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2018 Highlights

December 31, 2018 Leave a Comment

Happy end of 2018 and best wishes for a great 2019 filled with delicious food!

I was looking at my site stats for 2018 and thought it would be fun to start sharing my "most-viewed recipes" from this past year.

Your top three recipes for 2018 had double the pageviews of #4-9. Interestingly, eight of your top nine recipes were posted over a year ago, which argues strongly for re-photographing some of my older blog posts!

The final three are some of my personal favorite recipes of all time, which is good since I clearly need to take updated photos of them!

Curious about what recipes I've been most frequently remaking from my own blog?

the Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies hold the top spot, closely followed by the focaccia base recipe from the Sweet Orange Focaccia, the brownie base from the Tuxedo Brownies, the matbucha from the Shakshuka Focaccia rounds, Lamb baked with Orzo, Grilled Asian-Style Chicken Thighs, Crumb Cake, Mango Cabbage Salad, and the Goat Cheese Pasta Salad. There are actually a lot more, but it felt best to limit myself to nine as well!

What do you think? Do you agree with the consensus top posts or do you have other favorites from 2018 that you've been remaking over and over again?

Easy Homemade Granola

December 30, 2018 Leave a Comment

I am obsessed with granola. I don't know what caused this to happened, but at some point this past year I started eating granola for breakfast as often as possible. It's not exactly the healthiest breakfast on the planet, but I'm careful with portion control and I eat it with some milk and plain Greek yogurt. Things could be worse.

One of the reasons this granola obsession is so odd is I really dislike cereal. I would rather skip breakfast than eat cereal. How is granola different? I think it has something to do with cereal's one-note flavor profile and its rapid descent into soggitude, whereas a small portion of (good) granola is full of different flavors and textures while staying crisp and crunchy as you eat.

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Ideas Post 78: Vote for a Recipe

December 29, 2018 2 Comments

As it's almost the end of 2018, now feels like a good time to ask -

What would you like to see more of on my blog? Are there chefs/authors you think I'm overlooking? Is there anything you'd like to see less of?

While you ponder, I was gifted two brilliant cookbooks for Christmas: Maangchi's Real Korean Cooking and Acquacotta. It stands to reason that this month's ideas should come from those two books:

A) Spicy Stir-fried Pork (Dwaejigogi-bokkeum) from Maangchi's Real Korean Cooking

B) Spicy Beef and Vegetable Soup (Yukgaejang) from Maangchi's Real Korean Cooking

C) Napa Cabbage Kimchi (Baechu-kimchi) from Maangchi's Real Korean Cooking

D) Paper-baked Sea Bream with Mushrooms (Orata al Cartoccio con i Funghi) from Acquacotta

E) Acquacotta Maremmana from Acquacotta

F) Fig and Chocolate Bread (Pagnotella) from Acquacotta

Let me know what you'd like to see in the comments! Thanks, as always, for voting ... especially in light of how infrequent my posts have been lately.

PS - what do you think of the new header?!

Lemon Drop Cake

December 17, 2018 Leave a Comment

The lemon drop cake from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking is one of my favorite cakes from the Baked quartet of cookbooks. I first made it a few years ago on a whim, brought it to work, and had immediate "please make me this for my birthday" requests. It is also the first (but not the only) cake I've made that someone has requested for purchase.

Unsurprisingly, I was overjoyed by the excuse to make this cake again when it came up on the Baked Sunday Mornings recipe schedule. I have not been keeping up with the recent baking schedule (moving & work); BAKED's lemon drop cake seemed like a perfect re-entry point. Plus, the timing coincided with a holiday party hosted by a lemon dessert connoisseur and I'd been asked to bring dessert. Basically, all the stars aligned... the only question was, would my frosting turn out?

