Marcella Cooking Stuff • July 26th - August 1st
July 26th - August 1st
Back in May Marco asked me what we would do for our birthdays if we couldn't throw a party or go out to dinner. My response was something along the lines of "we will cook something fancy, decorate the house, play a fun game, run around the house...I don't know but it will be fun just the two of us."
In reality, we could have gone out to eat but we did America a favor and stayed home.
When I plan the meals I am going to cook, Marco has one shot to put in requests. After things are planned, I'm in charge and have veto power. He usually doesn't have many requests and is happy with whatever I feed him. To make his birthday a little more special I let him pick what he wanted for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert. A n y t h i n g he wanted with no veto power from me.
His requests:
Breakfast Tacos
Grilled Corn Salad with Shrimp
Shawarma Spiced Chicken Bowls
Snickerdood Ice Cream Sandwiches Dipped in Chocolate
I was slightly confused by his requests. Besides the ice cream sandwiches, we eat these meals often and there is nothing special about them. He pointed out that he is spoiled with fancy meals every week and they don't need to be fancy to be special. Touche Marco.
I happily made his requested meals as well as an affogato to start the day and an afternoon coffee with ice cream too. I pulled out party hats and blowers and set the table for four. Alex started her drive back to California from the lake house with our friend AJ and wanted to spend the night. Perfect timing!
We wore silly cone hats, blew obnoxious blowers at each other, and toasted to Marco. Nothing too crazy but a special way to spend a quarantine birthday.
Over coffee the next morning I asked the question "when we look back and have to tell people about this experience, what will you say?" Everyone had a different answer. Like I said last week we are all struggling with this in different ways. My answer was, as scary/lonely/weird as this is, Marco and I have had a lot of fun.
I have fun with Marco every day even pre-pandemic. Before he was my partner, he was truly my best friend. Our friendship was started by hours of tv watching, snack eating, and random conversations; our married life looks very much the same.
We tackle projects together, we play games together, we garden together, we fold laundry together...we do everything together. He has made quarantine more fun and he makes life incredibly fun. So although I hope his birthday celebration next year looks a little different, this year was a special one. It's fun to spoil the man who spoils me every day.
P.S. How is it August?
Monday
GF Brown Butter Snickerdoods
Grilled Pork Shoulder + Rice Noodle Salad
I was excited to make GF Brown Butter Snickerdoods because I haven't made them in a while. They are really freaking tasty. They are not a traditional snickerdoodle. The brown butter adds a nutty toasted flavor. The recipe has brown sugar as well that adds a slight molasses sweetness. They don't have cream of tartar, an ingredient that's traditionally in snickerdoodles. It's actually pretty far off from a traditional snickerdoodle but who cares.
The gluten-free batter is thin and needs to chill in the fridge. Don't skip this step! The recipe produces thin chewy cookies, which we like, but I may mess with it a bit to get more density. Either way, they are tasty and you should try them!
I'm learning I really like Vietnamese flavors, ingredients, and dishes. One dish I am really into is a rice noodle salad. Vermicelli noodles, vegetables, herbs, chili, and a dressing of fish sauce, lime juice, and sugar. Tonight I used what I had in my fridge/pantry and threw together a Vietnamese inspired rice noodle salad. The ingredients were:
Vermicelli noodles
Carrots
Snow peas
Cucumbers
Thai chilis
Cilantro
Mint
Thai Basil
Shallot
Fish sauce
Seasoned rice vinegar
Sugar
I didn't have any limes on hand and used seasoned rice vinegar as a substitute. It was delish and a perfect substitution.
We topped it with grilled pork shoulder. I prefer little grilled nuggets vs. steaks. The little pieces have more crispy, charred, caramelization in every bite and more fat renders. I would say I'm doing about 2-inch pieces and we love them.
Marinated them in fish sauce, rice vinegar, brown sugar, scallions, and ginger. Blended everything with my emersion blender and popped it in a ziplock.
Grilled pork shoulder and rice noodle salad is easily becoming one of my favorite dishes.
Tuesday
Brown Butter Snickerdood Ice Cream Sandwiches
The Humble Tuna Salad
Ice cream sandwiches were built with GF Brown Butter Snickerdoods, Goat Milk Vanilla Ice Cream, and chocolate shell.
I started the day by churning the ice cream. When it was ready for the freezer, instead of scooping it into a deli container, I spread it into a layer on a sheet pan. The plan here was to take a cup the same size as the cookies, cut out perfect circle slices, and place the slice between two cookies. It worked perfectly. Then I dipped.
You know the chocolate shell that freezes when it hits the cold ice cream? Did you know you can make it at home? Mix 6oz dark chocolate and 2 Tablespoons of coconut oil and you have chocolate shell. I melted everything over a double boiler but have read online you can melt everything in the microwave. Be careful with this and only do a few seconds at a time until it is completely melted.
I was over the moon with how these turned out. It was hard to wait a whole day to eat them.
Random Tuna Salad:
Romaine
Tomatoes
Radish
Avocado
Olives
Lemon juice
Olive oil
Dill
Wednesday
Breakfast Tacos
Grilled Corn Salad + Shrimp
Shawarma Chicken Bowls
Let's break the day down:
Breakfast tacos were composed of Yoli Tortillas, bacon, eggs, avocado, Charred Salsa, and Pickled Red Onions. I picked up some fresh-picked tomatoes from the farm when we picked blueberries and man were they good. I used two in the salsa and it was bursting with sweet tomato flavor. Marco had a meeting and I rushed these tacos. Not the best looking but who cares.
