Cinnamon Sugar Tortilla Crisps
Dear 7 year old Tracy,
I'm watching you. You're sitting at Taco Bell with your brothers scarfing down cinnamon crisps. At your age, Taco Bell isn't a scary place. You always order the Mexican Pizza and there's only like 10 options on the menu. Today there's a GAZILLION. You don't even know about that crazy annoying Chihuahua yet! Consider yourself lucky. Do yourself a favor and stay away from this place as an adult. Your parents did the right thing and only took you out to fast food restaurants sparingly. You won't understand how important that is until later on in your life but I promise it will be worth it. Sorry for the lecture. Apparently you've turned into one of THOSE adults. Have I lost you?
Let's talk about those cinnamon crisps you like soo much! Taco Bell stopped making them. They went through dozens of incarnations, but never returned to what you are eating now. Don't fret. The 31 year old version of you JUST made some. If I could go back in time and give you this recipe sooner, I would. Sorry-time travel isn't a done deal yet.
These cinnamon sugar tortilla crisps are crunchy and ooooh so yummy! Your son Cooper LOVED them and your husband, Casey begged you to make some more. Yes, at 31 you will have a son and a husband. So that little M.A.S.H. game you played was wrong. You don't live in a shack and you aren't married to Joey McIntyre with 12 kids. Ok, get back to what you are doing. Enjoy your life and keep up the good work!
Love,
31 year old Tracy
p.s. I served some of these with Baked Mangoes & Blueberries. Don't worry, you'll learn to like mangoes!
Monkey Bread Minis
I wish alarm clocks had built-in smell alarms. Why haven't we figured this out yet?! Imagine the possibilities!! You wouldn't have a problem getting up for a 6am flight if the smell of these cinnamony Monkey Bread Minis assaulted you. Now to think of it...the 13 year old Tracy would have set my brother's alarm clock to rotten farts at 4am.
OK we NEED to make this happen.
If you are familiar with monkey bread, then you should know that this recipe doesn't produce a doughy/yeasty pull apart roll. It's like a hybrid of a cinnamon roll (taste wise) and an old fashion donut (texturally). Yes. DONUT. The best part is that there's no yeast stress involved. Yup, yeast stresses me out when I'm not properly caffeinated. There I said it. I think little hands would love dipping dough into butter & cinnamon sugar. When I get over my fears of Cooper's messy sticky cinnamon fingers on our micro suede couch, I'll totally do it. For sure!
You'll enjoy putting every last piece into your mouth hole. I know I did.
Scrambled Egg Turnovers
Dearest Organic Free Range Eggs,
I'm sorry I failed you. You totally needed a win; especially with all this bad press about eggs giving people salmonella. This turnover recipe made me think that you needed to be *set* before I tucked you into a pocket of puff pastry and let you slumber in my hot oven. Little did I know that you would turn out overdone! I'm now know that I should have followed the 1 minute the recipe suggested rather than the 3 minutes I insisted on. Would that have meant you would have been super runny on the puff pastry? Hmmm...
Thank god the zucchini, puff pastry & melted cheddar made up for your shortcomings. I heard that my Mom's green salad was delighted to join you on the plate for lunch! You two make such an excellent couple! I took a picture of you two! I think it turned out pretty nice!
I hope that you accept my sincere apology. Maybe next time I'll include some bacon with the zucchini & cheese mixture? Sound good?
I look forward to seeing you soon! Maybe in tomorrow's breakfast? You free?
Forever yours,
Tracy
Mushroom Spinach & Asparagus Pasta
Are you a creamed spinach fan? Do you also love mushrooms & pasta? Ever wish you could combine all three? Then you'll probably love this! The end result is a very creamy pasta that won't have you slaving for hours in the kitchen. It comes together super quick, and now that I've been through it once, I probably don't need to follow the recipe again! I found some asparagus chilling in my fridge, so I tossed it into the sauce. It added a really yummy crunchy bite to the pasta- and a little more depth.
My only advice is- eat the pasta fast (the sauce starts to thicken up when the heat escapes) and make sure you have someone else to eat it with! No one can be trusted with a pot of this at hand. Maybe you can answer this question for me...All those veggies negate the calories & fat in the creamy sauce, RIGHT?! I thought so!
