Tuesday, June 4, 2013

My Go-To Recipes + Must-Reads

So we all know that I'm not a big cook, anything I do cook I try to always document and post about it because I consider it a small miracle. Here, I share 3 of my favorite recipes, ones I've made over and over again and have shared the recipes with guests- that's my sign that they're just as delicious to others as they are to me!

Here are some of my favorite recipes and links to past posts about them.

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Dessert/Breakfast: Sopapilla Cheesecake 
(post and recipe here)
I got this recipe from a friend and made it the following weekend, where I shared the recipe with three people at the party. So in one week, the recipe was shared a total of 4 times! That's a winner in any book. It's so delicious, easy to make, and is great like I said for breakfast (with berries) or dessert (berries and ice cream).

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Drinks: Starbucks Passion Iced Tea
Regardless of the time of year, I'm a sucker for a good lemonade. This drink is one of my favorites and I make it at home and at work all the time.
Ingredients: 
Tazo Passion Tea bags (you can buy the individual bags for a single glass or the pitcher bags for home)
Simply Lemonade (I'm sure any lemonade would work, but this one is my favorite)

Optional: 
Sweetener (the hubs and I bought the sweetener straight from Starbucks, but I usually make it without)

Directions:
 Depending on whether or not you're making the individual/pitcher size, bring half of the amount water needed to boil and let tea bag seep. The longer you let it sit, the stronger the flavor.
(I also use all cold water and let it seep when I'm being lazy, still tastes great)
Once the tea is ready, add the remaining half of water to it cold.
Mix in lemonade- I usually add a 1/3 of lemonade to whatever size my drink holder is.
Ex: 12 oz glass = 8 oz tea and 4 oz of lemonade.
Sweeten to taste.
There's no real science behind it, although I'm sure Starbucks has one, I just kind of mix it to my liking. You make enjoy it with more/less lemonade. I think the Simply Lemonade is sweet enough on its own too that no sweetener is needed.

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Dinner: Spicy Mustard Salmon
If I'm being honest, when it comes to a really good dinner, I'm a one trick pony. Yes I can make a few things, but the one thing I can make that's delicious is salmon. Any seafood really, but salmon especially. 
Ingredients:
Thawed salmon
Spicy Mustard
Honey
Lemon
Soy Sauce

Directions: 
For each salmon steak, I drizzle the above ingredients and let it marinade for at least 30 minutes. You can put all the salmon together in a cake pan to marinade or marinade them in a zip lock depending on how many you're making. There's no science to the amounts I use, just make sure that both sides of the fish get doused in everything. 
Put salmon in cold oven, set temperature to 350 and bake 20 minutes. Keep the lemon wedges/halves and cook them along side of the salmon for extra flavor.
Anytime we've had people over for dinner this is what I serve and it's always been a big hit. It's super simple and the flavors mix together giving it an awesome flavor. I like to serve it with a salad and veggies (usually asparagus and peppers).

What are some of your favorite recipes? 
 
Question of the month from Kristen: "What's your go-to recipe? Drink, dinner, dessert, whatever..."

2 comments :

Carolyn said...

So... I was a Starbucks barista for a couple years... and you pretty much just described the recipe for the passion tea lemonade! :) Good work!! Now I want to make some at home! HAHA

Ella Pretty Blog said...

Mmmm - I'm LOVING your salmon recipe and can't wait to try it out myself - it looks SO good (I've seen the pics on your instagram!)