So I thought today I would give a shout out to a blogger that I had been following before I started my own food blog. "The Food In My Beard," was created around 7 years ago by this guy named Dan Whalen who liked cooking and making his friends laugh, a lot like I do. What I really liked about his blog is that he just messes around with recipes and posts them whether he liked them or not. He explains it as his "food playground." I just thought this was so cool. Then I started looking around at his recipes and man some of them sound just so incredible. Unfortunately I haven't had time to make any of them but I look forward to potentially featuring one of his recipes in my blog.
The recipes he is making, and his personality are a lot like what I strive for with my blog. He makes bold recipes with spicy peppers, and whiskey. His posts are also funny and easy to read. He has over 1,000 recipes on his site and is wildly popular. I also like that he puts a modern spin on traditional foods. For example, he made a Bleu cheese stuffed buffalo ball. Again these are the types of recipes I want to share with my readers. He offers a huge variety of recipes that are all categorized and easy to search through. He also has a cookbook that I would like to get my hands on as well. This blog is definitely something anyone interested in awesome recipes should take a look at.
Again the link to his blog can also be clicked right here..................just kidding its over here. So go check it out!
Wednesday, September 30, 2015
Monday, September 28, 2015
Why You Should Buy "The Student Cookbook"
Right before I went into college my mom had gotten me this small cookbook for Christmas. I was pretty excited to use it and find some new awesome recipes. It collected some dust for my first two years of college because I lived in the dorms and never had the opportunity to cook. (other than some ramen or mac n' cheese) Once I moved into a house with a few of my friends is when I really gained some use from this cookbook. The book is published by this company called NICOTEXT, which if you go to their website is a very Swedish company.
Maybe you're not a student, and you have a family. Well check out these recipes for cooking healthy for your family! Click Here!
I learned a lot of great recipes from this cookbook. What is so great about this book is that it has something as simple as a grilled cheese sandwich to something more complex like Asian Peanut Noodles. The best part are the alcoholic drink recipes, perfect for your average college student trying to impress a girl with a fruity cocktail. If you're a student in college or a parent with a college aged son or daughter I definitely recommend purchasing this book. It is also fairly cheap for all the great recipes you get. You can pick it up off Amazon for $9.95 at this link. My favorite recipe is the BBQ Chicken Pizza. I will hopefully be making a recipe for some homemade pizza dough with beer and that makes the pizza even better. So go out and get yourself a copy of "The Student Cookbook," and start cooking today!
Friday, September 25, 2015
Love & Lemons - A Review
Each year Saveur.com ranks the best food blogs on the internet. Being new to the world of blogging I wanted to learn more about what other bloggers do, specifically successful bloggers. So I took some time to explore new blogs and I wanted to share some things that I liked, and some things that I learned about a specific blog.
The blog I selected was the highest ranked food blog by readers. This blog was called Love & Lemons. My first impression of this blog is that the look and feel is very clean and modern. It is so simplistic, and it is very inviting. The layout of the blog is very simple and appears to be easy to navigate. They promote social media and subscription almost immediately and noticeably. One thing that I would note is that the blog is very feminine. While I would say food blogs are probably mainly visited by women, men who are interested may visit a different site that may cater more toward a gender neutral design. At this point I was already very impressed and felt kind of sad about my blog. But it's okay because I am only just starting off.
The content of the blog is primarily focused on "healthy living" and gluten-free recipes. This content seems to be following this popular trend and very much embraces it. This trend may be very popular for a decent amount of people. However, many people are looking for other types of recipes that Love & Lemons do not offer. That being said they seem to have there point-of-view laid out and understood. Their wording is sweet and inviting and makes the audience want to try their recipes, which is a big plus for them.
My favorite part of there blog is the photos. Their photography is artful and makes each food look even that more delicious. This is one thing I would like to improve upon my blog, and I will take note of what they are doing right.
Overall, Love & Lemons appears to be running a popular page that has a lot of regular users. Although it doesn't look like they gained any permanent visitors even with their reader's choice victory. Regardless of that they appear to know what they are doing and are running a nice blog that I aspire to be like one day.
