SHUT UP AND EAT

it's for your own good

[fyogood-blog]

EVERYTHING BAGEL JALAPEÑO CREAM CHEESE PUFFS BECAUSE EVERYTHING BAGEL EVERYTHING

Hi again - we’ve been hitting the beach and working our tails off this whole summer, and now it’s back to school season which means 1. empty beaches where we can eat our meatball grinders in peace and 2. we’re gonna be cooking and posting a lot more. I thought the summer would give me time to do cute things like post on a food blog but it made me a lazy bum instead. A BUM I TELLS YA.

“Oh, I’m gonna miss the whole summer!” “Don’t worry, boy. When you get a job like me, you’ll miss every summer.”

Anywho, let’s get on with these delightful puff pastries! I have crowed about how amazing frozen puff pastry is for a while (and I’ll keep doing it) because of its versatility and sheer deliciousness. One box of Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry offers two sheets of dough - enough for 18 small pastry squares or 2 strudels. You decide! Tonight, in addition to these jalapeño puffs, I also made peach goat cheese puffs and peach apricot pastries - puff pastry is also great if you have fruit + veggies you need to use up before it goes bad! Strawberries, blueberries, peaches, even asparagus! Shove that shit into a puff pastry and boom - you got yourself a hand pie, my friend.

The ingredients are simple - this recipe will be for 2 sheets of puff pastry and will yield 18 puffs.

THE INGREDIENTS

1 box frozen puff pastry (two sheets) 4-5 jalapeños, bisected and sliced (seed them if you don’t want them too spicy...but just know that spicy food is good for you) 1 jar Trader Joe’s Everything but the Bagel Sesame Seasoning Blend 1 8 ounce package cream cheese, softened A little milk

THE RECIPE

1. Thaw the puff pastry about 20 minutes - it should still be cold to the touch but not wet. While you’re assembling these pastries, the dough will continue to thaw. 2. Preheat the oven to 400F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and lay out the puff pastry - you can cut the pastry into nine squares. 3. Spread cream cheese (about a tablespoon or so) into each square - I had some leftover roasted garlic & chive cream cheese from Rebelle Artisan Bagels here in Providence so I used that for a few of these bad boys. 4. Top each cream cheesed square with 5-6 slices of jalapeños, then sprinkle each with some everything bagel seasoning. 5. With a brush, wet the sides of the pastry with milk. Fold the cross corners of the pastry one over the other in order to make a diagonal shape. Brush the top of the pastry with milk again, and top with more seasoning if you like. You can also top it with crushed black pepper or queso chihuahua if you’re feeling amorous.  6. Bake in the oven on the top rack for 25-35 minutes - these babies will puff up and you’ll know they’re done with they turn a delicious golden brown. Enjoy with a tequila drink because it’s for your own good :} 

BONUS: here’s what the peach goat cheese puffs turned out like - topped with rosemary and black pepper aka fucked UP.

[fyogood-blog]

ROASTED CARROTS & POTATOES AKA WHAT STEFAN AND I HAVE BEEN EATING EVERY DAY BASICALLY INSTEAD OF POSTING ON THIS BLOG

...but seriously, we’ve been quite busy. And today, on this lovely sunny Sunday, I woke up at 6 am and decided to roll around in bed for the first 1.5 hours of being awake which is the perfect segue into writing a recipe! My almond chai candle is lit and my phone is on do not disturb so LET’S DO THIS

We’ve been doing improv with PIG every week, rehearsals and shows, joining new teams, WRITING SKETCHES which is something I’m super excited to get back into, and general tom foolery. HERE’S PROOF, YA ANIMALS:

WHAT A HAM! Stefan is also in a play called The Dining Room, where he’s playing ten characters, all of them sexy. SPEAKING OF SEXY, let’s get to the recipe, shall we?

It’s springtime here in Rhode Island, which means we are goin’ in heavy on veggies and fresh herbs. We’re getting farm fresh produce like carrots, potatoes, lettuce, onions, and kale around here - can’t wait for fresh berry season! We’ve planted tomatoes, sugar snap peas, basil, PURPLE BASIL, oregano, rosemary, thyme, strawberries, and lavender in big pots around our apartment and on our balcony - here’s our kitchen herb planter that looks like it came off the set of a David Lynch movie:

(seen here: rosemary, purple basil, thyme, and horrifically bizarre nightmares) 

We’re also going to LA in a month, so we’re trying to cut back on FAT ASS BULLGOOF like desserts (*gasps*) and dairy (*weeps*) and chips (*dies*) and eat cleaner. It’s all about feeling good, making healthier choices, and being more active - it’s super easy to come home from work and want to just loaf around before rehearsal or a show, but setting aside some time to do Yoga With Adriene or whipping up a healthy dinner OR WRITING ON THIS BLOG is going to make me feel a hell of a lot better. But I do recognize the heavenly art of laying down eating ice cream with high honor (see what I did there?)

