Epifurious

Resolution, check (and one week early to boot)! I had never attempted lasagna from scratch plus it felt Christmas-y and appropriate for Xmas eve. It seemed like a logical way to close out my 100 new recipes for the year by making the Pioneer Woman’s Best Lasagna Ever. 

It wouldn’t be me though without a few modifications. First, I subbed out ground beef for ground turkey. I also used ricotta instead of cottage cheese. Then I added a layer of sauteed spinach and basil to give it some green for Christmas. I also didn’t cook the lasagna noodles separately, instead giving them a quick soak in hot water (off the stove) and just letting them cook in the sauce. 

It came out tasty -- maybe not neatly stacked but Christmas slop was delicious!

Down to my last few available days to cook, so I made dinner tonight. I wanted to do something healthy that also used the veggies we had on hand - butternut squash, eggplant and some stray scallions.

Eats Well with Others’ Thai Tofu, Butternut Squash and Eggplant Soup was a good way to warm up a cool December evening. The brand of curry paste that I used didn’t have a ton of flavor so I amped it up a bit with soy sauce, oyster sauce and a bit of brown sugar. I also used only half of the broth amount since I wanted more of a curry than thin soup consistency.

We’ve collectively tried a lot of Cauliflower recipes in the last few years. I’ve done mashed cauliflower, cauliflower fried rice and various roasted cauliflower dishes. But I hadn’t yet attempted the pizza crust. 

Turns out, if you follow Food Network’s Katie Lee’s recipe, it’s worth the minimal effort because you can pretend your pizza is less guilty! I steamed my riced cauliflower on the stove, then really worked on drying it out by putting in a cheesecloth and squeezing until no more liquid came out (much easier when it was a little cooler).

I topped my pizza with chorizo, olives and basil. The only complaint from my husband -- that I didn’t make two!

It’s polar vortex here in SF -- aka the 40s. Soup was really the only choice. I stumbled on Simply Recipes’ Quick and Easy Egg Drop Soup earlier today and saw that I had all the ingredients at home. 

This really did come together in a matter of 10 minutes. I served it alongside some pan-fried frozen dumplings. Super easy Sunday supper. 

I’m in the home stretch with my 100 recipe challenge. I basically have to get this done by Christmas Day since we’re heading on vacation on the 26th. This means I couldn’t go out to eat tonight -- instead opting to make Serious Eats’ Chinese Pepper Steak, which was pretty much the same thing as good Chinese takeout. 

I got everything in place and then it came together quickly. The cornstarch slurry really made the sauce taste like I knew what I was doing. It serious is the key to getting sauce to stick on your stirfry. Really good flavor from a rather short list of ingredients - I’d definitely make this one again.

I could pretty much eat sushi everyday. I like pretty much every variety. Spicy tuna, salmon nigiri, tamago... and also those sweet little tofu pouches, Inari. Since finding sashimi grade fish can be expensive and hard, I decided to try to follow Japanese Cooking 101′s recipe for Inari sushi. 

I made my sushi rice in the Instant Pot -- cooking the rice took about 12 minutes. Cooling the rice took about twice as much time and a whole lot of fanning. I opted to use fresh shitake instead of dried. 

I paired the inari with a simple salad with some crunchy bits (sesame seed, peanuts, fried garlic chips). The inari were sort of sweet, sorta tangy, sorta salty. No soy sauce needed. 

I found a frozen package of boneless pork ribs in the freezer this weekend. I decided that they would make a good lettuce wrap filling paired with some sort of gochujang marinade. Clearly Food52′s Korean Pork Crack appealed as a recipe name. I made these in the Instant Pot instead of the slow cooker, cutting the cook time from 4-6 hours to 45 minutes. 

After I removed the meat, I simmered the juices down, added some cornstarach and whisked to make korean BBQ sauce. With a little bit of shredded carrots and some sesame seeds, these made easy and tasty lettuce wraps. Will went back for seconds so I knew it was a hit!

I had been meaning to make the meatball recipe from the Frankies’ Spuntino cookbook for a long time. Finally got around to it last weekend and it was delicious! Even though the sauce took four hours to simmer, it was super simple. The meatballs would have been really simple too if I hadn’t run out of breadcrumbs and had to make my own half way through.

