Delish Kitchen Top 10 Recipe Picks of 2009:
(In No Particular Order)

Pumpkin Dog Treats. These have been a huge hit with our pupster and other pups alike. So glad we found our sweet dog at the animal shelter this year. She’s definitely a keeper!

White Bean Chicken Chili. One of our absolute favorites. I love that its quick, easy & inexpensive and its soup I can actually enjoy several meals in a row.

Lettuce Wraps. One of our favorite low-carb meals to enjoy while we were trying to lose weight. (Have I mentioned lately that we lost a combined 50lbs between us doing weight watchers? Go us!)

Banana Chocolate Chip Crumb Muffins. Absolutely delicious for breakfast, snack or dessert. Definitely one of my all time favorite muffin recipes.

Roasted Tomato Salsa. After years of trying to make good salsa, I finally nailed it in 2009. We enjoyed this salsa almost every week for the second half of 2009.

Tasty Tilapia. This one quickly became a favorite. Quick, easy and healthy. I could put dinner on the table in just a few minutes with this main course. You see this one frequently in our meal rotation!

Homemade Lighter Ranch Dressing. Another healthy favorite that I began making a couple times a month. Deliciously creamy (yet healthy) on a salad for dinner or a dip for veggies for lunch or a snack at work! I fully expect to continue making this one frequently in 2010!

Hot Black Bean & Corn Dip. I’ve always struggled with side dishes for mexican food! But this one quickly became a favorite side dish for our favorite enchiladas. Eaten straight up with a fork or used as chip dip… definitely a favorite of ours in 2009!

Spicy Skilletini. Hubby will argue with me on this one. He doesn’t like tomatoes and therefore doesn’t eat spaghetti with me but this was one of my favorites. Whip up a batch or two and I’ve got a couple days of lunches to go! Quick, healthy & tasty!

Pecan Sandies. A new favorite from this holiday season’s baking marathon! If only they were healthy… then I could eat them like popcorn!

Check out how we rolled in 2009 and 2008 with some previous favorite picks!

Cookbooks

There’s no such thing as too many cookbooks I’m most frequently asked for cookbook suggestions. So here they are: anything by Ina Garten (aka Barefoot Contessa)…. And my favorite go-to general cookbook is my America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook though. I have yet to try anything from it that we don’t like! Lots of great tips in it as well! You can’t lose with this one! Oh and of course, you can’t forget the Pastry Queen! (If you haven’t already entered the giveaway for her most recent cookbook, Pastry Queen Parties: Entertaining Friends and Family, Texas Style… Go now and get yourself entered in the giveaway. Ends Dec 13th).

Food Scale
Even with years of cooking under my belt, I’ve only just invested in a food scale this year! Its useful for every day cooking, but especially for watching portion sizes as you head into the new year and possible weight loss resolutions. We have a Salter Digital Scale like the one pictured. I love that I can take the glass plate off and wash it! Its perfect for our kitchen!

KitchenAid Glass Bowl

I’m drooling over these new KitchenAid Glass Bowls… unfortunately I might have to drool over the for awhile longer since they’re not yet available! I would gladly accept a pre-ordered one though. It’d be so easy to be able to warm milk in the microwave right in your mixing bowl or to soften/melt butter and onto the mixer it goes! The bowl even works as a measuring device! Can’t wait to get my hands on one of these!!

Mini-Chop

I lost my mini-chop about a month ago. It simply wouldn’t start. It wasn’t a fancy mini-chop… something my mom got free I think. But it did a great job. I’m ready to get a new one. It was so much easier to clean and easier to tote out than my honking big food processor, which of course has its purpose. But the mini-chop. We were BFFs. We made salsa. Lots of salsa. Super handy!

Catering Dishes

I love having these. None have been broken yet, but I love having a set of simple white dishes I can pull out for parties and not have to worry about them! I actually picked up both my dinner & salad sets at a Potterybarn Outlet so they were even less expensive! They’re great to have for entertaining!

Lastly, I’ve been doing my best to populate the Delish Amazon Store with my favorite things and I’ll do my best to keep it updated throughout the year, so pop over there if you’re looking for more suggestions!

Happy Holidays!

]]> http://www.delish-blog.com/2009/12/a-foodies-holidaygift-guide/feed/ 2 http://www.delish-blog.com/2009/10/new-domain-new-look/ http://www.delish-blog.com/2009/10/new-domain-new-look/#comments Thu, 08 Oct 2009 00:52:14 +0000 ashley http://www.delish-blog.com/?p=1553 Welcome to the all new Delish site! Not only have we moved to our very own domain… as you can see, there is also an all new look! I’ve been working on the new site design for MONTHS. I’m definitely not a programmer or graphic designer so it took a lifetime but it finally all came together. There are still a few bugs I’m sure, so don’t hesitate to shoot me an email if you find a problem! I hope you’ll take a few moments to take a look at the new design and let me know what you think!

And now I have a favor to ask of my wonderful readers! Have a link on your site to Delish? Take a moment and update the link to our new domain! That will help let the search engines know that we really do exist at our new home. I’d greatly appreciate it! I’d also encourage you to take a moment and update your subscription! You can stay on top of new posts by subscribing via RSS or subscribe to Delish by email.

On to the good stuff… new features! Here’s the run down:

• Print Capabilities! See it above? Right there below the post heading? Yup, all you have to do is click Print and you’ll get a printer friendly version without images or comments so you can easily stick it in your recipe binder!
  