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Ideas Post 77: Vote for a Recipe

November 17, 2018 4 Comments

Ottolenghi Simple seems to be the runaway hit of the fall cookbook season. The amazon reviews don't look very positive, but if you read the actual complaints, the poor ratings are due to the lousy binding of the US edition, not the contents of the cookbook. I've tried my best to restrict myself to checking new cookbooks out of the library, since our recent move made it clear we really have no space for more books. (I failed with All Ahout Cake and Fantastical Cakes, but Ottolenghi Simple I did manage to refrain from pre-ordering, which shows you where my priorities are; cake >>> everything else.)

Slowness of posts to this blog notwithstanding, if I'm doing these idea posts monthly now (instead of weekly) then it's about time for another one, and what better book to choose from that this one?

As I flipped through, a lot of recipes caught my eye. I've filtered this list down extensively from the original set I flagged, so there are a lot of options this week. All are from Ottolenghi Simple.

A) Mustard marinated kale with asparagus

B) Broccolini with soy sauce, garlic, and peanuts

C) Cavolo nero with chorizo and preserved lemon

D) Mustardy cauliflower cheese

E) Arnold’s roast chicken with caraway and cranberry stuffing

F) Beef meatballs with lemon & celery root

G) Slow-cooked chicken with crisp corn crust

H) Miso chicken

I) Chicken marbella

J) Bridget Jones’ salmon

K) Honey and yogurt set cheesecake

L) Blueberry, lemon, almond cake

M) Brunsli chocolate cookies

Post to the comments to vote for the recipe you'd like to see me try!

One-Pan Chicken with Kale and Butternut Squash

November 4, 2018 1 Comment

Hello all Kat fans! ME is back for another guest post!

I just re-read the last post I authored and funnily enough, the reason behind me trying this latest recipe is once again impatience. I was immediately drawn to Kat’s Idea Post 76 with recipes from Samin Nosrat. Although I haven’t watched her Netflix series (which I intend to do when I have some free time), I thought the idea recipes sounded interesting plus there was still kale in my garden and a butternut squash on my kitchen counter. All the stars aligned for me to try out the One-Pan Chicken with Kale and Butternut Squash recipe and write a second guest post.

Where to start? Let’s get one important thing out of the way: it was absolutely fantastic, a little long on the execution but oh so worth it. A fall flavor explosion, an early taste of the wonderful Thanksgiving meal to come in a few weeks. Sage, orange, cranberry, roasted shallots and garlic, all in perfect harmony. If your mouth isn’t watering yet, I’m doing something wrong!! Plus, the fact that we have made this twice in the past two weeks should speak for itself, it is THAT good....

Chinese Breakfast Bowl from Plow SF

November 2, 2018 1 Comment

Pork shoulder braised in a spicy caramel sauce, served with a fried egg and grilled bok choy over rice.... what's not to love?

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Ideas Post 76: Vote for a Recipe

October 13, 2018 3 Comments

Are you watching Samin Nosrat on Netflix? Her cookbook Salt Fat Acid Heat was turned into a 4-part show (hopefully with another season to come!) by Netflix, and we just watched all 4 episodes... I loved it. In honor of Fall and some of the flavors and techniques that she showed, this idea post's options include selections from a recent America's Test Kitchen cookbook or an oldie but goodie.

A) Super Greens Soup from Nutritious Delicious

B) Poached Chicken with Warm Tomato-Ginger Vinaigrette from Nutritious Delicious

C) One-pan Chicken with Kale and Butternut Squash from Nutritious Delicious

D) Spice-rubbed Turkey Breast with Sour Orange Sauce from Nutritious Delicious

E) Beef Stir-fry with Bok Choy and Green Beans from Nutritious Delicious

F) Corn-Sesame Breakfast Cake from Tassajara Cookbook

G) Gingerbread Pancakes from Tassajara Cookbook

H) Sour Cream Poppyseed Cake from Tassajara Cookbook

Risotto-like Brown Rice with Mushrooms and Peas

October 7, 2018 Leave a Comment

Let me be very upfront with you.... this is not a risotto dish made with brown rice. This is a brown rice dish cooked in a risotto-like style. There is a world of difference between the two. In the end, the most distinguishing factor is the taste. Risottos are luxurious and creamy and rich. This risotto-like brown rice tastes like a healthy, vegetarian, good-for-you meal....

