Sometimes we eat like toddlers.

Okay. Okay. Now you’re going to yell at me, because fussy meatballs, plus a load of ingredients for a separate sauce, plus maybe another vegetable to get your greens in, is not a weeknight dinner! And… I would have nothing to say back to you. You’re right. Deb from Smitten Kitchen (in case you couldn’t tell, my other fangirl cooking crush in addition to Melissa Clark) has an easier, quicker “Everyday Meatball” recipe, which doesn’t require you to brown the meat and is, in fact, a much likelier candidate for true weeknight dinners. I’ve also made this, and those meatballs are also delicious.

HOWEVER. I love the char you get from browned meat and can’t bear to give it up. So, to compromise, I squish as many meatballs as I can in my skillet, turn up the heat, and fry them for less time. You’ve already seen how I crowd my vegetables; now you know I also crowd my meatballs. The last time I made this, I ended up with 24 meatballs, which, annoyingly, necessitated a third batch of browning to brown a puny 3 meatballs. So next time, I would try to aim for 20-21 meatballs, and squish them all together in my 12-inch skillet to brown in two batches. Anyway, even with three batches, the browning, to me, is worth it for the resulting flavor. I also swap out fresh breadcrumbs for Panko here for ease and convenience. The meatballs are still delicious.

Also, I feel like the other point that I must make in my defense is that this recipe makes a mound of food, like enough for 6-8 servings (24 meatballs, about 3 meatballs per meal = almost 8 meals of meatballs!). James and I (eventually) eat all of it – because meatballs and sauce reheat so well, and I could never tire of carbs, oniony sauce, and tender beefy meatballs even if I have to eat it for four meals throughout the week. Also, I swear that it tastes even better the next day, and the next. So if you feel inspired on a slow Monday (is there ever such a thing?!), or even a Sunday, this humble, filling, hearty dish is for you!

We served this with a side of steamed broccoli, and it took me about 2 hours total, from opening my fridge door to sitting down at the table to eat. And now, wine!

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Meatballs and Spaghetti

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen (where it was adapted from Ina Garten)

Ingredients

For the meatballs:

• 1 pound ground beef
• 1/2 pound ground pork
• 1/2 pound ground veal (You can substitute another ½ pound pork here, but I find the addition of the veal scrumptious)
• 3/4 cup Panko breadcrumbs
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley (or a small heap)
• 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 teaspoons sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, or more to taste
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 large egg, beaten
• Vegetable oil
• Olive oil

For the sauce:

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 cup chopped yellow onion (from 1 onion)
• 3-4 cloves garlic, minced
• Pinch of red pepper flakes
• 1/2 cup good red wine (I omit this about half the time for less fuss, and the sauce still tastes totally delicious)
• 1 (14-ounce) can pureed tomatoes
• 1 (28-ounce) can chopped or diced tomatoes
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley (or a small heap)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

For serving:

• 1 pound dried spaghetti, cooked according to package instructions
• Freshly grated parmesan

Instructions

• For the meatballs: Place the ground meats, bread crumbs, parsley, Parmesan, salt, pepper, onion powder, egg, and 3/4 cup warm water in a bowl. Mix very gently with a fork or your fingers until just combined. You don’t want to overmix the meat (if you look closely, full pieces of ground meat should still be visible), as that will result in dense, tough meatballs and bland flavor. Using your hands, lightly form the mixture into 2-inch meatballs. I always end up with about 21-24 meatballs, but you can make yours smaller or bigger as you wish.
• Pour equal amounts of vegetable oil and olive oil into a large skillet (mine was a 12-inch, 3-quart pan and was a bit too small for all of the meatballs and sauce) to a depth of about 1/4-inch. Heat the oil over medium heat. Working in batches, place the meatballs in the oil and brown them well on all sides, turning carefully with tongs or a fork, taking about 5 minutes per batch. Remove the meatballs to a plate covered with paper towels to drain. Pour out the excess oil but don’t clean the pan - all of those stuck, charred meat bits will flavor the sauce.
• For the sauce: Heat the olive oil in the same pan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until translucent and softened, about 7 minutes. Add the garlic and red pepper flakes, and cook for 1 more minute. Add the wine and cook on high heat, scraping up all the brown bits in the pan, until almost all the liquid has evaporated, about 3 minutes. Stir in the tomatoes, parsley, salt, and pepper.
• Return the meatballs to the sauce, cover, and gently simmer for 25 to 30 minutes, until the meatballs are cooked through. I usually just poke a meatball open and look inside - the meat in the middle should be brown and juices should run clear. Meatballs are also hard to overcook since they’re basically just braising in liquid, which I also like for a weeknight meal.
• Serve: hot on cooked spaghetti and top with more grated Parmesan, if desired.

Sausage Kale Pasta was going to be the name of my blog. When I first started thinking about starting a blog, I was sure I’d hit upon the perfect domain name! Sausage kale pasta is definitely the dinner that James and I make the most frequently, and this little three-word combination is bandied around our kitchen like a tennis ball whenever we’re at a loss for dinner ideas. It is the epitome of a nonfussy, forgiving, foolproof weeknight dinner. You can add more or less of each ingredient you like, you can add other ingredients, it being endlessly customizable, it is a one-pot meal that allows you to incorporate oh so many fresh vegetables, and it can be on the table in 30 minutes, max. Plus, it is DELICIOUS! Come on, friends, go to sausagekalepasta.com for all your weeknight dinner needs!

Then James pointed out some flaws with this plan. Sausage kale pasta doesn’t exactly represent the whole diversity of the weeknight dinners I make (and that diversity is incredible, yeah? Yeah?). Would I tag my Instagram pictures #sausagekalepasta? What if it’s a picture of a fried chicken drumstick? What about the desserts that I love to make? Well, maybe I can abbreviate my Instagram tag to #skp, I suggested. No such luck – inconceivably, #skp already exists and I think it has to do with hair dye. What about #skpkitchen? A bit wordy, and also, maybe a bit too similar to #smittenkitchen, which I adore and dare not cross.

