June 23, 2021

I know summer time is probably not the ideal time to be baking mainly because of how hot my home can get with the oven turned on, but I felt my cravings for bread starting yet again, so I just had to bake up a loaf of bread. Usually, I like to bake up loaves of my Parmigiano-Reggiano herb bread as a way to satisfy my intense cravings for carbs. Other times, I turn to my crusty bread as a canvas for building the yummiest sandwiches (such as my crispy tofu bánh mì). This week though, I made a slight detour from my usual favorite breads and baked up a loaf of bread packed with everything seasoning. I’m talking everything seasoning weaved throughout the bread. The moment you slice into the loaf of bread, you see the different colored specks of everything seasoning sprinkled throughout. Everything seasoning bread is one of my favorite breads to make on weekends for breakfast throughout the week. I would bake up a loaf, slice them up into semi-thick slices and reserve them for toasting in the morning. The slices of bread are the perfect vehicle for adding on a variety of toppings. I often toast up a slice of bread, top it with a fried egg or sliced avocado, sprinkle on some salt and pepper or everything seasoning, drizzle on sriracha, and dig right in not even an hour after waking up. The loaded toast served alongside a quick smoothie is all the fuel I need in the morning to jump start my day. Sometimes, I go through phases where I make loaded toasts and smoothies consecutively for several days. The last week was one of those weeks where all I want in the morning is a loaded piece of toast with a smoothie. This is where my everything seasoning bread comes in. I just prepare the dough and bake up the loaf of bread during one of the days over the weekend and I’m set for breakfast for the week. When I say I am set for the week, I really mean both Kevin and I are set for the week. He usually has to eat whatever experiments I cook up in the kitchen. If it was up to Kev, bread would not be at the top of his list of preferred foods, but when I bake bread from scratch, he is usually a fan of the bread right out of the oven. Of course, I have to smear on a heavy helping of butter onto the slice of homemade bread beforehand, but hey, he is still a fan. My everything seasoning bread does take some time to make, but most of the time required for the bread is inactive time (a.k.a. time needed for the bread to rest and rise). The first rise occurs immediately after mixing the ingredients together in a large mixing bowl. The second rise occurs after the dough has been left to rise for several hours and the dough has become noticeably bubbly. At this point, I transfer the dough from the mixing bowl to a parchment-lined baking sheet, shape it into an oval loaf shape, and leave it to rise for a second time. The rise time this time around is much quicker. When the dough has become noticeably bubbly during the second rise, it is time to pop the sheet pan into the oven to let the dough bake away. All in all, the actual active time required for the bread is probably closer to half an hour. I love how easy this bread is to whip together and definitely do not mind the additional inactive time it takes for the bread to rise. I know in this case patience will lead to a super tasty bread with well-developed flavor. I just have to watch myself to prevent myself from eating one too many slices of the bread in one sitting.

December 7, 2020

December means the holiday season is among us and the countdown towards Christmas is here. Typically, during the holidays, Kevin and I would alternate between visiting my family in New York and his family in Hong Kong. Some years, if we space out our vacation days enough throughout the year, we would be able to spend the holidays with both of our families. We started this tradition almost ten years ago. This holiday season is looking unlikely for us to travel. Kevin and I have decided to stay put in Ohio and enjoy all Ohio has to offer during the holiday season. Starting the weekend before Thanksgiving, we searched high and low to create a list of holiday events going on in Ohio. Each weekend, we planned to cross one event off the list. The weekend before Thanksgiving, we headed to downtown Cincinnati to enjoy the PNC Festival of Lights at the Cincinnati Zoo. We bundled up in our coziest winter attire, put on our masks, and headed straight for the holiday festivities. The following weekend, we headed to Sharon Woods to enjoy Holiday Lights in Sharon Woods, a drive-through winter land of holiday lights. Check out my post on Thanksgiving to see some of the photos from our holiday festivities over the last couple weekends. This weekend, Kevin and I headed further south to the Coney Island Christmas Nights of Lights. I’ve been wanting to swing by to see the drive-through light show after hearing about it on the radio year after year. When I heard advertisements on the radio again this year, I finally decided to head there on a Friday night with Kevin. It took us a bit of a drive to get there. Once we got there, we could see tons of cars lined up on an insanely long zig-zagging line. It took almost an hour for us to loop through the line until we got to the entrance of the light show. As we approached the entrance, we were amazed by the dazzling holiday lights synced with the holiday music blasting from our car radio. Kevin sang along with almost every song. I was so dazzled by the bright twinkling lights. It was such a unique experience. The light show lasted only about 20-30 minutes, but we both felt it was worth the wait. The next day, my cravings for warm and comforting food kicked in. December snowfall began this week and brought with it chilly temps and cold air. I still had tons of potatoes leftover from Thanksgiving weekend and decided to incorporate the potatoes into my tomato coconut curry. Tomato coconut curry is a dish I started making a lot during the fall once the weather turned cool and crisp. It came about one day when I needed to use up the abundance of tomatoes I had stocked up. When I folded the tomatoes into my usual coconut curry base, my tastebuds were soaring with joy. The tangy, sweet tomatoes added a brightness, sweetness, and a touch of acidity to the creamy coconut curry. The addition of potatoes makes for a much more substantial, filling curry. Whenever I eat curry, I need to have some carb to serve alongside it. My carb of choice is of course grilled flatbread. I prepared the dough for the flatbread just over an hour before I started making the curry since the dough for the flatbread needed some time to rest before using. When the dough had rested for at least an hour, I divided up the dough into six pieces, rolled each piece out, and popped the flatbread dough into the oven. The flatbread dough is cooked twice – first in the oven and then finished on my grill pan to impart a smoky grill flavor into the flatbread. The grill marks also add a beautiful touch to the flatbread. To achieve the fluffy, chewy texture, I used a combination of all-purpose flour and bread flour. The potato tomato coconut curry was so filling, we almost fell into food coma right after eating it. At least the curry gave me the energy to finally put up the Christmas tree.

