Deconstructed Thai Chicken Lettuce Wraps
Southeast-Asian inspiration finds elements of salty and savory dancing over a bed of crisp vegetation. Crunchy lettuce accompanies tender chicken bathed in a classic Thai condiment, one over which umami proudly reigns. The simple salad forays into the exotic with a once-familiar protein transformed, cool leaves bending ever so slightly under their partner’s slowly dissipating heat. Embrace a dish at once light and satiating, uncomplicated and bold to the final perfectly-balanced bite, and give thanks.
Ingredients:
1 glob peanut butter
4 sloshes soy sauce
1 handful chicken
2+ handfuls lettuce
Stir peanut butter, soy sauce and chicken until combined. Toss with lettuce.
Belgian Waffle with Framboise-Infused Crème Fraîche
Late Sunday slumber yields unexpected extravagance as culinary celebration guides a lingering morning toward noon. Smooth, creamy filling nestles inside the deep caverns of a crisp breakfast favorite and melts into billowing rivers of decadence speckled with red raspberries. Each berry stains the waffle’s golden surface with its sweet-tart ruby kisses, a romance both lasting and brief. Invite the senses, not least of all taste, to expound on the day’s boundless possibility with each subsequent morsel.
Ingredients:
1 waffle
1 large glob cream cheese
1 handful raspberries
Top waffle with cream cheese and raspberries. Fold in half.
Loaded Baked Potato Soup in Homemade Bread Bowl
A single crusty vessel contains a hearty meal and so much more. An unsuspecting spoon discovers swirls of creamy comfort, salty sustenance and permeating warmth that nearly defies reason. Whispers of steam relinquish all traces of tension with faint, curling plumes. Savory slices of bacon, still crackling with grease remnants, rest atop the nourishing broth and intermingle with sharp, bold cheddar, a familiar friend. From this humble stew emerges tranquility unmatched.
Ingredients:
1 baked potato, still hot
1 large glug milk
1 handful shredded cheese
1+ slice(s) bacon
1+ slice(s) toast
Stir potato innards (no skins) with milk until smooth. Top with remaining ingredients. Stir ‘til cheese melts. Dip toast.
Warm Strawberry Compote with Dark Chocolate Drizzle
Indulge in summer’s sweetest offering one last time ere the season disperses into sunbathed memory once again. Consider simplicity as sumptuous strawberries glisten, tiny water droplets flushing impurities from their ripe flesh. In a moment’s time, each fruit will meet smooth and rich dark chocolate, bittersweet bursts to highlight the luscious nectar within. As a pair, a sum greater than any amalgam of parts. Savor each delightfully fleeting second that elapses towards ultimate fulfillment, scrumptious and spiritual.
Ingredients:
2 handfuls strawberries, no stems
1 handful chocolate chips
Microwave ingredients on high for 45 seconds. Stir and mush accordingly.
Tags: food, getting fancy, jen cantin, recipes
I was recently whining about how desperately I need recipes that have like 3 ingredients and can be made instantly and then this post arrives and it’s perfect. Thanks Jen/Toast/Fate!
Two very enthusiastic thumbs up.
Hey how’d you get in my kitchen?
PERFECTION. These recipes, I have time to make!
Oh my God, you guys are being so nice!!!
why wouldn’t we be nice, Mallory?
THE PHOTOS ARE OF WHIMSICALLY TERRIBLE FOOD
Indeed, Mallory, indeed. I guess we don’t have any mommy bloggers in the crowd haha. But I’m glad to see they have succeeded (to some extent) in toeing the line.
I work with cookbooks / food writers / bloggers and I think that is precisely why I find these so awesome.
“Fold in half”. I like the way you think, Toast.
This? This is my kind of cooking.
I particularly enjoyed the careful and particular measurement units! These things are very crucial for fine and artful food.
Jen, are you available to rewrite more activities as glorious glamorous exercises in decadence? I want to change my “napping on the couch watching shows about kittens” into something involving lounging beneath rich blankets and observing the subtleties of nature.
Also I may have licked my screen trying to get at that baked potato soup. Just so you know.
I find these really inspiring.
or maybe I mean liberating.
THIS IS RELEVANT TO MY INTERESTS/SKILL LEVEL. Last night’s feast consisted of leftover pasta, “meat sauce” (can of Hormel chili + can of tomato sauce + sprinkle of “Italian” seasoning), plus some fresh! chopped! green peppers, because vegetables. MAGNIFIQUE.
I love this. More of these recipes, please.
Eating like this is why living alone is the BEST.
Peanut butter on Spoon for dinner? DON’T MIND IF I DO.
Peanut butter noodles with sriacha is the best noodles – true fax
Come over to my house and cook anytime.
(To some degree) even easier? Raspberry or blackberry jam instead of fresh berries atop the cream-cheesey Eggo. So good!
brb spreading these all over pinterest
These recipes speak to me. Every time my boyfriend helps me in the kitchen, he asks “how much of this should I put in?” and my answer is, “some, I guess? not the whole thing? just, some of it.” He does not handle imprecision well.
My husband does this, too. We get so exasperated with each other. Actual argument:
"But HOW MUCH salt?"
"Jesus fucking christ, however much salt you want. How much salt do you think will taste good? Just put some salt in."
"Oh, oh, I can't find the measuring spoon marked 'some'. Guess I'll just WING IT rather than read the damn recipe. Guess I'll just throw some salt in there WILLY NILLY."
Hearing a grown man try to use the phrase "willy nilly" in anger was one of the highlights of my life.
My second favorite argument of ours ended when, after an excruciating afternoon of refusing to acknowledge each other's presence in the tiny apartment (save for the occasional glance of withering scorn) I looked over at him and said, icily, "Your fly is unzipped." He glared at me then furiously zipped his fly while roaring, "OH NOW YOU'RE TRYING TO TELL ME HOW TO LIVE?"
This comment made me less fearful of marriage.
This is very familiar. One of the biggest fights I've had with my SO was a three-day argument about how cheese should be sliced. I like to use a knife, he uses a designated cheese slicer thingy. We weren't living together yet, so his trump card was "It's MY CHEESE in MY HOUSE and you will use MY CHEESE SLICER if you want to eat MY CHEESE."
When we moved in together that cheese slicer mysteriously disappeared.
This seems like the appropriate place to share this: I just (JUST) realized that one can boil pasta and sausage (or hot dogs) in the same pot. Dump out into colander, cut up sausage into little bits, dump pasta and bits of sausage back into pot, add spaghetti sauce, mix, nom.