Welcome to Cooking Stuff. I’m Marcella. This is a place where I talk about all things food, cooking, and life. If you are not a subscriber, hit that button below to join us. ALSO, recipes are back! Upgrade to a paid subscription so you don’t miss any.
I’ve been working on a chocolate chip cookie recipe recently. I don’t know why because the world certainly doesn’t need more chocolate chip cookies but I wanted this one to be different. Which, of course, is what every recipe developer says about their chocolate chip cookie. The idea I had in my head was for a cashew caramel chocolate chip cookie, a mouthful to say. So I started baking and I made about seven versions. None of them were hitting like I wanted them to.
As someone who creates recipes, I have felt a lot of pressure to prove that my version is not only worth making but is in someway is better than others. Maybe it’s the best! Chocolate chip cookies are the perfect example of this actually. If you search the internet you’ll find versions with brown butter, miso, espresso powder, nonfat milk powder, and even tahini added to them. All are added with the same goal of making the cookies a little bit different and hopefully better.
Well, I started with brown butter because for the last few years everyone has been head over heels for brown butter chocolate chip cookies. I added milk powder for extra oomph, dropped the chocolate, adjusted the leaveners, added the chocolate back in, and then thought maybe whole wheat? Nothing felt right and I couldn't stop thinking about how there was too much going on. I scratched the whole thing and went back to basics. I mean way way back to my culinary school recipe flashcards. From there I made a super basic chocolate chip cookie…with caramel added to the dough. That was the one additional step that I really wanted to keep. I knew from the first bite that I had finally nailed it. They were nostalgic while still feeling new and that’s always my goal with cookies.
I have been doing this a lot with my cooking, scaling things back. Although I love a project, sometimes I just want something simple and delicious. Like sautéed carrots with herbs spooned over couscous. I put that together in a few minutes for myself one night and I served it to friends last week (you’ll see that recipe soon). Some of this shift in my cooking is due to the work I have done on myself. Dropping the pressure to be perfect, better than others, and blow people away with everything I create. My new goal is to create recipes that I love and feel like me. If at least one person tries them then I have done my job. It’s due to changes in how cooking fits into my life as well. Life is busy, not just for me but for everyone. I want to be excited to cook every day and enjoy cooking for the rest of my life. Sometimes that means going back to basics and keeping it simple. I believe this also resonates with you, the home cook. After all, you are who I am creating these recipes for!
Anyways, I have been inspired by spring and cooking vegetables like crazy. You’ll see some of that in the following weeks but don’t wait for me. Grab sugar snap peas, asparagus, radishes, arugula, and experiment. But if you need some recipes, I have some for you!
Spring baking? Lemon Tahini Loaf Cake, duh!
Speaking of recipes, now you can easily see all 70+ recipes I have developed in my recipe index. The recipe index lives in the navigation bar on my Substack home page for easy access. Plus I organized all of the Wing It Recipes in their own tab too!
Did you hear? I love cabbage!
Warm New Potatoes With Chopped Lemon And Mint – from Ben Mims at the LA Times.
Potatoes, lemon, and herbs – yes, please. This recipe is a good weeknight recipe and the flavors are probably a little different than what you would normally whip up.
#142: The upside of embarrassing yourself – “Mistakes get you compliments.”
Will One Moldy Berry Ruin the Rest? – The idea that someone would throw away a whole basket of berries because one has mold is wild!! I give people this advice with produce all the time – get rid of the mold/bruised part and eat the rest. Like when cabbage looks all sad, discolored, and bruised just peel back the outer layers! Or a bell pepper has a soft spot, just don’t eat the soft spot. We all need to waste less food 🍓💖.
19 Best New Spring Cookbooks of 2023 – More Than Cake, A Taiwanese American Cookbook, and Sweet Enough are on my list to buy. What cookbooks are you excited to try?
I was today years old when I learned this as well…
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Lune Juice came in our most recent wine club box from Subject To Change, it is GOOD.
I’m not putting any of you guys on to Jon & Vinny’s, you know and love it already. You probably love going for pizza and pasta but I’m here to tell you that Jon & Vinny’s BREAKFAST is where it’s at. Next time you need to meet someone for brunch or you want to take yourself out, trust me and try it. Especially if you are in Brentwood because the patio is 10/10.
Run to Trader Joe’s and get this $10 tomato leaf candle. I was gifted the fabulous $60 Flamingo Estate one before and it, very unfortunately, had no smell when lit. This Trader Joe’s one is banging! So good I went back to get another and they were completely sold out!!!
**Well, you might not be able to find this candle anymore. I called SEVEN Trader Joe’s around me and they are gone. I was told they were a limited scent and are not getting restocked this season 😭
Where do I get one?
The link to the recipe index has been fixed!