GET THIS STUFF pawtucket farmers market has the baby shallot hook up, btw

This recipe can be customized to your fancy~* since carrots and potatoes are fairly neutral - I’m posting a savory recipe:

“You might say the extra ingredient is salt.”

But you can try roasted carrots & potatoes with cumin, chili powder, and jalapeños for a Mexican twist or coriander, garam masala, and turmeric for an Indian take - I’m partial to adding red curry paste and bell peppers to the mix for Thai style RC&P. SO VERSATILE, SO DELICIOUS. My spices of choice for this particular dish are fresh rosemary, fresh thyme, sawlt ‘n peppuh, garlic powder, and nutmeg. NUTMEG WHAT THIS ISN’T A PIE that’s right, it’s NOT a pie, and it IS nutmeg, and here’s some interesting facts about nutmeg:

1. It’s a spice that grows off of evergreen trees in Indonesia! 2. Nutmeg is known for its ability to relieve pain, soothe indigestion, strengthen cognitive function, detoxify the body, boost skin health, alleviate oral conditions, reduce insomnia, increase immune system function, and prevent leukemia, and improve blood circulation, according to this article I’m reading right now. 3. There’s also that thing where if you eat too much nutmeg, you’ll trip balls.

The only thing I’m tripping balls over is this recipe. Get comfy with the broiler on your oven (NOT TOO COMFY SAFETY FIRST) because broiling these veggies at the end of roasting them is the hottest thing you can do for yourself and for them.

SO HOTTTTTT

The broiler browns the edges more, so you get a caramelization on the carrots and a crispness to the potatoes. Definitely worth it.

OKAY THE INGREDIENTS NOW 12 oz (about 7-8) baby potatoes, quartered 2-4 carrots, chopped diagonally 2 shallots, chopped 2 cloves garlic, minced Olive oil SAWLT ‘N PEPPUH nutmeg rosemary (the fresher the better!) thyme (but it’s fine if you have dried) garlic powder

ALRIGHT HERE’S THE DIRECTIONS 1. Preheat oven to 450F. You’ll need a 13x9 Pyrex dish, or a large metal baking sheet for this recipe. 2. Wash and chop all your veggies, adding to the pan as you go. Chop fresh herbs, if using. 3. Once the veggies are in the pan, add the oil, herbs, and spices. I like to eyeball this part - you know how much salt is too salty. I generally sweep over the pan with spices, and then mix ‘em up and do a finger taste of the oil - then you can go back and add in whatever you’d like a little more of. It’s usually garlic powder for me...can’t go wrong with more garlic. 4. Make sure your veggies are all evenly spread out on the pan and not all pilled up (they won’t roast evenly if your pan is too crowded) and place on the bottom rack of the oven for 20-25 minutes. 5. Move the pan to the very top rack of the oven, stirring around the veggies to make sure they’re not sticking to the bottom. Roast on the top rack for another 20-25 minutes. 6. Fork test your RC&P - if they’re soft, switch the oven to broil and keep that pan on the top rack. The broiler is an open flame and will cook your food super fast so keep an eye out! This part adds all the crispiness and carameliness and makes the waiting so worth it. 7. Remove from oven and try to wait more than approximately .5 seconds before trying to eat this food, like we do - serve it up in a bowl with some fresh grated parmesan and enjoy!

eat up...it’s for your own good...

PS: Like roasting veggies as much as you like roasting bones, maaaaaannn? Great! We have a couple other recipes where we roast things, so check ‘em out!

[fyogood-blog]

If you’ve ever had the pleasure of eating a sauce made by me (Stefan) then you’ve probably said “holy shit, this is the best sauce I’ve ever tasted.” And then I probably said “I’ll send you the recipe, it’s so easy!” But then I never sent the recipe, not because I don’t want to share, but because I am lazy. Also, just about every time I make sauce, I do it a little differently, so it’s tough to write a recipe for a thing I never make the same way twice. Now you might already be sick of me bragging about my sauce, but ask anyone who has had my sauce - it’s fuckin good, and not like any sauce out there.  My own mother even said it’s the best sauce she’s ever tasted (for real, I’ll forward you the email if you want proof) and if that doesn’t say it all, well then come over, it’ll be my pleasure to make some sauce for us (seriously, I love to make sauce for people).

