Orange-Scented Honey Butter Popcorn

You know one of the best benefits of working from home? You can wear your pajama pants all day if you choose. I don't often go this route because I'm trying to maintain some semblance of humanity. But y'know there are days where even leggings are too much.

And then there are days when plain buttered popcorn is simply not enough. You know I love to play around with my popcorn-- cinnamon toast, a trifecta of tropical flavors, and an herby mix have all made appearances. 

I grew up eating honey butter with my hushpuppies but never thought to put it on my popcorn. And let us not forget that in the midst of a dreary winter there is vibrancy to be found in citrus. It's the perfect lunch snack.

You'll need: butter, honey, an orange, popcorn kernels, salt, and vegetable oil (not pictured).

Toss the kernels with oil and a touch of salt in a medium saucepan. You need it to be big enough to accomodate the popped corn. 

When the first kernels begin popping, slap the lid over the pot and start moving it over the burner. Keep it moving until the sound slows to a few seconds between pops.

Okay real talk. I should've just melted the butter into the honey. It would've been easier.

Because they're kind of hard to stir together. You might lose butter and that's just not cool.

Toss the popcorn with the honey butter in a large bowl. Trust me on this. I've tried too-small bowls before and it just ends in frustration and poorly coated corn.

Grate a little orange peel in there with a zester and toss to coat evenly. Honestly, just a teaspoon will do.  Oh and add a little more salt.

The bright, fragrant scent of orange and floral honey are grounded by rich, salty butter. Don't let the small serving bowl fool you-- I ate the whole thing.

Orange-Scented Honey Butter Popcorn (makes about 5 cups)

2 tsp vegetable oil

1/4 c popcorn kernels

Salt to taste

2 tbs salted butter

2 tbs honey

1 tsp orange zest

• In a medium saucepan with a lid, toss the oil, kernels, and a pinch of salt together. Heat the pan over medium-high heat. When the first couple of kernels pop, cover the pan with the lid and slide the pan back and forth over the burner
• When popping slows to a 3-4 seconds between sounds, take the popcorn off the heat. Pour it into a large bowl.
• Melt the butter into the honey and pour over the popped corn. Toss with a little more salt and the orange zest. Serve right away.

Cinnamon-Orange Shortbread Cookies

I think there's nothing my family loves more than a shortbread cookie. We've always had pecan sandies laying around like other families might keep Lay's potato chips or Oreos. But you know me, why buy what you can make?

These shortbread cookies are gussied up with cinnamon sugar and orange zest. Which happens to go perfectly with Russian tea. Please tell me you know what Russian tea is. It's really not tea or Russian, but it's so perfectly my childhood.

A few simple ingredients make these cookies. Powdered sugar, flour, cinnamon sugar, butter, more cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, baking powder, and orange zest.

Combine the flour, salt, baking powder, spices, and orange zest in a medium bowl.

A little whisking does the trick.

Now what you should probably do here is cream the butter first and gradually add the sugar. Or you can be like me and forget what the instructions actually say and do it all at once.

Life goes on and it all gets creamy.

Gradually add in your flour mixture.

Stop mixing just when a dough forms.

Divide the dough into two 1/4" disks on a sheet of wax paper. Cover with another sheet of wax paper and chill 30 minutes to an hour. Or y'know 10 minutes in the freezer because I can't read instructions and I'm occasionally impatient.

Make your life easy and roll out the dough between the two sheets of wax paper.

Your life will not be as easy if you use this snowflake cookie cutter. A tree is wayyy easier to use. Less tight spaces.

Lay the cut-out cookies on a parchment-lined cookie sheet. Sprinkle the cookies with cinnamon sugar before baking.

You end up with seasonally-appropriate, fragrant cookies.

It's like my childhood Christmas met my adult Christmas and they're way cool with each other.

Cinnamon-Orange Shortbread Cookies (makes about 1 1/2 dozen cookies, depending on size)

Adapted slightly from Southern Living

1 c + 2 tbs all-purpose flour

1 tbs orange zest

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/8 tsp nutmeg

1/8 tsp baking powder

Pinch of salt

1/2 c unsalted butter

1/4 c + 2 tbs powdered sugar

Cinnamon sugar, for sprinkling (1/2 tbs sugar + 1/4 tsp cinnamon)

• In a medium bowl, combine flour, orange zest, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking powder, and salt. Whisk to distribute evenly.
• In a large bowl, cream together butter and powdered sugar. Gradually add the flour mixture and mix just until a dough forms. 
• Turn the dough out onto a sheet of wax paper. Divide in half and form two 1/4-inch disks. Cover with another sheet of wax paper and chill 30 minutes to an hour.
• Preheat your oven to 350º and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Roll out disks between the two sheets of wax paper. Cut out shapes with 3-inch cookie cutters or simply cut into rounds. Set each cookie about 1.5 inches apart on the baking sheet. 
• Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar and bake 11-13 minutes or until just golden brown around the edges. Cool fully on a wire rack.

