I want to tell you a secret. I LOVE PINTEREST. Ok, that really isn’t a secret. If you know me, you know I love Pinterest already. I have a board for my apartment, I have a board for hair and makeup, but my favorite board is called Delish. As you can imagine, it’s my Internet recipe book for all the things I want to make! I found these Chive and Gruyere Popovers on Pinterest, and proceeded to make them immediately. They were so good, they lasted about 1 second in my office. Jennie didn’t even get one, and here I am posting this on her blog (sorry Jennie!) I promise to make them again for you.

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 25-30 minutes
Yields: 1 dozen popovers

Ingredients:
1 ½ cups (355g) milk (I used skim, but the original blogger recommended whole)
1 ½ cups (355g) flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
3 eggs
¾ cup (178g) shredded gruyere cheese
2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives
2 tablespoons unsalted butter

Directions:
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Shred Gruyere. Don’t feel bad about eating the last little bit that won’t properly shred.

Chop chives.

Now despite these being called popovers, I do not own “popover” tins. Muffins tins it is! Spray or lightly butter your pan. I was lazy, so I sprayed with olive oil.

Heat the milk in a small saucepan, but not too hot! Just until the milk is warm and bubbles start to form around the edges. Heating milk always seems weird to me, but it’s important here so all the ingredients combine properly.

In a large bowl mix the flour and salt. Maybe sift it, maybe not. Depends on how you are feeling that day. I was not feeling the sifting vibe on this particular evening.

In another large bowl (I know, I’m sorry, I pretty much used every bowl in my house) whip your eggs until combined and frothy.

Add milk to eggs, stirring constantly.

Add flour mixture, stirring until all ingredients are deliciously combined.

Add cheese and chives, saving some cheese to top your popovers.

Fill muffin tins ¾ full of batter and top with more cheese.

Bake for 25-30 mins. Popovers should expand and brown on top.

Eat immediately, these won’t last long!

What delicious treats have you made from Pinterest?

August and September have been busy months around here, and so Jeff has been working a lot. This means I am able to cook some nights on my own, just for me – things I know he would never eat, and know I will love.

One of these things recently was shrimp. I originally was going to make polenta, but when I saw grits at Trader Joe’s, I knew that is what I had to make. Incorporate the vegetables I had in the house, and I had a feast!

Recipe:

grits (make enough servings according to the box)
shrimp (I made five, but if you’re making for more than one, obviously allot for that)
1/2 container mushrooms
1/2 eggplant
1-2 tomatoes
1 lemon
garlic
olive oil
arugula
almond slices
parm cheese

Not pictured: making grits to box’s directions.

Start with your veggies – slice ’em however you want. I cubed mine.

Put some garlic in a hot skillet with olive oil.

Then add your veggies, and sautee roughly ten minutes (maybe less, depending on how you like ’em.)

Not pictured: sauteeing the shrimp. Don’t be like me, folks.

Serve shrimp with grits and parmesan cheese, a lemon slice, your vegetables, and arugula with sliced almonds.

That’s it – relatively quick, definitely simple dinner.

How do you make shrimp and grits? What is your favorite shrimp dish?

UPDATED: The winner of our giveaway is Ava! Ava, please email me at jennie@garlicmysoul.com to claim your prize! Thank you for all of your entries!

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Today, because it’s Tuesday, the beginning of a short week, and because secretly I can’t wait for fall (and baking!), we’re giving away a quart of Tropical Traditions Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil. I love coconut oil because it is versatile – I’ve used it as both an oil substitute as well as a butter substitute.

Win 1 quart of Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil!

Tropical Traditions is America’s source for coconut oil. Their Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil is hand crafted in small batches by family producers, and it is the highest quality coconut oil they offer. You can read more about how virgin coconut oil is different from other coconut oils on their website: What is Virgin Coconut Oil?

You can also watch the video they produced about Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil:

Tropical Traditions also carries other varieties of affordable high quality coconut oil. Visit their website to check on current sales, to learn about the many uses of coconut oil, and to read about all the advantages of buying coconut oil online. Since the FDA does not want us to discuss the health benefits of coconut oil on a page where it is being sold or given away, here is the best website to read about the health benefits of coconut oil.