The blog I selected was the highest ranked food blog by readers. This blog was called Love & Lemons. My first impression of this blog is that the look and feel is very clean and modern. It is so simplistic, and it is very inviting. The layout of the blog is very simple and appears to be easy to navigate. They promote social media and subscription almost immediately and noticeably. One thing that I would note is that the blog is very feminine. While I would say food blogs are probably mainly visited by women, men who are interested may visit a different site that may cater more toward a gender neutral design. At this point I was already very impressed and felt kind of sad about my blog. But it's okay because I am only just starting off.
The content of the blog is primarily focused on "healthy living" and gluten-free recipes. This content seems to be following this popular trend and very much embraces it. This trend may be very popular for a decent amount of people. However, many people are looking for other types of recipes that Love & Lemons do not offer. That being said they seem to have there point-of-view laid out and understood. Their wording is sweet and inviting and makes the audience want to try their recipes, which is a big plus for them.
My favorite part of there blog is the photos. Their photography is artful and makes each food look even that more delicious. This is one thing I would like to improve upon my blog, and I will take note of what they are doing right.
Overall, Love & Lemons appears to be running a popular page that has a lot of regular users. Although it doesn't look like they gained any permanent visitors even with their reader's choice victory. Regardless of that they appear to know what they are doing and are running a nice blog that I aspire to be like one day.
Wednesday, September 23, 2015
What Should You Do With Your Old Bananas?
If you throw your old dark brown bananas away you are most definitely in the wrong. There are so many things you can do with your old bananas! You can find a ton of different things to do with your old bananas here at this blog.
Today I am going to tell you what I did with my roommates old bananas during this week. I made some awesome banana muffins, with a really simple recipe. Most beginner bakers/cooks will have the ingredients necessary to prepare these muffins. If you don't it's probably not a bad thing to purchase these ingredients as they will be useful in almost any recipe. So I use a recipe that I found online a while ago, that you can either find at this link, or just scroll down to see it!
What you'll need:
- 1 1/1 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3 large mashed bananas
- 3/4 cup white sugar
- 1 egg
- 1/3 cup melted butter
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| Now that you have everything you're ready to bake! |
How to Make them:
- Preheat your oven to 350° F (175° C), and spray a muffin pan with some non-stick spray, or use muffin liners. The spray works totally fine and you don't have that I just took some vegetable oil on some paper towel and spread it all around.
- The recipe wants you to sift together the dry ingredients, flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. I just put them on a paper plate and mixed them together with a fork.
- Combine the banana, sugar, egg, and melted butter. Then add the dry ingredients.
- Fold all of the ingredients together until fully combined.
- Carefully pour the mixture into the muffin pan.
- Bake in the oven for 30-35 minutes for large muffins or 10-15 minutes for mini muffins. You know the muffins are done when you tap the tops of them and they are springy and bounce back.
This recipe is seriously so simple and the muffins are very moist and great for breakfast. If you make this recipe once, you will never throw out your old bananas ever again. (Yes, I know this isn't dinner, but it still tastes good)
Monday, September 21, 2015
10 Things You'll Need To Start Cooking
For Many of you reading you probably have all of these items in your kitchen. For the rest of you it is essential to have most of the items on this list. So lets get down to it.
1. Knives
Like I said most of you probably already own knives, but if you don't own a nice basic knife set your cooking life may be difficult. Have you ever tried cutting a tomato with a butter knife, or even a steak knife? If you haven't I recommend you do and that is why a good knife set is worth buying. I think a chef's knife is the most essential, as it can be used for pretty much everything. So if you can't afford a full set at least get a chef's knife. A paring knife can also be used to cut smaller fruits and vegetables but you will struggle with bigger ones, and sweet potatoes. Trust me sweet potatoes are harder to cut through than you think.
2. Cutting Board/s
The cutting board keeping your knife sharp and your counters clean and undamaged. A cutting board is essential because you want to get your security deposit back from your landlord. It also helps keep your counters clean. Having two cutting boards is nice and convenient so that you can keep your raw meat and vegetables separate, but I don't think it is totally necessary. Just make sure you cut your meats after you have already cut your vegetables, and clean it off before you put cooked meat back on it.
3. Pots and Pans
This one is definitely a no-brainer. How else would you cook delicious food? A make-shift tin foil pan? (yes, I have done this and still do to avoid having to reach alllll the way up to the cabinet.) Okay, so I guess you can cook with out baking sheets, but you will still want some because well just trust me. One large baking sheet and a baking dish will be essential to cooking food in the oven. You will also want at least a 10-12 inch frying pan, and a large sauce pot. I would also recommend a smaller frying pan and a smaller sauce pot, but you could technically get away with out them.
