Baking Mischief

Our barbecue-themed month on Baking Mischief has come and gone. Did you do much June BBQing? I actually didn’t do a ton, but summer has just begun. Who knows what July and August will bring! Since this month’s theme was a barbecue menu, we cooked through an entire menu over the course of the month, starting with Strawberry Limeades and ending with gooey S’mores Cupcakes. Drink: Strawberry Limeade Mix Side: Loaded Baked Potato Salad with Yogurt Main: Basil and Garlic Steak Marinade Dessert: Gooey Chocolate S’mores Cupcakes And as I do at the end of every monthly series, I rounded up some more recipes from some of my favorite bloggers....

Last year I shared my favorite Garlic Aioli with you, and today I have a little twist on that recipe: Chipotle Aioli. Quick and Easy Chipotle Aioli Chipotle aioli is everything great about classic aioli with a little spicy chipotle kick. It’s the perfect bright and tangy way to finish off sandwiches and burgers or as a dipping sauce for pretty much anything. And the best part is that it’s made with pantry staples, so as long as you have the chipotle element (we’ll talk more on that in a second), you probably always have the ingredients on hand to whip up a quick batch....

Chili recipes can be a little intense and intimidating sometimes. It took me forever to start making chili at home because it seemed like all of the BEST MOST AUTHENTIC CHILI RECIPES EVER had just crazy long ingredient lists or cooking times. And then I realized that as great and aspirational as those recipe are, not every chili recipe has to be the BEST MOST AUTHENTIC CHILI RECIPE EVER. Sometimes chili recipes can just be really good and really easy....

Question! What do you do when you make a recipe and the ingredient list calls for “cooked chicken?” Do you throw a chicken breast in the oven for half an hour and hope for the best? Run out and buy a rotisserie chicken? Pick a different recipe because come on, why doesn’t it say how to cook the chicken–half the recipe is missing? Yes? Yes? or Yes? Friend, today’s recipe is for you....

Now that it’s fall, I can’t wait to bust out all my fall favorites, Ham and Potato Soup, Beef Stew, Baked Potatoes with Cheese Sauce–okay, admittedly I eat these all year long, but they all feel extra special this time of year. But, one of my favorite comfort foods that I only get to enjoy this time of year is butternut squash. I love cooking with it because it’s fabulous on its own, tossed with a little oil and salt, but it also adds such a nice, slightly sweet richness to everything you put it in (like, for example, Butternut Squash Bacon Mac and Cheese)....

So this month’s blog theme is “My Favorite Recipes,” and I bet you thought it was going to be all carbs, sweets, and cream-laden sweet carbs. Okay, it almost was (because carbs, cream, and sweets are the best things in the world), but unfortunately, I don’t actually eat like that every day in real life. So today I’m posting one of my everyday favorites. This naturally sweet green smoothie is my favorite go-to breakfast because it’s good for you and makes you feel good about yourself....

Hey, friends, it’s time for another reader-requested post from the survey I ran a while back. After requests for posts on meal planning (I wrote two), and where to buy small-batch baking tools, the third most popular request was for multi-use recipes. Again, this one surprised me! Choose your-own-adventure-type recipes weren’t even something I’d thought about adding to the blog, but now that so many of you have said something, I totally get it....

Well, we’ve finished our first week of January. How is 2016 working out for you? Is it everything you hoped it would be? As of the writing of this, I’m down with one of those awful hacking colds, so I’m hoping week numero uno is not representative of my next 51! Considering that it’s healthy January, I debated whether or not to post any dessert recipes this month after the glut that was December....

Growing tired with your regular old grilled cheeses? Have a bit of pesto left over in that jar from dinner last night? I have just the recipe for you! Pesto grilled cheese! We all know pesto’s great when added to carbs and cheese in the form of cheesy pasta (like maybe some Pesto Chicken Pasta for Two), so pairing it with carbs and cheese in the form of toasty bread and melty provolone is going to be A++....

We’re getting a bit of a late start this month with our monthly theme, but better late than never, right? I debated a bit with myself over the August theme and eventually settled on… slow cooker recipes! I know, slow cooker recipes are usually a fall and winter thing, but it’s hot. I don’t want to run the oven. I don’t want to play in the kitchen. I want to throw some ingredients together in a magical cooking contraption and forget about them as I drink frosty drinks and read the most indulgent summer literature available*....

