This month I dedicated a lot of my free time to cooking. I've always loved to try the new recipes I see on pinterest but I rarely get the time to do it and when I do have the time... I just don't do it. So this month I got rid of the "I just don't" part and I do it. Over this month, I have made many recipes, some worked and some didn't and for a lot I ditched the recipe and tried it myself. That doesn't always work but you feel extra good when it does.
Here is a list of things I learned over the course of this month about cooking:
1. Get all of the ingredients prepared before doing the recipe. I cannot tell you how many times I dive right in and end up running around the kitchen or cutting things up when other things are burning. Have everything ready.
2. Less is more. I always am adding things to try and make it taste better but it really just makes it worse.
3. listening to music when cooking makes it a whole new experience.
4. Not everything will be good. At least with me it wasn't.
5. I like using cookbooks better than my phone.
6. Whatever type of food you're making, listen to that type of music. For example if you're eating Mediterranean, there is a spotify playlist for that. Or if you're just eating some classic eggs and bacon... breakfast playlist. It makes the experience that much better.
This plate is socca bread with spiced carrots, avocado, and cilantro topped with fresh squeezed lime. Socca is a bread made from chickpea flour. I used quinoa flour so it really isn't a true socca but you get the point.
My beet root crepes are what I am most proud of this cooking month. I found a crepe recipe, cut down on the flour and added a few beets. They weren't a super sweet crepe instead they were savory and had an earthy flavor. This earthy flavor went perfectly with the ricotta and goat cheese cream I made which is sweetened with date syrup. I would eat these every day.
Sourdough bread made from left over cranberry sauce from thanksgiving. My mom has a sourdough starter so we make a lot of breads and muffins from it. This time we layered in the cranberry sauce. It didn't rise as much as it usually does but it was still pretty good.
You probably can't tell but these are miso turnips. First, I roasted the turnips while I was making the miso sauce to go on top. When I put the miso on the turnips I turned the oven on broil. If you broil your miso turnips too long, the sauce burns. So pay attention. Overall, this was actually really good, despite the appearance.
A really yummy dessert! I found this recipe, cut down on the sugar, and added some buckwheat and more molasses and I loved it! It was super easy and when cooled it turns into a hard bar type snack.
This was what I called trial and halfway error. Lentil no meat balls in a pumpkin sauce. After this I can definitely say I enjoy real meatballs better. But that's just me. The recipe called for diced tomatoes and we didn't have any tomatoes so I found a can of them in the pantry to use. I didn't read them all that carefully and it turns out they had little green chilies in with the diced tomatoes. These chillies totally went against the taste I was going for. You could no longer taste the pumpkin. My bad.
Pumpkin oatmeal with caramelized banana. I really just mixed pumpkin puree with oatmeal and then cooked the bananas with a little bit of coconut oil and cinnamon in a pan.
After I ate this burger, I decided that if we have dill, its going on what i'm eating. It made it 10x better no joke.
Carrot and ginger soup! I made this twice. Once with carrots and once with sweet potatoes. The carrot one is much lighter and not as powerful of a flavor as the sweet potato one gives but they are both delicious.
Sweet potato breakfast hash. I forgot what spices I put on this but I know I put on goat cheese and cilantro so it was good. Those two ingredients make everything good in my opinion. Plus, you can't go wrong with a sweet potato.
Again with the dill. So good. Toast, avacado, DILL, and an egg.
Radish and scallion soup! The only seasoning in this soup is salt and pepper. There are also some beets and potatoes in there. Topped with scallions tossed in a little bit of Himalayan salt.
More toast. This time with cheese, apple, and onion with thyme. I sautéd the onion in a pan, took the onion out, put the bread in the same pan with the thyme seasoning from the onion and toasted. When it’s still toasting you put on the cheese and apple and onions so all of the flavors melt together.
This dish is Turkish Gozleme. It’s made with flatbread and lamb with cilantro, green onion, feta cheese, and tomato. A fresh squeeze of lemon takes it to another level along with yogurt to dip. And out of the same bread (since we had extra), is a desert with cinnamon apples.
Zucchini and leek soup. It took less than a half hour to make and there are really only 4 ingredients. Zucchini, leeks, olive oil, and chili flakes. Oh and salt and water. So 6 ingredients.
The nori wraps I made did not turn out exactly how I imagined and they are the most messy and frustrating meal I've ever made. You should have seen the kitchen.
THIS my friends... is a poached pear and. cardamom cake with maple sauce. The pears were poached in a white wine mixture and the cake has lots of cardamom and cinnamon in it. I made it, ate it and loved every bite :)
My cooking will not end here but this cooking month will.
And for this next month.... knitting :)
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