Banana Chocolate Chip Monkey Bread

It’s socially distanced outdoor bbq day here at the crooked cabin and I’ve decided to finally make the banana chocolate chip monkey bread which is a terrible dessert to make seeing as it’s traditionally picked at with your hands. Inspiration strikes and it cannot be ignored!

I saw this Tasty video pop up on facebook a very long time ago and kept it saved and bookmarked for the day I felt motivated enough to make it and today was the day. I love monkey bread and I feel like it’s so fun to pick at something with your friends like this and enjoy something sweet and gooey but now with serving forks and in shifts. It’s a little less magical but that’s okay.

Monkey bread is super easy but always fun and I enjoyed the addition of chocolate chips and banana in the building process. This tasty video/recipe is super easy to follow and I think it came out great. Honestly it could’ve used a little more bake time for the middle pieces but I’ve been noticing this oven needs a little more time so that’s just a nuance I have to keep taking into account when I bake here.

I wish we had more people to enjoy it and I feel like in the right crowd it would do super well. Next time I think I’d make them into cupcake sizes just so they’re easier for people to enjoy.

Mushroom Carbonara

Not gonna lie, today was a rough day. I woke up not feeling too great but had the day off work which made it feel a little daunting during social distancing. Everyone else in the house got up to work or video chat with friends but I didn’t have major plans today and felt drained before I even opened my eyes. It’s a sunny day but it’s still clocking on under 50 degrees so it’s a little tough to go out for a hike. Instead, I decided to cook and get my spirits up so I checked out my list of recipes I want to try and figured out I had just about everything I needed to make Molly Baz’s Mushroom Carbonara. Of course, I’ve only seen the Bon Appetit video but I was super excited to see that it’s actually a Basically recipe which made it even more motivating to make today. High success rate for delicious food; it was a task for the morning.

So I started off browning the mushrooms, cooking the pasta, and cooked off the onions and garlic. (I didn’t have shallots so onions would do today.) The mushrooms went well it started to smell super great. I made the egg/parm sauce and combined everything together. All in all, it was a super easy dish to make with a simple amount of ingredients. I’m not good at keeping herbs on hand because I always end up wasting them when they wilt in the fridge. I need to get a little herb kitchen garden going so I can just pick what I need when I’m cooking.

Caleb came back in for lunch right as I was finishing up and got the first taste. I was pretty happy with the consistency of the eggs and the cheese was melting as I scooped the pasta into my bowl. He okayed the pasta and get more excited about the flavor as he had a bite with mushroom and got everything together. I figured I could’ve cooked the mushroom down a little more because some pieces weren’t cooked down all the way but it wasn’t a bad doneness the way it was. I”m happy with this and the ease of it and the return from it was great. Not a perfect day but this helped.

Tie-Dye Cookies

I’ve been wanting to make these cookies for some time now but haven’t felt super motivated to do it. I’m trying to cut down on the number of baked goods we have in the house because if there are too much they don’t get eaten and I don’t want so much food to go to waste. I also don’t want to have too many sweets laying around that make us feel like we need to eat them before they go bad. Healthier fruits are the way go to for snacking so I don’t want to make too much temptation. Still, I was feeling motivated on Sunday and decided to make Rick Martinez’s Tie-Dye Butter Cookies.

Rick is super cute in his video and like most people, I grew up liking tie-dye. My mom is a huge fan and gets excited when she sees tie-dye things that are super colorful. What a better way to spend Mother’s Day. I didn’t end up going home but it was really nice to think about her while I was making them and I'm excited to show her photos of it then next time I see her.

The recipe for the tie-dye cookies are super simple and I liked how quickly the dough came together. I still haven’t gotten cookie cutters so I ended up using an egg mold to cut the cookies our and that worked out fine. They’re a little large but they didn’t spread in the oven and ended up being the perfect thickness and they just melt in your mouth.

The glaze was also super simple and the recipe says to split it and make two colors but Ii actually did 1 batch of just white and i split the other half into red and then blue. Honestly, I was a little worried they would be kind of patriotic accidentally but figured if they mixed together they would be a really nice purple which did happen.

I tried to scoop a spoonful of white glaze onto all the cookies then drizzles spoonfuls of the red and blue on top and kind of swirled them around just like in those paint pour videos that were so popular not that long ago. I should’ve done them in batches because the glaze hardened a little on the last few before I could get to them and swirl them. It was messy but I had a really nice time with it. I do love the unexpected nature of tie-dye and paint pours and I love the way these cookies came out.

These remind me of the hard glazed cookies from the grocery store that I loved so much growing up that I have such a hard time finding now. Everyone uses frosting now that is too much and I’m happier with a glazed icing like this. These are going on my baking list and I’m going to be making them a lot more for gatherings in the future. A huge party pleaser for sure.

