When I first started this blog, I used to clip recipes out of cooking magazines all the time. They were everywhere — stacks of magazines with dog-eared pages, gathered in piles on my nightstand and in random drawers, random crumpled clippings that somehow made their way into every suitcase and handbag I owned.

They finally made their way into one giant stack, as pictured below, which I promptly threw into a folder and, um, never looked at again. As this blog has grown, I’ve become more comfortable experimenting with my ideas for flavor combinations and building new recipes off of my prior experiments, rather than looking for inspiration from cookbooks and magazines.

So it was time for me to get rid of my magazine cutout folder. But in looking through them, there were a few that really stuck out in my mind, and I thought it might be fun to share them with you guys! Some of these are creative, some are easy and delicious-sounding, and some of them just look like something I might have come up with myself. Three years and dozens of cooking magazines later, here are nine recipes I haven’t made yet (but would love to try!):

Chilled Tomato-Tarragon Soup with Croutons (Bon Appetit, June 2008)

Fig, Prosciutto, and Gorgonzola Salad (Cooking Light, June 2007)

Crab, Corn, and Tomato Salad with Lemon-Basil Dressing (Cooking Light, June 2008)

Bruschetta with Fava Beans, Greens, and Blood Oranges (Bon Appetit, March 2009)

Baked Penne with Farmhouse Cheddar and Leeks (Bon Appetit, March 2009)

Creamiest Chocolate Pudding (Cooking Light, December 2007)

Caramel Layer Cake (Cooking Light, June 2007)

Caramel Popcorn (Cooking Light, December 2007)

Cucumber Gimlets (Bon Appetit, July 2006)

So, kale chips are one of those ridiculously healthy, nutty crunchy, snack-food-for-the-quinoa-and-bulgar-set recipes that I was pretty sure I wouldn’t like. Truth be told, I’m not really much into bitter greens, but these seemed so easy and healthy that I had to give them a try.

And. Um. Ok, maybe I just do not belong in the quinoa and bulgar set. In fact, I think this pretty much proves that theory. I try to be as healthy as the next girl, but am I really going to replace my beloved pretzels and baked Doritos for these? Unlikely.

This is probably a good time to mention that a few months ago, I attempted a *very* expensive three-day juice diet, and do you know how long I lasted on it? Less than eight hours. Do you know how much weight I lost? Not a single ounce. Sigh.

Part of me debated whether or not to post this recipe, but in the end, I thought it was an interesting idea that others could probably enjoy more than me. Each “chip” basically tasted like olive oil and garlic, which was actually pretty good. So if you’re curious about kale chips too, I think you should try this recipe and decide for yourself!

Last but not least, the winner of the Stonyfield Farm Oikos giveaway is comment #24, Rachel!  I’ll be emailing for your address this weekend!

Kale Chips Recipe

INGREDIENTS

1 bunch kale
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp fleur de sel
1 tsp garlic powder

DIRECTIONS

Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F. Line a nonstick cookie sheet with tin foil.

Remove the kale stems and tear the leaves into pieces. Wash and dry kale with a salad spinner. Drizzle kale with olive oil and sprinkle with garlic powder and salt, rubbing the leaves to coat evenly. Place the kale in an even layer on the pan and bake until the edges brown but are not burnt, about 15 minutes. Serve.

When I was approached by Stonyfield Farm to try the new caramel and chocolate flavors of their Oikos organic greek yogurt, it sounded like a great plan. I’ve used greek yogurt in a number of recipes (especially ice cream!), but it also makes a delicious, healthy snack. And I loved the new flavors — totally delicious and guilt-free, the perfect mix of sweet and good for you!

And even better, Stonyfield Farm has put together an amazing prize pack for you guys! So, here’s the deal. One lucky winner gets a chocolate- and organic-themed gift pack from Stonyfield Farm that includes coupons for Oikos yogurt and Green & Black chocolate, organic Chocolate chapstick, organic cocoa soap, an Oikos spatula, and more!

