I quite enjoyed writing my first Recent Recipes post last year, so I'm thinking I'll keep that up and try to write a new one every season if that's cool with you guys :) I publish all this stuff on social media with a few hopes in mind, and one of those is to encourage y'all to slow down, stay in, and cook a bit more. As Michael Pollan said In Defense of Food, we should all eat food, not too much, mostly plants - Dan and I fully support that plan. There are just so many benefits and rewards from the fruits of your labor as well as the fruits on your plate!
Speaking of fruits, Dan and I signed up for a farm-to-doorstep produce delivery service called Misfits Market. You might recall, one of my goals for 2019 was to concentrate on that mostly plants part of that Pollan quote above, and Misfits seemed an excellent way to do so (plus it's super fun dissolving their eco-friendly cornstarch-based packaging in the sink!). Misfits delivers slightly "ugly" but deliciously fresh produce to people in PA, NY, NJ, CT, and DE. If you're intrigued but live elsewhere, just Google "produce delivery near me" and see what comes up. There are dozens of these groups trying to eliminate food waste and support local farmers :)
We received a bunch of cucumbers in our first box, so we got to make a smashed cucumber salad to go with our new favorite tebasaki fried chicken. We always sub out chicken thighs for the wings, and PUT THAT TEBASAKI SAUCE ON LITERALLY EVERYTHING BECAUSE IT'S DAMN DELICIOUS. We also had a butternut squash in that first box, and I roasted the thing whole to puree it, toast up the seeds, and use it in place of pumpkin in a breakfasty type of bread from Bon Appetit. It is absolutely scumptious, especially with a cup of chai tea [we use honey for the sweetener, and quite a bit less than what's suggested] - what a way to warm up a bit before venturing out into the cold.
Our Misfits boxes have been making us try new things as well. I'm not one to purchase spicy peppers on a weekly basis, but the ones that we received worked perfectly with these super quick and tasty shrimp and pineapple tacos. Those bright pink sticks in the picture are some rutabaga pickles Dan made with some beets in the brine, hence the crazy color. He's been getting into fermenting foods lately, but I'm gonna save all that for another post. I'd also never had spaghetti squash before, but it was very enjoyable with some parm, nuts, and greens. We're scheduled to get our next box tomorrow and I'm pumped! |
We also got to take advantage of our Misfits produce for our early Valentine's Day dinner. This past Sunday we used our romaine hearts in a caesar salad, followed by our riff on mini beef wellingtons. I combine the flavors from this recipe (especially the inclusion of prosciutto) with the basic instructions from this one, and we consider this our traditional V-Day main dish with chocolate soufflés for dessert. DO NOT BE INTIMIDATED, just watch the video below a couple of times before making them to learn the tricks and you'll be good to go. To be quite honest, ours came out funny shaped anyways, but they were out-of-this-world yummy, especially with a sprinkle of cinnamon on top.
| See? No need to fear the soufflé. |
I'll end this post by showing off the cake I baked for lab meeting this week, in which I was able to use all-natural food coloring a bunch of Misfit orange zest and juice :) And all you carrot cake haters, go bake this recipe and give carrot cake a second chance because it deserves to be recognized for how wonderful a dessert it can be. Eat well my friends!