The first time I had chocolate covered potato chips was by accident. I was riding the red line from the loop back to my home in Chicago. On my way back, I stopped into a local Trader Joe’s to pick up groceries. As I was browsing through the shelves looking at chocolate covered treats, I noticed a light blue and yellow package labeled Milk Chocolate Covered Potato Chips. I knew I had to try it.
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Caprese Frittata
I grew up eating some of the best Italian dishes offered in New York City. My entire family is made up of foodies, but my younger brother, Yu, is probably the biggest foodie in our family. I have to credit my younger brother for introducing me to some of simplest, yet tastiest dishes. One of his favorite salads is an Italian caprese salad featuring mozzarella, tomatoes, basil, and finished with a splash of balsamic vinegar.
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Tater Tot Breakfast Casserole
Thanksgiving is just a few days away. In just four days, the prep work will begin. In exactly five days, I will be spending hours in the kitchen preparing Thanksgiving dinner. Yesterday, I started my grocery shopping for Thanksgiving and picked up all of the ingredients needed to make a roast turkey, green bean casserole, cheesy potatoes, biscuits, cranberry sauce, and a few other re-imagined dishes.
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Baked Apples
I tend to buy a ton of apples during the fall. The two types of apples I buy very often are Fuji and Granny Smith. Fuji apples are sweet and maintain their structure when they are baked. Granny Smith apples are tart and are also great at maintaining their structure when baked. Together, the two types of apples form the perfect sweet and tart apple pie. While I love to use apples for apple pie, I also love to just bake apples in the oven for a simple post-dinner dessert.
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Blackberry Lemonade
After making an icebox cake for dessert last weekend, I still had some leftover blackberries and a lemon. I was craving a refreshing drink so I mashed up the blackberries, squeezed out all of the juice of the lemon, added some sugar and water, and made blackberry lemonade. The blackberry lemonade featured sweetness from the blackberries balanced with tartness from the lemon.
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Sun Dried Tomatoes and Cream Cheese Crostini
My close friend, Ada, introduced me to the delicious combination of sun dried tomatoes and cream cheese almost fifteen years ago. Back then, I was definitely not as adventurous of an eater as I am now. She had purchased a jar of sun dried tomatoes at Costco and started playing around with flavors. When our other close friend, Colleen and I went over to her house one day, she insisted we try these appetizers she had quickly whipped up in the kitchen.
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Blackberry Lemon Icebox Cake
My first experience with an icebox cake was back in elementary school. It was a traditional ice box cake called a zebra log cake. When I first saw the classic zebra cake, I thought it was the coolest thing ever. You pretty much made the cake by layering chocolate wafer cookies and whipped cream, alternating between each layer until you created a cool layered cookies and cream dessert. The cake is stashed in the refrigerator for a couple hours before serving.
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Matcha Green Tea Latte
I try not to buy a lot of drinks at coffee shops throughout the year, but occasionally, I do like to treat myself to one of two lattes at Starbucks – either a peppermint mocha or a green tea latte. Today was one of those mornings where I was especially craving a matcha green tea latte.
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Creamy Pumpkin Soup
It’s no surprise I love to incorporate pumpkin into as many dishes as I can during the fall. Today was one of those days I experimented with creating a new pumpkin soup recipe. I was craving a creamy, warm pumpkin soup after a morning run. The weather lately has definitely resembled winter more than fall. To offset the cold weather outside, I like to make a warming soup.
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Chicken and Egg Rice Bowl
My family made rice for dinner every night throughout my entire childhood. The only exception was pizza night on Friday nights. My dad would pick up a large cheese pie from N&D’s Pizza every Friday to bring home for dinner. We all anxiously waited for my dad to come home on Fridays so we could all gather around the dinner table and devour the fresh out of the oven pizza. On days other than pizza nights, my family’s go-to dinner is almost always rice with a variety of sides.
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