And so, sausagekalepasta.com was abandoned, and the hunt for a new name was on. I wanted the name to be creative, and not tooo on-the-nose (Weeknight Cooking was out. It was probably already taken). Some usual suspects (The Fearless Chef) were already taken; other names that I thought were more unique (Recipe Obsessed) turned out to be not that unique, as they were also snatched up. Some names that I thought were clever were rejected by James (Dine and Dusted – “is that a pun? What’s it a pun on?”; Very Food Motivated – “what does that even mean?”). In the end, James was rooting for The Trials of a Chef – because I try out lots of recipes, but I also undergo quite a trial trying to get dinner on the table when James gets home from his long commute and he can’t think about anything other than how huuuuuunnnngrrryyyyyyyyy he is. I liked the name, but I still thought it was a bit too wordy and maybe a bit too literal? Also, can I call myself a chef?? The next morning, however, I woke up, yelled out “Trial by Fryer!” to James eating breakfast in the kitchen while I was still in bed, and this little project was born.

But even though sausage kale pasta, the domain name, may be retired, sausage kale pasta, the dinner, will never be. Guys – it is so easy. It’s literally sausage, kale, and pasta. Plus some garlic, crushed red pepper, and good olive oil. In the pictures, we’ve added mushrooms, but you don’t have to. If you want it to be more flavorful and interesting, add any of the additions I suggest at the end, or come up with your own! But trust that it will be delicious even if you don’t add anything other than the original ingredients. Feel free to treat this recipe as more of a technique, one that you can modify to your own tastes and really make your own.

And so, I give you – my favorite weeknight dinner, the secret weapon in my arsenal, something I never need a recipe for anymore and neither will you, after you make it once – the humble, the magical, the uplifting, sausage kale pasta.

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Sausage Kale Pasta

Ingredients

• 4-6 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 pound Italian sausage, without the casings
• 1-2 bunches kale (This really depends on how you like your pasta. The dish will accommodate 2 bunches for a more vegetable-forward pasta, and 1 bunch for a more sausage-forward pasta)
• 1 pound pasta (I like to use the funnest shapes I can find in the pasta aisle, like campanelle, cellentani, or gemelli)
• Olive oil
• Salt and freshly cracked black pepper
• Crushed red pepper flakes

Instructions

• Put a big pot of water on to boil, and salt water liberally. When water is boiling, cook the pasta according to directions. Drain, but reserve some pasta cooking water in case the dish is too dry at the end.
• While waiting for the water the boil and the pasta to cook, prep and cook the rest of the dish. Wash the kale, rinsing under cold running water. Remove tough stems and tear or cut the kale into chunks about half the size of your palm.
• Heat 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil in a very large skillet or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the sausage and break it apart into bite-size pieces with chopsticks or a wooden spatula. Add crushed red pepper flakes and continue cooking until sausage is browned and mostly cooked through, with just a tiny hint of pink in the middle. This will take 5-7 minutes.
• Add the kale into the skillet and season with a few dashes of salt and generous black pepper. Cook, stirring, until the kale wilts, about 5 minutes. If you have way too much kale for your pan, as I always do, don’t fret. Just pile in as much as you can, and continue stirring and rotating. When the kale in the pan starts to cook down, add the rest of the kale and continue stirring to distribute.
• When the kale is wilted and soft, and the sausage is completely cooked through, add the cooked and drained pasta, stirring in some pasta water if the dish looks too dry. Toss everything together, cooking for about another minute or two.

Notes

Optional Add-Ins:

Protein:

Pancetta - Cook together with the sausage, or substitute pancetta for sausage. Pancetta is fattier and saltier than sausage, so I usually use about 8 ounces of pancetta if I’m substituting entirely.

Chicken - This dish really works best with sausage, because that’s what provides most of the fat and flavor. However, I have made it with chicken before. In this case, dice up 1 pound of chicken breast or chicken thighs, and cook in place of the sausage. While cooking, season liberally with salt, pepper, and whatever spices you have in your cabinet. I like using cumin, chili powder, coriander, onion powder, and white pepper. Add some generous splashes of these spices while you’re cooking the chicken, and be liberal with the olive oil!

Vegetables:

Onion - I almost always add an onion now, although when I started this recipe I never used to. I think it adds a depth of flavor and is an incredibly easy step. Chop one onion and add it to the olive oil with the garlic. Cook until the onion starts becoming translucent, about 3, then add the sausage meat.

Mushrooms - You can see in the pictures we've added mushrooms here. I use about 8 ounces of sliced mushrooms (use your favorite variety; this dish can also accommodate more if you really like mushrooms). Add the mushrooms to the cooking sausage after the sausage is just starting to brown, after about 3 minutes.

Spinach - Add a few handfuls of spinach along with the kale. Alternatively, you can substitute spinach for kale.

Aromatics:

Garlic powder, chili powder, white pepper - Add them to the cooking meat, the cooking kale, or the final product!

Herbs: parsley, oregano - Add at the end when you’re tossing the dish together.

Sauces - Stir in some tomato sauce or fresh cream when tossing all the ingredients together.

 

I’ve discovered two things this past week: (1) I have been living in a bland, colorless world for not buying Stella Parks’s incredible Bravetart cookbook until now, and (2) relatedly, Stella Parks is a freaking genius. I have only made one recipe from this book, having received it last week, and I am already a die-hard fanatic, ready to preach her gifts to the world and prostrate myself at the feet of her baking and candy-making wizardry. How does she do it?? I have no idea, but if I gain even one-quarter of her instinct for creating delectable combinations of sugar, butter, and chocolate, then I can rest a happy woman.

The item in question that has changed my life forever is the iconic, the unmistakable, the nostalgic Reese’s peanut butter cup. I love chocolate and peanut butter, and I love the Reese’s peanut butter cup. The silky smooth chocolate, slightly waxy, the salty-sweet peanut butter filling that’s a little bit grainy, containing tiny bits of crushed up peanuts, or maybe sugar, or maybe preservatives – I don’t really know.

