February

Margaret of the What Fresh Hell podcast recently mentioned that her sister has a saying to never make big decisions in February. It's dark and dreary and it's not a good time to decide, "I need to open a bar in Puerto Rico," or "I think I'm gonna cut bangs" (oops!).

I hadn't heard that advice before, but I think it's spot-on. February has an energy that emerges after we've had a month to detox from the holidays, but before it's realistic to start thinking about our gardens again. 

However, deciding on a whim to have this door painted Unmellow Yellow was a Good February Decision.

I've survived this past January only by cooking the same booooring foods every week for weeks on end. (I just can't care. I won't always feel this way about cooking, but I probably will always feel this way in January. The more I fight it, the harder my struggle with depression.)

Then one day late in February, I wake up and think, hey, maybe, just maybe, I should/can cook something different today. 

Which is what happened two days ago with a beautiful roasted chicken.

Actually, to tell the truth, it began earlier with a I-Want-To-Eat-Lemon-Loaf-But-I-Can't-Bring-Myself-To-Make-It kind of energy. My mom had brought me a bunch of Meyer lemons and they had just been waiting to be turned into cake. Fortunately for me, my friend Bethany offered to help me make it so I didn't have to deal. 

(If you're wondering, it's the Silver Palate recipe; this is the first time I--er, Bethany--made the actual icing for it and it's so good.)

Within days of having that cake made and getting to eat it, I made a whole (!) roasted (!) chicken (!) for my family! The recipe was from Bon Appetit and called for a whole lemon, whole head of garlic, and 1/4 cup of butter. 

I'll put the recipe below because I switched up a few things, and also for your/my convenience because the recipe doesn't seem printable, and also why must one scroll back and forth from the steps to the amounts of the ingredients?!?! Admittedly, the pictures/videos(?) are good and helpful, so I recommend you read that first, but I will use my blog as future reference when I'm actually cooking this. 

I had started to draft this post in my head and then realized that I did this same exact thing (i.e., getting just a teesny bit excited about cooking) last year, in February. (Incidentally, from The Silver Palate, again. Haha, 1979 likes to call me every year in February.) I guess it's a thing. A "I Still Somewhat Like To Cook" thing. 

Anyhoo, if you too are needing a distraction from wanting to move to the equator or chop off all your hair, try this No-Fail Roasted Chicken with Lemon and Garlic.

Whole Roasted Chicken with Lemon and Garlic
adapted from Bon Appetit

1 whole chicken
4 t salt
black pepper
1 whole lemon
1 head garlic

Way ahead of time:

Make lemon cake so you can have lemons that have already been zested and are ready for this dish.

Ahead of time:

While you hands are Pre-Chicken Clean, cut a (or the aforementioned) lemon in half and remove any visible seeds. 

Then take a head of garlic and slice it in half, cross-wise. (Would this be considered "hamburger" style?)

Take out the chicken from fridge a couple hours before you want to cook. Fill a bowl with 4 teaspoons salt and a bunch of black pepper. (I might try some seasoned salt and/or oregano and smoked paprika next time.) 

Put chicken on a plate for marinating and make a 3"-long incision between the leg and breast, about until you hit the joint, exposing the leg. 

Then generously salt and pepper everywhere: inside the cavity, in between the leg and breast where you just cut, the breast and backbone sides, and under the wing. (I measure out a bowl ahead of time because it helps me make sure I use plenty of salt without getting chicken-hands on my salt and pepper things.)

You could pat the chicken dry during or before this process like BA tells you, but I'll be telling you to pat it dry later because the salt draws out more water.

Let chicken sit on the counter to dry brine. This (i.e., the salt and the time coming up to room temperature) helps ensure moist white meat.

About an hour before you'd like to eat:

Pre-heat oven to 425. Microwave 1/4 cup butter until melted. Then, transfer chicken, breast-side-up, to a cast iron skillet. Dry the chicken with paper towels, especially the side facing up. This helps get you a crisp skin.

Tuck both halves of lemon and garlic face down on pan. Pour melted butter all over the chicken.

Put in oven to roast about 45 minutes. When it's cooked, take it out and let rest in the pan for 10 minutes before serving. Serve with all the yummy pan juices; allow diners to squeeze extra lemon and fight over the roasted garlic pieces. 

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Thank you, Elise and Maria!

The meal your February needs

Mid-winter is such a struggle. My (cooking) life is the bare branches I will to develop buds by staring at it really hard. 

Tonight's dinner was one such bud that was a mercy. I decided it needing sharing right away, even with dark nighttime photos.

It's a meal that's got a high fanciness:effort ratio and I think it'll be just what you need. Apparently I'd been carrying around this recipe for 19 years without knowing it, because it's in the first cookbook I ever received, The Silver Palate. The gals at The Modern Proper updated the recipe and made it even easier and more accessible.

I'll keep this post short and just get to the recipe, which I highly recommend getting to this week, maybe for Valentine's?

No we don't usually have wine or light candles every night.

We served this with a delightful blush-colored Rosé (the kids loved their Mandarin orange seltzer water) and a steamed and buttered rutabaga. (Tip for the frequently-carded at the grocery store: toss some uncommon root veggies on the conveyor belt before your alcohol and see if they still think you're part of the under 21 crowd.)

Without further ado...

Sheet Pan Chicken Marbella
from The Modern Proper

4 lbs bone-in skin-on chicken thighs

Make a paste marinade by pulsing together:

1/2 cup pitted green (or black) olives
1/3 cup pitted prunes
1/4 olive oil
4 garlic cloves
2 T capers
1 t dried oregano
2 t salt
lots of freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup white wine (I used sake)

Cover both sides of your chicken thighs with this marinade -- you can even do this directly on your sheet pan. Or you can do this ahead of time to let it marinate for longer (e.g., in a gallon-sized ziplock bag for an easy weeknight dinner).

