few changes to her recipe. My version is below.

Blondies Are More Fun

I have nothing against the brownie, but it's just not my dream sweet treat to bake. Maybe I'm biased, having been a blond my whole life?

The blondie takes all of the best properties of the brownie and chocolate chip cookie and melds them together into a yummy bar treat. (Note that the recipe is different than regular cookie dough — the primary ingredient is brown sugar, which makes them deliciously chewy. Oh man.)

I was looking for something quick, transportable, and delicious (of course) to bring into work, so I started with a blondie recipe that I found on allrecipes.com. I modified the recipe slightly and also doubled it (as written below). And let me just add my two cents  about the walnuts: I'm not necessarily a put-nuts-in-baked-goods kind of gal, but they go really nicely with the chocolate and brown sugar. It works.

Old School Meatloaf

A few years ago, a very hungry (and handsome!) man came into my life...and he loved to eat. And while he loves to dine on fine foods and ethnic delights, there is also a special place in his heart for hearty meals of meat and potatoes.

Thus, I set out to find a delicious meatloaf recipe — one that even I could enjoy despite the fact that I've never craved meat in loaf form. It just doesn't sound tasty to me. I promise, however, that this recipe will not disappoint! And better yet, the recipe makes about 6 servings, so I split it into two loaves and pop one or both in the freezer...which means easy and delicious weeknight dinner!

This recipe is from Sara Moulten (she used to be on the Food Network) — I tried to find the recipe online but couldn't find the same one. I made some adjustments to the original recipe and included them in my version below.

Blueberry Cruffins

What's a cruffin? A word that Brad created for this recipe, which is for blueberry "crumb muffins." It works. This treat started with an Ina Garten recipe for Blueberry Crumb Cake, which I decided to make into individual servings — hence the cruffin. It's a lovely recipe for this time of year when berry season is inching closer (although you can use frozen blueberries as well).

Chocolate Chocolate (Chocolate) Chip Cookies

I was looking for something sweet to bring to work tomorrow, taking into account that I was limited on ingredients and time tonight. I decided on these cookies, which would feed a lot of people and hopefully be a crowd-pleaser.

I'm pretty sure that they are one of the reasons that Brad and I are together today...I'm just sayin. I used to send him "care packages" with Ziploc bags full of them!

Side note: You know how sometimes you're making cookies and you eat some of the dough because it's so delicious? And you feel a little sick by the time you're done baking, and you don't want to eat a single baked cookie? Yeah, me neither. Just a heads up that, for this recipe, the baked cookies are a lot tastier than the dough for some reason. Maybe it's just too much chocolate for me to handle pre-bake.