Eat the Rainbow Stir-Fry

September 28, 2018 3 Comments

I enjoyed this and it was easy to prepare.... I wouldn’t base a new restaurant on it, but it was satisfying, quick, and healthy. As weeknight dinners go, I'm calling it a win. It's still not a "20 minutes and dinner's ready" kind of meal. You do need time to cube and briefly marinate the chicken, plus prep the vegetables. As soon as the vegetables are cut, you can get them cooking while the chicken finishes marinating (unless you are marinating all day). All told, the Eat the Rainbow Stir-Fry took me about 45 minutes from start to finish. In the meantime, you can be cooking some brown rice, sweet potatoes, etc.

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Mustard-Marinated Kale Salad with Caramelized Onion and Spicy Chickpeas

September 23, 2018 Leave a Comment

When Caleb and I first started dating, we watched Iron Chef America pretty religiously. Ten years ago, it was actually an excellent TV show (in our opinion), and the Iron Chefs were actually talented chefs. Bobby Flay was one of those talented Iron Chefs, and I had faith in his abilities both in the kitchen and as a cookbook author after sous chef-ing for a (wildly successful) dinner party based on recipes from his cookbook Mesa Grill.

Sadly, I've lost faith in his cookbooks recently. There wasn't much I wanted to make out of Bar American. I pre-ordered Brunch at Bobby's only to be disappointed by lackluster recipes. Bobby Flay Fit came out, I checked it out of the library and started cooking; now once again, I feel let down.

The good news first -- This mustard-marinated kale salad with caramelized onion and spicy chickpeas is quite good. It's definitely a different preparation for kale than most kale salads I've encountered, and it's full of satisfying salty-sweet-tangy flavors. I happily ate it over the course of 3 days, and I could probably eat it every day for several weeks before I got tired of it, especially if I rotated the curry powder I used for roasting the chickpeas.

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Creamy Goat Cheese Pasta Salad with Arugula and Cherry Tomatoes

September 10, 2018 1 Comment

I'm not a fan of pasta salads, so I had pretty low expectations for this Ideas Post selection. However.... I've been eating this creamy goat cheese pasta salad from Love Real Food every day for the last three days, and I can't wait to eat more again tomorrow, so I guess this version has won me over?

Probably because there are more vegetables than pasta in this salad, so it's actually a salad, and the "sauce/dressing" holding all the delicious vegetables and pasta together is simply goat cheese (yum) melted onto the hot pasta, together with a little lemon juice, salt+pepper+chile flake, olive oil, and pasta water to add dimension.

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Monster Cookies: A Peanut Butter, M&M, Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Mash-up

September 9, 2018 Leave a Comment

I'd never heard of monster cookies before flipping to this recipe in Baked: New Frontiers. At first, I thought the name referred to the size of the cookie, but no... monster cookies are a "Frankenstein"-type mashup of four cookies: peanut butter, oatmeal, chocolate chip, and M&M. The concept sounded delicious, since I love peanut butter cookies, oatmeal cookies, and chocolate chip cookies. Could merging the three (plus M&Ms) into a single cookie yield the perfect cookie?...

Ideas Post 75: Vote for a Recipe

September 8, 2018 5 Comments

I think I'm officially shifted to a monthly idea post rather than a weekly idea post, at least for the next few months? We'll see how it goes...

Anyways, it occurred to me that the "ideas post" is also the perfect place to report back on all the recipes I've been trying that have failed. It's not that I've been ignoring my blog or the recipe voting results (I swear), but a lot of things have flopped lately....

