website love: gojee

Gojee (www.gojee.com) is a great resource for anyone who stares into the fridge wondering "what the heck can I make out of this stuff?" While some people seem to have a gift for throwing ingredients into bowls and pots seemingly at random and coming up with delicious concoctions, my attempts at being spontaneous in the kitchen usually yield not-so-palatable results.

 

Sweet Potato Gnocchi recipe from Gojee

Enter Gojee. Have some random ingredients on hand and don't know what they can be used for? Just click the "I have" button at the top and enter the contents of your fridge and pantry, and Gojee will bring up recipes that use up what you have. Similarly, enter a food you've been daydreaming about (or you  know, that expires in 2 days)  into "I crave" and Gojee will bring up a bunch of recipes featuring it. I also like the "I dislike" option where you can enter foods you can't stand (*cough* green peppers) or foods you're allergic to, and they'll never be suggested to you. As you start cooking, save your favorite recipes right on the site, or use the "share" button to tweet, facebook, or email your finds.

Meyer Lemon Clouds recipe from Gojee

The interface is simple, the site itself is visually appealing, and the recipes don't fill this amateur with despair. This is definitely a website I'll be turning to often in my new kitchen!

small kitchen gems

I will be attending grad school in the fall, and part of that requires me to move out of the DC suburbs and into the city. I've just made my first couple appointments to look at apartments, and I'm so excited! I absolutely can't wait to have my own space to furnish and decorate, even if that space is going to be quite small. In anticipation, I've already started buying a couple items here and there. It's probably not such a good idea since I don't know how much space I'll have, so I've stuck to some nice but useful items. These latte bowls from Anthropologie are my favorite purchases thus far:

 

Jewel assorted latte bowls, $30 at Anthropologie

Although they're a bit pricey and mismatched, which might make buying plates to go with them difficult (though I'm thinking these grey & white ones from Ikea, or something similarly neutral), I just absolutely love how colorful and vivid they are. Better yet, they're brighter versions of the bowls my host mom had when I studied abroad in Paris, which I always gravitated towards despite her wide array of crockery. I am in no way a morning person, but having breakfast out of these bowls will definitely add a bit of cheerfulness to the start of my day!