When you're ready to bake it, preheat your oven to 400 F. Pour the following onto the pan:

1/3 cup white wine
1 cup chicken stock
1/3 cup olives, halved
1/3 chopped prunes (I omitted this because I only had enough for the puree, but I think it would be good)
1 T capers
1-2 T brown sugar (I was worried it would make it sweet, but it's the perfect balance for the wine; think Chicken Marsala)
salt + pepper

Bake for 30 minutes. (I checked it during the baking and needed to pour more stock.) Remove chicken onto your serving dish. Transfer the pan drippings to small saucepan and reduce if needed (I didn't). Whisk in 2 T cold butter. Pour sauce over the serving platter and garnish with 2 T minced parsley. Repeat the phrase "pan sauce" to your family over and over because you are so fancy.

Finally, finish this meal with a tiny dish of ice cream.

Gold for us, or, Brainless Crowdpleasers

As promised, here is our family's list of BCPs. Note that it includes some take-out, eat-out, and frozen options. It's not limited to just what we can prepare from scratch; it's a list of what we can have for dinner that should mostly please everyone at the table. A lot of them are similar - permutations of each other - and that's okay. In fact, that's part of why this works.

I didn't do the exact math, but I think it's about 75% Asian, the reason for which I expounded upon in my previous post.

This is close to the order in which I originally brainstormed them, so you'll see funny associations and a lot of things grouped together because one thing made me think of another.

Nice to know I had Noona's approval on my list

It seemed weird to write all of them out, but I think that's the beauty of it. Having this list is gold for us, even if it doesn't look like much to anyone else.

1. Pork egg omelette
2. Costco rotisserie chicken and rice
3. Spring rolls (usually with rotisserie chicken)
4. Rotisserie chicken pho
5. Bún bowls w/ rotisserie chicken or steak (are you sensing a pattern here? ;P)
6. Thit kho / braised pork belly (Viet-Chinese blend)
7. Kalbi
8. Bulgogi that my MIL marinates, freezes, and brings over
9. Fried pompano from Evergreen Market
10. Cabbage Patch Soup
11. Pizza, homemade
12. Pizza, from Costco
13. Oxtail soup with noodles or rice, or turned into pho with the addition of fish sauce and rice noodles (we love any of these options with kale boiled in the broth at the last minute and removed)
14. Pho Asia take out or eat-in
15. Xuxu (chayote) soup
16. Canh with ground pork meatballs and opo squash or cabbage
17. Hamburgers
18. Homemade Hamburger Helper (I modify this with oregano instead of rosemary, and with minced garlic; also I use a lot more pasta water, and don't always use the full amount of chicken stock)
19. Pasta with bulk Italian sausage, spinach, artichoke hearts, sun-dried tomatoes
20. Sheet pan chicken
21. Fried rice
22. Green bean and egg with rice
23. Dumplings (frozen), noodles, and vegetable in chicken broth
24. Cauliflower alfredo fettucine
25. Vietnamese chicken curry
26. Golden curry with chicken thighs
27. Sunday Night Stew
28. Pot roast
29. Corned beef and cabbage
30. Chile verde for tacos or rice bowls
31. BBQ beef brisket
32. Whole chicken soup with ginger and garlic
33. Chicken or pork meatball porridge with Chinese fried donut, cilantro/ginger/green onion
34. Ginger fried rice
35. Take-out sullungtang or soondubu
36. Ground pork sauce over thin spaghetti or Shandong noodles (I posted on something similar once, and have since learned a better marinade for the meat, so I might update that)
37. Ham and green beans
38. Ginger chicken - plain or with celery, bell pepper, or whatever other vegetable needs to be used up (a cross between Viet ga kho gung and Chinese ginger chicken)
39. Steamed spare ribs in black bean sauce
40. Yakisoba or japchae
41. Israeli couscous with chicken, zucchini, and tomato (I made this once with orzo and it was a hit, although also a confusing mind trip because orzo is rice-shaped.)
42. Spaghetti with the marinara on the side
43. Beef, vegetable, macaroni soup (like minestrone)

Pork egg omelette  (#1 on this list and for good reason) is my shorthand for what some may call coin-purse egg omelettes. This post on Woks of Life has good pictures of what they look like when you make them the "real" way - they really look like coin purses of egg filled with ground pork inside, and you can make them smaller to make them kid-sized. 

My mom made them this way growing up, but I do a simplified version that works for us, and is faster. It doesn't look nearly as pretty, hence the lack of pictures here, but it tastes the same to me.

You basically marinate ground pork in what my mom would call "the standard marinade" (the ingredients of which would remain a mystery to me until I got into my 30s - maybe she was waiting for me to reach Mom Status before she revealed to me these secrets??), saute the meat, then, pour beaten eggs over it.

I use my spatula to cut the "omelette" into fourths, and then carefully flip over each quarter and let them cook until set. You can add green onions if you're feeling fancy, and then serve over rice. 

This is a basic weeknight meal that usually goes over well with kids because it's not meat that requires intensive chewing. ;)

Pork Egg Omelette

Marinate 16-20 oz ground pork in salt (~1/2 t), a couple rounds of soy sauce, a swirl of sesame oil, 1-2 t corn starch, ~1/4 cup water, and couple of good shakes of ground white pepper. I usually mix this up with a fork.

Heat up a skillet over medium high heat. Add a swirl of oil, and brown all the meat. While the meat is browning, crack 3-4 eggs into a bowl, add a splash of water and beat with a fork. (Ultimately I will do this twice, so maybe you might just want to start with 6-8? For some reason, I do each batch separately.) I bet that a dash of shiaoxing wine in the egg mixture would be awesome.

When the meat is browned, remove half of it to a plate. Spread out the other half in the pan. Pour the beaten egg mixture (or half of it, if you've beat the full amount) over the ground pork and let cook until you think it's ready to cut into four pieces and flip them over. 

Repeat the process with the other half of the meat. Serve with green onions (which could have also gone into the egg), rice, and extra soy sauce for those who wish.

Emi's drawing of multi-colored fried eggs, with crocheted "chicky" on the side

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I'll gradually work on adding more recipes for these BCPS, but feel free to comment if you'd like me to bump up a certain recipe in the queue. 