This recipe is more a basic, boiler plate tomato sauce, good for pasta, pizza, lasagna, zoopy (just bread dipped in sauce aka the best meal invented). A good jumping off point, which you can transform into your own brand of sauce. So here we go, gonna get SAUCED.

Che bellissimi pomodorini!!!

A lotta markets will sell over-ripe produce for pennies. We got 3 pounds of ripe tomatoes for less than $3 at Market Basket. Ripe means soft (not squishy) to the touch. Now, a lot of people have never made a sauce from scratch, and understandably so - it takes time, which is hard to come by, society being broken and all, but trust me, a little patience and elbow grease will all be worth it when you’re sitting down to a bowl of pasta topped with your nice fresh homemade tomato SAUCE. But if you wanna just use a couple big cans (heh) of crushed tomatoes, by all means, it is a very easy substitute which yields practically identical sauce. But just try making it from scratch once, it’s a nice exercise in patience. So STEP 1: BOIL TOMATOES (what?)

So you can peel em!!!

Bring a pot of water to a boil, and add your tomatoes. The riper the tomato, the quicker they pop - some will pop as soon as you put them in, but some take a little more, in which case you can STAB IT.

Just a little poke and the skin should pop. 

Anyway, as they pop, put them in a bowl or strainer in the sink. Then run them under cold water for about a minute, just to cool them off so you can handle them. Then peel em and throw away the peels. You could probably use the peels for compost or whatever, but I’m not a friggin gardener.

*blushes*

So you got a bowl of peeled tomatoes- great. Now you can chop them or dice them on a cutting board, but that turns into a tomato guts massacre real fast, so what I do is just use kitchen shears and cut em up in the bowl.

bada bing-boom

You get the picture, chop em up until you won’t have any huge chunks, or leave huge chunks if you like a chunky sauce. We’re going to cook this in the oven for a couple hours, so it cooks down anyway. Speaking of which, LET’S START COOKING THE GODDAMN SAUCE ALREADY.

Fry up a medium sized yellow or sweet onion, sliced thinly, in olive oil over medium heat (add some butter if you want some sexual caramelization). Add some salt & pepper, red pepper flakes, thyme, oregano and FENNEL SEEDS. After about 7-10 minutes, add some GARLIC (obviously).

About 5-200 cloves of garlic should do, diced. I’ll even add a couple whole cloves after I add the tomatoes, so you get some nice roasted garlic action too. Add some more of those seasonings I mentioned above, just a touch of each though. Let simmer for about 5 minutes - garlic cooks very fast. Now, we add the tomatoes that we so painstakingly boiled, peeled and chopped.

In case you don’t know what it looks like to put stuff in a thing.

Then all you do is season again - salt, pepper, thyme, oregano, red pepper flakes, FENNEL SEEDS - I keep capitalizing FENNEL SEEDS because they are sauce’s best friend. You might’ve thought basil or olive oil, but no, those are sauce’s sister wives. FENNEL SEEDS are like sauce’s sexy dance instructor who comes over to take sexy baths together. Sexy sauce baths ;)

But anyway, throw in some nice fresh chopped basil, put the lid on the pot, and throw it in the oven at 350° for about an hour. Then take it out, take the lid off, give it a nice stir, then back in for another hour or so. Bing bang, sauce ahoy. Now for some reason sauce always greatly benefits from a night in the fridge. It’s delicious out of the oven, but something real sensual happens with a good night of rest in the fridge. You’ll see. Just trust me. Try some when it’s out of the oven, then try some the next day. Here’s the recipe in plain English. 