Empanadas

I love empanadas. This isn’t something we ever ate growing up but when I went to college I started exploring Rochester and one of the hidden gems in Rochester’s public market is Juan and Maria’s Empanada Stop. They have the most amazing empanadas that are amazing as you walk through the bustling farmers market. There’s always a line for these slightly oily pockets but they’re so fast its always a good time. I’ve gone to the market just for these and it’s always worth it.

Cut to recently, watching Bon Appetit, where Gabby makes empanadas and like before, she makes them look easy. I checked out her recipe on their website and it was actually pretty easy with a simple dough. I switched out the filling for some ground beef and onions that I had in the freezer and it was simple. Caleb isn’t a fan of beef so we just made him some chicken empanadas and it worked out well. I like recipes like this that allow for adjustments easily. While the dough came together well it was a little tricky to roll out eventually. I packed and fried these guys but honestly, I’m not a fan of the dough and the butteriness of it takes me out. I had fun making them but I think this is something I need to leave to Juan and Maria.

Tortilla de Papas

I had the day off of work today and decided today was the day to try my hand at an elaborate breakfast of Tortilla de Paps. Gabby from the Bon Appetit test kitchen makes this and I’ve never heard of it before but I’m always up for a new cooking technique and since I had time today I wanted to give it a shot. Caleb and I were going to make this on Sunday but it was the weekend and neither of us felt particularly inspired to wake up and cook something that took a while so we skipped it. But now we have a 4lb bag of potatoes and need to get moving on that so I had some more drive today.

Gabby somehow makes things feel so doable and easy so I walked into this with some skepticism but confidence. Boy was I wrong. Tortilla de Papas is a tricky dish for sure with cook times all over the place. This is one of those things you just have to know how to make. I decided to cut the recipe in half because we don’t need 2lbs of potatoes and 10 eggs. This felt like a good move but in the end my egg to potato ratio was off and I didn’t get a good egg sear on one side because the egg had all cooked on the first side (pictured here). This took me close to an hour to make which was rough and while it tasted fine, it was a lot of work for an average dish. An omelette with onions and potatoes would’ve tasted about the same without all the oil everywhere. The potatoes are poached in oil and the whole thing just had a layer of oil around it. I’d op for something lighter and more flavorful next time. An interesting dish but too much time for not enough payout for me.

Pasta with chickpea garlic sauce

Quarantine is an interesting time and it’s quite boring so I feel pretty lucky on that end. Working from home and being able to finish some half-done crafts is exciting but it’s crazy to think about how long this could continue. I’m super grateful for Bon Appetit youtube content and seeing all my favorite chefs at home making things happen. Recently they released a video where everyone made pasta using basic pantry items they had at home and I was pretty excited when Claire made a sauce using chickpeas and garlic. It was super simple and I’d never seen anything like it before so I knew I wanted to try it and I’m all over chickpeas right now so I was extra excited.

Claire cooked pasta, and while that was going, pan-fried a can of chickpeas on a little olive oil with garlic. Once they got crispy she took out about 1/3 of the chickpeas to top the pasta with later. I, of course, got a little excited and forgot to take some out until after I deglazed the pan so my crispy chickpeas became a little soggy… a little sad but not a huge deal. Claire also deglazed her pan with a dry white wine but I didn’t have any here so I used chicken stock as a substitute which worked out fine. I mashed the chickpeas in the pan, added a little pasta sauce and seasoned the sauce with red pepper flakes and a little salt. I tossed the pasta and seasoned a little more to taste.

My sauce seized up a little and wasn’t as liquid as I would’ve liked in the end but it tasted great. I topped with my slightly soggy chickpeas and it was ready to go. I’m totally going to do this again. It was so simple and easy to make and used very staple ingredients that I usually always have. I’m so happy to keep learning about these new techniques and uses for basic ingredients and I’m glad I’m still able to keep things interesting and new during this social distancing.

Camouflage Chocolate Fudge Brownies

It’s clearly not social distancing without desserts so I decided to take my day off yesterday and bake these really cool looking camouflage brownies from Bon Appetite. This is actually a Basically recipe which makes me more excited. I love simple recipes. They give me confidence.

These camouflage brownies should really be called cheesecake brownies because the lighter parts of the brownie aren’t actually brownie batter at all, they’re cheesecake.

The recipe calls for a cheesecake batter that gets divided into two, one regular and one with cocoa powder to give it that chocolate cheesecake flavor. Then a brownie batter is made separately.

Ingredients wise, there’s a short list; but this recipe calls for a double boiler situation to melt the cream cheese and the butter for each batter while then being able to mix the other ingredients for everything to come together.

My problem with this recipe was an issue of consistency. My cheesecake batter got too warm and was pretty runny while my brownie batter seized up and wasn’t as loose and runny as in the online instructions. In the end, the brownies still came out great but the top wasn’t as pretty as in the original recipe. Flavor over appearance. It’s worth another shot and I can see these being a real hit with people, but only if you like cheesecake and brownies.

