You Are What You Eat: May 8 through May 22
Streak of not eating in a restaurant - 436 days and counting.
New Recipes for the Year: 55 (+10)
My decision to drop "not eating takeout" as a category has proven wise, as this past Friday we got our first intentionally ordered non-pizza takeout since the start of the pandemic. We used some of the gift cards my coworkers got us when Birdie was born to order from India Garden. My chicken saag was delicious, although either they've gotten spicier or I've gotten less tolerant to spice, because although I intentionally went less than my normal spice level it still lit my mouth on fire.
In any event, I made ten new recipes in the last 15 days. Four were from two different issues of Eating Well, two from Moosewood Favorites, one off the box of a cereal box, and three from a cookbook that M got me for a birthday some years ago that I hadn't broken out until this past week.
This particular cookbook is Feast: Food of the Islamic World by Anissa Helou, which I learned while writing this won a James Beard aware. Frankly it's a lot like the Bread Bible in that it's somewhat intimidating. At first glance, most of the recipes appear to be very time consuming with an assortment of spices that are hard to acquire. It seems like half of them have lamb. Because of that complexity it had sat on my shelf for the last few years, but I decided it was time to get over than and sure enough, when I looked more thoroughly I found several recipes that seemed doable.
- I started out easy in Feast with a Tunisian Chickpea Soup (Lablabi). This was relatively quick (especially by the standards of Feast) and while it is probably more suited to a winter month, it was definitely enjoyable and worth making again.
- Next up in Feast was an even easier recipe, the classic mango lassi. Let's be honest, it's basically a smoothie, which since I don't have a blender at the moment was made in the food processor. We had these after a long outdoor walk to the park, and they were quite enjoyable.
- The final recipe from Feast bumped up the complexity a fair amount. Spice Baked Fish in a Tahini, Herb and Nut Sauce (Samkeh Harrah Bil-Tahineh) is a recipe sourced to a restaurant in Tripoli. The sauce was thick and creamy, as you'd expect from a tahini based recipe, and had a delicious flavor. The small amount that survived to be leftovers was even better the next day as the flavors intensified overnight in the fridge. Due to poor planning, I didn't have walnuts so I doubled down on the pine nuts instead, but it was still delicious. I served it over couscous.
- Turning to the cereal box, I made a second recipe from the box of Golden Grahams, and although it had a lot of ingredient overlap with the Golden Grahams No-Bake S'mores Bars I made last time, the Peanut Butter & Jelly Bites were arguably even better. I'm not sure how Betty Crocker is associated with Golden Grahams, but the Betty Crocker site has the recipe. Honestly, I may pitch the smores recipe and just use this one instead, it was like gorp if gorp was a cookie.
- The April 2021 Eating Well gave me two recipes this time around. The first was Chipotle Tofu Tacos. We're big fans of interesting taco combinations here, and the topping used for the tofu was very good, as was the sauce that went on the tacos. We'll probably hold on to this one.
- The other recipe from the April 2021 Eating Well was the Crispy Salt & Vinegar Potatoes. M loves both potatoes and vinegar, so this scratched both itches. It's a perfectly acceptable way to roast potatoes.
- The May 2021 Eating Well also had a feature on fancy spices, which included this Cacio e Pepe. I didn't have fancy peppers on hand, but I did have some pepper pasta that was gifted to us at our wedding, so between that and some good black pepper we were all set. It came out fine, but wasn't necessarily something I need to make again.
- The last recipe from Eating Well was also the May 2021 issue, and it was the Leek & Goat Cheese Spanish Tortilla. After I made this, I learned that M loves Spanish Tortillas in general (noted) and this one in particular (also noted). Fortunately, I had made it on Mother's Day, so that worked out really well.
- Moosewood Favorites has been my go to cookbook for so long that I've started to assume I'm out of interesting untried recipes, but every time I take a deep I seem to turn up something new I haven't made before. This time was the Pasta Primavera, which seems like something I should have made before but didn't have the tell-tale sticky note on it. The conclusion was that it was a fine but unexceptional meal that likely won't be made again. On the plus side, now it has a sticky note on it.
- The last recipe for the increment was also made for Mother's Day, and it was the third cheesecake I've made this year, which means it's also the third cheesecake I've made in my life. The Moosewood Favorites Vanilla Cheesecake used a walnut based crust instead of graham crackers or gingersnaps. The filling had more cream cheese and sour cream in it. Whatever the reason, M stated forcefully that this was the best of the three cheesecake recipes attempted so far, and she went so far as to suggest that she'd prefer that I not make the other two again when this one was an option. Who am I to argue?