Served this aside roasted broccoli one night and atop spaghetti squash the next. I will definitely make this again -- next time with turkey!

In the final installment of Thanksgiving leftovers, I made a take on The Kitchn’s Shepherd’s Pie with Sweet Potato and Turkey Curry. I used shredded turkey instead of chicken and topped with whipped sweet potatoes mixed with coconut milk. It didn’t come out pretty but it came out delicious!

The best Thanksgiving leftover recipes are the ones that totally trick you into thinking its not Thanksgiving at all. I used the turkey carcass to make some turkey stock for Bon Appetit’s Turkey Congee with Crispy Shitake Mushrooms. It took a while to simmer down but it made really rich and delicious broth. 

Add some slowly cooked rice and you’ve got a perfect cool November Monday dinner. The crispy mushrooms gave it some umami and the cilantro some freshness. A drizzle of sambal oelek brought just a hint of spice.

While my absolute favorite part about Thanksgiving is the day-after sandwich... I was also excited to repurpose and reuse some of the leftovers in new ways. Bon Appetit’s Spicy Cabbage Salad with Turkey and Peanuts was a good way to get some greens in after a heavy week.

Spicy, tangy, crunchy - just what my palate needed. 

There are already enough things going in the oven for Thanksgiving and I don’t like to fuss with pie crust. Our Thanksgiving featured four different varieties of pies: lemon, pecan, butterscotch pudding and AllRecipe’s No-Bake Pumpkin Cheesecake. 

I whipped this up the night before Thanksgiving... took a while to mix the lumps out (and I used less powdered sugar than called for). They firmed up quite nicely overnight. The taste was good -- but not very cheesecake-y. I might double the amount of cream cheese in the future and see how that impacts the flavor. 

The second green dish on our Thanksgiving table was a homemade spin on the classic green bean casserole, courtesy of Gourmet. Only it used roasted brussels sprouts instead of beans and sautéed wild mushrooms in white wine (instead of canned cream of mushroom soup). I chose to sub back the crispy onions instead of frying my own shallots. 

I made this dish a few Thanksgivings ago to be honest... but at the time only my mom and I liked brussels sprouts. Now everyone is a convert. 

While we definitely had two kinds of stuffing and two kinds of potatoes at the Thanksgiving table, we also had two kinds of greens. The first was Williams-Sonoma Green Bean Bundles with Bacon and Brown Sugar. 

Neatly wrapping these was the hardest part but they come out looking pretty elegant and everyone can get behind brown sugar bacon. 

We kept it light on the Thanksgiving appetizers this year but I couldn’t resist SkinnyTaste’s simple take on baked brie bites. I subbed cranberries for apple salsa so more members of my family would be inclined to try it. Would definitely make these again in other variations for one bite elegant appetizers. 

Originally I was going to make bread to go along Thanksgiving but we already had two stuffings and two potato dishes, so I decided to make Saveur’s Gruyere, Rosemary and Honey Monkey Bread for Thanksgiving breakfast instead. 

I made the dough a day before and assembled the bundt pan the night before with the plan to just pour the honey butter on and bake in the morning. The bread came out great, but the day before assemblage changed it from monkey bread to just regular bread. 

I bought an InstantPot on AmazonPrime day but didn’t actually use it until today. I was scared that it might make my kitchen explode if I didn’t read the directions carefully. Plus it was in a box and that seemed daunting to unpack. 

Well I was totally wrong and I am not an InstantPot convert. I made SkinnyTaste’s “recipe” for Salsa Shredded Chicken. Instead of the 4-8 hours it takes in a slow cooker, it took 20 minutes. And it was way juicier and easier to clean up. 

Since we’re getting close to the end of the year and I’m trying to bang out these 100 recipes, I decided to make Mark Bittman’s Refried Beans. I used three slices of bacon instead of vegetable oil (as that was an option in the cookbook and I’ve got some bacon around for Thanksgiving). Much nicer texture than canned refried beans and not that much effort either. 

Add a little shredded cabbage, some nonfat yogurt, avocado chunks and a few splashes and Tapatio and you’ve got a fine and easy dinner.