Sour Cream and Onion Biscuits

Everyone is baking bread. It’s the cool thing to do because what else are you doing right now.. but bread is just a little too advanced for me and while I may get to that point, we don’t really NEED bread so that time will come. Instead, I’ve decided to try to make Bon Appetit’s Sour cream and onion biscuits which I saw on instagram (and possibly twitter too).

This recipe is from basically so it’s SUPER simple and easy. There are 9 ingredients and it doesn’t require any eggs or proofing time. Just make the dough and bake. Easy. I was a little nervous because the dough started off pretty scraggly and didn’t come together the same way different doughs might but Basically has great videos that help you know what to do step by step so I just trusted the process and did what the instructions said. I popped the biscuits in the oven and baked for 20mins. The whole time they were baking, the kitchen smelled great. I was super pumped for them to come out and they got really nice and golden. They did look a little lighter than I was expected and I got a little nervous about the amount of rise they got (or lack of rise really).

I let them cool for a little out of the oven and split one open and it was really nice how the layers came apart fluffed up. I did take a smaller one and it was baked really well but I’m still a little nervous for the larger biscuits that were a little more centered in the dough rectangle. The green onions inside kept the biscuit a little wetter than I wanted but everything was still baked through in the middle. It was warm and soft on the inside but crisp on the outside. I’ll eat another one for breakfast and see how they held up. Maybe I’ll adjust the oven temp to bake them a little lower and slower to ensure the middles are done next time but these are a must bake again. I love them so much and I’m super pumped with how easy they were to make.

Seared Mushrooms with Creamy Polenta

Times are tough and getting creative is key. This whole coronavirus is setting in and it’s harder to go to Wegmans in the next town (which is bigger and more likely to have the virus spread) so finding ingredients here in Cortland is trickier but Carla Lalli Music is pretty inspiring with her seared mushrooms with creamy polenta. I love mushrooms now, something I avoided like the plague as a child, and I’ve had polenta once before at a restaurant to try it out. I wasn’t terribly impressed with polenta due to the texture and subtle flavor but I figured now is the time to try it again when I have a hand in seasoning and flavoring it. I bought a fancy mushroom blend at the store with shiitake, crimini, and oyster mushrooms and a premade polenta that came in a roll. Not what I was expecting with the polenta experience but after visiting 4 stores I was just happy to find the missing piece of my dish before my mushrooms went bad sitting in my fridge. The packaging for the polenta suggested cutting it into rounds and frying it or even microwaving it but I knew I wanted something creamy and cooked it down with some butter/cream and seasoned with salt and pepper to taste. I followed Carla’s video to crisp up my mushrooms and topped them on the polenta and I was super happy.

I’m still not a huge fan of polenta and would still rather have a mashed potato base but it was balanced well by the mushrooms and this mix made breakfast for me for three days so I’m super pumped about that. Cost-effective and tasty. I’ll take it. Polenta still won’t be a pantry must for me but I’m more willing to try it going out to see how other people cook it and hopefully find a version I’m more fond of.

Broccoli Bolognese

It’s Coronavirus 2020! Social distancing is coming in hot which only means one thing, I’m going to be home all day cooking because what else is there to do!? I mean.. groceries are semi-limited and going outside as little as possible is the goal so there’s only SO much I can cook and eat because let’s face it, I don’t eat tons, especially since I’m stuck inside and I’m not out running around burning off all this energy. It does feel nice to buckle down and get through some of these recipes though so here we go.

Basically I’m running through the Bon Appetit list that I have saved up on youtube and I haven’t yet made my grocery store run this week so I managed to figure out that I have all the ingredients I need for a nice Broccoli Bolognese!

Molly Baz and Adam Rapoport come together in the test kitchen to make this broccoli bolognese which Adam says is just because the word bolognese sounds nice so that’s what we’re calling this. So this is chill.

I checked the recipe and it’s super simple which I love about a lot of Molly’s recipes. They do use Italian sausage for this but I happened to have some bacon already cooked up so I made a quick substitute for that and called it even. I also already had some broccoli cooked so that was one less step I had to do but blanching broccoli is simple so it wasn’t a huge jump in the recipe.

Molly and Adam cook the broccoli, then cool the garlic which they remove to then cook the sausage. Since I already had my bacon and broccoli cooked, this is where I jumped in. I boiled my pasta and while that was going I heated the broccoli and sausage up with some of the pasta water and let it simmer. I actually don’t have a potato masher so I end up using spoons or forks hoping foods soften enough for me to mash them this way but I honestly could’ve used the masher for more efficiency. And of course, bacon isn’t going to mash but that’s alright, no harm done to this crispy flat guys. Once the pasta was ready I moved it over to the ‘sauce’ and added butter and a tiny bit of pasta water as needed to finish cooking.

