Baking and Cooking

  • Baking and Cooking

    Magpie’s Pinterest Test Kitchen: Bacon Broccoli Cheddar Crustless Quiche from Budget Bytes

    Oh hey? Guess who is finally capable of cooking again? Without having a nosey puppy up my ass 100% of the time? This girl. Ohhhh yea, Haruka has finally settled down and become trustworthy enough that I can cook without her nose going in everything (including the stove). And I couldn’t be more excited to finally resurrect what I had always intended to be a recurring feature for the blog: Magpie’s Pinterest Test Kitchen. Although, can you really resurrect something that never really got started? Meh. Anyway. For this first post back in the cooking saddle I tried out a fairly easy one: Bacon Broccoli Cheddar Crustless Quiche from Budget…

  • Baking and Cooking

    Magpie’s Pinterest Test Kitchen: Beefy Tomato Soup via Mantitlement

    Now that we have our own house, I’ve begun to get back into cooking again. Not that I didn’t love our apartment kitchen, but I just got a bit out of the habit over the years, since the type of cooking I love to do is big batches of stuff, but there’s only so many leftovers I’m willing to eat (I often couldn’t share them with the apartmentmate because he’s vegan). Additionally, sometimes because of my schedule I wouldn’t want to do a lot of dishes right away because I’d be exhausted, and leaving them around is just rude when you’re sharing the kitchen with someone else. So I just…

  • Baking and Cooking,  Life,  Magpie Writes,  Making Do

    The One Where Magpie Hates Healthy Eating

    So one of my biggest goals for this month is a total ban on take-out and fast food. Over the last couple years as I’ve added job after job, my eating habits have basically found themselves going right down the toilet. Whatever was quick, easy, and convenient was what was on the menu. I drive past Dunkin’ on this day, the Thai place is right around the corner from where I work this day, etc… etc… My location determined my meal. Which sucks for a variety of reasons. The biggest being, of course, that my wallet AND my waistline both take issue with the habit. My waistline has continued to…

  • Baking and Cooking,  Recipes

    One Pot Zucchini Mushroom Pasta

    So, idk about you but for the last few months I’ve been seeing these one-pot pasta recipes popping up everywhere. First they were on Pinterest, and then they migrated into facebook, and now I literally cannot seem to escape them. So, I guess here I am. Trying my first one-pot pasta recipe. I decided to give it a first shot using this One Pot Zucchini Mushroom Pasta from Damn Delicious. Honestly there’s no real reason why I chose this first. I found it on Pinterest and the pictures looked tasty. I’m kind of an easy sell. Prep was as easy as promised by the “one pot” moniker – You just…

  • Baking and Cooking,  Recipes

    So I Made Some Soup

    So a few weeks ago, I made some soup. I sort of based it on this Italian Orzo Spinach Soup Recipe, but, if you’ve been following along with my occasional cooking posts here, you may have figured out by now that I am generally shit at following directions when it comes to cooking. I don’t measure, I change things as I go, and just generally do what I want. I’m a cooking rebel. But whatever. So anyway, as I said, I started off intending to follow this recipe from Gimme Some Oven. I wanted actual chicken chunks in mine, so I started with some cubed chicken. I then went ahead…

  • Baking and Cooking,  Recipes

    Three(ish) Ingredient Crock Pot Chicken

    We’re switching it up this Monday with a recipe instead of a mani – my nails are in TERRIBLE condition, and I just wasn’t feeling any of the already photographed polishes I’ve got. So instead, today we have another of those lazy day recipes that I’m so fond of. It’s super fast to prep, super flexible depending on what kind of mood you’re in that day, and it seriously couldn’t be easier. Three(ish) Ingredient Crock Pot Chicken Ingredients: 1 jar tomato-based pasta sauce of your choice (I used Vodka Sauce this time) Chicken (Breasts or Tenders both work great, just make sure whatever you get is boneless) Mushrooms Salt, Pepper,…

  • Baking and Cooking,  Recipes

    Magpie’s Super Easy (& Super Quick) Fall Chili

    So I LOVE Chili in the fall. Like, a lot. It’s seriously the perfect fall comfort food. Pair it with rice for a filling meal, use it as dip for those lovely Tostito’s Scoops, or just eat it alone… you really can’t go wrong. As long as it’s not too spicy. I don’t like spicy. But I’m a weenie with spiciness, so there’s that. Because chili is absolutely perfect for the way the weather has been lately, I figured I’d finally get around to keeping track of and sharing the recipe for my hearty fall chili. Magpie’s Super Easy (& Super Quick) Fall Chili Prep time: 10 minutes Cook time:…

  • Baking and Cooking

    Chocolate Chip Scones

    I honestly haven’t been doing much baking since I landed in this new apartment last year. The oven has baffled me. Because I’m a pretty good baker. Since I learned to drive, I’ve spent every christmas helping my grandmother – who is the best baker I know who doesn’t own a bakery, her older sister being the only person to come in at a tie with her – make our family kolachi and cookies and generally learning the “tricks of the trade.” After ten years of this – and I don’t mean to sound cocky or full of myself even though I’m about to – I know what I’m doing.…

  • Baking and Cooking

    Quick Dinner: Egg Stuffed Portobello Mushroom Caps

    Just a quick meal for you today. This one is really easy to throw together. All you need are portobello mushrooms, eggs, oil (or whatever you use to grease a pan), some salt and pepper, and if you like it, some shredded cheese. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees and grease your pan. Cut the stems out of the mushrooms and then put them aside, and then put your mushrooms in the oven for a few minutes until they let out most of their moisture. After they’re pre-baked, crack an egg into each of the mushroom caps. Then dice up the mushroom stems and sprinkle them on top with some…

  • Baking and Cooking,  Links

    Miso Soup Love

    There’s nothing quite like miso soup, particularly when you need something satisfying and light, but FAST. Well, satisfying, light, and fast that’s still warm and comforting that is. I never have been much of a salad girl. But anyway – miso soup is not only fast, but it’s easy to make and to customize. All you need is dashi stock (Japanese fish broth), miso, some tofu (if you like it) and really, anything else you want to throw in. For the dashi stock, I just use granulated dashi stock, since it’s hard to find katsuobushi in this area and I feel weird ordering it from amazon because they market it…