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Also, this list seems heavily fall/winter influenced. I wonder if I'll add/update when spring and summer come around.

...which, at this rate, doesn't seem like will ever arrive.

But until then, we'll keep enjoying Kayla's snow cream (milk, sugar, and vanilla poured over snow).

Pho-sho!

Life is full and life is good right now.

The sun is finally here and while we're still making tons of popsicles (these and these currently encompass our repertoire), we are true Asians who can enjoy hot soup even during the summer.

I already loved Andrea Nyugen for her Into the Vietnamese Kitchen, so I was delighted to discover that she had written a book dedicated entirely to pho.

In Pho, she offers three levels of complexity for entering the world of cooking your own pho: quick weeknight pho, pressure cooker pho, and the real deal pho. I appreciate the backdrop of authenticity with shortcuts to make a daunting meal slightly more accessible.

Kayla had no idea I had just checked the book out from the library when she surprised me with this notebook at church on Sunday!

Classic pho with beef is an all-day (if not more) affair, so it's rare that I will endeavor to make it, though I'm always so pleased with myself when I do. When the older kids started living with us, I figured out a cheater rotisserie chicken pho, where I boiled the leftover carcass, added fish sauce, and served it with simple garnishes. I wasn't sure it was a thing (faux pho?) but when I saw Nguyen's inclusion of it in her cookbook I felt vindicated.

Chicken has such a light flavor compared to beef, so it can handle a lighter broth without all the spices that normally accompany the standard beef broth.

I've mentioned before how we love to do noodle bowl (bun) and spring rolls with rotisserie chicken, and this is what we usually do with the carcass and any meat if there is some leftover! You can't beat a cooked chicken for $4.99 (at Costco) that can be stretched into two meals.

I'm including my oversimplified recipe here, even though Nguyen's version is simple enough. I don't even bother to char ginger and onion for the base.

Super basic rotisserie chicken pho

Depending on what we have done with the chicken, we don't always have enough meat for the soup, so I supplement with other proteins like tofu or egg, and I love serving this with broccoli as well, which I blanch in the broth.

1 rotisserie chicken carcass
any leftover meat you have
broccoli or other vegetables (optional)
fish sauce
cilantro, green onions, sliced yellow onion (soak in cold water for 10 minutes)
Thai basil, and limes for garnish
black pepper
sriracha

Boil the carcass in a pot of water (use some or all stock if you have some), at least 1 hour but for as many hours as you have time for. I often add 1/2-1 t of salt, but not too much, as you will season with fish sauce later.

Soak 1 16oz package of banh pho noodles in a pot of (cool) water. I use the same pan that I will later boil them in. (In case you didn't know - which I didn't when I first started making Viet food in 2011 - you want to boil rice noodles in separate water from your broth because of all the starch. Also, the pre-soak is not necessary, but I do find that if I can remember to soak them, it creates a more chewy texture, emulating the fresh version.)

Prep all your garnishes. Before serving, boil the noodles until tender (it takes less time if you've done the pre-soak), and divide the noodles into the diners' bowls. Add chicken, cooked broccoli (if using), cilantro, green onions, yellow onion, and a few grinds of black pepper to all the bowls.

Taste the broth, adding 1-2 T fish sauce to season. Bring it to a good boil and ladle into bowls. Serve with Thai basil and limes, and any of your other favorite garnishes. (I'm not a huge bean sprout person, so...)

Enjoy! :)

Even easier

I've been dragging my feet with regards to posting these days, but I think I have a good excuse.



It's finally (finally!!!!!!!) summer!

I have had big plans to tell you about rediscovering one of my favorite Chinese cookbook authors, and about The Glory That Is Laundry Day, and of course, we are more than overdue on a Theo update.

But the days are getting brighter, longer, and lazier, and so all I have to offer you today is these.

After finding some winter refuge at the computer, I feel the tug to spend more of my time unplugged and outside. We have too many popsicles to eat and too few days.

Ever since I saw Molly Orangette write about these I have been dreaming about making them. For some reason I thought they were more complicated than they really are. But in fact they are really easy, like boozy pudding (something else I need to tell you about later*) but even easier.

(*ehhh, if you're new around here, I've talked about it plenty on the old food blog with Stephie. You're welcome. So embarrassing.)

Anyway, without further ado, and so that I can get back to laying out on the deck, here are the fudgsicles you need in your life today.

Fudgsicles
adapted from Orangette

If you're fancy, you should definitely read up on Molly's recipe to get all the details about chocolate, because she's obviously thought it through. I've tried to keep it simple and easy here, and it's more for my reference to make it again. She also called for heavy cream and milk; I had lots of half and half so I've simplified it here. Obviously, you can use your brain and do things differently.

8 oz chocolate chips (preferably mixed in with some bittersweet, but don't go all dark)
2 1/2 cups half and half
2 T unsweetened cocoa powder
2 t vanilla extract, or (spiced) rum since vanilla extract costs a million dollars these days

Heat up half and half on the stove with cocoa powder, whisking to dissolve. Remove pan from heat, and after a minute, dump chocolate chips into the pan, whisking until it's all incorporated. Add in vanilla extract and then pour into popsicle molds. Freeze until hard.

P.S. Comment below with a caption for the second picture in this post. The winner gets a fudgsicle!

This reversal

I recently stumbled across a recipe for Vietnamese chicken curry that captures that brothiness I so love in my food. (In case you've haven't noticed.)

My maternal grandfather's quick-and-dirty Malaysian chicken curry recipe uses a whole can of coconut milk and not very much water (in fact, as little as you can get by without burning the food), but I liked this reversal I found on Hungry Huy.

It calls for only half a cup of coconut milk to 4-5 cups of liquid. He uses a mix of chicken broth and water, but since I stock (couldn't help myself*) Costco's organic stock which isn't very salty, I use all stock in my version for extra flavor.

(*When the cartons of chicken stock in your pantry notice you checking on your supply a lot, do they say, "Are you stocking me?" Souper sorry for that. Not.)

