Spicy Peanut Noodles

How is your New Year going? I know it’s only a week in, but that’s 1/52nd of the year! Now doesn’t that sound like a lot of time? Aside from my VERY important resolutions, I’m working on a few smaller goals. One of those is to try and do more things that scare me. I’ve found, in the past, doing these scary things have yielded amazing results.





A number of years ago I joined my first gym. For the first year I spent a good amount of time on the elliptical machine. Walking in place, uphill, downhill. Very fulfilling. Got some killer calves from that year, rock hard. After a while I got a little bored and decided to try out the weight room floor. All those shiny machines were calling to me. After a personal trainer showed me the ropes I dove in, hit those machines, usually on Fridays. This lead to some nice arms and a few too many offers of friendship from the muscle-bound men.

Look at all that color!  Delicious!

The final hurdle I jumped was going to the group fitness classes. I decided that I liked this the best. Not only would I have awesome arms and calves, but I would be able to work my whole body! Pilates, body sculpting, yoga it was all so much fun! But what really caught my eye? One night I spied a kickboxing class while pedaling away on my elliptical. Punching and kicking, all the members in unison like one of those Bally’s commercials. I could do that, right? You bet! Although it took an introductory class and a pair of new shoes to get me into the rhythm with the rest of them. But now I can round house kick like Chuck Norris.  Totally worth it!

The scary thing for this week? I stopped at that imposing looking Asian market on my walk home from work. Walking inside and being greeted with strange candies and bad lighting. I walked up and down the aisles, looking over the bottles and jars with words written in Chinese, Korean and Japanese. I decided to bring home some of these sauces, even though I wasn’t quite sure what they all were. Dinner would be spicy tonight, because the bottle we’re using tonight says chili!

Apple Cider Pork chops

Dinner dinner dinner! Ring ring ring! Come and get it! Okay, that’s enough. You get the gist of it, we’re not making cookies today. We’re making Pork Chops! This came out of a moment of hunger and desperation. You know those moments. You find yourself staring into a near empty fridge, trying to decide what to make for dinner. What? All I have is a package of pork chops and a gallon of apple cider? BAH!

Luckily it all turned out okay. Apple cider makes me happy. This is why I am such a happy person in the fall. Okay, maybe it also has to do with the tons of Halloween candy I eat or the fact that I’m a fall baby and I get birthday cake. I am also that one person that orders a Caramel Apple Cider from Starbucks, in July. Reducing the apple cider deepens all the tangy, apply flavors. If you happened to make some of my cranberry chutney earlier in the week, then that would also be amazing paired with this reduction.

Cupcake 24-7 - The Spaghetti & Meatball Cupcake

Are you ready for something a little crazy? We enter our second week of “Cupcake 24-7” with dinner! I know, cupcakes for dinner is wacky. I like a little protein for dinner. I like something not made of sugar and piled high with frosting. Well, you’re in luck. We at Cupcake 24-7 are not only bakers, we are also chefs. Fine dining chefs who make perfectly portioned dinners, in cupcake form. I present to you, my hungry diners, The Spaghetti & Meatball Cupcake.

Have one, maybe even two. You’ve had a long day and deserve some dinner. This is truly a savory cupcake. Although I’m not sure when cupcake ends and muffin begins, but I’m pretty sure it’s not with the spaghetti cupcake. A little bit ridiculous, a lot of tastiness, the spaghetti & meatball cupcake is a lot of fun. It’s like tapas, have one. Share a plateful of them. Laugh at how ridiculous the concept is. Just be sure to sprinkle them with parmesan cheese.

Tahini Chicken

Today we’re cooking with weird foods! So chicken isn’t so weird, but everything else is a little unusual. Growing up we didn’t eat strange foods. Common dinners included tuna noodle casserole, Stouffers lasagnas, spaghetti with red sauce. Very traditional American dinners. I can’t complain, it tasted good, I was well fed, happy childhood dinners.

