Join me “In The Pantry” over on Yahoo! Shine

by Aida Mollenkamp —

Aida Mollenkamp Yahoo! Shine Series n The Pantry

Ok, friends, I’ve got a big announcement: today is the launch of my new web series for Yahoo! Shine called, In The Pantry.

The series gets back to cooking basics and covers everything from how to stock your pantry, tips for ingredient substitutions, what not to buy, and items you should splurge on at the store. You already know that my cookbook, Keys To The Kitchen, is all about helping you to become a more accomplished and adventurous cook so, In The Pantry does that same thing, just in video form.

Check out the first episode on Must Haves For A Well Stocked Pantry and tell me what are your pantry must-haves. Oh, and check back often as we’ll air a new episode each week!

40 Plus 365!

by Aida Mollenkamp —

Blood Orange and Thyme Paloma Cocktail from www.aidamollenkamp.com

My parents are really good at making April babies. My sister and I are all born within the first 14 days of April so it always made for lots of festivities and celebrations growing up. This year we’re celebrating my oldest sister’s birthday because she’s entering into a new decade, but I don’t dare tell you which or she’ll have my head.
Continue Reading: 40 Plus 365! →

Of Emergency Travel Kits and Daydreaming

by Aida Mollenkamp —

Escape with Ghirardelli dark chocolate #escapewithdarkchocolate @ghirardelli

Daydreaming is an art – it truly is a special skill. My high school French teacher would disagree, as he wrote my daydreaming as off as lack of concentration, but I believe it’s the key to creativity. And, let’s be honest, it’s a coping mechanism for escaping from reality. Especially when your reality comes in the form of travel headaches like lost luggage, cancelled flights, and poor customer service.

I’d like to think I have pretty good travel karma, but really just it’s just a matter of time before the bad stuff hits. And, when you travel as much as I do, it hits pretty often. This winter I’ve been caught in a Nor’Easter, had luggage fly east when I was heading west, and clocked in time at airport cafés while coping with grounded flights. And, that, my friends, is when I daydream.
Continue Reading: Of Emergency Travel Kits and Daydreaming →

Honeyed Pink Strawberry Lemonade Bars

by Aida Mollenkamp —

Strawberry Pink Lemonade Bars #recipe from www.aidamollenkamp.com

Hey, Friends. Today I’ve got a recipe that I shared with the folks over at Attune Foods who are working to raise awareness about the plight of honeybees with The Rodale Institute Honeybee Conservancy Institute. I’m doing my part to spread the word by joining in their Honeybee Project In The Kitchen where we created recipes using Erewhon Honey Grahams and, of course, a good dose of honey. 
Continue Reading: Honeyed Pink Strawberry Lemonade Bars →

The Three Amigas On Repeat

by Aida Mollenkamp —

aida-mollenkamp-hummus-recipe

“I’m going on a road trip, I’m going on a road trip, X marks the spot!”

Ok, I know that’s not really how that grade school rhyme goes but this last weekend I was playing with my niece and nephews and I taught them the original game. Ever since then I can’t help but change it to “road trip” as I prepare for the trip I’m about to take.

But before I tell you what I’ll be eating while on the road (spoiler alert: it just might be this very recipe), let’s talk about the whos, what, wheres, and whys. Do you recall the Los Angeles-to-Texas road trip I took a few years back that I took with my friends, Lillian and Gaby where we proclaimed ourselves the Three Amigas? Well, we’re at it again and this time we’re heading from Los Angeles to San Francisco while en route to the IACP Annual Conference.
Continue Reading: The Three Amigas On Repeat →

Road Rage And Other Little Things

by Aida Mollenkamp —

Seared Lamb Chops with Green Harissa from www.aidamollenkamp.com

It’s the little things. Like, say, no traffic on the way across town.

In a city like Los Angeles, that only comes a few times a year and means that gridlocked commutes become breezes. This last weekend was a kismet intersection of Passover, Easter, and Spring Break that allowed the traffic gods to look kindly upon those of us who stayed in town. And I’m not complaining about staying in LA because this city is a whole other animal when you have it to yourself (or you and only 1 million other people, but who’s counting).
Continue Reading: Road Rage And Other Little Things →

Bringing It Back 80s Style

by Aida Mollenkamp —

Little Gems Salad with Green Goddess Dressing from www.aidamollenkamp.com

This salad is at its most simple a great big excuse for me to make Green Goddess Dressing. I’m a California girl through and through and Green Goddess is too.

Though this dressing is just a tad bit older than me — it has been around, by some accounts, since the 1920s when a chef at the Palace Hotel made his West Coast version of the classic French sauce verte. If you grew up out west, you probably remember that Green Goddess was all the rage right about the time Madonna came out with Material Girl and Regan was our commander in chief. But, with time, this dressing went the way of shoulder pads and scrunchies and became all but obsolete. 
Continue Reading: Bringing It Back 80s Style →

The Dental Hygienist And Her Sugar Stash

by Aida Mollenkamp —

Chocolate-Almond Butter Easter Eggs from www.aidamollenkamp.com

My mother loves Peeps. And cheap white cake. And candy corn. Which is totally ironic because she was a dental hygienist and rarely had sugar in the house when we were growing up (that we knew of).

Her sweet tooth goes into overdrive during the Easter season when she can be found diving into her stash of Chocolate-Peanut Butter eggs with abandon. But those over-the-counter eggs are loaded with all sorts of subpar ingredients never mind the fact that they could just be so much better with a few tweaks. So, this year I made her homemade chocolate eggs. 
Continue Reading: The Dental Hygienist And Her Sugar Stash →

Urban Legends And Eggs

by Aida Mollenkamp —

Aida-Mollenkamp-Pretty-Easy-Eggs-Header-1020

So, I’ve got a thing with eggs. I could eat them for any meal, at any time, and any number of ways. There’s a culinary urban legend that the number of pleats in a traditional chef’s hats is directly correlated to the number of ways to cook eggs and, while I’ve never found concrete evidence backing that claim, it’s fair to say there are at least 5 kajillion ways to make eggs.

Continue Reading: Urban Legends And Eggs →