All this to say – I know what a Reese’s peanut butter cup tastes like. And I’ve made recipes before that profess to recreate an iconic dessert, only to taste distinctly – and unmistakably – not like that dessert. They didn’t taste bad, they just tasted not like the original. Sort of like how you buy those Annie’s organic chocolate sandwich cookies thinking that they’re somehow healthier, but then kind of wish you had just bought the Oreo’s instead (Stella Parks also has a recipe for homemade Oreo’s. I digress). Same same, but different.

NOT THESE REESE’S PEANUT BUTTER CUPS THOUGH. They are the same same, BUT BETTER. Stella Parks writes that Reese’s are fairly easy to recreate, because when you take away all the preservatives, the ingredients are just chocolate, sugar, peanut butter, and peanuts. And trust me – these homemade versions tasted like exactly that – real ingredients, without the preservatives. The peanut butter filling is the same slightly crunchy, slightly gritty version found in the original, but with more caramel, more vanilla, more peanutty goodness that you want to eat it by itself off the spoon (Stella – can I call you Stella? – suggests that if you have leftover filling, you can dollop it on toast or crackers like “peanut butter Nutella.” She means “peanut butter crack.”). The chocolate shell is still silky smooth, but no longer waxy, because you are using excellent quality chocolate that you buy at Whole Foods for $10 a pound which makes your husband give you serious side-eye, but you don’t even care because you’ve just singlehandedly recreated peanut butter chocolate childhood bliss.

Now the bad news – these are a bit of a time suck to make, I’m afraid, and do involve tempering chocolate, which sounds scary but is not all that bad. I highly recommend you read this article, which has a fantastic amount of information on the details of tempering chocolate, and also suggests some alternative methods. You will need a decent digital thermometer if you temper the chocolate the way I’ve described below. However, you also don’t have to temper the chocolate. If you skip the tempering, you’ll just have to store the peanut butter cups in the refrigerator and serve them cold, since the chocolate will remain melted at room temperature. Also, a lot of the active time is spent on recreating that fluted iconic Reese’s cup look. If you’re short on time or don’t care about the cup aspect, there’s an easier alternative described that takes much less time. All this is to say that you have no excuses for not MAKING THESE NOW. If you are a Reese’s lover, you will never go back to the originals again.

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Homemade Reese's Peanut Butter Cups

Source: Bravetart, by Stella Parks

To make the peanut butter filling, first you will need to make a caramel-vanilla peanut brittle that you will then grind to a powder and mix with smooth peanut butter. You only need half of the peanut brittle for the Reese's cups, so if you want, you can halve all the ingredients for the brittle. However, the brittle is SO DELICIOUS and keeps up to 6 months in the freezer, so I don't think you'll be sorry if you go ahead and make the whole batch. I definitely wasn't!

Ingredients

For caramel-vanilla peanut brittle:

• 1/3 cup (3 ounces) water
• 1/2 cup (6 ounces) light corn syrup
• 1 cup (7 ounces) granulated sugar
• 4 tablespoons (2 ounces) unsalted butter
• 1 vanilla bean
• 1 rounded cup (5 ounces) dry-roasted or honey-roasted peanuts (I used honey-roasted)
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

For the rest of the Reese's cups:

• 3/4 cup (7 ounces) creamy peanut butter
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 2 pounds milk chocolate (I used Callebaut's 33% milk chocolate, found at Whole Foods)

Instructions

To make the caramel-vanilla peanut brittle:

• Combine the water, corn syrup, sugar, and butter in a 3-quart stainless steel pot. Split the vanilla bean lengthwise with a paring knife and scrape out the seeds, adding the seeds to the pot. Place the pot over medium-low heat and cook, gently stirring until the syrup is bubbling vigorously around the edges, about 5 minutes. Raise the heat to medium-high, clip on a candy thermometer if you like, and cook, without stirring, until the syrup is golden brown, about 10 minutes (or approximately 340°F). I didn't find it was necessary to use a thermometer - once the syrup starts to brown, it will be ready in a couple of minutes, so keep an eye on it. The edges of the syrup may brown quicker than the middle - if this happens, you can swirl the pot to distribute the sugar. The syrup will be ready when it is the color of smooth peanut butter - put a can next to the stove to compare.
• While the sugar is cooking, mix together the baking soda and salt and have it ready to go by the stove. Grease an aluminum baking sheet, or put down a piece of parchment paper. 
• When the syrup is golden brown, turn off the heat, remove the thermometer (if using), and stir in the baking soda and salt with a heat-resistant spatula. Be careful - the syrup will be incredibly hot! Stir in the peanuts, then scrape the mixture onto the prepared baking sheet and spread into a roughly 12-by-8-inch layer. Don't worry if you end up with large clumps of peanuts stuck together - you can break them apart later if you like. Cool to room temperature, about 1 hour.
• Chop or break the brittle into 2-inch pieces. And, voila! Wasn't that easy? Now you have delicious caramel-vanilla peanut brittle that is an amazing candy in and of itself. Store half of the brittle in an airtight container - it will keep for about a month at room temperature, or up to 6 months in the freezer.

