Hey everybody and Happy Tuesday! It’s been a couple of weeks, but I’m participating in Top Ten Tuesday again.
Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly post currently hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. It celebrates lovely lists, wonderful books and the bookish community. This week’s topic is Non-Bookish Freebie. Since it could be just about anything, it was a bit difficult for me at first, but I ultimately decided on Favorite Ingredients to Cook or Make Food With. I’m also defining “ingredient” very broadly here: as in anything used to make any kind of meal.
Anyway, without further ado, let’s get started! In no particular order, here are my ten favorite things to use whilst making food!
#1: Butter
Butter is fantastic. You can use it to grease pans, complement bread, as well as in cooking and baking.
#2: Brown Sugar
I didn’t know that brown sugar could be so versatile until recently. I used to mostly use it while baking, but I’ve discovered that it also has an excellent use in creating sauces or marinades.
#3: Onions
I add onions to a fairly decent amount of stuff that I cook. They just have a flavor that I love, and they complement most things very well.
#4: Tomatoes
Though I don’t use them nearly as often as onions, I still like how useful they can be. I mostly use the sauce or paste versions of them, but I also find small tomatoes to be excellent additions to salads and such.
#5: Cinnamon
I love cinnamon. Particularly in the fall, which is coming up. I’ve found that it’s mostly useful for baking or seasoning, but I also love how it’s a great scent for your house, too.
#6: Cream Cheese
Cream cheese is something else that I really love. I love putting it on bagels and bread, as well as dipping stuff into it. It’s also a great ingredient for baking – particularly cheesecake as well as some cookies.
#7: Eggs
You can put eggs in so many things. They’re great on their own, in whatever form you prefer to eat them, but they’re also great for baking.
#8: Milk
I love milk. It’s great for both baking and cooking, and the heavy cream version of it can be even better.
#9: Noodles
Noodles are awesome. I love using them in pastas, as well in stir fry.
#10: Bread
Bread is so useful. You can eat it on its own, or you can smooth stuff on it like butter and cream cheese. You can also toast it and add these things. It’s also crucial if you want a sandwich of any type.
Do you like to cook or bake? What are your favorite things to cook or bake with?
As always, thanks so much for reading, and I hope that you have an amazing day/night!
It’s been a bit. But I love this post, so it’s definitely not going away! I love to read and I love to cook/bake, so Reading & Recipes is the culmination of two of my favorite things!
If you don’t know what Reading & Recipes is… Well, for this post, I’m going to be posting a recipe I used recently along with a picture of the finished product, as well as discussing a book I was reading the same day a little bit. Annnd that’s it, that’s pretty much the post.
Recent Recipe: Baked Salmon Fillet w/ Garlic Herb Butter & Bay Seasoning
This is another Mar original. It’s a bit of a pricier meal than we usually have, but we saw a giant salmon fillet at Sam’s this past weekend and I was like 👀 to my spouse. I prepared it last night and it turned out wonderful. Which is especially cool, because I’ve never made salmon before.
(Sidenote: I’m sorry the picture sucks – I didn’t think to take a picture of it before we cut it up and divided it, lol. ☺️)
INGREDIENTS:
one large salmon fillet (because this is what we got, but you can get smaller ones – you’ll just need to adjust the cook time probably)
some garlic butter (I just kind of winged it)
a little salt and pepper
Bay’s Seasoning
DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 350°F (176°C). Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil, spray the foil with nonstick spray, and unwrap salmon and lay it on top.
Lightly season the fillet with salt and pepper. Heat up garlic butter in microwave until completely melted and drizzle atop salmon. Then season salmon fillet with as much Bay’s seasoning as you’d like.
After oven is heated up, place baking sheet with salmon inside and bake for 20 minutes. (Make sure it’s cooked – all ovens are different! If you have a food thermometer and you like to make sure your food is cooked perfectly, use it to make sure salmon is internally 175°F (~87°C).)
Take salmon out of oven and enjoy! If it still has skin on it, be careful while eating not to eat the skin.
Join Monkey D. Luffy and his swashbuckling crew in their search for the ultimate treasure, the One Piece.
Luffy and team must figure out a way to get their ship, the Merry Go, to sail up—the Straw Hat crew’s next destination is an island in the sky. It may seem like an island paradise, but the interesting characters they meet there are hardly heavenly. Soon Luffy and the Straw Hats are on the run… and it turns out they’re on the path to a city of gold!
I haven’t read it in a few months, but I’m still enjoying One Piece. My spouse and I have been buddy reading it, and we’re planning on finishing it. But, I dunno, I took a bit of a break after November, but maybe I shouldn’t have. ‘Cause I’ve had quite the reading slump these past few months, and this might’ve gotten me out of it – as it’s a fun, easy read, with great world building, adventure and characters.
