Hot Cereal, Hot Coffee

Cold cereal was crispy, flakey, or puffy, and served with milk. It was this reason, the splash of milk, that I avoided cold cereal (and still do), aside from a handful of clusters popped into my mouth as a crunchy dry snack.

Hot cereal was Cream of Wheat, simmered on the stovetop, and served with a pat of country crock margarine and a shower of granulated white sugar. On weekends, when dad was home for breakfast, our hot cereal was topped with a generous, scalding hot, sugary sweet splash of black coffee. 

Sweet Potato and Chickpea Salad with Tahini Dressing and a 7-Minute Egg

In the last few years, I’ve fallen more and more in love with Middle Eastern food. I’m obsessed with tahini and za’atar. 

That’s how I started writing this post. Then I stopped, and started over, because I caught myself doing something that makes me cringe when I see others doing it.  

Sweet Potato and Black Bean Tacos

Things I did over the weekend include: bake a bundt cake, drink champagne, cohost my sister's bridal shower, drink champagne, cry over the Seahawks loss, drink more champagne, make batch number two thousand and sixty of these sweet potato tacos, so that I could photograph them for the blog... even though the sun was going down and the light was terrible and the photos aren't great and I used parsley to look like cilantro because I was out and didn't plan ahead (#reallife), I needed to share this recipe with you! You can now make this one recipe for the rest of your lives and never have to plan dinner again. You’re welcome... I'm gonna go drink some champagne now. 

Food for New Parents

One of my best friends just had a baby over the weekend, and I’m completely obsessed and in love with her new little guy. I have a handful of friends with babies, and of course Evan and I have a 3 and a half year old nephew that we’re crazy about, but this is first time I’ve been right there with a close close friend, and watched her transition from the girl I met the first day of college, to a hardworking professional business woman, a wife, a pregnant lady, and finally to a mom. It’s insane, and I have so much respect and love for her right now that I want to cry. Are sympathy hormones a thing?

Happy Twenty Sixteen

Twentysixteen! We made it! Happy New Year, friends. I’ve been a little MIA since early December. Truth be told, I barely turned on my computer over the holidays. It was a busy few weeks for me, with lots of parties, activities, a little bit of travel, and of course a full day of binging on Making a Murderer. 

Slice and Bake Chocolate Dipped Rosemary Shortbread Cookies

It’s cookie swap time!! Once again, I participated in The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap, an event hosted by the lovely gals of Love & Olive Oil and Little Kitchen, wherein food bloggers make cookies, send each other cookies, blog about the cookies, eat the cookies, and support Cookies for Kids Cancer, a national non-profit organization committed to funding new therapies used in the fight against pediatric cancer, and did I say eat cookies?

Spiced Apple Bourbon Sparklers

What are your favorite holiday cocktails? I love warm mulled wine and bourbon drinks. And I’m a big fan of champagne or sparkling wine during the holidays slash all year long. This year I whipped up a double batch of this eggnog, at my coworker’s insistence. It’s been aging for a few weeks, so we won’t know the outcome until we crack it open the week of Christmas. I’m pretty excited for it though!