Now getting on to the peanut butter cups:

• Coarsely chop the remaining half of the peanut brittle. Put the pieces in a food processor and pulse until the pieces break down into a loose powder. Add the peanut butter, vanilla, and salt and grind to a smooth paste, about 2 minutes. It will start off looking like a ball of dough, but keep the processor going until the paste loosens and smooths out into a thick but spreadable consistency. Stella Parks recommends you transfer the filling to a piping bag fitted with a 1/2-inch plain tip, but I didn't have one and just placed the filling in a bowl and dolloped it onto the cups with a spoon. This also worked fine, although maybe piping it would ensure a more even and consistent layer of filling. I give instructions for both methods later.
• Temper the chocolate. Coarsely chop about 2/3 of the chocolate into 1/4-inch cubes, and place into a stainless steel bowl. Finely chop the rest of the chocolate and set aside. Heat a saucepan containing about an inch of water over medium-low heat until the water is just barely simmering. Place the metal bowl with the chocolate on top of the saucepan to create a double boiler, making sure that the bottom of the bowl doesn't touch the water. Stir the chocolate to melt it, while monitoring the temperature with a digital thermometer - do not let the temperature get above 105°F. If the temperature is rising too rapidly, take the chocolate off the heat for a few seconds and stir to release heat. When the chocolate is completed melted and just shy of 105°F, about 8-10 minutes, take it off the heat and stir in about 1/3 of the finely chopped chocolate. Stir until all the chocolate has melted, and then add in the remainder of the finely chopped chocolate, except for about 1/4 cup - save this 1/4 for emergency use. Stir for 5 minutes, until all the chocolate has melted (keep stirring even if the chocolate melts before the 5 minutes - this is necessary to properly agitate the chocolate). After stirring, the goal is to have the chocolate be at 84-86°F - it is now ready for use! If the chocolate cools too quickly and becomes thick, place the bowl over the hot water bath for 5 seconds, then stir vigorously off heat.

  Notes: To test the chocolate, dip a butter knife into the chocolate and refrigerate for two minutes. If it comes out soft or melts to the touch, it hasn't tempered correctly, and your best bet is to repeat the whole process. If it comes out streaked or swirled but semi-firm or slightly tacky, it needs to be agitated more - stir vigorously for two more minutes, and test again. If it comes out hard, glossy, and snappy, it's tempered and your chocolate is ready for use!

  During use, if the chocolate cools and becomes too thick, carefully rewarm it by setting it over the water bath for a few seconds, then stirring off heat. However, do not let the chocolate exceed 86°F - if it accidentally overheats, immediately add the "emergency" chocolate and stir like mad.
• Assemble the peanut butter cups. Line muffin pans with fluted cupcake papers. I found it helpful to make the cups in batches of 6 or 12. Drop a tablespoon of chocolate into the cupcake papers. Add the peanut butter filling one of two ways: 1) With the piping bag, hold it vertically, perpendicular to the layer of chocolate, and pipe about 1 tablespoon of filling into the center of the chocolate. 2) Using a spoon, gently drop about 1 tablespoon of filling into the center of the chocolate. In either case, dropping the peanut butter filling should push the chocolate up the sides of the paper. Top each cup with another tablespoon of chocolate, smoothing the tops if necessary with an offset spatula. Lightly tap the pan on the counter a few times to even and smooth out the tops further. Refrigerate until the chocolate is set, about 30 minutes. Repeat with remaining cupcake papers, chocolate, and peanut butter filling.

Notes

The cups will keep in an airtight container for up to 1 week at room temperature, 1 month in the fridge, or 6 months in the freezer.

Alternative: Peanut butter slabs

On a parchment-lined 9-by-13 baking tray, spread half the tempered chocolate in a smooth layer. Refrigerate until firm, about 10 minutes. Spread all of the peanut butter filling on top of the hardened chocolate, then cover with the remaining chocolate, smoothing gently with an offset spatula if desired. Refrigerate until hard, then cut up into bars to serve.

My lemon elderflower layer cake is my new baby. You know, life is a journey. And at this point, this cake is definitely the pinnacle of my cake making skills (trust me – that lemon curd is sooooo good). Anyway, I’m also excited about it because I branched out and decorated it with fresh flowers! And, honestly, it’s no mystery why wedding cakes these days are just bursting with fresh flowers – they cover, disguise, and distract from any blemishes, imperfections, or frosting smudges on your cake. Unsure of your frosting skills? Literally pluck a fresh flower on your cake, and it will be elevated from homemade confection to professional beauty.

However, when I was researching the logistics of how to actually put flowers on and in cakes, I couldn’t find that much information online about it. So this is what I did, and hopefully it can be helpful to you!

Before I start, I must warn that using fresh flowers does come with a certain degree of risk management. Flowers, after all, aren’t really meant to be put on food, and so there’s a spectrum of things you can do to manage that risk, which I’ll try to explain. I found a lot of articles online (mostly from bakers) who were horrified at the prospect of putting fresh flowers – any flowers – on baked goods. I’m no horticultural expert, so do the research you need, and think about what you’re comfortable with.

Choosing the Flowers

First, I think it’s important to find organic or pesticide-free flowers. I have no idea what pesticides are used on flowers, and whether you can adequately remove them just by rinsing flowers under clean water. You’re not eating the flowers, but it’s better to be safe than sorry, and especially if you’re putting them on sticky surfaces like buttercream, there’s a good chance that chemicals can transfer to the food. Find a good florist, talk to them about your plans, and see what they say about the treatment, transport, and storage of their flowers. Also ask them how long different flowers will keep and what temperatures they can tolerate without water. Some flowers are more delicate and will wilt very rapidly out of water – try to steer clear of those as much as possible, life will be less stressful!

As for which flowers or greens you should actually choose, that’s another risk management decision. There are some websites that counsel you to only use technically edible flowers. While you’re not eating the flowers, parts of the plant (petals, pollen, filaments, etc.) could still fall onto or touch the cake. Since non-edible flowers contain various toxins, this could be bad. I… sort of tried to do this, but ultimately failed. The local florist which I used (and loved) here in Chicago had a limited selection of non-treated flowers, which really only consisted of absolutely beautiful ranunculus. Unfortunately, ranunculus contain toxins that can irritate the skin and mouth. I tried to find out more information online: which part of the ranunculus was actually poisonous, whether the toxin was in all parts of the flower or only in some parts, how much you’d have to eat to be affected (just a small dusting of pollen? One petal? The whole flower?), how much physical contact would be necessary to release toxins, etc… However, I couldn’t find anything really useful. Turns out, not many people are considering eating ranunculus??

In the end, I decided to just do it – I decided that a light brushing of the underside of the ranunculus against the buttercream would not be a big deal, and if it looked like the flower was really sticking to the buttercream, I could always scrape some buttercream off the affected area. And as of the time of writing, it’s been 5 days since I’ve served the cake, and no one has complained of mouth irritation, so I feel good about this decision. Fortunately, however, there are lots of popular and beautiful flowers on the edibles list, like lilac and roses, so you should be able to find something. You could also try a food seal for more protection (see “Additional Notes” below).

