All About the New Big Girls, Small Kitchen Cookbook & Giveaway!
My friends Cara and Phoebe are brains and cooks behind the quarter-life cooking blog Big Girls, Small Kitchen. Their tasty, fun blog is read by quarter-lifers all over the world looking for great recipes that fit into the context of post-college life. Even though I am not, eh-hem, post-college anymore, I love reading their blog, too. Yes, it takes me back to my own single days in New York, but the recipes are also amazing. In fact, many of them fit right into my life as a home cook feeding a family. And now, the girls have come out with a book titled In the Small Kitchen: 100 Recipes from our Year of Cooking in the Real World.
The neat thing about this book is that it is chock full of great recipes and organized by section based on life event. For example, the girls have recipes for meals that can be made at the last minute, meals that help save money at the grocery store, and for baked goods are great to give to friends and family. Each recipe has been meticulously tested and the instructions are clear and well-written. So far I’ve made several recipes from the book, the favorite being the Lotus Blondies pictured above.
Despite the age difference (oh, how I wish I could re-live those years again!) this book is indeed great for young families. It is also a FABULOUS graduation gift for any recent college graduate in your life. I am so excited to share this with you today that I am giving a copy away, courtesy of William Morrow. Enjoy!
For the Lotus Blondies Recipe click here.
To Win a Copy of Big Girls, Small Kitchen:
1) Leave a comments sharing a favorite meal from when you were in your 20′s (or, if you are still in your 20′s).
2) Like “The Family Kitchen” on Facebook.
3) Like “The Naptime Chef” on Facebook.
4) Contest runs from June 14 at 10am Et through June 20th at 11:59 Et.
When I was in my early 20s, I hadn’t gotten into cooking yet, so I made a lot of Hamburger Helper and boxed macaroni and cheese! It wasn’t until I was about 25 that I really started cooking “real food”. One of the first “fancy” meals I made that year was chicken breasts stuffed with fresh spinach, bacon, and feta cheese. It was actually really good!
In my 4th year of University, I and about 15 other classmates spent a semester in Finland. We were there for Thanksgiving and at that point, we were all feeling a little homesick after 2 months abroad. Although I wasn’t really much of a cook, I decided that we needed a Thanksgiving dinner together to help us feel better and set about trying to find the ingredients for an old fashioned turkey dinner in a Helsinki grocery store (a whole other story). We all lived in the same apartment building with stoves about the size of a toaster oven. Regardless, myself and two friends managed to produce 8 roast chickens (turkeys were unavailable) in 4 different ovens as well as 3 different kinds of potatoes, stuffing, gravy and both pumpkin and apple pie. The best part of the whole day was how much fun we had trying to figure out what to do and madly emailing our mothers for recipes and advice. It was insane, but when we all sat down together – well worth the effort for just a little taste of home.
Hrmmm, You’re asking me to go quite a ways back. If I remember correctly I was into hamburger and rice. Now I’m not claiming it’s healthy as it consisted of nothing more than ground beef browned with chopped onions and mixed with rice and A1 steak sauce. Quick, easy and pretty darn tasty to be honest.
One of my favorite meals is a poached egg over roasted sweet potatoes and fresh spinach with a little feta, scallions, and sun-dried tomatoes. Although honestly, I’ll eat a poached egg over almost anything
Once upon a time there was a simple linguini and vegetable recipe poached from a magazine (original source unknown, but reminisced cheerfully). I made the dish SO often, sometimes more than three nights a week, we renamed it Wife Pasta. To this day, it remains a staple, and one of our favorites to share with family and friends. The Basics: Linguini (cooked per package instructions). White Onion, Red Pepper, 3 Cloves Garlic (all chopped). Saute vegetables in 1 tbsp Olive Oil for 10 minutes. Toss with prepped noodles, and sprinkle with generous helping of Parmesan.
I’m 27. My favorite meal is brie and apple paninis.
i love spaguetti and meatballs
like family kitchen on facebook
I’m still in my twenties and I always make spicy Cajun burgers as my go-to cheap meal. I grab whatever ground meat is on sale (chicken, turkey, beef, innards – whatever I can afford), coat it in Slap Your Mama (an annual parental gift but you can buy on the Internet for cheap), and melt some pepperjack cheese on top. I make the burgers, get your friends to bring the beers, and you have a dinner party happening!
Im still in my twenties, but with 4 kids and a husband, so I aways have to cook for the masses, my fave to cook for them is Spagettii and Meatballs, I always change it up though, I try new sauces and look for interesting ideas for the meatballs, its messy but oh so yummy!!