Recipes

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The Very Best Stuff You Can Get At Trader Joe’s (According To Me)

March 30, 2017

Like so many things in life, the joys of Trader Joe's are sweeter for having known the sad, grey world that existed in their absence. Until I was twenty-seven years old, you see, I lived in tragic ignorance of the fact that pre-marinated meat could be so delicious (and so thinly sliced!), or that crumpets could be so wonderful-tasting that they could make the casual usage of the word "crumpet" (almost) acceptable, or that drinkable four-dollar wine existed. Even in those heady days during which I first roamed the aisles alongside fellow Himalayan sea salt lovers too broke for Whole Foods, Trader Joe's was a once-a-month special occasion, because each trip resulted in the purchase of oh, so much four-dollar wine that I was required to splurge on a $25 taxi ride home.

Now I am a suburbanite. I own a car that I call a "truck" but that most people would probably consider an SUV. There is a Trader Joe's located 15 minutes from my house.

And now? Oh, now I know all about it. I can close my eyes and see the shelves laden with quinoa chips and dried broccoli florets in stunning - even technicolor - detail.

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SWEETS

Three-Ingredient Bananacakes

March 20, 2017

omg these are delicious.

How have I never heard of bananacakes before?! They're like pancakes, except you get to skip 90% of the steps involved in making pancakes. And since they have zero added sugar and flour and everything else, I have to assume they're...better for you? ...Sort of?

Anyway, I was at my friend Elise's house for brunch the other day and she whipped up some of these using just eggs and mashed-up banana (with a touch of cinnamon), and they are good. Slightly denser than pancakes - and you definitely have to be into banana-flavored things, but who isn't? - and such a great last-minute what-do-I-make-for-breakfast solution (plus a fun way to use up your about-to-go-brown bananas; you can always make them now and freeze them for the weekend).

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SWEETS

Once You DIY A Doughnut, You Don’t Go Back

March 2, 2017
an easy and delicious recipe for biscuit dough donuts

Deep-frying is not my forte. I've only ever done it once, actually, when I made fish 'n' chips - white-hot oil has just always struck me as a substance I should stay far, far away from. But when I'm presented with an opportunity to learn how to whip up homemade doughnuts from my friend and RG contributor Mollie, I'm obviously going to say yes. First, because Mollie alerted me to the fact that she inherited her love of deep-frying from her great-grandmother Big Momma, and any recipe even tangentially associated with a woman named "Big Momma" is clearly going to be a delicious one. But also because these doughnuts are made using pre-made biscuit dough. Which means they take about five minutes.

Let me say that again, for emphasis: If you have these (pretty basic) ingredients handy, you can be eating homemade doughnuts in five minutes. And now that I have officially tasted doughnuts fresh from the oven (or...oil-pot), I get why some people skip Dunkin' Donuts in favor of DIY: the doughnuts you buy in stores can't even begin to compare to ones you eat seconds after they're made.

Oh, and if you have kids this is such a fun project (minus the boiling oil part) - just sit them down with toppings and slightly cooled doughnuts - and maybe a few dropcloths, depending on how much you like your furniture - and let them go crazy. Which they will. (I practically had to hose my daughter down before I'd let her get in my car at the end of all this.)

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SWEETS

Easy (And Incredible) Lemon Curd

February 16, 2017

I have never come across a lemon curd recipe that I have not wanted to consume in massive, even inadvisable quantities. Even the kind of lemon curd that they use as filling in those little pies you can get at the deli for 99 cents forces me to make weird-ecstatic faces while I eat it (I tend to try to eat these pies in private).

That said, this particular lemon curd recipe, whipped up by Mollie and eaten almost entirely by yours truly, is ridiculous. It's the perfect combination of sweet and tart, and while we included a couple of suggestions for how to serve it below...honesty, you should probably just eat it straight from the jar. That's what I did, and I just have to say: it was a hell of a good decision on my part.

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SIDESSALADS

In Which I Drink A Cactus

January 5, 2017

Cactus leaf

Let me start this post with a caveat: unless you are already at least somewhat into juicing and used to buying copious quantities of fruits and vegetables and leafy things (or are a blogger trying to make something cool to write about, ahem), you are probably going to have to leave the cactus out of this recipe if you're ever going to actually make it. Because let me tell you: de-spining a cactus leaf is no small job, and I have a very sad finger right now to prove it.

You might, at this point, be asking yourself what I am doing holding a cactus in the first place, let alone trying to drink it. Because I've been pretty clear about the fact that, try as I might, I am not a green juice person. I pick up a couple of pre-made bottles in Whole Foods from time to time when I'm feeling guilty about my various excesses, but within a day or two I typically remember that there are things that taste better than green juice, like everything, and start eating and drinking those things instead.

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