Preparation

Rinse the flowers and greens you’re using under gentle cold water, brushing off any stray dirt or pollen, and running the water through the petals. This will ensure that your flowers are clean and free from bugs. Pat flowers dry with paper towels, and put stems back into water. Keep your flowers in water until you’re ready to decorate. If you use the straw water tubes as I describe below (in the “Decorating the Cake” section), I found that the flowers could probably last the day at room temperature, depending on the size of the straw and the kind of flower. If, however, you’re not providing any water source at all for your flowers, they will wilt rather quickly, especially in hot temperatures. So try to make these flowers or greens more of an accent rather than the main focus, and put them on as late as possible.

Decorating the Cake!

There are a few ways you can decorate with fresh flowers or greens. You could simply lay them on the top or the sides of the cake. This is what I did with the two lilac bunches – one is just resting on the top, and one is resting on the cake stand. I trimmed off the flowers on one side of the bunch resting on the cake stand so that it would lay closer to the cake and “hug” the sides more. Before I did this, the lilac was sort of in a triangle shape, poking off to the side. After, it was half of a triangle, and looked much more integrated into the cake.

For single flowers, you could also try the resting method; however, they’re more likely to topple off or tilt at a weird angle. I prefer to actually stick these into the cake. To do this, I used plastic drinking straws to create little water tubes that: a) become a tool by which to push flowers into the cake, b) provide a physical barrier so that flower fluid from the stem doesn’t leech into the cake and c) if you’re sticking the flowers in to the cake vertically, provide a small reservoir of water for your flowers.

I used regular 1/4-inch diameter drinking straws, because those were the only ones I could find. They were big enough for my flower stems, but just barely. If you can find larger straws (I think the straws provided at McDonald’s or Starbucks might be a tiny bit larger in diameter?), or the straws used for boba, they might work better. Just make sure that the stems of your flowers or greens fit comfortably into the straw.

To make the water tubes, first cut off any bending bits so that your straw is just a straight tube. Next, you’re going to use heat to melt and seal one end of the straw. Over a flat, heatproof surface (I used the bottom of a baking tray), light a match or lighter and hold it to one edge of the straw until the straw starts to melt and shrink. This will only take a second! Quickly blow out the match and then, using another flat, heavy, heatproof object (I used the flat bottom of an oven-proof ceramic bowl), quickly press down hard on the melted plastic and hold for a few seconds until the plastic cools. After the plastic has cooled, you should have effectively sealed the straw at that end. To test, fill the straw with water (due to the tiny volume inside the straw, trickle the water into the straw in as fine a stream as you can to avoid trapping air bubbles and preventing the water from flowing all the way to the bottom of the tube. It also helps to hold the straw at an angle to the trickle of water). After you’ve got water in the bottom of the straw, rub the sealed bit with your dry fingers and thumb. If it’s truly sealed, no water should leak out and you should feel no water between your fingers.

A note about melting plastic: James, who admittedly is not a materials and food scientist by any stretch, seems to think that no harm will come of inserting heated, melted, then cooled plastic into food products. This answer was acceptable to me, as it’s not like I’m melting plastic and dripping it over food. The straw is completely cool by the time it touches the cake. If there are any plastics experts out there who disagree, please do let me know! And if you don’t feel comfortable with melting plastic, maybe there are tiny little glass test tubes you can buy for this purpose? I didn’t research this too closely, but if you have some alternative suggestions, I’d love to know those too.

Use the straw tubes to put flowers into cake:

Trim the unsealed end of the straw tube so that the tube is about 2 – 3 inches long. Trim the flower so that the stem is about the same length as the straw tube. You don’t want the stem to be too long; otherwise, your flower will look like it’s floating above the cake. You don’t want it too short either, though, because then it won’t reach any of the water at the bottom of the tube. Don’t worry too much if the stem is too long for now – you can always trim it after you’ve inserted the straw. Fill the tube with a little water (if using), and place the stem of the flower inside the tube. After placing the flower in, the water level should be about 1/4 inch below the top of the tube – adjust the water amount if necessary.

Push the straw tube gently but firmly into the cake where you want the flower to go. Continue to push the straw tube down into the cake, adjusting the angle if necessary to land your flower where you want. If you feel comfortable in the angle, you can always remove the flower from the tube, and just use the tip of your finger to push the tube down. If you want to keep the flower in the straw tube as you’re pushing down, I find it helpful to push down on the straw edge with a flat, thin object like a butter knife, holding the knife parallel to the surface of the cake, to avoid accidentally touching the frosting. You’ll want the lip of the straw tube to be about flush with the surface of the cake, maybe a tiny bit above, so you can easily remove the straws later. Check how your flower looks. If it’s “hovering” too much above the cake, take it out from the straw and snip a bit off the end of the stem.

Note that if you’re inserting the flowers horizontally, or at a horizontal-ish angle, you won’t really be able to put much water, if any, in the tube. That’s okay, but it’s something you’ll have to keep in mind – maybe keep the flowers in water for as long as you can, and just insert them into the tubes right before you present the cake. Also, try to angle the opening of the straw tubes at least a little bit upward, so that any sap or flower juice from the stem will collect at the bottom of the tube instead of spilling over onto your cake.

As a bonus, because the flowers go into the straws and not into the cake itself, you can always switch the flowers into different straws if you’re not happy with your original arrangement.

Additional Notes:

If you want to provide more of a barrier between the flower and the cake, I did find this special food seal that coats items with a food safe material. I did not use this, so I don’t know how well it would work, or what appearance it would give your sealed flowers / plants. My feeling is that you would only be able to coat the stem and the underside of the flowers. The seal might be a good way to create a physical barrier between the underside of the flower and the cake, if you’re using non-edible flowers and concerned about toxins passing to the cake from contact. If you use it, let me know what you think!