I stirred in some parm at the end and called it a day. This was super easy and I’m glad I could make it with leftovers and ingredients I had on hand. It came out great and tasted pretty good. Would for sure make again and while I agree that I don’t know that it’s a ‘bolognese’ it’s a really nice and easy dish so I’m in.

Spicy Mushroom Larb

This week from Bon Appetit I’ve decided to try Andy Baraghani’s mushroom larb recipe (with some adjustments). Larb is not the type of asian food I grew up with but I have had it at restaurants as a traditional ground meat dish with lettuce or rice noodles. I remember my aunt called it ‘ants on a raft’ which was so odd to me but it makes sense really. I’m not a huge fan of Andy’s videos but he makes great recipes and dishes that I’m truly interested in so it’s worth watching. It’s also a "feel good food plan” recipe so it’s relatively healthy and easy to make so I thought I would give it a shot.

In this recipe, Andy uses shiitake which are kinda pricey so I went with a cheaper baby bella. I missed the scallions in the recipe so I ended up not adding that and I also skipped the chile because I forgot to grab something but compensated by adding a chile powder. Not the same at all but it gave my dish a little kick and I got the spirit of the dish so that’s good enough for me.

This dish is honestly super easy to make, I prepped the mushrooms, shallot, and garlic and got to cooking. The recipe notes to not touch the pan for 5mins to let the mushrooms get really crisp and while I let the mushrooms go closer to 7mins, my pan was quite small for the amount and I didn’t quite get the crispness that I was looking for. The mushrooms did deflate and get very nicely brown but just not that crisp.I added the shallot and garlic and cooked it until they were soft and smelled really good and then I tossed with the fish sauce, peanuts, chile powder, and salt to taste. Now, Andy adds the scallions, not the shallot into the pan to cook off but I’m not a fan of raw shallot so I’m glad I made that decision. It would’ve been nice for a little green to have the scallion and maybe some mint like they say in the recipe but I’m not a huge fan of mint so I didn’t miss it that much. I’ve been scarred by too much raw mint and thai basil as a child I don’t feel that need for it that much in my cooking now. Maybe I’ll outgrow that because the flex of green really do brighten the dish up.

Overall, I loved the smell and taste of this mushroom larb. The fish sauce brought me back and made me quite happy in my apartment. Honestly, i was missing the texture of the meat a little more since the mushroom didn’t quite get crisp. I suppose I could do a smaller cut next time and work in a bigger pan to crisp it up. Or I could just buy some ground meat. It was a simple dish to make and super easy to eat as well. Wrapping the larb in lettuce reminded me of being home and all the wraps in Vietnamese food so that was really really nice. Would make again, maybe more traditionally with meat. Good flavors and simple.

Homemade Pizza Pockets

Saturday was a pizza adventure! It started off because I’ve been very recently into the Try Guys on youtube and I watched a video with one of the Try Guys called “night in, night out”. He and his wife pick a meal and cook it at home, then go out to eat a professionally made version at a restaurant for two dates back to back and compare which date they enjoyed more. I stumbled on their pizza night video and thought their stuffed pizza from Tasty was a really cute and fun idea that Caleb also might like. While he enjoyed the concept of making pizza together, he wasn’t super into THAT much cheese so we decided to make a regular pizza instead. While looking for manageable recipes, Caleb found pizza pockets by one of his favorites Matty Matheson. There were other recipes we found but we didn’t factor in time for the dough to rest overnight so we went with Matty who has a rest/rise time of 20mins. That’s the type of level we’re on.

Caleb recently got a fancy KitchenAid stand mixer for Christmas because his family loves him, so he was pretty excited to get the chance to finally set it up. He was in the charge of the dough and I was in charge of prepping ingredients for the filling. He loved it. The dough came together super fast in the stand mixer and was ready and resting by the time I got half of the ingredients out of the fridge. It had even more time to rest which probably helped it quite a bit. We got very excited about this pizza pocket concept and decided to make a bunch of different types of pizza. Matty’s recipe yields 8 pizza pockets but I wasn’t perfectly precise in cutting the dough so we ended up with 9, some smaller than others but not a big deal to us. We made a couple buffalo chicken pizza pockets, a couple veggie pizza pockets, and classic pepperoni and cheese, a pepperoni and sausage, and a sausage pepper and onion pizza pocket. Of course we had a bunch of fillings leftover and decided to make two large supreme pizzas with everything inside. Caleb went for that one the next day for lunch and said it was actually pretty good. The buffalo chicken was the odd man out but it didn’t ruin the pocket and he was satisfied with that.

I picked the sausage peppers and onions pizza pocket and it was amazing fresh out of the oven. Our crust got nice and crisp but the filling was really nice and gooey on the inside. We could’ve used a little tiny bit more cheese inside but the ratio wasn’t bad the way it was. We also heated up some regular tomato sauce to dip which made everything even better with that acidic tomato kick. We were really proud of ourselves and the food turned out great. We had a fun time and it took a couple hours of our day but it was nice to have an activity to do together that we could enjoy and that was fruitful. A good use of money and a good time together.

