‘Cooking Light Magazine’ Articles at Sweetnicks

Top 7 Apple Recipes {Celebrate Fall}

October 6, 2015 · Narrative

Truly one of my favorite seasons, Fall is a wonderful celebration of both nature and food. Crisp air and the start of comfort food season, what more could we want? Now that we are in the throes of apple picking, how about a little inspiration on what to do with all those apples you come home with?

My kids eat apples straight from the tree. As for me? I only eat them if I’m baking with them. So this is for me, as much as it is for you.

If you follow me on Instagram or Snapchat, you might recognize these Glazed Apple Bars from last week. A tried-and-true that we’ve been making for a few years now, they taste like you’re eating apple pie from your hands. And outside of the apples, you likely have the rest of the ingredients in your kitchen already.

Grandma Ople’s Pie is for when making a pie intimidates you. This recipe could not be simpler, and it tastes delicious as is, or warmed up and topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and a drizzle of dulce de leche sauce from Stonewall Kitchen (which we discovered during a summer trip to Vermont).

This Caramel Apple Cheesecake is when you want to impress someone, but don’t have a lot of time. Because it LOOKS like a ton of work, but isn’t. It’s kind of amazing….

On Baking and Boys (Recipe: Tuscan Lemon Muffins)

May 4, 2011 · Narrative

I can sometimes be a brat, especially when it comes to guys. And, for some reason, that’s when you can’t get rid of them. I don’t do it purposely, but as nicely as possible, I just can’t be bothered. When The Ex-Husband and I first met, I barely gave him the time of day. I was fresh out of a terribly bad relationship and was thoroughly enjoying being single. My best friend was single at the same time as well, and we were great co-conspirators, relishing in typical single-girl adventures in our early 20s. Because of that enjoyment, I didn’t chase my ex. There was no sitting by the phone. There was no wishin’ and hopin’ and wonderin’. And I ended up married. There is a new guy that I’ve been randomly talking to for a really short period of time. I think I’ve done my best to express very little interest and darn it if he hasn’t become the girl, always there whenever I turn around. I feel like I’m not being fair, and I’m likely not, but damn, a girl’s got to breathe. It makes me feel like a brat when I internally get exasperated. Apparently, though, that is quite the potent pheromone. Ladies, act as disinterested as you can, I’m telling you, you’ll be golden.

I am also a total brat when it comes to baking. Somehow, I’m lucky enough that it all comes out completely edible and even delicious some 90% of the time. Dumb luck, methinks. I don’t measure flour by weight. I don’t level off properly when measuring. I don’t use different measuring cups for liquids versus solids. I don’t soften butter the “correct” way. Total and stinkin’ brat. But yet, it all seems to work out a-ok. Life, whether it be boys or baking, shakes out the way it should be.

And such is the case with these Tuscan Lemon Muffins. When I hear the word Tuscan, it reminds me of two things. The first is Diane Lane in Under the Tuscan Sun (great chick flick if you need something to add to your running Netflix queue). And the second is a new show on the Cooking Channel called Extra Virgin. It features Debi Mazar (the Brooklynite actress bestie of Madonna from way back when) and her real-life Italian husband, Gabriele. Filmed in their own kitchen, featuring their own Tuscan recipes, it’s good tv.

And these are good muffins. The recipe comes from the May issue of Cooking Light magazine and given my brattiness when it came to the ingredient list, I’m pretty darn lucky that they were edible. Using what I had on hand, I used full-fat ricotta instead of part-skim, extra lemon juice instead of lemon rind and I certainly didn’t measure the flour by ounces or do any sort of leveling. I also didn’t have turbinado sugar in my pantry, but did happen to have a few packages I swiped borrowed from Panera, and three of them were just about perfect. You know, because I didn’t measure that out either. The muffins? They’re moist. Slightly creamy. A teensy hint of lemon. And the perfect treat for day four of Teacher Appreciation Week.

Hungry for more reviews? Just noticed these Tuscan Lemon Muffins have been making the rounds. You can check out more pictures and reviews at:

Project 365
May 4, 2011, Photo #122
I could eat caramelized mushrooms every day. They make everything better.
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Roast Pork Torta

September 9, 2010 · Narrative

With the kids back in school this week, I worried momentarily about our new evening routine. They usually come to the gym with me a few days a week, but with homework, earlier bedtimes and alarm clocks buzzing way earlier than they should, I wanted to make an attempt to be organized from the get-go. This week, it meant a menu plan.