I’ve been trying to round out my collection of small-batch muffin recipes these last couple months. So far on the site, I have these Apple Crumb Muffins, Small-batch Banana Muffins, Small-batch Chocolate Chocolate Chip Muffins, Small-batch Chocolate Banana Muffins, Pumpkin Streusel Muffins, and Small-batch Orange Muffins, but what I didn’t have (until now) was a small-batch Blueberry Muffin recipe. And what muffin collection is complete without one of those?...

Welcome to another installment in my Waste Not series. In these posts, I tackle food waste and try to find ways to use up leftovers so we are throwing away less and using more! So far in this series, I’ve written about: What to Do With Leftover Buttermilk What to Do With Leftover Pumpkin Puree What to Do With Leftover Pie Dough Today, Pesto! When it comes to leftover pesto, you have two options: make something else with it or freeze it–Did you know you could freeze pesto?...

Whelp, it happened again. I had another recipe development failure. Last time I scrapped a recipe this far into the development process, the thing as a whole was just kind of a dud. This time it was for shallower reasons. The recipe tasted amazing but was so ugly that I would not have touched it if it hadn’t come out of my kitchen! (If you want to be grossed out, you can see a picture of the under-cooked first batch here–its looks improved only marginally with subsequent batches....

I had two birthdays in my family last week, my sister, Caroline’s and my dog, Ella’s. Since I like to use real-life events as blog fodder, like when I made Victoria Sponge Cupcakes for my youngest sister’s birthday, or my mom’s favorite Copycat Carmela’s Chicken for hers, I was going to recreate Caroline’s favorite champagne cupcakes from one of our local bakeries and post it to the blog. But when I asked her what she liked so much about those CHAMPAGNE cupcakes, she told me that she liked that they didn’t taste like champagne, which…?...

One of the absolute best cold-weather comfort foods is a big bowl of rich and creamy homemade stroganoff. It’s quick and easy to throw together and will make your house smell amazing simmering away on the stove. The best part about it is that it’s a super versatile dish and you can make it with a ton of different proteins. On the blog, I’ve shared recipes for my favorite Beef Stroganoff and Pork Stroganoff, and today, I have a brand new cozy stroganoff recipe for you, Chicken Stroganoff!...

I’ve mentioned in previous posts that I have a bad habit of feeding my horse, Daff (Arabian), and dog, Ella (Lab mix), people food. This goes double around the holidays because I feel like I’m enjoying all these sweet treats, why shouldn’t they? But I know that’s not the greatest thing for them, so for the last few years, I’ve been making them some of their own gingerbread cookies. And they LOVE THEM....

So, you guys know I love a good kitchen hack. And try and tell me that “hacks” are so 2015 and I’ll shove my fingers in my ears whilst (simultaneously) typing a 500-word post about how you should whip your egg whites for the fluffiest pancakes or how to use two simple ingredients to make a killer 30-second Chocolate Sauce. Or in today’s case, why you should absolutely try steaming your cauliflower in your microwave....

Today’s recipe is one of my absolute favorite comfort foods, my mom’s simple and easy, completely from scratch homemade beef stew. And when I say completely from scratch, I mean from scratch. There’s no beef broth, no packets of flavoring mix, no consommé in here. It’s chunks of beef chuck, vegetables, and spices, and a couple hours of long, low simmering time. You can add all the artificial flavor in the world, but nothing is going to beat the rich flavor of a stew that is given time to cook the way stew was meant to be cooked....

Looking for a truly decadent and ridiculously good cookie recipe to try out this weekend? You should definitely make these Buckeye Brownie Cookies. The cookie base might look familiar. It’s the same one I use for my Miniature Hot Chocolate Cookies. It’s made with pure melted chocolate and just a tiny bit of cocoa powder. So about 90% of the chocolate flavor comes from actual chocolate, making the cookies incredibly rich and soft, to the point that they are more of a brownie in cookie form than anything....

Craving some hot chocolate today but want something a little spicy and special feeling? Make yourself a creamy and dreamy snickerdoodle hot chocolate. Pair it with a good book, some fluffy socks, and maybe a real snickerdoodle or two, and have yourself a perfectly cozy night in. OR (and even better) you can make it at home with just a couple of ingredients in less than 15 minutes. Ingredients Milk: Starbucks uses 2% milk by default in their drinks, but you can use whatever milk you have....