cook's illustrated's chicken enchiladas with red sauce

rarely does cook's illustrated disappoint me. this is one of those times. but they did not fail jason.

it's the dang jalapenos. they got me. these enchiladas are waaaaay too hot for me, all i could taste is heat. but jason, he ate these suckers up without batting an eyelash. long story short: yes, i'll make them again, without the raw jalapeno and with half the pickled jalapenos. 

 

fine cooking's chicken parmesan

see, i told you the heat wave wouldn't last long. last week i was basking in the sun, enjoying the 50 degree weather. this week? it's hovered around 25. this morning my alarm rudely woke me up with a  friendly reminder that yes, it is still in fact winter:"highs today in the mid 20s, it's 7 right now." great. perfect. why can't i have this week off like everyone else?!

good thing i have this chicken parm to keep me warm.

 

ina's fleur de sel caramels

two months ago we were running around like crazy, still getting ready - and looking forward to - the impending holidays. i don't know about you, but it seems like forever ago. anyway, i made these caramels in mid-december and brought half of them in to work. they were gone in less than 48 hours.

fallen almond pound cake

...or tracy's birthday cake. perfect for a midweek treat.

right now i have 97 cake and 78 cupcake recipes saved in my google reader. yea, that's right, over 150 cake recipes that have interested me so much that i have tagged them to make later. insane? yes. so when birthdays or dinner parties come up and i'm given the chance to make a cake, i take it. since i had leftover blackberry sauce in my refrigerator from the last sweet treat i made and i didn't have a lot of time to fuss around with a cake since tracy's birthday fell on a weekday, this almond cake jumped to the top of my list.

vegetable soup with tortellini

it rained today. yes, rain. not snow. not sleet. not hail, straight up rained. and although we've had a heat wave (it was 50+ today!!) over the last few days, rumor is it isn't going to stay too long.