Kristy Taco Salad (with Doritos and French Dressing)

In my pre-teen through teen years, taco salad night was a pretty regular occurrence at my house. I would help my mom season and cook the ground beef (seasoning taco meat was where I got my start in the kitchen), my sister would prep the veggies, and Tami, my sister’s best friend, would grate the cheese. Seriously, I don't have any memories of anyone else grating cheese in my teen years.

Panama Travel

Facebook keeps reminding me that around this time last year, I was in Panama. I just realized I hadn’t posted photos here!

Baked Chicken and Mushroom Rice (aka Chicken No Peeky)

Toward the end of high school, my dad been laid off from work at the aluminum plant, and was doing small, part time jobs here and there. My sister was off in Seattle, at UW, my mom was working... and my dad and I were driving each other crazy.

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?