ReadyMade: Instructions for everyday life

I saw this simple, yet toasted and cheesy sandwich on Simple Bites today (on a post that also features Coco-Banana pancakes and a One Bowl Gingerbread) and am wishing I had a stove and a skillet by my desk.  Click here to see the full recipe for this quick croque monsiuer.

When it’s gray and rainy as it’s been here in the Midwest the past few days, I get an enormous urge to spend my day in the kitchen baking. This past weekend I made granola and cornbread, but at the moment, there is a bunch of almost too ripe bananas on my counter just asking to be turned into this delicious sounding cake. Here’s a description of the Banana Cake with Dark Chocolate and Walnuts from Bella Eats:

This cake, while not the prettiest kid on the block, certainly has the possibility of being the most popular with its stellar personality. So dense, so moist, the banana-scented crumb is perfectly balanced with dark chocolate and toasty walnuts.

I like the thought of a cake with a stellar personality!

Photo via Bella Eats

We’re giving serious props to Kella and her buckwheat pancake video based on a recipe she tried from our recent issue. And it’s got us thinking— with all of you that we heard from via twitter who have tried our recipes, this is the only one we’ve seen photos of. In order to rectify that situation, here’s my new plan: if you cook one of our recipes and send it in, I’ll do my best to give you a little shout out right here on our blog.

Please send the following information to me at articles [at] readymademag [dot] com:
Name
City/State
Recipe name and issue
Liked
Disliked
Tweaks you make
General comments
Photo no bigger than 500 pixels wide

P.S. If what you make is really impressive, you might even earn yourself a spot in a future issue!

I gotta admit, I do love an Oreo (or to be honest, a Newman-O) but these Faux-reos from the folks behind Bakers Banter (King Arthur Flour’s fantastic baking blog) look like a nice way to mix things up.

Over the holidays I had a serious craving for meatloaf, which was surprising since it’s got to be close to 5 (maybe even 10) years since I’ve had it. Apparently that craving passed because I didn’t remember that I nearly insisted on finding a diner immediately until I saw this image on Food Loves Writing this morning. It’s a meatloaf sandwich, which is just about as perfect a use of leftovers as I can imagine. Would it be weird if I set a goal to eat meatloaf, either on it’s own (with mashed potatoes) or as a sandwich, this week? I hope not!

Because how on earth could you look at this picture and not want one immediately? See the step by step recipe for these soft pretzels from the ladies behind the Hot Cookie cookie company based in Indiana here.

I have a serious weakness for Italian food, particularly when it’s made in Italy. I also believe that pasta is the ultimate comfort food, so it makes complete sense that Rachel Eats is my idea of heaven in blog form. Here’s a bit from Rachel:

I am from London or thereabouts but I have lived in Rome – a beautiful, chaotic, complicated city – for nearly 5 years now. I’d fallen out of life in London and so I left, it was a spontaneous, deeply irresponsible and liberating move. I never intended to stay in Rome, Italy even, I thought I would travel, but roots crept downwards, it felt right and so I stayed.

I live with Vincenzo a Sicilian drummer, my ideal kitchen and table companion, a man whose passion for pasta, olive oil and music I will never really understand but happily share. We live in a quarter called Testaccio, right next to a stupendous market and above a breadshop.

I teach English to very small Italian children.

I really like to cook, eat and write so a blog of this sort seemed a good idea. I am rather tall and short sighted with a penchant for salami, figs, fried eggs and wine way beyond my budget.

My snack of choice is a lump of cheese.

Take a look at a few plates of pasta that they’ve cooked recently…

Above from top left, Spaghetti with tomato sauce with butter and onion, Pasta e broccoli, Tagliatelle with parmesan and lemon and  Tagliatelle al ragu. Yum!

These delicious looking Butternut Squash, Sage and Parmesan Pasties are over on the Kitchn today as part of a post on deep winter dishes to reinvigorate your palette. Check out the rest of their suggestions (which include Kale and Potato Puree and Sweet Potato Soup with Miso and Ginger)  here.

It’s a little hard to work when you know that some people (hello New York RMer’s!) are enjoying a day off, but there’s nothing like the thought of a homemade donut with a cup of coffee to help make it through this Monday morning (or afternoon, for that matter), care of Hannah of Honey & Jam.

I don’t know about you, but putting peanut butter cups into a brownie is just about the best idea I’ve ever heard. You could go all out and cut these bad boys into hearts for your sweetie or use them as the base of a killer brownie sundae for yourself—either way would make me happy. Visit My Baking Addiction (where this image is also from) for the recipe.