Crispy Smashed Potatoes

As I mentioned in my previous post, I recently made Molly Baz’s crispy smashed potatoes but Molly went a step further and made a walnut dressing with it and I got a little too skittish for that. Maybe next time Molly. Maybe next time.

In any case, I made these while I was prepping for Sohla’s red lentil zucchini fritters so they’re super easy to make and there’s a lot of downtime for it which I can appreciate. I love potatoes so any recipe with a crispy potato-y potato is great to me. Molly uses a small yukon gold potato and I tried to look for something similar at the grocery store and ended up with a “baby golden potato”. Vague. My potatoes were similar in texture to a yukon gold but they had a sweeter finish so I’m questioning it a little. It wasn’t bad but it was unexpected for sure.

The first step is to boil the potatoes in saltwater until fork tender. Once they’re ready, you drain them, let them cool, then smash them between two baking sheets. This works so well and it’s pretty fun just laying into a baking sheet of potatoes. I got a great little smash from them and flattened them out then coated them in oil, salt, and pepper. I probably could’ve gone a little flatter with the smash to get a crispier finish but I like my potatoes starchy so that’s fine by me. I let them go for 40mins in a 450F oven then pulled them. I do wish they got a little darker. Like Sohla’s fritters, I got a little skittish but I can always re-toast them in the oven so it’s not a bad way to go.

This is where Molly makes the walnut dressing for the potatoes with anchovies and golden raisins. Clearly, this is where she lost me. She does say that the anchovies aren’t prominent in the dressing and they add more of a salty, umami flavoring but I can’t commit to buying a container of anchovies just for this because I don’t like anchovies. Sitting here now I will say that I’m contemplating it because the anchovy, walnut, raisin, garlic mix might just be crazy enough to work…. If I go through with it I’ll update.

As just smashed salt potatoes go, this wasn’t a bad way to cook them. It was super easy with a lot of downtime and minimal active cooking which is nice while doing other chores around the apartment. I would easily make potatoes this way again. I’ll get back to you guys on the dressing.

UPDATE: So I tried to make the walnut dressing and was a little concerned about the anchovies. I don’t think I cooked it low enough because the anchovy didn’t disintegrate into the oil like Molly’s did but instead got a little crisp. I kept waiting for it to happen and it didn’t really break down as much and I ended up browning the walnuts and anchovy a little too much with the carryover heat. The garlic did better getting thrown in last. Browning it too much might have been part of the problem so maybe it would be better next time with another try. The anchovies really weren’t a big deal and I shouldn’t have been as worried about it as I was so I am happy that I tried it this time and I’ll be less skeptical putting it in dishes in the future for sure. Though I will say I’m not going to just start eating them with everything.

Red Lentil and Zucchini Fritters

Living away from a Wegmans is rough sometimes, especially when you’re searching for not so common ingredients. I book marked this recipe video for red lentil zucchini fritters from Bon Appetit and decided last week that I was going to try this out because I’d be able to find everything without driving 30-40mins to Wegamans. I was almost wrong. I spent an hour or so after work last Wednesday driving to three different grocery stores in town to finally find one bag of red lentils. By the time I made it back to my apartment I was hangry and over it. Which is why it took another few days for me to finally have the time and mental preparedness to actually try this recipe.

This dish is made by Sohla and i’ve been feeling a little iffy with these fried fritters I keep picking from Bon Appetit but she makes it look easy and totally manageable. Sohla does make a lemony yogurt dip to go with them but I opted out and just tried to focus on the fritters. First off, the elusive red lentils. Turns out these are harder to find here than the should be but I’m honestly not THAT surprised and I’m happy I did mange to get a bag and it wasn’t expensive. I’m interested to learn more about lentil use because I have a good amount left. Anyways, I started off soaking the lentils and prepping the zucchini and onion as instructed. While I was waiting for all of this I also made smashed potatoes from Molly Baz but that’ll be coming once I get a solid photo.

Once soaked, I pulverized the lentils and mixed them with the veggies (that I dried with a towel). Sohla says that it will look like a lot of veggies to lentils but to trust the process. She hit the nail on the head because I was quite concerned but I trusted her and honestly, I was SUPER skeptical but she was right. Everything worked out in the end.

So Sohla fries them in a good amount of ghee but I failed to remember I was almost out of a neutral oil so I used less oil to fry than she did. I don’t think it made a substantial difference but i might’ve gotten better frying with more oil with a higher heat.

