martha stewart | mahogany bacon

I sometimes have such a craving for pub food. I’m not talking about just burgers and fries, though. I mean the kind of menu items you will only find at a place with a lot of beer on tap, wooden tables and sports on TV screens. The thing I love about pub food most is its simplicity. And with that in mind, I decided to try to find some easy-to-mimic recipes for my 5 favourite pub grub meals:

1 – Chicken Caesar Salad: The only salad I will ever have at a pub or bar. The creaminess of the dressing, crunch of the croutons and almost necessary bacon bits makes this a fantastic meal or appetizer. This recipe from Smitten Kitchen adds a certain element of cooking sophistication with a chicken brine, promising the juiciest of meat. Also, if you’re like me and can’t stand the fishy style of anchovies in the dressing, you can easily omit it without losing the flavour and creaminess.

2 – Baked Mac n’ Cheese: I’ve already professed my love for mac n’ cheese, and this Martha Stewart recipe is the right crunchy/creamy mixture. Something so great about having a bowl of this with a glass of white wine or a light beer.

3 – Loaded Potato Skins: The most difficult part about this recipe from Chow is the scooping out of the potato. The rest is super simple. I love loaded potato skins – I always ate the skin on baked potatoes (I know, kind of weird), and I love that these can be made bite sized for a party. They’re perfect hors d’oeuvres to pass around, or snack on while hanging out in your backyard.

4 – Chicken Fingers (and fries): Without fail, what I order 9 times out of 10 when I’m feeling pub-y. The Black Peppercorn adds a really intriguing twist to a classic by dredging the chicken fingers into crushed Doritos…crushed Doritos, you guys! Amazing.

5 – Deep Fried Pickles: This combo should not work, but it does. So well. A Beautiful Mess has a shockingly easy-to-make recipe for this delicious treat, which uses minimal ingredients (one of which is cornmeal, aka that added crunch). They’re awesome dipped in something with dill (like their own dip recipe). These are so good!

Note: all of the above go amazing with a pint of your favourite beer, on a sunny day, hanging out in your backyard, with some good friends.

Usually, as soon as Friday hits, all I want to do is look forward to the little things (a book, a song, a trip to Ikea) that I will get to do over the weekend. With that in mind, welcome to the first installment of a new weekly post – Loving…(aka Friday Faves). Here you’ll find a brief list of things that are currently making me smile, or occupying my mind, or are just generally awesome.

Listening:

My “F you, winter!” jam.

Reading:

Kelly Oxford is hilarious in 140 characters on Twitter. She’s equally funny in a more free-form, unlimited book format. I got to meet her at a book signing earlier this week and she’s such a nice, funny woman that I’m an even bigger fan now. I’m almost done with Everything is Perfect When You’re a Liar and can’t recommend it enough – if for no other reason than she’s a Canadian and references it proudly (you won’t get a Kids in the Hall callout from any other memoir). Totally in the vein of Tina Fey’s Bossypants and Mindy Kaling’s Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) – I love books by honestly funny women.

Baking:

I haven’t made these in a while, but I’m looking forward to whipping up a batch of Zucchini Muffins this weekend for next week. A lot of people make a crinkled-nose face when I mention these muffins, but they are amazingly delicious. Perfect breakfast food, unique flavour and the bonus is that they freeze really well (so you can enjoy for a bit longer).

Love this recipe from Martha Stewart – I would modify slightly by removing the banana and replacing the flaxseed with pecans.

Planning:

To plant a springtime, apartment herb garden. I’ve promised myself I will have a green thumb once we get a house (even if it kills me), so I’m going to start practicing now. Thanks to my other-other half (Alli) I’m all set up…