Opening a new cookbook on your kitchen table, tearing scraps of paper to mark the most tempting recipes is such a pleasure. But the cookbooks that you put on your bedside to delve into more deeply, savouring the stories, slowly turning the pristine pages are the ones I treasure most. Herb/a cook’s companion by Mark […]
Herb – a cook’s companion: cookbook review — My Custard Pie
We been enjoying our copy of the cookbook since it was released in June and have made a few recipes we didn’t take pictures of, but that we enjoyed and want to mention. The avocado salad is a nice blend of creamy and crunchy, with a light dressing. The fried shredded potato cake takes more steps than we usually spend on a potato dish but it was truly well worth the time and we will make it again.
Taylor has a secure place on our cookbook shelf and we’re anticipating her next book! We make more recipes from her books than any other cookbook author we have on our shelf or Kindle.
Click here to see my video review of Taylor’s cookbook, Date Night Dinners,
Which recipes interest you?
Thanks for reading,
Gina
A five-star book that feels like chatting with a friend, talking about life, kids, music, books, childhood, and recipes. I totally enjoyed it.
There is also a bit of Youtube channel news and a reveal at the end of the video.
The character from my Natural Gift series who I think would appreciate Whiskey In A Teacup the most is Brittany. Her book is No Yesterdays, where she (spoiler? I don’t think so.) and Carter finally get together. Brittany needs recipes to impress her chef boyfriend with, and these could do it.
Soul mates are being drawn together in numbers we’ve never seen. Gifts are unlocking faster than racing hearts, adding eight new people to the soul group. The group is growing, their energy blending in ways they didn’t know could happen. The big question is why is the soul mate bond in a hurry?
Brittany has been pining for Carter for years now. She needs a push.
Jack is stubborn personified and close to having Darah walk away, keeping her secrets to herself. They need a shove.
Jason is having the time of his life in college. All those beautiful women. Ha. Not the plan. Angelina can handle him.
Rowan is convinced that his soul mate didn’t incarnate with him in this lifetime. Surprise! This psychic finds out exactly why the women in his family told him his arrogance was blinding.
There’s no looking back now.
There are No Yesterdays.
Buy No Yesterdays to join in on the fantasy and the romance today
Announcements
I will be travelling for the next few weeks. There won’t be any new posts here on the blog until August 12th. It’s possible that I’ll be on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram because that’s where we like to hang out so if we’re not already connected there you can find me under my name.
How do you feel about breaks? Do you take them?
Thanks for watching!
Gina
*This is not a sponsored post.
Some people claim breakfast is the most important meal of the day. I believe that’s true, but it doesn’t mean you have to stuff yourself with mountains of borderline healthy food. This menu is satisfying, delicious and won’t cause a coronary. For a more festive morning or brunch add Mimosas. The recipes are gauged for two people so you need to adjust the amounts if you are serving more.
Serve with Fresh Fruit Salad, Croissants or Fresh Rolls, Jam or Jelly,
Orange Juice, and Coffee, Tea, or Milk
Scrambled Eggs with Feta and Chives
4 large eggs
2 tbsp. feta cheese, crumbled
Freshly ground pepper to taste
1 tbsp. butter, you may need a little more
2 tbsp. fresh chives or 1 tbsp. dried
Crack eggs into a medium-sized bowl. Scramble well with a fork.
Stir in the feta and pepper.
Add butter to a medium-sized frying pan. Melt over medium heat. Pour in egg mixture and then carefully scramble. Be sure to flip the eggs so the cheese melts.
Sprinkle on the chives. Heat through and then serve.
Fresh Fruit Salad
1 apple, cored and sliced
1 pear, sliced
1 banana, peeled and sliced
Lemon juice
1 kiwi, peeled and sliced
10 seedless red grapes, cut in half
Small handful blueberries
Small handful raspberries
In a glass serving bowl, combine the apple, pear, and banana. Sprinkle with lemon juice to prevent the fruit from turning brown. Gently stir. Add in the remaining fruit.
Cover with plastic wrap then set in the refrigerator to chill until time to serve.
COMING SOON to a kitchen near you!
Book 2 in the Meals to Make Together series
Starry summer nights are ripe for romance and dining al fresco. Enhance the mood with Romantic Meals to dine al Fresco, candles, wine, and your favorite music. Fire up your grill and share a romantic dinner with your someone special. Then let the night take you away.
Create 45 delicious and complete meals for two that can be cooked on your grill or stove. No exotic or expensive ingredients needed. These 103 recipes use everyday products already in your kitchen cabinets. Increasing the dinners is a snap for those fun nights when friends or family join you.
Romantic Meals to dine al Fresco, Book 2 in the Meals to Make Together series, is an ideal gift for a hostess, bridal shower, anniversary, or the couple who crave a fresh flavor in their lives.
Sloane Taylor is an Award-Winning author with a second passion in her life. She is an avid cook and posts new recipes on her blog every Wednesday. The recipes are user friendly, meaning easy.
Taylor currently has seven romance novellas released by Toque & Dagger Publishing. Her first solo venture into non-fiction is a Couples Cookbook with eighty of her favorite recipes, DATE NIGHT DINNERS, Meals to Make Together for a Romantic Evening.
Excerpts from her books and free reads can be found on her website, blog, Amazon Author Page.
Connect with Taylor on Facebook and Twitter.
May you enjoy all the days of your life filled with laughter and seated around a well laden table!
Thanks for watching,
Gina
The third recipe I tried from Date Night Dinners by Sloane Taylor is Snow Peas With Lettuce & Chives. It was so good I had to remind myself to chew and swallow each heaping forkful. My plate was empty in a flash. I suppose this portion is meant for two but I will have to triple the recipe if I’m going to share it.
