January 17th - January 23rd
January 17 - January 23rd
It's Thursday, I'm in the same spot looking out the same window feeling 20lbs lighter. The relief I feel, and I'm sure many of you feel, knowing that a sane person is in control of our country again is real. I woke up this morning and the thought to check Twitter, to see what damage had been done overnight, didn't cross my mind. Social media consumes us in many ways and presidential Tweets are not something I wish to see again. Jewel tone fashion and Bernie everywhere have made the tone much lighter.
Post-inauguration, my dad sent me a video of himself. I started watching it confused about what I was watching until he lifted up his sleeve and a gloved hand shot him up with the Covid vaccine. He has worked Covid sites, homeless shelters, and protests through this pandemic and I have worried about him every single day. By the time that gloved hand put a paw patrol bandaid on him (a paw patrol bandaid on a police officer lol) I was full-on crying. Another heavy weight was lifted and replaced with lots of gratitude. Gratitude that while I'm stuck in my house halfway across the country, I can worry about him a little less now.
One benefit of being home 24/7 this past year was the luxury to look out the window. Especially now when the weather is uncomfortably cold we look out the window a lot. While I brush my teeth in the morning I look out the window. While I wash dishes, window. When I workout downstairs, window. When I'm writing on the couch, window. You get the point. We have a lot of windows and a lot of time to look out of them. Last spring, with all the extra time at home, we watched nature come alive around us. It was our first spring in this house and our first spring in a place that experiences real seasons. The annual life and death of nature all around you. Watching palm trees and succulents in southern California looks boringly similar all 365 days a year but out here, every day is a new excitement. Tulips were first to pop out of the ground, then the trees sprouted leaves, and soon enough everything around us was vibrant and alive. Down by the creek we have a huge field of bluebells. They only stick around while it's still cool but for a short period of time, I can look off the deck and see a sea of blue everywhere. Outside my bathroom window, is a tree that flowers early in the season. I now know it as a Korean spice viburnum, which has the most intoxicating spicy floral smell that I want to bottle up to have forever. Being home allowed me to get a daily whiff before the flowers dropped and it was just a normal tree. The peony bushes that have to be about 20 years old, grew at least a hundred buds last year. I was able to check on them every afternoon, snipping them as soon as they were ready to bloom and transferring them all inside. Is there anything better than bright bursting peonies? The answer is no. This week we noticed the early blooming trees that grow flowers started to grow buds. It brought a little bit of excitement to my rather dull window gazing life. A sign that nature is getting ready and spring is right around the corner. A sign of hope? Remember when I said good things were coming? They are starting to trickle in all around us.
Gluten-free readers unite! This is your time to make something so cozy and reminiscent of your childhood you'll think Marie Callendar whipped it up herself. This recipe was born after lots and lots of nagging from Marco about how unfair it is that my mother, stepfather, and I got to eat a delicious pot pie while he ate...shredded chicken and carrots. I mean he wasn't wrong, it was cruel to make him sit there with us. This is what you need to know about making my GF Chicken Pot Pie:
I make the gluten-free crust in a traditional pie crust method. Cold butter cut into GF flour, H2O, chill, and roll. With normal pie dough, you don't want it too wet. With GF I use a little extra water because the "flour" wants to crumble apart, it doesn't stick together well and it needs the extra hydration. When you roll out your dough you can always (and will probably need to) sprinkle some extra flour to prevent it from sticking and it will dry it out a bit if it's too wet.
This next step is essential. Instead of gathering my pie dough up and wrapping it right away, I roll it out and letter fold it four times. This is laminating the butter in the GF flour and mimicking the layers a traditional pie crust would have. It will be much easier for you guys to see a visual, watch the whole process in my Instagram stories.
The filling is thickened with gluten-free flour in the way you would traditionally thicken the filling with a roux. Flour, whisked into hot fat, cooked until golden and dry, then the liquid is slowly added and simmered. Two main ingredients of Bob's Red Mill 1-to1 Baking Flour are rice flour and potato starch. This flour blend is STARCHY. So it may not give you the identical consistency that flour adds but it will thicken, I promise!