New Recipes for the Year: 55 (+10)
My decision to drop "not eating takeout" as a category has proven wise, as this past Friday we got our first intentionally ordered non-pizza takeout since the start of the pandemic. We used some of the gift cards my coworkers got us when Birdie was born to order from India Garden. My chicken saag was delicious, although either they've gotten spicier or I've gotten less tolerant to spice, because although I intentionally went less than my normal spice level it still lit my mouth on fire.
In any event, I made ten new recipes in the last 15 days. Four were from two different issues of Eating Well, two from Moosewood Favorites, one off the box of a cereal box, and three from a cookbook that M got me for a birthday some years ago that I hadn't broken out until this past week.
This particular cookbook is Feast: Food of the Islamic World by Anissa Helou, which I learned while writing this won a James Beard aware. Frankly it's a lot like the Bread Bible in that it's somewhat intimidating. At first glance, most of the recipes appear to be very time consuming with an assortment of spices that are hard to acquire. It seems like half of them have lamb. Because of that complexity it had sat on my shelf for the last few years, but I decided it was time to get over than and sure enough, when I looked more thoroughly I found several recipes that seemed doable.
- I started out easy in Feast with a Tunisian Chickpea Soup (Lablabi). This was relatively quick (especially by the standards of Feast) and while it is probably more suited to a winter month, it was definitely enjoyable and worth making again.
- Next up in Feast was an even easier recipe, the classic mango lassi. Let's be honest, it's basically a smoothie, which since I don't have a blender at the moment was made in the food processor. We had these after a long outdoor walk to the park, and they were quite enjoyable.
- The final recipe from Feast bumped up the complexity a fair amount. Spice Baked Fish in a Tahini, Herb and Nut Sauce (Samkeh Harrah Bil-Tahineh) is a recipe sourced to a restaurant in Tripoli. The sauce was thick and creamy, as you'd expect from a tahini based recipe, and had a delicious flavor. The small amount that survived to be leftovers was even better the next day as the flavors intensified overnight in the fridge. Due to poor planning, I didn't have walnuts so I doubled down on the pine nuts instead, but it was still delicious. I served it over couscous.
- Turning to the cereal box, I made a second recipe from the box of Golden Grahams, and although it had a lot of ingredient overlap with the Golden Grahams No-Bake S'mores Bars I made last time, the Peanut Butter & Jelly Bites were arguably even better. I'm not sure how Betty Crocker is associated with Golden Grahams, but the Betty Crocker site has the recipe. Honestly, I may pitch the smores recipe and just use this one instead, it was like gorp if gorp was a cookie.
- The April 2021 Eating Well gave me two recipes this time around. The first was Chipotle Tofu Tacos. We're big fans of interesting taco combinations here, and the topping used for the tofu was very good, as was the sauce that went on the tacos. We'll probably hold on to this one.
- The other recipe from the April 2021 Eating Well was the Crispy Salt & Vinegar Potatoes. M loves both potatoes and vinegar, so this scratched both itches. It's a perfectly acceptable way to roast potatoes.
- The May 2021 Eating Well also had a feature on fancy spices, which included this Cacio e Pepe. I didn't have fancy peppers on hand, but I did have some pepper pasta that was gifted to us at our wedding, so between that and some good black pepper we were all set. It came out fine, but wasn't necessarily something I need to make again.
- The last recipe from Eating Well was also the May 2021 issue, and it was the Leek & Goat Cheese Spanish Tortilla. After I made this, I learned that M loves Spanish Tortillas in general (noted) and this one in particular (also noted). Fortunately, I had made it on Mother's Day, so that worked out really well.
- Moosewood Favorites has been my go to cookbook for so long that I've started to assume I'm out of interesting untried recipes, but every time I take a deep I seem to turn up something new I haven't made before. This time was the Pasta Primavera, which seems like something I should have made before but didn't have the tell-tale sticky note on it. The conclusion was that it was a fine but unexceptional meal that likely won't be made again. On the plus side, now it has a sticky note on it.
- The last recipe for the increment was also made for Mother's Day, and it was the third cheesecake I've made this year, which means it's also the third cheesecake I've made in my life. The Moosewood Favorites Vanilla Cheesecake used a walnut based crust instead of graham crackers or gingersnaps. The filling had more cream cheese and sour cream in it. Whatever the reason, M stated forcefully that this was the best of the three cheesecake recipes attempted so far, and she went so far as to suggest that she'd prefer that I not make the other two again when this one was an option. Who am I to argue?