Totally Easy Slow-Cooker Kalua Pork

Happy New Year, Friends! I hope you enjoyed a bit of holiday R&R! What did you do? Did you travel? Did you stay home? Was there any Christmas caroling? How about scandalous NYE romance? Did your crazy aunt get drunk and take off her wig? I want stories. Spill it. You should write me. I enjoy a good tale.
I had a quiet holiday this year. The husband and I enjoyed cozy fires and copious amounts of carbs mixed with cheese. There was bourbon-sipping and movie marathons. There was friendship, wine, merriment and board games. There were cookies, a bag of butterscotch caramels, and a complicated relationship with a bag of chocolate-drizzled kettle corn. I’m just now slowly and reluctantly coming out of my Netflix coma and assimilating back into the real world. I suppose I should start drinking more water and wearing less yoga pants (oh, and possibly doing MORE yoga) — but, let’s just ease into things. I’m needing a little more time to regroup and reboot before I come in here guns blazing a fired up trail of resolutions and green juice. We’ll get there. There will be a notebook scrawled with 2014 intention setting and polar bears doodled haphazardly in its margins. But, for now… let’s just enjoy that sleepy moment right after waking up from a long nap. The late morning sun is shining in through my window and I just want to lay here a little longer with my eyes closed and take it all in. It’s comfortable here. […]

Simple Heirloom Tomato & Burrata Salad | An Ode To Summer

How much have I talked about summer lately? A lot. Are you all hoping I shut my face soon? We get it, Gina. It’s hot. You aren’t wearing pants. It’s time for cocktails. The produce is amaze. We get it. Just stop. #WishICould

So, yeah. All of those things. But… TOMATOES, amiright? I mean, look at them. Just add them into the summer celebration! Is there a tomato dance? I’m sure we can figure one out. Maybe a jazz square on bottom with a raise the roof on top? My dance library is limited. Let me know if you come up with something more exciting. The more shoulder action the better. If you want to add in a shimmy, I won’t get upset.

Tomatoes are totally the apples of summer (they aren’t, but it’s Monday and my analogies are lazy at best). They are sweet, juicy and plentiful. They come in every color and variety, and markets are exploding with them. Just ask my husband how crazy and muppet-like my face looks at a summer farmers market. You would think I’m a six-year-old at Christmas. I had a very similar expression on my face in 1989 when I ripped the Santa Clause paper off a Barbie Dream House. Excitement + Bliss + OMG-DAD-PUT-THIS-TOGETHER-BEFORE-I-LOSE-MY-MIND-AHHHHHHH-OMG! Except, with tomatoes it is Excitement + Bliss + OMG-PETE-LET-ME-BUY-THESE-BEFORE-I-LOSE-MY-MIND-I’M-GOING-TO-PUT-THEM-IN-A-SALAD-AND-MAYBE-EAT-ONE-IN-THE-CAR-ON-THE-WAY-HOOOOOME-AHHHHHH-OMG! […]

Salted Peanut Butter Cookies {Two Ways} | Gluten Free

Here are a few things that make me happy:
Peanut butter. Chocolate with peanut butter (so much so, that this was our wedding cake flavor combo). Peanut butter and bananas. Peanut butter cups. Giving my dog peanut butter and watching her try to lick the stickiness off of her palate for a full five minutes. It’s the simple things.

These cookies are TOTALLY simple. We’re talking five-ingredients-simple. Sure, they are a little sticky and you might get the batter all over your sleeves and maybe in your hair…but that’s just something that happens. You might not even realize that you still have peanut butter cookie batter all over your forearms before you go to answer e-mails and your arms stick firmly to the top of your desk. Peanut butter is sticky. That is a true story. I probably should have  titled my blog “Wait… Do I have food on my face?” to which the answer is almost always a firm YES. I write to you as if you have my same problems. I shouldn’t do this. You probably have way less food on your face and in your hair on a daily basis. I admire you. […]

Chocolate & Chia Pudding | Gluten Free & Vegan

Sometimes recipes can be  complicated.

Roasting and stirring and chopping and sifting and simmering maybe even some light blending.

I like these types of recipes as they provide a bit of a challenge. Sometimes you need a project. The day I made you this Shepherd’s Pie, I needed a project. It was serious. Chopping therapy was a welcome activity.

Sometimes recipes can be so simple they’re mildly embarrassing.

You throw a couple things together in a mason jar and the ingredients do the work for you.

That is THIS recipe. […]