bye july hello august

I'm sweating in the dark but I just wanted to commemorate the unusually productive kitchen evening I had to round out the end of the month. Time flies when your only plans are for yourself.

Step one: feed self.

 

Happy that I prepped one of two focaccia (corn, garlic, sesame, pork floss) slabs the night before because that just meant I had 3 big slices for lunch and one more big slice for dinner. Dinner gets a quick fried egg with perilla and Chinese sausage.

Step two: prep the second foccacia.

With learnings from the first that was not a failure per se, but could've been better. Also I did forget the cheese on the first one, so we will immediately correct for that here.

Mole paste, lightly fried in oil before topping. Corn. Shredded string cheese.

Step three: meal prep for tomorrow.

Also an easy step thanks to the now finished focaccia. A quick celery salad with the remains of my celery, a quarter onion, half a bunch of parsley leaves, salt, paprika, maple sugar, honey meyer lemon vinegar - something refreshing and acidic to counter the oily focaccia.

Step four: drink prep.

It only took one night for my ginger bug to come alive, so to capitalize on that, I dosed some into leftover raspberry juice to start a wild fermented raspberry soda.

Bonus step: roast a bag of freeze thawed strawberries for future strawberry sumac coffee cake.

pantry essentials

anticipating splitting my time and what is occupying the most brain space?

which items out of the pantry i would haul down with me.

and can i fit it in one bin? ish.

finally taking myself through this exercise.

every cookbook i read has an introduction section of their pantry essentials. it can be applied to general cuisines like mexican or thai, but at the end of the day, it's still through the lens of the author.

i refer to a lot of ingredients as essential for a chinese pantry, but i mean, if i lived out of my car, what items would become really essential? and specifically essential for me?

in my 6-compartment wine tote, limiting my sauce/condiment selection:

things for braising mostly

soy sauce

dark soy sauce

black vinegar

rice vinegar

sesame oil

fish sauce

in my pantry box:

mole paste

dried pineapples

mung beans

quinoa

lentils

dried shiitake

bonito

kombu

unopened bag of gluten free flour

white rice

my remaining box of tinned fish

dried noodles

canned chickpeas

canned pumpkin

canned refried beans

fruit powders - blueberry, maqui, mulberry (in an effort to become a smoothie person)

in my fridge organizer box:

usually full of weird (sometimes forgotten) ferments, misos, bags of pickled things, misc jars of jams. i can't be too overzealous with this one as i won't really have a cold box in transit. whatever it is, must also fit in my modest little yeti cooler

miso

oyster sauce

vinegar collection - malt, grapefruit, veg scrap red wine

syrup collection - 

yeast

in my bake box:

vanilla

honey

cinnamon

jasmine extract

pandan extract

things i'll resolve to buy as needed:

AP flour

sugar

butter

okay so in conclusion, it's not so much an essentials list and more of a what I have and need to use list.

Maddy

Certainly not the first Heritage Dumpling I traveled for, but the first that had peaceful staycation vibes. I finally made my back to Madison for the first time since graduating 7 (!) years ago, and after everyone went back to their real jobs, I still had two days to make myself comfortable in Maddy and Luis's kitchen. Oh and it was beautiful. I spent alllll dayyyyyy cooking and even went out to their garden to pick some ingredients. And then I felt like a happy housewife with everything ready and warm when the couple got home from work. Maddy was first. Maddy identifies as American with European heritage (Jewish and Italian). I met Maddy in graduate school but slightly later than the rest of the frands because she wasn't at the crazy obstacle course department orientation thing. She was still interning at Lindt, and when she came back, I was like no omg she's too cool for me. As it turns out though, Maddy's tactic for making friends is similar to mine: feed them and the right ones will keep coming back.

itchy

 I just want to get home but there's a tree downed on the road. Great now I have to go... all the way around? And I'm so hungry. I'll make my very loose adaptation of Jamaican rundown. It's really just to use up the coconut cream from the cookies. I skimmed the indices of a few cookbooks for coconut cream recipes they all use coconut milk though but it should be fine. Okay I have that leftover piece of duck breast from Monday now, so that's saving me. And the rest of my chrysanthemum greens that need to be separated from the sad wilted bits ya but it'll be nice to have veggies. I wish I had rice, but all I have are noodles... or these super dense rosca de reyes attempts. At least the date and za'atar one will go with the duck...and coconut probably. Check my messages. Well there are bready things on the side in the picture okay I'll just toast a couple pieces of bread. Ooh I'll toast it in duck fat I'll cook all of it in duck fat. Garlic first do I have onions no but I have those pickled onions Okay I'll put those on top or on the side. Refresh my email. Okay garlic and you know there's thyme in the za'tar, I'll just use up more of the green za'tar which is already in the bread great okay what else hmmm cumin. Oh man coconut cream is not a good substitute for coconut milk it's so strong. Salt. More za'tar...more cumin. Oh I need tomatoes, okay I have tomato paste in the fridge perfect. Refresh my email. This coconut cream is still so strong, more salt, more savory I'll add some MSG. The greens in duck fat over here. Check my messages. It seems the rain has stopped remember to take out the compost. Check my messages real quick. Email. Add the sliced duck in now so it can soak up some flavor. Need to turn up the greens I still need this pan to toast the failed bread. Oh I also need allspice for the curry thing okay allspice hmmmmm where is my allspice do I not have allspice? Okay no allspice how is this possible? Okay whatever plate plate plate. Let me just wash a few more dishes while it reduces down. Refresh my email. Okay greens are done here. Pickled onions... oh maybe the cheong peppers maybe that's too much sweetness oh well it's like a pickle plate. Okay bread bread and knockoff Jamaican rundown into a bowl.

Hey, this isn't bad.

minny things

A baking supplies and classes store that also has a beautiful pastry display. We went for this honey custard filled beauty:

And then I got distracted by the corn filled thing, of course.