I was pleasantly surprised with how far that half cup of coconut milk went, giving the whole pot just the right amount of creaminess and Southeast Asian flair, and so instead of disregarding the recipe and just throwing the rest of the can in, I decided to make coconut sticky rice with mangoes, because obviously.

One last note on the curry before I share both recipes. While you can serve this over rice, the Viet way to enjoy this is with (Vietnamese, if possible) French bread.

You will be floating like this French bread after eating this.

(Okay that was not the last note because I have one more thing to say, as always:)

The leftovers are also amazing with noodles - such as vermicelli, udon, or by making a packet of ramen (spicy or regular) with some of the seasoning and broth, and throwing the curry into it, plus a poached-in-the-pot egg.

Actually, the egg can be eaten on any version of this dish. SEAsians were "putting an egg on it" way before it was the trendy thing to do. If you've never had a crispy fried egg with an oozing egg yolk over a bowl of curry rice, well, then, stop everything you're doing right now and get thee to a kitchen.

Vietnamese Chicken Curry (cà ri gà)
adapted from Hungry Huy

2 lb bone-in chicken thighs and drumsticks, marinated in 2 t salt and 2 T curry powder
1 large yellow onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 stalks lemongrass, cut into 5" lengths (smash the base to expose more flavor, and cut lengthwise in half, if desired)
3 bay leaves, or a few stalks of curry leaves, if you are so lucky to have access
1 1/2 lb potatoes, cubed (~2")
3-4 carrots, cut into 3" lengths (the chunky look is nice for this soupy curry)
1/2 cup canned coconut milk (full-fat, try to use a Thai - not American - brand)
1 tsp sugar
4 cups chicken broth
extra curry powder to taste (I like Baba's, which can be found at Ranch 99, but a Vietnamese Madras curry powder would be great, too)
fish sauce and/or fermented shrimp paste, to taste
squeeze of lemon and/or cilantro, optional, for garnish

Marinate the chicken at least two hours in advance, or overnight. Don't be afraid to over-salt. This flavor will be dispersed into a pot of broth with over two pounds of vegetables, and salting the pot later can never match the level of flavor you get from pre-marination. (Pre-marinated murder?)

In a heavy-bottomed pot or Dutch oven, sear the chicken pieces in batches and set aside on a plate. Heat up more oil and sweat the onions in the pan. Add minced garlic, stir a few times, then add broth. Return chicken to the pot, along with sugar, bay leaves, lemongrass, carrots and potatoes.

(Hungry Huy has you par-fry the potatoes and carrots so they don't disintegrate into the broth, but I'm giving you the lazier version. Just cut your vegetables larger, and watch them so they don't melt.)

Bring to a boil, then lower and let simmer until everything is cooked, probably about 20 minutes. Stir in coconut milk. Taste for salt and add fish/shrimp sauce if it needs some extra funk. Serve with cilantro and lemon and with French bread.



Coconut Sticky Rice with Mangoes

1 1/2 to 2 cups Thai sweet rice
1 1/2 cups coconut milk (conveniently, what you will have leftover after you make the above recipe)
1/3 cup white sugar
1/4 t sea salt
2 mangoes (Champagne/Manila/Ataulfo are the best for this, as they are sweeter and less fibrous), cubed or sliced

Make sticky rice however it is that you make sticky rice. I'm lucky that my Zojirushi makes it for me, but if you have to use a steamer, this looks like a reliable method.

While the rice is cooking, simmer coconut milk, sugar, and salt together on the stove top. Taste it and make sure it has a good hit of salt. (I like it with the salt and feel that it makes up for the reduced amount of sugar I use compared to restaurant versions of this dish.)

When the rice is done, stir in about 1 cup of the coconut-sugar mixture into the warm rice, reserving the rest for serving when you plate.

To serve, you can mold the rice into a small bowl or some other mold, then invert it onto your serving plate(s). Arrange mango on the side and drizzle more coconut mixture on everything. It can be served warm or at room temperature.

Share, if you're generous, or destroy the evidence, if you're not.

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And for what we're eating this week:

P.S. Writing about coconut prepared two ways reminded me of the time I wrote about pumpkin: sweet+savory.

P.P.S. One other coconut PSA. Saw this recipe and I'm tempted to try it out!

Well worth the effort

Last week's menu was ambitious, but a couple of the meals turned out really well. 

The Vietnamese turmeric-dill salmon was awesome. I didn't do the sauteed vegetables on the side but we did bún bowls / spring rolls. I recommend the marinade and cooking method even just for having the salmon with rice. I had a pretty big filet, so I separated and removed the belly portion (which was thinner and thus cooked more quickly) when it was cooked and let the rest of it cook for longer. It isn't as pretty for presentation (or the blog, ha), but to have everything perfectly cooked was more important. The fish was buttery and moist.

In place of a picture of the salmon, here is some tempura shrimp Kathy made!

The other meal I really enjoyed was the Russian cabbage soup. I merged a bunch of recipes together and, even though it's a little counter-intuitive, I slow-cooked a roast the same day I made the soup. It felt awkward, because doing two lazy-in-theory meals in one day added up to a bunch of work. But the soup was delicious and in the end, well worth the effort.

I was prepared to add vinegar and sugar to give the sweet-and-sour taste I've had in Russian cabbage soups before, but the blended diced tomato (Kayla you are amazing) gave it the perfect brightness and sweetness it needed. I also added an extra can of tomato sauce but I think one or the other would be sufficient.

If you have leftover meat from a roast, or want to do this recipe with ground beef, I think those alternative methods would be great. It is, admittedly, a bit labor-intensive to do it the way I did.

Either way, I enjoyed experimenting this week and I will probably be making a borscht sometime soon to satisfy that perennial craving I have for all things sour.