PREHEAT OVEN TO 350°

2 cans of crushed tomatoes of 3 lbs of fresh plum or traditional tomatoes, peeled

1 medium Vidalia or yellow onion, chopped

5-6 garlic cloves, diced

2-3 tbs each of dried thyme, oregano and red pepper flakes

4-5 tbs fennel seeds

1 ½ cups fresh chopped basil

1 cup olive oil

a pinch of salt with each addition to the pot

cracked pepper until your wrist hurts

Chop and brown the onion with salt and pepper in olive oil over medium-low heat – 7-10 min

Add diced garlic cloves and stir – 3-5 minutes

***For a nice pot of chicken cacciatore-ish sauce, add about a pound of boneless chicken thighs before the tomatoes and brown them. You can use white meat too, but dark meat just tastes better***

Add tomatoes, then salt, pepper, season and stir, bring to a simmer – 5-10 min

Add fresh basil, stir - 2 seconds

Put LID ON pot, put in oven – 60 minutes (check after 30 min to make sure heat is appropriate)

Take LID OFF, put back in oven – 60-90 minutes, stir every 25-30 minutes

Total cooking time shouldn’t be more than 2 hours and 45 minutes, though a little more than 2 hours usually does the trick,

I’m glad we could spend this time together. Let me know how your sauce goes - if it’s not the best sauce you’ve ever eaten, let me know. I’ll have you over for sauce because you deserve the best sauce in the world. It’s for your own sauce- I mean good.

[fyogood-blog]

OH GAWD SUCH TALENT 👌🏼@whosewswhosesocks is always keepin' me cute in the kitchen 🌺💙 #homemade #apron #sewing

[fyogood-blog]

ALMOND BUTTER COOKIES AND LIFE UPDATES!

(because we know you like us for more than just our food…right?)

Okay so we MOVED! AGAIN! We’re still in Providence but we are in a great super awesome fun neighborhood and our new apartment has a b-e-a-utiful kitchen so get ready for some cute pictures in the near future. We’ve been busy packing and unpacking and putting our shit in new places and figuring out what goes where. Also, cooking in a new kitchen is always an adventure - it takes some careful rearranging, and you have to get used to different appliances. Not all ovens are created equal. Bonus for our new place: we have a brand new dishwasher. My manicure is forever grateful.

More fun news: Stefan and I are the newest members of Providence Improv Guild! We’re on a great team called Real Mature and we’re both super excited to get back on stage and goof off with new friends. SHAMELESS PLUG COME SEE US PLEASE YOU’LL LOVE IT KBYE

So now for the recipe because I know you’re all jonesin’ to know how I made those delicious bitches. Well, I have some great news for ya:

no butter. no flour.

JUST LOVE jk but seriously there is zero butter or flour in these cookies. Totally gluten-free, not vegan however because I used 1 egg. I’m going to play around and see if I can make a vegan version with banana instead of egg - STAY TUNED! But for now, deal with it. Almond butter is the key here - quality is important. This isn't like picking out a college or a car, this is serious. GET GOOD ALMOND BUTTER. Farmers markets will usually have a vendor for this kinda thing, if that's your kinda thing...you know, going just so you can talk about the fact that you went. You can go to Dave's if you're from Rhode Island and get a nice small tub of it for $3.99 - this is what I prefer. I like my almond butter like I like my women - THE FRESHER, THE BETTER. Go to an organic grocer and get that shit churned FRESH 4 U. You'll see the machines - sometime they're at Whole Foods, they have nut barrels on the top and a nutty poop chute on the bottom. Price points vary - I thought $3.99 for a small tub was a good price, and it was also probably the best almond butter I've ever had. If you can't get fresh, fear not - jarred nut butters (heh) are becoming more and more available, and there's a variety. Sunflower, cashew, hazelnut, and good ol' fashioned peanut butter should work just as well in this recipe. I went to a regular ass grocery store and found Woodstock almond butter (shown above), a little more expensive but I think we're worth it. Still though - the fresher, the better. Make your own.

A quick note: keep your almond butter in the fridge, at least for the sake of this recipe. Cold nut butter means your cookies will have a puffier consistency. I tried to make this recipe a couple weeks later with chocolate CHUNKS and room temperature almond butter, and ended up making cookie brittle. Still delicious, but cracker thin.

Not even brittle tho - they were chewy! Good ol’ freak cookies.

OKAY HERE’S THE INGREDIENTS GO STIMULATE THE ECONOMY AND BUY THIS STUFF IF YOU DON’T ALREADY HAVE IT

1 egg, lightly beaten 1 cup almond butter or peanut butter or whatever nut butter your heart desires 1/2 cup dark brown sugar (ALWAYS DARK BROWN - it just means there’s more molasses mixed into the sugar) 1 tsp vanilla extract 1/2 tsp salt 1 tsp baking soda 1 cup (half a bag) dark chocolate chips

OKAY NOW THE RECIPE

1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease a cookie sheet with coconut oil. Stefan bought me a dope cast iron baking sheet for Christmas (shown above) - whenever you’re using cast iron, grease that puppy UP.

