Marcella Cooking Stuff • August 9th - August 15th
August 9th - August 15th
There were many many years where I didn't eat bread because it was "bad." Carbs were bad, bread was bad, a lot of things were bad. Well, I am here to report that now I eat bread almost every day, usually my beloved piece of toast for brunch, and I'm doing fine. I'm doing great actually.
My favorite bread is sourdough. I like it when it has a nice hard exterior that your knife literally cracks open. The inside is slightly sticky and holey. The hard exterior is crunchy but the inside is chewy and, of course, it tastes a little...sour.
My second love is challah. I like my challah sweet preferably made with honey for more flavor but sprinkled with salt to keep it savory. Soft, pillowy, and cloud-like. When you pull it apart it looks like its holding on for its life, almost elastic.
My third pick is an English muffin. I enjoy the feel of the gritty cornmeal on the outside. The toasty flavor of the deep golden sides. The nooks and crannies cradle your butter and jam. The best grocery story English muffin is Bay's. No further discussion about this and the only way to eat them is toasted. That's how you get the full crunchy, chewy, and tangy joy.
For many years I tortured myself with restrictions and obsessions. From not eating any bread to eating flavorless sprouted seedy bread only. I even forced myself to eat gluten-free bread. You guys already know my feelings on gluten-free baked goods. Until one day...I stopped giving a sh*t. Really. It is exhausting tracking, counting, planning, and obsessing.
It took me some time but I found my perfect balance. This balance is a combination of intermittent fasting, kindness, as many vegetables as possible, lots of yoga, dog walks, self-love, eating what I want, and simply not giving a sh*t anymore. I believe some would call this having a healthy lifestyle?
Bottom line bread is not bad for you. Eating a whole loaf of bread is not great for you. Eating highly processed wheat and chemicals is also not the best for your body. But finding a local bakery, or baking your own bread, made with high-quality ingredients and having a delicious piece of toast every morning is absolutely a-okay!
Food is art, nourishment, comfort, joy, and love. Appreciate the craft, a lot of hard work goes into that loaf of bread. Appreciate the ingredients, the best loaf of bread will be made with the best wheat. Nourish your body and your soul. Feel the textures, crumbs, love, and be happy. Just eat the damn bread!
I get asked the question "How are you so skinny?" weekly. I tiptoe around it because for the first time in my life I'm not doing anything. I bake a loaf of challah, enjoy a few pieces, and then have a veggie-filled dinner. I take Josie for a walk and I eat two cookies before I stop eating for the day. I might have gained a few pounds in quarantine but my jeans still fit and I don't own a scale so who cares. I work on living a balanced life, skinny or not, and I eat bread.
I'm totally obsessed with roasting berries and putting those on toast. This week we shifted to savory toasts. Lots of avocados, feta, ricotta, pesto, eggs...😋. Nothing beats the classic, toast with butter. Really good salted European butter. I'll save the details about my obsession with butter another day. Like the time I tried french butter from a CAN...
If you checked Instagram this weekend to see all the food I cooked while camping you are probably a little disappointed with the lack of content. Well, as much as I love camping (I honestly do) after suffering through two 85-degree+ nights Josie and I were ready to go home. Saturday we hiked, fished, and relaxed. Sunday a storm was coming in and the heat wasn't going anywhere. We packed up and drove the long 25 minutes home to our airconditioned house.
Tuesday
Berry Frozen Yogurt
Asparagus Tart
What do you make with an unopened about to expire tub of goat yogurt and the usual massive amount of berries sitting around? Berry Frozen Yogurt, obviously.
I made mine with mostly blueberries, three strawberries, and a small handful of raspberries. That was just what needed to be used up. The other ingredients were yogurt, vanilla, salt, sugar, and honey. So it's kind like a frozen smoothie. A good smoothie with sugar. It's semi-healthy. The perfect dessert for when you are trying to not eat dessert 😉.
I'm hooked on tarts because I like to make them look pretty. Surprising, I know. They are also delicious but I feel like I'm working on a painting while I make them. It brings me a lot of joy.
This Asparagus Tart is filled with goat cheese, caramelized onions, and crispy prosciutto. The prosciutto was a last-minute decision. A few months ago, while doing some ingredient sampling for The Board Babe, I froze some extra prosciutto. It was sliced too think and had a bad mouthfeel for snacking but I knew I could use it in some cooking later on. I diced the prosciutto into tiny pieces and then crisped them up in the oven. You could also use bacon for this or leave it out entirely. I also think next time I may mix it in with the goat cheese and onions. Overall it was a lovely tart and I was thrilled with how it looked.
If you haven't had a Watermelon Tomato Salad yet, get on it! It's the middle of August and we will be phasing out of tomato and melon season soon. I used mint this week and we both agree that we like basil more.
Here is what you need:
Watermelon
Tomatoes
Mint or basil
Feta or goat cheese
Shallot
White balsamic
Olive oil
S&P
Let your sliced shallots sit in the vinegar for a few minutes to soften their bite a bit. Toss everything together and enjoy!
Wednesday
Avocado Toast
Pollo Verde Tacos
One of the savory toasts I mentioned earlier. French bread, avocado, feta, a 6-minute egg, smoky salt, and pepper.
