Garlic Parmesan Wings | Meet Me On Love Lane

I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I am happy to be hosting today's TLC Book Tours stop for the newest book in the Hopeless Romantics series by Nina Bocci, Meet Me On Love Lane. I hadn't read the first book in the series, but fortunately I was offered a copy of that one, called On the Corner of Love and Hate, as well. I'm not here to review Book 1 today, but I will tell you that I devoured it from start to finish. I was sucked in to the small town of Hope Lake and its residents.

While Book 1 focused on Emma and Cooper, Book 2 introduces us to Charlotte, and brings some of On the Corner of Love and Hate's supporting characters to the front lines. While reading the first book isn't essential to enjoying the second, I highly recommend you start from the beginning to add more depth to your experience.

Slow Roasted Yellow Cherry Tomatoes w/ Garlic & Marjoram

Tomatoes in March you ask? Why yes...tomatoes in March. Not something usually associated with the midwest in wintertime, I know. Well, unless you count the rows of jarred, canned, and dried tomatoes in many forms that line many a pantry. Like mine. I'm really not willing to go without tomatoes half of the year. Sure, I can be found breaking down and buying some Roma's from the market from time to time, as well.

Garlicky Greens and Parmesan Mashed Potatoes | #SignatureRussets

I've partnered with Idahoan on this sponsored post and all opinions stated are my own.

I have never been the best meal planner. I go through periods where I'll semi map out meals for a week or two, but I rarely follow through. I'm (almost) not ashamed to admit this weakness. I've learned to accept that I'm more of a "plan for 3 nights and fly by the seat of my pants for the remaining 4 nights" kind of gal. Having a well-stocked pantry helps me this department.

Let's say, for example, that I've cooked for the majority of the day on Sunday and we have a good, well-balanced meal that night for dinner. I also happened to make sure I had everything that I needed to make dinner for the next couple of days. Suddenly, it's Wednesday, which has been non-stop work and errands all day long. We finally roll in the door that evening after picking up kids from sports and after school activities and everybody is asking me what's for dinner before I can even hang up the keys.

Bucket of Garlic (Fries) | Hotel Transylvania 2 #FoodnFlix

This month's Food 'n Flix pick is the family-friendly, animated Hotel Transylvania 2, which (surprise!) picks up where Hotel Transylvania left off. Drac has accepted that his daughter loves a human, and Mavis and Johnny are married. Humans and monsters are coexisting throughout most of the world—even in Drac's hotel.

Fast forward a bit to a pregnant Mavis, and eventually baby Dennis. Dennis has big, curly ginger hair like his dad does, and seems human. But Vampa ("vampire grandpa"), aka Drac, believes that Dennis is just a "late fanger", since fangs might not pop out until a vampire's fifth birthday. But Mavis wants her dad to accept that Dennis is human and thinks that they should move to America, to be near the human side of the family.

Garlicky Duck Sausage Rolls

I often hear people dismiss British food as boring, but I've always been fascinated by it. Of course, I'm fascinated by the food of all cultures, so maybe that's not very surprising. But with names like Toad in the Hole, Bubble and Squeak, Spotted Dick, Cullen Skink, and Welsh Rarebit, how could one not be intrigued? And it's not just the names, I've tried all but spotted dick...and each is tasty.

One thing that I hadn't tried making myself until yesterday was a simple sausage roll. The name may not be exciting, but I don't know why I waited so long to actually try them. How could sausage baked inside a pastry crust be anything but delicious? And while it's anything but boring, I did shake things up a bit and use duck sausage in place of pork sausage.

Garlicky Duck Stir-Fry inspired by Eat Drink Man Woman

"Eat, drink, man, woman. Basic human desires."

This month's Food 'n Flix pick is a true "foodie movie". A delight for the senses, Eat Drink Man Woman is set in Taiwan and centers around widowed Master Chef Chu and his three unmarried adult daughters who still live at home. Each Sunday they come together to connect over a lovingly crafted elaborate family meal. The daughters are being pulled in their own directions by love and careers while they notice that their father's once flawless food is starting to lack flavor because he has lost his sense of taste.