Russian Cabbage Soup

the equivalent of one cooked beef roast, cubed. I used a ~2-3 lb bone roast that I salt-and-peppered-and-seared, then cooked in a crock pot with one beef bouillon cube and one cup of water.
1 onion, diced
1-2 carrots, diced
1-2 stalks celery, sliced, optional (I think I wouldn't put this in next time)
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 can tomato sauce and/or 1 can diced tomatoes, blended
1 head of cabbage, sliced
1-2 quarts chicken and/or beef stock (I prefer chicken stock if you have to use pre-made; beef stock can be tinny)
s+p
handful chopped dill
sour cream and chopped dill for garnish

Saute chopped onion in oil, then add carrots, celery, and garlic. Salt and pepper as you go. Add in tomato, cabbage, and chicken stock. Add cubed beef pieces, and any bones you might have. Adjust level of liquid so everything is covered. Bring to a boil, then lower and let simmer about 45 min to an hour. Stir in chopped dill (or leave entirely on the side if you have picky eaters) and serve with extra sour cream and dill.

Another random picture!



Sorry there are no pictures in reference to the food I talked about today!

And here's this week's menu:

mac 'n' cheese / excited to have sheet pan chicken again now that we have a working oven.

And always, please let me know what you're eating, especially for breakfasts and lunches (those meals are killing me slowly).

A few randoms, II

I am so ready for the weather to be anything other than what it is now. The rain, snow, hail, and cold are getting to be quite tiresome. 

This past Monday afternoon, Theo pointed out the window and shouted, "Appa! I found the blueness!" He was referring to the first patch of brightness we'd seen for a while. 

Hashtag Seattle kid.

I have zero motivation to write anything, so I figure it is a good day for dumping all the stuff I've been collecting.

It's cool to see people continue to talk about reading goals more than two months after the new year. Is it just me or are a lot of people talking about how they want to read more?

Related to that, I think David came up with this helpful motivation to read more: the number of pages you read per day is roughly equivalent to the number of books you'll finish in a year. (This is based on the assumption that a book is 365 pages long, and most books are less than that. So you actually read more.) Isn't that amazing?

I loved this article on giving your (older) kids a way out.

This post made me think about the difference between self-care and "me time."

Pre-ordered and am so excited for one of my favorite blogger's first book!

Crushing on these cute earrings.

I've been doing something lately (most often in my morning pages) called "writing to my intuition". At first, it seemed kinda woo-woo to me, but I've gotten over it and have found it super helpful. I stumbled on the concept through Jess Lively (you can also read a powerful letter re: world events / news in the show notes of this episode, you don't have to listen to the podcast). My default mode is to operate from fear, striving, and anxiety. This exercise helps me (re-)parent myself from a place of faith, maturity, and peace. The message I need to hear over and over again is "all is well" or that "all will be well." I'm not ready to share examples on the blog yet but if you're curious, you can email me and I can share it with you. This is also a good reference of questions to ask when you're feeling stuck.

A beautifully written essay on motherhood.

Pickles! The Koreans and Taiwanese are all over this already, but I'm always excited when I remember how easy and delicious it is to use pickles in your food. I love kimchi but dislike the way it stinks up the fridge. Enter: regular ol' pickles. (Kosher/dill always. Never bread and butter.)

Eating these pickles with my breakfast sausage one morning reminded me of Taiwanese ground pork sauce with pickles and inspired me to make some with rice noodles earlier this week. Chinese peasant food for the win!

I didn't use a recipe but just made it up as I went. It turned out great and we devoured it. I know 16 oz of rice noodles looks like a lot (and side bar: this is totally what I think is weird about so many pad thai recipes that talk about only using like 4 oz of rice noodles. Huh?!) but this is so good that you'll want to make that much.

Ground pork sauce with pickles over rice noodles

1 16 oz package dried rice noodles (I used banh pho noodles)
1 lb ground pork (ground beef would be okay too)

2-3 gloves garlic, minced

1 T red miso paste

2-3 T soy sauce

1-2 cups chicken broth 

1 T corn starch, or 1/2 T potato starch, dissolved in a couple tablespoons of water

1/3 cup chopped pickles

chopped green onions

sesame oil, shaoxing wine, and white pepper to taste

Soak rice noodles in a pan of cold water. 

Heat up 1 T oil in a wok, then add garlic, ground pork, and miso paste. Stir fry until pork is mostly cooked. Add 1.5 cup chicken broth and soy sauce. Pour in starch slurry and bring to a boil to make gravy, and add more chicken broth if desired. Add a little shaoxing wine and/or sesame oil (both optional). White pepper is probably not optional.

Keep the sauce warm on low and bring your noodles to a boil. When they are almost done, drain them and add to the sauce. Add more broth if needed (we like it brothy, but it's totally personal choice), stir in green onions and pickles (or serve on side), and serve with extra white pepper. Picked jalepenos or thai chiles are also recommended here.

We had soup with mustard greens on the side, but if you wanted to put a green in the noodles, I'd recommend baby spinach wilted in the gravy before you add the noodles.

Black bean not-burgers

Inspired by the cilantro-turmeric salmon patties I wrote about a couple weeks ago, I set out to make a black bean burger that I'd actually like. I think the key is to not try to make a burger per se, or to think that, when you are eating one, that it is supposed to be anything like a burger. You will just be disappointed, like I always am.

But when I packed these with chopped cilantro and quinoa, the whole concept changed for me. It didn't hurt that I fried them in that morning's bacon grease.

I served these with buns for those who wished, but just having it with tomato, avocado, and onion - similar to the salmon patties with salad concept - was, imho, perfect.

Black Bean not-Burgers (patties? fritters?)
inspired by these salmon patties

I made my first and only batch so far* with egg because we were challenging eggs last week, but the mixture was very wet (maybe I didn't drain my beans too well, either) and I had to add in gluten-free flour to dry it up. So I'd probably just skip the egg, and add flour only as needed to make a slightly thick batter.

2 cans black beans, rinsed and drained
1 cup cooked quinoa
1/2 yellow onion, chopped
1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 t salt
freshly ground pepper
1 egg (optional, see note above)

Throw everything in the food processor and blend together. Add a little flour if it looks way too watery. It's not going to be firm because we're not making burgers, but you do want it to hold some shape. Start with 1/4 cup flour and go from there. Too much flour makes it bready and dilutes the impact of the flavor you're going for here.

