Have a recommendation? We'd LOVE to hear it!
Salutations Readers!
Kalamazoo has good food.
Great food, in fact. We have made it our mission to check out all the local eateries one at a time - and more for our own poor memories than any other reason, we'll be chronicling our adventures in food here. And some places float our boats way more than others, which is why we have developed the very scientific five golden forks rating scale. Ok. It is not scientific at all. It is actually quite unscientific. But, it is something. And now, you can search all of our reviews by the forks rating. YAY!

But, wait! There's more!
Kalamazoo Foodies no longer just eat at restaurants then review them. There are recipes posted, some easy, some less easy, all delicious. There are, or will be, book reviews, the new Foodie Movie Review-y which will focus on movies about food or ones that have a lot of beautiful food in them. There are other food musings, and hopefully soon contests and so much more. But, Foodie Friends, it is all about food. Because we love it!
And, we want to hear from you!
We want to hear your comments on our recipes and reviews. We want to know where you love to eat. And, we are looking for GUEST bloggers to broaden our horizons a bit. And, if you haven't found us on Facebook, you should do that too. Like our page for other fun Foodies stuff like photos, polls, and more.

SO KALAMAZOO PATRONS - where do YOU love to eat? Because we'd love to check it out and share our thoughts here. Give us a comment below, and quickly! Our tummies are grumbling in anticipation.

A Note from the Foodies about our typical fair:
So, you may notice as you read our blog that we often order the same thing wherever we go. OK, maybe not quite, but we do often order similar things. Kristin has her caprese salads and mushroom dishes. Kate has her baked goat cheese and things with tofu. Well, readers, we wanted to let you know that this is absolutely intentional. A) We love those things, so why not order what you love? And, B) It is a lot easier to compare apples to apples than it is to compare apples to comquats. So, we like to order similar things to have a good sense of how to compare them. Just wanted to let you in on that little secret. Bon appetit!

Thursday, December 20, 2012

What I made this holiday season...

First of all, sorry for the delay in the BOLD post. We have had some sickies in the Foodie household which makes things a little more challenging. I promise, there will be a post.

Secondly, believe it or  not, I still managed to make some goodies to give to friends and family this year. I know, I was surprised too! What I wasn't able to do was capture any photos of the process, but I wanted to share the recipes with you.

Old standby:
Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies
This recipe has quickly become one of my favorites. In fact, I told Mr. Foodie the other day that if I had to choose only one cookie to eat for the rest of my life, this one might be it. It is subtle on the peanut butter side, the chips melt into gooey goodness, and they are decent sized so they satisfy the cookie craving!

Another Classic:
Party Mix
So, I sort of followed the Classic Chex Mix recipe, and I sorta didn't. I use Crispix instead of Chex, then I only need one box, not three. And, we added Stacy's Bagel Chips this year, which were a FANTASTIC addition. I also decided to spice things up a bit, literally, so instead of regular seasoned salt, I went with Slap Yo Mama Cajun Seasoning and even added a dash (a liberal one) of Sriracha. What we ended up with is a delightfully spicy take on the classic.

What mom used to make:
Caramel Corn with Nuts
I remember making caramel corn with my mom. But, I have no idea what recipe she used, so I did a search. This one caught my attention because I grew up near a large Amish population. So, this is what I made. With air popped white popcorn. And, it turned out pretty darn good. I added mixed nuts instead of just peanuts for a little extra fun!

From King Arthur:
My mother-in-law got me the King Arthur Flour Cookbook.  It has some pretty good recipes in it, though they all, of course, call for King Flour ingredients. Well, I didn't have all that, but these two recipes still turned out great.

Vanilla Meringues 
This is the closest I can find online to the one in the book.  And, this is quickly becoming my new favorite cookie to make. They are so simple. I will always have the ingredients (the one in the book calls for vanilla extract as well. 1/2 teaspoon at the end of the mixing process) and each cookie has about 10 calories in it. 10 calories! I would probably make a whole batch of these just to like the bowl (actually, I did that last night!).

Gingerbread Cookies
Though I planned to make my aunt's secret cutout sugar cookie recipe, Mr. Foodie talked me into making some Gingerbread. And, for a while I thought I would make both. But the thought of making TWO batches of cutout cookies was a bit too much to handle for now. So, I went with just Gingerbread. They turned out great! And, are one of the favorites in the goodie pail! Plus, I discovered that the dough is actually a lot easier to work with than sugar cookie dough. I make the dough a week ahead and kept it in the freezer until I was able to roll it out and bake it. And, that worked REALLY well! YAY!

And, a new favorite:
Oreo Balls

This one came across one of the food blogs I follow regularly. As I looked at the pictures and read the directions I thought, 'hey! Even I can do that!' So, I did. And I am OH SO GLAD. These are kind of a showstopper. They are so very, VERY good. And so easy! In fact, I may make another batch when I get to my parents' for the holidays because they are so darn good, and I gave away almost all the ones I made! Every one who has already received the goodie bucket has asked about these!

Well, that's it. That is what this Foodie managed to make this year. Again, sorry there aren't photos and stuff. Honestly, I am lucky I got them made. But, thought I would share!

Happy holidays!
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)