My fritters came out smelling amazing. I did get a little skittish and didn’t fry them to quite as brown as Sohla instructed so mine weren’t as crisp but they still tasted amazing. The lentils get really nice and crispy but the onions and zucchini get really warm and soft and I love that dual texture. They veggies help hydrate the crisp lentils quite a bit for a perfect balance. Next time I won’t be so worried about the ratio but I may just toss the leftovers into a pan to reheat them and crisp them up a little more in the future. I’ve already recommended this recipe to people and would totally try them again. I do have lentils leftover.

CORT - Wild Ginger Asian Fusion

I should honestly stop watching videos on youtube while at work because I just get hungry and crave random food. Today I was watching a bunch of Try Guys videos involving sushi and of course that just made me want to eat some. I have been wanting to eat sushi lately but I haven’t had the opportunity to go get some in Ithaca so I decided to take a risk and get sushi at the Asian Fusion restaurant right down the street.

LOCATION: 45 MAIN ST., CORTLAND, NY 13045

Caleb and I have been here twice and each time I’ve gotten a bento box so I can have a little of everything and satisfy a bunch of cravings in one go because it’s a rare treat for me. The bento box comes with a California roll which is a super safe choice here in Cortland where we are nowhere near a body of water that would provide fresh fish. I don’t eat raw fish anyway so my risks for sushi are pretty low wherever I am.

I knew Wild Ginger had sushi on their menu and today was a desperate day with my stomach grumbling at work so I knew I had to place the order. The sushi menu looks pretty extensive with a really good selection of choices. Since I don’t eat raw it cuts down on my option a lot but I appreciate when places have choices for me.

My favorite piece is the Ebi Nigiri and I order it wherever I go. It’s honestly super hard to mess up shrimp on rice so I haven’t had too many bad experiences with it. Two pieces cost $4.50 so this is an expensive order but desperate times call for desperate measures and today is a treat yo self moment for the weeks of craving sushi I’ve faced. I also decided to try the Hotategai Nigiri which is the scallop. The riskiest of my choices but I LOVE scallop and have never actually tried this roll before. Four pieces, of course, aren’t enough even though my total was a whopping $10 but I had to get another and decided on a spider roll, fried soft shell crab with avocado, cucumber, and roe. Spider is a classic that I get often because it tends to be on every menu but is totally cooked and has everything I like in it.

I cannot tell you how excited I was to eat this today. Everything looked perfect and I was a little nervous but excited to try the scallop. Overall, everything was great, the ebi and the spider roll were standard and tasted how I wanted them to. They were average sizes and everything was packed well and rolled nicely. The scallop nigiri was a really perfect texture and melted in my mouth though it wasn’t super flavorful. Not worth the price but it was a nice try and I’m glad I did it so now I know.

Wild Ginger, pretty expensive especially since I remember the days of all you can eat Sushi in Chicago where for $20 I could eat 20+ pieces of my choosing with soup. Today my total was $20 for 10 pieces. The sushi was just as good but double the price. It’s a sad time to live in such a remote area but it’s the price I have to pay. Unfortunately, sushi will have to stay a special treat for myself reserved for desperate times with a lot of space in between orders. My stomach and my heart are happy with my choice, though my wallet will give me a stern talking-to later.

Pasta with Vodka Sauce

I’m a huge fan of noodles and living on my own again I realized I don’t make rice as much as I'm used to eating; instead, I opt for noodles. I guess when I get to make the choices of what’s for dinner each night, I always want noodles and that works for me. So this past week, I’ve decided I’m going to make my first pasta with Vodka Sauce, with the guidance of Molly Baz at Bon Appetit. I have a bunch of these recipes saved up waiting to try and I was a little busy this past week. I haven’t been home to cook often and when I do cook it lasts for a few meals so the number of new dishes I make per weeks is pretty low. I’ve been getting better at cutting recipes in half so I get to try more dishes but I’m not going to lie, it’s work. There’s a lot of planning involved and luckily I enjoy going to the grocery store which is less than 10mins away from me.

So, Molly’s recipe is actually a Basically recipe which I get very excited about because that means there are few ingredients and the recipe is super easy and fast. Molly makes hers using rigatoni but I didn’t have any in my cupboard so I went with a farfalle which worked perfectly fine. The pasta goes in one pot and the base of the sauce starts in another with onions and garlic. Now, the recipe calls for the cloves of garlic to just be lightly smashed and throw in almost whole and while I did that this time, I would totally cut them down at least a little next time because i like getting chunks of garlic, not a whole clove. Tomato paste went in then the vodka to deglaze the pot. Then a mix of pasta water and heavy creme to ensure the dairy didn’t break. I like that technique and it was super easy and smart to just mix the cream with hot water first to temper and add it into the pot warm. The sauce was a really nice color an when I added the pasta it was a good sauce to noodle ratio so I ended up not adding more pasta water to the mixture. I feel my sauce was a little heavy on the tomato paste and could’ve used a tad bit more cream but I’m not going to lie, the tomato paste was the one thing I didn’t measure out fully so I’m 100% sure I added a little more than what the recipe calls for (halved).