November 15, 2020

The holiday I look forward to the most is around the corner. It’s my most favorite time of the year for showing gratitude to family and friends through food. The holiday I’m talking about is, of course, Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is usually a time where families and friends gather to give thanks and celebrate over good food. I thought back to last year when my family traveled from New York to spend Thanksgiving with Kevin and I. Kevin drove straight to the airport to pick up my parents and aunt. I stayed home to get a head start on dessert, a classic apple medley pie. The moment mom arrived, she got to work in the kitchen with me. Aunt joined shortly after to help with prep and cleaning. Dad snapped photos of us working in the kitchen. Kevin ran some last-minute errands as needed. Thanksgiving this year won’t be the same as the previous years. Instead of celebrating with family and friends in person, we have been celebrating with family and friends throughout the month over video chat. I am still looking forward to creating the ultimate Thanksgiving feast – even if it is just Kevin and I celebrating. I always get into the groove of cooking and baking during the day of Thanksgiving and often forget about preparing something to eat for breakfast/brunch/lunch. Once I get situated in my spot in the kitchen, I keep cooking until the very last dish is served. My favorite method for planning a Thanksgiving menu is to use the alphabet method. I start by listing out all of the dishes I want to make beginning with A. I continue until I get to a sufficient number of dishes, usually H or I. The alphabet method helps me keep track of the dishes I’m making in my head. This method has kept me from forgetting a dish. The first dish I like to start with is apple pie. It doesn’t take long to prepare, but it does need time to set after baking. My favorite apple pie weaves in both a tart apple, Granny Smith, and a sweet apple, Fuji, and is mixed in a blend of sugar, spice, and lemon juice. Right after the apple pie is done, I move onto the turkey. The turkey takes the longest time to cook, anywhere from two to three hours, depending on the size of the turkey. While the turkey is tucked neatly into the oven, I move onto the sides – assembly style. For thanksgiving this year, I made a promise to myself to prepare a light snack to munch on throughout the day as I’m preparing the big Thanksgiving feast. A savory snack I have been working on for the last few weeks is my savory everything animal crackers. I made it earlier during the fall season to serve as a light game day snack when Kev’s friends swung by to play board games and watch football. I made these savory snacks again in the form of a tart for a course project. I plan on making them a third time just for Thanksgiving as a way to keep me fueled throughout the cooking marathon. During the cooking marathon, I sometimes forget to prepare a meal in the morning ahead of time. My savory everything animal crackers are not only irresistible, but they are also vegan friendly. The dough is essentially my tried and true pie crust dough topped with my own blend of everything seasoning. My blend of everything seasoning features a mixture of white and black sesame seeds, dried minced onion, dried minced garlic, poppy seeds, kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper. The everything seasoning mix is sprinkled directly onto the dough and rolled into the dough prior to cutting the dough out into animal shapes. The moment the seasoning hits the heat in the oven, it begins to toast and emits the most fragrant scents in the kitchen. These animal crackers are perfectly delightful on their own, but if I’m feeling adventurous, I may even make a dip on the side to serve with them.

