I feel like I’ve been saying for months: “One of these days, I’ll really commit to getting in shape.” With my wedding looming just two months away now, one of these days finally needs to be…today. The person who brought this to my attention was, of course, my mother. I was propped up on her counter munching on a croissant and flipping through a magazine, lamenting about how I simply don’t have time to exercise. She pursed her lips and crossed her arms (similar to the way that my grandma does when my cousin lathers on too much eyeliner) and said, “Well hun, your wedding is pretty close now. I’m not saying you’re fat or anything – not at all. But if you really want to lose a few pounds or get in shape…now would be the time.”

In other words, “Drop the croissant and do some frickin sit-ups already.” Point taken, mom. Thanks. So, determined to shed a few pounds, I tried the Slim Fast thing. And the drink-nothing-but-syrup-and-lemonade thing. And several other things. Nothing works. My problem is that the rebellious teenager in me doesn’t like to commit to anything. I don’t like leases, contracts, or choices of any sort. Before Nate came along I’d even become quite anti-relationship because everyone I dated tried to segway me into their tiny little box of a life. But I digress. Point is, I don’t like being cornered into one thing. Diets that restrict or starve me don’t work.

What does work for me is a diet I tried way back in the late-90′s (for those of you who know I’m in my 20′s and may be scratching your head at this point – yes, I was 14 years old. I was an insecure teenager). It’s called the Larry North Slimdown diet. The basic concepts are simple, straightforward, common-sense ideas that have been re-iterated through a number of programs (most recently in the Eat Clean diet). It’s all about balance. Every 3-4 hours I eat a combination of lean protein, healthy carbs and vegetables.

For breakfast I’ll have something like yogurt and toast (skipping the veggies because really, I’m not having vegetables for breakfast. Gross). Morning snack is, for example, a hard-boiled egg, rice cracker and some carrot sticks and then a whole wheat chicken sandwich for lunch, followed by celery and peanut butter, then a similarly-balanced dinner. I’m full all the time. I don’t have cravings. And if I don’t feel like eating a particular carb, veggie or protein, I just pick a similar substitute. It is a lot of food, but not a lot of calories, and it keeps me from pigging out on ice cream, since I have tons of choices and don’t feel deprived. Most importantly: it works. Diet dilemma solved.

Exercise was a similar problem. I’ve done the fitness center thing before. I’ve had trainers and classes and programs galore, but none of those things worked for me long-term due to that dreaded commitment. “I have to do this same thing HOW many times a week?” I’d remark to my trainer, “And I have to SCHEDULE it? At the same time every single week?? And you charge me if I don’t show?” Yeesh. Yes, I’m a flake. I whole-heartedly recognize the issue. But that’s my nature. Get over it.

So I slowly learned to work with my commitment phobia-induced limitations. I take spontaneous hikes. I swim when I feel like it. On rare occasions, I’ll even hop on the treadmill or do push-ups in the living room. But sometimes, you do need a little more than self-motivation. Work-0ut videos help, but the best thing I’ve discovered are drop-in classes. Although not all gyms offer them, there are a number of fitness centers, yoga studios, and recreation groups that offer drop-in workout classes. So you can get motivated with a group full of pilates-doing, jazz-dancing, cycle-spinning exercisers without the fear that they’ll make you come back repeatedly. Better yet, you don’t have to feel like an idiot if you don’t know what you’re doing because you have the choice to never see any of these people again!

Those of you who look forward to the recipes I post on here, don’t worry – just because I’m eating a little better and doing the occasional jumping jack doesn’t mean I’m not still cooking a bunch (both for myself AND for people who are fortunate enough to not be dieting). I just got a great new cookbook I can’t wait to review, so check back in for that next week!

If you’re anything like me, you’ve probably accumulated recipes from all sorts of events, restaurants, family members, websites, cookbooks, etc. I used to come straight home from a potluck and shove handfuls of loose print-outs and post-it note recipes in cabinets and drawers. Whenever I needed a particular chicken recipe or crockpot dish, I’d rifle through them and remind myself that at some point I was going to at least hole punch the grease-ridden pages and stick them in a binder. I also assured myself that the grease stains were like my personal coding system. That’s how I knew which recipes were best.

Finally, a family member intervened. With this box. “Right,” I said, “because I have time to write out all my recipes and stick them in a box.” It’s not like I hadn’t tried to come up with a recipe organization system before. I emailed recipes to myself, bookmarked recipes, tagged them on de.li.ci.ous, entered them into a recipe database program…none of those things worked for me. How was a box going to help?