Around lunchtime, I found a random mixture of spices in my pantry. It smelled like my taco seasoning blend. I tossed the shrimp in it before grilling and confirmed it was taco seasoning. The taco seasoned grilled shrimp was perfect with grilled corn salad. Next time I may sub basil with cilantro to stick with more Mexican flavors.
Dinners Shwarma Chicken Bowls were built with Saffron Rice, grilled bell peppers, Cucumber and Tomato Salad, Pepperoncini Feta, kalamata olives, parsley, and Pickled Red Onions. Oh and lots of sumac sprinkled on top! I made a fresh batch of red onions and this time I used black peppercorns, pink peppercorns, and Aleppo pepper. Guys you need to get some Aleppo pepper!
Now to the most important dish...ice cream sandies! Very rarely do I have moments where I feel like I executed a dish perfectly. This was one of those rare moments. My only regret is that I didn't dip the whole sandwich in chocolate. Here are some notes from my taste testers.
Alex: 10/10
"The spice of the snickerdoodle complements the delicateness* of the ice cream. Great ratio of ice cream to cookie."
AJ: 10/10
"I really like the snickerdoodle. I'm not used to the snickerdoodle in an ice cream sandwich. The chocolate with the snickerdoodle is really complimentary."
Marco: 12/10
"Best ice cream sandwich I have ever eaten. Chocolate really made it."
Sooo yeah. I was feeling pretty good about them. 🥰🥰
*Goats milk ice cream is a little lighter and delicate than regular cows milk. Less fat!
Thursday
Galettes
Remember when I said I would make two Galettes for brunch one day? One sweet and one savory? Well, I did it and it was just as lovely as I imagined.
The sweet Galette I made I used blueberries that we picked and a nectarine that needed to be used. I layered in some toasty cashews for texture. Skip the cashews. Almonds were better because they have a great crunch when toasted. Cashews are a little creamier and got lost in the dish.
The savory Galette was layered with dijon goat cheese, caramelized onions, sauteed kale, dill, and potatoes. This is my favorite combo for galettes. The caramelized onion made me want to try a potato one packed with a massive amount on onions. I'm talking six onions caramelized. Next time!
All four of us agreed we are team savory galette.
Friday
Melon Salad
Sun-Dried Tomato Pasta Salad
Post-Marco's birthday I was really lazy. Like I don't want to even cook at all lazy. A lot of toasts were consumed. Pesto toasts, salsa toasts, and buttered toasted.
We picked up a cantaloupe at the farm while blueberry picking and half of it needed to be eaten. I made a simple melon salad as a snack. Lime juice, fish sauce, mint, that basil, cayenne, and New Mexican red chili powder coated the melon and that's it! Think citrus, spice, and herbs. Then get creative with what ingredients you have at home.
Pasta salad is the perfect lazy meal. Besides boiling water, the only thing you have to do is stir ingredients together. I wrote up a recipe for this Sun-Dried Tomato Pasta Salad because it had a really great balance of flavors and I plan to remake it again. When was the last time you ate sundried tomatoes? Well, they are loaded with flavor and we should embrace them a little more. This pasta salad is a perfect way to enjoy them.
Saturday
Random Saturday Salad
More easy to throw together meals for this lazy girl 🙋🏼♀️.
I made an egg dish for brunch. A similar method as Shakshouka-ish but with the ingredients I had on hand. Sauteed onion, cherry tomato, broccoli, spices, feta, and baked with eggs. We dipped toasted bread into the sauce. After you toast your bread, rub a garlic clove over it and sprinkle with salt. The garlic flavor will stick and it is lovely for dipping.
Random Saturday Salad
Romaine
Potatoes
Bacon
Avocado
Feta
Tomatoes
Grilled corn
Grilled zucchini
Grilled onions
Parsely
Horseradish dressing
I said this is a random salad but this was actually a pretty well-rounded dinner salad. Potatoes made it filling, grilled veg, fresh veg, bright herbs, smokey bacon, a little cheese, and SPICY horseradish dressing. I would 100% make this again.
Dressing recipe:
2T prepared horseradish, 1t dijon, 2T seasoned rice vinegar, salt, pep, 1/4 cup olive oil.
Seasoned rice vinegar added some sweetness which I really liked. I may try using avocado oil next time. I think the neutral oil will let the horseradish shine a little more.
Random thing of the week:
We went blueberry picking! One of the perks of living in the midwest.
Pet photo of the week:
Josie in her party hat.
Thing everybody needs:
Meri Meri Makes the best party supplies. Napkins, plates, decor, candles, etc. I have boxes of supplies for every occasion ready to go but everyone needs to have nice birthday candles on hand. These are my favorite.
When we ran out of Hanukkah candles this year and these were a perfect stand-in. I have gotten lucky and found tons of Meri Meri at Marshall's for a fraction of their normal price too.
We can check one COVID birthday off our list. Next week might look a bit different. We're going camping but there will still be lots of cooking.
See you next week,
Marcella