I will say that I haven’t enjoyed this super volume as much as the ones I’ve read so far. But that’s not that surprising, as I’ve noticed the beginnings of arcs have some slow parts, in order to establish and build up the rest of the current arc, as well as future plot stuff beyond it (sometimes waaayy beyond it).
But I’ve still been enjoying the rich world and hijinks, and I’m looking forward to the rest of this massive undertaking – One Piece currently has over 103 regular volumes of story published, and over 1100 chapters out. So it’s huge, is what I’m getting at. But I’ve been enjoying reading it between regular novels – between manga, books and fanfiction it all keeps reading very fresh.
So what books have you been reading lately? What have you thought of them? What’s your favorite food, meal or dessert?
Thank you as always for reading, and I hope you all have an awesome day/night!
Sooo… It’s been awhile. I know I kind of did this post for the first time right before Christmas and then left you guys hanging. Sorry.
But I’m finally back with another Reading & Recipes. For this post, I’m going to be posting a recipe I used recently along with a picture of the finished product, as well as discussing a book I was reading the same day a little bit. Annnd that’s it, that’s pretty much the post.
Recent Recipe: Stir Fry w/ Udon
Unlike the recipe in my last post, this one is entirely a Mar original. Stir fry isn’t something that I really grew up with, until high school when my dad started making it with rice. I love rice, but I love noodles even more, so use them instead.
Stuff I Put In It:
2 pkgs Kame udon noodles
1 pkg beef stew meat
2 chicken breasts, cubed
2 broccoli florets
1 yellow bell pepper
1 red bell pepper
I put this stuff in my stir fry this time, though it always varies. One time I did beef and shrimp, another I did beef, chicken and pork, and one time I did beef on its own. You can really put anything you want in it, even tofu if you want a vegetarian option.
You don’t even have to use udon if you don’t want to. Like I said, my dad uses rice. Either white or brown works great. But if you want to use noodles but not udon, a variety are available. You can use hokkien noodles, soba noodles or Thai ribbon noodles.
What I Put In the Sauce I Stir Fry it In:
Soy sauce
Teriyaki sauce
Sesame oil
Ginger (ground)
Garlic powder
A pinch of salt
A dash of sugar
I don’t bother to measure my amounts for my stir fry sauce. I just keep adding stuff I like, until I have a flavor I like. I typically use a lot of sesame oil and ginger though. You can pretty much put whatever you want in the sauce though.
How I Cook It:
Turn the surface heating on high
Put on the wok (I don’t have an electric wok – if you do, DO NOT put in on the burner!)
Pour in the sauce after it heats up
Put in your meat / seafood / tofu first
After they’re mostly cooked, put in your vegetables (if you’re using any)
Add the noodles last, mix them in and cook them for two minutes
Take stir fry off heating and ladle into portions
Like everything else, this can be super varied. You can really put in whatever you want to stir fry, and you can prepare it how you want. You could even cook it over a skillet or pan fry it, and it works pretty well (this is what I did before I got a wok).
When mysterious faeries from other realms appear at her university, curmudgeonly professor Emily Wilde must uncover their secrets before it’s too late in this heartwarming, enchanting second installment of the Emily Wilde series.
Emily Wilde is a genius scholar of faerie folklore—she just wrote the world’s first comprehensive of encylopaedia of faeries. She’s learned many of the secrets of the Hidden Folk on her adventures… and also from her fellow scholar and former rival, Wendell Bambleby.
Because Bambleby is more than infuriatingly charming. He’s an exiled faerie king on the run from his murderous mother, and in search of a door back to his realm. So despite Emily’s feelings for Bambleby, she’s not ready to accept his proposal of marriage: Loving one of the Fair Folk comes with secrets and danger.
And she also has a new project to focus on: a map of the realms of faerie. While she is preparing her research, Bambleby lands her in trouble yet again, when assassins sent by Bambleby’s mother invade Cambridge. Now Bambleby and Emily are on another adventure, this time to the picturesque Austrian Alps, where Emily believes they may find the door to Bambley’s realm, and the key to freeing him from his family’s dark plans.
But with new relationships for the prickly Emily to navigate and dangerous Folk lurking in every forest and hollow, Emily must unravel the mysterious workings of faerie doors, and of her own heart.
This has been my most anticipated read of 2024 so far, and it hasn’t disappointed. I love Emily and Brambleby, and I love their banter. I love the world that Heather Fawcett has created.
I know that the year has just started, but I think this is going to be one of my highest rated books over 2024. Of course, I’m also still excited about what other novels might be coming out soon, as well.
So what books have you been reading lately? What have you thought of them? What’s your favorite meal or dessert?
Thank you as always for reading, and I hope you all have an awesome day/night!