4. Measuring Spoons and Cups
Every recipe you ever make will like call for various types of measurements, and especially if you are a beginner you will need something the measure the correct amounts of ingredients. Trust me and learn from my mistakes, you can not eyeball a tablespoon of seasoning until maybe you're a pro. owning measuring utensils is one easy way to not screw up your grandma's famous recipes. If you don't respect me at least respect your dear old granny's sixty year old recipe and get it done right. They sell sets of measuring spoons and cups almost anywhere in sets for super cheap. Just buy a full set of each and never mess up recipe measurements ever again!
5. Bowls
You'll need to pick up at least one decent sized mixing bowl. Some other smaller ones might come in handy but are necessary. Bowls will be used to mix tons of different ingredients. Anything from baked goods to sauces will be mix in a bowl. plus you could eat way more cereal out of them if you really wanted to.
6. Various Utensils
Okay this title is very ambiguous, but you know what I mean right? Well if you don't let me tell you. You'll probably for sure need a spatula, a large spoon, and some tongs. Those are like the bare essentials though. I also like to have a rubber spatula, a grill brush, and a whisk (you can just use a fork most of the time), a slotted spoon, a ladle, and a vegetable peeler. These last few things aren't necessary, but will definitely make your life way easier when you're cooking.
7. Food Storage Containers
Okay so these aren't totally necessary FOR cooking, but they are necessary for after you're done cooking and eating. You may be able to get away with keeping your spaghetti in a bag, or your frozen pizza in foil, but you'll want to keep sauces or soups in a storage container. You don't want soup all over your fridge, or maybe you do I guess? I don't know your life!
8. A Slow Cooker
This is one of the greatest inventions known to man, better than sliced bread. You can buy a cheap slow cooker for like $20. It will be one the best investments you've made. The saying is "set it, and forget it." Just throw a bunch of food in a slow cooker in the morning, set the cooker to low, and viola dinner will be ready in around 8 hours. Plus it will make your house smell incredible. You can barely consider using the slow cooker as cooking but I still will.
9. Good Recipes
That's what I am here for. I want to deliver to you delicious recipes that you can use to make delicious foods. Sure there are world renowned chefs that don't need recipes to make amazing dishes, but were not world renown chefs. Even my mom uses the recipes for things she has made a thousand times. This is all cooking really is to a certain extent, being able to use recipes to create something awesome. These are essential in every kitchen, that is why cook books exist. But you don't need cookbooks because you have me and the whole internet.
10. Patience
This one is easy right? It is even free. This is one thing I've noticed when most people are cooking, including myself. You're going to need patience because if you under cook your chicken you are going to get sick. Trust me when I say that potato isn't going to cook any faster if you keep looking at it. A lot of foods take a while to make and you want to get them right if you want them to taste as good as they should.
If you want to start cooking then but these ten things on your next shopping list, or six things if you already have four of them. These are the tools that will lead you to becoming a better chef.
1. Knives
Like I said most of you probably already own knives, but if you don't own a nice basic knife set your cooking life may be difficult. Have you ever tried cutting a tomato with a butter knife, or even a steak knife? If you haven't I recommend you do and that is why a good knife set is worth buying. I think a chef's knife is the most essential, as it can be used for pretty much everything. So if you can't afford a full set at least get a chef's knife. A paring knife can also be used to cut smaller fruits and vegetables but you will struggle with bigger ones, and sweet potatoes. Trust me sweet potatoes are harder to cut through than you think.
2. Cutting Board/s
The cutting board keeping your knife sharp and your counters clean and undamaged. A cutting board is essential because you want to get your security deposit back from your landlord. It also helps keep your counters clean. Having two cutting boards is nice and convenient so that you can keep your raw meat and vegetables separate, but I don't think it is totally necessary. Just make sure you cut your meats after you have already cut your vegetables, and clean it off before you put cooked meat back on it.
3. Pots and Pans
This one is definitely a no-brainer. How else would you cook delicious food? A make-shift tin foil pan? (yes, I have done this and still do to avoid having to reach alllll the way up to the cabinet.) Okay, so I guess you can cook with out baking sheets, but you will still want some because well just trust me. One large baking sheet and a baking dish will be essential to cooking food in the oven. You will also want at least a 10-12 inch frying pan, and a large sauce pot. I would also recommend a smaller frying pan and a smaller sauce pot, but you could technically get away with out them.