I feel like I should add a legal disclaimer at the end. If you use ranunculus and end up with sore mouth, please don’t sue me. I’m not responsible.

Oh. My. GOD. The royal wedding was this Saturday, where Prince Harry and Meghan Markle wed in St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle. I’m not embarrassed to admit that I watched about two full hours of the coverage, and even teared up a bit when Meghan and her swoonworthy veil started her walk alone down the aisle. Here’s my favorite fun tidbit – Prince Harry had to get special permission from the Queen to wear his beard while in Army uniform! Anyway, James is a Brit, I absolutely adore Meghan Markle, and so it’s no surprise that we were wrapped up in the glitz and glamour. My friend Kate was so excited too she flew all the way from San Francisco to celebrate with us!

And so, when I learned back in March that Prince Harry and Meghan had chosen a LEMON ELDERFLOWER CAKE for their reception, bucking the tradition of heavy celebration fruitcakes and one made by a native Californian, no less (I’m originally from California), I knew immediately that I had to recreate this! I mean, if we’re eating the same cake, it’s practically like we’re at their wedding, right?!

I had a pretty good idea of how I’d go about this. I’ve made Smitten Kitchen’s lemon layer cake before, and it was absolutely delicious and the epitome of spring. And while I love the seven-minute frosting that I made it with that time, Harry and Meghan are having buttercream and by jove, buttercream I will have too! I turned to Style Sweet CA’s Tessa Huff for her reliable and easy Swiss Meringue Buttercream, spiking it with some St. Germain elderflower liquor. I’m also not embarrassed to admit that I took the Friday before the wedding off work to make this cake – these layer cakes take me for-EVER! But after a few fresh flowers plunked on the cake for decoration, I must say that this is one of my best cakes yet. Prince Harry and Meghan are truly inspiring me to live my best life.

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Lemon Elderflower Cake with Buttercream Frosting

Sources:

Cake and lemon curd: Smitten Kitchen

Elderflower buttercream: Style Sweet CA

Note: Feel free to omit the elderflower liqueur if you don't like it, and add 1 1/2 teaspoons of pure vanilla extract instead for vanilla buttercream. Or, feel free to try out some other flavoring! 

Ingredients

For the cake:

• 3 cups all-purpose flour, minus 2 tablespoons
• 1 1/2 tablespoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, at room temperature
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Lemon curd:

• 8 egg yolks
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, cubed
• 3/4 cup lemon juice
• Zest of 3 lemons

Elderflower buttercream:

• 1/2 cup egg whites (from about 4 large eggs)
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, cubed, at room temperature
• 1/4 cup elderflower liqueur (such as St. Germain) (optional)

To assemble:

• 3 tablespoons elderflower liqueur (such as St. Germain) (optional)

Instructions

Make the cake:

• Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and flour the sides of 3 8-inch cake pans, or spray with nonstick cooking spray. Place a circle of parchment in the bottom of the cake pans.
• Mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
• Using an electric mixer, cream butter until fluffy. If your butter is too cold, beat it a bit more here to warm it up. Add sugar and continue to cream well for 6 to 8 minutes, until the mixture is pale yellow, light, and fluffy. Do not rush this step! This is what incorporates air into the mixture and what will cause the resulting cake to be light and airy.
• Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Alternate adding the flour mixture and the milk into the batter, adding the flour in three additions and the milk in two, starting and ending with the flour. Mix after each addition, but don't overdo it - it's okay to stop and go on to the next addition even if you can still see some streaks of flour or milk. Add vanilla and mix until just combined.
• Divide batter equally among prepared pans. Level the batter by holding pan 3 or 4-inches above the counter, and dropping flat onto counter. I do this about 5-7 times per pan. This releases air bubbles in the batter and leads to a more level cake. Bake for 23-25 minutes or until a tester or toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
• Let cakes cool for about two minutes in the pan, then turn out onto cooling racks and let cool completely - this will take at least an hour.

Make the lemon curd:

• Create a double-boiler: Fill a saucepan with a few inches of water and bring to a simmer. Place all the lemon curd ingredients in a metal bowl, and place the bowl on top of the saucepan to create a double boiler. Make sure that the bottom of the metal bowl doesn't touch the water. Cook the mixture, whisking constantly, until it begins to thicken (sort of like the consistency of loose salad dressing) and turns color from a bright yellow to a pale, frothier pastel yellow. You can also check the temperature - it will be done when it reaches 165-170°F. This will take about 10-15 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Cover and refrigerate until completely cool - it will thicken even more.

Make the elderflower buttercream:

• In a large bowl, or in the bowl of an electric stand mixer if you're using one, add the egg whites and granulated sugar. Whisk them together briefly by hand until combined.
• Create a double-boiler again with a saucepan and simmering water. Place the bowl with the egg whites and sugar on top of the saucepan (again, don't let the bowl touch the water). Heat the egg white mixture, stirring, until it reaches 155-160°F. The mixture should be very hot to the touch and the sugar should be completely dissolved.
• Once the egg white mixture has reached the designated temperature, take it off the heat and beat the mixture with the whisk attachment on high speed for about 8 minutes. You can return the bowl to the stand mixer to do this, or do it with a handheld electric mixer with the whisk attachment. When done, the meringue should hold shiny, medium-stiff peaks and be cooled to room temperature. The outside of the bowl should feel at room temperature. Stop the mixer and swap out the whisk for the paddle attachment.
• With the mixer on low, begin adding in the butter a couple tablespoons at a time. Use the paddle attachment to mix each addition in. The butter must be room temperature in order to incorporate properly with the meringue.
• After the butter has been mixed in, add the elderflower liqueur and mix to combine. Turn the mixer up to medium speed and mix the buttercream until silky smooth, light, and creamy. This may take a few minutes.

