We spend a lot of time in our kitchens, and our team even has a Slack channel dedicated to sharing the best recipes we’ve tried and loved. So it only felt right to put the top contenders from April together – hopefully at a bare minimum, they inspire you to try out something new this month.
The Vanilla Bean Blog My Favorite Brownies
Sarah Kieffer’s “favorite brownies” have reached near-cult status in the baking world and while I’d made both her cakey version (it’s what G prefers, I’m not the monster) and fudgey varieties, I’d yet to bake what she deems the best of both worlds. I made them for a recent baby shower I threw and they were exaaactly what you want – super chocolatey, dense, but still airy, and they were demolished by the time all my guests left.
Easy Weeknight Tacos
Some recipes I share are more of the inspirational kind – beautiful bakes I spent hours perfecting. And others are barely worthy of photographing, despite their flavor (and fall firmly in the category of what David Chang calls “ugly delicious”). These tacos are just that – big on flavor, simple to throw together, and a meal we consistently return to, week after week. We grab the ingredients on autopilot at the market – tortillas (cassava flour when G’s shopping), some sort of protein (typically whatever light, flaky fish is on sale at Whole Foods), some pre-made slaw, avocado, lime, and cilantro. Some dinners that come together in minutes feel a little sad, but this never does – especially when topped with my favorite Taco Bell hot sauce since I’m all about that high/low balance.
Epicurious Pasta With 15-Minute Burst Cherry Tomato Sauce (With Broccoli)
I’m very drawn to the bright red and yellow cherry tomatoes at nearly every farmers market stand in spring/summer, and nine times out of ten I wind up using them in some variation of this pasta. I love a meal that comes together quickly, and this time I added some broccoli to the sautéed garlic for some additional veggies.
Easy Gay Oven’s Crispy Crunchy Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
I stumbled upon this recipe and immediately texted Justin to ask if I should whip them up that evening. When he responded with an all-caps “YES” in seconds, I flew into the kitchen and made a batch – out of the oven, they were without a doubt the best chocolate chip cookie I’ve ever made. Nutty from the brown butter, crispy edges, and the ideal chocolate-to-cookie ratio. The only downside to a thinner cookie is that they tend to get stale faster than chewier variations…which just meant we had to eat them a bit more aggressively than we’d typically like.
Rachael Ray’s Buffalo Chicken Salad
One of the ways I like to reset for spring is to reset my diet. I started craving salads a couple of weeks ago but I wanted something that would still give a bit of a kick. This buffalo chicken salad has been my go to dinner for a couple of weeks and I can’t seem to get enough of it! The recipe was really easy to follow but if you’re feeling a little extra I would highly recommend adding these little tweaks: 1. If you’re like me and would happily remove celery from any and all dishes, I would substitute it with mini Persian cucumbers. 2. I also used a mix of butter lettuce and shredded kale as my base and 3. finally topped everything off with a two-punch combo of freshly chopped jalapeños and Trader Joe’s incredible crispy jalapeño pieces. I promise you, you won’t regret trying this one out!