You can win in two ways:

1) Leave a comment below, and mention something about Stonyfield Oikos yogurt!

2) Twitter about this giveaway! Send a tweet that includes @Sugarlaws and a link to http://www.sugarlaws.com/giveaway-oikos and you’ll get a second entry!

I’ll announce the winner, chosen randomly, on Friday — entries close Thursday at midnight EST!

US shipping addresses only. Learn more about Oikos and organic farming here!

Before posting this giveaway, I received coupons for two four-packs of Oikos yogurt!

A long time ago, I read Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain, where he said there were three things that made all the difference between restaurant kitchens and home kitchens. Those things, if you can’t guess, are fresh herbs, squeeze bottles, and pastry rings.

Those three items, at least to me, were a bit of a revelation. Fortunately, I live fairly close to a kitchen supply store, so within a few weeks, I’d picked up squeeze bottles and pastry rings. The squeeze bottles led to lovely dishes like this and this, and fresh herbs had always been a staple of my kitchen. But those pastry rings — for some reason, I remained a little terrified of them.

I mean, I used them for desserts fairly regularly. But here, where I wanted to take a simple summer salad and make it into something special-looking, I had a feeling it was time to get over my fears.

And wow, they sure did. Anthony Bourdain knows his stuff! This was so pretty and elegant, I only wished we had company to serve it to! So if you’re looking for something to add a little ‘wow’ factor to an everyday dinner (and a really healthy one, at that!), all you need is this little restaurant trick. Get them on Amazon here, or at your local cooking supply store!

strawberry tomato salad recipe

INGREDIENTS

1 cup cherry tomatoes, diced into very small cubes (about 1/4″ per side)
1 cup small strawberries, trimmed and diced into very small strips (about 1/4″ per side)
1 tsp extra-virgin olive oil
2 tsp aged balsamic vinegar
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 ounce goat cheese, crumbled

DIRECTIONS

In small mixing bowl, toss together tomatoes, strawberries, oil, vinegar, and salt. Let marinate at room temperature 10 minutes.

To serve, place the mixture into a 3″ diameter pastry ring on individual plates, pressed to pack lightly. Remove the rings delicately, top each salad with goat cheese, and serve.

Serves four.

Would you believe that these have been sitting in my “drafts” folder for a full year? Well, they have. I had a difficult dilemma when September of last year rolled around with me having shared this recipe. I could post them in October or November, but plums would be long past their prime, and either hard to find or unimpressive in most grocery stores or farmer’s markets. Or I could hang onto this delicious recipe for nearly a year, waiting for plum season to roll around again.

I know that many of you are partial to free-form galettes, but to me, there is something so beautiful about a tart where every slice of fruit has been specifically placed — maybe they’re a little fussy, but they’re so lovely to look at that I don’t mind. You can bet that this tart will wow — while a galette might be forced to rely merely on taste.

So if you’re looking for a way to use up a batch of plums from your CSA or backyard tree (hey, a girl can dream…), make this. And make it this year, because stone fruits will be gone soon, and you wouldn’t wait to have to wait another year to enjoy this delicious dessert.

Plum Tart Recipe

For crust:
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
2 tbsp sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, cold and cut into pieces
1 large egg
2 tbsp water

For the filling:
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp white wine or champagne
4 red plums, pitted and sliced into wedges

DIRECTIONS

In a medium bowl, whisk the sugar, wine and plums and gently toss to coat evenly. Cover the bowl and put it in the refrigerator for an hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place flour, sugar, salt, butter, one egg, and water in a food processor. Pulse until blended into one large ball of dough. Roll dough out on a floured surface, into an approximately 12? circle. Press the dough into the individual 3-inch tart pans so it fits into all the edges, particularly on the sides. Trim the excess dough from the edges of the pans (should create at least four individual tarts). Refrigerate the tart dough for 10 minutes.

