To Remember which Recipes I've Used: Pasta Cookies Loaf Carrots Edition.

Recently I've made a few things that came out pretty well. And probably, I'll forget how I made them or which of the internet sites I got them from, much like I forgot to take pictures of them after I finished cooking...

I made spinach lasagna roll ups. I used a combination of two recipes: a stuffed shells one + a lasagna roll ups one. I was trying to use up some ricotta I had purchased, so I needed to use the stuffed shells filling, but used the roll ups technique. My filling was: 2 microplaned garlic cloves, 1 C ricotta, 1/3 C grated parmesan cheese, 1/2 egg, salt, pepper, crushed red peppers, 2 C frozen, thawed, chopped, squeezed-dry spinach. I covered it with sliced mozzarella cheese. So if that photo below were of the ones I made, there would be beautiful circles of cheese.

Photo from The Kitchn

There were these lavender shortbread cookies. Maybe they were a little crunchier than I would have liked, but I don't know if that was my fault or the recipe's. I used regular sugar and she called for turbindo sugar. I don't know what that is so I didn't have it in my house and therefore didn't use it. Maybe next time?

photo by Joy the Baker

Then, I made another loaf of whole wheat banana bread. I can't vouch for its flavoring because it was a gift, but I think it looked really swell if I do say so myself. Actually, it was a gift for a new mom. The idea of a breakfast snack ALSO came from The Kitchn. Roughly mine looked like (though my pan is not as cute. I would like a cute loaf pan):

Photo by The Kitchn

I also made some sweet roasted carrots with a yogurt-tahini sauce. The recipe calls for a 3/4 C of maple syrup, but I am not made of money, so I just use Turkish honey instead. This is one of those recipes that I would like to be able to recall randomly when someone is like: oh, what do you recommend I do with these leftover carrots? Or, I'd like to incorporate the sauce into my regime. Because, I don't use tahini naturally, I only use it when the recipe tells me to. It's funny how some ingredients (or flavors?) I can incorporate without thinking (paprika or cinnamon) but others are more challenging. ANYWAY, the mix of the sweeeeeeeet carrots and the savory yogurt were a really nice match. And duh, because it was a Yotam Ottolenghi recipe.

To Cook All Weekend: #MDW Edition

Before Memorial Day came around we decided there all kinds of things we wanted to make. After all, with three days to muck about, why not?

ya, fine. i bought bowls that day just for the soup.

Michael made bouillabaisse. Once upon a time, we went to Marseilles and didn't get to eat bouillabaisse because we didn't know you had to make reservations. So, it's been on the to cook list for a while. We went to the Maine Ave Fish Market (a cement pier settled into the Potomac with 5 or so huge stalls of fishmongers selling fish) and bought clams, shrimp, red snapper & monk fish (probably, one of my favorite fishes).

Maine Avenue Fish Market

Sunday, we went to a picnic with some friends. I had a need to make fried chicken. We had made it before at a class and then tried it one weekend in Boston. This instance was the best we've ever made. I think it was the boneless, skinless thighs chopped into 2-bite sized nuggets that did the trick. We used Roses Luxury's brine recipe (sort of... I forgot to boil the brine; it was 6am before coffee on a Sunday), and then used the technique from our cooking class: flour (seasoned with S&P, cayenne, paprika), buttermilk, flour then fry. And again per Roses, we drizzled the fried chicken with honey & sesame seeds. SO GOOD. Best thing we've ever made. Probably.

asparagus, shrooms & onions.

I also grilled up some veggies for the picnic. That's been a spring time go to. (Grilled on a pan, since we live in an apartment with no real grill access :(

For a Monday morning treat, Michael made buttermilk biscuits to have a fried chicken "sandwich". I had that with a side of fried chicken nuggets. I couldn't stop eating them. I drizzle almost everything with turkish honey these days.

I also made strawberry rhubarb bars & whole wheat banana bread for breakfast for the week. Speaking of honey (like 2 sentence ago)!  Instead of maple syrup in the banana bread recipe, I used honey. Other tips I learned that I should remember: don't put banana bread on the bottom rack; the bottom of the oven is too hot! and if your bananas aren't ripe enough, just go ahead and roast 'em, skin on for 10 mins.

All that + 6 movies made for a stuffed weekend.