The Walsh Cookbook

I made this once and I was hooked forever. All the ingredients are so fresh and crunchy that I guarantee you'll have a very hard time not eating the whole bowl. The first batch I made, I put too much jalapeno in but I couldn't stop myself eating it so I balanced the heat by drinking straight from the milk jug. It is that good!  Now I keep all the ingredients on hand so I can chop up a bowl of Pico de Gallo on my slightest whim. The lime juice and cilantro add a nice tang to the tomato and onion mixture and on a tortilla chip or in a burrito it is heaven. The recipe is from the Pioneer Woman's cookbook.

I can't describe the amazingness of this tea. You just need to try it! It is made with almond extract, green tea and ginger ale which makes it a very interesting and yummy drink. It's very easy and can be served hot or cold. I first had it at my friends Ellie and Kelsey's high school graduation party and it was made by one of their good family friends and Kelsey's godmother, Bonnie. She got the recipe from the Salt Lake Tribune in 1999. She served it cold with a large piece of star ice.  I like to serve it with thinly sliced rounds of lemons and limes and sliced strawberries. Unless I'm going to make it for a party, I keep the base in the fridge along with a liter of ginger ale and enjoy it glass by glass. what you'll need:   Base: 1 cup very strong green tea (4 tea bags for one cup) 1 1/2 cups sugar 1/2 cup fresh squeezed  lemon juice 1 Tbsp. vanilla extract 2 Tbsp. real almond extract 5 cups water Ginger Ale

Last summer my roommate Kamauri and I became mildly obsessed with Pioneer Woman and we cooked her recipes non-stop for weeks. I became particularly entranced with her chicken fried steak.  I made one small change to her recipe and added hot sauce to the egg mixture to add a bit of spice. Serve it with mashed potatoes and some green beans or a salad on the side. It's quite rich so the veggies help break it up. Sooooo good!

Southeast Asian Turkey Burgers First of all, these are incredible.  Caity, and just about everybody else, frequently requests this for dinner, especially in the summer, because it's so delicious and fresh tasting with all of the fresh herbs and cucumbers.  At a barbeque with a bunch of her friends while they were still in high school, even the 17 year-old boys picked these over regular burgers, and that's pretty impressive!  The recipe is from the Food Network, from Sara Moulton's show, "Sara's Secrets," and you really have to make them, they are delicious! what you will need

Ochazuke is a traditional dish in Japan.  Many find it to be a delightful snack, illness "hangover" cure or an all-around satisfying meal.   I first had Ochazuke during my college years, when my Ma would send me off with a few packets, for a quick meal, or to cure a self-induced illness.  Unfortunately, I never used these until my senior year, when Jaymie introduced me to the wonders of this soup.   We decided on this recipe after we had a traditional, non-instant, version of this soup at Hacho Japanese Restaurant, in Santa Clara.  It was made with real salmon, roasted rice balls, a secret house sauce, nori (dried seaweed), rice, and genmai green tea.  The recipe here, is our interpretation of that dish, made from ingredients found at any local Asian market. 

I used to be a hostess in Salt Lake at an upscale Italian restaurant. I was terrible at it. But I was happy for a paycheck and even happier to get a discount on all the meals which I greatly missed after I quit to go back to college, especially the Pomodoro Pasta.  Then my mom told me about a recipe I had forgotten about in the Walsh Cookbook called Spaghetti alla Margherita. It was even better than the restaurant version. My favorite thing is the chunks of mozzarella and basil which make everything rich and delicious! I forgot my mom used to make it in the Fall when we used to have an insane amount of tomatoes from Farmer Kevin's garden. Its so easy to make and so rewarding when its done. It quickly became one of Brendan's favorite recipes when I was in Spain for a summer and he was left on his own to cook. You can make variations by adding grilled chicken breasts, cooked sausage, zucchini, capers, mushrooms or you could use sun-dried tomatoes, whatever.  All w

In Salt Lake there is an amazing bakery called Les Madeleines where they serve all sorts of delicious treats like kouing amans (if you ever get the chance you HAVE to have one of these). In addition to their delicious assortment of baked goods they also serve sandwiches, soups, salads, etc.  I had a strawberry nutella panini there when I was home a couple weeks ago and couldn't wait to get my hands on another one. Its very easy and a nice Sunday morning treat... or Monday morning.... or Tuesday...

This is the really great salad that my Auntie Ellyn and Uncle Todd made at our New Mexico Walsh family reunion to serve with hamburgers, brats, hot dogs, etc.    It's a great salad that they said they copied from a restaurant in Illinois.      It’s full of delicious things, and the really unusual thing about it is that is has some pasta in it—I’ve never had that in a green salad and it was delicious.

  My friend Kim is allergic to all brown liquors which means she can't enjoy regular sangria (horrible right?!?!). She's coming over for dinner tonight so I decided to make a Kim-friendly Sangria. Its incredibly refreshing and I have a feeling it will disappear very quickly!  This recipe is from myrecipes.com ( here ) and I just used different fruit than the recipe did.  Feel free to add whatever fruit you like (peaches, nectarines, strawberries, grapes, raspberries, etc.)   what you'll need: 1 bottle of white wine (750 mL) 1 cup peach schnapps 1 can of lemonade concentrated melted fruit (peaches, strawberries, nectarines, grapes, etc)  Mix everything together and refrigerate for a couple hours or overnight. Serve over ice.

Last year Brendan had one bite of this cake and now it is literally his favorite food. Ever. He talks about it year round and complains that I will only make it once a year for his birthday.  But lucky for him it was his 23rd birthday the other day and he got his wish: tres leches cake! The recipe is from the Pioneer Woman ( here ) but she tops her cake with maraschino cherries which is a bit too sweet for me. The berries help balance the sweetness and it also looks pretty against the white whipped cream.

When I was a Sophomore in high school, my family went camping in Moab. When you're camping any sort of food tastes amazing but when the food actually is amazing and you're camping it just doubles in it's deliciousness. My mom made chicken parmesan and gnocchi out in the middle of the desert and it was fabulous. From then on, I've loved it and craved it on a regular basis, thus the meal earned the name "Caity's Favorite Dinner".  This recipe is adapted from the Barefoot Contessa's Parmesan Chicken, which is a lighter version of the classic Chicken Parmesan. She puts a salad of baby greens on top of the chicken rather than the common practice of dousing it in marinara which makes the nice light brown crust soggy. On the side is gnocchi and marinara sauce so if you so choose you may douse your chicken in marinara sauce and no one  will know.  Also this recipe is nice and easy so don't get stressed out that you may have to make y

This was originally on Smitten Kitchen ( here ), the night before my boyfriend's birthday, and I hadn't come up with any cake ideas yet, so I was very excited to find it!  We just decided to change it by throwing a whole bunch of different berries in it, where the version she has was just strawberries.  Both were awesome, I just like the variety of berries in this version.  The fruit on top makes these delicious pockets of melted berries throughout the cake.  The only problem is that they're quite deadly right out of the oven, since they're basically little pits of molten fruit!  I don't like to wait patiently for my food to cool...  But burnt tongue and all, this cake was perfect, especially in the summer (or whatever awful season this is that we're experiencing instead).  Delicious! what you will need 6 Tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 1 1/2 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp table salt 1 cup plus 2 Tbsp gr