Marcella Cooking Stuff • December 13th - December 19th
December 13th - December 19th
Hear me out with this, I feel like when life is back to "normal" we are going to miss our quarantine ways. I had this thought while driving home after working my ass off all week, something I haven't really done in months.
I'm at the point of Marco's "work from home" where I put headphones in 24/7 to drown out the sound of ChowNow sales talk in the other room. But I know when he is in an office again, there will be a day when I am cooking in the house (alone) and will miss having a taste tester ready to taste at all times. When I'm rushing around town doing one too many errands before I have to be at the *insert something fun*, I'll wish for the simple time of not leaving my house. When I have to wear jeans, a dress, or hair and makeup, I'll miss my exclusive wardrobe of loungewear and stretchy things. As lousy as this year was it wasn't all that bad. Just weird and really really different.
This month I decided I'm closing The Board Babe. Of course the week after this decision I got an explosion of orders for the holidays. I took on a handful of them, including an order for 30 Mini Boxes that I'm delivering tomorrow, but that's my last order. I have always felt very defeated by my little board business. I started it in LA and then Marco's job took us to KC. I restarted it in KC and 3 months in Covid happened. It feels like the universe might be telling me something?! The biggest thing, and something Covid times has taught me, is that assembling boards is only a sliver of what I can do. I started to regret opening a business so niche that only highlights part of my skill set. The Board Babe is closing but it is really just moving. It will be part of Marcella Cooking. Board classes are now all taught on Zoom and local KC residents can still order some boards for events. It's just not my main squeeze anymore.
I drove 316 miles delivering 11 Mini Boxes and 2 Little Boards this week. Between prepping, assembling, and all that driving, I didn't get much cooking done. We had The Winter Chop salad four out of seven nights...it was just one of those weeks. After tomorrow's order, I'm done with Boards for the year.
Following the sending of this newsletter, I'm heading to Broadway Butcher to pick up a duck to make on Christmas Eve. "Marcella you never make duck!?" Correct. I don't think I have prepared a duck since culinary school. Don't worry I have done extensive reading and recipe research and it will be great.
With all of our family on the west coast, it's just Marco and me for Christmas (very weird). We are going big in our favorite way, with food. Duck, oysters, cheese, champagne...I'm confident we will have a good time and I'm excited to report about it next week. We will at least be very very full.
Let's talk noods real quick.
All my gluten intolerant peeps, the two GF noodles you need to keep on hand are Jovial (any shape) and Lotus Foods millet and brown rice ramen. They sell the ramen at Costco, so you can always have a stock, and you can use them for so much more than ramen. Hey, Curry Squash Noods 😘. This week I was DYING for spaghetti and meatballs and all I had was ramen. I'm here to report they work fabulously in place of traditional GF pasta with tomato sauce. I might even say I preferred their texture?! Yeah, I'm saying it.
Tuesday
Marco's Latkes
How many nights did you have latkes this year? We had them three times. This tray is one batch of Marco's Latkes and we ate the whole thing. Yes, you read that right. We ate all of those latkes in one meal. They were crunchy, flavorful, and fucking awesome. I felt not so great the next day and that's what started our salad binge. It was worth it though and I think we will have latkes again because why not. Potatoes rock!
Thursday
Peppermint Hot Chocolate Meringue Cookies
I'm aware last week I talked about five cookies that I love but I have one more for you. First, I love meringues. I love their texture and how they melt on your tongue. They are light and crisp in the most perfect way. Then we add chocolate to the mix. Instead of chips, I use a roughly chopped 70% dark chocolate bar. Two things happen with this chopped chocolate. The little shards melt and flavor the meringue and the big chunks melt and blend with the sugars to create chewy bliss. On top of that, these have peppermint extract. You know that nostalgic pairing of peppermint and chocolate? Andes mints maybe? That's what these have. Before you take a bite, you are hit with the minty aroma and it stays through the whole experience. The perfect after-dinner cookie. An added bonus is that the peppermint aroma will take over your entire house while baking.
Make Peppermint Hot Chocolate Meringue Cookies, here.
Saturday
The Winter Chop
Four times, I had this salad FOUR times this week and I would happily eat it again. Winter is rough for veggies and salads definitely don't shine. This salad changes the game.
There is a beautiful melody of flavors and textures going on in this bowl. Radicchio and kale add a bitter sturdy base. I let roasted beets marinate before adding them, to layer in some acidic notes with their earthy flavor. Salty olives and soppressata meet the sweet crunch from apples and pomegranate seeds. Creamy feta mellows out the sour punch of pepperoncini. If you are lucky enough to get a little bit of everything in one bite it will blow your mind. I shredded extra radicchio and kale so we can eat this salad AGAIN this upcoming week.
Make The Winter Chop salad, you know you need the greens, with my recipe here.
Random thing of the week:
One of my little boards from this week. I like her.
Pet photo of the week:
Ollie's new favorite spot. Yes, we need a fire screen.
Thing everybody needs:
A functional AND beautiful salt and pepper grinder set. I got these last year for Christmas and love them. I use them daily and get happy every time I see them.
Have a wonderful Christmas! Enjoy this time (a weird slow year) to relax, remember the things we have to be grateful for, and try a new project in the kitchen!
Merry Christmas,
Marcella