Good morning chickadees! Over here in the second city, things are heating up (just a little) and it looks like spring is about to make a play.

So it’s normal that this would lead me to rustle up some tomato cream pasta last night, right?

Wrong.

Spring in Chicago typically means a host of grilled meats (hotdog, anyone?), but last night, I had limited time, pantry ingredients, and an empty stomach.

And after a long day, sometimes you’ve just go to give into eating comfort food, no matter what month it is.

I started with an onion and four cloves of garlic, and minced everything up while listening to questionable Taylor Swift songs on repeat.

I can’t help it you guys, I love her.

Next up, I hit the pan with some olive oil. In the original recipe, which I took from Pioneer Woman, she uses a combination of butter and oil, but it was only Wednesday, so I felt like that was maybe a little much.

Also, like I said, it’s almost spring here. Butter and olive oil seems like moving in the wrong direction.

Next up, I threw some brown rice pasta in boiling water (I’m trying a gluten free thing over here, so use whatever you love) and sautéed the chopped vegetables.

A couple minutes into this, I threw in two cans of tomato sauce, procured by Trader Joe’s, lowered the heat so tomato sauce wasn’t splattering everywhere, and read a book for 20 minutes.

Sometimes you just have to let things alone to do their magic.

After 20 minutes or so, I turned off the heat, and stirred in a cup of half and half.

Which technically means that this it tomato half and half sauce.

But it’s what I had and it’s neither here nor there.

Except, in case you’re wondering, it’s a little more delicious with actual cream.

It’s just the truth, chickens.

I threw in a few handfuls of Parmesan cheese after the half and half, you know, just in case it wasn’t rich enough.

At this point, stir the pound of pasta into the delicious sauce, and stir it all around.

Try not to cause a messy disaster in your kitchen.

Succeed, mostly.

Last up, throw this in a bowl, sit in front of an open window, and enjoy a delicious comfort food in spite of the fact that it’s nearly 80 degrees.

There’s never a bad time for something that tastes this good, chicks!

So with all this homemade Mexican/Mexican-influenced food, I decided that one thing we had yet to tackle was homemade salsa. I make pico de gallo all the time, because it’s easy and delicious, but we had yet to tackle pico. I took a stab at it last night, and it turns out it is very easy to make a delicious salsa!

Making your own salsa starts with you softening some tomatoes on a skillet, like so.

It also involves a lot of my arch nemesis, cilantro, but I put aside our differences for the sake of the recipe, of course.

Here’s what you do, and how you make the delicious stuff…

Ingredients:

1 jalapeño, sliced
1 green pepper, diced
1 bunch cilantro
1 medium red onion
4 cloves garlic
13 oz of tomatoes/canned tomatoes
6 oz tomato paste
1 can green chiles
1 lime
cumin
salt
pepper
olive oil

Directions:

1. Take your tomatoes and put them in about a 1/2 inch of water, and put in a skillet until water evaporates and tomatoes are slightly squishy.
2. Meanwhile, chop your jalapeño  green pepper, red onion, and garlic, rough chop your cilantro, and open your green chiles and paste.
3. Put your jalapeño, green pepper, cilantro, and tomatoes in a blender. Blend until mostly smooth.
4. Put your red onion and garlic in a pan with some olive oil, and let sweat for about two minutes. Then, add your blended mixture, and simmer for about 15 minutes.
5. Salt, pepper, and cumin your salsa, and add the juice of one lime. Let cool and serve chilled!

What’s your fave kind of salsa? 

So, today is basically my fave day of the year, because it’s National Raisin Day.

If you know me personally, you know that I love, love raisins. They got me through college as a great snack, and I literally have kept a bag of them in every office I’ve worked in – because you never know when you might be hungry for them! So of course I wanted to celebrate the silly holiday of National Raisin Day! And what better way to do it than making Cinnamon Raisin Scones?

Go ahead and preheat your oven to 400 Then, put your dry ingredients into a bowl, and mix well.

Add your butter, and use a pastry cutter (or a fork) to slice in your butter! Make sure you use cold butter so it’ll really cut into the dry ingredients.

Cut it up until it is crumbly…I probably could have cut longer, but I got lazy – I wanted my scones!

Put milk, egg, and vanilla in a bowl, stir, then add to your dry ingredients, mixing until just incorporated.

