Banana Bread with Chocolate and Crystallized Ginger

Over Easter weekend, I read A Homemade Life by Molly Wizenberg. The book was a fantastic read - the worst part about it was that I finished it too quickly! The first recipe out of it that I made was Banana Bread with Crystallized Ginger.

Josh didn't love it but I had a more enthusiastic response at work. Next time I'll try it with miniature chocolate chips. I did like the mild spiciness that the crystallized ginger added.

wichCraft at Home - Rotisserie Chicken sandwich style

Rotisserie chicken is one of my weeknight staples. We don't have tons of time at night between picking Ben up from daycare and I don't want to spend all of my time in the kitchen instead of with him.

I recently got Tom Colicchio's wichCraft cookbook. Each page has Josh dreaming of how the different sandwiches would taste.

The sandwich calls for a spinach-basil pesto, roasted red peppers, poached chicken [this is where I made the substitute with rotisserie chicken] and fresh mozzarella.

We don't have a panini press [not that there's space for anything else in our kitchen!] so I just press down on the sandwich while it cooks.

The result - melty cheese, warm chicken - great for a quick lunch. Already a repeat!

Garlic and Sun-dried Tomato Cornbread Muffins

Ever since I received the Giada's Kitchen cookbook in the mail, I wanted to make her recipe for Garlic and Sun-dried Tomato Corn Muffins.

I'm not sure if it was the texture or taste, but we won't be making this again. You could tell the muffins were baked correctly, since the cornbread component was perfect [and I made sure to be precise with ingredients].

The bottom line: When I woke up the next morning, these were stale on the counter. The chocolate cake I made wasn't. If they were worthy of a repeat, that would not have happened.

Chocolate Cake in a Loaf Pan

Following our recent trip to Magnolia Bakery in NYC, I ordered a related cookbook: At Home with Magnolia.

I'm really glad I did - it is already one of my favorites. This cake is one of the reasons why. The author (Alyssa Torey) mentions that takes a slice whenever she walks by the kitchen. I couldn't resist to do the same!

This is a deep chocolate cake - simple and delicious. To me, no frosting is required (I usually just want the cake anyway) and this would be good to satisfy any chocolate craving. Even Josh, who isn't so big on cake, likes this one.

Until I made this cake, I didn't have a no fail chocolate cake recipe. Luckily things have changed!

Tortellini with Asparagus

I saw a recipe from Everyday Food for spaghetti with shaved asparagus. I love asparagus, but Josh hates spaghetti, so I tried to make it using some cheese tortellini. It was one of the really rainy days (our satellite dish has had issues since then), and so we weren't about to make a trip to the grocery store. I tried shaving the asparagus but was experiencing a very low success rate (literally about 5%), so I opted to chop the asparagus instead.

The resulting disk was sorta ok. Suffice it to say that I had to make separate lunch (Baked Cheese Tortellini, an unhealthy but [Josh's favorite] SO easy standby).

At least I know there are many other ways to prepare asparagus that we both do enjoy!

Baked Sweet Potatoes

One of the many reasons I would consider the Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics cookbook as a favorite is Ina Garten's recipe for Baked Sweet Potato Fries. Like all of the other recipes I have tried, it fits the bill - simple but fabulous. Of course, it does not hurt that Josh and I both love sweet potatoes - these ones have just enough seasoning to make them perfect. Next time I plan on making more - and making the fries thicker.

Grace