Baked Orzo with Eggplant and Mozzarella

The Smitten Kitchen never lets me down. I have been using way too many of Deb’s recipes as of late and know I should branch out already but they just never let me down! I made her Raspberry Buttermilk Cake again this weekend because it was so delicious the first time–except this time I forgot to add the egg. The egg! How do you forget this!? I realized it right when I put the cake in the oven and in an “oh shit what do I do now” moment, I took the cake out and whisked in the egg. All that delicious sugar that was on top intended for the crispy topping got mixed in with the egg and I sulked. I sulked again a few minutes later when I realized I forgot to add more sugar for the topping now that the intended sugar was mixed into the batter. Aghhh!

Luckily, cooking this dinner went a lot smoother. Other than a lottttttt of chopping, this was a super easy meal to make! The prep on this alone took me almost 45 minutes but most of the can be attributed to the fact that I’m so slow at chopping veggies. It can take me 10 minutes to chop garlic sometimes…

Banana-Nut Oat Bars

Cool shadow! I took this photo at 7am on a rainy day…

After a long smoothie obsession, I have finally succumbed to the early morning laziness I have long been fending off. I used to not mind spending 5-10 extra minutes every morning making smoothies before heading off to work, but now it feels more like a chore. Especially after my last smoothie creation: banana papaya with almond milk kept congealing into an inedible texture! (But thank goodness for those protein shaker balls–worked like a charm in making the smoothie a normal consistency!)

Raspberry Buttermilk Cake

Now that summer is here, I have been so inspired by all of the beautiful fruit I’ve been seeing at the market. I’m especially excited for the return of my favorite farmer’s market where there lots of fruit, and more importantly, lots of cheese.

I found this recipe for raspberry buttermilk cake and was foaming at the mouth. It was the perfect first fruit cake of the summer and so surprisingly easy to make! More times than not, I am a raging lunatic in the kitchen but preparation for this cake was seamless and it so fun to make!

Peas and Prosciutto Pesto Pasta

When alliteration is the title of a blog post, you know it’s going to be a good one. I have no idea if that’s really true, but I DO know that it’s true for this one!

I’m a recent pea-convert and made peas with pesto and pasta few weeks ago. It was good and all, but I used pre-made pesto because my one attempt at pesto was so terrible that I was afraid to try again. And linguine noodles were definitely not the way to go. I was losing peas left and right.

I knew I wanted to re-attempt this one since it should be a no-brianer. Then I saw an episode of Barefoot Contessa where Ina cooking with chef from Rao’s and they made his famous peas and prosciutto side dish. I immediately got inspired to turn his side dish into a main course and  simultaneously try my hand at pesto once again.

Japanese Chicken Meatballs

Wow–I haven’t blogged in forever! I have been cooking up a storm but haven’t gotten to blog any of the amazing (not included the not-so-amazing…and there’s been just as many of these…) meals that I’ve made recently.

I know people are weary of Gwyneth Paltrow after hearing the comments she made about her children’s diet, but her new cookbook It’s All Good has some amazing looking recipe ideas that aren’t as scary as you might think. They’re all gluten-free and healthy but still retain the comfort food feel that she loves.

Shaking Beef!

Vietnamese cooking genius, Charles Phan is not messing around with this one. I’ve been dying to get my hands on his cookbook, Vietnamese Home Cooking but haven’t got it just yet, so when I found this recipe in Food and Wine, I wasted no time before trying it out.

Strawberry Ricotta Cupcakes

I love holidays and even holidays that I don’t celebrate because there always is an excuse to bake something delicious!

I wanted to make cupcakes and try something new, but not too new because I’ve never messed up cupcakes before and didn’t want to start now! Trust me, I have a never-ending baking bucket list that includes all kinds of crazy cupcake ideas, but after reading so much of Mark Bittman’s books, I think his “simple is better” edict is starting to sink in and I chose not to make the crazy stuffed cupcakes I had in mind originally.