Food Blog: Distraction Cooking

Monday, November 2, 2020

Distraction Cooking

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Monday, November 2, 2020

Good morning!

Looking out over what promises to be A Week, I’ve been thinking about the kind of cooking we do when tensions are high and a little distraction might be the height of self-care. Once you've voted, where applicable, may I recommend some [drumroll] cooking projects? While none of these recipes are wildly difficult, all require a bit of time, which might then require that we put down the newsfeed long enough to make them. When we are done, our homes will smell delicious, our bellies will be delighted, and I hope we can all go to bed that night with all of the votes counted (or, at minimum, all of the dishes washed) and a smile on our faces.

Hope your week is healthy, happy, and well-fed,
Deb

Fresh and New

morning glory breakfast cake

New: The classic hearty, spiced morning glory muffin takes on an even easier breakfast form as a one-bowl, whole grain cake, thanks to a new book out this week devoted to one of my favorite types of baking, Snacking Cakes.

Savory cooking projects

caramelized onion and gruyère biscuits

Perfect for breakfast or dinner, these are the butter, buttermilk, and baking soda biscuit equivalent of French onion soup, wound with strands of caramelized onion and studded with diced bits of cheese that and in crispy frico puddles on the baking sheet as it bakes.

pizza beans

Pizza Beans are what happens when you give giant white beans the ziti treatment, baking them with vegetables, a robust sauce, and finish them with bronzed, melty cheese. Did I forget to mention that we serve them with garlic bread? I hope that sweetens the deal for you, too.

potato vareniki

Chef Bonnie Morales from Kachka restaurant in Porland came over and showed me how she makes potato vareniki and if you've never had them before, you're in for a treat. They’re slippery and light where you’d expect heaviness, uplifting instead of nap-inducing, and the absolutely highest calling of carbs-wrapped-in-carbs.

better chicken pot pies

The best chicken pot pies I know how to make: a perfectly seasoned, never overcooked stew beneath my favorite lid, which is so flaky it will seem like puffed pastry.

falafel

I once presumed making falafel would be complicated, best left to experts. Once I learned how staggeringly simple it is -- oh and by the way, vegan, gluten-free, and so quick to assemble, you might decide you have time enough leftover to make homemade pitas worthy of your perfect falafel -- lucky, lucky you.

broken pasta with pork ragu

Looking for a special but not too daunting dinner? I credit the bright
salad-y finish of parmesan, lemon, and sharp arugula with making this ragu feel light but cozy.

butternut squash and caramelized onion galette

This is our every-November-without-fail thing, and I hope you make it yours too.

Distractibaking

sticky toffee pudding

A dead-simple cake ladled with a just-cooked sea salt-flecked toffee/butterscotch sauce is the stuff dreams are made of.

better chocolate babka

If you haven't fallen in love with chocolate babka yet, the only reason could be that you haven't tried it. Start here, but don't be intimidated; they're not half as complicated as they look. Even the messiest assembly will still bake into deeply glossy, bronzed bittersweet loaves.

churros

What if you discovered that that these cinnamon-sugar crusted, chocolate-dipped, deeply golden, crisp-exterior-ed, custardy-interior-ed doughnuts are terrifically easy to make? You'd have to make them as soon as possible, and as often as possible after that.