These buttermilk chicken tenders are so flavorful!

Buttermilk chicken tenders present an opportunity to add a lot of flavor, but not everybody takes advantage of it.

Instead of simply coating chicken tenders in buttermilk, breading them and frying them, let’s add some more flavor to the buttermilk marinade so that the end result is a chicken tender that is not only golden brown and crispy, but hugely flavorful and savory.

Just like with my buttermilk chicken marinade, the garlic, mustard, hot sauce and paprika in the marinade for these buttermilk fried chicken tenders make them flavorful enough to just eat on their own. Your family will be begging you to make these crispy, flavor-packed tenders every single week!

They can also be served with dipping sauces, or added to a Spring salad or piled onto a sandwich for a larger meal.

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I think that I love cream cheese more than the average person. I wasn’t really aware of this until I was doing a video call with a couple of friends, while making myself a bagel, and they both were shocked and awed by how much cream cheese (and how much everything bagel seasoning) I put on said bagel.

I mean, I had just had a baby a few days prior, and my body was extra hungry. But honestly, I don’t even need to make excuses. I’m not embarrassed. The truth is, I just love cream cheese. Anytime, anywhere.

It can go savory in crab-stuffed salmon recipe and crock pot beef stroganoff. It can be used as the “sauce” on roasted cauliflower pizza. And my Baileys brownies wouldn’t be the same without their spiked cream cheese frosting.

Today, I’m sharing a recipe for the absolute best chocolate cake I’ve ever made, paired with, what else? Cream cheese frosting!

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You know how last year I got on a creme brulee kick and ended up publishing just about all of the creme brulee flavors I could think of? I think this year, my thing might be muffins.

My buttermilk blueberry muffins that I shared earlier this year are one of my favorite recipes of all time. My cranberry sauce muffins have been around for quite a few years, and are always very popular after Thanksgiving.

All of this is putting me in the mood to keep making and sharing more muffins. And sorry, shepherd’s pie muffins and my breakfast muffins recipe. I love you, but I really mean sweet muffins.

These blackberry muffins are simple and delicious, and are perfect for a lazy Sunday morning at home snuggled up with some bacon in the oven, or a busy weekday morning where you grab a salted caramel cream cold brew and a muffin and head out the door.

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I’m not one to celebrate all the “food holidays” (is there a national bacon in the oven day?), but it just so happens that I had this recipe ready for you, and today is also National Black Forest Cake Day! So, let’s celebrate, I guess!

My husband has worked for a Germany-based auto parts supplier for over a decade, so we’re pretty familiar with German culture and cuisine.

Black Forest cake is perhaps the most well-known German dessert in America. The exact history of the name is up for some debate, with some believing the name is derived from a specialty liquor made in the Black Forest mountain range of southwestern Germany.

Others claim that the name is inspired but a traditional outfit worn by women in the same region. The costume includes a hat with big red pom-poms on top (represented by the cherries on the cake).

Now that my very simplified history lesson is over, let’s make some Black Forest Cupcakes! These chocolatey cupcakes are topped with fresh whipped cream, and they have a surprise cherry filling made with Kirsch syrup. If you’re not sure what Kirsch is, don’t worry, I have all the details for you!

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What makes a great blueberry muffin? We’ve all had a lot of them. Most blueberry muffins I would consider fine, maybe ok, maybe even kind of good. But very few are truly GREAT.

While I don’t make a TON of muffins, there are a few varieties in my repertoire. Pear muffins are frequent breakfast items around here, and cranberry sauce muffins are sure to be made every year after Thanksgiving, with the leftover cranberry sauce.

But most often, I make blueberry muffins. And after perfecting this buttermilk blueberry muffin recipe over many years, I consider them GREAT. The perfect accompaniment to a sweet potato breakfast casserole and some bacon in the oven, or biscuits with my bacon gravy recipe.

Truly, they’re the best blueberry muffins I’ve ever made. They’re a great brunch menu idea. They can be served alongside a breakfast charcuterie board.

I’ll explain why I make this blueberry muffin recipe with buttermilk below, and I hope they’re the best you’ll ever make, too! Make yourself a caramel coffee, and let’s get started.

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Buttermilk Grilled Chicken Marinade

Do you hate it when extra buttermilk goes to waste? I do!

But a dash just here or there leaves me with a lot of extra buttermilk, even when I buy the smallest bottle available (which is usually a pint (2 cups)).

That’s why I developed my Black Forest cupcakes with buttermilk, and buttermilk blueberry muffins, and this buttermilk chicken marinade. It uses 1-1/2 cups of buttermilk for 4 servings of grilled chicken, so it’s almost always perfect for using up the end of a bottle of buttermilk.

Along with my buttermilk chicken tenders, this buttermilk grilled chicken is one of my go-to recipes that I’ve been using for years, whenever I have leftover buttermilk in the fridge that needs to be finished up.

I most often use this buttermilk marinade in the summer for grilled chicken (when I’m not using my Greek marinade for chicken), but it can also be used in the winter for roasted chicken (when I’m not making almond crusted chicken).

The natural acidity of the buttermilk tenderizes the meat, and also adds a tangy flavor to the chicken. This is one of my favorite meals, especially when paired with my fried goat cheese salad made with fresh strawberries and avocado, or my summer beet salad recipe.

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If you’re like me, you’re trying to plan a healthful cottage cheese breakfast, a light shrimp wonton soup for lunch, and work some afternoon exercise into your busy schedule.

But also, not beating yourself up and not expecting perfection. Right? Let’s work on making good choices at dinner, too, but still have fun with it.

Ground turkey has always been a meal planning staple for me, dating back to college. I used to make Asian sloppy joes and cheeseburger pizza using turkey, for myself and my roommates.

It’s a simple way to create a healthful meal, any day of the week. This turkey burger salad bowl with sun dried tomato dressing will hopefully fit right into your “realistic healthy” goals.

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Did I ever tell you about the teenage/young adult phase I went through where I hated bacon? There was no rhyme or reason to it. I just woke up one morning and had an aversion to bacon.

When my mom made BLTs for dinner with the freshest summer tomatoes, I would make myself a big ol’ LT (which honestly, was still pretty good).

Luckily, all phases come to an end (and I’ve heard that taste buds change every 7 years or so), so the B is back in my BLTs, friends. And for good measure, I added cheese to this BLT Salad with Aged Cheddar, just to show my taste buds who is really boss. (more…)

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One of my favorite summer meals is homemade grilled pizza. It’s my favorite because 1.) it’s delicious and adaptable to whatever I happen to have in the fridge, and 2.) it’s my husband’s specialty, so I can sit back and relax while he makes dinner.

While ideally, I would eat homemade pizza two or three nights a week, it’s not always possible. As grilled pizza season coincides with golf season, Jeff golfs after work a lot in the summer, meaning he’s not home to make me pizza!

While I would love to have his pizza dough stretching and shaping and grilling skills, sadly, I do not. My grilled chicken pizzas are more mess than masterpiece.

My secret for those nights when I still want grilled pizza but don’t want to mess with the dough? Either a small crostini pizza bar for one, or pre-made naan bread from the store. It’s a really great substitute for traditional pizza crust, and even the most novice griller couldn’t mess it up.

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One of the things I love about food is the strong memories we often attach to it. Even something as a simple as a turkey burger takes me back to a very specific point in time: just two years ago this summer, when my husband and I were moving from our first home to our second/current/forever home.

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