[cooking] Salsa Verde

Got all the ingredients for salsa verde in the CSA box a couple weeks ago:

Tomatillos, garlic scapes, japapenos, onions and cilantro (not pictured). I chopped and boiled it all:

Then blended it up with salt and cumin and garlic powder (since I didn't have any cloves to boil with the rest of the veg):

It was good on its own, to have with tortilla chips. The best way was over pulled pork enchiladas. 

This was so amazing, we had it for dinner twice:

I would love to make a huge pot of this salsa verde and can a lot for the winter.

[cooking] Stuffed Squash Blossoms

Last weekend I wanted to make some stuffed squash blossoms. I picked male flowers on Saturday morning:

YouTube videos helped me be able to identify the male vs. female flowers. I left the flowers alone all morning. While they were starting to close up, I made the ricotta cheese:

Ricotta is so easy. 1 qt whole milk + 1 cup cream. Bring to a boil. Add 4 tablespoons of lemon juice and stir slowly on a simmer for 2 min. Strain the curds into a kitchen towel over a colander. I chuck the acidic whey but you could use it in place of the water or milk any baking recipe (I've used it in breads in the past).

So the filling for the squash blossoms is a mix of fresh ricotta, Parmesan, mozzarella, minced garlic scapes, one egg, salt, pepper. 

While I did pluck off the whispy green things at the base of the flower, I left a little bit of stem to act as a handle. I stuffed the blossoms with a spoonful of the cheese mixture (this was the most fiddly part).

I heated up oil in a dutch oven and dragged the stuffed flowers through a plain batter. Fried for a few minutes on both sides.

Oh yeah, and I made some homemade marinara to go with it: saute minced garlic in olive oil, add Italian seasoning, add plain chunky tomatoes, simmer.

This was good. A little fussy. And the stems that I left were not rigid after frying, so I would cut them clean off to the base of the flower next time.

If there are still too many blossoms this weekend, I might pick more and just drape them on pizza. It's nice having fried food but then there's the leftover oil and you're tempted to fry everything in sight because you might as well while the oil is there.

I would definitely make these again for a special dinner.

[cooking] Ratatouille... ish.

I'm doing the best I can to use up all the vegetables I've been getting in the CSA (and I'm about to drown in cucumbers/tomatoes from my home garden). Here's a easy way to use one or two of everything that's in season now...

Slice and stack the slices on their side in a ceramic dish.

I put a smear pizza sauce down in the dish first (chunky canned tomatoes mixed with some of Penzey's pizza seasoning). Then the veg (no particular order but I did get a little fussy about not have two slices of the same thing together), then top with mozzarella and Parmesan cheese.

After baking at 350 F for 50 min:

I liked this, Dollar not so much. I even served it with rustic toast (everything is better with crunchy carbs) and put little forkfuls of the veg and sauce on the toast (essentially making bites of pizza on the fly)- but I think he just doesn't like a few of these particular vegetables. 

I had some leftovers the next morning for breakfast- with an over easy egg on top. Get that yolk running over everything and then eat with toast.

This could be a very pretty (and simple) side dish with just zucchini and yellow squash.

[cooking] Zhoug sauce

A friend brought over two bundles of cilantro- I googled recipes and saw zhoug sauce, which sounded good. I happened to have three large jalapenos and ramp bulbs.

The ramps were from the Chelsea Farmer's Market and the bulbs are SO huge. I used these instead of garlic cloves. I whirred it all up in a little food processor with salt, red pepper flakes, cumin, cardamom and olive oil, following this recipe.

Mine isn't as verdant green but it's very good (but too spicy hot for Dollar). I've never had this sauce in the real world, so I don't really know what it's authentically meant to taste like but it's good mixed into rice and into an omelet. I'm going to keep mixing it into everything.

[cooking] All the cheese

I saw a post on Instagram that Jasper Hill Farm was selling 4lb bags of Chef Shred for 50% off. Because everyone is (or should be!) quarantine-ing and not going to restaurants, they had a surplus. If you bought a bag, they would also donate a bag to chefs making meals for service workers. So I got a bag and it arrived in just a couple days.

I portioned out half of it for a few recipes and put the rest into the freezer. 

I also looooove the box that the cheese came in- it had an awesome picture:

"Freedom and Unity" is the Vermont state motto. But with cheese!

The first recipe I made were these stuffed buns, Russian pirozhki:

These were so good. Kind of took a day to make but worth it. I think these would be super cute for a Super Bowl party, if you add little strips (laces) perpendicularly to the top seam.

Next was some easy Cheddar Soda Bread:

I love quick breads- just mix and pour or pat it into a pan and bake. We've been enjoying this sliced in half and toasted.

Finally, I had to make mac and cheese. It's still basically winter here and this mac and cheese was the best I've ever made:

Now I can see why Jasper Hill recommends fondu with this cheese. Uuuggghhh, it's so good gooey and melty.

