What I Cooked Last Week – August 12

Yet another short week of cooking – took off for Salt Lake City on Wednesday for a work trip. Kept it (mostly) light in anticipation of the eating and drinking associated with conferences. Tuesday includes another zucchini recipe to add to your repertoire, and a perfect no-cook one at that for the hottest days of summer (and smokiest, if you’re in pretty much any of the PNW).

Sunday

Baked my Gâteau aux Pommes again to get some updated blog pictures. I always forget how good this cake is, and how surprisingly easy it is to throw together. Don’t let the French name scare you away! Also, leftovers make great breakfast – it has apples, so it’s fine, right?

Ended up making the Mushroom and Chive Fettuccine Alfredo that I’d originally planned to make last Saturday before life happened. It was still a bit cooler than it has been outside, so it was the perfect comfort food. I’ll have a recipe up for that in the near future!

Monday

I got a pound of purple carrots in the CSA this week, and felt inspired to make a recipe that I’ve been eyeing for a while – Smitten Kitchen’s Roasted Carrots with Avocado and Yogurt. It’s simple to prepare with a complex flavor payoff, and won’t make you feel guilty if you follow it up with some ice cream. This one is pictured as the title image for the post.

Tuesday

Had to pack for my work trip so I scheduled the most hands-off meal for Tuesday – a sous-vide sirloin steak (throw in the sous vide and wait) and a simple Zucchini Carpaccio Salad to make use of some more delicious CSA summer squash. I actually wrote most of this blog post while I was waiting for the food to mostly prepare itself!

What I Cooked Last Week – August 5

Last week’s lineup includes two small dinner party menus, some leftover suggestions, and a bit of unexpected comfort food in mid-August. Without further ado…

Sunday

Dinner party one of two. Wanted to bake something with cream cheese (I had, and still have, a bunch in my fridge), and Smitten Kitchen’s berry filled Cheesecake Galette seemed to fit the bill, especially with the galette kick I’ve been on the past few weeks. Hers calls for blackberries and lime, but raspberries were cheaper, so I used them and lemon instead (lemon complements raspberries a bit better than lime, in my opinion). It turned out great – can’t wait until it’s full-on blackberry season and I can try the recipe as written!

For the main course, I made lamb koftë sandwiches with grilled zucchini and tzatziki. I’ll have a recipe up for that later this week! They turned out really well and worked as a great summer dinner party item – I could hang outside at the grill and talk to my friends while I worked. They also gave me a starting point for a bunch of good leftovers-based lunches later in the week.

Monday

Lunch was leftovers round one – two of the lamb patties on a pile of spring greens mix, drizzled with tzatziki. Satisfying yet light.

This was the evening of dinner party round two. I decided on the fish sandwiches from Cravings by Chrissy Teigan. They’re… awesome. The tartar sauce the sandwiches call for is amazing, but I was feeling a second round of the sauce from Mike’s Fish Tacos. It was a great substitute. I paired them with the zucchini fries from her books, like she suggests. You can find a link to a write-up of that recipe in my Zucchini Remix roundup.

Didn’t make dessert on Monday, but my friend brought along some loganberry ice cream her mom had made and it was the perfect meal-ender.

Tuesday

I’d planned on just making a bunch of sautéed vegetables on Tuesday night as a fridge clear-out, but then, as per usual, I got a little carried away and ended up with a massive frittata instead. It was delicious and fit the bill perfectly – used up a bunch of amazing produce and eggs from our Spoonfull Farm CSA. I hate letting any of that stuff go to waste, so using up a whole dozen (!!!!) eggs in one swoop along with a large zucchini, a head of kale, and some beautiful red scallions felt great. I topped it with a dill-chive sour cream.

For Wednesday lunch, I topped a wedge of the frittata with a crumbled lamb patty and yet another drizzle of tzatziki. Yum!

Saturday

The weather interlude gave me the opportunity to take a bit of a break from summer produce (will I regret this when I’m eating exclusively root vegetables in a few months? maybe) and get cozy with mushroom and chive fettuccine alfredo. Recipe to come for that one, and I’m also planning on writing a post about the _whys_ behind a couple of pasta-water techniques, namely salting the water and reserving some for tossing with sauce before serving.

