Awkwardly Social

I’m sure you all remember at the beginning of the pandemic, during lockdown when people began to bake. Yeast was in short supply or just completely missing from shelves so folks began their sourdough gloop. I am not one to bandwagon in the kitchen, so I opted out on baking. For one, it seemed hard. For two, I was not in any mental place to fail at MORE things.

Cut to a few weeks ago, I was looking at my goal of trying 12 new recipes this year. I was perusing the internet as one does and saw a No Knead Dutch Oven Bread recipe that seemed… simple. Particularly because yeast is readily available (no need to do a science experiment!).

So I bought a Dutch oven, I bought some yeast and gave it a go!

Below we have the dough looking a little too dry. (I added about four tablespoons more water and it became the right amount of stickiness.)

Here she is rising like the superstar she is!

OMG, if baking is this easy, SIGN ME UP.

A LOAF OF BREAD. MAGIC. AM I A WITCH?

Breakfast this morning was HOMEMADE BREAD, a fried egg with everything but the bagel seasoning and a little chili garlic paste to dip into. DELICIOUS.

I’ve had this book for many years.  And I have never made a single one of the recipes, because while I love mac n’ cheese, I’m usually scared of making something fattening.  There are two reasons for that. Number 1, I’ll eat the whole thing and become obese overnight, and number 2, I live in Los Angeles so if I make it and bring it somewhere no one will eat it because everyone else in LA is afraid of eating something and becoming obese overnight.Since my New Year’s Resolutions involve not really worrying about that so much anymore, I made a damn mac n’ cheese recipe.  And let me tell you, it was a hit.  People were in LOVE with the mac n’ cheese.  It was a Los Angeles miracle!  So without further ado, I present to you City Hall Macaroni and Cheese.

City Hall Mac and Cheese

• 1 lb penne rigate
• 2 cups heavy cream (I am always flummoxed in the cream section, there’s whipping cream and heavy whipping cream, but no cream that is heavy cream, so I used the heavy whipping cream. I’m also bad with measurements, so I used the medium sized container, not the tall one, not the little one, the one right in the middle.  Exactly two cups!)
• 2 cups whole milk
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 2 cups (1/2 lb) American cheese shredded (I couldn’t find shredded American cheese at Ralph’s, and the only non-deli American cheese was in individually wrapped slices and that seemed like a bad idea, so I went to the deli counter ordered 1/2 pound of white American cheese in thin slices and sort of tore it up into pieces when I got to that step)
• 1 and 1/3 cups (1/3 lb) grated Monterey Jack cheese (I just used one 8 oz. package of pre-shredded cheese, and seriously, I don’t know how to convert pounds and ounces and get worried that I never learned that in school.  Maybe because I didn’t take home ec?  So, basically after I put it in the pan, I realized I used 2 cups of Monterey Jack.)
• Kosher salt
• Fresh ground pepper
• 1/2 cup Panko bread crumbs
• 2 teaspoons chopped fresh parsley (didn’t use)
• 2 teaspoons grated Parmesan cheese

First you preheat the oven to 350 degrees and butter a 9 by 13 in. baking pan.  (Like brownie pan size for measuring challenged like myself.)

Then do the pasta according to packaged directions for al dente.

Then the hardest step – combine the cream, milk, nutmeg and cayenne in a heavy sauce pan over medium heat and bring it to a simmer, making sure to stir it so it doesn’t get a gross skin and so that it does reduce to about half its volume.  (The book says about 15 minutes, I gave it more like 20 because I’m a slow learner.  The book also says to season with the salt and pepper, but I forgot.)

Add the cheese slowly, whisking along to way so it melts without getting clumpy or gross.

Then put the cooked pasta in the creamy cheese and mix together, the starch from the pasta supposedly helps thicken the sauce, SCIENCE!

Then put it in your buttered baking dish, sprinkle with the combined panko and parmesan and bake until golden brown and bubbly.  (The book says it will take about 15 minutes, but it took mine more like 20.)

Enjoy!!

Astute readers will have noticed the “Life List” tab that I snuck into the tab bar above.  I didn’t write about writing it, because it’s still very much a work in progress.  Also, I feel slightly like I did in junior high when the cool girls in the grade above me started some lame trend, the details of which seemed so important at the time but are now completely escaping me, and me and my friends (I use that plural loosely, I think at the time my only friend was Callie) attempted to imitate said trend and we were publicly shamed in the cafeteria during lunch by the mean girls.  I was mortified at the time.  Now, I’m clearly emotionally scarred because I am embarrassed to make a “Life List” –  something that is not trademarked, but that some girls in the grade ahead of my in blogging life have kind of “branded” as their “thing.”  But whatever, I’ve been writing “Life Lists” since I was an awkward teenager in Camp Verde, Arizona trying to convince my parents to buy me a horse.  Which reminds me, I need to add “own a horse” to my list.Without further ado, at #31 on my Life List is to try 100 recipes I’ve never made.  This weekend I did two!  Both from the cookbook my mom put together for my sister and I.  Below is the recipe for the Peach Cobbler.  The other will follow later this week.