Heat up olive oil (or bacon grease!) on medium-high, and fry patties in batches. Serve on buns and/or with salad ingredients

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* Yes, it was on the menu for last week but we didn't get to it.

And here's this week's meal plan, while we're talking about it:

Challenging soy, hence the tofu and soy-sauced based recipes. Also, changed the structure to put Sat and Sun at the end because it's stressful to have to plan Sunday's meal on Saturday night without groceries when there is church on Sunday morning.

A few randoms

1. New guilty pleasure: Nashville. Connie Britton, singing, love triangles... um, swoon, basically. "No One Will Ever Love you" = so haunting I died.

2. Let's talk about meal planning for like the 50th time. I decided that not feeling ecstatic about having a set meal plan > stressing out about what we are having for dinner every day. I'm trying to think of it like Anne Lammott's shitty first drafts: my inner critic should not be criticizing until there is something to critique.

We are challenging dairy this week on the elimination diet, if you were wondering.

And if you didn't catch the post on sheet pan chicken, do it meow.

3. "Focus on being a verb, not a noun." This was referenced on the The Mom Hour podcast on radical self-care, and attributed to a poet who was on Liz Gilbert's Big Magic podcast. The poet was trying to tell an aspiring artist, "don't try to be a poet, just write poems." I really like that, and I think that is a good thing to tell myself. I don't need to try to be a blogger, I'm just going to focus on writing blog posts. Such an easy and freeing shift of perspective! 

4. Another good quote. "One does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time." --Andre Gide

5. Related to #1, because I cannot get enough of Connie Britton, I am getting back into Friday Night Lights while working on a crochet project. So fun.

6. Green chocolate smoothies with mixed baby greens, rice + coconut milk, frozen banana, cocoa powder, medjool dates, and chia seeds.

Pro tip courtesy of my friend Karen: when you can't finish that box of baby greens from Costco (you know the one), freeze it so it's ready for smoothies.

7. I am not a nail polisher by any stretch of the imagination, but Kathy surprised me with this amazing bottle that looked good even when applied by someone with the nail-polishing skills of a 12-year-old boy (that's me). It gave me that my-nails-but-better look; I had no idea that what would look like a perfect neutral on me would appear so pink in the bottle. Consider me enlightened.

8. This red lentil soup. If Molly Wizenberg and Melissa Clark tell you to make something, you listen up. Follow every step, including blending half of the soup. (Though I have to admit, I held off on the salt until later because of my extreme fear of the lentils not softening. Kayla, you know what I'm talking about!)

monster trucks provided by Theo

Tell me what's up with you! Any inspiring quotes, good podcasts, satisfying meals, fun shows, tips/tricks, stupid stuff that makes you laugh?

Sheet pan roasted chicken and vegetables

I am so late to the party, but: sheet pan meals. Of course I had seen these all over the internetz before (it may seem like my head is buried in the sand but I'm not completely unaware), but what changed the game for me was watching Kendra Adachi (@thelazygenius) explain her version on Instagram Stories last week. Her method makes THEE most sense. (I've made it twice in seven days so that tells you how good it is.)

This is her method and I asked her if I could share it on the blog. She was super sweet and said yes, that she'd probably write about it on her blog at some point, too, so when she does I'll link to it here as well. (Update: Here it is!)

Sheet pan roasted chicken and vegetables
from Kendra Adachi

Note: Kendra didn't specify these exact vegetables, but here's what we did with what we had that day.

6-8 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
1 red and/or yellow onion, 1-inch dice (I think shallots would be beautiful too)
1 lb green beans, trimmed
1-2 carrots, sliced on the bias (I don't like cooked carrots, so I grated 1/2 of one for salad and put 1.5 in the pan)
1 large Russet potato or two Yukon golds, cubed about 1-inch plus
olive oil
salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 500. This (high temperature) is a brilliant move that I've not seen mentioned on other sheet pan recipes, but it makes so much sense (tastes better, cooks faster), and is what inspired me to even try this.

Cover a sheet pan (get yourself an over-sized one already if you don't have one!) with parchment or foil, and throw the veggies into a pile in the middle. Drizzle over generously with olive oil as you would for roasted vegetables and sprinkle on a nice amount of sea salt and black pepper. Massage it all together (I like to use a plastic kitchen glove) and then spread it out on the pan.

Lay the chicken thighs on top skin-side down and salt and pepper underneath.

Then, and - here's the magic - flip them over and generously salt and pepper underneath the skin. (I've always heard about this with roasting whole chickens but it seemed like too much work. Thighs are a great place to try this method out.) Don't be scared to over-salt. Good salting makes all the difference.

(My salting tip: Because I may be getting my hands all chicken-y while marinating, I usually scoop about 1.5-2 t of salt into a bowl, grind the pepper into it with my clean hands, and then stir it together. Then I can grab from there with my chicken-y hands and marinate away, without having to get the pepper grinder all gross.)

Pat the skins dry, then toss it in the oven and let it go for 40-50 minutes. I check mine at 40 and it seems to need 5-10 minutes extra at that point. The second time we made it, I even broiled it for a minute at the end.

This method produces some soft vegetables and few crispy ones. The amounts I've listed in my ingredients list above may be a little crowded, especially if you're using a standard sheet pan. Reduce slightly if you want things more on the crunchy side.

We served it with rice. (Surprise!)

The beans are my fave. It reminded me of this recipe I posted before and I think a marriage of these two would be amazing!

The second time we made it I left out the carrots and didn't have red onion so it's less pretty, but we did get to focus on what we really liked, which was the green beans.

There are so many glorious things about this meal: there are no prep bowls to wash because you prep it on the pan you bake it in; it's meat and vegetables all in one dish; you put it in the oven and forget about it until dinner; and perhaps most importantly, the fat from the chicken melts and gives extra flavor to the vegetables.

P.S. While we're talking about chicken, remember that time I told you about how to cut up a whole chicken like a master?

P.P.S. And, an inside joke that David turned into a family portrait the other day. Related because we're talking chicken today.