Have a great week everyone!

What I Cooked Last Week (7/29)

A veryyyyy welcome week back in the kitchen, giving my stomach a break from all of the delicious food and alcohol we had in Vancouver last weekend. Got some beautiful cabbage, lemon basil, and zucchini from my CSA last week that all got put to excellent and delicious use.

Sunday

In my attempt to get back to baking at least once a week, I made a raspberry cobbler and FINALLY nailed a recipe I’ve had in the works for a few months. Eat it with ice cream. Eat it with whipped cream. Eat it for breakfast. It does it all, folks.

Dinner was a remake of Smitten Kitchen’s Zucchini and Ricotta Galette, with a twist – I’m meh on ricotta in most things, and when I had some amazing butternut and mascarpone ravioli in Vancouver, I realized I needed to try this galette with at least some of the ricotta replaced by mascarpone. It turned out… very very well. I made a some other tweaks too, which may finally move my version into a separate recipe that I will post here in the next few weeks.

Monday

I made Mike’s Fish Tacos, so named because I got the blackening seasoning and sauce recipes from Kyle’s dad after he made fish tacos for us one time. Add this sauce to the list of sauces I would happily eat with a spoon and put on almost anything. Next time I make fried halibut sandwiches, I’m using that sauce instead of tartar.

I alsoooo, inspired by the many cocktails I had on vacation, and the beautiful bunch of lemon basil from the CSA, made some Lemon Basil Vodka Spritzes. Light and refreshing, they’re a step up from a glass of wine at the end of the day, and you can convince yourself that you’re hydrating.

Tuesday

I whipped up a soy-sauce based marinade that I thought would be tasty – and it was! Extremely tasty. Recipe will be coming next week, so that you can make it too. Only you won’t be surprised that it tastes exactly like teriyaki, like I was. I served it with some grilled bok choy and with a sauce of the boiled-down marinade and it was exactly what I needed on a Tuesday evening.

Wednesday

Repeat of Smitten Kitchen’s Zucchini Ribbons with Pesto and White Beans, which is rapidly becoming my favorite go-to summer recipe. It’s quick! It’s easy! It’s healthy! It’s 100% on the grill! I used Basil-Almond pesto this time (recipe also coming next week), and served it with grilled bread, because I’m pretty sure that’s a legal requirement with this dish.

Thursday

I had about half a cup of pesto-coated beans left over from Wednesday night, so I mashed them up with a splash of red wine vinegar and a pinch of salt, pan-fried a thick slice of bread in olive oil, spread some extra pesto on it, and topped that with the mashed bean mixture and a few shavings of parmesan. It hit the spot and took about 5 minutes, which is exactly what I’m looking for on nights when I’m only feeding myself. Makes me want to do some sort of “leftovers toast” recipe series, since I do something along those lines at least once a week. You can check it out in the main post image.

So I guess it wasn’t quite a full week of cooking, but it’s the summer and weekends get booked, so what can you do. This week I have TWO (2) dinners that I am hosting and a couple other evenings of cooking that I get to squeeze in, so wish me luck.

What I Cooked Last Week (7/22)

Decided that these posts make more sense as a retrospective – I can share what I cooked, what did and did not work, and let you know if I made any adjustments. It’s also, unsurprisingly, a lot easier to add pictures this way!

Last week was a very short one cooking-wise – my birthday was Wednesday and I let someone else (my mom) cook for me, although I did make myself a second birthday cake and have no regrets. Then, on Thursday, Kyle and I headed up to Vancouver, B.C. for the weekend and proceeded to eat and drink our way through the city. Everything was SO GOOD. Question for you all: would you be interested in city food guides/recs for places I’ve been?

Anyway, without further ado, here’s the roundup for last week!

Monday

I can’t and won’t stop cooking with primarily zucchini and summer squash these days, so Monday I tried out Smitten Kitchen’s Zucchini Fritters. She describes them as “zucchini latkes” and it’s spot-on. If you use a food processor to grate the zucchini (I use a slightly older version of this one from Cuisinart) it’s amazingly quick and easy, neither of which are words I typically associate with traditional latkes. I punched up the sour cream sauce she recommends serving atop the fritters with a bit of extra garlic, and am considering making a bit of a sour cream aioli in future renditions.