2. Combine egg and almond butter in a large bowl. Add in brown sugar, vanilla, salt, and baking soda, one by one. Mix until combined - the texture will look like greasy sand. DELICIOUS GREASY SAND.

3. Mix in some chocolate chips action. Plop tablespoon-sized plops onto your greased sheet and bake for 11 minutes - they’re kind of meringuey when they come out of the oven, and when they cool, they should retain a soft consistency. When they’re fully cooled, you can stack them on top of each other, no prob - give these cookies as little gifts to your friends or eat them all in one sitting like a fat shit, I don’t care. Whatever you do, it better be FOR YOUR OWN GLOOB

[fyogood-blog]

STEAK DINNER RECIPE THAT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE A VALENTINE’S DAY POST BUT NATALIE IS LAZY

For Valentine’s Day, instead of going to Target to buy some hallmark garbage in hopes that your significant other might do that weird sex thing without you having to figure out how to ask for it, just make a nice steak dinner. You might also be tempted to make reservations at an expensive restaurant and get served a fancy meal, which is great if you want your SO to really want to play tonsil hockey with the chef who cooked the meal instead of the idiot who paid $180 for it. Here’s an easy way to make an A+/blue ribbon/purple heart steak dinner for two.

LEFT - NY STRIP; RIGHT - FILET MIGNON

“HEY NICE MEAT!” That’s what she said. When I took these steaks out of the fridge. With my pants off. Good lookin steaks, indeed - I’m sure if you bought garbage steaks the meal would still be good, but actually, probably not. DON’T BUY GARBAGE STEAKS. You might think you don’t know what I mean, but you know what I mean. Too red, too bloody, (unfortunately) too affordable. These two babes ran about $35 at Whole Foods, which might sound like a lot, but in reality is a steal because the final product of this recipe could easily run $500/plate if I opened a restaurant, which I won’t because I believe too much in the integrity of my craft to profit from it. That’s what he said. When he realized he had no real talent. HE IS ME. OK ENOUGH.

SALT-SALT-SALT-SALT-SALT ‘N PEPA’S HERE AND WE’RE IN EFFECT

Salt and pepper ONE SIDE of the steak for now - you’ll salt and pepper the other side when you lay that baby on that hot ass... skillet. Now let’s jam on some side-action.

ROASTED POTATOES, DUH!

Plain and simple - chop em up, put them in the pan and hit em with some olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic powder and rosemary for 30 minutes at 400°, and a couple extra minutes under a low broiler on the top rack give them some nice brown edges, but if you get down with the broiler, KEEP AN EYE ON THEM. Broiler is open flame, and can FUCK YOUR SHIT UP LICKETY SPLIT.

GREEN BEANS. 

Haricot Vert for some extra class. Throw them in a pan, olive oil, salt, pepper and red pepper flakes, let em ride on medium heat for a bit until you like the cut of their jib- less time for fresher and crunchier, more time for softer and more savory, and even a bit more for brown edges, which, if you’ve been paying attention, makes them delicious. But take bites along the way - when you like what’s going on, turn off the heat. And full disclosure, we always end up eating all the beans out of the pan before we even finish cooking everything else, so... DO WHATEVER YOU WANT. TIME TO SEAR SOME STEAKS. (Side note: Flatten your filet to about 1″ thickness. It adds more surface area for delicious searing, and makes it easier to get consistent temp control.)

That skillet has been sitting over medium-high heat for 5 minutes or so, and it’s got avocado oil on it, because avocado oil has a very high smoke point, meaning you can get that skillet HOT AF, which means that steak will get seared in a very sexual manner.

DON’T PLAY WITH FIRE. But what the hell, light it up. GET THAT STEAK LIT BLEEBLAHBLAH420BLAZEIT. 5 minutes a side for medium rare. USE METAL TONGS/SPATULA TO FLIP IT unless you want melted rubber all over your food & pan. When you’re done with that steak, put it on a plate and give it a nice foil tent. Here’s some additional NY Strip searing action shots. It’s a good thing.

A good god damn.

