What’s Cookin’

It’s a goal of mine to do at least one new recipe a week, but I did a few new ones this week! Sharing the next round of recipes that I whipped up this past week -

Starting off - so I do love me a good TikTok recipe & I found two I really liked!

Homemade Blueberry Crumble Muffins from @otherlifeofkatieann on TikTok! I had a ton of fresh blueberries left over after eating yogurt parfaits all week and got a big craving for muffins one morning! I combed through my cookbooks, but some needed lemon zest or just wild ingredients I didn't have on hand and couldn't get access to being a one car family. This recipe was easy and to the point! Def go check her page out for some great recipes!

Jigs Dinner - Sadly, I lost the saved TikTok video and can't credit the creator, but I made Jigs dinner from it! Idk why, but every year I think St. Patrick's Day is on the 18th when it is in fact on the 17th. Of course it was last minute when I realized I needed to modify my menu for the week to accomodate the festive holiday meal! I wanted something easy & basically this TikTok instructed me to throw the corned beef, taters, cabbage & onion in the crockpot with some bay leaves, mustard seed & the seasoning packet the meat comes with on high for four hours. Now - she didn't mention any water in her recipe which I did put a cup in anyway, but half way through I noticed my cabbage had some burnt ends from the crockpot so I chat GPT'd it and it instructed to do 4 cups of water! Whoopsie! I added more for the last few hours and prayed it would turn out well! I warned my hubby that takeout may be in our dinner plans, but to my delight it was delicious! Moist, great flavor and sooooo good! Lol not your most thought out or planned menu item but it worked!

Next - this one wasn't from a cookbook per say, but I've been watching the new series on Netflix - With love, Meghan - I know there's a lot of mixed reviews on it, but she shared a one pot pasta recipe I just had to try! So I took a break from the cookbooks & whipped this up instead! I did however make some modifications of my own in comparison to hers!

On the show she does pasta, over tomatos and pours 3 1/2 cups of boiling water over the pasta with lemon zest - I switched it out and did my homemade chicken bone broth over the noodles for a little more added flavor! She also added chard to her dish for veggies whereas I did shallots and spinach. I'm not gonna lie - I was nervous if this was going to turn out or if it would lack flavor, but it was great! Hubby loved it - only thing I would do a little differently next time is for sure chill out on the chili flakes lol - whoopsie! And have my crap together when I get cooking - like everything chopped, parm shredded, lemon zested because it cooks up quick and my noodles were a little more cooked down and mushy than I would have preferred.

Next up - I made Buttermilk Fried Chicken from The Beachhouse Cookbook by Mary Kay Andrews. If you feel like you've heard that name before it's probably because you have! She's a very famous New York Times Bestelling Author! She writes great & fun novels - many take place on the coast so obvi I like them! I found this cookbook for $6 at an antique store and flipping through it I felt the recipes seemed easy enough - so it went home with me!

I chose this recipe first because I had a ton of homemade buttermilk leftover from making butter and wanted to put it to use! This was my first time ever making fried chicken and since frying oil was invovled - I decided to deploy my husband's assistance to ensure there were no injuries or fires! Admittedly, the first piece of fried chicken turned out bad. The oil was wayyyyy too hot and it got burned right away without being cooked all the way thru. After that it went fine! This recipe was great & the chicken had a lot of flavor with good crunch!

Funny Story: I ended up having to make the Meghan Markle pasta on a whim a day earlier than expected because I didn't read the part from my fried chicken recipe that it needed to marinate for 4 hours or over night! Oops!

This was my first week officially as a full-time stay at home Mom and I really thought I'd have my crap together better on meals! If you think all of of this was made peacefully and gracefully - you are kindlly mistaken! This week has felt more off than ever!! But better luck next week!

Thanks for reading!

XOXOXO

Mrs. Northern Belle