Emilyn Jack Jack, Kathy Chicken Noodle Nuna Hearts, Father Chicken Hearts, Mother Chicken Hearts, Mr. Chicken Hearts

Cilantro turmeric salmon patties

I mentioned that we would be doing an elimination diet (no gluten, dairy, eggs, soy, nuts, shellfish, or corn) to see if it could help my (and Emilyn's) eczema. We officially started on January 10, after the kids' birthdays and grandparents' visits, so today marks the first day of Phase 2, where we challenge the allergens, one at a time, to determine which we may have intolerances to.

True story: when David told Theo we'd be eating toast for breakfast, he quickly retorted, "No, Emilyn can't have gluten! Just like she can't have marbles!"

The diet has been hard because, as you know, I do like my food. And these allergens are in a lot of things. Basically we've been eating meat (and I'm not a huge meat eater so that was different), vegetables, and rice. The saving grace of this diet is that we've not been asked to give up rice. Also, we've treated ourselves to a never-ending supply of avocados (which are great for turkey avocado roll ups).

Though weight loss wasn't one of the goals for me personally, I did lose almost six pounds because it was just too much effort to snack. (It also didn't help/hurt that we got sick with the stomach flu on Day 3.)

I think my skin is better, but I never achieved complete relief. We'll see what happens over the course of the new few weeks of the challenge phase.

In the meantime, I wanted to share one recipe that we really loved. It's inspired by my friend Kayla's salmon patties which she serves over salad with her incredible Greek dressing.

David jumped on making these one night for dinner and they turned out so well. He tweaked it with turmeric and it is amazing. Turmeric goes so well with fish.



Cilantro-turmeric salmon patties
Inspired by Kayla Dunbar and Nourishing Meals

gluten-, dairy-, and egg-free!

1 cup cooked quinoa
1 clove garlic, minced
1 large handful fresh cilantro, chopped
1 thin slice of lemon, including rind (remove any seeds)
1/2 medium yellow onion, minced
2 (6 oz) cans of wild salmon, drained
1 t ground turmeric
1 t salt
freshly ground black pepper

In a food processor, blend together quinoa, garlic, cilantro, and lemon slice. Add in onion, salmon, turmeric, salt and pepper and blend until combined.

Heat up a skillet on medium to medium high, add 1 T olive oil, and fry patties in batches, adding oil as needed. We made ours about 2-2.5" in diameter.

Serve with baby greens, or with rice. I also think it'd be awesome with oven fries, another thing we've been eating a lot on this diet.

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Post-script: David and I were talking after about how we are so snobby and had never had salmon from a can before. Without missing a beat, he slipped into Fred Armisen's Portlandia character, reassuring me to not worry, he had gone and met the fish before (Fred and Teddy), they were wild and free-range, etc., etc.

A pumpkin round-up: savory and sweet

Before November is over, let's talk about pumpkin for a little bit because YES PLEASE.

1. Pumpkin chili

This chili is decidedly savory and (big surprise) I love it. It is vegetarian as written but I think it'd go great with meat, which is how I'm going to make it today. Kayla - who brought us the tomato paste freezing tip in a previous post - blends the canned tomatoes before adding them, which definitely takes it to the next level.

I highly recommend doubling the recipe and making jalepeno cheese cornbread muffins to go alongside!

2a. Roasted kabocha salad

Trying out another recipe from Vegetarian that I have had bookmarked (literally, ha) for a while. I always steal the kabocha from the tempura pile; it's absolutely my favorite pumpkin (so starchy!).

2b. Oh wait, this is my favorite pumpkin:

Sweet, savory, and tangy.

4. Pumpkin bread

Kathy loves to reminisce about the pumpkin bread I made six years ago when Kenny helped me cut and roast sugar pumpkins and we made the bread from homemade puree.

(It also didn't hurt that I put chocolate chips in the batter.)

We love using this Orangette recipe, but we cut the sugar in half so we can enjoy putting the (optional?!) chocolate in it. I've written it as a doubled recipe (so you can use up a can of pumpkin, or if not you can make the pumpkin chili, see point number 1 above) so you can do one loaf plain (which a lot of our family loves) and the other with chocolate and/or walnuts. We decided we like chocolate best, no walnuts.

Pumpkin Bread with Chocolate Chips
adapted from Orangette

3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 t baking soda
1/2 t baking powder
1 1/2 t salt
1 T cinnamon
1 t ginger
1 t nutmeg
1/2 t cloves

2/3 c water
1 t vanilla

12 T unsalted butter, at room temp
1 1/4 c sugar {this is halved from Orangette's recipe}

4 large eggs, room temp
2 cup pumpkin puree (if making homemade puree that is thinner in texture than canned pumpkin, you can reduce the water above)

1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease two 9x5 loaf pans.

Whisk dry ingredients together.

Beat butter until creamy, about 30 seconds, then add sugar and blend until lightened in color, abut 3 minutes. Beat in eggs one at a time.

Add pumpkin puree, and beat on low speed until just blended.

Add flour mixture in three parts, alternating with the water-vanilla mixture in two parts, beating on low until smooth and just combined.

Fold in chocolate and pour into pans.

Bake for about an hour, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool in the pan on a rack for five or ten minutes before unmolding to cool completely on the rack.

Of excess, of gratuity

Gah! I'm falling off the blogging bandwagon. It is SO hard to keep up when I'm not doing it every day. Anyway, I'm here to bring you a cookie recipe from another professed non-baker. That always makes me pay attention.

When it comes to design, I like things either super neutral or the complete opposite: super colorful, all in one piece. I guess you could say both styles match with everything. Same goes with food. I usually like recipes that have few ingredients, where each speaks for itself. I'm not a huge fan of excess, of gratuity. But because I love paradox, I love these cookies, which have what might seem like a lot of mix-ins. Lots of ingredients, lots of things talking at once. And I love it. I hope you will, too.

Gaia Cookies
from Shauna Niequist's Bread and Wine

I made these with mostly dates for the dried fruit portion and loved it. I tried so hard to follow the recipe as-is the first time (so hard for a cook-not-baker), but next time I would increase both the chocolate and the nuts by maybe a 1/4 to 1/2 each. The amount of butter/sugar/flour in the recipe can handle it, I believe.