Looks like a tree branch

It wasn’t until later moving to the Midwest, that I discovered the world of cooking. It sounds strange to say that it took moving to the middle of America to broaden my flavor horizons. Walking down State Street in Madison, you have so many choices for pleasing your palette. In the mood for spice? Try Indian or Mexican. How about a trip to the Mediterranean? Greek gyros or Italian pastas to satisfy. Why not try something totally different? Stop at the Ethiopian or Laotian restaurant.

Tahi-what now?

It took a few years, but my cooking eventually changed into a more international smorgasbord. Starting slowly by dabbling in Mexican dishes, making tacos and chilis. Eventually I bought curry powders and coconut milk. Then it came to the most unusual ingredients. You know what I’m talking about. Those items you see on the grocery store shelf and wonder what they are for. Strange and weird looking produce, canned goods with crazy names and spices with overpowering smells.

So today we tackle some of those weird items. Fresh Ginger and tahini. I was always apprehensive to buy fresh ginger, because I assumed it was expensive. In reality, for the amount that you need, it will probably cost you fifty cents. It is also a little crazy looking. Fear not! All you need to do to use ginger is peel it. Using a soup spoon, peel off the top layer of the ginger, exposing the white root. For the recipe today, simply grate the ginger with a box grater.


Ignore the fact that there are no vegetables, I forgot to buy them...


Tahini is also a little unusual. It is most often used in hummus. Quite simply, tahini is to sesame seeds as peanut butter is to peanuts. A nutty, rich paste that gives this dish excellent flavor. If you have leftover chicken, this dish will take you minutes to put together. Boil up some rice (in your new rice cooker, if you live at my house!) and feed those hungry people asking you “what’s for dinner?” Introduce your kids to these weird ingredients now, and they’ll be cooking you dinner in no time at all.

Meet the new member of the family.  I love it unconditionally.

White Chicken Chili

It seems as though fall quickly took over, leaving summer just a memory. It has been so long since I lived in the Northeast that I forgot how quickly those last days of summer disappear. Being caught off guard by a warm day waning into a cool evening. Going to sleep with the windows open and waking up with a cool, crisp air in the house. The sun dipping low earlier and earlier in the day.

I never want to let go of these last few days of summer, but I love these early days of fall. It is this time of year that I want to be able to enjoy the day, outside, in the sun. Yet I also want to bundle up at night, huddled under the covers. I want to eat ripe peaches with warm apple cider. Can I still wear sandals with my long-sleeved shirts?

On a recent cool night I decided it was just fallish enough for chili. I love to make chili. It is the perfect combination of light and filling, ideal for this in between time. I like to make my chili with turkey and cannellini beans, rather than beef and kidney beans. A white chili has a milder flavor that I like to kick up with lots of spices.

This recipe can be doubled or halved, it is incredibly versatile. I’ve made it with chicken, with more beans, with seasoned tomatoes, even with hot peppers. It freezes well, so you can make a big batch and save half for later. So bubble up a pot of chili, pop some corn bread in the oven and get the sour cream ready. Fall is coming, but hopefully this will help make the transition a little smoother.

Fusilli with Walnut Pesto

I don’t know about where you are, but here on the East Coast it’s been hot. Equatorial hot. I’m talking ninety-five degree, two thousand percent humidity hot. My one mile walk to work in the morning (and I leave the house at 7am) leaves me a sweaty mess by the time I get to work. Luckily my workplace is over air-conditioned and pleasant.

When it comes to making dinner in this type of oppressive heat I like to do as little as possible. Since I never turn on the air conditioning (because I like it hot) I try not to turn on the oven that much during the summer (because I don’t like it that hot). What I cook this time of the year leans toward easy, quick and with as little preparation as possible.

Pesto is a great choice for those hot summer nights. All you have to do is boil up some pasta and grind together some other ingredients in the food processor. This meal can be thrown together in fifteen minutes, which is a good thing after you’ve walked the mile home and are now really tired and sweaty.

Or maybe you can find someone nice to make this for you? Print out the recipe and leave it in a conspicuous place. Perhaps someone will feel bad for you when you melt into the floor.

Don't you wish you had a salt pig as cute as this!??!!