Roasted Cauliflower, Feta, Orzo Salad

September 8, 2018 Leave a Comment

I get so hung-up on saying something before posting a recipe that I have 75 drafts of posts "ready to go" but I haven't gotten around to writing anything meaningful/witty/relevant at the top. I can't really explain why I feel like I ought to have a decent block of text ahead of a recipe... I subscribe to an awful lot of food blogs, but there are only a handful of bloggers whose writing I actually bother to read. I'm happy to read relevant details about the food I am considering making; I'm reading the blog for the food recipes, not the blogger's life stories (except Smitten Kitchen and Joy the Baker, obviously). You're probably here with similar motivations, right? This is a food blog.

So, about this roasted cauliflower, feta, and orzo salad from an Ideas Post way back in *gasp* May. I've heard all kinds of effusive reviews about Chrissy Teigen's first cookbook, Cravings. This salad didn't blow me away as some stupendous salad masterpiece, but it was quite nice and I'd certainly eat it again. Caleb didn't love it, but that's because he wanted to eat the components separately. If you find yourself with some cauliflower, orzo, feta, arugula, and dried cherries, you should certainly consider making this. Some grilled flank steak would go quite nicely with this if you want to add some meat (I added some black forest ham to the one in the picture; ham wasn't the best choice for addition, but it worked okay).

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Yellow Cake: the Reverse Creaming Method

August 29, 2018 1 Comment

I first made this yellow cake from Sarah Kieffer's cookbook about 18 months ago for a friend's baby shower. I liked it so much I made it again the next week for someone's birthday. Somehow it's been languishing in my draft pile ever since. Once so much time has passed, it's probably worth remaking something just to be doubly confident, right? So we arrived back from Mexico this afternoon, I started some laundry, ate some Thai "linner" (or is it lunner? maybe just supper?), and started in on a repeat of this cake.

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Sweet and Salty Cake

August 12, 2018 2 Comments

People sometimes ask me what my favorite thing to bake is and I never know what to say. Usually, my answer is, it depends.... depends on how much time I have, what I'm in the mood to eat, etc. After spending all night making the two batches of Baked cakes (the Classic Chocolate cake base for this Sweet and Salty Cake, plus the strawberry cake base for the Strawberry Supreme Cake), hours the next morning wrestling with the Baked vanilla frosting for that strawberry cake, and hours that evening making the salted caramel and whipped chocolate caramel ganache for this Sweet and Salty Cake, I can say with certainty that one of my least favorite things to make is a layer cake....

Ideas Post 74: Vote for a Recipe

August 11, 2018 7 Comments

Lots of options in this latest idea post. The last few have all been flops (to varying degrees) so here's hoping these choices turn out better. Which of these recipe(s) should I try? Tell me in the comments!

A) Spicy Scallops with Watermelon Salsa from Cooking Light 2018
B) Creamy Arugula, Goat Cheese, and Tomato Pasta Salad from Love Real Food
C) Kale and Quinoa Salad with Crisp Celery, Plumped Cranberries, and Lemon Dressing from Love Real Food
D) Honeycrisp Apple and Kohlrabi Salad with Burnt Chile Chimichurri from Cheers to the Publican, Repast and Present
E) Skillet Chicken with Crushed Olives and Sumac from Dining In
F) Jalapeño Peach Chicken from Deep Run Roots
G) Easy Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting from Love Real Food

Hummus

August 10, 2018 Leave a Comment

You've been buying store-bought hummus for long enough. You'll need a reasonably good blender to achieve luxuriously smooth hummus, but assuming you have one, it's time to make your own hummus (after which you'll never be able to go back to the store-bought variety)....

Thousand-Layer Chocolate Chunk Cookies

August 4, 2018 8 Comments

According to King Arthur Flour, today is National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day, so it's the perfect day to be posting these thousand-layer chocolate chunk cookies. The appearance of these delectably-named cookies in my kitchen (and now on my blog) was actually motivated by a recent layover Caleb and I had in Chicago.

