Welcome to The Weekly Recap! A lite Sunday read about my life and food. This email is free and if you are not currently receiving them in your inbox, click that subscribe button below.
The Kitchen Club recipes are available to paying subscribers AND I am running a promotion this week for 20% off a year subscription to The Kitchen Club! This promotion ends tomorrow (7/19) so don’t lag on getting signed up. Know anyone that might enjoy learning about food and making recipes with us? You can give a discounted subscription as a gift to a friend too!
Over the last few months, I have spent a lot of time thinking about where we live. Our house, the neighborhood, and specifically Kansas City. So far our time here hasn’t gone as planned, obviously, and we have spent a lot of time in our house. We have plenty of space, a magical backyard, and I wouldn’t be able to do what I do without my spacious kitchen. Our neighborhood is equally amazing. Our daily walks are beautiful, we like every neighbor on our street, and if we have kids here we are within walking distance to a charming elementary school. But now that we are leaving our bubble and venturing into the city for “normal” everyday activities, I don’t find things as great. There is nothing wrong with Kansas City, it’s just not great.
Something I have found really interesting is whenever I ask someone if they like living here, every single person says “yeeaaah” with the same hesitant high pitch at the end indicating that they don’t really like it. I now make it a point to ask everyone I talk to to see how they respond, I have asked people that are from here, people that are new here, and people that have been here for many years. I never once have gotten a firm “I love it” from anyone. Isn’t that interesting?
The best way to describe how I feel about Kansas City is that living here makes you very limited. Limited on the food you have access to, the stores to shop at, and the things to do. Maybe I’m spoiled from living in cities with access to everything (I’m definitely spoiled from that) but I feel so limited on what I can do here. I wonder if when we move to our next destination if I can feel like I’m really thriving? Or does everyone always feel just content?
I spent a few days by myself this week while Marco was in San Antonio for a work trip. The only child in me was blissed out the whole time. I was wildly productive, whipped through my to-do list, and spent a ton of time in the kitchen. Sunday I worked on a carrot cake just for fun. The cake and cream cheese frosting were from The Silver Palate Cookbook, checking off another recipe for the month, and I decorated it with carrot curls.
Carrot curls are simple to make. Thin ribbons are cut with a vegetable peeler and simmered in simple syrup (1:1 sugar and water) until tender. After they are arranged in a single layer on a tray and dehydrated in a low oven. 225º for 35-45 minutes. When they are still flexible and tacky, just wrap them around the handle of a wooden spoon. Voila, carrot curls!
One other project I worked on was a braised short rib recipe. I always make short ribs when Marco is out of town. I started working on this recipe, which I plan on sending out in the fall. It has chipotle chilis in adobo sauce, lots of herbs, and lime juice for acidity. I was eating them for four days and I was happy to eat them every single time.
Let’s Make Corn Stock
Okay hear me out, start saving your corn cobs and make corn stock this summer! Don’t roll your eyes thinking this is too much. It’s wonderful and so so easy. Anytime you cut corn off the cob, throw that cob in the freezer. When you have 10-12 cobs, fill a large pot with about 6 quarts of water. Toss 1 onion in and 1 tablespoon of black peppercorns if you have them. Simmer until the water reduces by half, toss the cobs and strain the stock. You have now made corn stock!
Just like any type of stock, corn stock is loaded with delicious corn flavor. My favorite way to use it is in corn risotto. You can use it for corn chowder, make some beans with it, or use it as a base for a soup. Whatever you do with it, it adds a huge boost of flavor to any dish. Don’t know what to do with it just yet? Freeze it and use it later!
People To Follow
Extra exciting stuff this week!! Mer is one of my Instagram friends, who is really rad, and every time I see her posts I wish I lived in NY so I could hang out with her in real life. She’s doing a LOT with food and she wrote a cookbook all about salads. Check her out and 100000% download her cookbook.
I’m Mer! I work as a line cook at Misi, an Italian restaurant in Brooklyn. This is a new thing for me though. For the past almost year I’ve been working at an old family-owned pasta shop in Greenwich Village, Raffettos Fresh Pasta. It was almost like working at a deli counter but instead of slicing cold cuts, I’d cut fresh sheets of pasta into noodles on a very very old pasta guillotine - definitely pay them a visit if you’re in the city. Prior to that, during the height of quarantine, I was living with my parents; job-less, cooking dinner (and posting about it) every single night - honing in on my passion that I had dismissed while working a soul-sucking sales job post-college. I’m still cooking every night, but now for a restaurant full of people.
You can still get a glimpse of my home-cooking on my Instagram and in my cookbook, The Small Book of Big Salads! It’s free and attached as a PDF for all salad lovers and definitely for all of Marcella’s fans and followers! And I dare everyone to make the Grilled Seafood Caesar salad before Labor Day.
When I’m not cooking at all I’m editing recipe videos for @jessiesheehanbakes and The Spruce Eats … I’m always excited to take on more work in food content creation so if you have an idea, let's do it! - email me, DM, whatevs, we can meet up for coffee!!
Download The Small Book Of Big Salads, HERE!
Stuff to Read
Kraft has officially made mac and cheese ice cream a thing 😬
Asafetida Is Its Own Spice Cabinet *Asafetida is used often to replace allium flavors in cooking. I learned about it when trying to find a garlic substitute for Marco and used it a bunch when I cooked through India: The Cookbook. Check this article out if you are unfamiliar with it.
Recipe Inspo
Thing Everybody Needs
I don’t actually own any wooden spoons. They are porous and I don’t love working with them. In place of wooden spoons, I have a high-heat plastic one and I use it daily. I have had it for 10 years and it rocks. This is what I make my carrot curls on.
Animal Cuteness
I lean on my counter a lot, often on my phone, when I take brief breaks. Ollie decided to get on my back and join me for a rest.
We are making clams in The Kitchen Club this week. Take advantage of the current promotion and you’ll get the recipe Wednesday!
See you next week, M.