Holy moly, I recommend you make this dish. It may sound so so, but trust me the flavors are perfect together. I made this for a friend and the two of us could not stop raving about it the entire time. The recipe is inspired by Ina Garten with a few Jacked Kitchen tweaks along […]
One of my all time favorite meals is spaghetti and tomato sauce. It has comfort food written all over it. It works any time of year and is so versatile. You can make it in a quick pinch with pre-made tomato sauce or slow cook a simmering pot with meatballs for hours on a slow […]
Who else fantasizes about light, fluffy pancakes covered in soft butter and sweet maple syrup?? I do just about every day. If somebody would come make me pancakes every morning I would be a happy gal. If you make pancakes often enough you’ve learned that the trick to fuffy pancakes is using buttermilk or a […]
I seriously make a disaster of my kitchen every time I cook. Today I was at a friend’s house and watched in awe as she baked cookies and seemed to have magic little elves following her around keeping everything clean and organized. As I write this and look into my kitchen, it looks like all […]
The first snow of the season arrived today in Chicago. After 10 seconds of saying, “aw, it’s pretty” I was onto counting down the days until summer. I’ll spare you the math….we have a long way to go. Fortunately, winter justifies being the laziest person around. Jack did persuade me to go outside only to […]
You know when a recipe calls for a teeny, tiny amount of fresh herbs and convinces you that the fresh herbs are SO much better than dried herbs so you just MUST buy them fresh. (Yes, I try to convince you of that in about half of my posts, but it really is true.) So you […]
I was never the biggest fan of scrambled eggs until I learned how to make a soft scramble. I grew up thinking that eggs should be cooked with milk over high heat, but they always ended up tasting spongy and had a funny smell. Slow cooking scrambled eggs over low heat makes them thick and […]
Running a food blog has taught me a few things that I was not entirely aware of before the birth of jackedkitchen.com. Let me share.Food photography is difficult.I mean, duh, right? Good photography is not easy. I knew that from trying to snap pictures of my scrumptious looking dinner on my phone only to realize it […]
Making granola bars is what cooks do who want to pretend they know how to bake. We still get to make the recipe up as we go, we can stir in whatever amount of each ingredient we want and timing is not all THAT important. We get to pull our “baked goods” out of the oven and […]
There are many busy days that we have to rely on what is in the freezer or stocked away in the cupboard for dinner. The days of frozen dinners, canned soup or boxed macaroni and cheese. Fast, easy and let’s be honest, not necessarily bad tasting. I can’t say I’ve ever been mad about eating […]
My inspiration for this recipe came about when one of my good friends gave me a boat load of fresh peppers. She loaded me up with everything from little red spicy peppers to sweet banana peppers. The best part of the stack of peppers was that my friend had hand-picked them from her family farm, […]
I think we all go through phases of fighting the meal slump. When nothing sounds good and you are tired of the regular rotation of meals. When the few things that DO sound good just so happen to be the three least healthiest foods in the world. I wish when we were bored with food we […]
Italian beef sandwiches are one of my favorites. Slow cooked, tender beef drenched in rich juices on a flaky Italian style hoagie roll. Is that not how you make a classic sandwich? There is no shame when you take a bite and the juices drip down your arm. There is no hope with a napkin at […]
The idea of French onion soup always sounds appealing to me. Combining basic, inexpensive ingredients with a bit of slow cooking to create a soul comforting, decadent dish. The soup, a rich broth filled with sweet caramelized onions, baked cheese and large crusty croutons, is full of rich flavors. However…that all sounds good and great […]
Cooking for 1 person can take some getting use to. Many recipes are written for 4 or more people. That means you either have to eat the same thing for days or end up wasting a lot of food. Just because you may not have to feed more than yourself doesn’t mean you have to eat […]
Breakfast tacos are just the best. Actually tacos for every meal is best. These roasted veggie tacos are so delectable I’ve been whipping them up a couple of times a week. Roasting the vegetables instead of sauteing them brings out their sweetness and adds a crunchy char to the edges of the asparagus and onions. Add silky, […]