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Egg & Asparagus Gratins
I have a confession to make. This dish STRESSED me out. It's really not a complicated recipe, but the thought of overcooked eggs paved the way for me to be on edge with this recipe. Mix that with a incessantly meowing cat, a crazy bed headed mom with no coffee (ahem, me) and a toddler running around the house---OMG WHOA! I'm surprised I managed to pull this off. Dipping that piece of toast into that brilliant yellow runny egg was the money shot I was looking for. Thank god it happened. It was worth the stress. We dodged a bullet, people!
Let's have a look at that yolk!
Now that that's out of the way...this is a really good dish! I'd totally make it for company! It reminds me of the Herbed Baked Eggs I made awhile ago, but without all the herbies. The bright green asparagus were happy to take their place. If you are pressed for time, cook the asparagus in advance to make things easier. The Parmesan really makes this dish, so you should add more than it calls for. I won't tell anyone. I bet fresh breadcrumbs mixed on top would be FANTASTIC too. Look at the runny egg yolk being soaked up by my buttery toast. Do I really need to say more?
Lemongrass Ginger Iced Tea
We had a signature cocktail at our wedding. It was a Lemongrass Gingertini. It was FANCY! I've always wanted to make it at home and was delighted that the base of this drink comes pretty close! If I grated fresh ginger, added vodka & rimmed a martini glass with chunky sugar, then we would have it!
So yeah this recipe is a really good base. I say base because it's SOO sweet & fragrant. It's definitely concentrated! I diluted my drink with sparkling water because I wanted bubbles and I don't really like drinking sugary drinks. If you want to drink it on its own, I suggest reducing the amount of sugar! The lemongrass gives a nice punchy pow & the ginger adds a warm spice. It's super tasty.
Feel free to add some spirits up in. Gin or vodka would totally be buds with this tea. Casey threw in some gin last night and LOVED it. It might be fun to make some ice cubes out of this tea and pop them into your water throughout the day. Wow, clever me. I'm gonna go do that now....
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Orange Hazelnut Biscotti
I briefly mentioned that my oven broke this summer. We got a new one. It's fantastic. I love it. It works like a charm! Would you believe that I spent close to three days figuring out what it's maiden baking voyage would be!?! I will now share with you the recipe that popped my oven's cherry. Hazelnut biscotti!
As a child, I never really understood the appeal of biscotti. Through kid goggles, they were an icky grownup "treat." I'd watch my dad dip a ridiculous amount of biscotti in a short class of Vin Santo and wanted to gag. I always thought dipping a cookie into something that wasn't milk was weird, but now as a grown up I totally get it. These biscotti don't need to be dipped in ANYTHING. They have TONS of flavor on their own. A nice cappuccino or some milky tea would be a good companion---but that's it. Notes of orange, spicy anise undertones & crunchy toasted hazelnuts will assault you with each bite. They're delightful!
So yeah- I'm a grown up and I love biscotti. I'm always surprised at how easy they are to make. Some people think that because they are baked twice, it means more work in the kitchen. It's really not that bad!! I find cutting up the baked "logs" to be quite therapeutic (WEIRDO alert). It's really nice to see a huge batch of cookies on a parchment lined baking sheet that have no risk of melting & sticking to each other. To me, that is worth any "extra" effort. Another upside- they last in an air tight container for a few weeks. They taste soo good that you might not have any around that long enough to find out...
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Spaghetti with Zucchini Walnuts & Raisins
I'm normally not a fan of pastas like this. There isn't a sauce that saturates all the noodles so you really have to work at creating the perfect bite with all the ingredients. It's also a bear to mix together because all of the fun stuff just wants to hang out at the bottom of the pot. It was hard for me to judge how much I liked the pasta until half of the spaghetti on my plate was eaten. Verdict? YUM!
All of the leftover zucchini, raisins & nuts on my plate tasted wonderful! We got a little fancy and topped our pasta mounds with some white truffle oil. It brought out the earthy flavors of the nuts & Parmesan cheese. Good call, Casey. If you're a walnut & raisin fan like Cooper, you're in for a real treat! He was begging for more plump golden raisins & toasted walnuts. Two out out two boys in this household approve. Which makes the only mom/wife/cook in this household thrilled.
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