I added parm to finish and actually had a side of green peas to cut the pasta with some vegetables which completely helped. The Vodka sauce was actually really good and I did a better job than I was expecting to for my first ever Vodka sauce. The dish overall was a little rich with the tomato paste and cheese so a little more cream to the sauce to lighten it up would likely help but adding a veggie also helped cut the richness with a little fresh/sweet pop. I would totally make this again. I love Basically because they feel so easy and they keep coming out perfectly that I can’t help but be happy when I make these dishes. Would totally recommend trying this one out.

Spicy Chicken Katsu

It’s been a solid month since I’ve cooked something worthwhile which isn’t to say I haven’t been cooking but I’ve been slacking a little for sure. What with Lunar New Year and visiting Rochester quite a bit I’ve been eating leftovers from my parents and clearing out some soups and boxes of food in my cupboard. Lazy cooking Emily always circles back around. But I’ve been eyeing this recipe from Bon Appetit, of course, and finally got around to cooking it and let me just say, I wasn’t disappointed. Chris Morocco makes a Spicy Chicken Katsu Sandwich which I found via the Bon Appetit YouTube and I was interested. While Chris uses the superior chicken thigh, I have a freezer full of chicken breasts that I got as a Wegman’s family pack with a coupon so I have to pick away at it somehow.

I wasn’t totally sold on a sandwich because I’m not REALLY a sandwich person and most of the time, I want something soft and warm and a sandwich is the last thing on my mind. Instead I decided to just make the chicken katsu and go with a side of rice and veggies. This isn’t to say that it wouldn’t be an amazing sandwich, it would be, I’m just more of a noodles or rice kind of person. Sandwiches have been growing on me though so it’s not totally off the table for the future.

This recipe is super easy to follow and easy to make. You just do a simple dredge and fry it and you’re done. I love the addition of hot sauce in with the egg, I used Frank’s Red Hot because it’s stocked in my fridge, and of course, panko never does anyone wrong. My thermometer is still out of commission so I’m relying on a lifetime of looking at oil and testing batter to see if it’s hot enough and wiggling the flame up and down so the food doesn’t burn. It’s not a full proof method and I’m getting closer to buying a new battery, don’t you worry. Still, this chicken cooked through in about 5 or 6 mins which was super fast and the dredge just kept all the moisture in while the panko gave it a great crust. Honestly, store bought breadcrumbs need to go in the trash and panko will live in my pantry forever and always. Decision made.

I was super excited to eat this chicken but I got a little ahead of myself and never made my rice before I started the chicken process and couldn’t stop midway through with raw chicken sitting in front of me to cook a pot so once the chicken was fried and ready I threw on a pot of rice and distracted my grumbling stomach by washing the dishes and cleaning up my kitchen a little. As the rice was cooking i decided a little avocado on the side as my veggie wasn’t going to cut it and I made some peas I had lying in my freezer. A slightly more balanced meal for sure.

Like I said, the chicken was still super moist inside but had an amazing crunch on the outside. The hot sauce and cayenne on the breading was so good and gave a really great kick. I was a little worried it wouldn’t be spicy enough because the color didn’t look as vibrant as Chris’ chicken did in the video but I went with it and anticipated adding a little hot sauce on top if needed after but that wasn’t necessary. Over all this chicken katsu was amazing. I would 10/10 recommend and plan on making again for sure. I love the crunch and the spice and with a little rice and peas on the side, the flavor was well balanced and perfectly filling. Maybe I’ll find some milk bread and actually make Chris’ sandwich next time!

Carbonara Lasagna

I redeemed myself with my second carbonara so clearly, it was time for me to try to step up my game and make a carbonara lasagna. I’d like to note I’ve never made a lasagna before and my only experience with lasagna before this week was the kind that comes in a box that you can literally microwave… challenge accepted.

Caleb has mentioned wanting to make a homemade lasagna from scratch (not including store bought pasta) so that’s what we did over the weekend. I was the extra set of hands and he made the sauce and bought all the ingredients and instructed me on what he wanted done. His lasagna came out pretty tasty though structurally it was a little loose and didn’t really cut or sit up like a traditional lasagna. His first try was a great learning experience for me. I’ve mentioned the carbonara lasagna which I saw on an instagram story by someone I went to RIT with that currently works in Bon Appetit’s social media department. She’s doing a good job because I’m definitely making more Bon App recipe’s and watching their videos in part to play “spot Emily in the background and tell people I’ve been to several different countries with her.” So she posted a photo awhile ago of a carbonara lasagna and I knew I wanted to give it a shot. Emily has good taste so I was ready to go off on a recommendation from her.