What attracted me to the recipe was the idea of those green flavors together. I eat them often but not in the same dish. They blend beautifully. It’s invigorating to look at and to eat.
I made two tiny modifications to suit my diet and palate – I didn’t include the pinch of sugar because I’ve been low or no sugar for years, and I used non-dairy “butter” because I don’t tolerate dairy well. If you have food intolerance you know that it’s a gamble as to whether you will pay for that bit of ________ if your body reacts.
The recipes in this book took my substitutions perfectly. Check out my other reviews of Date Night Dinner recipes here: braised pork Loin and spaetzle.
The reasons I purchased Date Night Dinners are: the array of recipes which range from the familiar to the unique; the stories and informative introduction to each recipe which make me feel like I’m having a chat with the author; the conversion charts in the back which are worth the purchase price of the book by themselves, the cooking tips you can only learn from another experienced cook, the author’s obvious passion for food, and because the portions are perfect for my household of three.
There are a few versions of this book available. I have the paperback Black & White Date Night Edition. I bought the paperback because I want to hold the book in my hands as I’m cooking. I rarely buy Kindle versions of cookbooks. When I do it’s because they are discounted.
Do you think this would make a great meal? Braised pork loin, spaetzle, and snow peas with lettuce & chives?
About Sloane Taylor
I won’t keep you in suspense – this recipe is another winner! We gobbled it right up and left not one piece behind.
Watching, (okay binge-watching) cooking shows is one of my favorite hobbies so I’ve seen spatzle made many times by masters with special tools. While I’m sure those tools and practice make for more uniform pieces I doubt their recipes are better than the one I used.
I altered the recipe because I don’t tolerate wheat or dairy well, and it still came out perfect! Tantalizing. Tempting. We couldn’t wait to taste it and we wished I had made a whole lot more of it before it came out of the pan.
My modifications were easy – gluten-free flour in place of all-purpose flour and plain, unsweetened cashew milk in place of dairy milk. I know to let gluten-free dough rest for ten minutes before cooking or baking to absorb liquid, so I did that.
This was a first for me, making spatzle. I’ve eaten it a few times and liked it. I’m a sucker for noodles fried in dairy-free butter. Imagine how thrilled I was to make a delicious batch on my first try.
Date Night Dinners has clear directions which are essential for me when I’m making a new recipe. That’s why I was excited to try another new-for-me recipe from a different section of the book. I served Braised Pork Loin for Christmas dinner. It was scrumptiously successful, and I’m excited and confident about trying more.
The reasons I recommend Date Night Dinners are: the array of recipes which range from the familiar to the unique; the stories and informative introduction to each recipe which make me feel like I’m having a chat with the author; the conversion charts in the back which are worth the purchase price of the book by themselves, the cooking tips you can only learn from another experienced cook, the author’s obvious passion for food, and because the portions are perfect for my household.
There are a few versions of this book available. I have the paperback Black & White Date Night Edition. I bought the paperback because I want to hold the book in my hands as I’m cooking. I rarely buy Kindle versions of cookbooks. When I do it’s because they are discounted.
I’d love to hear your thoughts about making spatzle, if you’ve made recipes from this book, or whatever you have to say about recipes, cookbooks, and cooking.
About Sloane Taylor
Four. That’s how many cookbooks I bought in 2018. Each one has a different appeal which (I think) is obvious from their titles: Date Night Dinners, The 21-Day Sugar Detox Cookbook, Chloe’s Vegan Italian Kitchen, and Giada’s Italy.
Three. That’s how many of these books I’ve made recipes from so far.
Three is also the number of dishes I plan to make from Date Night Dinners right away though I hope to make many more of them to reach beyond my comfort zone into the seafood section of the book. I like seafood but I’m often the only one eating it in my house so I tend to make it the same way every time; with non-dairy garlic lemon butter. Date Night Dinners has a variety of fish recipes I haven’t eaten or cooked before, so, adventure!
The reason I purchased this book is because of the array of recipes which range from the familiar to the unique; the stories and informative introduction to each recipe which make me feel like I’m having a chat with the author; the conversion charts in the back which are worth the purchase price of the book by themselves, the cooking tips you can only learn from another experienced cook, the author’s obvious passion for food, and because the portions are perfect for my household of three.
There are a few versions of this book available. I have the paperback Black & White Date Night Edition. I bought the paperback because I want to hold the book in my hands as I’m cooking. I rarely buy Kindle versions of cookbooks.
Braised Pork Loin
This is my first pork loin roast. I feel like such a grown up now. My granddaughter and I looked through the book and I narrowed the choices to two meat dishes to make for Christmas dinner and then she chose the pork loin, based on the photo and on the title; she loves pork as much as I do. Neither of us eat a lot of meat, but when we do we often choose pork. It’s a flavor, texture, and versatility thing.
Because Christmas dinner is a big deal I read through the recipe several times, looking for those hidden stumbling blocks that you sometimes find with new recipes. There were none to be found so I moved on to shopping. I’m a planner so I bought one plain tenderloin and one marinated one in case the seasonings in the recipe didn’t pass muster. This was a holiday dinner, after all, and though the recipe read like it would taste good… You understand.
Taylor’s tenderloin seasonings were better than the marinade by far. Her sauce, onions, and carrots were divine. The pork was fork tender and luscious. I had leftovers that I froze and ate for three more meals; they were as good as the first time I served them.
I’ll be back to share when I’ve sampled dishes from two more sections: Sides and Veggies. Vegetables are my favorites because they are a delicious way to stay healthy. The book has nineteen vegetable recipes to choose from. Yes!
About Sloane Taylor
Thank you for watching!
Gina
www.ginabriganti.com 