POTATOES. Done. GREEN BEANS. Done. STEAKS. Done. But guess what - YOU’RE NOT DONE. We’re going to get some x-rated demi-glaze action going on that’s going to take this steak from HOLY SHIT THIS STEAK IS AMAZING to HOLY FUCKING SHIT THIS STEAK IS FUCKING AMAZING. That skillet is super hot with a lot of beef fats and oils and salt & pepper in it. So put the heat on medium-low and throw in some BACON FAT HOLY SHIT and some sliced up shallot. That should brown in 2-3 minutes.

Then we’re going to add a few gulps of sherry into the mix. And then, HOLD ONTO YOUR DIAPHRAGMS

My plans for a romantic dinner almost ended in the burn ward, but c’est la vie. Here’s the final product again so you don’t have to scroll all the way back up to the top.

(Note the space where green beans should have been.)

IT’S NOT BURNT. It’s seared. It’s called the Maillard Reaction (make sure to note what I actually typed into the search bar, just to give you an idea of the brain I’m working with.)

Here’s the recipe plain and simple.

INGREDIENTS

1 x 10 oz filet mignon (flattened to 1″ thick) or 12 oz NY Strip

2 x shallots, thinly sliced

1/2 lb of haricot vert

1/2 lb of potato medley, chopped

1/3 cup of sherry

1 tbsp of bacon fat

2 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp red pepper flakes

salt, pepper, olive oil/avocado oil as needed

ROASTED POTATOES

Put chopped potatoes in baking sheet, drizzle olive oil. Add salt, pepper, garlic powder and rosemary. Stir and bake at 400° for 30 minutes. Additional 3 minutes under low broiler for some brown edges.

HARICOT VERT

Put olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add haricot vert, salt, pepper and red pepper flakes. lower heat to medium-low, saute for 10-12 minutes.

STEAK

Heat cast iron skillet over medium-high heat for 3-5 minutes. Salt and pepper one side of the steak. Add avocado oil and allow to heat up for another minute or so. Lay steak in skillet seasoned side down. Let sear over medium-high heat for 5 minutes per side for medium rare.

DEMIGLAZE

After removing steaks from hot skillet, add bacon fat and sliced shallot and saute over medium-low heat until brown, usually about 2-3 minutes. Add sherry, tilt to expose to open flame and STAND BACK. Turn heat off.

PLATING

Put potatoes, haricot vert and steak on plate. Put sauteed shallots onto steak. Spoon demiglaze over steak, and any extra demiglaze can go over the sides if you so wish.

You’re welcome for the best steak you ever ate. It’s for your own good.

[fyogood-blog]

$WEET POTATO HA$H

Two dollar signs because this meal is so cheap and easy! And hearty! It’s also vegan (not the egg, don’t eat the egg, DON’T LOOK AT IT OH GOD DON’T). We make this pile of starchy goodness probably once a week - it has flavors we love, it sticks to your ribs, and it’s accessible. You can pick up all the ingredients at your local grocery store if you don’t already have them in your pantry or fridge...and you just might!

I just started making this a few months ago. I woke up one morning bright and early and whipped it up while Stefan was still snoozing. It filled the apartment with a rich, spicy warmth, like a hug from Antonio Banderas. This meal is super versatile - you can wrap this hash up in a tortilla, you can eat it with toast, have it for breakfast, lunch, and/or dinner! Whenever you want it, SPH is there 4 u.

HANDSOME T.REX SALT SHAKER

HAVE ALL THIS OKAY? OKAY.

INGREDIENTS

2-4 sweet potatoes, depending on how large they are 5-10 fingerling or petite potatoes - I like the blend of purple, red, and white ones they have at Trader Joe’s but you can find these babies anywhere. 10 if they’re reeeeally tiny. 1-2 jalapeños, depending on how spicy you like it 1/2 onion (red is good, too!) Olive oil 1 tsp Ground cumin 1/2 tsp Cayenne pepper 1 tsp Garlic powder 1/2 tsp Ground coriander SAWLT ‘N PEPPUH

Another important factor in this process is your pan! Get yourself a good 9x13 baking dish - (Mom voice) they got good stuff at that TJ Maxx/Homegoods store! Pyrex is a quality product! And get a cutting board while you’re there, too. If you don’t pick a cutting board with grips on the bottom, or you don’t want one, you can wet a paper towel and sneak that under your cutting board for some no-slip action.

