What’s Been Cooking: September 2025
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Hey friends, and happy fall! September flew by in a blur – here’s what we were up to:
🏖️ Beach Vacation in Ocean City NJ
Every year, we visit OCNJ with Alex’s family for a week of beach time, boardwalk pizza, mini golf, and ice cream cones. We missed last year’s trip since it was right before our wedding, so we were extra excited to go back this year!
Being back on the east coast now means we can drive to the shore. So we packed up our giant cooler with our favorite dips, snacks, and batch cocktails to share with everyone. Here’s what we made:
- Potato macaroni salad – Our new summer obsession after trying Hawaiian mac salad on our honeymoon last year (we’ve been making the recipe from Alana Kysar’s Aloha Kitchen cookbook). Alex’s dad always brings pulled pork to the shore, so we thought this would be the perfect side dish for a Hawaiian style plate lunch. It disappeared fast!
- Pineapple coconut margaritas – Our most batch-preppable cocktail recipe, and the perfect thing to sip on after a day on the beach.
- Gin basil mojito mix – I’ve been drinking these all summer, so I knew I had to bring this with us, too! We made a basil simple syrup and mixed it with gin and lime juice in our giant 64 ounce mason jar, then brought club soda and fresh basil for finishing the cocktails on the spot.
- Cottage cheese queso – There’s always a Mexican night in Ocean City (our sweet potato black bean enchiladas are a hit with family), and this creamy dip was the perfect side.
- Jalapeno salsa cream cheese – Bagels are also a vacation staple, which means flavored cream cheese must be on the menu! This one’s our favorite for summer since we can make it with jalapenos from our garden.
- Chipotle mayo – Sandwiches are our go-to lunch on beach days. Chipotle mayo is my favorite condiment to slather on a chicken or pork sandwich, so this was non-negotiable.
- Harissa lime labneh – Since we learned how to make labneh from Ottolenghi’s MasterClass on Middle Eastern cooking, we’ve been looking for every excuse to indulge in it. I like to add a little lime juice and harissa for a simple yet punchy flavor that makes this great for snacking with crackers or pita.
- Tzatziki – We actually made this for the Mediterranean bowls we cooked for dinner before leaving for vacation, so we brought the leftovers for snacking instead of letting it go to waste.
Some of the other delicious things we ate/drank: a Korean corndog stuffed with cheddar cheese and coated in Hot Cheeto dust; frozen hot chocolates from Ocean City Coffee Company; many slices of pizza that are so big they’re served on 2 plates; and the best fresh donuts from Browns Restaurant on the boardwalk!
🍎 Apple Picking
We ended September with the perfect fall day in Vermont: apple picking at Shelburne Orchards.
Our adventure began with a tractor ride through the orchard, which overlooks Lake Champlain and the Adirondacks beyond. They dropped us off to pick through their Ruby Mac, McIntosh, Gala, Cortland, and Honey Crisp trees, then we walked back to the farm store for tacos, live music, and apple cider donuts!
We ended up coming home with nearly 20 pounds of apples – so we’ve been busy thinking up all the ways to use them! Here’s what we already made and have planned:
- Apples and caramel – This is my favorite fall treat, and one that I look forward to every year! We already broke open our tub of Marzetti caramel dip and snacked on one of the honey crisp apples last weekend.
- Apple slaw – After our day of apple picking, we cut one right open and used it to make a simple apple slaw for a Vermont-inspired burger. It was delicious, so you’ll be seeing this new burger recipe on the blog in the next few weeks! The leftover slaw also made a great topping for pulled pork sandwiches last week.
- Apple crisp – We’ve been experimenting with apple crisp recipes for the past few years, and this year we’re finally going to try and nail one down to share with you on the blog! We’re excited to try a new twist on it this year using pure Vermont maple syrup in the mix. Stay tuned for an update on how it goes 🙂
- Cinnamon applesauce – Alex loves to make a batch of fresh applesauce every fall, so we’re reserving some of our haul just for this recipe.
What are your favorite ways to use apples? Tell us in the comments!
🍴 Simplifying Our Dinner Routine
Life has felt so busy lately that we’ve been adding more and more “quick and easy” dinners to our weekly rotation. Honestly, it’s been such a great challenge to get more creative with our cooking again and try to pack as much flavor as possible into a simple meal!
Some highlights from September include:
Chickpea and potato curry made with Maya Kaimal simmer sauce. It’s our go-to brand for quick curries since they’re so flavorful and just about the perfect size for 2 servings. We simply boiled the potato until it was tender, then browned and lightly crisped it in a frying pan with the chickpeas before adding the sauce. 15 minutes of simmering later, dinner was ready!
A spicy cauliflower bowl with leftovers from our cauliflower taco dinner. Dinners that involve photographing a new recipe for the website can often take a lot of time and energy, so we always try to follow it up with a super easy meal the next night. This one worked out perfectly, since we made a double batch of our spicy air fryer cauliflower tacos to have leftovers for the next night. But rather than just having tacos again, we repurposed it into a spicy cauliflower bowl with jasmine rice (cooked fresh), pickled red onions (also left over from tacos), salted cucumber (made fresh), and toasted almonds (from the pantry).
If you’re curious about what we cook for dinner on a day-to-day basis, follow us on Instagram! We share our weekly meal plan on our stories on Monday mornings, followed by some sneak peeks into our kitchen while we’re cooking.
🫒 Chef’s Life Partnership
We recently joined a new ambassador program for Chef Brian Malarkey’s company, Chef’s Life! We’re always excited to take on partnerships that feel truly aligned with our mission and values, and this felt like the perfect fit.
If you’ve ever been confused about what oil to use for different types of cooking or finishing, Chef’s Life takes the guesswork out of your decision with their premium oil blends. We’re always harping on the difference between cooking-grade olive oil and extra virgin olive oil, so we’re excited to use this partnership to continue educating home chefs on these nuances.
If you’re in the market for cooking oils or just want to learn more about Chef’s Life, check out their website here and use our code CANDIDCOOKS for 15% off your order!
📸 Photo Updates and Recipe Reels
As always, we’re continuing to update old photos on the website and film recipe reels for Instagram.
This month, we made our maple bourbon bacon burger and fried chicken and waffles (both made great football meals; stay tuned for updated photos coming soon!) and filmed videos of our air fryer buffalo cauliflower bites and Mexican bean dip. If you haven’t yet, follow us on Instagram or TikTok to watch them!
Thanks for tuning in! We hope you’re having a cozy start to the fall season and can’t wait to share more wholesome comfort food recipes with you.
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Were you able to get unpasteurized cider at your orchard? Orchards are the only place I’ve been able to get it for many years — which means never in Florida. That is what I grew up on (in Upstate New York), and nothing, nothing tastes like it. The best store cider is like canned apple juice in comparison.
Of course, pressing your own cider from heritage apples and letting it ferment for a day or two is absolutely the VERY best — but a lot of work.
I’m not sure if the cider we tried this year was unpasteurized, but last year we took home a small bottle of it from a different orchard and it was delicious! Pressing your own cider sounds amazing – we might have to try that some day 🙂