Disclaimer: Tropical Traditions provided me with a free sample of this product to review, and I was under no obligation to review it if I so chose.  Nor was I under any obligation to write a positive review or sponsor a product giveaway in return for the free product.

Here’s what you need to do to participate:

1. Like us on Facebook
2. Subscribe to Tropical Traditions’ email newsletter, here.
3. Comment on this post to tell me you’ve done 1 and 2.

For bonus entries, feel free to:

1. Follow us on Twitter @garlicmysoul
2. Follow Tropical Traditions on Twitter @troptraditions and @ttspecialdeals

(Let me know if you’ve done either of these in the comments, too!)

Then you’re entered to win – you have until 6 pm PDT on Monday, September 10 to enter! Winners will be revealed Tuesday morning.

Good luck, and happy cooking!

For those of you who don’t know, I spent the first 12 years of my life on the east coast – in Connecticut, matter of fact. Most of my family (save the immediate ones) still live their, nestled in West Haven, and Hamden, and Guilford, and Orange, and the like. Something I remember fondly of my youth is chocolate lemon pie. It’s like lemon meringue pie, only it has a top crust, and on top of that top crust is a layer of chocolate.

And, apparently, no one outside of the New Haven area has any idea what a chocolate lemon pie is. Which is exactly why I asked my mom for the recipe a few years back, AND exactly why I made it for KCRW’s 4th Annual Good Food Pie Contest. My friend Christian suggested (no, actually required) that I enter, and so I did.

Although I didn’t win, I did have the only chocolate lemon pie out of hundreds, and a young gentleman told me it was the best pie he had that day, and I had five friends stop by, and I tried lots of pie, which is to say: I won.

You start with crust. Crust is easy, and hard, all at the same time. I used Ina’s because she’s trustworthy, and because my mom told me too, and because when my mom, who never uses a recipe, tells you to use a specific recipe, you use it.

So you dice butter, first. I had to dice three sticks because I was doubling the double crust recipe to make two pies (one for the public, one for the judges.)

So you take your flour, and your salt, and your sugar, and you pulse ’em together in your you-don’t-know-it-yet-too-small food processor.

Or your not-too-small food processor, if you have one of those lying about.

Add your cold shortening, and pulse that in too. Realize your food processor is too small, and transfer to mix by hand…

Mush it up until the butter is about pea sized, or so.

Then you’re going to add your cold water to your doughy mess.

Now mix until just combined to something you can roll into a ball. Roll into a ball, and chill for at least 30 minutes.

So, meanwhile, in this episode of “Jennie Mixes White Things Together” mix together sugar, flour, salt, cornstarch, and powdered lemon pie filling in a sauce pan.

Add water and poof! your mixture turns yellow! Voila! Lemon! Delicious! Ok, I’ll stop.

Zest your lemon and juice ’em while your mixture simmers…don’t forget about it though, it thickens fast!

Also you maybe should separate your eggs. I had to separate ten, and this took a bit of time…don’t be like me, do it before hand.

So then add your yolks, zest, and lemon juice to your thickened lemony-goodness.

Boil it, then let it cool. I know, I know, annoying. But while it’s cooling you can lay out your pie crust!

Confession: I think that I used too much water, or something, but I need to work on my crust-making skills.

So once your lemony goodness has cooled, pour into your pie crust. Resist the urge to eat straight out of the pan (although I supposed you could, in theory, do this.)

Double the fun here – now you need to top your pie with your top pie crust. This, in my household, did not go so well, as it was late, and I was out of ideas, and finesse, and Jeff though a pizza tin would help us flip it onto the pie, and…well…we ended up with some pie crust in the lemony goodness. But don’t fret if this happens to you – there will be chocolate over your pie crust, so never fear!

After you get the top on, you’re going to bake for about 35 minutes in a 350 oven and, you guessed it! Let! It! Cool! I used the fridge for this one.

