FAQs

What’s your favorite thing to cook?

Alex: Pizza. I love making dough from scratch, it’s one of my favorite foods, and I love the creativity and combinations you can make.

Nicole: This is a tough one – I think it has to be tacos. I love making all these different, flavorful components and then seeing how they come together at the dinner table.

What do you love most about running The Candid Cooks?

We love constantly experimenting with food and discovering new flavors. We’re never bored in the kitchen – there’s always something new and exciting to try! 

We also truly believe the best way to connect with others and make memories is through food. By getting to share our recipes, we hope that we can be a part of helping others make these connections and memories, and that brings us so much joy.

How often do you develop and test recipes?

Almost nightly. We use our everyday dinners to work on new recipes, and when we’re not working on something new we’re either remaking old recipes to make sure they’re still up to our standards, or we’re going out to eat to get inspired!

What do you do with all the food you make?

We eat it all!

We really hate food waste, so we carefully plan our meals to make sure we can eat everything. We’re always having leftovers for lunch and freezing what we know we won’t be able to eat right away. And when an experiment doesn’t turn out as good as we want it to, we find a way to repurpose it into something worth eating!

Baked goods are tough for us – we both have a sweet tooth and if we make a whole batch of cookies, they’re going to disappear too quickly. We have to limit how often we’re making sweets and make sure that we freeze some so we don’t eat them right away, and we use every opportunity we can to bake when we know we can bring some to friends and family. That’s why you’ll also find a lot of small batch sweets on our website!

What’s your philosophy on food?

We believe that food is more than just sustenance for our bodies. It’s also meant to nourish our souls! Whether we’re cooking dinner on a normal Tuesday night or hosting a celebratory dinner party, food is central to our lives – so we strive to enjoy it to the fullest. (After all, the average human spends about 4.5 years of their life eating 🤯)

To us, food can be a way to show someone you love them. Or, it can be a way to honor culture and tradition. Simply enjoying a good meal can release feel-good chemicals in the brain! Since what we choose to eat impacts our physical, emotional, and mental well-being, every part of our recipes matters to us. We’re purposeful about the ingredients we cook with, and we want every recipe to be as easy as possible so that it’s fun to cook – and eat!

What’s the best restaurant you’ve ever eaten at?

This one’s easy! We had the best dinner at Beach House Restaurant on Kauai during our honeymoon. We ate dumplings, macadamia nut crusted mahi mahi with citrus miso beurre blanc, coconut jasmine rice, and ginger bok choy, and coconut creme brulee with house made ginger snaps. We also had the best cocktails made with local rum, plus a nightcap of local whiskey and local dark rum.

The restaurant was right on the water and we had a great table with a sunset view. 5-star service and everything tasted amazing! We’re already dreaming of going back.

Do you have a favorite cocktail?

The easy answer for us both is a margarita. If you wanted a little more special of an answer, Nicole loves to sip on a bee’s knees and Alex is torn between a dark and stormy and a negroni.

Why didn’t my recipe turn out like the one in your photos?

There are so many reasons a recipe can go wrong. The reality is, there are tons of variables that contribute to how a recipe turns out that we can’t always account for in a recipe post. Things like your stove or oven temperature and type of cookware, or even more nuanced differences like the exact size of your produce or the brand of cheese you picked, can have a big impact on the final result.

This is why we always try to include intuitive cooking cues – things like “bake until golden brown” – in addition to times and temperatures. This can help make up for variances in the kitchen and it’ll help you learn to adjust recipes on the fly based on your exact environment.

What is intuitive cooking?

Intuitive cooking simply means using your senses to guide your cooking, rather than relying on exact times or temperatures, which can vary greatly from kitchen to kitchen.

The first time anyone explicitly explained this concept to us was when we watched Roy Choi’s MasterClass on intuitive cooking – and it totally changed the way we approached recipe development! Learning to trust your instincts in the kitchen can help you make smart decisions about cooking times, temperatures, and methods that will work no matter what, instead of following a recipe word-for-word and hoping for the best.

You can learn more about intuitive cooking in our detailed blog post about it!

What if I can’t cook?

You don’t have to be a professional chef to cook something that can bring you, or others, joy (see our philosophy on food above). You don’t even have to be a mediocre cook. You just need the right recipe – that’s what we’re here for – and a willingness to learn.

Can comfort food really be healthy?

Yes! That’s what we’re all about. 

Is comfort food “healthy” in the same sense as a salad? No, but healthy doesn’t just mean low-calorie, low-carb, or low-fat. Our bodies need a wide variety of nutrients, and healthy looks different for every person.

We believe that healthy foods should be natural and nourishing, and that a well-balanced diet includes all kinds of foods, including comforting meals made with wholesome ingredients.

You can find all sorts of nutritious recipes on our website, including:

• High protein recipes – like high protein nachos, spinach cottage cheese pasta, spicy cashew pasta with crispy chicken, and even buttermilk protein pancakes!
• Meals with lots of veggies – like vegetarian tostadas, coconut red lentil soup, chipotle lime burrito bowls, and sweet potato black bean rice bowls.
• Healthier versions of classics – some of our favorites are cottage cheese queso, vegetarian lasagna, green chicken enchiladas, and sweet potato chili.

Do you share nutritional information for your recipes?

All of our recipes have nutritional information generated by the recipe card plugin we use, WP Recipe Maker. This information is meant to be a guideline, as we are not certified nutritionists. To learn more, visit our Nutrition Disclaimer.

Do you work with brands?

Yes! We partner with brands that we feel align with our values and benefit our readers. If you are interested in working with us, please visit our Work With Us page.

Can I use your recipes or photos on my website?

Recipes: No, we do not allow republishing of our recipes or blog posts in any format. If you make a recipe inspired by one of ours (which we love to see!), please link directly to our recipe post as the source and ensure that no part of it has been copied directly.

Photos: Yes, we love seeing our photos shared as long as we are properly credited! You may use one photo from any post and must link back to the direct post. Please provide photo credit to “The Candid Cooks” or “Nicole and Alex Langdon, The Candid Cooks.”

All content on thecandidcooks.com is copyright The Candid Cooks.