  
• Share Posts more easily!  Have a recipe you love and want your friends to have it? At the bottom of each post now, you’ll find icons that make it easy to share your favorite recipes via twitter, Facebook, StumbleUpon, or Digg!

• Tags. Yes, after three years of blogging I’m finally utilizing tags. This allows you another way of searching for the right recipe. There is also now a “Skinny” tag which I’m using to identify recipes we regularly eat since beginning Weight Watchers. (I’m working on creating ‘Easy’ and ‘Quick’ tags for those of you who requested it!)

• Revised Recipe Index. I’ve taken some time and broken the recipe index into a few more categories, hopefully making it easier to find exactly what you’re looking for!

Thank you for all my wonderful loyal readers & the new ones! I wouldn’t be doing this if it wasn’t for you all! I hope you find the new site more useful and I’d love to hear any feedback you have!

• Content. What would you like to see? More healthy dishes? More ethnic dishes? More baking? More pet recipes? Any recipes or general food topics you’d like to see covered in the coming months? What types of food/recipes/techniques would you like to learn the most about? How-to posts? Cookbook reviews? Product reviews? Link roundups?
• Design & Features. Do you find the navigation menu and sidebar useful? Are there things you’d like to see easily accessible? Features you’d like to see implemented? What would make your experience better?
• Recipe Index. How do you like to search for recipes? Are the current categories to broad? Want more flexibility with search options?

While I promise to take every idea, suggestion, & comment in consideration, I can’t promise I’ll implement every suggestion. But please take a few moments and leave feedback in the comments or email me directly at delishfood@gmail.com.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts!!! And thank you to all my wonderful loyal readers… you make blogging worthwhile!

And our lucky giveaway winner of the Lucky Fiona Gift Certificate for a custom made collar for your special pooch (or kitty) is #41…

which is… Hope!

Congrats Hope, I know your pup will love a lucky fiona collar! Thanks everyone for participating. Its nice to get a few of you out of lurkedom. And stay tuned because I hope to bring you a few more giveaways over the next few months. and if you didn’t win this time… you should still go check out Lucky Fiona cause seriously, they’re super cute and comfy collars!

I’ll be back with some more food posts soon! Work is crazy busy this week but I’m aiming to fit in another post soon!

Dog Treat Recipes:
Chicken & Cheddar Dog Treats
Natural Pumpkin & Peanut Butter Dog Treats

I had grand plans to make some Champagne Sorbet for New Years, but I’ve been sick and curled up on the couch for two days. But I didn’t want to start of 2009 without a blog post! So here I am! I wanted to take a moment to look back and highlight a few of our favorite recipes from 2008; some are old family favorites and some are all new recipes. I hope you enjoy them as much as we do!

Favorite Appetizer/Soup: Pasta Fagioli
Favorite Poultry Dish: Cajun Roast Turkey
Favorite Seafood Dish: Chinese Style Tilapia
Favorite Beef Dish: Tofu & Beef
Favorite Vegetarian Dish: Veggie Lo Mein
Favorite Side Dish: Mustard Vinaigrette Potato Salad
Favorite Baked Good: Cinnamon Rolls
Favorite Dessert: Chocolate Chip Amish Puff Cookies

I also wanted to take a moment to thank all of my readers for your continued kindness, encouragement and support. This blog wouldn’t exist without you. Best wishes to you all for a very happy, healthy, prosperous and food filled 2009!

Have a wonderful new year’s day!

There is an all new recipe index tab located at the top of site. This will give you a single location to look at an index of all the recipes that have been featured on Delish by category. The categories option still exists in the sidebar for easy access, but the new tab is an additional feature to easily view recipes. I’ve also added a new blogroll tab leading the way to some of my favorite food blogs.

Additionally, I’ve started an Amazon store as well. If you’re a fan of Delish, shop here to support this blog. You’ll only find items that I use and love in my own home. The only things you’ll find in my shop are things I can attest to and would recommend to any of my friends in real life.

The biggest announcement though? I am now a featured publisher with Food Buzz. You’ll notice a new button on the right sidebar which takes you to my Featured Publisher page (its still a work in progress). Food Buzz is a community website that is specifically dedicated to food and dining. Its a great resource for searching, surfing and sharing with fellow foodies everywhere in the world. I’ll be back later on with more about Food Buzz!

There are some additional features I’m still working on, and I’ll update you on those as I’m able to get them done. So stay tuned for further changes here at Delish!

Anyway, I think I’ve managed to get most of the kinks out of everything, but if you spot any problems, please let me know !

I’ll be back to my regular blogging starting tomorrow! Thanks for all of your continued support!

Ever since I signed up to get some PBDDL I’ve been contemplating what I should make with it. I’ve had lots of ideas– cupcakes, muffins, cake, Chocolate/PBDDL tart, truffles… among some other ideas. But it finally hit me today what I really want to make with them! Unfortunately, I’m missing one critical ingredient to make these tonight so they’ll have to wait until I can run to the store this week. So until then you’ll have to sit in desparate anticipation! haha.

I did however, open a jar and steal a taste of the PBDDL right out of the jar using my finger Its very delicious! I know the end product is going to be great… well hopefully I don’t screw it up! But I can say for now that the PBDDL is quite tasty!