What it came down to was that I needed something organized and on paper. Don’t get me wrong: I’m a tech junkie. I tweet, I facebook, and my iPhone is attached to my fingertips at all hours of the day and night. But when I sit down to read a book, I want to hold the manuscript in my hand. When I kick back on the couch with a magazine, I want to be able to pull out pages. And when I cook, I like to yank the individual recipe out and refer to it repeatedly. I want to scribble notes all over the recipe about what I loved or hated. I want the satisfaction of physically ripping the recipe into pieces and tossing it in the trash if it totally sucked. So the box worked for me. And it continues to work to this day. Here’s the complete breakdown of how I organize my recipes:

The Box
Recipe boxes come with large placeholder cards that have tabs sticking up for each section: baked goods, meat, appetizers, etc. In between those section cards are slightly smaller loose cards to write your recipes on (I use regular index cards when I run out of cards that come with the box).  The recipe box - since it requires time to manually write or print out cards - is reserved for only my tried-and-true favorite recipes. The recipe box is my go-to when I need a reliable meal that pleases.

The Binder
For collected recipes that look good but I haven’t personally had the chance to make yet, I have the recipe binder. It’s really just a regular old binder from Staples with dividers for each type of recipe. It’s my small way of clinging to a bit of disorganization.

The Books
Good old-fashioned cookbooks still take up a large amount of space on my kitchen shelves. It’s really nice to thumb through a classic Fannie Farmer or Joy of Cooking book for inspiration now and again. And if I haven’t had a chance to make something in one of the books that looks delicious, I’ll use a post-it note on the page to remind myself to try it out later.

If you’re looking for a good recipe box, Amazon has a ton. I love these Campbell’s and Hershey’s keepsake boxes, and think they’d make a great pair together.

I’ve been really busy lately with all this wedding stuff. So busy, in fact, I haven’t blogged for a week! Yikes. One thing I’m never too busy for, however, is cookies (how do you like THAT segway?). I adore no bake cookies. Around my house, one of our favorite weekday my-plate-is-full-I-so-don’t-have-time-to-cook desserts is what we’ve appropriately dubbed “busy day cookies.” A no bake concoction of chocolate and oatmeal (it sounds weird, I know, but trust me on this one) is an easy recipe that everyone loves.

Busy Day No Bake Chocolate Cookies

1/2 cup milk
2 cups sugar
1/4 pound butter (1 stick)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup peanut butter
3 1/2 cups rolled oats (aka old-fashioned oatmeal. DON’T get whole oats!)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Combine sugar, butter, salt, cocoa and milk in large saucepan.
2. Heat and stir until sugar is dissolved. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally.
3. Remove from heat. Stir in peanut butter, rolled oats (I usually use the kind
in the Quaker tube), and vanilla.
4. Mix well. Drop by spoonfuls onto waxed paper or foil.
5. Let cool.

They’re not the prettiest cookies in the entire world (I probably wouldn’t serve them at a high tea or anything…not that I ever find myself hosting anything that fancy anyway), but they’re delicious. And of course, I have to give credit where credit is due. I stole this recipe – like so many others! – from Heidi, my fantastic soon-to-be mother in law.

A couple weeks ago, a group of friends and I got together with a mission: to find the perfect red velvet cupcake recipe. Katie (who blogs over at La Jolla Mom) arranged it after having the genius idea of having a monthly Cupcakes and Wine event. Yes, cupcakes AND wine…combining the best part of Valentine’s Day with the best part of New Year’s.

Everyone contributed a batch of red velvet cupcakes made from different recipes, while Katie whipped up five different kinds of frosting so we could mix and match. The verdict for best red velvet cupcake recipe? Definitely NOT the red velvet cheesecake swirl cupcakes I spent a ridiculous amount of time on:

Pretty, huh? But they were disappointingly bland. Don’t you hate it when that happens? It probably didn’t help that I slightly overcooked them, too. Anyway, the winner for the best red velvet cupcake recipe was surprisingly simple. Not someone’s great great grandmother’s family secret or a modified Martha Stewart concoction. The best recipe were these red velvet cupcakes from an episode of Throwdown with Bobby Flay on The Food Network. And the best frosting is Paul Deen’s signature recipe. File this away for future reference! One thing I definitely learned from this is that red velvet cupcakes can’t just be made from any online recipe.

