Easy Cooking: Recipes from a Hipster Housewife.

A while back my friends and I were twittering it up about food and our love of it. Literally. We were on Twitter. I said that we should have a collaboration blog named Hipster Housewives where we talk about food we'd make as married ladies and just having a general love of food, cooking and baking. I love that while the rest of the world is pretty much breaking away from so called "domestication" there is a resurgence of "hey. i'm gonna make a good meal for my family." or in my case "i'm gonna know how to JAM in the kitchen so when i HAVE a family they'll pretty much kiss my feet." The collaboration blog never happened but the name Hipster Housewife has lived on in hashtags whenever someone makes something amazerful and tasty.

for example... *lifts an eyebrow* today!

I made baked chicken, mashed potatoes from scratch, peas, and walnut brownies with ice cream. As far as weeknight dinners it's pretty standard nothing out of the ordinary. CEPT IT'S AWESOME.

If you're a novice cook baked chicken is a GREAT starter! Mostly because... you do absolutely NOTHING and it tastes AMAZING. I mean how fantastic is THAT. Take some chicken bewbs, or legs, or thighs, or wings. WHATEVER. Put it in a pan, open your spice cabinet, close your eyes, grab random spices and FLING. whatever lands on said chicken will taste not only well thought out but absolutely tasty. I kid you not. Chicken is pretty flexible like that. Works for marinades too, which is what I did today. Low-fat Italian dressing? sure! Homemade leftover oriental salad dressing from Sunday? okay yeah they can come party too. Kosher salt? Cracked black pepper? duh! founding fathers of taste. Honestly you can't go wrong with chicken. Just make sure not to over bake otherwise you'll have a perfectly flavorful rubber ball.

Mashed potatoes... *nostalgic* mmm. They're an art. Truly. You can follow Rachel Ray, Paula Deen, Rachel Deen AND Paula Ray's recipe for them and they will turn out different every time you make them. I found out there are three secrets in making mashed potatoes from scratch. 1) Yukon Gold potatoes. Everyone brags about how Yukon Gold's are the quintessential mashed potatoes potato. They're the foundation to a mouth watering meal. They're not lying!! I used them for the first time today and HOLY. BU-FREAKING. CRAP. It changed my whole life. They have this undertone of sweetness that you wouldn't expect in a savory dish. Ugh. Shut the front door. Secret 2) Butter. If you're making mashed potatoes from scratch please do not worry about calories. The minute you deCIDED to make mashed potatoes you threw all worry out the window. Do not substitute cauliflower, butter buds, spray butter, um... please get away from me with that crap. If you're going to make mashed potatoes it better be LEGIT and it better be RIGHT. You BETTER use butter! Just don't make them every week. Mashed potatoes is a 3 times a year dish. 1 random time when it gets a little chilly (like today), Thanksgiving and Easter. That's it! There is nothing better than butter. If there is there's probably butter in that recipe so... shut up. Butter adds a sheen to the potatoes and adds to the overall creamy texture of the dish. Secret 3 and the most important) hot water. Confused? Don't be. Before you drain the potatoes get a cup and siphon off some of that liquid gold hot starchy potato water and put it to the side. It will turn your whole dish around. Use a few splashes in conjunction to the milk and it transFORMS the potatoes. You can't ever get that kind of creaminess with heavy cream or milk alone. Trust me.

Honestly do whatever you like best in terms of potatoes because no one is wrong, but can I just tell you whatever I did tonight was ground breaking in the potato world. I'd like to think that somewhere in the food world is a potato section. Right?

Lastly, peas. I truly thought I hated peas until my mother decided I didn't anymore. Whenever she'd add them to a recipe I'd yell, "I HATE PEAS!" and she'd go, "uh-huh. *nods*" and add them anyway. Then all of a sudden I didn't hate them anymore. My mother is an evil wizard. I don't like overcooked peas so I boil water, add the peas, leave them in for approximately 78 seconds (i really don't count the seconds. for realz guys. come on.)  and drain them. Add a pat of butter, a little bit of season salt (whoever Lawry is... thank you.) and you're done! Dinner is SERVED. Also mashed potatoes and peas have been secret lovers since peanut butter and jelly were announced as a couple. Their union is SO GOOD. When they get together they just... make out. I don't even pretend to understand but somehow the peas always gravitate towards the potatoes. you don't ask questions. you just eat the amazingness.

Sorry there were no pictures. My mom and I mmm'd and oooh'd at our food til we licked our fingers. I'll make sure to take a picture of my Thanksgiving mashed potatoes. If you have any recipes you love label them with Hipster Housewife if you'd like to join in my endeavor of being an awesome lady.

It's time for brownies and Project Runway. I feel like a real housewife of New Jersey. with less spray tan... and more standards.