Truth be told, I’m usually good for only a few weeks with a menu plan before my good intentions quickly go by the wayside, as you may very well recall, so it remains to be seen how long it will really last. For now, though, having a plan for dinner every night makes it a bit easier to keep us (and my work-outs) on track.

I have a stack of new-to-try recipes that either fit the “clean eating” guidelines or can be easily tweaked to fit, so when I threw together this week’s menu plan over the weekend, I leafed through those first. It seems like I got a bit lucky that the pile had the roast pork from yesterday, and a recipe for Pork Tortas as well. Could I really be so organized as to use pork from yesterday’s dinner to create an entirely new meal tonight? Most of the time, no. But this time? You bet.

This Pork Torta recipe comes to us from the good folks at Cooking Light magazine. Although their recipe specifically calls for using pork chops, I knew roast pork leftover from last night’s dinner would be perfect, and make tonight a breeze. And it was, and it did. Because the pork was already cooked and ready to go, pulling this together was simply a matter of slicing up a few vegetables, toasting the bread and layering it all together. One bite and I was hooked. Between the butteriness of the avocado, the juiciness of the tomato (and WHY is it so hard to find ripe tomatoes in New Jersey in the summer, for pete’s sake?!) and the sharp bite of the onion … oh my, so.very.good.

If you make the pork from last night (and you really should), this is a great way to serve up the leftovers in disguised this-isn’t-really-last-night’s-dinner way. Full-on flavor for five minutes of time? Don’t need to ask me twice….

June 2010 Recipe Round-Up

July 19, 2010 · Narrative

Earlier this month, I debated if I could continue doing the new recipe round-up, because with the way we’ve been eating over the past month or so, there hasn’t been a lot of new-recipe-making-from-cookbooks. Or from any other place, for that matter. Our meals were quickly consisting of heavy rotations of stir-fries, grilled proteins and vegetables, salads, things on the fly with no recipe. But then the tides turned and I started finding more and more recipes that fit in with our eating lifestyle (four new recipes tonight alone!), so even though the June round-up is a tad tardy, I think we’ll be able to keep up with it. As long as the lack of chocolate (for now) doesn’t keep you away. ;)

Turnip Green Soup – Paula Deen magazine. A decent hearty soup that isn’t so thick you can’t have it in the summertime. Reviewed here.
Lemon Chicken with Potatoes – WW magazine, May/June 2009. Simple and easy, but not exceptional.
Lindsay’s Chocolate Cafe Chocolate Chip Cookies – voted a “best of.” They were good, but didn’t wow us.
Cheesy Rice Fritters – Food Network magazine. Very good, review coming.
Zucchini Fritters – Michael Symon. Love these. Review coming.
Open Chef Salad Sandwich – Cheeky Kitchen. Good quick meal that you can feel good about serving and eating. Reviewed here.
Best Ever Banana Bread – I Am Baker. Good, but still like Nigella Lawson’s better.
Mushroom Ramen – Food Network magazine, January/February 2010. Think it might be worth writing about, slightly on the fence.
Beer Battered Fish and Chips – Cooking Light magazine, November 2009. Had such high hopes for this one, but nothing special and not repeatable.
Veggie Quesadillas – Weight Watchers magazine, May/June 2010. Your average quesadilla, nuthin’ special.
Gemelli with Spicy Sausage and Spinach – Woman’s Day magazine, May 2010. Not bad, nothing to write home about.
Cucumber-Feta Toasts – Martha Stewart’s Everyday Food, July/August 2010. Love these. Made for the first time and reviewed here, and enjoyed several times since. Favorite of the month.

Project 365
July 19, 2010, Photo #129

After dinner, we were outside in the backyard for awhile and all the sudden, I noticed the kitchen go dark. And the ceiling light come back on, but only faintly so. We rarely lose power here (maybe three times over the past nine years or so) and when we do, it comes right back on. This time it didn’t. My bet was a brown-out. Wonderful. Jamie had just gotten home and finished dinner, so we quickly got to work digging for matches and candles before we lost complete light. I remembered we had a bunch of those glowsticks, leftover from Halloween, in our seasonal drawer, and they were perfect. The kids had fun with them, and I used a bunch to light up the stairs for them, and added more in their room. In the meantime, we took ourselves back to the days of Laura Ingalls and Little House on the Prairie… no ac, no tv, no computer, no ice machine. Lots of talking, a little bit of laughter and a slight panic from the kids as they slowly realized just how much we use electricity on a regular basis. But two hours later, the power was back on and a peace fell over the land.

