How to Bake Crispy Sweet Potato Fries

Everybody knows there’s more to fries than white potatoes–but, swap in sweet potatoes, and achieving a solid crisp factor at home is a challenge. Is starch the secret? A good, long soak pre-bake? If you’ve ever wondered how to bake crispy sweet potato fries at home, this post is for you.

how to bake crispy sweet potatoes at home

It starts with an Instagram message. My blog friend Katie wants to know how to bake crispy sweet potato fries and wonders if I have any tips. Making sweet potato fries, yes. Making crispy sweet potato fries? Read More

Blueberry Buckle Doughnuts, Doughnut Cookies or, Doughkies

This article on blueberry buckle doughnuts (or doughnuts meet cookies, i.e., doughkies) is the third post in a series of make-ahead mornings, batch breakfasts designed to save you time. Also in this series: breakfast panna cotta and a closer look at smoothie packs.

blueberry buckle doughkies

Built like a doughnut, baked like a muffin and crunchy enough that their bite can be heard across the room, these doughnut hybrids are like doughnut meets cookie: doughkies?Read More

Smoothie Packs: Empty Hype or Savvy Hack?

This article on smoothie packs is the second post in a series of make-ahead morning recipes, batch breakfasts designed to save you time. Also in this series: breakfast panna cotta.

green smoothie packs

 

They’re tasty, healthy and an easy way to get your greens–but, let’s face it, even smoothies are a chore when you’re tired, stressed or in a rush. Who can’t relate to blogger and cookbook author Kathryne Taylor, who said in Women’s Health Magazine, “I need my breakfasts to be easy enough to fumble together in the morning, because I don’t have the energy to pull out a variety of smoothie ingredients before I’ve had coffee”?Read More

fast homemade pizza and sauce

There’s no denying the magic of make-ahead meals, but, still, who doesn’t love a last-minute recipe? This fast homemade pizza only takes about a half hour to make–and the sauce, another half hour before or as you prep. Best of all, you may have all the ingredients on hand for this addictive, delicious dinner.

fast pizza and sauce

With reviews like “I have been making pizza for twelve years and…am considering replacing all of them with this one” and “this was the easiest pizza dough I’ve ever made,” the Super Quick Pizza Dough Recipe from Serious Eats is an easy sell. A few features: There’s no making the dough in the morning to prepare for dinner. You don’t have to knead the dough, let it rise and knead the dough again. The recipe calls for a total four ingredients, and you might already have them in your pantry. On top of that, of its 77 posted reviews, this is a pizza crust that gets an average of 4.5 stars–despite minimal instructions that don’t tell you how long or at what temperature it should be baked. In other words, it could be the definition of foolproof.Read More

breakfast panna cotta

It was Good Health Magazine that first wrote, “Breakfast is the most important meal of the day,” but for anyone with a job, kids or a warm bed in winter, it’s also the most likely meal to skip. While there’s no shame in grabbing a banana while you jet out the door, there’s also no denying the beauty of batched breakfasts, prepped and planned for the week. Interested? Behold, breakfast panna cotta.

breakfast panna cotta

Let’s say you’re already familiar with traditional panna cotta, that velvet custard dubbed “perfect dessert” by The Kitchn and considered fancy enough “to wow your guests,” according to at least one West Virginia news channel. If you’re relegating panna cotta to the dessert category, however, you’re missing a morning marvel. Panna cotta, literally cooked cream, is a smooth and silky custard originating in Northern Italy that ranks high on the list of desserts dressed to impress, right next to soufflés, tiramisu and flan. But swap the heavy cream with Greek yogurt and add some granola, and you’ve got a new reason not to hit the snooze button.Read More

How to Make Breaded Cauliflower, Baked Not Fried

This is the fifth and final part of a Cook the Cookbook series featuring Margaret Rudkin’s The Pepperidge Farm Cookbook, published in 1963. Also in this series: Intro, Venison Vegetable Soup, Will the Best Pie Crust Please Stand Up?, Pepperidge Farm Bread and Healthy Pumpkin Muffins for Toddlers or Anyone.

baked breaded cauliflower

After she’d majored in math, raised a family on a farm and become the head of household name Pepperidge Farm, Margaret Rudkin traveled to Ireland. She went with her husband, Henry, to “do some salmon fishing” and find an ancestor’s burial site, but, while there, she ended up buying an old family house on 150 acres. Considering this is the same couple who, newly married, up and bought New England acreage to experience “a real country life”–not too surprising.

“The old place had never been spoiled,” she writes. “We were told [it] was going to be sold. What did we do? One guess!”Read More