I like to think I can make most things without looking up a recipe. I can’t. More than a few first attempts end up in the garbage or down the drain. I don’t think it’s a waste though whenever you try something new and learn from it one way or another. Cooking’s an art, right? Mistakes are meant to be made.

I tried to make caramel sauce with what I had on hand(butter and 1%). That was a mistake. I didn’t really know what I was doing but I figured Ina Garten did and I tried again with her recipe which called for heavy cream and just a few other ingredients.

I’m sure Ina used pure Costa Rican sugar, organic grass-fed cream and homemade Madagascar vanilla bean extract—none of which I had on hand—but this came out pretty good even with store brand ingredients. It didn’t have as thick a body as store-bought caramel sauce because it doesn’t have any thickeners or stabilizers, but it tastes very simple and fresh.

I added a 1/4 teaspoon of sea salt after it had cooled which made the flavor pop a lot more. Caramel sauce should always be a little salty so you can taste how sweet it really is. Besides that I followed Ina’s original recipe. Oh and when she says “a warm chestnut brown” she just means a light brown for all of us who haven’t toasted fresh chestnuts over a log fire in Vermont. Silly Ina.

Here’s an Instagram video of the different stages:

As someone who not only writes a blog but loves reading my share of blogs, too, I worried what would happen once Google announced they’re shutting the door on Google Reader on July 1st. I follow websites through Facebook and Twitter but the majority of blog reading I do comes through RSS feeds. I tweeted out for suggestions and other bloggers gave some great recommendations for a seamless transition.

(Psst, you can click any of these images to be taken directly to that website.)

Follow:

Two simple, pre-existing options to follow this blog are to subscribe to the email subscription or like the page on Facebook where I post all of the recipes from this website. The change in Google Reader and RSS subscriptions won’t affect these at all. 

I’ve also started a brand new Google+ page where I’ll post pictures and links to blog post; it’s not very active now since I made it this week but if Google+ ever becomes big it’ll be a nice thing to have. If you use a gmail email account you already have a Google+ account.

Feed Readers:

If you’re like me and prefer reading blogs through an RSS reader, there’s still hope. The RSS reader I’ll likely switch to is Feedly. It was incredibly easy to set up and transfer all of my blog subscriptions in just a few minutes with only a few clicks of the mouse. I’ve tested it out by using it for the past few mornings and it seems easy enough to manage and get used to.

If you prefer the look and feel of Google Reader, The Old Reader or Comma Feed seem more traditional in their layout and style. Their only downside is that it takes a few more steps to import your subscriptions from Google Reader than Feedly.

Here’s another great post that gives even more options from Healthy Living Blogs.

Greek yogurt is one of those foods I always keep on hand. I was so excited when Stonyfield asked me to be a part of their Clean Plate Club to make and submit recipes using their yogurts. Substituting yogurt in dips or baked goods for fattier dairy products is a great and easy way to make recipes healthier.

When I’m busy I’d much rather have a meal or snack that I can eat with my hands and don’t have to worry about it getting cold. Dips and spread are great for that. I made this dip and it lasted me over a few days of snacking and went with just about everything.

You can serve this with chopped up fruit or cut up french toast and waffles for breakfast or with some gingersnaps and snickerdoodle cookies for a fun dessert. It keeps well in the refrigerator so it’s easy to

Maple Cinnamon Cream Cheese Dip

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cook time: 0 minutes

Ingredients(Makes about 1/2 cup):

• 2 Tablespoons cream cheese, softened
• 2 Tablespoons maple syrup
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 cup plain Oikos greek yogurt

Method:

1. In a small bowl, beat together all of the ingredients until there aren’t any clumps(you may want to use a whisk or hand mixer).
2. Serve with fruit, waffles, french toast, or any other dippable breakfasts.

And in case you were wondering, Van’s gluten-free french toast sticks are excellent, especially when you’re sure the last time you had french toast sticks was at least 10 years ago.

