12.28 Food year in review

[starlady]

littlebutfierce asked about my favorite thing I've cooked this year.

I cook a lot of food from Smitten Kitchen, and you can find just about every recipe that I've cooked and liked on starlady--I have a general recipes tag, a soup tag, a desserts tag, and a drinks tag. I do want to write up a few recipes I've been making that aren't online, but I am extremely slow at that. And I've written up the last round of recipes in my Pinboard that I haven't talked about below. You can also click my recipes tag for commentary on all the Pinboard links, more or less!

So, my favorite thing I cooked this year. This is always difficult! I cook a lot--I probably cook about 75% of my own meals, if not more, partly because it's cheaper and partly because I really like cooking. I think this year the recipes I liked best that were new to me were Burst Tomato Galette with Corn and Zucchini, which was just like the essence of summer in one forkful, and super easy, and the One Pan Farro with Tomatoes--it was so easy, and so good that I literally made it twice in a row at least twice. The Tomato and Corn Pie was very similar and also amazing. I basically lived on the Smitten Kitchen shakshuka in the spring semester, and on a very Californian note, the Date, Blood Orange, Almond and Parmesan Salad I made in February was also amazing, and I'm eagerly anticipating blood orange season so I can make it again.

# Baked Pasta with Broccoli Rabe and Sausage - Fed me for a while, was easy and delicious. Nom.

# Spicy Squash Salad with Lentils and Goat Cheese - I've made this twice now, and it hasn't actually been that spicy; you can definitely add more smoked paprika or cayenne than Deb does. But it's pretty tasty, with or without the mint.

# Miso Sweet Potato and Broccoli Bowl - OM NOM NOM this was so good, I lived on it for like four days straight. Things I've learned the hard way: you really do need rice vinegar (or rice wine vinegar in a pinch), which you will need to get in the Asian grocery aisle. NOMZ.

# Carrot Soup with Turkey Meatballs and Spinach - I just made this last weekend and it's delicious. Om nom nom. I didn't bother slicing the spinach because life is too short, and it made no difference.

# Warm Butternut Squash and Chickpea Salad - I took this to a potluck (a double batch) and everyone wanted the recipe. It's really good and really easy.

# Potato and Broccolini Fritatta - This was tasty and simple.

# Apple Slab Pie - I bought a bag of sale apples at Berkeley Bowl and made this for our Halloween party. Even though the apples weren't great and I overworked the crust, it was pretty tasty, and it fed the crowd.

# Multigrain Apple Crisp - With a little less sugar this could totally work as a breakfast item. I didn't bother with grinding the oats (lol no, life is too short), and it still worked fine.

Comments

[owlectomy]

I have been kind of in love with Smitten Kitchen lately, but somehow have missed making the Miso sweet potato and broccoli bowl -- that is going on my list!

Shakshuka may be the perfect hangover food.

[littlebutfierce]

I remember being SO DUBIOUS of that recipe just b/c it calls for 1 cup of rice for 4 ppl, hahaha. Just... that is so not a thing in my world. ^^;;;

I really wish I could get farro here, I've only cooked w/it once & really liked it but it seems hard to find. :/

starlady, thank you for this great walk down, uh, culinary memory lane? :D

[owlectomy]

Yeeeah, last week I had some people over for supper and I spaced out and only put one cup of rice in the rice cooker because that's what I usually make for myself, and it was... incorrect.

[starlady]

Hah, yes, normally I make a lot more rice, otherwise it just is not very filling. But it tastes so good!

You might possibly be able to find farro sold as "emmer," which is its other name that, I believe, is more common in Europe.