4. Measuring Spoons and Cups
Every recipe you ever make will like call for various types of measurements, and especially if you are a beginner you will need something the measure the correct amounts of ingredients. Trust me and learn from my mistakes, you can not eyeball a tablespoon of seasoning until maybe you're a pro. owning measuring utensils is one easy way to not screw up your grandma's famous recipes. If you don't respect me at least respect your dear old granny's sixty year old recipe and get it done right. They sell sets of measuring spoons and cups almost anywhere in sets for super cheap. Just buy a full set of each and never mess up recipe measurements ever again!
5. Bowls
You'll need to pick up at least one decent sized mixing bowl. Some other smaller ones might come in handy but are necessary. Bowls will be used to mix tons of different ingredients. Anything from baked goods to sauces will be mix in a bowl. plus you could eat way more cereal out of them if you really wanted to.
6. Various Utensils
Okay this title is very ambiguous, but you know what I mean right? Well if you don't let me tell you. You'll probably for sure need a spatula, a large spoon, and some tongs. Those are like the bare essentials though. I also like to have a rubber spatula, a grill brush, and a whisk (you can just use a fork most of the time), a slotted spoon, a ladle, and a vegetable peeler. These last few things aren't necessary, but will definitely make your life way easier when you're cooking.
7. Food Storage Containers
Okay so these aren't totally necessary FOR cooking, but they are necessary for after you're done cooking and eating. You may be able to get away with keeping your spaghetti in a bag, or your frozen pizza in foil, but you'll want to keep sauces or soups in a storage container. You don't want soup all over your fridge, or maybe you do I guess? I don't know your life!
8. A Slow Cooker
This is one of the greatest inventions known to man, better than sliced bread. You can buy a cheap slow cooker for like $20. It will be one the best investments you've made. The saying is "set it, and forget it." Just throw a bunch of food in a slow cooker in the morning, set the cooker to low, and viola dinner will be ready in around 8 hours. Plus it will make your house smell incredible. You can barely consider using the slow cooker as cooking but I still will.
9. Good Recipes
That's what I am here for. I want to deliver to you delicious recipes that you can use to make delicious foods. Sure there are world renowned chefs that don't need recipes to make amazing dishes, but were not world renown chefs. Even my mom uses the recipes for things she has made a thousand times. This is all cooking really is to a certain extent, being able to use recipes to create something awesome. These are essential in every kitchen, that is why cook books exist. But you don't need cookbooks because you have me and the whole internet.
10. Patience
This one is easy right? It is even free. This is one thing I've noticed when most people are cooking, including myself. You're going to need patience because if you under cook your chicken you are going to get sick. Trust me when I say that potato isn't going to cook any faster if you keep looking at it. A lot of foods take a while to make and you want to get them right if you want them to taste as good as they should.
If you want to start cooking then but these ten things on your next shopping list, or six things if you already have four of them. These are the tools that will lead you to becoming a better chef.
Sunday, September 13, 2015
About me and my recipes
My name is Lucas, and ever since I was young I have always loved eating. So it only made sense that I also love cooking. Well I guess I didn't always love eating, let me give you some details. When I was young until about the age of seven I would only eat hot dogs. It didn't matter what time of the day it was I would refuse any other food except hot dogs, with a few exceptions. For breakfast my mom would cut up hot dogs and put them in my eggs, and that was about the only compromise. Then one day I discovered real food. I grew up with a family that almost always had a meal together at the dinner table. The food being served was almost always cooked by my mom. My mom had some of the best recipes. Some of those recipes had been passed down from my Grandma. For dinner we would eat things like pot roast that was slow cooked in the crock pot, chicken pot pie, and something my mom calls ritz chicken. That's when I realized I actually love to eat. This eventually led to me loving to cook. I love to eat, therefore I love to cook.
It all started around eighth grade when I would be home alone after school and really hungry. I could never just make a normal grilled cheese or a normal quesadilla. I always had to add something (To this day I still always mess around with my recipes and add something different or sometimes weird). That love for creating something new and different eventually blossomed into me making homemade cookies, pizzas, and chili. I love to cook food, and I want you to love to cook food as well.
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| Here is a picture of me doing one of the things I love. |
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