I was at the grocery store the other day when I stumbled upon this miraculous invention:

A microwave potato. Or as the package calls it, an “Easy-open Micro Baker Potato” providing “oven-baked potato taste from the microwave in just minutes.” Oh. My. God. I exclaimed over this incredible invention and pondered aloud, “What have they done to this potato to make it so microwavable, so easy? Is it pre-baked? A special breed of potato, perhaps?”

I peeled back the informational sticker to learn more, to discover the secret that led to this patented potato breakthrough. And to my amazement, I found: nothing. It seemed to just be a regular old potato sealed in plastic wrap. Baffling. I immediately called everyone I knew to try and get to the bottom of this. They must all know about this incredible advancement in spud science. And then my mom told me a wondrous thing: all potatoes are microwavable.

“No mom, no. This potato is special. It says so on the package.” I attempted to sell her on the wonder of oven-baked potato taste from the microwave in just minutes, but she was unfazed and continued to deny the superiority of my miraculous microwavable potato, rambling on with her crazy talk about all potatoes being microwavable. Yeah mom, sure. Whatever.

But I was intrigued and decided to continue my investigation by testing her theory. I got home and washed a normal, clearly inferior potato and wrapped it in a damp paper towel and plastic wrap as she had suggested (after poking it with a fork a few times to make sure it cooked evenly). Apparently some people skip the paper towel and just use plastic wrap, but something about enshrining my food entirely in plastic and nuking it kind of freaks me out. At least the towel provides some sort of barrier between the chemical toxins and the edible stuff. Just don’t try tin foil. Trust me.

“Here goes nothing,” I exclaimed, anticipating the five minute microwave joy ride that would lead to this poor potato’s destruction. Strangely, nothing happened. The potato didn’t explode or pop or liquify or turn into a poisonous gassy substance. I took it out and cautiously placed it on a plate, prodding it with a fork to make sure it didn’t try anything funny.

“Okay, well there’s no way this thing is gonna taste good.” I braced myself, clutching my ketchup like a shield. I was totally prepared to drown the disgusting taste if need be, but I could not let this poor little spud go to waste. I hesitantly took a bite of my nuked potato, chewing like my tongue was going to fall off or evaporate. And then, incredibly, I didn’t die. I put down the ketchup and dropped my guard enough to actually taste the thing. And it tasted…like a potato. Like an oven baked potato.

My life will never be the same. And maybe, from now on, I’ll listen to my mom just a little bit more.

It was raining the other day in San Diego (a more frequent than usual occurrence lately) so Nate’s family and I took the opportunity to watch some TV and make some popcorn – from scratch! My soon-to-be mother-in-law whipped out this contraption and showed me the ropes. It seems that each popcorn popper works a little bit differently, but the concept is the same: heat it up, pour some oil in the bottom, wait for it all to pop, then coat with melted butter and salt. Yum!

Click here to view the embedded video.

I’m sure you could achieve a similar result with a pot/lid over the stove. This popper is really just a big metal bucket over some hot coils.

Whatever you do, be sure to use OIL and not butter to pop the popcorn in. Butter will burn. And as Nate’s mom said, wait until the popping slows to a few seconds between each one – that’s how you know it’s done.

I opened my refrigerator yesterday and came face to disgustingly-gross face with THIS:

It would appear that someone in my household expected me to make this whole trout into an edible meal. Um, good luck with that. Fortunately, my future mother-in-law was here to show me the ropes. First, we had to address to issue of the heads. At least the trout was pre-gutted…I don’t think I’m ready to handle guts quite yet.

There’s a little bone by the fish jaw, so you just need to make sure that the knife is placed below that bone to cut the whole head off, and then slice away!

Here’s some video (courtesy of my fiance) of my reaction to the whole fish head experience.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Note to the fiance: please don’t film me upward ever again. I really don’t think I have a double chin in real life. Bleh. Anyway, once you’ve removed the heads, they can be discarded or made into fish-head soup if you feel so inclined (um, ew. No thanks). Next, rinse the trout – inside and out – in cold water.

Next, flop it in a mixture of half flour, half cornmeal until it’s coated completely on both sides.

Stick it in a heated pan with a couple tablespoons of heated oil and sprinkle a moderate amount of salt and black pepper on it. When the trout meat turns white, flip it and recoat with salt and black pepper.