I'm glad I did all this cooking last weekend, I've really not had to cook much this week. We've been picking away at it- eggs with the soda bread for breakfast, a pirozhki for lunch, mac and cheese with broccoli or asparagus for dinner. But still, this is cheese three times a day. That's normal, right?

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TGIFFFF. It's forecast to be sunny and 60 tomorrow (omg omg omg). I'm going to finish cleaning up the flowerbeds in preparation for all the rain it looks like we're going to get next week.

Still sewing masks. I ordered some hella fun fabrics from Joann's that I'll pick up today. I basically only order fabric patterns that make me giggle.

I should be able to finish Fantastitch this weekend. I didn't make the last section as long as written (I ran out of one of the colors) but I'm just so ready to be done with it and move on to small projects. Just the i-cord bind off left. Then sewing in the ends. Then blocking.

[cooking] Jjapaguri and Buldak

So I did cook all the things I wanted to over the weekend, plus more. It was a good food weekend.

Friday night I made Jjapaguri from the movie Parasite:

For local people, I found both instant noodles at Yipings Asian Market in old West Leb. *But* I grabbed the last bag of Chapagetti. I told them it was the last- maybe they have more in the back or are ordering more. 

The beef is just a couple strips of sirloin (no hanwoo here), cut up and browned on either side. I made the noods (omitting the dehydrated veg packets), saved a cup of the pasta water, drained, added the noodles back to the pot with both seasoning packets, oil, some of the pasta water until things were slippery. Then into bowls, topped with beef and scallions.

I really liked it but I like jajangmyeon. Sean doesn't like it. I can tell because he at all the beef and two bites of the noodles. (Maybe I shouldn't have called it "Parasite Noodles".) I somehow resisted the urge to finish off all his leftover noodles.

Saturday my sister came over and I made cheesy fire chicken (buldak) for lunch from Maangchi's website.

So... cheesy...

I would make this again, but with chicken thighs instead. We didn't eat it all and when I reheated it for dinner, the chicken breast pieces were very dry. Also, I'd go a little easier on the sauce- it's very thick. My sister wanted something a little smoother/silkier like tteokbokki sauce.

Sunday morning I made a nice breakfast pizza. In the evening I boiled up some eggs for egg salad (work lunches). Made some peanut butter cookies. Baked a loaf of no-knead bread. Supper was salmon, garlicy spinach and bread. It was a busy cooking weekend.

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I'm almost done with the facehugger legs. I'm on the 7th leg. MAYBE I can finish tonight? While I worked on knitting the legs, I watched Season 3 of Chef Show (which is probably why I was in such a cooking mood all weekend). I also started Schitt's Creek. It's good- I'm liking it more than I thought I would. The writing is very funny.

Once the facehugger is complete, I'm tempted to make the new Stephen West Fantastitch shawl. I want a project that's really going to chew through a lot of yarn.

[cooking] Shepherd's Pie

Inspired by my needle felted sheep tapestry, I made a shepherd's pie this weekend:

I'm going to start putting mashed potatoes in a piping bag and decorate every shepherd's pie. Or every recipe that calls for mashed potatoes.

My vague recipe is: make mashed potatoes. Brown ground lamb in a pan, drain. Saute onions, then add garlic, rosemary and thyme, add the lamb, add some Worcestershire sauce, tomato sauce, Country Bob's (my secret ingredient- I buy this stuff in bulk) to make the meat filling a little saucy. Put the meat in a casserole dish, layer a whole bag of frozen corn over, cover with mashed potatoes. Bake for 30 min at 325 F.

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Good weekend. Felt too short. I only started three new yarn-y projects (a crocheted Yip Yip, an Alien facehugger, a crocheted hat). I also finished all my map magnets and fixed a lamp shade. 

Last night we went to watch the Super Bowl in Norwich and I brought bean dip:

I love this so much- I use the recipe for homemade refried beans in a Instant Pot from Simply Recipes. Then just cover it with tomatoes, avocado, black olives, pickled jalapenos, cilantro, sour cream. 

[cooking] Arancello

Finished making the arancello this weekend:

I kept the orange peels in grain alcohol for a week. Some recipes say to not let the mixture sit longer than 5 or 6 days, some recipes insist on 20 days. I don't know. Maybe next time I'll let it steep longer but I like the orange color and flavor I achieved after just 7 days.

I strained the peels from the Everclear and mixed in three cups of simple syrup. It makes the liquid look cloudy, which I think is pretty. The big bottle is in the freezer, the smaller carafe is in the fridge and I've been nipping away at it. I have to mix it with seltzer because I took a sip of it straight and immediately felt drunk.

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I noticed that Hulu has all of Season 2 of Making It. I watched it all over the weekend. It's so good and funny and inspiring. Also, after watching a couple episodes, I start to feel antsy and have to go to the craft room to make something. 