Turnip Green Soup

June 15, 2010 · Narrative

As I was making this recipe the other day, I was silently cursing Jamie Deen, one of Paula Deen’s sons. His smiling face was beaming down at me from the magazine clipping next to his recipe for Turnip Green Soup, and his directions for the soup were lacking just a bit. In fact, they were currently causing me to burn the bottom of my stockpot. Things like that don’t make me happy. As an aside, and completely related to nothing but the Deen Brothers, I always used to forget which Deen brother was Jamie and which one was Bobby, but then I figured it out. B = Bobby is the Bachelor. If this is something that keeps you up at night too, feel free to use my little handy trick.

Back to the soup. I was sure it was ruined, and that was making me mad, because chorizo, one of the ingredients in the recipe, isn’t exactly cheap, and coupled with the carrots, onions, and turnip greens, it would be a complete waste to have to throw the whole thing away. And I hate waste. Luckily I plodded along, following the recipe through to the end, and even though the bottom of my pot showed a recipe beyond repair, the proof was in the taste.

Hearty. Tummy-warming. Feel good stuff from the inside out. Now I can hear some of you shaking your head, thinking “soup is for winter!” Yeah, I never was one of those types. I mean, the inside of the house is nice and cool from the AC, why not soup? And this one isn’t a stick-to-your-ribs thick one. Although it has lots of good-for-you stuff inside, the soup itself is chicken broth based, so it won’t weigh you down too much.

It whips up in nothing flat and has been keeping me pretty satiated for lunches for a few days now. With our farmer’s markets finally in full swing, my greens and carrots came from there, and this was the perfect use for them. So whether or not you can tell the Deen boys apart, or just want something yummy and (reasonably) healthy that you can ladle up for a quick lunch or light dinner, you might want to give this one a whirl.

Tomorrow? Our Summer Bucket List. See ya then!

Project 365
June 15, 2010, Photo #111

This will be one of the recipes you’ll hear very little about when I do my round-up at the end of the month. A Beer-Battered Fish recipe from Cooking Light. It was fine, certainly edible, but not the end-all-and-be-all recipe to stop the search.

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Straight from the Cookie Jar: Chocolate-Cherry Heart Smart Cookies

March 15, 2010 · Narrative

Two days a week, after getting done teaching 25 second graders, Jamie volunteers at a prison, helping a group of guys prepare for their GED. It’s a good thing she’s 24, but she is pretty darn tireless. Were we all so tireless at that age? Twenty-five seems like so very long ago.

So regularly, she gives the guys a test so she can judge how well they’re picking up the material, and how ready they are to take (and pass) the GED. Since they are in prison, after all, she recently decided that she’d try to give them incentive for doing well on the tests. If they all passed the in-class tests, she’d bring in cookies the next time they met for class.

A few weeks ago, they did well on a test, so she baked them a batch of cookies that her Mom used to make her when she was growing up. She brought over a few for us the next day, and we bit in. She knew I was kidding, but I asked if the cookies were meant to be a reward or punishment. They were a bit … dry. Of course, dry cookies versus no cookies, the men gobbled them up.

And in the meantime, I set about to right the wrong. These men need edible cookies! They had a test on fractions last Friday, so I spent some time this weekend deciding on a new recipe and baking up a batch for Jamie to bring to them today. When I saw the Chocolate-Cherry Heart Smart Cookies in a recent issue of Cooking Light magazine (January/February 2010), I thought they’d do nicely. Relatively healthy, tasty, easy to transport and, most importantly, not dry.

Originally I gravitated towards these cookies because Jamie’s favorite are these Chocolate Chunk and Cherry ones. I thought they would be a nice healthy alternative. I was wrong. Aside from the cherry ingredient, they’re really nothing alike. That being said, if you’re looking for a quick and easy cookie to bake up that you don’t have to feel guilty about … or if you need to reward a bunch of men struggling to pass their GED … give them a whirl.

P.S. In keeping with one of my Lenten promises, I subbed raisins for the chocolate for this recipe.

