Frosted Glass Garden Trellis

I love nearly everything about my house. A cozy log cabin out near Lake Michigan with a spacious kitchen, amazing stone fireplace, and no neighbors across the street so I get to pretend I live in the woods. The one thing that I do not like is that my neighbor’s house is SO CLOSE to my house on one side. I have been living for 4 years there mostly just keeping that sliding glass door curtains closed 24/7. But I’m missing out on that light! I fixed that with this really nice frosted glass design of a garden trellis! 

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Fresh Diner-Style Hash Browns

Potatoes. Boil ’em, mash ’em, stick ’em in a stew.

Or use them to make the best meal of the day: breakfast. And I don’t mean that you need to only have breakfast in the morning, because brunch and brinner are both totally acceptable choices any day of the week. Hash browns in particular are so amazing because they’re wildly versatile. You can throw in peppers and onions, mushrooms, bacon or sausage, whatever. When I worked as a chef at a cafe that had a flat top grill, my favorite breakfast was to mix sautéed mushrooms, chopped bacon, onions, tomatoes, and spinach into some extra crispy hash browns, let that set on the grill for a bit to kinda meld together, then melt some cheddar cheese on top. After I pulled it off, I’d drown the whole thing in sausage gravy. Was it healthy? Heavens no. But whoa boy was it tasty.

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Grandma Made Me These Pickles. And I Miss Her. So I Made Them For My Family.

This post isn’t about cooking with only two dirty dishes, or saving oodles of time and energy using your Instant Pot. This post is about sitting down, reading an old recipe, and reminding yourself that the act of cooking something people will enjoy has deep and profound meaning. One year ago, as I type this, my grandmother breathed her last in her home she loved, with her family she would give anything for. Today, I took time, dirtied a ton of dishes, chatted with my sister on the phone, and made a gallon of the pickles that I loved to eat at her kitchen table with family. I pulled out the recipe I copied down sitting with her, on a page from a pad of paper given to her by another family member.

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Use a Potato Masher for Quick Egg Salad; and Obviously use the Instant Pot for Boiling your Eggs!

Egg Salad with Curry
Egg Salad with Curry!

One friend of mine, Angela (yes the same one as the washing rice post!), says that her Instant Pot would be worth it just for cooking eggs. The ease of boiling the perfect eggs has made me go from buying one dozen eggs at the store to buying them in two-dozen cartons! And this egg salad is largely why! And Rachel has learned that using a potato masher takes this from a 20 minute recipe to a 1 minute one.

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Quick and Easy Spare Ribs (in the Instant Pot!)

Okay, so I know we love the Instant Pot around here, but the first time I saw somebody cook ribs in one, I was horrified. After all, I love my smoker, and the ribs it produces are out of this world. But you know what? We also live in Michigan, and sometimes the weather isn’t exactly cooperative when it comes to outdoor cooking methods. One such night, I wanted ribs, but my smoker was buried in snow… so I gave it a try. And you know what? They were really good! Would they be confused for ribs smoked for hours? Absolutely not. But they were tender, delicious, and moist. You definitely need to try them.

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Frozen Chicken Breasts done in less than 20 minutes to perfection: the reason to buy an Instant Pot

Cooked Juicy Chicken Breast cut in half.
Quick Chicken Breast from Frozen!

You get home and you are exhausted and not ready to cook dinner. Then, 45 seconds later, you are kicking up your feet and waiting for a bell to tell you that your chicken is ready to eat. That’s today’s recipe for an absolutely-no-time chicken breast and the recipe I use more than once per week!

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Instant Pot Herbed Mashed Potatoes (So Good!)

We’ve been doing some awesome main dishes lately, so I figured it was time we talk about one of my go-to side dishes: mashed potatoes. “But Rachel! That’s so boring!” Stick with me, because I’m about to take you on an awesome, life changing flavor journey. These mashed potatoes are fluffy, bursting with flavor, and crazy simple to make. An added bonus is that you can adjust the herbs to match whatever flavor palate you have going on with your main dish. Let’s get to it!

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Buffalo Chicken Wings in the Instant Pot (No Deep Fryer Needed!)

About nine months ago, we stopped going out to eat. Half of the motivation was financial (going out when you’re a family of four gets expensive!) and the other half was so that we could make more nutritious choices. One food that I’ve always loved getting from restaurants, but could never come close to replicating at home, is buffalo wings. They were always either too tough or the skin was soggy, neither of which was appetizing. After lots of trial and error, though, I have finally produced tender, juicy wings that are beautifully crispy and about as healthy as wings can be. My secret weapon? The Instant Pot, of course!

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Washing Rice for Perfect Rice in the Instant Pot or Rice Cooker!

My friend Heidi (from grad school) and my dear friend Angela (from middle school, high school, college, and now the same city!) are both women who grew up in America and were taught to cook rice by their Korean mothers. One thing I learned from both of them is that you just DO it. And explaining it is really hard. I like to explain stuff that’s hard to explain, so I’m going to try to do it against all odds! Without further ado… let’s see if we can cook some good white rice. 

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