Many moons ago when I was 21 living in a college house in Santa Cruz (not going to college, just living there) I would make crockpot Pollo Verde. I would use salsa verde from Trader Joes, an onion, cumin, maybe cilantro, broth, and chicken. Threw everything in a crockpot and shredded it all after a handful of hours. Now I've made a more grown-up version of Pollo Verde.
Some of the ingredients came from my friend Megan's garden such as Anaheim peppers and tomatillos. I broiled the peppers and roasted the tomatillos. Blended them up with cumin, onion, salt, cilantro, and a splash of broth. Voila, salsa verde.
That salsa went into a pot with chicken, onion, Mexican oregano, and broth. Cooked for a while until falling apart. Once shredded, the meat went back into the sauce. Couldn't be easier.
I layered the chicken onto a tortilla with sour cream, pinto beans, pickled red onions, and cilantro. The best flavor combination!
Thursday
Cheesy Manicotti
Caprese Salad
When I discovered new shapes of Jovial at the grocery store, I bought one of each shape because I was so excited. I had zero clue what I would do with manicotti because my filling options are limited with Marco's allergies. Discovering the wonderful homemade goat ricotta has opened so many doors!
I stayed basic and made Cheesy Manicotti. Filling them with ricotta, buffalo mozzarella, and pecorino. Cooked in homemade marinara and a little pesto I had on hand.
You can't go wrong here...its cheese, noodles, and sauce. The ultimate Italian comfort food combo.
Marco rating: 10/10
"I can't even tell you the last time I had something like this. It's like vegetarian Italian enchiladas, I love it."
To go with it, I made a Caprese Salad with a little twist. Instead of using basil leaves and drizzling with olive oil and balsamic I used those ingredients and made a pesto vinaigrette. I'm going to be honest...I wasn't in love with it. Still tasted great but needs some revisions. This is how I made it:
Basil, parsley, pine nuts, and shallot (use garlic) pulsed in a food processor
Olive oil, white balsamic, salt and pepper were added
Too sweet for the white balsamic, I added lemon juice
Still a little too sweet, I added more salt
Too thick, I added more olive oil
Too much like pesto and not a dressing, I wished I left the pinenuts out and just blended herbs
It had good potential but just wasn't quite there. I'll work on it and circle back.
Also! For some texture, I added toasted pine nuts to the salad. It brings toasty nutty flavor to the party too.
Friday
Ricotta Pesto BLT
Warm Broccoli Salad with Peanut Dressing?
Leftover pesto party on this toast! I layered ricotta, bacon, lettuce, tomato, and pesto vinaigrette and it blew my mind. The best BLT spin-off I have ever had. Next time it needs 2x the amount of ricotta and I need three instead of one.
Marco rating 9.75/10
"Divinely superb. I love a great BLT. I couldn't help myself and ate it during a team meeting. It's difficult to eat as a toast, might be better as a sandy."
**New way to use Peanut Sauce alert**
On broccoli!? A creation I made on the spot that was surprisingly well balanced and DELISH.
Sauteed shallots and broccoli, tossed with peanut sauce, dates, seasoned rice wine vinegar, and peanuts. Warm broccoli salad?
Sticky and sweet, acidic, and crunchy. I want to eat this again ASAP. Recipe definitely to come.
Saturday
Chicken Meatballs
I was going to write about the fig and honey pavlova I made on Saturday but I had an epic fail and underbaked it. Honey fig pavlova coming next week!
Easy sheet pan dinner tonight. I loosely followed this recipe for Chicken-Zucchini Meatballs. I made the usual substitutions for Marco's gluten allergies and zhuzhed it up.
To use up the almost expired yogurt I added a yogurt sauce. Yogurt, lime juice, dill, olive oil, and S&P. Tossed some bell pepper and red onion with squash to roast and served everything over rice.
If we were all going into the office every day for work and needed a quick and healthy weeknight meal, this would be it!
Random thing of the week:
Marco and his bass. Marco has talked about learning how to fish for years. He learned the basics from Alex's uncle at the lake house and is full-on obsessed. I mean waking up at 5:30 am to go fishing for 4 hours multiple times a week obsessed....I'm not mad about it. I'm fully enjoying the time alone in the house. Going to start cooking the fish he catches too. That will be a fun way to spice things up in the kitchen!
Pet photo of the week:
Josie helped me paint the rocks for the gnomes this week. She got a little paint on her third eye.
Thing everybody needs:
Stasher silicone bags!
Alright here the deal, these are pricey but they are 1000% worth it. I have tried pretty much any reusable ziplock bag alternative and they mostly suck. They leak, they don't close all the way, hard to clean, the list goes on.
These bags will not leak. They don't hang on to funky smells or flavors. They can help you significantly cut back on plastic bags!
You can use them for way more than just food too. Like toilettes when traveling.
Gnome Update:
Yes, I know I look absolutely insane here. I love the gnomes on my trail so much (and the unknown neighbor that sets them up) that I decided to add some gnomes. I figured they deserved their own section in the newsletter as well. There might not be a gnome update every week but when there is it will be posted here.
This week the gnomes got a yoga studio. I painted the rocks and laminated the paper for yoga mats. Again, I know I sound like a freak but I don't care.
The balanced lifestyle eating approach also applies to cookies, pasta, cheese, pavlova, and the occasional salt and vinegar chips. Just eat it! Not too much but eat it and enjoy it. You will be fine, promise.
See you next week,
Marcella