RECIPE

1. Preheat oven to 400 F. Arrange the racks so that one is on the bottom and one is closer to the top. 2. Wash and chop up your potatoes into bite-sized pieces - about 1-inch cubes. I leave the skin on my potatoes because I like that oomph of texture and it’s a good source of fiber. If you chop up too many potatoes, no worries - set aside whatever doesn’t fit in the pan in an airtight container and cook them within a few days. When it comes to roasting food, DON’T OVERCROWD THE PAN. Try to keep all your veggies in one layer so the food cooks evenly. It’s a party, not a moshpit, just let everyone mingle comfortably. 3. Chop your onion and jalapeños - don’t touch your eyes! Add to the potatoes in the pan. 4. Drizzle olive oil over the veggies and stir to coat the veggies. Sprinkle your spices over everything (insert salt bae meme) and salt and pepper it up! Stir again to coat everything in spices. Look lovingly at your bountiful creation. 5. Place pan on the bottom rack and roast for 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Get ready for the smells. You’re going to hear some sizzling and the potatoes will soften - that means you’re on the right track. After 20 minutes, your babies graduate to the top rack - let them roast for about 5 more minutes - you’ll see some darkening action and this is good news! Fork test them - fork ‘em good. NOT TOO HARD. Just fork ‘em enough to know that they’re done. (if you can easily insert a fork into a potato, you’re all set.) 6. Remove from oven, turn off your oven, and let these babies sit because though they are delicious, they are also hot as balls right now. Make your eggs and toast or heat up your tortillas, or just fill a bowl with some of this goodness and DIG IN. It’s for your own good.

PS: here’s an obligatory runny egg yolk picture for all your sick freaks out there.

[fyogood-blog]

OUTTA THIS WORLD COOKIES

If you’re like me, the perfect time for a cookie is every waking minute. We looooooove cookies in this household, and we have a few different chocolate chip cookie recipes in our arsenal (oh, we’re gonna try them all, DON’T WORRY) but for now, we’re gonna focus on the cookies in our background picture and these ones here in outer space. They’re from the same dough but they have two different mix-ins (because who could pick just one? No one can.) So let’s blast off to the infinite abyss that is the PANTRY.

There’s some very special key ingredients when it comes to making chocolate chip cookies OTW (outta this world) and they are: vanilla extract (THE REAL STUFF NOT GARBAGE VANILLA) chocolate chips (the darker the better, imo) mix-ins (walnuts, sprinkles, espresso sea salt - get food horny and see where your mind takes you. potato chips? why not...) baking soda (the fresher the better, imo. go treat yourself to some new baking soda. you deserve it.) and flour: whole-wheat gives cookies a more dynamic texture (”good mouthfeel”) you know, that whole-wheaty taste, but for this recipe does just fine with unbleached all-purpose flour.

Paddle attachments for mixers, hand and stand alike, make for classic cookie dough consistency. Ya girl here uses a Kitchenaid stand mixer and loves it. Using paddle attachments with silicon scrapers help get all the good off the sides of the bowl. Or you can be a real food baddie and mix up your shit with your bare beautiful hands and a wooden spoon! Get jacked on cookie dough!

INGREDIENTS

3/4 cup butter (that’s a stick and a half), softened 1 cup brown sugar 1/2 cup pure cane sugar 3 tsp vanilla extract 2 eggs (1 whole, 1 egg yolk) 3/4 tsp baking soda 1/2 tsp kosher salt 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour 1 1/2 cup dark chocolate chunks MIX-INS 1 cup chopped nuts (walnuts, hazelnuts, and maybe even macademia? do it!) 1/2 cup sprinkles Fancy sea salt for sprinkling purposes (we have espresso sea salt from The Salt Cellar in New Hampshire and it is insane) 1 cup crushed sea salt potato chips

RECIPE

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. 2. In a mixing bowl, combine butter, sugars, and vanilla. Beat until thoroughly combined. 3. Add in eggs, one at a time, beating thoroughly after each addition. 4. Add in baking soda, salt, and flour. Mix until just combined. Fold in chocolate chips. 5. Mix-in time! At this point, I split my dough in half and added in my sprinkle and walnut mix-ins separately (your friends with nut allergies will thank you.) Drop tablespoon-sized scoops onto lined baking sheets and bake 10-13 minutes, depending on how you well-done you like your cookies. I’m an anything goes kinda gal...like a desserts raccoon. 6. Now you could cool these binches on a wire rack like the OG Martha Stewart, but we here at FYOG like to eat them as soon as they’re outta the oven. Let me tell ya, it burns so good. Enjoy these babies - they won’t be around this planet for long :}

[fyogood-blog]

PUFF PUFF PASS, OR HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE PUFF PASTRY

It’s Nat, coming atchu hot with some cooool advice: go buy sheets of puff pastry and keep them in your freezer. GO NOW. We live in Providence (where Stefan’s from) and, though the winter this year is milder here than Chicago (where I’m from), a hearty wintertime snack is always a good idea. The sun was out today, birds were singing, and I was feeling frisky and creative, which leads us to the very versatile puff pastry or VVPP.

