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.
Did you know I send out recipes every Wednesday? You heard that right! Join us in The Kitchen Club and you’ll get a new recipe every week, some details on how it was made, and in-depth explanations to help you make it successfully every time! My grandma loves her subscription to The Kitchen Club and you will too.
I am back from Mexico refreshed, tan, and covid free. During the last few weeks, all ten of us started to get a little nervous about traveling to Mexico as the delta numbers kept creeping up. I accepted my possible fate before we left and tried to wear a mask as much as possible. We ended up having a blast and it was worth the mild anxiety.
Monday night I returned home to groceries and a meal plan from Marco. This is something I am in charge of every week. His plan was less work than the things I would normally choose and it was really nice. I took a few days to work on boring organizational business tasks and plan for the next quarter. “The next quarter” LOL who am I?
I’m the type of person that starts something and then figures it out. If a problem comes up, I’ll find a way to pivot. No problems have come up but I am working on doing all of this better. How to be a better business owner, writer, and recipe developer. Most importantly how to deliver the best product to you. So that’s what I have been up to and that’s why I might be a little quiet on social media in the upcoming weeks.
Some lite housekeeping…This will be the last month of my monthly cookbook challenge. I challenged myself to cook 10 recipes from a different cookbook every month for 2021. I have made it eight months and am very happy with myself. Things are getting busier every day and I need to allocate my time to other things. Recipe development, writing, and most importantly The Kitchen Club.
To anyone reading that wants to learn more about cooking, subscribe to The Kitchen Club, then open a cookbook! Study it, dive in, and try something new. I loved this challenge and have learned a tremendous amount from the eight chefs that wrote these books. Don’t always go for the trendy ones. Old school cookbooks have a lot of knowledge in them and books from restaurant chefs can help you make some of your favorite meals at home.
Keep an eye out for cookbook recommendations in the future. I still plan to cook recipes from some and when I find a good one, you guys will be the first to hear about it. A list of all eight cookbooks can be found, here.
People To Follow has been on a brief pause but will be coming back soon.
Indian-ish
Priya Krishna
This cookbook rocks! Learning about Indian cuisine has been one of my highlights of this year. I know I’m not alone with being intimidated by Indian dishes and spices. While I was cooking through India: The Cookbook, the help from my friends gave me the fundamentals to feel comfortable trying more traditional recipes. For everyone else who may not have a good friend from Chennai, this book is for you. If you love Indian flavors and want ways to incorporate them into your everyday cooking, this book is for you. If you don’t know a single thing about Indian cooking, this book is for you. This book is for every cook out there. These are the recipes I tried:
Basic Raita
Cucumber Raita
Spinach and Feta Cooked Like Saag Paneer
Basic Kachumber
Beet and Avocado Kachumber
Avocado, Corn, and Tomato Kachumber
Indian-ish Baked Potatoes
Warm Cumin, Asparagus, Tomato, and Quinoa Salad
Garlic Ginger Chicken with Cilantro and Mint
Caramelized Onion Dal
This book has traditional recipes like raitas, dal, and aloo parathas but it also has recipes that are familiar to us Americans. I made the Indian-ish Baked Potatoes three times…three times!! They are just baked potatoes but the added flavors were out of this world delicious. There are explanations and answers to all your questions throughout the book. None of the recipes I made took an exorbitant amount of time and were very straightforward. I say this all the time, but this time I really mean it, this book is perfect for all levels of cooks.
Marco’s Favorite:
Garlic Ginger Chicken and Spinach and Feta Cooked Like Saag Paneer. Every recipe was really good.
Marcella’s Favorite:
Indian-ish Baked Potatoes with Cucumber Raita. That combo is to die for.
Stuff to Read
Bad news for us hot dog lovers, New study suggests eating a hot dog may shorten your lifespan by 36 minutes
Recipe Inspo
Places I ate
I, unfortunately, don’t have anything exciting to report about the food in Mexico. We stayed at an all-inclusive resort and although we ate a lot of food, nothing was memorable. The best thing I ate the entire trip was a cheeseburger from Pappa’s in the Houston airport. 10/10 recommend.
I strongly dislike pictures of food that has already been bitten into, a big pet peeve of mine, but this burger was shockingly good I had to snap a photo.
Thing Everybody Needs
LOTS of inquiries about my IKEA bucket hat. It is $3.99 from IKEA and is sold by the checkout counter. Run don’t walk to get yours.
Animal Cuteness
Please enjoy this TikTok of Sam.
Consume as much corn, tomatoes, and watermelon as you can! See you next week in September 😬.
Xx, M
Regarding hot dogs… I plan to eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a banana for every hot dog I eat.