Remove the tart from the refridgerator, and line the inside of the tart with aluminum foil. Place pie weights (or dried beans, or rice) in the foil. Bake for 20 minutes (the tart is easier to bake if you place the tart shell on a cookie sheet).

Remove the tart from the oven and remove the foil and pie weights. Lower the oven temperature to 325 degrees. Arrange the plum slices in a flower pattern in each tart shell and bake the completed tarts for 10 minutes, or until the plum juices are starting to bubble. Allow to cool, and serve.

Makes four individual tarts.

This bread proves that no matter how much experience you have in the kitchen, yeast can still get the better of you. This was my second try on this recipe — my first try used a packet of yeast that was unexpired, stored at a proper temperature (at least, within my kitchen), and seemingly ready to be used. And despite all that, my dough stayed thick and dense as a rock. After setting it out to rise for an hour, it hadn’t even moved.

I started over. This time, the yeast cooperated (although slowly) — I had bread that would rise, at least. Still, though, this bread wouldn’t quiet cooperate. When I tried to roll the raisins into a swirl, they grouped together at the bottom of the loaf (as you can see in the pictures). The only solution I can think of is to add them with the wet ingredients, so they distribute evenly during kneading. I’ve written the recipe that way below — when you guys try it, let me know if that works!

But even with all the trial and error, there is nothing quite like the smell of freshly baked bread wafting through the kitchen on a weekend morning. So I’m going to call the end result a success — if only I could find a way to make my yeast a little less temperamental.

cinnamon bread recipe

INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup warm water
1 (.25 ounce) packages active dry yeast
1 egg
1/3 cup white sugar
1 tbsp cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tbsp butter, softened
1/3 cup raisins
3 cups all-purpose flour

DIRECTIONS

Proof the yeast by mixing it with 1/2 cup warm water and 1 tbsp sugar. Allow to sit for 5 minutes until milky and foaming.

In a large mixing bowl, add the yeast mixture, egg, milk, sugar, butter, salt, raisins and cinnamon. Add the flour gradually to make a stiff dough. Knead for about five minutes.

Turn the dough out into a lightly greased bowl, and cover with plastic wrap. Let the dough rise in warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.

Punch the dough down, and place it in a greased 1 1/2 pound loaf pan. Let rise until the bread is the shape that you want, around 45 minutes for a regular-sized loaf. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees while the dough is rising.

Bake the loaf for 35 minutes. Allow to cool before slicing, and serve.

My last food post had a whopping four recipes in it, and I’m rounding things out by posting the last two today — gorgeous tomato and mozzarella bites that you can see above and delicious zucchini and corn pastry cups!

I like to make sure that I serve some healthy options at parties — but it’s always a challenge to think of something healthy that will appeal to a wide group of people.  One of the things that New Balance suggested for their TrueBalance campaign was to consider how health and wellness can be a bigger part of our everyday lives.  And these tomato skewers were healthy *and* a complete success — they were the first thing I ran out of once our guests started arriving!

Now, some of you might be wondering what Chad got me for our anniversary.

And…

The answer is…

Well, let me back up a minute. So, apparently, the traditional first anniversary gift is paper. And while I’m a fan of pretty stationary and a great book or two, I wanted something a little bigger for our very first anniversary. Fortunately, my fantastic in-laws offered an idea that Chad knew, in a heartbeat, was the perfect gift for me.

Tickets.

To the Emmy awards!

I can’t wait — we’re going out to Los Angeles at the end of August! I’ll be taking about a zillion photos, and *of course* posting them all here, but for now there is one really big question on my mind:

What to wear?!?

Tomato, Mozzarella and Basil Skewer Recipe

INGREDIENTS
1 pint pear tomatoes, cut in half
1/3 pound fresh mozzarella, cut into small wedges
24 small basil leaves, preferably large (some will be cut in half)
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
2 tbsp good balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
Fancy wooden toothpicks

DIRECTIONS
Thread a half of one tomato onto a skewer, add a wedge of mozzarella and a basil leaf and finish with the other half of the tomato. Repeat until the tomatoes are used up, and then set the completed skewers on a platter. Drizzle with olive oil, sea salt and balsamic vinegar.

