Not Merely Living

Confession & Craving // Greek Salad

 

Confession #1: I used to hate salad. 

Easy Egg Custard Recipe

For my last egg recipe of the month (I'm cooking eggs this month for Golden April), I wanted to make a dessert. I chose custard because my husband loves a good custard (even though I don't generally care for them-I mean, let's be honest, they aren't chocolate).

My Favorite Foods Quiche

I decided to try to make a quiche with all of my favorite things: bacon, mushrooms, leeks, shallots, and cheese. I was a little worried that these flavors might not mix well, but to my great delight they turned out delicious.

Top Ten // Deviled Egg Recipes

Sorry for the late post this morning friends! Apparently, I scheduled today's post for 6pm instead of 6am. happens to everyone right?

In honor of eggs (!), my food theme of this month, today I'm celebrating one of my absolutely favorite ways to eat eggs: deviled!

As we approach high bridal shower season, deviled eggs are always a crowd favorite. These are ten of the most creative deviled egg recipes out there.

I love all these simple twists on this timeless and classic hor d'oeuvre (click on each egg photo below for the recipe):

Chocolate Macaron Recipe

For my final Golden March french recipe, of course I had to make macarons. They seem so quintissentially representative of all things beautiful, delicious, and unique about French food and dessert. I (gasp, I know) had never tasted a macaron until I moved to San Francisco five years ago. Just as I was typing this I just realized that it is almost five years to the day today that I moved here from Chile. It was the last week of March in 2008. Where were you exactly five years ago?

Back to the macarons: obviously, if I was going to attempt macarons, they also had to be chocolate. Let's face it, when faced with any dessert choice I always choose chocolate.  If you've been reading for a while, you might remember that we also had chocolate macarons at our wedding, so they always make me smile. Other than the cake, they were the only other item on the dessert table that I made sure that I took a bite of in the awesome  frenzy of our reception. Macarons are exactly the type of elusive dessert that I would generally never try to make on my own because they seem way too magical and complicated. However, in the spirit of my Golden year pursuits, I thought, why not?

Le Croque Madame Recipe

The only french sandwich I love more than the Croque Monsieur is obviously the Croque Madame. 

I mean Just Add an Egg, right?! When does that not make something better?!

The best thing about this recipe is that it's so easy and cheap! When we were growing up, my mom made grilled cheese sandwiches for us all the time. Imagine my surprise when I moved out to the west coast and ate my first Croque! Fancy french grilled cheese/egg? with ham? Yes, please.

Easy French Onion Soup Recipe

For my Golden March, I'm eating French. My favorite french dish is french onion soup. Every time I see it on the menu at a french restaurant, I can't resist. It's my ultimate comfort food.

I always assumed that french onion soup would be a little too ambitious to attempt at home, but I was wrong! This recipe (adapted from this one by Tyler Florence-who also happens to be a huge supporter of the San Francisco and Marin Food Banks-Go TyFlo!) is surprisingly easy and delicious:

A Golden Year: March

Today is one of my favorite days. All three of my amazing brothers were born today. 

I'm a very proud Big sister.

Happy Birthday Bros!!! March is always Golden because of you. :)

Love you guys.

Creole Jambalaya

I was planning to cook red beans 'n rice this week until the h-band got involved.

The conversation went a little like this:

Me: "I'm going to make red beans 'n rice for this week's cajun recipe."

H-band: "Red beans 'n rice? You must mean Jambalaya! Why would you make red beans 'n rice when you can make jambalaya?!"

Golden Recipe: Heart-Shaped Chocolate Moon Pies

Today I'm featuring a delicious heart shaped moon pie recipe from Tidy Mom in honor of Mardi Gras!! In various places in the gulf coast, Mardi Gras is celebrated for months leading up to Fat Tuesday with parades and balls. Growing up I loved going to the parades or being in the parades. At the parades generally there are a series of floats, and people throw moonpies, beads, candy and stuffed animals.  I loved  catching the moonpies! They are so tasty. I was so excited to find this incredible recipe by Tidy Mom. I pretty much followed her recipe exactly with only a few adjustments:

1.  I made them into hearts in honor of valentines day using my favorite heart shaped cookie cutter. :)

2. When I rolled out the cookie dough, I made it a little thinner than the recommended 1/4 inch. As a result, I had a lot of extra dough that I just baked and served as plain ole cookies. I liked the cookies thin, so if I made this recipe again I would probably cut the dough ingredients in half.

3. After the cookies had sat at room temperature for a few hours, I refrigerated them over night. That really helped to set the chocolate. 

A few general notes/observations:

>These are super messy but totally worth it.

>Tidy Mom mentions this is her recipe notes, but it is really hard to find Graham Flour. There was only one super market in all of San Francisco that had it. I would recommend calling around to the supermarkets in your area before you go looking for it.

>The cookies themselves are a little bit denser/not as soft than I remember the real mardi gras parade moon pies being, but I love them just as much.

>Did I say these were messy? Prepare yourself. You will literally get marshmellow creme and chocolate all over yourself and your kitchen. It's kinda fun. 

>This would be a really fun recipe to make with kids, but I would caution against letting them help with the chocolate drizzling step. The chocolate can get very hot, and you have to be very careful not to burn yourself.

Thanks so much to the Tidy Mom for making this incredible recipe!

Enjoy!

P.S. Are you looking for a Valentine's Day recipe that's a little easier and not as sweet as the moonpies? Check out my favorite Valentine's Day sugar cookie recipe:

Valentine's Day Sugar Cookies

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