I also whipped up a batch of basil almond pesto and stuck it in the freezer, recipe in the works!

Tuesday

Had a gluten-free friend over for dinner on Tuesday, so I made my fave Weeknight Rice Noodles with Meatballs and subbed Tamari for the normal soy sauce. My friend had gone blueberry picking earlier in the day and brought a bunch of berries and whipped cream for dessert, which was *chef’s kiss*.

Wednesday

My 26th birthday! Like I said, I let my mom handle the dinner cooking, but I couldn’t resist making myself Smitten Kitchen’s Tres Leches Cake. I, of course, added the optional rum to the milks mixture. I’d been planning on making this for Kyle’s birthday back in April, but it’s a two-day process, and we got busy, and… never happened. So glad I finally got around to it, because it’s delicious. I served it with sliced strawberries.

I have a full week of cooking coming up (desperately needed after previously mentioned food tour of Vancouver), so look for a lot of zucchini dishes and a couple new recipes in next week’s post!

What I’m Cooking This Week – July 15th

I’m back from a long weekend in Montana and ready to cook! Lotta produce coming your way again this week, along with a birthday cake for… me (yes, I make my own birthday cakes).

Monday

It’s a million degrees in Seattle and my CSA box has all sorts of summer squash. Grilled Zucchini Ribbons with White Beans and Pesto from Smitten Kitchen is on the menu tonight, accompanied with some grilled bread! I’ll be using the last of my garlic scape pesto that I made and froze last month in lieu of making a new batch as called for in the recipe.

Wednesday

I’ll be serving up Steak and Mashed Carrots with a Caprese Salad. Recipes to come!

Friday

Ending the week with Taco Friday 🤔 and these amazing Buffalo Cauliflower Tacos from Pinch of Yum. I’ve made them before and they are SO TASTY. I recommend you try them out this weekend with a nice marg to accompany them.

Birthday Cake pt. 1!

Trying to decide between one of these cakes for a birthday bbq:

• This Peaches and Cream Cake from Smitten Kitchen (my version will feature fewer bunnies, probably)
• Pink Lady Cake – ’tis berry season, after all
• Classic Funfetti Cake minus the box-mix taste
• Literally ANY of the cakes from the Brave Tart cookbook by Stella Parks

Go forth and enjoy summer produce while it’s here!

What I’m Cooking This Week – July 8th

Anyone who knows me knows I like to have a plan for stuff in advance, almost definitely to a fault. Summer absolutely throws me off my game because last-minute plans come up so often, leaving me with uneaten produce and a sad bank account from buying groceries but then going out to dinner every night. So I’m thrilled that I get four uninterrupted nights of cooking at home this week before heading to Montana for a Bachelorette this weekend. Here’s what I’ll be serving up!

Sunday

Having some friends over for dinner and needed to swing a vegetarian and gluten-free menu.

• Pesto Pasta Salad made with gluten-free penne and garlic scape pesto that I made and froze a few weeks ago.
• Fennel and Pecorino Salad
• My favorite roasted broccoli (ft. some very cool romanesco from this week’s Spoonfull Farm CSA, pictured below!) – super simple, but I’ll write a post about how I prepare it.

Monday

Got a bunch of zucchini in aforementioned CSA box this week, so I’ll be making this beautiful Zucchini and Ricotta Galette from one of my faves, Smitten Kitchen. I made her White Bean and Leek galette this winter and it was amazing, so I’m excited for a summery version!

Tuesday

Super amped to try this Cherry and Peach Panzanella from What’s Gaby Cooking. It’s beautiful, and I love a good stone fruit panzanella. I’m using all nectarines instead of half nectarines/half peaches, and all Rainier Cherries because really, why not?

Wednesday

I have a 9:15pm flight to Billings, MT, and then have to drive an hour and a half to our final destination, so I need something a cut above airport or airplane food to keep me going. I’m going to try out #14 on this list of quick and simple summer meals from Mark Bittman.

Hope everyone’s enjoying their Sunday and getting excited for all the food you’re going to cook this week!