Ham & Mustard Butter Biscuits

Y'all. I will eat just about anything on a biscuit. Biscuits are home. Biscuits are Sunday mornings with family. Biscuits are a fluffy vehicle for sweet and salty fillings alike. I could eat a biscuit with just a little jam. I could devour a biscuit with a little jam and a hunk of juicy sausage.

And I melt for a biscuit with mustard, more butter, and thinly sliced ham. It's my breakfastlunchdinner. Salty ham, tangy mustard, and sweet onions on a buttery biscuit. I can't ask for more.

Biscoff Brownies with Candied Peanuts

When my mom was young, her family lived in Bolivia. My grand-daddy was an engineer, so they moved where the jobs took them. This included South Dakota, which my mom still counts as her least favorite state. (Sorry, South Dakotans!) So when they lived in Bolivia they had these neighbors who were alligator farmers. Um, what? They also had an ocelot as pet. When my mom and her sister would walk to school, the ocelot would stalk my Aunt Mandy. And when they were over at the neighbors' house, it would go insane if it saw her through the sliding glass door. True. Story. According to my mom. My grandmother disputes this some.

I love a good non sequitur. I've been dying to make brownies with Biscoff spread since I bought a jar. Biscoff spread is essentially...cookie butter. HOW is something like this allowed to exist?! Cookie. Butter. Like peanut butter but with cookies. Add in some candied peanuts and BOOM. Mega brownie.

Barbecue Shrimp

One of my absolute favorite dinners is this barbecue shrimp. It's perfect for eating outside on a screen porch with plenty of paper towels and cold adult beverages. In fact, this was the first meal my brother-in-law ate with my family. Which in retrospect was a little...mean. It's hard to be charming and graceful sucking juice out of a shrimp shell. That's kind of mandatory too. You can't just peel the shells and eat the shrimp. First, you suck the juice out of the shell, then you peel it, then you dip it back in the sauce and eat. The leftover sauce on the plate gets sopped up with buttery french bread.

Deep Dish Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake

Y'all, this is my 100th post!  I figured I should make something a little special, and it should probably be a cake.  Let's also factor in that Will's birthday was Saturday, and he wanted a cookie cake.  So we've got us a deep dish chocolate chip cookie cake.  Holy.  Moly.

Oh and can we talk about how today is the first day of spring, and we've already had days in the upper 80's?!  Y'all, that's hot.  And it's only gonna get hotter.  So if you need a slice of cookie cake and a cold glass of milk on a screened-in porch with a fan, I totally understand.

Vanilla Shortbread Sandwich Cookies

Mantyhose.  Have you heard of them?  They're becoming a thing.  "What are mantyhose?" you ask.  Pantyhose for men, silly!  Oh my goodness, Will and I could have matching tights!  Except that there's no way on God's green earth that Will would ever wear mantyhose.  If you want to see mantyhose in all their epicene glory, I direct you here.

Lemon-Thyme Shortbread Cookies

Let's talk Downton Abbey for a minute.  Trust me, it's relevant to these cookies.  I am obsessed in a major way.  See, I love a good period drama.  And this isn't just drama, though there's plenty of it!  The great Maggie Smith makes me laugh with just about every scene she's in with her snark and utter snobbery.  And the fashion, oh me, oh my.  Sequins and beading and hats with the occasional fur piece.  I'd like to take this moment to clarify that I myself do not buy fur, but if I stumbled across a vintage piece I'd be all over that business.  Season 1 is on Netflix, and Season 2 is still on PBS for a few more days.  I don't want to give away details, but I think the way they've fleshed out certain characters (O'Brien in particular) was smart.  I haven't finished the second season yet, but I watched two episodes last night when I only meant to watch one.  It's absolutely captivating.

I think these cookies are the perfect accompaniment to a cuppa and a show about the lives of British aristocracy and their servants.  They straddle the line between sweet and savory with the addition of thyme and are perfect for a sunny (or cloudy) afternoon.

Shrimp Scampi Flatbread

 I feel like it took me a lot longer to get to writing this post than it should've.  Because this flatbread seriously takes about 10 minutes to make and 12 minutes to bake.  Aaaand I'm rhyming.  It's cool though. I've got a thunderstorm outside and a baby who is out cold.  Nap time is work time.

Let's talk about this flatbread.  It's everything I never knew I wanted.  A garlic-y butter sauce with local shrimp and fresh mozzarella.  I was really surprised by how much I liked it.  So let's get it started, k?

