When you’re a child, Valentine’s Day is simple. Get a card for everyone in your class and it’s smooth sailing. If you want to up the anti, tape a mini chocolate heart to each Valentine and you’re golden. But somewhere along the way, this non-holiday holiday gets a lot more complicated. Around Jr. High the cinnamon heart eating contests give way to tears, embarrassment, and general bewilderment. But why? How can a violently pink holiday have so much sway over our health and well-being? It’s kind of bullsh*t, right? So, by way of half-hearted protest, the only thing I’m doing this Valentine’s Day is giving you these Victoria Sponge Cupcakes. I made them appropriately cute but that is all. I’m no longer engaging in this farce.
Do you ever find yourself in a ‘break everything’ jag? No, I’m not referring to an over-the-top post break-up “Girl Smash!” mode or the super cute I-still-think-I’m-fourteen-style tantrum. I’m talking about those stretches when everything you touch seems to break. You get a saucer from the cupboard, it winds up on the floor. You pick up the apparently overloaded basket you used to store magazines, the handle unravels in your hand. You leave your favourite hat in a cab. And, to add insult to injury, you break your favourite bottle opener and your beer is trapped forever…Not really, where’s there’s a will there’s a way. When this type of bad luck hits you there really is only one answer: potatoes, the ultimate comfort food. And what should you do with said potatoes? Make this Aged Cheddar Potato Soup with Sautéed Apples.
Happy New Year’s Eve everyone! I hope you all have some bubbly chilling and your shiny resolutions on delay because this is the last day of the holiday season when calories and alcohol percentages don’t count. So, whoop it up and deal with the consequences tomorrow. I swear it won’t be that bad and even if it is these Chipotle Baked Eggs with Black Beans will make it all better. Well, most of it. Baked eggs are shit at removing tattoos, so adorn with discretion.
The holidays are kind of tough. Well, the lead up is tough, it’s like a frickin’ marathon. But the actual holidays are pretty nice. Well, Christmas Eve can be nuts and Christmas Day is…I like Boxing Day. The point is it’s a busy time, that’s why I gravitate towards dishes that require minimum effort but deliver maximum reward. Take today’s French Onion Tarts for instance. They’re simple to put together and they’re bonafide flavor heavyweights.