Peach Cobbler

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon corn starch
•  4 cups sliced fresh peaches (this is about 3 large peaches, I think you should use 4 large peaches.)
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 1 cup flour
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons shortening
• 1/2 cup milk

Heat oven to 400 degrees.  Blend 1/2 cup sugar and cornstarch in medium saucepan.  Stir in the peaches, cinnamon and lemon juice.  (Note:  when I did this I was totally nervous that there wouldn’t be enough liquid.  Somehow, there is.  It’s really amazing.  Fear not!) Cook, stirring constantly until mixture thickens and boils.  Boil and stir 1 minute.  Pour into ungreased 2 quart casserole.  Keep fruit mixture hot in oven while preparing biscuit topping.Biscuit toppingMeasure flour, 1 tablespoon sugar, baking powder and salt into bowl.  Add shortening and milk.  (I think I messed up my shortening measurements because something was off with the biscuits, they didn’t taste like my mom’s.)  Cut through shortening 6 times, mix until dough forms a ball. Drop dough by 6 spoonfuls onto hot fruit.  Bake 25-30 minutes or until biscuit topping is golden brown.  Serve warm, and if desired, with ice cream.  Six servings.

I think the next time I make this, I’ll use more peaches, my peach to biscuit ratio was off.  Also, I think I’ll leave it in the oven a little longer, it just tasted slightly different than my mom’s.  I know it wasn’t perfect because 3 days later, we still have leftovers.  Cobbler never lasted that long in my mom’s fridge.

Tomorrow is the two month mark. I haven’t cooked since Louie left me. I guess partly because I wasn’t really eating anything other than a take-out meal here and a handful of crackers there. Occasionally I would open a can of black beans and heat it up with some cheese and salsa, or shove some spinach in my mouth while trying to get that last bit of work done for the job I don’t talk about here. It’s been a busy two months, a sad two months and a messy two months.

I told myself I wouldn’t cook in my new kitchen until I had everything put away. But now at the one month mark of living here with two boxes left to unpack and 2 boxes’ contents to wash, and a free Saturday afternoon, I decided to let myself off the hook.

That is one half of my counter space. I’m not exaggerating.

This is the other half.

I decided that if I could roast a chicken in this mayhem, I’d be OK. And roast a chicken I did.

I used Mark Bittman’s recipe for standard Roasted Chicken. I set off the fire alarm several times. I hope I didn’t give myself salmonella.

Mark Bittman’s Roast Chicken Recipe

• 1 whole (3-4 lb.) chicken, trimmed of excess fat, then rinsed and patted dry with paper towels [I rinsed it, but didn’t do much fat trimming or paper towel patting, probably the reason my fire alarm went off.]
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme, rosemary, marjoram, oregano, or sage leaves, or 1 teaspoon dried

• Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
• Chopped fresh herbs for garnish [didn’t do]

1. Preheat oven to 500 degrees F.
2. Place the chicken, breast side down, on a rack in a roasting pan. Begin roasting. Mix together the olive oil, herbs, salt and pepper.

1. After the chicken has roasted for about 20 minutes, spoon some of the olive oil mixture over it, then turn the bird breast side up. [This is when I opened the oven and my fire alarm got angry.] Baste again, then again after 7 or 8 minutes; at this point the breast should be beginning to brown (if it hasn’t, roast a few more minutes). Turn the heat down to 325 degrees F, baste again, and roast unitl an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the thigh [??? WTF! this was my same problem during our turkey roasting/wine drinking disaster of ’07, I wish I knew what this ‘thickest part’ business meant. Gargh!] reads 160 to 165 degrees F. Total roasting time will be under an hour.
2. Before removing the chicken from the pan, tip the pan to let the juices from the birds cavity flow into the pan (if they are red [they were… very bloody….ick] cook another 5 minutes). Remove the bird to a platter and let it rest for about 5 minutes. While it is resting, pour the pan juices into a clear measuring cup, [why a clear measuring cup? Also, who has an opaque measuring cup?] and pour or spoon off as much of the fast as you can. Reheat the juice, carve the bird [FAIL!], garnish, and serve with the pan juice.

I don’t know. After buying a free range organic chicken, factoring in my spices used, my time and frustration with the fire alarm, it’s totally cheaper to get a rotisserie chicken from Gelson’s. I’m also probably less likely to give myself salmonella and more likely to end up with a clean kitchen.

It felt good to get in the kitchen. It’s been too long. Tomorrow night Allie is cooking Sunday dinner, I’m helping. Hopefully we’ll do better than I did tonight.

If something happens two years in a row, does that equal a tradition?

I made sangria again for Louie’s birthday BBQ in the park and it is a hit every year. This year I added a new recipe to my arsenal and people thought it was tasty. I found it a bit on the sweet side, so if you like that kind of thing, by all means, sweeten it up. Next time I’ll probably take back the white grape juice a touch and add more club soda.

White Sangria Recipe – Inspired by Malo restaurant

• 2 bottles dry white wine (I used a Chenin Blanc from Trader Joe’s $3.99 a bottle)
• 1 1/4 cups Limoncello
• 1 Granny Smith Apple – cored and sliced thinly
• 2 nectarines – sliced thinly
• 1 peach – sliced thinly
• A couple of handfuls of red grapes – halved
• White Grape Juice
• 1 bottle Club Soda

Directions: Cut up fruit and put in the pitcher, add the white wine and Limoncello, chill for at least 2 hours.

Right before serving fill the pitcher with one part grape juice to one part club soda. Serve and watch your friends get nice and toasty.

It’s so easy, and such a nice summer drink. Too bad it’s not summer anymore.

Tara’s Red Sangria Recipe can be found here.