Bon Appetit’s recipe was actually easier than I expected and I was a little nervous as to what the substitute might be for the sauce but it ended up being a cream sauce that sounded tasty and simple. Caleb got a little excited this weekend and cooked two boxes of lasagna pasta so needless to say, I took a whole container of cooked lasagna noodles home with me and had the motivation I needed to try my recipe out. He wasn’t interested in this recipe so I knew it would be all me on this one (meaning I would be eating this whole thing alone all week so it better be good). The lasagna assembly actually came together pretty easily and because the cream sauce is added on top at the end, I only had to alternate stacking noddles with an amped up ricotta mixture. I felt I made a little too much cream sauce but it ended up not being a terrible amount and the noodles and cheese soaked everything up pretty well. After baking for 40mins you’re supposed to cut little rounds to indent a spot for eggs and I, of course, do not have round cookie cutters so I had to improvise and ended up pressing down a little to give my eggs a slight home. It worked out and they didn’t just run around willy nilly but I have to say that I did get a little distracted and the eggs overcooked. I can’t say how sad I am about this because we all know I love a good runny yolk but these are still a little jammy in the middle and I was super satisfied when I tried the lasagna with it.

The recipe calls for 4 eggs but I actually cut my lasagna into 6 pieces so maybe I’ll poach an egg or two later for those egg-less slices and still have my runny yolk. I think the consensus when we had Caleb’s traditional lasagna over the weekend was that too much ricotta is a no go so I was nervous that this would be too much since theres only ricotta layers but the pancetta and the parm and fontina blend in it worked out so well and balanced really nicely. I honestly though I would be able to cut this into fourths and knock it out but of course lasagna is pretty heavy especially with a cream sauce and an egg on top so six works for me. I get serious carbonara vibes from this lasagna and urge people to give it a shot because it’s pretty wonderfully satisfying. Would make again, but maybe for a larger crowd.

Chocolate Brownie Cookies

I’m not a huge chocolate fan but I saw this recipe on Bon Appetit’s twitter awhile back for Chocolate Brownie Cookies and they looked so good and I actually do enjoy a piece of brownie that I wanted to give these a shot. Caleb and I disagree about brownies and I’m a fan of the cake-y chewy quality of brownies (though I still do love the corner pieces) and Caleb isn’t a huge fan because he likes things that are crunchy. I figured this could be a good middle ground because the cookie edges would provide a nice crunch to cake ratio.

I checked out the recipe on Bon Appetit and it was actually really surprising because there’s no flour in this cookie; it’s mostly powdered sugar and cocoa powder. No leaveners either so this is a really interesting recipe. The recipe does call for a gluten free powdered sugar which I’m not sure about because I just used the powdered sugar I had in the cupboard so that could have affected the way my cookies came out. The mixture was a little dry and took some good mixing to get to the right stage but the amount of eggs actually did hydrate everything enough with a little bit of time so I’m glad I didn’t panic and add any extra liquid to it. I baked it for 14mins rotating halfway through then I let them cool a little before removing them from the pan but to my dismay they were slightly burned on the bottom and hard to remove. I guess since they have such a high sugar content then burn pretty easily and I think they could’ve gone with a little less time in the oven. It was hard to gauge because they’re so dark to begin with and were kind of soft looking in the middle but trust me, pull them sooner rather than later. To me they seem a little too hard and overdone and I wish I baked them closer to 10-12mins but that could also be my oven. They’re very chocolatey and with the one I tried it tasted a lot like the cocoa powder but people at work seem satisfied with them and I think they go well with a cup of coffee or milk so Caleb may enjoy the crispness of them.

For me they were a little bit of a disappointment and I’d rather have a cake-y chewy brownie corner. I’m glad I tired this recipe but it’s not going to be part of my wheelhouse in the future.

Carbonara

I’ve had a rocky experience with carbonara and totally scrambled eggs onto the noodles but this time I swore I would do a better job! So when Molly Baz made a video making Bucatini Carbonara and it was a recipe with about 6 ingredients , I felt like I had pretty good odds at doing a better job.

Molly uses guanciale and bucatini but I couldn’t find them at the local grocery store and I haven’t had time to drive to Wegmans so I used a thick cut bacon and a fettuccini because I’m happy with these minor adjustments. I still cut my bacon into small pieces and fried them it while my pasta was cooking then mixed my eggs with parm. Once everything was cooked, I started getting a little nervous that the residual heat would scramble my eggs giving me flashbacks to my first attempt at carbonara but Molly said to just add the meat and pasta to the egg mixture so I listened to her and went for it. Everything turned out perfect. I added extra bacon fat and pasta water to the mixture to loosen it and get it to coat the pasta until it was shiny and glossy. I’m so happy with this attempt and it turned out great. I definitely over-salted with the bacon and just what I put in the pasta water and with the parm so I’m a little sad about that part. I’ll be a little more careful next time and maybe watch my water to salt pasta ratio but besides that, this is a super easy recipe and totally doable whenever I feel like frying up some bacon.