July 28, 2020

The longer days of summer have brought new life to the herbs I’ve been tending to by my window. The sweet, fragrant, and somewhat pungent scent of my basil plant has added immense flavor to my margherita pizza. The warming, aromatic thyme plant has infused earthy notes into roast chicken. The once vibrant cilantro plant flowered before I had the chance to harvest some for my summer rolls. With many of the herbs at its peak of flavor, I’ve been able to whip up tons of dishes featuring fresh herbs. The last few months of teleworking has allowed me to test out tons of cooking and baking experiments in the kitchen. Some weeks, I’m eager to experiment in the kitchen with combining new ingredients together to add a new twist on old favorites. Other weeks (in between grocery store trips), I turn to my pantry to bail me out on meals. This week was one of those weeks where I relied on my pantry to create meals. One of my go-to pantry meals over the years has been my cold chili oil noodles. My cold chili oil noodles were one of the first dishes I experimented with making in my early days of cooking. Back when I lived in Chicago, I would toss up a large batch of chili oil noodles early in the week. I would serve some for dinner and then save the remaining servings for lunch and dinner throughout the week. My cold chili oil noodle saved me from becoming hangry on especially long days when I had to teach high school during the day and attend grad school classes in the evenings. The early days of cooking really forced me to get creative in the kitchen as I found ways to cook from my pantry, save money, and have a delicious meal to eat in as little time as possible. I would play around with different sauces I had on hand. When I came across the magical combination of Chiu Chow chili oil, soy sauce, and brown sugar, I knew I had created the perfect base for dressing up noodles. Even after many years of cooking, my cold chili oil noodles are still one of the recipes I whip out on exceptionally busy weekdays. I was craving chili oil noodles last week out of the blue and put a new twist on the dish by adding in thinly sliced scallions, sesame seeds, and red pepper flakes. I usually like to add in tons of fresh cilantro as well, but I didn’t have any on hand. The addition of scallions, sesame seeds, and red pepper flakes really did add an incredible layer of flavor to the dish. I loved the flavors of the dish so much, I made it again this week. The cold chili oil noodles were just the perfect noodles to serve up on a hot summer day. Pair the noodles with a glass of iced tea and the perfect light summer meal was ready to be enjoyed.

We are approaching our third week of teleworking here in Ohio. Just yesterday, I found out I will likely continue teleworking until May. When I’m not at work, I’m spending most of my time testing out recipes in the kitchen. I’ve been baking quite a bit lately using mainly ingredients found in my pantry. Whenever possible, I like to pair pantry ingredients with whatever fresh ingredients I have on hand. Usually, I’m able to work fresh or frozen fruits into my dough. This week, I felt compelled to use up the rainbow tomatoes I had sitting on my counter from a few weeks ago. The tomatoes haven’t gone bad just yet, but the skin on a couple have begun to shrivel. I had purchased the tomatoes to make an anniversary pizza dish a few weeks back and forgot to use up the rest until this week. I wanted to find a way to use up the tomatoes, so I decided to make focaccia. Focaccia is a very popular type of bread served in many Italian restaurants, bakeries, and shops all over the world. When Kevin and I traveled to Italy last spring, we had some of the most amazing focaccia. The ones we had were typically served as an afternoon snack and had a variety of herbs laced throughout. During the two weeks of our honeymoon in Italy, focaccia became an occasional snack whenever we weren’t loading up on pizza, pasta, salad, or gelato. The focaccia I remember eating always had indentations all over. Within the indentations were a variety of herbs – typically rosemary. The bottoms were ultra-crispy. The tops were sprinkled with kosher salt, a drizzle of olive oil, and more herbs. I set out to recreate the focaccia I remember eating after my research led me to realize the ingredients in focaccia were the same ingredients in my pizza dough recipe. The more I thought about it, the more I realized how easy it was to convert my pizza dough into focaccia dough. My pizza dough is super versatile and has been used to craft some of my favorite carbs. I’ve used it to make endless pizzas, rolled it out to make variations of pretzels, folded it up to make Stromboli, tied it up to make garlic knots, and this week, I transformed it into focaccia. I prepared the dough for my focaccia pretty much the same way I prepared my pizza dough. Instead of a combination of flours, or double zero flour, I only used all-purpose flour. I ended up using all-purpose flour because I had about 1/3 of a bag left sitting in my pantry, and I didn’t want to open up a new bag. I prepared the dough by combining some all-purpose flour and kosher salt in a bowl. Separately, I combined some lukewarm water, active dry yeast, and sugar in a glass measuring cup. If I was making pizza, I would let the dough rise undisturbed overnight, but I was eager to have some focaccia, so I only left the dough to rise undisturbed for about an hour. The temperature in my kitchen was also very warm from the sunshine we’ve been getting in Ohio, which helped the dough rise quicker than it typically would take. While the dough was left to rise, I quartered some of the larger tomatoes and halved the rest of the smaller tomatoes. After an hour has passed and the yeast has had some time to work its magic, it was time to remove the dough from the bowl and make some focaccia. I incorporated the rainbow tomatoes, a few dashes of oregano, a generous sprinkle of kosher salt, and another drizzle of olive oil into the dough. Once baked, the dough turned into the most beautiful looking focaccia. The focaccia had a wonderful, fluffy artisanal bread texture, a golden-brown top, and a crispy bottom. The combination of tomatoes and oregano was beyond delicious.