Cooking
This week was pretty sparse with cooking as my bestie was visiting from home so we ate out a lot throughout her stay. But we had a great breakfast spread for her last day - I followed this recipe for fluffy pancakes, and picked up some meats and cheeses at a local shop to serve with crostini, oranges and mimosas!
Other things I cooked:
Corn chowder: early this week I made corn chowder to get me through lunches. One day I’ll type up a more official recipe for the site but here’s the rough ingredients/method:
6-8 slices bacon (ideally thick cut from the butcher), cut into small pieces
1 white onion, diced
1 carrot, grated
1 bag of small potatoes, cut into quarters
1 cup frozen corn
1 can creamed corn
1 cup milk (the higher the milk fat the better, I prefer whole milk)
Lots of pepper, salt to taste
Start by cooking the bacon in a heavy-bottomed pot, ideally a dutch oven. Once the bacon is crisp, remove it from the pot leaving the bacon fat and set bacon aside. Add the onion to the bacon fat and cook until softened, then add in the grated carrots and cook for a few more minutes. Add in the potatoes and add water until the potatoes are just covered (+ a good pinch of salt to season the water/potatoes). Scrap the bottom of the pot to ensure you get any baked-on bits incorporated, and allow to simmer until potatoes are fork-tender. Using a potato masher, mash half of the potatoes (this will thicken the soup), leaving the other half as pieces. Add in frozen corn, creamed corn and milk and bring to a simmer. If you need more liquid add in more milk. Season to taste with salt and pepper (I love lots of pepper in this), and when ready to serve add back in the bacon!
HBH One-Pot Hamburger Helper: I really enjoyed this as a comforting one-pot meal, although fair warning it makes enough for like 8-10 people, so if you live alone, definitely halve the recipe, or at least halve the amount of pasta you add! I had to keep adding water because the liquid was soaking up before the pasta was done cooking (about 3 cups). I have never had Hamburger Helper so my additions probably throw off the nostalgic flavour but I added some Worcestershire sauce, dijon mustard, hot sauce, and a dash of apple cider vinegar before adding in the cheese because I felt it needed a little zing. Super tasty!
Drinking
Lambrusco! Accidentally bought this instead of prosecco but what a lovely surprise. Such a delicious sparkling red. I had the “‘Remigio 100’ Lambrusco Grasparossa di Scandiano e di Canossa DOC, Ca’ De’ Medici, Emilia-Romagna”, picked up at Spaccio (Terroni).
Following
Like everyone else on the internet I’ve discovered @emilymariko, and her food content is so mesmerizing to watch. I get my TikTok trends from IG haha.
Listening
I Drink Wine by Adele (+ every other song on her new album).
Using
My food scale. I’ve written about this before but it truly is one of the handiest tools especially when living alone. It makes it easy to weigh a serving of pasta (+ an extra handful because 85g does look sad), to follow recipes from the UK, and so much more.
Thinking
About holiday appetizers. Next weekend I’m hosting some girlfriends for a wine day, and I’m going to test some of the holiday appetizers I haven’t shared recipes for yet, including my fav sausage rolls with mint honey mustard!
Laughing
Have a great week!
Kaleigh