Marcella Cooking Stuff • June 28th - July 4th
June 28th - July 4th
This is the first Fourth of July in five years that we are not hosting a big party. The Fourth of July is our favorite holiday. Not necessarily because we love America, more so because we love a theme, and red white and blue is the best theme.
I have boxes full of flags, balloons, necklaces, straws, and random USA crap from Oriental Trading. Marco and I have head to toe outfits including his custom embroidered USA tracksuit. He actually has two of them, one long sleeve and pants and the other vest and shorts. You never know what the weather will be like. We go big and I'm sad that those boxes were not opened this year.
The tradition started at our little apartment in LA. Our unit was on the ground floor in the very back of a six-unit complex. We had an outdoor patio that opened up to a large alley. Everyone was welcome. Including all the random neighbors that also backed up into the alley. It was a USA explosion complete with extra loud music, loads of snacks, and an epic water balloon toss.
The party continued here in Kansas City. Last year our house was packed, I BBQed a feast, and we lit fireworks in the street. They are very legal here.
This year we took a little trip to our close friend Alex's lake house in Illinois. Her great-grandpa built this cabin many years ago, it's in a tiny town, and she has been working remotely here for a few weeks.
I missed a loud cheerful house full of guests. I missed cooking trays of food. I missed all our ridiculous decorations. The USA outfits came with us of course. We started our day with fishing. Water skied, floated, and swam all day (Marco needs a boat now). I didn't cook a single thing. We all ate way too many chips and we snuck a few beers in cups like we were in high school again. The night ended with a swim in the dark to see fireworks from the lake and we watched...Cats. LOL.
Sunday
Potato Galette
Melon Salad
Roasted Carrots with Avocado & Mint
Now that I have made a Galette...I'm totally into the Galettes. Definitely team savory.
For the Potato Galette, I mixed goat cheese, dijon, salt, pepper, and a little milk together. I spread that on GF dough after it was rolled out. On top of the goat cheese mixture, I layered fresh dill, sauteed leeks and kale, and thinly sliced potatoes. Finished with an egg wash on the crust, a drizzle of olive oil on the potatoes, and lots of fresh ground pepper and flakey salt.
The galette was great!! Super tasty. I'm looking forward to the day I can host a brunch again. Three galettes, two savory and one fruit, would be a fun brunch meal.
Marco rating 10/10.
For dinner, we had leftover Spring Marcella Bean Soup and two orange salads. Grilled Carrots with Avocado and Mint is an old Andy Baraghani recipe. I have made it many times, including last Fourth of July and Thanksgiving, and it never disappoints.
There was half a cantaloupe in the fridge screaming to be eaten that I turned into a melon salad. Melon, basil, chili, lime juice, and fish sauce. In Carla Lalli Music's book, Where Cooking Begins, she adds fish sauce to her summer melon salad.
Well, I tried it and can confirm it is indeed tasty. It adds a slight flavor and nice saltiness. Don't afraid of fish sauce!
Monday
Grilled Veggies + Pepperoncini Yogurt
Crispy Rosemary Smashed Potatoes
Lamb Loin Chops
Monday nights dinner was a fun one. In preparation for going out of town for a few days, I was working on cleaning out the fridge.
I threw an eggplant on the grill over low heat and slowly grilled it for about an hour. Added bell peppers and zucchini for the last 20 minutes.
I played around with a new sauce and will be adding it to the rotation. 4oz feta, 1.5 oz pepperoncini, 2 T plain yogurt, lots of pepper, and the juice from half a lemon went into a food processor. Salty, acidic, and tangy. It would be good as a dip, sauce, or dressing to any Mediterranean meal.
Smashed potatoes are a side we make often. Russets are not the best. Small waxy potatoes work better. Fingerling, peewee, red bliss are great. I had Yukon Golds so I used Yukon Golds.
This is how you cook them:
Fill a large pot with water and add a generous pinch of salt.
Toss potatoes into the water, bring to a boil and cook until tender. My medium-sized Yukon Gold potatoes took about 25 minutes.
Remove from the water and place on a sheet pan.
Smash potatoes with a flat surface. I have a mini pan that cooks a single egg and that's what I use. The back of a flat spatula is a good option too.
Generously oil them. The oil helps them get crispy. Season with seasoning of choice. Flip and repeat.
Bake in a 450-degree oven until golden and crispy. 25+ minutes depending on size.
In a food processor, I blended 4T of kosher salt and a small bunch of fresh rosemary from our garden. I used that rosemary salt to season the potatoes.
The rosemary salt was also used to season the lamb loin chops. I found a recipe for Sauteed Lamb Chops with Ramps, Anchovies, Capers, and Olives on NYT Cooking. I had most of the ingredients on hand and used that recipe as inspiration.
No ramps so I upped the shallot. Left out the garlic but used all the rest of the ingredients. I didn't measure and just winged it. It was good. Not the best but definitely good. I would experiment with these ingredients again in the future.