Let me tell you something you don’t know about me: I love baking – and cooking in general. So I thought that I could combine it with some of my other loves, reading and blogging. (Also: double post!)
Before I continue though, I have to say that this post is slightly inspired by something I’ve seen YouTuber Cindy Pham do on her channel a couple of times. It’s called Cook & Book and she cooks herself dinner while talking about books she read recently and what she thought of them.
But Reading & Recipes is a little bit different. For one thing, there’s a huge difference in presentation between a video and a blog post. So for this thing, I’m going to be posting a recipe I used recently along with a picture of the finished product, as well as discussing a book I was reading the same day a little bit. Annnd that’s it, that’s pretty much the post.
So, I’ll stop blabbering and get on with it.
Recent Recipe: Spritz Cookies
The spritz cookies that I made last week. I used the tree shape and the snowflake shape, and decorated them with red and green sugar. 🙂
Confession(s): Even though I really enjoy baking, I’m not a genius. Nor do I have the will or the desire to spend time testing recipes (particularly baking ones) dozens of times. So I sought out Sally’s Baking Recipes and found this recipe. This is also my first time making Spritz Cookies, so I haven’t messed around with it or modified the recipe to my tastes yet, so the one I used was exactly the same.
And, I gotta say, this recipe is pretty awesome. The only thing that I’d really change is add waaayy less almond extract (like to about 1/8 of a teaspoon). I can’t stand it when sugar cookies taste too almondy. I’d also take the cookies out of the oven a minute or two early, cuz I like my sugar cookies nice and soft.
But yeah, other than my highly specific nitpicks, three cookies turned out very well. I’ll definitely be making them again!
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings, Book One of the Stormlight Archive begins an incredible new saga of epic proportion.
Roshar is a world of stone and storms. Uncanny tempests of incredible power sweep across the rocky terrain so frequently that they have shaped ecology and civilization alike. Animals hide in shells, trees pull in branches, and grass retracts into the soilless ground. Cities are built only where the topography offers shelter.
It has been centuries since the fall of the ten consecrated orders known as the Knights Radiant, but their Shardblades and Shardplate remain: mystical swords and suits of armor that transform ordinary men into near-invincible warriors. Men trade kingdoms for Shardblades. Wars were fought for them, and won by them.
One such war rages on a ruined landscape called the Shattered Plains. There, Kaladin, who traded his medical apprenticeship for a spear to protect his little brother, has been reduced to slavery. In a war that makes no sense, where ten armies fight separately against a single foe, he struggles to save his men and to fathom the leaders who consider them expendable.
Brightlord Dalinar Kholin commands one of those other armies. Like his brother, the late king, he is fascinated by an ancient text called The Way of Kings. Troubled by over-powering visions of ancient times and the Knights Radiant, he has begun to doubt his own sanity.
Across the ocean, an untried young woman named Shallan seeks to train under an eminent scholar and notorious heretic, Dalinar’s niece, Jasnah. Though she genuinely loves learning, Shallan’s motives are less than pure. As she plans a daring theft, her research for Jasnah hints at secrets of the Knights Radiant and the true cause of the war.
The result of over ten years of planning, writing, and world-building, The Way of Kings is but the opening movement of the Stormlight Archive, a bold masterpiece in the making.
Speak again the ancient oaths:
Life before death. Strength before weakness. Journey before Destination.
and return to men the Shards they once bore.
The Knights Radiant must stand again.
So… Here’s the thing. I’m pretty sure – like 98% sure – that I’m gonna DNF this book. I just… don’t care for it for whatever reason. I don’t know what it is about some 800+ page books, but I just can’t get into them sometimes.
And the amount of scenes that use telling instead of showing grated on my nerves a little bit. That, and I really wasn’t too interested in the individual character plots. I don’t know, it was a bunch of little things, plus the fact that I’m having trouble getting into the book, plus the length of the novel. So I think I’m going to stop.
I really, really wanted to like this book. And I have oodles of respect for Brandon Sanderson. But I don’t think me and the Stormlight Archive were meant to be. Maybe someday I’ll try Mistborn…
So what books have you been reading lately? What have you thought of them? What’s your favorite meal or dessert? How about cookies, specifically?
Thank you as always for reading, and I hope you all have a fantastic day/night! Happy Holidays, as well, to anyone who celebrates!
Sooo… for Thanksgiving, I decided to do something a little different. Instead of a book review or a post about book covers or something, I’m going to be listing my favorite cookbooks. My top three specifically (in no particular order).
See, this is something y’all might not have realized about me (mostly because I’ve never mentioned it before, ever), but I love to cook and bake stuff. And what better way to celebrate today’s post? Ya know, since it’s a holiday about food and all. Anyway, here we go!