To assemble:

• Cut off any domed tops of cakes so that each cake layer is even and flat. Run hands along all sides of the cake to remove excess crumbs. Place one cake layer on your cake stand or pedestal, and brush about 1/3 of the elderflower liqueur onto the top of the cake with a pastry brush. With a pastry bag with a plain round tip, or a plastic bag with a corner cut off, pipe a circle of buttercream around the outer edge of the cake layer. This will add structural integrity, and help to hold the lemon curd in place. Because the lemon curd isn't very substantial, though, the buttercream circle doesn't have to be super thick - maybe about 1/4 inch in height. Spread about 1/3 of the lemon curd on top of the cake inside the buttercream circle.
• Repeat with the remaining cake layers, finishing with elderflower liqueur and lemon curd on the very top of the cake. Brush any remaining lemon curd on the sides of the cake with a pastry brush. Frost the top and sides of cake with remaining buttercream. To frost the top of the cake, it's easiest to pipe the frosting on with a pastry bag or plastic bag first. I use a round tip to pipe a spiral covering the top of the cake, then use an offset spatula to gently smooth out the frosting and fill in any cracks. This will help you frost the top of the cake without pushing off all of the lemon curd underneath.

Fried rice is my comfort food, my heritage. I grew up eating egg fried rice for breakfast, which my mom would make frying up leftover white rice with heavily seasoned scrambled eggs and a handful of bright green scallions. I still remember waking up for school, hearing the sizzle of rice meeting hot oil, smelling the fragrant odors wafting from the kitchen, and eating the piping hot bowl at the kitchen table while watching my mom prepare my lunch.

Nowadays, my fried rice recipe has evolved a bit, but not much. It’s still easy to throw together, uses up any leftover vegetables you might have, and extremely forgiving. The marinade is all James, and adds a delightful, complex flavor to the meat and the rice. Secretly, I think James makes this fried rice better than me.

Now, let’s talk ingredients. If you scroll down to the recipe, you’ll see that I tell you to include a generic “2 cups of vegetables.” Is that exasperating? Please hear me out. The truth is, when I first sat down to write this recipe, it was hard! We never measure the vegetables, and we often end up using whatever looks fresh at the market or whatever’s left in the fridge. So I thought about what ingredients we both liked the most, and most frequently include. The original recipe, instead of the 2 cups of vegetables, consisted of a 1/2 pound of snow peas or sugar snap peas (or 1 cup fresh or frozen peas), 1 (8-ounce) can of bamboo shoots, and 1 (8-ounce) can of water chestnuts. However, I sat on this recipe for a long time because it didn’t feel truthful. These might be the most common vegetables we put in, but they appear in this exact combination maybe 20% of the time. The other 80% of the time, we forget water chestnuts at the store, we forget the bamboo even though they’re right there on the counter, and we have bell peppers and baby carrots that have been hanging around in the fridge foreeeeever… and so you get what you see in the pictures. Honestly, James and I make this fried rice differently almost every single time.

So then I realized – and this is a revelation I had on the bus coming home from work – why hide the exciting and empowering possibility of an eminently modifiable recipe? And who am I to dampen your creativity and your own preferences? Thus the “2 cups of vegetables,” and I think that the way it’s written now feels a lot more honest, a lot more truthful to my process. By now, James and I have made fried rice every which way – with the peas, bamboo shoots, and water chestnuts described above, with the diced bell peppers and carrots shown in the photos, or in combination with many, many other things – diced zucchini, chopped broccoli, corn, green onions. And it’s come out delicious every single time. (The onion – I kept in. Because onions are magical)

So don’t be afraid to experiment! You can also try it with beef instead of chicken. You can substitute tofu for a vegetarian option – still marinade it the same way, but leave out the fish sauce (Don’t forget to press and drain the tofu first to get rid of excess moisture!). If you’re using vegetables of different hardiness and cook times (for example carrots and bell peppers), add the hardier vegetable such as the carrot first, cook for two minutes or so, then add the other vegetable. Quantities are also not set in stone – don’t worry if you’re a bit low on vegetables, or have too much chicken. It will all come together in the end, as fried rice invariably, inevitably, uniquely does. And then let me know what you did in the comments!

A note about Shaoxing wine: it is a rice wine with a translucent amber color, made from fermented rice. It contains anywhere from 15-20% alcohol, and has a complex flavor that’s slightly sweet, spicy, and nutty. It can be drunk as a beverage – try some! Mostly, though, I use it to flavor the protein in everything Chinese I make (and probably some non-Chinese dishes too) – most often in marinades, or if I get lazy, I just add a splash of it when I’m sautéing chicken or beef. Like using red or white wine in cooking, Shaoxing wine adds a wonderful depth of flavor to the resulting dish. You can buy Shaoxing wine in any Asian supermarket, and I really hope you’ll seek some out! It’s not expensive, will last many months, and really does make a difference in Chinese cooking. There are lots of varieties, most of which are probably fairly similar. However, DO NOT buy Shaoxing “cooking wine” (like how you shouldn’t buy any other “cooking wines” to cook with either) or any Shaoxing wine that contains salt – these will be inferior, low-grade versions that taste terrible. If you can’t find Shaoxing wine, dry sherry makes the closest substitute.

As a final note, this makes an incredible amount of fried rice. We eat it with a side vegetable – some sautéed Napa cabbage or spinach, and the rice will last at least six meals. If that’s too much for you, just halve the recipe. If you do find yourself a bit short on chicken (or whatever your chosen protein is), still use all of the quantities specified in the marinade, as all that sauce will help season the final dish.

We served this with a side of sauteed Napa cabbage, and it was warm enough to eat dinner outside on the patio! A win for my sunshine-starved self AND for getting one photo in the last rays of natural light!

