Cooking
Grossy Pelosi’s Chocolate Chip Cookies: I love these cookies if I’m craving that classic soft chocolate chip cookie. Be sure to read his instructions and review the pictures of each step; it’s a very different method from most cookies (you don’t fully cream the butter with the sugars, the dough is a bit more crumbly). The dough freezes super well for individual cookies to bake-from-frozen for future you. I halved the recipe for 2.5 dozen!
Other things I cooked:
Half Baked Harvest’s Honey Garlic Salmon Soba Noodle Bowls: I loved this so much - was a super filling and nourishing meal. A few adjustments I made: next time I would cook just half a package of soba noodles (I use the T&T brand buckwheat soba noodles, 363g package), and I also added a splash of rice vinegar and honey to the tahini sauce because I found it very sesame oil forward. I used broccolini instead of broccoli since that’s what we had on hand and would recommend it! It got super crispy.
Smitten Kitchen’s Greens, Orzo and Meatball Soup: this is definitely going into the winter soup rotation - it was so easy and so delicious. The only change I’d make is next time I’d cook the orzo separately and store it separately for leftovers. The orzo absorbed a little too much liquid overnight and became sad/squishy.
HBH’s Creamy French Onion Pasta Bake: I loooove this pasta bake - so creamy and delicious. A few notes: the recipe took me about 1.5 hours beginning to end because I let the onions really cook down which takes more like 30 mins vs 5 mins in the recipe. I found each step took much longer than she described (besides the baking at the end!). Next time I also think I’d double up on the mushrooms to make it a bit more hearty as a veggie main. So good!
Helen Rosner’s Go-To Salad Dressing: I screenshotted the linked thread on Twitter for this recipe, but it’s basically equal parts white wine vinegar (I used apple cider because I didn’t have ww) and extra virgin olive oil then, a spoonful of dried oregano, 1 garlic glove minced/grated, salt n pep, a dollop of mayo and a squeeze of honey. I loved this on spinach as a bright side with the pasta bake!
Sweet and Spicy Cauliflower Bites: I hadn’t made these in so long but they are one of my fav appetizers. The exterior gets so crispy, and the sauce is tangy delicious. We didn’t have limes so I used a splash of rice vinegar instead - still yummy.
Glazed Chicken Meatballs: it’s also been a while since I made this old fav from my site and they were so delicious as a little appetizer this weekend. I did them as mini-cocktail meatballs - I think next time when making them smaller I would use ground pork so there’s a bit more moisture to them. They stay moist in regular size but in the mini version, I found they dried out a bit.
Simple Bite’s Cornmeal Pancakes: I am really into cornmeal right now - I love the texture and flavour it adds to breakfast foods. I think I must have mismeasured something when I made these because my batter was soooo thin (like crepe batter), so I ended up adding an extra ½ cup of AP flour to get the texture right. They were so yummy!
Ham, Cheese, Spinach Frittata: I riffed on this recipe from the Food Network, adding a couple of handfuls of chopped, fresh spinach to the pan with the onions at the end. I decided to bake the frittata instead of following their stovetop version - about 25 mins at 400F. I made mine in a cast iron pan, just added some butter to the pan before pouring in the filling.
Smitten Kitchen’s Roast Chicken with Schmatzy Cabbage: omg this might be my new go-to roast chicken recipe. So simple (basically 3 ingredients) and the cabbage gets so stewy and delicious. My chicken skin was so crisp too! I did 2 smaller chickens side by side so my cook time was a bit longer - about 1.5 hours. Definitely check with your meat thermometer since cooking times will vary.
Eden Eat’s Honey Roasted Carrots, Rice with Dill and Dates and Tzatziki: These were the perfect sides with the roast chicken above. The roasted vegs had a nice heat to them that paired well with the creamy tzatziki, and the rice was addictive with the fresh dill and sweet dates. One adjustment I made was halving the salt in the rice because I only had salted butter.
Reading
The dark side of cod, rum and molasses: Dispelling the myths around N.L. staple foods
Following
@hellolisalin I saved her pork and cabbage potstickers and dumpling skirt videos this week to try making soon!
Listening
Careful, Kid (Be Kind Version) by The Staves.
Thinking
About how much I love making brunch at home. I find it to be the most creative outlet - you can really play around with sweet and savoury, which is my favourite flavour combo. I often use brunch as an opportunity to use up any odds and ends in the fridge, like my own episode of Chopped. It feels low stakes compared to dinner if something doesn’t turn out - there’s nothing a good glug of maple syrup can’t fix!
Laughing
Have a great week,
Kaleigh