2 sticks butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
2 eggs
2 T vanilla (I don't know if this is a typo, but I made it as is and it was not a problem)
1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 cup oats
1 t baking powder
1 t baking soda
1 t salt
1 cup shredded coconut
1 cup walnuts, chopped
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup chopped dates, raisins, dried cherries, or cranberries, or any combination

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream together butter and brown sugar. Add eggs and vanilla and mix well.

Mix together dry ingredients through salt, then add to creamed butter/sugar mixture. Stir in the mix-ins.

Briefly chill dough before rolling into balls (or roll the balls and chill the cookie sheet, if you have room in your fridge). Bake for 15 to 17 minutes, until golden. I like to go on the longer side so it can be crispy despite already being chewy from the ingredients (especially if you use dates, as I did).

06. Lighter and fluffier

I think after a few dark and abstract posts, it's time for something lighter, something you can literally sink your teeth into. Remember those chocolate muffins? I think I should finally tell you about them.

It all started with these blueberry muffins from King Arthur Flour.

The recipe is flat-out killer. It's something that actually tastes better because it's whole wheat, in the way that a bran muffin isn't just a healthy choice, but a delicious one. (Ahh, this is making me dream of extra foamy pint-glass lattes on the wrap-around deck at Cafe Strada, minus the textbooks.) The weight measurements provided in the recipe make it so that both prep and clean-up are very quick.

Since discovering them this spring, I've made these at least 4095843257834954 times, and on more than one occasion someone has told me, "I would pay you to make me a dozen."

The reason I've waited so long to post about them is because part of what takes these muffins to the next level is the use of liquid whey, which I understand not everyone has as easy access to as I do. My across-the-street neighbor and good friend, Valinda, regularly makes her own yogurt and is thus my Supplier of Whey. (She is that cool, and she is also so many other things on top of being a Supplier of Whey.)

Whey makes the lightest and fluffiest muffins you have ever had. Plus, whey is perfect fodder for all the chortle-inducing puns. I'll get out of your whey, or I'll be on my whey now!, I say to Valinda when I leave her house. Whey to go!, is what I should label the jar I bring to her home to be replenished.

I've since riffed off this recipe to make banana, carrot, and chocolate muffins. (The best is still blueberry, and chocolate is a very close second.) Yesterday when I set out to get rid of some CSA squash by making a spice muffin, I discovered that I had run out of whey and needed to find another way. So I used milk and it turned out decent. If whey makes an A+++ muffin, milk makes an A+. I think that's good enough to share with you guys. In fact, it's time to tell you guys.

In fact, it's 9:04.

Here's the link again. I would recommend trying the original first (that is, the blueberry), and then experimenting from there. I do cut the brown sugar to anywhere between 2/3-3/4 cup without a noticeable difference in the final taste. (It helps that I don't consider the cinnamon-sugar "optional" as the original recipe does.) For the chocolate version, I substitute the blueberry with 1 cup chocolate chips and 1/2 cup of cocoa powder. Then I top them with coarse sugar and flaky salt, like Maldon.

Finally, something that is inspiring to me.* (I am trying to have way more fun with creativity, to tune into what makes me happy, excited, and light.)

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*I literally am dropping that link here so I can get rid of one of 3294032859748392523 open tabs I have right now. #literally3294032859748392523

Shakshuka baby

I have not a single picture of the shakshuka we made last night because it was all devoured.

However, allow me to present to you Shakshuka Baby:

After my new friend Kayla and I decided to make shakshuka for dinner, her girls couldn't stop saying "shakshuka" over and over (who could blame them?) and then all of a sudden, Emilyn became "Shakshuka Baby." 

We think their future band could be named Rosie, Eleanor and the Shakshuka Baby. Pretty catchy, eh?

Shakshuka is pretty easy to make, especially when you have a baby to hold and then you can make your friend do all the work. I first made it from Smitten Kitchen's recipe but yesterday we followed the NYTimes. I hardly think it matters which you do as long as there's feta involved. Yesterday we used red bell peppers in place of chile peppers, which definitely makes it more kid friendly. And unlike Deb we are not cilantro-adverse, so we used that and I think it pairs so wonderfully with the feta so I like that change from parsley. 

Kayla brought everything for an awesome salad so between that and her practically making the main dish I was set. I was already into our growing friendship but that pretty much sealed the deal.

But, if you don't have a Kayla (slash momcrush), here's how you can make it for yourself:

Shakshuka Baby, hold the baby

inspired by Smitten Kitchen and The NYTimes

Saute 1 onion, sliced with 1-2 red bell peppers, sliced, about 10 minutes. Add 3 cloves garlic, sliced. Add 1 t each of cumin and paprika and 1/8 t cayenne (possibly omit for kids). Dump 28 oz can of diced tomatoes and some salt and pepper. Simmer until thickened. Gently crack 6 eggs spread across the surface of the sauce. Cover the pan and let eggs cook until they are soft-set, maybe about 5 minutes. Gently spoon some sauce over eggs. Sprinkle crumbled feta and minced cilantro over all and serve.

Need more shakshuka, baby? 

Emilyn is:

• 5 months. Can't believe it. (22 weeks and 1 day to be exact.)
• still only rolling back to tummy, over her left side.
• most definitely teething. 
• on two naps (seemed early to me but it's really working) and bedtime is slowly and more consistently becoming around 7:15 p.m. 

Theo:

• surprised us with how well he transitioned to the toddler bed this past week. This toddler clock helps a ton, which we put in his crib well before the transition.
• loves a new book we picked up at Half Price the other day called Digger, Dozer, Dumper. I love seeing him bring books into his bed during IP. 
• came up to us and told us "I go nap" when some friends were over after church and it actually was getting close to his naptime. Our extroverted guy telling us he needed to be excused from the party. Heart melted. 

This is how he looked at me when I said, "Theo, sit there so I can take more pictures of you in this glorious light."

And today's closing randomness is brought to you by Chinese American potlucks of the 1990s. Almond jello for the win!