To ensure a flaky crust we need cold pastry to hit a hot oven. If you assemble your crust on top of your hot filling, the butter will soften and you will get no layers and no flakes. Before you roast the chicken in your cast iron, trace the top on a piece of parchment paper. Roll your prepared pie crust on the parchment and shape it into the traced circle. Then we are going to egg wash it and chill it. We want it cold. This next step is kind of a pain in the ass but worth it. Carefully place the chilled crust on the pie and gently peel the parchment from underneath. Once your crust is on, get that bad boy in the oven as fast as possible.
This is a labor of love, it really is, but it's delicious and worth every second of work. If you don't want it to be GF, sub regular AP flour in all the steps. If you don't want to roast a chicken, grab a rotisserie. If you are not GF and don't want to make a crust, 100% use premade puff pastry. That is my favorite chicken pot pie crust.
If any of this seems hard and you need help we can do a zoom class! A quick 30-minute crust class or a longer full pot pie class. Just shoot me a message!
This week's easy Thursday recipe was Roasted Eggplant + Bell Pepper Pasta. I have been enjoying making a dish with whatever I have on hand, taking you guys along in my story, and then sharing the recipe. I'll be doing another one next week!
Roasted Eggplant + Bell Pepper Pasta Recipe:
•1 eggplant, cut into bite-size cubes
•1 red bell pepper, diced
•1/2 yellow onion, diced
•1T capers
•1 anchovy
•2t dried basil *Use fresh if ya got it!!
•1t dried chili flakes
•28oz can whole tomatoes, crushed
•1/4c fresh parsley, roughly chopped
•12oz dried pasta
1. Toss eggplant and bell pepper with olive oil and season with salt. Roast in a 425-degree oven until dark golden and slightly crispy. About 30-35 minutes
2. Sauté onion in a few tablespoons of olive oil until soft and translucent. 5ish minutes.
3. Add anchovy and capers, cook for 1 minute breaking up anchovy with the back of your spoon.
4. Add the tomatoes, basil, and chili flakes. Season with salt and pepper and simmer while you cook your pasta.
5. Cook pasta in a large pot until al dente.
6. Toss cooked pasta and roasted veggies into the sauce. Add fresh parsley and toss until combined. Season with S&P.
I am happy to report I had a successful second round of the Raspberry Lemon Loaf! Test number three will be next week and a recipe will follow if all goes well. All ten recipes from my monthly cookbook challenge have been completed. Keep an eye out for that newsletter sometime next week!
Recipes From This Week:
Warm Steak Salad (minus the steak)
Thing Everybody Needs:
*Announcement Time*
All the "Things Everybody Needs" can now be found in one place, my Amazon Storefront. You can find the storefront on my website at the bottom of my "about" page, in this section of each newsletter, and in my Instagram bio.
I get a lot of "what's your favorite..." messages and now you guys can see all my favorite things in one place!
*I may also earn a teeny tiny percentage of each order, so thank you!
Animal Cuteness:
An overwhelmingly cute throwback of Chaz from last winter.
New Product Alert:
Saw this bad boy at my little health food store. If you see it, grab it. Irish, grass-fed, creamy, and delish. Did a taste test and caught myself going back for a second...and third bite. Check out their website and look at the cute cows!
Stuff I Learned This Week:
Grilled butternut squash...is pretty tasty! While I had the grill hot, I threw half a butternut squash on and cooked it until it was charred and soft. Added subtle flavors to a salad composed of grilled squash, radicchio, bacon, toasty pecans, chives, and goat cheese.
Coming Soon:
Salt research project! This has been on my list and I'm planning to do it in the next few months.
Book I'm Cooking Through This Month:
Where Cooking Begins, Carla Lalli Music
Recap + review week of 1/24
Keep an eye out for a Where Cooking Begins newsletter this week and more details about February's book. I picked something that would be more of a challenge for sure.
See you next week,
Marcella
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