Sound familiar? Well, if you haven't seen this 1994 release before, maybe you've seen the 2001 flick Tortilla Soup. Tortilla Soup is the American remake that features a Mexican-American family living in Southern California. I think both movies are equally delicious in their own right.

Garlicky Chard Stuffed Flank Steak | #NationalGarlicDay

I crave garlic the way some people crave chocolate, so every year when National Garlic Day rolls around, I try to make the most of it by sharing a particularly garlicky dish and inviting my friends to do the same. Since I made dessert last year, I thought I go with an entree this year.

Originally I'd planned on doing a twist on one of my all-time favorite dishes, chicken with 40 garlic cloves, using beef brisket. Switch out the herbs, use red wine instead of white wine...but alas, I couldn't get my hands on a brisket. I should have known I'd need to order it from the butcher in advance; Texas this is not. I didn't plan ahead, so my plans changed. Staring at the butcher case, I decided to go with flank steak since I can't even remember the last time I ate (let alone made) it. But I didn't want to do the same dish since it's a dish that's better when cooked slowly...and I didn't want overcooked, chewy flank steak.

So, I had some flank steak staring me down. I also had a big, beautiful bunch of rainbow chard in my crisper. Greens and garlic are a match made in heaven, so I decided that combining all three would give me a bang-on garlicky good meal. For one flank steak (I got a good 2 pounder), I used 10 fat cloves. It was odorific! My teenager was out that evening at a sporting event, and when he got home 5 hours after it was made, he said "ooooh, I smell garlic" the minute he walked in the door. Mission accomplished.

Turkey and Wild Rice Soup

When I was a kid, I used to pray that it wouldn't snow before my birthday. Since my birthday falls three days after Halloween, an evening of being able to wear costumes unhindered was automatically covered in that prayer. Sometimes my prayers were answered, sometimes they weren't. It was a crapshoot.

Fast-forward 30 years, and we're lucky if it snows before mid-January. Yes, there's usually one really big, foreboding blast during the first half of November that fools us into unearthing every spare pair of gloves, hat, and scarf we had packed away—but it fades into a distant memory long before lights start twinkling from every other house on the street. I can't remember our last white Christmas. And as far as I'm concerned, once Christmas is over, I'm done with snow. Oh how my younger, largest-snowy-hill-in-the-neighborhood-seeking self would be disappointed in me.

My point really being that it's now January 2nd, and instead of peering out the window to a white blanket that envelops our street in a hush, I see lawns mottled with patches of brown. But those gloves are definitely getting their use, as it is cold as all get-out. Which means that I pretty much want a big pot of soup simmering on the stove on a daily basis.

Spiced Fig and Garlic Chicken Wings

Whether you're enjoying them outside the stadium, plucking them one by one from a huge foil pan, or getting messy inside during the game, wings are one of those ubiquitous game day foods. Some like them spicy (hand raised), some like them sweet (okay, I'll raise a hand here, too), some like them bathed in garlic (both hands and both feet raised), but you're hard-pressed to find somebody who doesn't enjoy a good chicken wing. Vegetarians—sssshhhhh. You can have cauliflower "wings" instead; I won't deny you.

So, since today is the official start of the #10DaysofTailgate, what better thing to share than a finger-lickin' batch of wings? These particular wings are simple. Beyond simple. With only three other ingredients (one of which is optional), I should probably say embarrassingly simple. But hey, they're too good not to share. Plus, they feature one of our awesome #10DaysofTailgate sponsors, Not Ketchup!

Spiced Fig = Instantly Smitten. This fruit ketchup is slightly tangy and slightly sweet, and my bottle is entirely empty. I rinsed it out and put it back on the shelf, but as of yet, it's not automatically regenerating. And for some reason, I couldn't get the idea of combining it with garlic and slathering on wings out of my head. So, that was exactly what I did.