Gracious Gifts: Cookbooks for the Health Conscious

Here’s another cookbook idea for the holiday season.

      I have to admit, I bought this cookbook because a girlfriend of mine had it and made the tortellini recipe. That recipe was to die for and when I found out it wasn’t half bad for me, I knew I needed this book. I am also a book hoarder, mainly just cookbooks and coffee table books. I freely admit it, along with a lot of stuff, I own like 12 different cook books. I love pictures and this book has a pretty picture with every recipe and they are easy to follow. 5 fresh ingredients in 15 minutes, sign me up!  Anyways, enough about my hoarding tendencies. This book would be great for your health conscious friend who still likes really good food!

Gracious Gifts: Cookbooks for Beginners

Here’s a gift idea for a recent grad or for someone starting out on their own. How To Boil Water cookbook is fabulous. It has tons of great simple recipes and the best part is has helpful tips throughout. There is a chart for how to cook different vegetables, and good toppings for each one. What are good food and wine pairings? And answers the age old question of what’s the difference between chopped and diced.  Anyways, its one of my favorite cookbooks and I constantly refer to it when I have a question of what to make or need some ideas for different ways to spice up my vegetables. Great for a beginner cook.

Homemade Potato Chips in the Microwave!

So I discovered a beautiful thing the other day, you can homemake potato chips in a Mircowave in under 7 minutes! Hallelujah ! I can satisfy my cravings and still make a bit healthier plus keep up with my homemade kick. Anyways, there are only “4” ingredients and minimal effort involved. My type of snack.

Ingredients:

• 1 potato
• Pam or other cooking spray
• Olive Oil
• Salt

Directions:

1) Slice the potato no thicker than 1/16th inch pieces. This takes effort, make sure your knife is sharp!

2) Spray cooking spray on the plate then place slices on the plate. Coat lightly with Olive Oil and Salt.

3) Bake 3 1/2 minutes on EACH side. They should be starting to brown when finished on the second side.

4) They will be hot when you remove them, I like to put them on another plate so I can eat them quicker!

P.S. Be careful because your roommate might beg you to make her a plate too!

Leftover Magic: Mashed Potatoes into Gnocchi

     I hate eating the same thing every day, and leftovers sometimes don't seem all that appealing three days in a row. Take Mashed potatoes, great that first day and the second but by the third, I get tired of them. Enter the magical idea of making Gnocchi with your leftovers. It doesn't take much work and it quite delicious. Here's an easy recipe:

Ingredients:

Leftover Mashed potatoes (About 2 cups)

3 plus tablespoons of flour (More for flouring work surface)

1 egg (Beaten lightly)

Sea Salt






Directions:

1. Mix egg and potatoes together then stir in enough flour to make soft dough.
   
2. Knead dough on floured surface until it firms a little (Just a bit, roll it in flour honestly)
   
3. Roll the dough out into cylinder sections, and cut into about inch long pieces. Then use the back of a fork to make a ridge pattern on the back of them.
   
4. Cook in a large pot of boiling SALTED water. Cook two to three minutes. The gnocchi will rise to the surface, use a slotted spoon to scoop them out. Serve immediately.
 

Notes:

These are quite easy to make, but getting the dough can be a bit hard, just roll them in flour is the easiest way. Top them with a light marinara sauce or pesto. Make your own pesto for a delicious sauce!

Cranberry Compote

So for the second part of the Brie Bites installment, I have the very easy recipe from Lily taken from a Martha Stewart hostess gift! It's the perfect addition to Brie Bites or simply just a piece of plain old bread.


HOMEMADE CRANBERRY COMPOTE

• 1 bag fresh (or frozen) cranberries
  
• ¾ cup sugar
  
• ½ cup (possible more) cranberry juice

Put the entire bag of cranberries in a small pot on medium heat

Let the cranberries heat up and soften (you will see the skin burst and make soft pops)

After about five minutes, pour in the sugar and cranberry juice. Stir and mix well

Let the mix simmer on medium for about 15 minutes. It will bubble and stir every few minutes so it doesn't congeal.

• If it looks too thick at first, add a little more juice
  
• If it tastes too tart (this all goes by your taste, after all!) add a little more sugar

Once the mixture has reduced, take it off the heat and let cool for about five minutes

There are three ways to finish your compote:

1. Leave as is. This way will be slightly more congealed and chunky, but still delicious!
   
2. Pour the slightly cooled mixture into a blender (even a hand blender will do). Blend until the chunks are blended out (the mixture will get hotter as it blends, so be careful). The seeds will still be there but the mixture will be much smoother
   
3. To make the ultimate in silky cranberry deliciousness, first complete step 2. After the mixture is blended and slightly cooled, pour the mixture through a fine mesh strainer. It's easiest to do this a few spoonfuls at a time so you don't spill it out the sides. Push your spoon down on the strainer to help the mixture go through and move the seeds aside. Strain the mixture once, and maybe twice if you reeeeally want some super silkiness!
 

Pour in a small airtight container (or a glass jar if you're giving it as a gift!)




Good Luck!

Welcome to First Apartment Living!

So soon, I am officially moving into my first apartment! And while really excited, I am also very nervous, and when I am nervous, I tend to over prepare. (Think 5 review books for one subject preparedness) Thus I have done tons of research for apartment living. Now that I have all this information, I wanted to share it with you and hopefully, you will find all my tips useful as well! I will try to experiment new ideas of all kinds, be it decorating, cooking, cleaning out there so you don't have to! So sit back, relax and get ready for more information than you could ever need about apartment living.