Biscuit Class with Joy

Welp, these monthly recaps are going to look a bit different for the next little while. Instead of documenting all the restaurants I’ve been to, or foodie adventures I’ve gone on in, this will turn into a bit of a log of what I’ve been cooking while staying at home, with a little bit of (virtual) fun still in the mix:

  • What was your last restaurant outing before we started staying inside? Besides the places we went to in Palm Springs, mine was happy hour drinks and apps at Joey’s with my girl gang from work. I had lettuce wraps with chicken and gyoza (pork dumplings with hot mustard), which are my fave snacks there. There are worse ways to go out!
  • For my first week of self-isolation after getting back from the US, I was eating from my pantry and freezer (since my grocery delivery wasn’t coming until the next week). I found some puréed butternut squash hiding in the freezer, so I made this Cheesy Butternut Rigatoni from the archives. Next up I found a can of black beans in the back of a cupboard, so I made these Sweet Potato & Black Bean Tacos, plus ate the filling on rice like a burrito bowl the next day. That one was even better than I remembered, so it’ll be a regular on the quarantine cooking agenda.
  • When my groceries finally arrived, I made another gem from the archives: Thick, Rich Tomato Sauce (and froze half for later). I haven’t made this in ages and forgot how good it is. Shout to Danielle who makes this all the time and reminded me of it when we were in Palm Springs!
  • By far the number one question my friends and co-workers have been asking me is: have you been baking like crazy?! This is the irony of this whole thing right? I’ve never had more time to bake, but have no one to share it with! I can’t be home alone with trays of brownies and such, so I haven’t been doing that much baking (yet? we’ll see). I did make this Chocolate Chunk Coconut Banana Bread plus one other thing I’m going to dedicate a whole blog post to shortly.
  • One fun thing that’s happening now is that Joy is doing virtual baking classes live from The Bakehouse! I did the first one, which was a biscuit making class. I made half batches of both the recipes we made: Classic Buttermilk Biscuits and Cheddar & Chive Drop Biscuits. It was so much fun to bake along with Joy, but the hour went by so fast! I’ll probably sign up for a couple more classes over the coming months.
  • Would you believe me if I told you I’ve never made a hard-boiled egg in my whole entire life? It’s true! I’ve had a bit of an aversion to them as my Mom has always added chopped hard-boiled eggs to her potato salad, and as a kid I would pick them out and leave them on the side of my plate! Well, these crazy times have us doing some crazy things, because I finally did it. I was making the Kale Caesar Salad from Smitten Kitchen Everyday, which has the same delicious dressing I’ve always made, plus toasted garlicky panko breadcrumbs on top, and a JAMMY EGG! And you know what, it wasn’t that bad! The bouncy texture of the egg white still throws me off a little bit, and I don’t think I’ll ever be like my co-workers who bring hard-boiled eggs to work for breakfast, but I’m proud of myself for giving it a try. Here it is, by the way:

Jammy Egg

Other non-foodie things I was obsessed with this month:

  • After a slow reading start to the year, I read a bunch of great books in March that I recommend: Such a Fun Age, Permanent Record and Open Book (which is Jessica Simpson’s memoir and is FANTASTIC and filled with lots of hot goss). I also read The Other’s Gold which kind of went off the rails in the second half, so proceed with caution on that one.
  • Krishna loaned me her Amazon Prime Video password, and so my first Quarantine Binge Watch is Parenthood, a show I always wanted to watch! Besides that, I’ve watched all of Alison Roman’s NYT Cooking YouTube videos (which I find extremely soothing) and of course, lots of Bon Appetit’s YouTube channel as always.
  • I also started watching the new season of Top Chef (All-Stars LA), which I haven’t watched in about 10 years, but is still so good! There’s even a Volt Brother (Bryan) on this season, and of course Tom, Padma and Gail in all their glory.

Flashback!