Corn and Zucchini Pastry Cup Recipe

INGREDIENTS

1 large zucchini
2 ears of corn, cut off the cob
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 sheets frozen puff pastry
1 tsp garlic powder
1/4 cup shaved parmesan
Sea salt

DIRECTIONS

Roll puff pastry until thin and cut each sheet into 16 squares. Place each square in a mini muffin tin and shape into a small cup. Bake the puff pastry in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for 10 minutes, and set aside to cool.

Boil the corn in a pot of water for about 5 minutes, until golden and tender. Drain and set aside.

Heat olive oil in a small frying pan for a minute or two, until hot. Toss the zucchini in garlic powder, parmesan and sea salt and saute in small batches to keep the pan hot. Add the corn and mix until combined.

Spoon the corn mixture into the pastry cups and serve.

So, to celebrate our anniversary last weekend, I decided to throw a party!  And of course, when I throw a party, it means a whole *lot* of cooking.

Fortunately, a few weeks ago, I received an amazing package from New Balance so I could try out their awesome new TrueBalance sneakers — and take some video of what I did in them!  So I took my brand new Flip HD videocamera for a spin as I prepped for the party, and burned some extra calories wearing these sneakers along the way. Truebalance sneakers are supposed to tone your legs more than regular shoes as do your normal daily activities, and since it’s pretty rare that I get myself to the gym these days, I was super excited to try them.

And maybe it was the eight straight hours that I cooked for this party, or the sneakers, or the video camera that would catch me nibbling on cupcake frosting while I was cooking, but I managed to cook all day without putting too much of a dent in my diet.  And by the time my guests arrived, my legs were exhausted!  So I basically plan to wear these everywhere from now on.

I took so much video that I split it into two parts — in this first one, you can see my cupcakes with nutella icing and the watermelon-honey cocktail that I made for our friends!  My artichoke hummus and chocolate chip brownies, which I made the day before, are also in this one.

In the second video, which I’ll post next week, you’ll see my corn and zucchini pastry cups and tomato and mozzarella skewers with fresh basil.  All of it was completely delicious, and it was a great way to celebrate with our friends, many of whom watched us get married a year ago!

Thanks so much to New Balance for thinking of Sugarlaws for this awesome campaign, and look forward to more videos soon!

More pictures and *lots* of recipes below — enjoy!

Watermelon Punch Recipe

INGREDIENTS
3 pounds seedless wantermelon, cut away from the rind
1/3 cup honey
1/2 cup vodka
12 ounces seltzer water

DIRECTIONS
In a food processor or blender, puree the watermelon and honey until smooth. Strain the watermelon juice and discard any seeds or large pieces of pulp. Stir in the vodka and seltzer water and serve over ice.

Serves 6-10.

Chocolate Chip Brownie Recipe

INGREDIENTS
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
2/3 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup Kahlua
1/4 cup hot water
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 1/3 cups flour
1 tsp vanilla extract
Pinch of salt

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9 by 13 inch pan with cooking oil.

In a large bowl, mix the cocoa powder and baking soda. Add 1/3 cup vegetable oil, vanilla, salt, Kahlua and water. Stir in the sugar, eggs, and remaining 1/3 cup oil. Add the flour and mix until combined. Spread into the pan and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the thickest part comes out with a few crumbs attached.

Makes 30 bite-sized brownies.

Artichoke Hummus Recipe

INGREDIENTS
2 15-ounce cans of chickpeas (only drain one of the cans)
1 14-ounce can of artichoke hearts, drained
2 clove garlic
2 tablespoons tahini
1 tbsp lemon juice
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

DIRECTIONS

Roast the garlic at 450 degrees for about 20 minutes in a little bit of olive oil. When the garlic is done, in a food processor, combine the chickpeas (including the water from one of the cans), artichoke hearts, garlic, tahini, lemon juice, salt and olive oil. Process until smooth.