A couple weeks ago I got an email with a fun opportunity from Megan and AT&T. Their new campaign and tagline, “It’s what you do with what we do”, is all about how people from different walks of life can customize their technology to fit their lifestyle. Megan offered to send me an HTC One X with a month of service to share my honest feedback and share how the technology fit my work as a food blogger and I jumped at the chance.

To be honest I’d been thinking about getting a new phone for a while now, and not because of any service or dropped call issues. Engaging in social media is a big part of being a food blogger, whether it’s tweeting, pinning, facebooking or instagramming. The HTC One X drew me in with it’s 4G speed(faster than my 3G) and an impressive 8 megapixel camera. My hopes were that the HTC One X would encourage me to share more food candids from grocery shopping to cooking and photographing and everywhere in between. So far it’s gotten me to reclaim my Instagram account after a year of inactivity and begin posting again; that’s definitely a start.

Setting up the phone was rather simple. It easily tied into my email and social media accounts to get a lot of contact information from there. Even better, I could use their website to set up the interface and change things around instead of having to do it all directly on the phone itself. The breadth of options of widgets and apps was slightly overwhelming, but in a good way. All in all I spent over 3 hours setting up the phone, but at the end I felt like I truly had a device that would work best for how I wanted to use it.

It was really easy to move things around on the different panels, get rid of the apps I know I wouldn’t use and highlight the ones I want to keep going back to. I also have a panel for my photo gallery and a panel for text messages(You could also easily add a panel with all of your contact numbers just in case you forgot that this was actually a phone).

When I was last looking for a smartphone a few years ago, a major factor in my decision was the availability of mobile apps. I chose an Apple product because the Android app selection had a reputation for being thin. I was really happy to see that that’s changed over the past few years because I felt like all the major apps I was looking for were there.

The camera on this phone(really the main attraction for me) is nothing short of amazing for a mobile device. The quality(8 megapixels) blows away the one on my old phone which actually encourages me to use it more. Even without an apps, the camera comes with options that allow you to create vignettes, change the ISO or switch to a fisheye lens, which is all pretty cool, too. It’s certainly not a DSLR but I feel like I can carry this phone around and capture moments with friends without having to lug around my actual camera.

One of my favorite photography apps so far has been Pudding Camera. It’s a free app I hadn’t heard of before that comes with a fun interface letting you swap between “cameras”(framing) and “films”(tones). It’s missing a social component like Instagram has but the photos and filters always seem to come out clearest when I use this app.

At the end of the month I’m going to share my thoughts on the phone and the photo apps I’ve tried and host a giveaway for a brand new white HTC One X. After just a few days I’m starting to love mine and I’m excited to offer the opportunity for one of you to fall in love with it, too.

I don’t typically have exciting breakfasts. Usually I have oatmeal with egg whites and peanut butter or a paleo mug cake with peanut butter on top.

The common denominator? Peanut butter. Naturally, I was excited when Peanut Butter & Co. asked me to make a breakfast recipe for their All Star Recipe Blog, but I knew it’d have to be something more exciting than oatmeal.

As I looked at recipes from all around the world, I saw they all revolved around the same ingredients: eggs and grains. Add some peanut butter and fruit and that sounds like a well-rounded breakfast. I settled on arepas, a popular Columbian breakfast, and added a few American twists.

This was my first time cooking plantains. This was actually my first time eating plantains. All I knew is that they were like giant bananas… sort of. After trying them I can safely say they’re one of my new favorite foods. It might seem odd pairing them with cinnamon raisin swirl peanut butter but I love bananas and peanut butter so why not?

The other parts of this are the arepas themselves(think along the lines of unsweetened cornmeal pancakes) and a fried egg to top it all off. What doesn’t a fried egg make better? Since the dough is purely cornmeal, this dish is naturally gluten-free, too. For the full recipe and a chance to win a jar of cinnamon raisin swirl, click here and enjoy!