Love the colors!
Happy Valentine’s Day lovely readers! I decided not to post something chocolate or red because I’m sure you’ll see a ton of those things on the Internet today. Instead, I decided to post something healthy that you could make tonight to go along with all the chocolate and desserts.
As regular readers know, I almost always post a poll on Fridays to give you all a chance to vote for a meal you want to see on Macheesmo. Two weeks ago you all shocked me by voting for a stuffed sweet potato. Shows you what I know. I thought the cherry oat bars would win and they came in dead last by a long shot.
You guys have good taste though. Not only is it pretty healthy, but it’s packed with flavor and can easily work as a meal on its own. It’ll fill you up and keep you on track if you’re trying to eat healthy.
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One of the easiest ways to become a better cook is to stop measuring your ingredients by volume and start measuring them by weight.
To be honest, I’m not a total stickler on weighing because I’m not a professional baker. I don’t weigh stuff like salt or baking powder. I also don’t weigh recipes unless I’m baking because typically having an extra ounce of onions or whatever will still work out in most recipes.
That said, if you want consistency, weighing ingredients (especially stuff like flour) is the only way to go.
Trust me, I want you to be the best baker you can be so I’m giving away THREE of these fancy kitchen scales today.
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Different, but tasty!
I’ve been in cookbook testing mode for the last few months and I’m currently going back over all of the chicken recipes that are in the book. If you aren’t familiar with the book that I’m writing, it’s based on using leftovers effectively and one of the chapters is on leftover chicken.
This is a recipe that I considered adding to the chapter, but decided not to just because the chapter is already pretty heavy on Tex-Mex recipes. That said, I thought the final dish was still unique and tasted great so I just decided to post it rather than save it for the book.
The nice thing about this recipe is that you can serve it as a side dish or serve it on tostadas and make a meal out of it. Either way, it’s a unique take on couscous and has great flavors.
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The fluffiest.
Pancakes are one of the categories of foods that I pretty much refuse to buy pre-mixed. That might sound snobby or whatever, but pancakes mixes are seriously just flour plus some baking soda and stuff. It’s just doesn’t add much time to make it from scratch and the final results are so much better.
Now that I’ve gotten that mini-rant out of my system, let’s take it a step further. These pancakes have kind of an annoying step in the batter mixing process. It involves egg whites and sore forearms, but the final pancakes are seriously the lightest and most fluffy pancakes I’ve ever had. Hence the name!
I first saw this recipe when I read Chris Kimball’s interview explaining how he works over at Lifehacker. He said that thanks to this recipe, pancake making is something he can do better than most people. Now that the cat is out of the bag, you can too.
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This weekend Betsy and I and a bunch of friends are taking a sort of annual trip to a Colorado ski town. There tends to be around 15 of us and we rent a huge house and ski, play games, eat, and have the occasional beer.
This year we are going to Crested Butte which neither of us have ever been to. I’m actually hitting the slopes for the first time this year. It’ll be the first actual sporting activity I’ve done since my ACL surgery last year so I’ll be taking it pretty slow.
I’m also in charge of meals both days and looking forward to cooking in a resort kitchen. On the menu is a tex-mex night with carne asada and chipotle chicken tacos, rice congee for breakfast one day, and two kinds of soup in the slow cookers for day two.
The Poll
No poll this week because I still owe you guys the winner from last week!
The Links
Vegan Udon Noodles – Most ramen bowls start with an intense broth that’s a combo of bones and dried fish and seaweed. It’s a complicated broth and almost impossible to do quick. It’s probably also impossible to get the same flavor if you’re working in the Vegan world. That said, this version looks darn good and I would be happy to have a bowl of it. (@ Serious Eats)
Jiro Walkthrough - One of my favorite documentaries of last year was Jiro Dreams of Sushi. It is almost certain that I’ll never be able to eat at this place in my life so reading about it is about as good as it gets. I’m not usually one to read restaurant posts because, ahem, I don’t care, but I read this one all the way through. (@ TIny Urban Kitchen)
Do Bay Leaves Matter? - This is a serious question because it’s one of those ingredients that is in a ton of soups and stocks. For a 3-4 quart stock recipe there might be one bay leaf in it. Does that make a difference? Turns out yes. Sort of. (@ The Bitten Word)
Blondies with Ganache – I’m not much for sweets but I couldn’t stop staring at these. It’s like the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde of sweets. A blondie with chocolate? Sign me up. (@ My Baking Addiction)
Connect with me!
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Have a great weekend everybody!
Nice photo by psmithy.
For 26 years of my life, I thought beets were a very strange and gross food. I had a distinct memory of not liking them and so I just continued not eating them. They were ugly and weird and I wanted nothing to do with them.
As I started learning more about food and cooking, I finally ran into a beet salad and was convinced to give it a shot.
It was freakin’ delicious.
I sort of hated that I had wasted so many meals not eating beets just because I was supposedly sure that I didn’t like them.
If I would’ve been open to eating weird food, I would’ve learned this much sooner and been better off for it.
In short, I think everyone should be eating more weird foods. If you’re not eating weird food, you’re not eating well.
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Swoon!
Betsy ran off for a weekend of skiing in Steamboat Springs a few weeks ago and left me at home with a fast approaching cookbook deadline.
When she came home, she barely mentioned the slopes, but said, “I had a sandwich.” I congratulated her on her sandwich but asked if there was anything specific about it.
She went on to describe this sucker. While this sandwich has no cheese in it, the final texture has a very grilled cheese feel to it. It’s really perfect after a cold day out on the mountain… so I hear…
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