I had the pleasure of working with Family Circle Magazine on a tasty spring recipe featuring California Walnuts. My new obsession is my spiralizer, and getting these vegetables sliced into thin into ribbons is a creative way to replace a pasta dish on your menu (don’t get me wrong, I still love my fettucini!). These vegetables are steamed and then sautéed, and topped with a crunchy crumble of mushrooms, breadcrumbs, and tasty California Walnuts for a crunchy texture. I’ve been serving this with grilled chicken or some turkey meatballs for a healthy dinner idea!
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Remember that little dip party I hosted last week? Well, it’s haunting me, I can’t stop thinking about the dips, particularly a few of the dessert dips that were on the menu. Emily from Simply Gourmet in Southie made adult dunkaroos. Be still my funfetti loving heart, a dip made from funfetti cake mix?! Yea it was as good as you’re imagining. I added another dessert dip to the table in the form of a deconstructed cannoli. It’s a slightly more dippable version of the filling in the classic Italian dessert, and was served with a mixture of pizzelle and waffle cookies. I made this version with mini chocolate chips, but you could try crushed pistachios or other toppings to give it your own spin! Full recipe below. 
I waited to pick my dip recipes until after I saw what all of the other guests were bringing to the dip-potluck party so I could fill-in-the-blanks with some recipes that would be a little different. We had one avocado-yogurt dip that was close to guacamole, but no one had jumped on a salsa or a Mexican dip so I took that category as inspiration and got brainstorming. I knew I wanted to update the Mexican dip category so I mentally scrolled through the menu items at my favorite Mexican joint and we always order a side of Mexican Street Corn (because, hello, delicious). Taking the corn off the cob and adding in a bit more lime juice and it was simple enough to translate that dish into a sweet and spicy Mexican Street Corn dip. The recipe is easy, and I know will taste great in warmer months when we can get fresh local corn and char it on the grill, but cooking in a skillet did the trick too. It tastes great with tortilla chips; I paired it with Food Should Taste Good jalapeño chips because the subtle spice is a nice kick to complement the cool flavors of the corn and cotija cheese (plus they’re gluten free and all-natural, everybody wins!). This dip is definitely going to be a summer-time favorite, and a great warm-weather swap out for a classic Mexican dip. Full recipe below:
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One of my favorite Sunday nights of the year is rolling in at the end of this month: Oscars Night! I’ve been thinking through my snack options, drink recipes, and Oscar party details and my friends at Scratch.com offered to help with some of the leg work in pulling ideas together. Scratch.com is a cool new service that aims to make life easier for busy people (like me!) by helping them discover and buy gifts, home decor and more. We worked together and published a guide to all of the supplies you need for a glitzy (and tasty) viewing party — including glitter coasters and gilded barware and the best popcorn making tools that I used to create today’s recipe. Let’s talk about this popcorn for a minute. I used pipcorn kernels and tossed them with a caramel glaze, sea salt and rosemary, and I don’t mean to brag but this stuff is GOOD. Like, I had to throw the leftovers in the trash AND then throw more garbage on top because I couldn’t stop eating it. I’m not proud to admit that, but it’s so addictive, I had to warn you. Serving them in darling gold and white popcorn boxes helps too. I hope you enjoy your red-carpet viewing with this tasty treat and manage to pace yourself better than I did eating all this popcorn; full recipe below (and a little treat for my readers, if you try Scratch.com between now and 3/2, you can enjoy 15% off your first purchase with code DKLIFE15): 
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One of my finer skills in life is coming up with great excuses for mixing up a fancy cocktail, and with the Oscars coming up next Sunday, an awards show libation was just too easy of an excuse to pass up. I have been craving a drink that’s got a bit of a summer-y flavor to it, a Salty Dog, which combines some of my favorite flavors: sea salt and tangy grapefruit. With some IZZE sparkling grapefruit and a sprig of rosemary I think this is a cocktail I can easily enjoy all year round. Full recipe below, and cheers to great excuses for tasty cocktails! 
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I’m a mission to bring more funfetti-flavored carbs into the world. It’s a noble quest, and one I decided to invest some time in this weekend as a mini-celebration to ring in 7 years of blogging. If this blog is going to have a birthday treat, you better believe it’s going to get a funfetti-waffle. This idea is so simple, it doesn’t even need a recipe. Just whip up your favorite waffle or pancake mix, and fold in a few handfuls of sprinkles right before popping them in the griddle or waffle iron. For good measure, top with homemade whipped cream and extra sprinkles (I served mine with some salted caramel syrup, yum!).
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Last weekend when Alison and I stayed at the Lark Hotels property in Narragansett, RI — The Break Hotel — we got the opportunity to meet their Chef Basil Yu at Chair 5 and partake in a little cooking class. We walked in not knowing what we were making, but were greeted by Basil and some fresh Narragansett Lobsters chilling out in the kitchen. He let us know we were going to be making their creamy Narragansett Lobster Fettucini with homemade pasta, and my eyes lit up. Give me all the cheesy, creamy pasta and top it off with some buttery fresh lobster plucked right out of the water down the street and I am a happy girl. Basil was awesome, he walked us through making the pasta by hand, we learned how to break down the lobsters (I’m going to be so much more confident ripping into a lobster this summer!) and went step by step through the recipe to create this gorgeous dish. It was ah-mazing, like I couldn’t stop eating it. And lucky us, he gave us the recipe to share with you so you can make it at home!
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I said to my husband this weekend, “Well at least now that the Patriot’s aren’t in the SuperBowl, it’ll just be easier to relax and enjoy the snacks, and not be stressed out about them winning” — word of advice: don’t say this to a still-grieving Patriot’s fan. The truth is that regardless of the outcome, I never would have been stressed about the game, and would have been 100% focused on the snacks, because I’m a girl with priorities. In preparation for the big game, I tackled a spin on one of my favorite party-food staples: onion dip! I made my own and used caramelized shallots and leeks in lieu of the traditional onion flavor, topped with tons of fresh herbs and served with flavorful Food Should Taste Good Blue Corn Tortilla Chips (which are all-natural and gluten-free, so it’s like I’ve helped you make a healthy SuperBowl snack, right?). It’s going to a mainstay for Sunday football watching in the future.
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I got a julienne peeler for my birthday (it’s the same brand as my garlic press that I’m obsessed with — I love their tools) and have been so excited to use it. It’s a tiny littler alternative to some of those giant spiralizer tools, which I’ve tried and returned — am I the only one that’s had trouble with getting zoodles to work?! So I put my new kitchen gadget to the test and made these sweet potato corn cakes and have been eating them as a side dish, in the morning with eggs, and snacking on them too! It took a couple of tries to get them to stay together, so make sure you follow this trick in the recipe: squeeze the moisture out of them when you’re packing them into patties to help them hold their shape, and don’t flip them in the pan until one side is fully caramelized — it seals the pieces together. Full recipe below!
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How’s everyone doing with their New Year’s resolutions? I have a practice of not starting my resolutions until Mid-January because that first week back after the holidays is just too much of a bummer to stick a diet on top of; and then my birthday rolls in on the 10th (which is usually a long-weekend of celebrations, I like to drag that baby out), so around the 14th-17th I start to feel that urge to ‘start the year off right’ — two weeks late of course! So while I’m getting my head around goals for the year I figured I could at least start the week with some healthier eating. I made a big batch of these turkey-taco stuffed peppers over the weekend and they’ve been easy to reheat after work for a quick dinner. The lean protein and veggies are a pretty-good-for-you option — I also drizzled a little bit of chipotle sour cream on top — but you can opt to leave it out if you’re watching calories extra closely. Full recipe below!
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