The next step is not pictured: you are basically going to clarify the butter. Melt, put in the fridge for a few minutes, and then skim the water off the top.

And now, for the chocolate. Take your chocolate and melt in a double boiler.

When melted, add your corn syrup. This will make it harden fast, so get ready!

So at this point, the chocolate just wasn’t remelting, so I had to add a splash of milk to get it to a pourable state.

Pour chocolate over the top. Put! It! In! Fridge!

Let the chocolate harden, then pull out and serve – you can serve room temperature or cold, it’s delicious both ways!

I adapted this recipe and I used Ina’s pie crust:

Pie filling

¼ cups sugar
2¼ tablespoons flour
3½ tablespoons cornstarch
Pinch salt
2 tablespoons powdered lemon pie filling
12 ounces water
1 fresh lemon, zest and juice
5 egg yolks, lightly beaten

Chocolate topping

3 tablespoons butter
1 cup chocolate chips
2 tablespoons corn syrup
slash of milk 

Pie filling: Mix sugar, flour, cornstarch, salt, pie filling and water in pan on low heat. When mixture thickens, add lemon juice, rind and egg yolks. Bring to a boil.

Cool (I cooled on the counter for about thirty minutes, but I supposed you could stick it in the fridge.) Pour into pie crust and cover with top crust. Bake for 35 minutes in pre-heated 350-degree oven or until golden brown. Cool in refrigerator. (I let them cool about forty five minutes, which was all I was willing to wait, if we’re being honest.)

Chocolate topping: Melt butter and refrigerate. Once cool, skim off water on top. Melt chocolate in double boiler. Add corn syrup to chocolate, then butter, a splash of milk, and melt. Pour over top of pie and let cool. Refrigerate. Makes 9-inch pie.

Me and the pie on the way to the contest!

This is me in the booth where I served my audience-pie to the crowd!

Some of the competition – and delicious pie!

Some of my entourage! Special thanks to Kelly from Studio DIY and her bf Jeff for stopping by, too!

Here’s my empty pie tin – it went pretty fast, I think because it withheld the 90 degree weather well!

Here’s my judge’s pie – which means there is some left over for my work (they’ll be so excited, I am sure!)

Have you ever entered a pie contest? Have you ever been to one? What is your favorite pie?

This week is about making things easier on yourself. Do you ever find yourself thinking, “How can I figure out dinner this week?” or “How can I get this dessert to work without it sliding all over the place and causing me to have a heat flash in the parking lot?” or “How many vegetables did I eat this week? Any?”

No? Anyone? Just me? I didn’t think I was alone. And so, from around the Internet, I present to you a few options to make your life easy peasy lemon squeezy.

First off, check out this article on how to meal plan. For me, I generally plan my week’s meals on Sunday, go grocery shopping (and to the farmer’s market) on this same day, and try to stick to the plan. How to grocery shop and meal plan is integral to life, and sometimes forgotten in the fast-paced life we lead.

Jeff and I have found that getting dinners for what we think we need minus one meal – that means one meal less than what we need – we waste less food. Jeff sometimes works late, or I do, or an event comes up – life throws a curve ball. Rather than over buying, we under-buy. Truth is, our pantry always has enough to feed us for an extra night, and if we end up needing something else, we walk to the store!

Speaking of waste, here’s some information on how to waste less food. And here’s a website that’ll help you tell what you need to toss, and what you don’t. I know that sometimes I forget its so hot at home with AC at work, so things go moldy or somehow, that have of an onion gets stuck behind the milk. But some simple tips help us identify how to change our habits and save us money and the planet.

If you’re looking for an easy dessert to bring to work, look no further than this list. So next time someone asks you to bring the best course, you keep your cool.

As far as keeping track of what you’re eating, I use SparkPeople. So you’ll know how many fruits and vegetables you’ve eaten, how many calories you’ve consumed, and you can track your exercise, too. SparkPeople keeps me on task with calories, which is important for a food blogger who loves sweets.

Do you guys track calories? Do you meal plan? Do you make a list to grocery shop?