For actual Mother’s Day this year, we went down to Pebble Beach to visit the boyfriend’s mom (and family). On Saturday night we all made seafood paella! It was a team effort, and it took a while to make, but it turned out great and was actually really interesting to witness.

Traditional paella is made in a big round pan, and we had an awesome outdoor paella cooker that’s made specifically for these special pans. We loosely followed this recipe for seafood paella, with modifications including omitting the dried tarragon, replacing sweet paprika with smoked paprika, and (most notably) using two pounds of Trader Joe’s frozen scallops instead of the littleneck clams. Here’s the play-by-play…. 

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We’ve received a handful of thoughtful housewarming gifts after moving into our new place, but one of the more interesting ones was a sourdough starter. This was a little bit of the boyfriend’s mom’s sourdough starter that she’s been keeping alive week after week for some time. Now it’s ours to keep alive each week and make into delicious treats if/when we choose. This week we did our first sourdough loaf, yeay!

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Whew! Super Bowl 49 (or XILZXVX or whatever in Roman numerals) was quite a doozy wasn’t it? What with a close score and improbable interceptions and guacamole spilled on the carpet? Yeah, it was a good day. And I tried really hard to make a good day even better by creating a couple tiny snack masterpieces for my friends (and gosh, myself) to enjoy. By the power vested in me by The Lady Who Works for Chex, I now share with thee two amazing Chex Mix recipes.

First is the OG Chex Mix. Literally straight from the Chex website:

Original Recipe Chex Mix… 

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It doesn’t matter that I’m not entirely sure how to correctly pronounce this word, it matters that tzatziki sauce is amazingly delicious, and now I can make it at home with relative ease. Tzatziki sauce, aka Cucumber Yogurt Dip, is a Greek sauce that is often served in gyros or on falafel. It’s delicious, and not even horrible for you. Imagine such a thing.

As my natural foods store does not sell pre-made tzatziki (anger!), I have been forced to fend for myself. I have now made this dip myself a half dozen times, and it’s really good. And my favorite thing about it: it’s nearly impossible to mess up.

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Who knew cooking could be for regular mortals? Fine, I won’t pretend that making salad dressing is “cooking”. But still, I feel like Nigella Lawson up in here.

People hear I have a food blog and always say something along the lines of, “OMG, what’s your favorite thing to cook*?!” And I’m like, “toast!”

And for the past ten years (literally) I have stockpiled the Balsamic Vinaigrette salad dressing from Trader Joe’s since I love it so well and never ever seem to get sick of it on the myriad of salads I have jouously consumed over said decade. This salad dressing enables me to make an entire dinner (composed of a salad) in approximately five minutes, which is my general threshold for patience when making food for myself. And so, loyal salad dressing, I have enjoyed you for many moons.

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I had a little shin-dig at my apartment a few weeks ago; my good friend, Natalia, is going to Colombia for four months and we wanted to see her off properly. And, apparently, to me, “properly” means “like a crazy person who can’t judge food quantities like a normal human”. Like my mother before me, I made enough food to feed three times the number of people who came to my house. But, this was one of the more successful recipes and so I thought I’d share (read: steal).

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