My DIY Recipe Binder

Everybody has their own way of storing recipes. Once upon a time, people used recipe boxes. Then people had fill-in-the-blank recipe books. Then I think everybody either switched to some kind of app or stopped cooking altogether. None of those options were going to work for me, so I decided I needed to create my own recipe storage solution.

My Criteria

In case you hadn't noticed, I'm a wee bit opinionated about things. (See: Brand Wars.) Given that I may have a stick up my butt from time to time, when I decided to invent my own, unique, absolutely perfect recipe book, I spent a lot of time thinking about what I wanted and how it would work. These were my criteria:

I Made Banana Muffins Against My Will

I don't like bananas.

I realize that this confession is coming right on the heels of my "I won't eat apples" admission, so I'm sure you think I'm on some kind of anti-fruit crusade, but I promise, it's not like that.

I just don't like bananas. They're too squishy and stringy and....peely. I don't dig it.

But my pandemic brain decided that it wanted to make banana nut muffins, and I had a bag of nuts (a nut sack, lol), so I ordered bananas from the grocery people.

Baked Apple Cinnamon Rolls

Everyone loves cinnamon rolls; it's a universal truth.

Cinnamon rolls are an excellent social distancing food because they're familiar and comforting, they take a long time to make (so they're boredom-busting), and they don't require any weird-ass ingredients that you'd have to leave your house to get. Understandably, I decided my pandemic experience would be incomplete without indulging in cinnamon rolls at least once. (It would be more than once, but now I'm out of butter.)

When I waddled upstairs to start baking this morning, I remembered I had some really really sad looking apples that I bought the first day of the shutdown because I thought it would be responsible to buy fruit to ward off scurvy. Turns out though, I don't eat apples. Even when I put them in a fruit bowl all pretty-like.

So I decided, right then and there, to invent Baked Apple Cinnamon Rolls to use those suckers up.

I Broke My Waffles

My inner fat kid is on the fritz.

You know how I know?

Because I made waffles.

These waffles.

Delicious waffles.

But like a complete, total, skinny dumbass...

The Best Vegan Oatmeal Raisin Cookies in the Universe

If you've been here for a hot second, you probably know that I love cookies. And cookie dough. And Oreos. But guys. All of that pales in comparison to my love for oatmeal raisin cookies.

I love oatmeal raisin cookies.

No, like really. I LOOOOOVE oatmeal raisin cookies. It's even in my bio.

One of my great moments of shame as a child was when my mother baked oatmeal raisin cookies for a meeting she had and I kept sneaking into the kitchen and stealing one and then another one and then another one and then I filled my teeny art kit suitcase with cookies and hid behind a chair and ate them all.

But you know what? I don't even think I regret it. Because oatmeal raisin cookies are the best.

Recipe Roundup: What I've Cooked in Quarantine

In case you hadn't noticed, there's a raging pandemic happening outside. Which means I'm inside. Making snacks.

Actually, that's not entirely true. I spent about a week and a half panicking, like a normal person. Now I'm making snacks.

Here's a roundup of what I've made so far, in case you need inspiration for your own isolation menu.

Lauren Toyota's Zucchini Cream Sauce

I never in a million years would have pureed a zucchini and called it food. Never ever. But damn this is delicious. When I did my big pre-isolation shop, I grabbed four zucchinis so I could make a double batch of this sauce and freeze it. Worked like a charm. I froze it without kala namak, cheese, or meaty bits; I add those to each dish individually when I assemble the meal. Highly recommend.