After over a year of not eating at restaurants, it’s easy to pinpoint what I miss most: brunch!

While carryout pizza and Chinese food is all well and good, carryout eggs benedict and brioche French toast is a definite no-go for me. Those things have to be eaten fresh out of the kitchen (not put in styrofoam, picked up and brought home).

And bloody mary bars. Oh, how I miss bloody mary bars. The kind where the bartender rims a glass with bloody mary salt, pours you a serving of vodka over ice, and then you head to the garnish buffet to top your drink with the bloody mix of your choice, and all the bloody mary garnish ideas you could ever want.

There were cheese cubes, olives, bacon in the oven, pickles, celery, etc etc etc.

With many of us putting on a brunch buffet for the moms in our life next weekend, let’s treat everybody to a round of bloody marys with a really special touch. Learn about the special rim salt in this post, and see my post about bloody mary skewers to replicate those at home.

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Lately, I’ve been put through the ringer coming up with new ideas for soft foods for a very grumpy teething toddler.

It turns out that applesauce, savory yogurt, and waffles and ice cream can only be used for so many meals.

For some reason, it took me a long time to realize that cottage cheese would be perfect for her (and luckily, she loved it!).

Of course, I ended up buying two HUGE containers of it, and now I need to start eating it too, or it’s going to expire.

I plan to make lasagna made with cottage cheese with some of it, and the rest of it will be eaten for breakfast.

I had some smoked salmon left over from a small smoked salmon platter I made for brunch last weekend and paired it with a few things I had in my fridge to create this Savory Cottage Cheese Breakfast Bowl.

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This Homemade Everything Bagel Seasoning is….everything!

If there’s one thing that is an absolute constant in my kitchen (beyond the usuals like butter, flour, lemons, etc.) it would be everything bagel seasoning, AKA the seasoning mix that bagel shops use to top their “everything” bagels.

I have been obsessed with this stuff since 2013 – long before grocery stores sold it pre-mixed (sometimes called “Everything BUT The Bagel”) and it started showing up on restaurant menus everywhere.

I started making it at home because I had a wicked bagel craving just about every morning when I was in culinary school (and I love making homemade seasonings, like my bbq seasoning for chips).

My classes would often start at 5 or 6 am, and by the time I got out of class late morning, a bagel always sounded good.

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When you’re a full-time food photographer, the struggle could not be more real when it comes to grocery shopping. I’m often at the store three to four times a week, if not more.

Whether it’s a big trip for all of the work groceries needed for the week, a run for everyday stuff like shampoo and coffee beans, a quick errand to pick up that last-minute item needed for garnish, or a special stop for the freshest berries possible, I’m at the grocery store a lot.

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When I throw parties, I always like to have a wide variety of dishes for guests to choose from.

While (luckily) there aren’t any major food allergies or special diets in my group of friends and family, I still like to offer a range of options, including plenty of fresh, healthy-ish things in addition to the typical party decadence of snack foods and desserts.

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You guys, I’ll get to the recipe in a hot second, but let’s just take a moment to process what’s going on under the bowls.

I think I’m developing a reputation in the city-wide Facebook buy/sell/trade group I’m in as that woman that keeps buying rickety old tables.

This isn’t the first rickety old table I’ve purchased, but it’s the best. It’s actually more of a rolling cart than a table, really – you can see the full thing on Instagram.

The previous owners had found it at an antique store. They didn’t know much history about it other than that it’s about one hundred years old, and was used in a factory at some point.

It didn’t fit in with the current decorating scheme of their home, so I basically (safely) sped my car over to their house, cash in hand, loaded it lovingly into my trunk, and brought it home to be with it’s new family.

It’s dirty and rustic and weathered and I’m in love.

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When a party goes on for 10 hours, you can technically throw two parties in that time span. That’s just what I did for my annual sangria party earlier this month.

Not only did we sip delicious sangria, but we also enjoyed a California Avocado BBQ party. Oh, and it was also my neighborhood’s block party that night.

So yeah, there was all kinds of partying going on! Hey, Michigan has such brutal winters that you have to live it up while you can.

It was a perfect August evening, so we certainly did live it up.

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As much as I love (LOVE!) giant lemon-poppyseed muffins from coffee shops, let’s face it – they’re not the healthiest. Also, I’ve never had good luck making them at home.

I’ve tried at least a dozen recipes (from trusted cookbooks, online sources, and even my culinary school baking manual), and have had the same problem each time – the tops cave in. I have no idea if there’s a problem with my oven, muffin pan, or something else.

While these concave muffins still taste great, everybody should be entitled to a firm muffin top. On your muffin. Not your pants. I digress . . .

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You know how Americans dread tax season? That was never really true for me. It seemed like I almost always got a small refund, or just owed a couple of dollars. Literally, one year I had to write a check to The State of Michigan for one dollar. They couldn’t just write that off? But this year was different.

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I think it’s safe to say that an everything bagel would be included in my last meal. Unwilling to eat the equivalent of five slices of bread (or whatever people say a bagel amounts to) all that often, I’ve taken to flavoring other, healthier things with everything seasoning. I’ve done the infamous Everything English Muffin. I’ve used everything-flavored crackers to crust salmon. I’ve sprinkled everything seasoning mix on cottage cheese, salads and eggs. (more…)

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