budding foodie

Well, that didn't last long. Remember how I said I'd try to post every week? Yeah. I already dropped the ball. The problem is the winter light. It's quite beautiful, yes, but by the time I get dinner on the table, it's gone, and I'm not one of those food bloggers who stages photo shoots during the lovely light hours. If I were a successful food blogger or one who cared, maybe I would. But I'm not and I won't post artificially-lit photos so recipes will likely be sporadic in these parts until the sun stays up longer.

So, onions. You've tried a pickled onion, right? If not, rush to your pantry right now. Surely you've got a red onion and some red wine vinegar. And a knife and a jar. Slice, stuff, pour, wait. That's it. Really.

I'm obsessed with pickled onions lately.

There are plenty of fancy cabbage recipes out there, but this isn't one of them. This one is as basic as they come, and it couldn't be any easier or cheaper to throw together. Ready for your grocery list? Cabbage. Lemon. The end.

I think cabbage gets a bad rap.

See that? It's cookie dough. Cookie dough that was never meant to become a cookie. It's eggless, meaning, yup - it's the type of cookie dough you make when you just feel like eating cookie dough. I make this like once a year, we inhale the whole thing over the course of a few days, feel gluttonous for a few hours, both say repeatedly, "why did you let me eat that?" and eventually change our stories to "I wish that was a double batch." 

It's good stuff. And it's pretty versatile.

You've just found out you have the evening to yourself and you're excited because solo dinner night means you can make anything you want. The gears start rolling as you imagine a feast of... Wait. You didn't go to the grocery store today like you'd planned. There's no food in the house. Your solo dinner feast suddenly turned into an online order at Jimmy John's. Tell me I'm wrong.

This was (almost) my night last Friday.

We celebrated our 13th anniversary a few weeks ago and it called for a cake. Plus, my husband's birthday is three days before our anniversary so you know - cake. Aaaaand there was a surplus of apples in the fridge from our CSA and it was chilly, rainy, and autumn-like, so - cake. This cake. This deliciously moist, delicately spiced, and easy to make cake, which not surprisingly, is good as dessert and breakfast, which is when I shot these photos so you'll have to pardon the grain.

I don't even know where to begin with this recipe. Actually, I do. And it's right to the store to pick up all the ingredients for it again because I'm straight-up drooling on my keyboard just looking at the photo, remembering how wonderful it was. I can honestly say this is one of the best things I've ever made. Really.

The funny thing is that until I made this, I'd never had panzanella.

Yeah, yeah. I know you've already got your favorite pumpkin chocolate chip cookie recipe. Don't we all? I urge you to give this one a whirl though. It's the best one ever, I'm telling you. How can it not be? I mean, look at that recipe card. My mom wrote that before I was born. That old index card has been in the same blue and yellow floral recipe box in at least six kitchens over the years, and the recipe itself has been in the family since before my mom was born.

The problem with being a lazy food blogger is that I've got all these seasonal recipes to share but the seasons are changing. I've still got garden fresh recipes and an ice box pie recipe to share (coming soon, promise) and by the time I get them posted, it'll be soup season. Actually, today seems like it'll be the last warm day here in northern Utah, and with Monday's forecast calling for low 60s and rain, it's already soup season.

I'm preaching to the choir. You already know how great roasted vegetables are. I really don't even need to write this post. Here I am though, sharing this happy, colorful pic of assorted veggies and telling you to make this ASAP. It's the easiest dinner ever. It smells wonderful. It uses up any variety of vegetables hanging out in your crisper or pantry. But you already know that.

What you may not know about is tahini.