Friday Favorites – Good. Food. Stories. Edition (Episode 129)

Today I’m excited to have Casey from Good. Food. Stories. here to share a few of her favorites with all of you.  I was introduced to Casey’s blog sometime last year, and I’ve been a regular reader ever since.  I am constantly in awe of her ability to tell a story. She’s a fantastic writer! She’s also got great taste when it comes to food, so I think you’ll love the recipes she’s picked for this week’s favorites.

Thanks for stopping by, Casey!

Tell me, what are your (current) favorite ingredients to play around with in the kitchen?

My love for vinegar is a lifelong affair, but lately I’ve been on a shrub kick. What’s a shrub, you ask? It’s essentially a drinking vinegar made with fresh whole fruit or juice that was invented back in ye olden days as a way of preserving the fruits of the season. (I made a shrub inspired by Buffy the Vampire Slayer, even). Now I’m experimenting with different fruits and types of vinegar to see what pairs up awesomely. I’ve got some sour cherries stashed in the freezer that will be getting the shrub treatment this weekend, maybe with a white balsamic.

What’s one item in your kitchen that you just can’t live without?

You would laugh at my reaction to finding 99-cent spatulas on the sale table at Williams-Sonoma last month. I love spatulas and spoonulas so darn much and use them with wild abandon, so adding a few more to my
overstuffed utensil holder was possibly the greatest thing that happened in February. I know, I’m crazy.

If you could pick 3 of the recipes that you have developed that best describe you, what would they be?

Buddy the Elf’s Spaghetti Pie: if you know me, you know I love to quote movies, and Elf is chock-full of repeatable lines. (And most of them have to do with food! “You smell like beef and cheese!” “Is there sugar in syrup? Then YES!”) I’m happy to say that my attempt to replicate Buddy’s spaghetti and syrup dish wasn’t just edible, it actually tasted great. I would totally serve this at a holiday brunch.

The first post I wrote for Good. Food. Stories. was for my favorite recipe in the entire world: spaghetti carbonara. I’m almost too embarrassed to share it because the post is so rudimentary, the picture’s terrible, oh my god I was such a silly little novice blogger!, etc. etc., but the sentiment stands strong. I write about food because I love it and the act of sharing food is incredibly important to me.

And then there’s homemade Cheez-Its. I can house a box of Cheez-Its in one sitting, no problem. But when I make them myself, I tend to savor them because of the work involved. My obsession with all things snacky and junky has led me down some weird roads, but sometimes they end up in fun writing assignments like this.

What recipes from other bloggers have caught your eye this week?

The estimable Monica Bhide shared a recipe from Andrea Nguyen’s new cookbook, Asian Tofu. I am a tofu addict (yes, these people exist, really) and the fact that there’s a whole cookbook devoted to tofu makes me blindingly happy.

My newest blogger discovery is Johanna Kindvall, who runs an adorably illustrated site, Kokblog. Just look at her drawings for this orange-cured carrots recipe!

And Jeni Britton Bauer’s (of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream) recipe for black coffee ice cream on Leite’s Culinaria was just the thing I want to be eating on my front stoop tomorrow when the temperatures hit 80 degrees. If you haven’t tried Jeni’s ice cream yet, run don’t walk! They’re so intensely flavored and you don’t even have to temper eggs.

What’s the coolest thing you saw on Pinterest this week?

Hey, I love Pinterest as much as the next food bloggin’ gal for recipes and ideas for my dream kitchen (by the way, who is coming over to build that for me? anyone?) but sometimes I just love it for funny pop culture stuff. Like this t-shirt of all the Harry Potter horcruxes.