And now…add…RAISINS. I added a cup. Could have added more if I wanted, but I wanted other people to enjoy these two, and not everyone is as obsessed with raisins as I am.

Shape your dough into a circle, and then cut it into eight pieces. Pull ’em apart a bit so they’ll be individual scones!

Bake them for about 25 minutes, and you’ll have a delicious scones ready for eating warm, or sharing with your friends and family, or having breakfast all week. Options are all yours.

These, obviously, were a delight. What’s your fave way to eat raisins? Better question: what’s your fave scone?

On lazy Sundays in America, I used to wake up and make coffee in my French press. If I happened to have all the necessary ingredients on hand, I would also make French toast to go with my coffee for breakfast. Later on in the evening dinner might have been a veggie burger and French fries. This begs the question, why is everything French???

Now, on lazy Sundays in England, I wake up and make coffee in a cafetière. I make eggy bread to go with my coffee for breakfast. Dinner is a veggie burger and chips. So, why then is nothing French???

After a bit of Internet researching, (thanks Wikipedia!) it has all become clear.

Cafetière is the French word for coffee maker, so the natural progression in English became French press for this particular way of making coffee. In the UK, they decided to stick to the French terminology.

Thomas Jefferson was supposedly the first person to coin the phrase French fries after having “potatoes served in the French manner” during a White House dinner in 1802. French fries today are the long and skinny ones, while chips are the chunkier version of fries.

Last, but certainly not least, there is French toast. While I’m still not totally clear on exactly why we call it French toast in America, I have found a very significant difference between French toast and eggy bread in the UK. Here are my recipes for both!

French Toast
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 5 – 10 minutes
Servings: 4-6 slices

Ingredients:
1 loaf of bread (white or wheat recommended)
2 – 3 tablespoons milk
6 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
A pinch of cinnamon
A pinch of nutmeg
A drizzle of olive oil or small slice of butter to coat the frying pan

Directions:
Beat eggs, milk, vanilla, and spices together in a bowl large enough to dip bread in. A deep plate would also work for dipping purposes once the egg ingredients are mixed together. Heat a frying pan over medium to low heat with enough oil or butter to coat the pan. Dip a slice of bread in the egg mixture, coating both sides. Fry until golden brown all over.

Eggy Bread
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 5 – 10 minutes
Servings: 4-6 slices

Ingredients:
1 loaf of bread (white or wheat recommended)
2 – 3 tablespoons milk
6 eggs
A drizzle of olive oil or small slice of butter to coat the frying pan

Beat eggs and milk together in a bowl (one large enough to dip bread into, just like with the French toast). Heat a frying pan over medium to low heat with enough oil or butter to coat the pan. Soak both sides of the bread in the egg mixture for a few seconds. Fry until golden brown all over.

While French toast and eggy bread are essentially the same dish, there is one crucial difference; French toast is a sweet breakfast and eggy bread is a savory one. Enjoy French toast topped with maple syrup, powdered sugar, butter, berries, peanut butter, jelly, or any way you like to sweeten it up! Eggy bread is traditionally served with ketchup or mayonnaise. I however quite enjoyed it plain!

Which do you prefer, sweet or savory breakfasts?

Blueberries are on their way back into season, you guys. As you may know, I only buy local produce (or at least, when I can, produce from the US) which means I stay within the seasons. A small price to pay, I think, when I get to learn about all the great things in seasons at different times. But winter comes, and all I eat is citrus, which is LOVELY but sometimes you just need diversity – which is why when spring brings berries, I rejoice.

Anyways, Jeff loves blueberries, so I decided to celebrate the first USA blueberries of the season with muffins.

Recipe:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
3/4 tablespoons ground cinnamon
3/4 cup milk
1 eggs, lightly beaten
1 stick unsalted butter, melted
2 cups fresh blueberries
3/4 cup sugar

Here’s what you do: heat your oven to 375. Mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in a bowl. In another bowl, mix together the milk, egg, and melted butter. Add your wet ingredients to your dry. Mix until just incorporated, then add your sugar and your blueberries, mixing until incorporated. Pour into muffin tins, and bake 25-30 minutes.

This recipe makes about 11 muffins, which I know, is silly, I’m sorry. You can make it into 12 if you want, but if you like muffin tops, make it into 8.

Happy Friday! Here’s to the weekend, and delicious breakfasts every day.