Voila! The trout skin becomes nice and crispy and can be eaten, or you can remove it with a fork.

Before eating the trout, remove the bones by pulling the meat away from the bones and pulling the spine out. There are still some little bones left mixed in with the meat, so you have to be careful to pull them out as you eat. I’m personally not a huge fan of “fishy” fish (like trout), but it was actually pretty good!

Fishy tip #1: Burn a candle while you cook fish to keep the whole house from smelling like trout.

Fishy tip#2: When you throw the heads and any excess meat away, immediately take the trash out (unless you want your kitchen to smell really gross when you wake up the next day).

When I was a kid, my mom had a breadmaker that made perfect bread. I don’t even think she had to fuss with the yeast or anything – she just threw a ton of ingredients into this magical machine and voila! out came cinnamon apple, sourdough, gingerbread, cheddar loaves, etc.

The first time I attempted to recreate one of these wonderful childhood memories on my own – using a traditional stove oven - I experienced quite the rude awakening. First, the recipe called for me to do something called “proofing” to the yeast. The last time I was asked to “proof” something was in 10th grade algebra and frankly, it didn’t work out so well. NEXT, the recipe wanted me to let the bread ”rise” until it doubled and at some point I was supposed to “divide” the ingredients. Too many mathematical terms for this writer to handle! Worst of all, the recipe directed me to PUNCH the dough! As in, fist-fighting…? Yet another high school experience I’d rather not revisit. I ultimately enlisted the help of someone slightly older and a whole lot wiser. Here’s what I learned.

Types of Yeast
There are basically two types of baking yeast : active dry yeast and rapid-rising/instant yeast (which is also known as bread machine yeast). Yeast is available in packets or jars as granules, or occasionally comes in block form. All yeast can be used exactly the same way. The rapid-rising yeast simply requires a little less patience as it makes the bread rise up faster so you can stick it in the oven sooner.

Note: For those anal-perfectionist types who really care, PROFESSIONAL bakers will tell you that technically rapid rise yeast only needs to rise once (instead of twice, as most bread recipes call for) and that technically rapid rise yeast makes a slightly denser bread and technically most rapid rise yeast doesn’t actually need to be “proofed.” There’s also an ongoing debate about whether or not the two are really interchangeable in equal amounts. I use them all interchangeably and haven’t noticed any significant difference. I usually buy Fleischmann’s Active Dry Yeast simply because that’s what I’m used to and I’m old-fashioned like that. If you’re really concerned, consult the recipe and use whatever kind of yeast it says to use. If it doesn’t specify, use regular active dry yeast.

Yeast Storage
Just like bread, yeast jars, packets and blocks can be stored in the cabinet, refrigerator, or freezer. And just like bread, they last longest in the freezer (up to a year), and less in the refrigerator or cabinet.

Proofing
Before baking with yeast, it is necessary to proof it. This step proves that the yeast works and has not gone bad. To do this, mix one packet (two and a quarter teaspoons) yeast with one-quarter cup of 100-degree water. I gauge the temperature with my finger – if I can’t really feel a temperature difference between the room and the water (in other words, if it feels like nothing when I put my finger in the water), that is a good temperature. It’s better for the water to be too cold than too hot, as hot water will kill the yeast and cold water will simply take longer to proof. Mix the yeast and water and let it sit, undisturbed, for ten minutes. If the mixture has turned somewhat foamy, then the yeast is good and you can go ahead and bake with this proofed yeast. Otherwise, your yeast is “dead” and cannot be used.

Kneading
After you mix your ingredients together, the recipe may call for you to knead the bread. Flour your hands and on a clean, floured surface, stretch the dough away from you with the heel of your hands (this reminds me of how my cat paws my stomach when she wants attention). Fold the furthest-away part back towards you and continue to stretch the dough in this manner, repeating for 10-20 minutes until the dough is smooth, stretchy, and can be stretched thinly without breaking.

Rising
The recipe will specify how long (or to what size) you should allow dough to rise before baking the bread. I’ve seen dough take an hour or more to rise, and I’ve seen it rise to over double its original size. Generally, it is best to allow dough to rise in a warm place. I usually do it on the stove with the oven turned on and a towel or saran wrap loosely draped over the dough to trap in heat. On cold days, dough may take a really long time to rise to a desirable size – this is fine. The time it takes to rise will not affect the quality of the bread, as long as you let it rise to the correct size before baking.