The Nerdy Nummies Cookbook by Rosanna Pansino
I have to make a confession. I haven’t made as much stuff from this book as I would’ve liked. And that’s on me. I’m a bit of a novice at baking certain stuff, particularly some of the pastry chef level stuff in here, so I’ve shied away from some of the more complex recipes.
But the ones that I have tried are delicious, and they’re some of the most ingeniously nerdy things I’ve ever seen. I love this cookbook.
Cookbook Description
The first cookbook from the creator and host of the internet’s most popular baking show, Nerdy Nummies: a collection of Rosanna Pansino’s all-time favorite geeky recipes as well as sensational new recipes exclusive to this book.
The Nerdy Nummies Cookbook is quirky, charming, and fun, featuring the recipes behind Rosanna Pansino’s celebrated, one-of-a-kind creations, as well as beautiful, mouthwatering photographs throughout. It is the perfect companion that you’ll turn to whenever you want to whip up a delicious treat and be entertained all at once. And best of all, these treats are as simple as they are fun to make! No need for costly tools or baking classes to create these marvelous delights yourself.
The Nerdy Nummies Cookbook combines two things Rosanna loves: geek culture and baking. Her fondness for video games, science fiction, math, comics, and lots of other things considered “nerdy” have inspired every recipe in this book. You’ll find the recipes for many beloved fan favorites from the show, such as Apple Pi Pie, the Chocolate Chip Smart Cookie, and Volcano Cake; as well as many new geeky recipes, such as Dinosaur Fossil Cake, Moon Phase Macarons, and the Periodic Table of Cupcakes. The Nerdy Nummies Cookbook showcases Rosanna’s most original and popular creations, and each recipe includes easy-to-follow photo instructions and a stunning shot of the finished treat in all its geeky glory: a delicious confection sure to please the geek in all of us!
Betty Crocker Cookbook [12th Edition] by Betty Crocker
Now this one is a classic. It’s a cookbook that almost everyone uses, and if they don’t own a copy of one of the editions, then they probably use some of the Betty Crocker recipes that are online. And hey, there’s a reason for that: these recipes work. Really well. (For me at least. I’ve never had a problem.)
Everything that I’ve made from these cookbooks has been delicious, and these recipes have been used by my family for generations. But why wouldn’t they? After all, these recipes are dependable and delicious.
Cookbook Description
Now available in a comb-bound format, the 12th edition of a trusted favorite, with everything the home cook needs to cook confidently, fully updated for a newer generation.
This is the book home cooks have come to trust; the 12th edition of the Betty Crocker Cookbook, with updated recipes, new photography, plus expanded and new chapters to meet the needs of today’s home cooks. With 1,500 recipes and variations, and more than 1,000 photos, this colorful new edition packs a punch. How-to step-by-step photos show rather than simply tell how to get great results. The new Technique features explain fully the concepts behind techniques such as braising, deglazing, and hot water–bath canning. A Make-Ahead feature shows how to make a batch of one item and use it various ways. And a Global Flavors ingredient ID introduces new ingredients by region. Now available in a convenient comb-bound edition, this classic is destined to be the most-used book in the kitchen.
Tasty Dessert: All the Sweet You Can Eat by Tasty
This one is one of my newer acquisitions, but it’s just as good as the others. Filled with simple and more complex dessert recipes alike, this is a decent baking book for most cooks out there. The desserts are gorgeous and delicious, and if that’s not a reason to absolutely love this book, then I don’t know what is.
Cookbook Description
75 sweet treats from Tasty to inspire, delight, and satisfy any level of home baker.
Ready to rise from baking newbie to MVP? Tasty Dessert gives you the lowdown on baking basics, from building a fuss-free pantry to mastering easy-as-pie twists on old favorites. You’ll stuff, layer, frost, and meringue your way to the cherry on top of pretty much every meal. If Confetti Birthday Soufflé, No-Bake 16-Layer S’mores Cake, and Sour Cherry Fritters don’t float your boat (are you feeling ok?), here are 75 recipes for any hankering, mood, or occasion, whether you’re jonesing for a sugar adventure with friends or having a late-night dessert emergency. Just don’t forget to save a piece of it for yourself.
So yeah, these are my favorite cookbooks. You’re probably noticing a bit of a theme already with just these three, but I like baking. And I’m a nerd. I haven’t included a star rating for all of these, not because they’re cookbooks, and this is different from what I usually review. No, it’s because they all get five perfect stars from me, and I felt it would be a little redundant.
I definitely recommend these for those who like cooking or baking, or if you’re a geek. They’re must-haves for your kitchen library.
Do you own any of these? Is the one you own the Betty Crocker? What do you think of their recipes? Thanks, as always, for reading with me, and have a wonderful Thanksgiving if you’re in America. Happy Holidays!
