Glide Zen

Once again I found myself needing to use some pumpkin I had sitting in the fridge so I decided to try a new recipe and found these over at Martha Stewart   (note that if you are ever using left over pumpkin puree that you are preserving in the fridge, be sure to thaw it at room temperature until adding it to your recipe - unless of course it calls for chilled pumpkin). These cookies had my name written all over them with their pumpkin and browned butter combo, it's what I live on lately. I made several of my own adjustments to the recipe such as slightly altering the spice amounts, replacing some of the brown sugar with granulated sugar, using salted butter and reducing the amount of salt added and omitting the vanilla from the icing (because really all you need is the browned butter flavor). Then the biggest change I made was replacing the evaporated milk with a smaller amount of sour cream in the cookie dough batter and replacing the evaporated milk in the icing with...

I'm not a huge casserole fan but this is the best sweet potato thing I've ever eaten! It's time for dinner and I would rather just skip the dinner meal and have a heaping plate of this in its place. I would be happy if this were the only thing I had to eat for the thanksgiving feast =).  Growing up I never cared for sweet potato anything but that has definitely changed. Now I say it's a Thanksgiving must! It's basically a dessert that passes for a side, so how could you not love it?  This recipe is a pretty basic recipe. I chose not to add in any spices, cream, citrus or even vanilla because I didn't want to drown out any of that incredible browned butter flavor. Some of you may be thinking this girl puts browned butter in everything. And I say, well why not? My motto: if it's going to have butter it may as well be browned. There are some exceptions to that but not many. Browned butter enhances everything that's lucky enough to contain it's goo...

Looking for an exciting and indulgent upgrade on the plain old chocolate chip cookie? Well here you have it! I saw these over at Ambitious Kitchen , a blog I love as well as it's name, and I couldn't wait long to make them. So, I made them the next morning =). I'm telling you, they are one of the best cookies you'll ever eat! I'm unequivocally in love with these purely divine cookies. Have you ever seen a cookie loaded with so much goodness? Browned butter, two kinds of chocolate chips, Nutella, vanilla beans and sea salt! You could even add in some finely chopped, toasted hazelnuts for one more upgrade and an added crunch.  This cookie = love. You don't know food love until you've tried it =). I want to hoard them all away for myself.  I know the prep work is a bit more work and definitely a longer wait than your average chocolate chip cookie but it is so worth it.  Warning! Don't eat the cookie dough...but it is the BEST cookie dough in the world...

Is there anything like the delicious taste and incredible scent of fresh, homemade pesto? If you've got basil in the garden at its prime then I think you're going to want to try this recipe. This definitely isn't your ordinary pesto. The typical pesto uses all extra virgin olive oil (rather than half olive oil half butter), pine nuts, no lemon juice and one type of cheese, which is usually Parmesan. I wanted to change things up and make new and exciting pesto, so I chose to add none other than one of my favorite ingredients, browned butter. Then I wanted to switch out the typical nut and use my favorite nut which is almonds. I also decided rather than using whole almonds to use almond butter because of it's smooth texture and light sweetness. Then for a very slight fresh tang I added a little squeeze of lemon juice.  Spread this pesto over some freshly boiled pasta along with a light sprinkling of cheese and you'll create a meal worth remembering. So simple yet ...

Okay so, I wrote a long post about the pure amazingness of this salmon then I went to cut and past it below the photo and forgot to paste it, posted it and lost my "paste." Yeah the most frustrating and stupid thing ever! I hate when that happens! Oh well, moving on =)... I'm going to be a little lazy about it and just tell you, you need to try this salmon! It is really the best salmon I have ever eaten! I saw this recipe over Epicurious, from Gourmet Magazine. I will be honest, Gourmet Magazine is sometimes too "gourmet" for me. Their version of this however looked awesome! Simple yet incredible. I created my own version by jazzing it up to suit my taste. Rather than grilling it I pan seared it, obviously. I wanted a tiny bit of sweet to balance out the citrus-y tang so I added honey, and what better way to get that perfectly golden brown, crisp crust then to pan sear it along with a little sprinkling of flour? I also thought if you're going to make b...

Who doesn't love a quick and simple meal that wows? This Pasta with Browned Butter and Mizithra cheese can be made in 15 minutes, yes 15 minutes, and its a recipe you are going to want to keep for life.  In my opinion one of the best entrees you can get at the Old Spaghetti Factory is their Spaghetti with Mizithra and Browned Butter. It is simply amazing! But, why go there and spend $11 for one when you can feed a family of 4 the same meal for less than that at home? It's funny to me posting such a simple recipe because it's so simple you don't need a recipe for it, this is more sharing the idea if you haven't yet tried it.  Another great thing about this meal is that it pleases everyone, from the gourmet sleuth to your pickiest eater. No one can deny the delicious flavors of this pasta. And "Mizithra," isn't it just fun to say? You can serve this garnished with chopped fresh parsley like they do at The Old Spaghetti Factory but I really don...

Once again I found myself needing to use some pumpkin I had sitting in the fridge so I decided to try a new recipe and found these over at Martha Stewart   (note that if you are ever using left over pumpkin puree that you are preserving in the fridge, be sure to thaw it at room temperature until adding it to your recipe - unless of course it calls for chilled pumpkin). These cookies had my name written all over them with their pumpkin and browned butter combo, it's what I live on lately. I made several of my own adjustments to the recipe such as slightly altering the spice amounts, replacing some of the brown sugar with granulated sugar, using salted butter and reducing the amount of salt added and omitting the vanilla from the icing (because really all you need is the browned butter flavor). Then the biggest change I made was replacing the evaporated milk with a smaller amount of sour cream in the cookie dough batter and replacing the evaporated milk in the icing with...