Punching
Bread recipes may call for you to punch the dough after it has risen, and then knead it before baking or allow it to rise up again. To do this, simply make a fist and punch the center of the dough. This will cause the air that has formed in the dough to deflate.

The whole thing really sounds a lot more intimidating than it actually is. Trust me – if you survived 10th grade algebra, this yeast thing will be a piece of cake. Or rather, a piece of bread…

This post is a sponsored post on behalf of FoodConnect. All opinions are my own.

I like food. And I really like to talk. But I LOVE to talk about food. So I was pretty stoked when I discovered FoodConnect (and even more stoked when I was asked to write a sponsored review of the site – now I get to talk about people talking about food. Score!).

With the motto “Share the food you love,” FoodConnect is like a combination of Facebook, AllRecipes and Yelp. Users create a profile and upload their favorite recipes (complete with any available photos, nutritional information, and menus that the recipes mesh well with). Users can then add friends on the site and share recipes. So next time your second cousin can’t remember what goes in aunt Heidi’s famous parmesan chicken casserole, you can direct both of them to FoodConnect and share it with the entire family. 

One of my favorite features is the ability to rate and review recipes. Ratings are noted with little forks instead of stars (aww, cute!). Users can not only rate recipes, but they can also rate restaurants as well. If you love the salmon polenta at that Italian place down the road, you can post a review right along with all your other pictures, recipes, and menus. Restaurants, in turn, can upload coupons just for FoodConnect users (so after you read about all the tasty food they have, you won’t break the bank when you go try it for yourself!). 

To top it all off, the site will even auto-compile a shopping list for you from any number of recipes on the site. So you can pair chicken dumplings with spiced eggnog, candied yams and raspberry tarts with just a few clicks of a button (okay, I probably wouldn’t choose that pairing, but you could if you really wanted to!). And once you’ve tried your hand at any recipes that are already on the site, you can upload your own photos to show people how it’s really done. You can also manage events on the site, inviting other users and sharing recipes. So arrange a potluck, plan a menu, assign recipes and share photos afterwards – all in one place! And if you’re feeling overwhelmed or don’t know where to start, try browsing the glossary at www.foodconnect.com. Anything you could possibly want – from abalone to zwieback – is right at your fingertips.

I found a pretty simple recipe for cream caramels in my old Betty Crocker cookbook, so I decided to try my hand at candy making for the first time. Caramels are a good thing to start with, because you can’t really screw them up no matter how hard you try (trust me). The mistake anyone is most likely to make is to not cook it long enough, so it won’t firm up and set. I did this and then discovered that you can actually stick the partially-set caramel back in the pot after realizing it isn’t setting, then melt it back down, and keep cooking it until it gets to the right temperature to set. I ran out and got a candy thermometer in between the two melting attempts, just to take a little of the guesswork out of it.

Absolute worst case scenario, you get distracted because someone comes in a turns on The Biggest Loser, and end up burning a bunch of the caramel to the bottom of your pan (which I also did). The rest is still good and edible – just don’t try to scrape the burned caramel up and mix it with the rest. That burned portion simply isn’t salvageable, so let it be and scrub it off later. Another possible mistake is to cook it too long or too hot (which I also did). This will make the caramels turn out hard instead of creamy. Not exactly what we’re going for, but still really good. They have the consistency (and taste, actually) of Werther’s if you do this.

So to recap: I undercooked, then burnt the caramel AND cooked it too hot and too long. Still ended up with something that everyone loves! A couple more useful tips to keep in mind: if your caramel isn’t turning caramel-colored, don’t worry. It will. Mine didn’t start to turn dark until it was about 210 degrees. Also, be sure to use a pan about three times as big as you think you need. This stuff bubbles up a lot. I had it in a smaller pot to begin with, and had to switch to a bigger one.

Cream Caramels (or, perhaps not so creamy, hard-but-still-awesome Werther’s-like candy if you happen to overcook it)

2 cups sugar
 1/4 cup light corn syrup
 1/2 cup butter
2 cups half-and-half

Butter square pan, 8x8x2 inches. Combined sugar, corn syrup, butter and half the half-and-half cream in large saucepan. Heat to boiling over medium heat, stirring constantly. Stir in the remaining half-and-half.

 Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, to 245 degreed on a candy thermometer (or until small amount of mixture dropped into very cold water forms a firm ball).

Immediately spread mixture evenly into pan. Cut into small squares.

Yields: About 5 dozen candies