My office at work is pretty sterile with NO decorations. Someone could move into the office after only about 5-10 minutes of getting rid of stuff. There was a cubicle decorating challenge on Making It and I feel like decorating the crap out of this space now. I started with a pencil holder- I added some washi tape trim around the top and slipped some cut maps into the photo holders. It's very cuuuute. I'm going to get a spool of pompom fringe from the craft store to tack into the top of my corkboard.

I finished the Advent Socks and they're currently blocking. I'm more than halfway done with my totally biased (totally boring) cowl. I stitched a few Dollar signs onto the corners of some new hankies for Dollar.

Over the weekend, I defrosted a bag of leftover ham from Christmas and made some homemade deviled ham. I don't know how you feel about the canned stuff but I like it. This homemade stuff is different but also good. More like a dip than a sandwich spread, though. I also made some potato, ham, corn chowder. We had ham and eggs for breakfast. The last bit of ham will go into a quiche. Then I need to wait a month and defrost the OTHER bag of leftover ham... I'm feeling a little hammed out.

[cooking] Marmalade

My local coop grocery stores had their annual citrus sale and I went last Friday to get a 20 lb box of cara cara oranges. I used a dozen for marmalade:

It turned out pretty good, if a little thick. 5 pints total.

I was so looking forward to toast with peanut butter and marmalade but I couldn't find peanut butter. I tore apart the pantry, sure I had a jar of that teddy bear brand. Siiiiiigh. Whatever, I just had toast and marmalade (eyeroll).

I also cut up some slices of a mozzarella/prosciutto roll and had some on crackers with the marmalade. THAT was amazing. 

I also started some arnancello with a whole bottle of Everclear:

It's been five days, I'll finish it this weekend. Hopefully I didn't get too much of the bitter piths with the peels... 

And I squeezed all the peeled oranges for screwdrivers all last Sunday. No regrets.

Plenty of oranges left... I might try zesting a dozen and then freezing the zest. I wouldn't mind another day of screwdrivers but I feel like I can do something else with the juice. A marinade, perhaps...

[cooking] Yule Log Cake

We went to a holiday party this past weekend and I baked a bundt cake to bring:

It's the Nordic Ware Yule Log pan. I used this recipe, increasing all the ingredients by 50%. I've made this recipe in this pan before and the batter didn't fill in the pan completely. This was the perfect amount for this pan. 

No frosting or glaze- I just made some vanilla bean whipped cream to serve with it.

I should embroider the yule log on a bundt bag during the Christmas break.

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Had a car appointment this morning; worked on the advent socks more.

This limited color palette is presenting an extra challenge to working on these socks.

The only other thing on my to-knit list is a little Santa hat for Baby Yoda.

[cooking] Babkas

I made a couple babka's this weekend.

Chocolate, before baking:

After baking:

Ube, before baking:

After baking:

Ube is a purple sweet potato used in a lot of Filipino desserts. I picked up a couple potatoes at Hmart and baked one. I skinned, mashed and mixed it with coconut milk. Then I smeared it over the dough, rolled, cut, shaped the loaf. The purple paste cracked apart a bit while the bread proofed, which makes the swirls look a little like tentacles- and I don't hate it. I kind of want to do this again with matcha- make green bread and darker green paste? Then it'll look like a green tentacle? Ooooooo.

The bread is very good. It toasts well and the ube is a pretty touch.

The chocolate one was cooled and then wrapped up for the freezer. I'll reheat it after Christmas, when I'm on vacation.

By the way- I love collecting shower caps from hotel rooms, so I can use them for bread proofing:

[cooking] Thanksgiving Baking

We had a nice Thanksgiving break. Went to two dinners, one on Thursday and one on Friday. I made a couple pies. Apple:

And pumpkin:

I've been a long-time metal pie pan devotee but the last quiche I baked in one had an underdone bottom crust. A couple months ago, I made a rectangular quiche in a ceramic Emile Henri dish that I got on sale and the crust was exceptional. For this holiday, I went out and bought two ruffled ceramic pie dishes and the crusts this year were amazing. Flaky layers on the bottom of the pumpkin pie, which has never happened for me before. There was no sticking to the dish with either pie. And the ruffled edge was was perfect for nice, thicc crusts.

I baked a couple different types of rolls. Pumpkin-shaped pumpkin rolls:

These were good but a little... dense. I might add more yeast next time and not score them so close to the middle, so they hopefully stay more round and rise better.

I tried Parker House rolls for the first time:

The shapes are a little uneven but they tasted very buttery and good.

We spent the weekend eating leftovers. I turned leftover turkey into turkey salad. Added a decent amount of leftover pureed squash to a bucket of no knead dough (for crusty bread and pizza). Still trying to come up with an idea for the leftover potatoes and stuffing...