Now, you can make homemade puff pastry, and I may venture into that at some point! But for now, I’m gettin’ down with store bought. Trader Joe’s has mighty fine puff pastry sheets for $2.99 - we usually opt for organic/whole wheat/natural/blee blah kinda stuff because we like to not eat garbage. If you want to, that’s your call, but this is what we get. No matter how you wanna do this, as long as you get one good PP in your hands, you’re golden 👌🏼

You can kinda throw anything into a puff pastry which is beautiful, as long as you don’t overload it. This recipe is for a savory snack, but you can easily make this a dessert by filling it with Nutella and bananas, mascarpone and raspberries, or some ol’ fashioned Granny Smith apples and cinnamon! If you get PP with creases in it (the way Pepperidge Farm does it), keep your filling within the middle part and don’t pile it up. It’s food, not student loan debt. You can keep it reeeeal simple or you can slit the sides (see first pic) and overlap them to create a *~fancy braid~* or what I like to call “mummy style”. So let’s get to it:

INGREDIENTS

1 sheet frozen pastry, thawed or chilled in fridge 4 oz goat cheese 3 tablespoons date spread (Fig jam or fig butter is another option) ½ onion, thinly sliced 1 tbsp bacon fat (yes. Absolutely. But if you’re a veggie, try butter or olive oil!) 4 sprigs fresh thyme 1 egg, slightly beaten SAWLT N PEPPUH

RECIPE

1. Preheat oven to 375 F, with a rack in the middle of the oven. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. 2. Heat up a cast iron skillet or frying pan, then add bacon fat. Coat the pan in fat, then add onion. Pepper that shit. Salt it a little if you’re using bacon fat, which is already salty. Butter and olive oil users, salt a little more, maybe ½ a teaspoon. But if you’re like us, really pepper it up. Cook over medium-low heat until onions are caramelized, maybe 8 minutes…keep an eye and a nose out. Don’t let the babies burn. The edges will crisp and the slices with soften and darken - if you’re not sure if it’s caramelized yet, do a taste test. If it’s sweet and soft, you’re doing great. ALWAYS EAT YOUR FOOD WHILE YOU’RE COOKING IT. Remove from heat. 3. Unfold puff pastry onto baking sheet. Spread date spread onto the middle of the pastry and crumble goat cheese on top. Pile on the onions, and delicately and gracefully sprinkle the fresh thyme leaves over the onions. And then pepper it up more. 4. Slit the sides (or don’t, WHATEVER) and fold over the onions, encasing all the sweet delicious goods. Brush with the beaten egg (egg wash is a necessity for puff pastry recipes) and sprinkle with MORE thyme leaves and pepper, because you deserve it. 5. Bake at 375 F for 20-25 minutes. Keep an eye out though - at 15 minutes, take a look and assess for yourself. Flaky and golden is ideal (see picture 4) - otherwise, ya pastry chewy and weak. 6. Let sit for 5 minutes and then DIG IN and remember what I said about dessert pastries. Most packages of PP have two slabs, so if you’re really feeling it, and the oven is still on, treat yaself 💕

[fyogood-blog]

Working Title: America's Breast Kitchen

Hi there! It’s Natalie here, the graceful goofball half of the Dynamic FYOG Duo, introducing For Your Own Good - a blog about home-cooking, kitchen basics, and food that’s GOO AS FOO. Stefan (the charmingly belligerent other half of FYOG) and I have been cooking together for some time now, and it’s time we share some of our favorite recipes, coolest gadgets, and cool photos for all you food porn slobs. So go make some shit - it’s for your own good.

PS: our beautiful portraits in our profile picture are provided by our good friend Brittanny Taylor! This lady has class AND sass, and frequently hangs with us while we’re cooking up some vittles. She also is a phenomenal blogger and artist, so check out her work as well: www.brittannytaylor.com/blog