What is there not to love about Chrissy Teigen? I dare you not to like her witty banter on Twitter, adorable relationship with her husband, John Legend, baby Luna and endless snaps and grams of food. I have been a long time admirer of Chrissy Teigen and have wanted her cookbook, Cravings, since it was released. My return to the kitchen after my first year of college was a perfect excuse to acquire Chrissy Teigen’s cookbook and make it my summer goal to cook the majority of this cookbook. While you are reading this you must have lots of questions: What recipes did you cook? Were they as yummy as they look? Did the recipes give you Chrissy Teigen‘s body? Are you now married to John Legend and mother to Luna? Well, I will answer all of these.
First Impressions
I have not been this excited for a package in the mail since I ordered a Tamagotchi. I kid-you-not, I actually waited for the UPS guy and must have thought he was handing over a million dollars cash with the look on my face. The moment I read the opening marks, I was surer than ever that I had made the best purchase of my life. Each recipe opens with a short description about the recipe, where she got the inspiration or any other funny commentary she has. I decided to dog-ear each recipe I wanted to cook and when I finished reading the last page, I had dog-eared the majority of the book. Now, all that was left to do was to get cooking.
Cookin’ up a storm
In Chrissy’s (we’re on a first-name basis now) intro to her cookbook, she explains that she likes to take her time cooking; she prefers to pour herself a glass of wine, turn on some music, and spend hours in the kitchen really enjoying the experience. I usually don’t start dinner until I the moment I need to but, in order to get the true Cravings’ experience, I started my dinner long before usual. Once I started cooking and buying ingredients, I realized that despite Chrissy Teigen being a swimsuit model, these recipes are far from what we could imagine a supermodel would eat. Not only is her cookbook filled with garlic bread, mac and cheese and Cacio e Pepe pasta, but butter is abundant. Her sweet potato gnocchi with brown butter and sage sauce (pictured above) calls for an entire stick of butter (it was delicious, but that much butter will clog your arteries).
What’d I cook?
I’ve cooked a lot of really delicious food since I purchased this cookbook. I don’t want to bore you with the entire list of what I cooked, but I will hit you with the highlights. One evening (pictured above) I made Teigen’s Cheesy Guacamole, Skillet Charred Fish Tacos and Mexican Street Corn. I am obsessed with guac, but this Cheesy Guacamole, put all other quacs to shame. Another fave was the Lemony Arugula Spaghetti Cacio e Pepe. My brothers rarely will eat anything I cook for them, but they practically licked the plate. Another dish that made the list of MVP was the Chinese Chicken Salad. I ended up making this dish two times in a week due to its popularity. Yum!
Results
What did I gain from cooking this cookbook? About 5 lbs, but also a lot of pride. My friends frequently request I make them dinner and I pleased the impossible critics: my family. My brothers typically move the food around the plate and then I hope I don’t notice when they grab a bowl of cereal, but Chrissy Teigen’s Lemony Arugula Cacio e Pepe (Pictured above) did the impossible. My picky brothers ate three plates of this pasta then asked when I was making it next. Another moment of pride came when I prepared Teigen’s Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Brown Butter Sage Sauce. Although this recipe was under a section titled: Things That Intimidate People but Shouldn’t, this recipe was super f*cking hard. But, I persisted and made this dish and received raving reviews.
My photo album of food pics has grown with new, delicious pics and I have greatly enjoyed diving deep into Cravings. It allowed me to explore new cuisines and push myself to try new cooking techniques. I have improved my skills and found some of my new go-to recipes (and I might even try the gnocchi again).