A few years ago now, I drove down to DC to visit a college friend, and she took me out for brunch in a glitzy newly-constructed "neighborhood" called Pike & Rose outside Rockville. Nothing so extraordinary about that, except the name of the restaurant was Summer House Santa Monica, which struck me as odd because A) there's no Summer House Santa Monica in Santa Monica and B) it was early December and quite chilly in DC. When we walked inside, we were greeted by one of the most eye-catching and drool-inspiring bakery cases I've ever seen, including a candied-bacon chocolate chunk cookie that I decided to order "just to know if it tasted okay". It was incredible; everything we ate there was.

So, fast forward to our trip to Houghton this summer. Summer House Santa Monica now has multiple locations (in Maryland and Illinois), including a storefront at the front of ORD Terminal F. We landed around 6:45am and I hustled Caleb across ORD to SHSM for breakfast and plane cookies. He ordered the regular chocolate chip cookie, I ordered the sea salt chocolate chip cookie. Neither of our cookies lasted long enough to be eaten on our prop-jet flight.... so while we waited and reminisced about how delicious the cookies were, I asked google how Summer House Santa Monica makes chocolate chip cookies with such a beautiful layering of cookie dough and chocolate shards.

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Blueberry Slump

July 29, 2018 Leave a Comment

What is a blueberry slump? It's basically the same as a blueberry cobbler, except that it's cooked on the stovetop instead of the oven, making it an ideal dessert for late summer when cobbler sounds fantastic but you can't face the idea of turning on your oven. I can only speculate on why it's called a slump, rather than something a little more appealing; the dumpling topping is cooked by the steam created by covering the skillet (rather than browned in the oven), so visually it's not the most attractive dessert.

Fresh sour cherries are not a thing in California. The last two weeks of July are apparently "the" season for sour cherries, but either I'm missing all the farmers who carry them or you can only find them by special request here. In either case, this lack of sour cherries made it a little difficult for me to make this weekend's Baked Sunday Mornings assignment: a sour cherry slump. Since Caleb is such a big fan of blueberries, I decided to adapt Baked's recipe to make a blueberry slump instead.

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Peanut-Pork Ragu

July 26, 2018 Leave a Comment

Stephanie Izard's recipe for peanut-pork ragu caught my eye every time I flipped through Gather and Graze --- What an unusual (in my experience) combination of ingredients! Pork, peanuts, garlic, shallot, tomato, lime, and tamarind go together, as evidenced by many multitudes of Thai recipes. But white miso and harissa paste? Consider me intrigued.

Naturally, I decided to make this on a whim as a back-up dish when we were hosting a dinner. I realize it's probably not the case for most people, but I have an excessively stocked pantry, so (unlike most of Stephanie's other recipes in Gather and Graze!) I already had everything I needed at home except the ground pork.

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Ideas Post 73: Vote for a Recipe

July 14, 2018 7 Comments

It is taking a little while for me to get back into the kitchen post ankle sprain, but it's true that I start to get twitchy if I'm out of the kitchen for more than a few days.

I was looking at my always-increasing list of recipes to try and stumbled across this subset, all from Dishing Up the Dirt. It's a gorgeous cookbook (and blog and instafeed).... so far I've only made one of Andrea's recipes, but I really loved it: the winter harvest pizza. These fresh ideas are all summer-y, so now is the right time to dive back in....

Brown Butter Blondies with Butterscotch Toffee

July 11, 2018 1 Comment

The Fearless Baker received a ton of positive press leading up to its release (and after), and Erin McDowell is the mind behind many of the "Genius" dessert recipes on Food52, so I had pretty high expectations for her first cookbook. These butterscotch blondies grabbed my attention immediately when I flipped through. They looked simple enough to make any time, while the butterscotch sauce component offered something more interesting than a basic blondie recipe.

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