Makes about 4 cups of hummus.

Cupcakes with Nutella Icing Recipe

INGREDIENTS
For the cupcakes:
1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/4 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
3/4 cup light cream

For the icing:
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
4 cups confectioners sugar
1/4 cup nutella

DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar until light, about 5 minutes. Add the eggs, vanilla and salt and mix well. Add the light cream to the batter and mix again.

In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and baking soda. Add the flour mixture to the bowl, a little at a time. Mix until incorporated evenly.

Line a muffin pan with cupcake wrappers, and fill each to just below the top with batter. Bake for 30 minutes, until the tops are golden and a toothpick comes out clean. Set the cupcakes aside until the pan cools, then remove them to a baking rack to cool completely.

While the cupcakes are baking and cooling, make the frosting. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and vanilla. Sift the confectioners sugar into the mixture and mix until smooth.

Once the cupcakes are cooled, frost the cupcakes and serve.

Makes 14-16 cupcakes.

A year ago today, Chad and I got married.  Some of you guys who’ve followed Sugarlaws from the beginning might remember when, shortly after I started this site, we got engaged in Paris.  A year and a half later, we got married — and I posted these teaser photos when we got back from our honeymoon, planning to add more when we got them from the photographer.

And somehow, over the past year, I couldn’t quite find the right moment to put these up.  Once the insanity of the wedding and honeymoon subsided, I always felt like I had more pressing blog-relevant pictures to post.  But when our one year anniversary started approaching, I figured it was now or never to share these with you guys.

So, happy anniversary to us — with many, many more years to come.  I’ve heard that the first year of marriage is supposed to be the hardest, and if that’s true, Chad and I have a very happy, easy future in store for us, because this year was nothing short of perfect.

All photos by our fantastic wedding photographer, Maggie Conley.

So, I have a confession… I meant for this to be a totally different recipe. I have these pretty glass jars in my cabinets that we keep all kinds of rice and grains in, and when I tried to make a leek and farro salad, I took the first jar, toasted the grains, and set about cooking them in stock.

About ten minutes later, when the farro should have just been starting to break down, my pot was full of puffed, mostly-cooked grains, and I realized — I hadn’t used farro, I’d used arborio rice.

At that point, I didn’t have much of a choice. It was risotto or bust. (Clearly, this world needs a bumper sticker for *that* scenario.)

Fortunately for me, risotto is a pretty forgiving recipe. I’d already started by toasting the rice in olive oil, so all that I’d really done wrong was adding most of the water at once. Some vigorous stirring and a little extra stock later, and I had a delicious, if unanticipated, leek risotto. Don’t you wish every kitchen mishap worked out that way?

Last but not least, the winner of the EatSmart kitchen scale is comment #57, Alicia! I’ll be emailing later today for your address!

Leek Risotto Recipe

INGREDIENTS

2 tbsp olive oil
4 cups vegetable broth
1 cup arborio rice
1 leek, cleaned and chopped
2 cloves garlic
4 scallions, chopped
1/2 cup parmesan cheese, grated
2 tbsp butter
Salt, if necessary

DIRECTIONS

Toast the rice in olive oil in a large saute pan over medium heat for approximately one minute. After about 1/3 of the rice kernels are white, add the first cup of vegetable broth. Warm the remaining cups in a separate saute pan.

Stir frequently until the broth is absorbed, then continue adding broth, 1 cup at a time, until the rice is mostly cooked. Add the leeks, scallions and garlic until they’ve cooked. When the rice is cooked and the leeks and scallions are cooked down, add the parmesan cheese and butter until they melt into the risotto. Add salt and pepper if necessary. Serve.

Serves 2.