S’mores and crispy rice treats are two simple desserts I truly enjoy. I consider both of the treats semi-homemade since I pretty much combine pre-existing ingredients with some prepared ingredients. While shopping for groceries today, I had a craving for both s’mores and Rice Krispies treats. Typically, I would purchase a package of the treats, but today, I wanted to make my own version of the treats combined with s’mores.
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Pumpkin Spice Pancakes
In the spirit of Halloween, I am sharing my pumpkin spice pancakes recipe. I first made pumpkin spice pancakes last Thanksgiving when I had a can of leftover pumpkin puree. I had intended to make a pumpkin pie using the puree, but decided to make apple pie instead because Kevin preferred apple pie over pumpkin pie. I didn’t know what to do with the can of pumpkin puree so I incorporated the puree into pancakes.
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Garlic Tomato Stir-Fried Eggs
A staple dish found on the dinner tables of many Chinese families is 番茄炒蛋, which is roughly translated to tomato stir-fried eggs. It is one of those comfort food dishes you could prepare and cook for dinner in under fifteen minutes. Although my parents didn’t make this dish often, it is one of the dishes I truly appreciate when they do make it.
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Thai Basil Chicken
I didn’t eat a lot of Thai food growing up in New York even though I had access to many great Thai restaurants. In fact, the first time I had Thai food was in high school when I tried Pad Thai for the first time. I remember the sweetness, sourness, and saltiness of Pad Thai the very first time I had it. It tasted so delicious, I started venturing into trying a wider range of Thai dishes soon after.
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Pistachio Chocolate Dessert Balls
Halloween is on a Wednesday this year. I had some of the best memories of Halloween while growing up in Brooklyn. The best part about Halloween as a child was being able to dress up as any character I wanted and go trick or treating with my friends on the night of Halloween. I always looked forward to picking a creative costume around August or September of each year in anticipation of Halloween.
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Rigatoni and Meat Sauce
I make rigatoni and meat sauce as a variation of spaghetti and meatballs, one of Kevin’s favorite dishes. Meat sauce is quicker to make and tastes just as delicious as meatballs. It’s the perfect substitute for meatballs when you don’t have the time to roll out the meatballs, brown all sides, and bake them. Over the weekend, I prepared a large batch of rigatoni and meat sauce to enjoy for dinner (and to pack for lunch in the upcoming week).
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Pumpkin Spice Crumb Cake
I still can’t believe it’s already the end of October. Halloween is just around the corner. Growing up in Brooklyn, I always looked forward to dressing up and going trick-or-treating around my neighborhood in Brooklyn on Halloween night. The pace in Brooklyn was much quicker and made it difficult to navigate around all of the people at times. Living in Ohio has helped me slow down my pace and really enjoy the change in environment around me. This weekend, I wanted to make a treat to celebrate fall.
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Carnitas Bowl
I am a huge fan of rice bowls. I’ve been making variations of rice bowls to bring to work throughout the week over the last few years. One of my quick go-to lunch bowls is a carnitas bowl. For the meat, I usually use pork shoulder, but I’ve also used tofu, chicken, and shrimp. In my pork shoulder version, I make a dry rub, rub it on the pork shoulder, brown the meat, and then cook the meat in a slow cooker with some fresh homemade salsa for several hours until the meat is fork tender. Carnitas bowls are my go-to bowls for lunch during the weekdays when I don’t want to spend too much time cooking in the kitchen.
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Lemon, Capers, and Tomato Pasta
During our trip to the Bahamas, we ate at a specialty restaurant, Jamie’s Italian. One of the dishes I ordered from the menu was a crab spaghetti dish. The dish featured capers, tomato sauce, lemon, and crab. It wasn’t a very complicated dish, but the flavors worked very well together. After indulging in so many delicious dishes, I made mental notes to recreate some of the dishes when I returned back from my trip. Read more about my trip to the Bahamas here. For lunch today, I tried to recreate the simple pasta dish using some of the ingredients in my pantry.
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Charcuterie Board
Kevin and I recently returned back from a short vacation to the Bahamas. We had taken a four-night Royal Caribbean cruise departing Miami, Florida, traveling to Nassau and CocoCay, Bahamas, and then returning back to Miami, Florida aboard the Mariner of the Seas. One of the specialty restaurants we ate at during our trip was Jamie’s Italian. We had read on cruise forums that one of the recommended dishes offered at Jamie’s Italian was the cured meat plank. We knew we definitely wanted to try the plank during our visit to the restaurant.
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