Tomorrow? I teased you with a picture recently and then promptly forgot to tell you about the recipe… Savory Caramelized Onion and Bleu Cheese Breading Pudding is coming your way.

A year ago today … decorating class at Pottery Barn.
Four years ago today … an ARF round-up and one of my favorite vegetarian sandwiches.

Project 365
March 16, 2010, Photo #63

My kids are crazy. And clearly don’t need toys. Madeline absconded with Nick‘s laundry hamper and threw it over her head. Then she sat on the ground and told Nick to pull her. Around the house they went, giggling and happily shrieking all the way. Crazy.

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Spicy Asian Lettuce Wraps

November 16, 2009 · Narrative

This weekend was such a whirlwind of events … company for dinner Friday night, company for dinner Saturday night, Sadie’s baptism yesterday, and a myriad of errands and adventures with the kids, it felt good to crash last night. When we got home last night, it was already dark out and it had been a long, but good, family-filled day. I started my day at 6 am, which, quite frankly, is way too early to be up on a Sunday.

As we walked in the door after getting home from the baptism, Nick asked if it was way past their bedtime. It was 6:30 pm. Daylight savings has been kicking their hides. Between the day full of activity and it being dark out so early, even two weeks past when the clocks went back, we’re still a little out of whack. They were in bed by 7. I kid you not.

On Saturday night, The Neighbors came over. The kids had been conspiring for a playdate for the past week or two. ~~Planets~~ schedules aligned and Saturday night it was. It’s funny to watch them play. Nick and The Girlfriend act like an old married couple, bickering and terribly cross one minute and thick as thieves the next. Poor Madeline. She wants so badly to play with them, but, of course, they want to play on their own. It reminds me of when my sister was born. She is eight years younger than me and back then, I wanted to play with my friends too. Without her. I hope I was nice about it. Looking back on it, it’s possible I wasn’t, but at that age, I didn’t know any better. Nick and The Girlfriend do take time and play for a few minutes with Madeline in between activity changes, and she tries so desperately to keep up, climbing the steps after them shouting “Me! Me!” Adorable.

I currently don’t have a dining room. Well, technically I do, but a little bit of construction elsewhere in the house has made the dining room a convenient spot to put everything else that has been relocated. So without a dining room table, our dinner that night was going to be on the coffee table. Oh how I love my coffee table. Some day I’ll take a picture of it for you. I bought it some five or so years ago, and it opens up (as you would open a book to lay it flat) to make a giant space that is perfect for relocated dinners. Truth be told, I don’t mind sitting on the floor and bellying up to the coffee table, but these days, it’s a little harder to get up after sitting on the floor. Them bones, them bones…

When planning what to make for dinner, I wanted to keep it easy given the seating arrangements. I have been craving Spicy Asian Lettuce Wraps for a few weeks now, and knowing The Neighbor Husband loves them as much as I do, it was an easy choice for dinner. I think it might be one of my favorite chicken recipes from the folks at Cooking Light magazine thus far. From a 2005 issue, it takes seriously five minutes to make, and since you’re starting with a rotisserie chicken, it’s crazy simple and ~~cheap~~ inexpensive to boot. I happen to be partial to Costco’s rotisserie chickens (one of the best bargains going for $4.99), and since they sell the butter lettuce called for in the recipe as well, it’s nearly one-stop shopping. The rest of the ingredients come right from the door of my refrigerator, so it’s under $10 for the whole shebang.

Although the recipe might have been more originally intended for Spring and Summer eating, I’m not one of those stews-in-winter, salads-in-the-summer type girls. No rules. It’s got such a nice salty kick from the soy and the chili garlic sauce, and the cool, crisp crunch of the lettuce, you can’t just relegate it to one or two seasons a year. Up until this weekend, The Neighbor Wife has never been a big fan of this one, but now she’s a new convert. It just goes to show you, sometimes you have to try something more than once … or twice … tastes change. You may surprise yourself. You know, like brussels sprouts.

I didn’t realize until now, when I just went to go look up the recipe for the wraps, that the last time I made this was to celebrate my 9th wedding anniversary. That seems like a lifetime ago now. At first, I thought learning that made me a touch sad, but upon further reflection, I think wistful might be a more appropriate word. Perhaps it was just time to associate a new memory with a favorite recipe.

The kids still won’t go near this one … yet … but that’s ok. It means the grown-ups didn’t have to share.

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