Tuesday
GF Pizza
Melon + Tomato Salad
I'm fully taking advantage of summer produce and eating it whenever possible. I accidentally brought home a yellow watermelon last weekend and used it for another Melon + Tomato Salad. Same as last week:
Thinly sliced shallots in white balsamic for 10 minutes (just a few tablespoons, enough to cover them)
Cubed watermelon and tomatoes
Lots of fresh basil
Crumbled feta or goat cheese
All tossed together with a little olive oil, salt, and pep
I like feta more than goat cheese. Texturally it holds its shape and I like a bite of cheese in the salad. Flavor-wise it has a little more salty tang.
To clean out the fridge more, I made a pesto with the greens I had on hand. This week that happened to be spinach and parsley.
Threw that on a pizza with fresh corn, heirloom tomato, and mozzarella. It was good but lacking a little flavor. Needs more salt and cheese. NEEDS GARLIC! Ugh.
On another pizza, I spread some leftover pepperoncini yogurt, grilled vegetables, and mozzarella. This one packed a punch. The pepperoncini yogurt is everything.
The gluten-free crusts were not working for me here. I have said baking is a science but gluten-free baking is a beast of its own. I made a variation of this pizza crust and it just wasn't working. It wasn't holding shape well making me think that it needed more hydration. I don't really know, I just wing it every time I make pizza dough. The only good part was rosemary salt in the dough. Highly recommend it.
Wednesday
Chocolate Chip Meringue Cookies
Red, White, and Blue Meringue Cookies
You can't go on vacation without treats. Especially when your husband has allergies and can't buy treats anywhere.
I tested the Chocolate Chip Meringue Cookie Recipe. They turned out exactly the same. Cook time is 45 minutes, not 30 minutes, and I have updated the recipe with that detail. When you add your sugar go really slow. Only add a Tablespoon at a time. I'm excited for you guys to try this recipe!!
I had a good amount of egg whites that needed to be used before we left. I made the same recipe leaving out the cocoa powder and chocolate chips. They were a lot more delicate in flavor. Sweet, light, meringue bites. I almost liked them more. Added a few drops of red and blue food coloring thinking I would get a patriotic swirl. It didn't go as planned.
Wednesday's Clean Out The Fridge Salad:
Romaine
Cucumber
Radish
Tomato
Sugar snap peas
Olives
Capers
Dill
Tuna in olive oil
Thursday
Challah Three Ways!
This is it, after thirteen loaves, I'm wrapping up my challah adventure.
I'm happy with the recipe I have landed upon. I have written it up in three ways. The foundation is the same with slight changes to bring out different flavors.
Honey Challah
Uses honey and vegetable oil. This allows the honey flavor to shine.
Sweet aroma and honey flavor
The densest of the three
The dough is on the sticky side. If it's a little too sticky, flour your palms and pat the dough. Do not flour the counter.
This loaf had the prettiest stretchy pull apart-ness when baked
Dough is a little more glutinous and tough when shaping.
Olive oil gives it a little more yellow color.
Savory smell and taste
Light nutty olive flavor
The lightest bread of all three
Light airy chew with mild buttery bread flavor
This loaf is a little different than traditional challah and leans to the more decadent side.
My favorite is the honey challah. I like the sweet flavor and chew it has. Alex's favorite is also the honey challah. We brought all three loaves here for a tasting.
Give them a try! Do your own taste test. Get creative and add seeds, raisins, or even chocolate chips. Have fun with it and eat some yummy bread!!
Friday
Bluegill Fish Tacos
A day filled with firsts! The three of us did a little early morning fishing and caught over ten fish! We kept four of them and had lunch.
Many youtube videos were watched on how to remove scales and fillet the bluegill fish we caught. I have filleted a fish but let's be real, I didn't remember how to do any of it.
The bluegill gave us little tiny fillets that were cooked in a pan with lots of seasoning for about 4 minutes. Wrapped in a Yoli tortilla with salsa and guacamole. Perfect little fillets for fish tacos!
A super fun experience! Now Marco needs to fish more so I can work on my filleting.
Saturday
More fishing, no filleting
Marco and Alex both caught some bass. Two were too small and we threw them back. Marco caught a 16.5-inch one but we all agreed we were too lazy to clean and cook him. He got thrown back in too.
Random thing of the week:
I started two jars of pickles this week. Testing out some spicy bread and butter pickles. They will bee added to the pickling recipe after we taste them.
Pet photo of the week:
Josie in a kayak.
Thing everybody needs:
A good life long friend. We haven't known Alex since the beginning of our lives but she's sticking around for the rest! We had a wonderful trip and are so grateful she invited us. We have spent many Fourth of Julys together. This is the three of us in 2016.
Unfortunately, we can't buy friends on Amazon. So there is no hyperlink to get your own Alex.
We are heading home today. I wish we could stay here all month with Alex (how lucky is she?!) but I'm excited to do a big grocery haul, plan some recipes for the week, and get back in my kitchen.
See you next week,
Marcella