Brie Bites

I'll be real.  I'm in total Valentine's mode right now.  Not that I'm, like, in love with it or anything.  That would be silly.  But there's so much food you can make for it!  It's a serious excuse to go decadent with either your friends or significant other.  I don't so much mind that it's a greeting card holiday because I like funny cards.  And when have I ever turned down chocolate?

But who says you have to do "traditional" things on Valentine's day?  For reals, going out to dinner can be a nightmare.  Plus, it's very rare that it lands on a weekend anyway.  I think it's much more interesting and thoughtful to cook.  And so what if you don't have someone special to spend it with?  Friends are special, too.  I'm really speaking to the ladies here because I don't think I've ever met a guy who lamented the fact he didn't have someone on Valentine's day.  Okay, okay.  I'm hokey.  I like to celebrate the people I love with food.  And if there's a designated day on the calendar to do it, I'm gonna have fun with it.

I Made Popcorn!

Oh, Punxsutawney Phil.  You saw your shadow, and now we're supposed to get 6 more weeks of winter.  If by winter you mean temps in the upper 60s and 70s with a few days of the 50s sprinkled in, then I believe you.  Because our winter this year has basically been our spring.  So yeah.

Anyway, let's get down to the nitty gritty here.  I love popcorn.  I've ruined many a dinner by eating vast quantities of buttery, salty popcorn.  Come to think of it, I've also made popcorn my dinner (or lunch) a few times.  So why have I never made it at home?  Oh well of course I've microwaved it.  But all the fake yellow coloring (um butter does not make popcorn yellow as we will soon see) and the chemicals/preservatives kinda freak me out.  And by the way, they totally don't bother me when I'm at a movie theater.  I'm a study in contradictions.  But as it stands, when I can make something myself, I usually like to do so.

Cheese Wafers

Criminy.  It's time to start thinking of New Years Resolutions, y'all.  Or as I like to call them, goals.  I feel like framing it as a New Years resolution makes it less likely to happen.  I do think that the beginning of a year is good time to set goals, though.  These are some ideas I'm tossing around:

• Run a 5k.  I know I can do it if I keep working on it.  
• Bake more bread.  I know most people try to limit their carbs in the new year, but I plan to fully embrace them.  And a healthy dose of cardio.  Carbio if you will.  
• Use all the salts my sister gave me for Christmas.  Yeah, she gave me this sampler pack of different sea salts that I can't wait to bust out.  They're really pretty and come in these test tubes in a handy display rack.

There are more that I can't think of at the moment.  But that seems like a pretty good list to start!

I have a feeling these cheese wafers are probably not a part of anyone's goals for the new year.  Unless that goal is to eat more cheese.  That should totally be one of my goals...

Browned Butter and Asparagus Pasta with a Side of Disney

So I watched Snow White today.  It's funny how as a kid you don't necessarily realize how creepy cartoons can be.  I hadn't seen the movie in probably 15 years, so I didn't remember some of the details.  Like how when Snow White is running through the forest (after the huntsman realizes he can't follow the Queen's orders and bring Snow White's freakin' heart back in a box) and appears to have an acid trip.  How else do you explain the trees coming to life and logs turning into alligators?  Then at the end the Queen, disguised as a hag, falls to her death and is crushed by a boulder.  And on top of that, the vultures who had been following her circle around where she went down, presumably to snack on her carcass.  How is this a kid's movie?!

Doesn't that get your appetite goin'?!  Well forget about creepy children's movies and focus on an easy weeknight pasta dish.

Crack. Pie.

I'm excited.  Wanna know why?  Well I'll tell you anyway.

• I've got a whole weekend with Will.  I haven't seen him since my trip to Alabama in July.  That's about 2 months!  So yeah.
• We're eating at Saluda's in Columbia.  The food is supposed to be ah-mazing.
• In a month or less, I will be an aunt to a wee baby boy.  Reason to celebrate, no?
• There are two big games this weekend.  Carolina vs. Georgia and Alabama vs. Penn State.  I know who I'm cheering for!

Well we've come to the last of my football menu.  Dessert.  I stumbled across this pie on Bon Appetit's website somehow.  It's from Momofuku Milk Bar in NYC, and it's called Crack Pie.  And let me tell you, the name is 100% accurate.  It could alternately be named Di-uh-beetus Pie.  Side note: Have you seen the Wilford Brimley commercials where he talks about diabetes?  He pronounces it di-uh-beetus.  Seriously, it's a lot of butter and sugar on an oatmeal cookie crust.  And it's delicious.  Um, I should probably go ahead and apologize for the atrocious lighting.  I made the pie late Friday night, and the light around the kitchen leaves a little something to be desired.

Did I mention there's powdered sugar?