Total time for dinner: 1 hour 20 minutes

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Chicken and Shrimp Fried Rice

Ingredients

Fried Rice:

• 1 pound chicken breast or boneless, skinless chicken thighs
• 3/4 pound shrimp, rinsed, peeled, and deveined
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tbsp minced or finely chopped ginger
• 1 onion, chopped
• About 2 cups vegetables of your choice, cleaned, trimmed, and diced or cut into bite-sized pieces
• 6-7 eggs, scrambled
• 5 cups cooked white rice
• Vegetable or canola oil
• Salt and black pepper

Marinade:

• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons Shaoxing wine or dry sherry
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon hoisin sauce
• 1 teaspoon fish sauce
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• Black pepper
• Pinch of crushed red pepper flakes

Instructions

• Marinade the chicken: Cut the chicken against the grain into flat, thin strips and mix with all of the marinade ingredients. Let sit while you prep the vegetables and scramble the eggs, or at least 15 minutes.
• Put 1-2 tbsp vegetable or canola oil into a large frying pan, skillet, or wok (make sure it is at least 4 quarts to fit all the ingredients! You can even use a Dutch oven) and heat over medium-high heat. When oil is hot, add the garlic and ginger. Cook for about 30 seconds until the garlic and ginger are fragrant. Add the chicken to the pan with all of the marinade sauce. Cook, stirring, until chicken is cooked through, about 7 minutes.
• Remove the chicken and all the juices from the pan and set aside. Tip: keep the chicken in a large bowl, so that you can add the other cooked ingredients to this bowl later. 
• Heat 1-2 tbsp of oil over medium heat in the pan. Add the shrimp and season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring, until the shrimp is just pink and cooked, about 2-4 minutes, depending on shrimp size. Transfer to the chicken bowl.
• Add 1-2 tbsp more oil to the pan. Don’t worry if there’s chicken or shrimp bits stuck onto the pan. The moisture from the onions and vegetables will deglaze the pan. Add the onion, some salt and pepper, and cook over medium-high heat until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the vegetables, staggering them in 1-2 minute intervals if some are hardier than others. Cook until vegetables are tender, then scoop up vegetables and set aside. You can place them in the same bowl as the chicken and shrimp. I do this, and then try to toss the shrimp up so that they’re not cooking under the hot vegetables. It seems to work okay, and doesn’t result in overcooked shrimp. If you’re worried, use a separate bowl for the vegetables or the shrimp.
• Cook the eggs. If the pan you’re working with isn’t non-stick, I would use a separate nonstick pan to cook the eggs. You’ll have an additional pan to wash up, but it’s just easier and less fuss. Heat 1-2 tbsp of oil in the pan over medium-high heat, then add the eggs. Season with salt and pepper. Scramble until the eggs are cooked, then transfer to the bowl with the chicken and vegetable mixture. 
• In the original pan, heat 1-2 tbsp of oil over medium heat, and add the rice. Season with a few dashes of soy sauce – just swirl it loosely over the rice like you would drizzle chocolate sauce on ice cream. Toss so that all the rice is seasoned. The rice might sizzle and stick to the bottom of the pan – don’t worry! Just continue to toss and fry with the soy sauce, so that the rice itself acquires some seasoning. You’ll add the other ingredients soon enough, and the chicken and vegetable juices will magically mix with the rice to make an amazingly flavorful combination.
• Add the chicken, shrimp, vegetables, and egg into the pan with the rice, and turn heat down to medium-low. Toss well to combine. Taste and add more salt, pepper, or soy sauce if needed. I like to finish my fried rice with lots of dashes of white pepper and a drizzle of fish sauce and sesame oil (again, a light drizzle, like topping ice cream), but this is optional. The sesame oil will give it a nice earthy, umami taste. The fish sauce – although it smells terribly fishy – actually adds a nice tang and saltiness to the resulting dish. White pepper is my absolute all time favorite pepper. Feel free to scoop out a small bit of rice and experiment with seasonings!

Notes:

I tend to prefer short grain rice in my fried rice, because I like my fried rice on the dense and chewy side, but if you want a fluffier, lighter rice dish, you can easily substitute basmati.

About salting and oil: yes, the instructions are correct! A lot of salt and a lot of oil are what make restaurant fried rice so darn good. Be sure to salt all of the ingredients as you cook them. It’ll draw out the flavors of the individual ingredients, and make the finished product that much tastier. Same with the oil – yes, it’ll feel like you’re using a lot of oil, but remember that this makes an enormous amount of fried rice. The finished product won’t be too oily, I promise. The more oil you add, the more decadent and “fried” your resulting dish will taste.

About cooking the ingredients separately: Yes, it’s a pain, but doesn’t really take that much additional time, and doesn’t add too much to the dirty dish count, as you can spoon up all your cooked ingredients into one large bowl. If you’re feeling lazy, you can cook the chicken and shrimp together (add the shrimp after the chicken has been cooking for about five minutes), although this always runs the risk of overcooking the shrimp.

James first made some garlicky, buttery shrimp about a few months ago, just to go with some leftovers we had, and my first thought was, why don’t we eat this all the time?? And why don’t we eat this on a huge mound of pasta, with some bright green spinach to welcome spring and brightness and sunshine and feeling like we’re on the coast of Spain even though we’re stuck in Chicago, where spring is still sort of playing hard to get in MAY, and all of my anticipatory summer clothes sit collecting dust in my closet…

Luckily, James and I are going to Bermuda next week, which is a good substitute for a Spanish coast I think (bring on the rompers!), and so in preparation, I brought out the bright spring shrimp scampi! I used a recipe from the New York Times (yes, Melissa Clark. I promise I don’t get all my recipes from Melissa Clark, but – come on – just look at her pics!) Shrimp scampi is so easy, but after reading the readers’ comments and doing some additional research, I added a fussier step of simmering the shrimp shells in wine for about 5 minutes for more flavor.

And – you guys – I couldn’t believe how easy shrimp stock was to make. I’ve never done it before, so I didn’t know exactly what I was doing, as you can see from the pictures and the note at the bottom. But basically, you just simmer the shells in wine for five minutes, and you’re left with a fragrant, rich, undeniably seafood-y wine. Not good for drinking, but great for seafood dishes!

Anyway, I also upped all the sauce ingredients because some people complained of not enough sauce, and nobody wants that. We served it with linguine (I bet it’s also amazing with crusty French bread), and I added some pasta water at the end to thicken and bind the sauce to the pasta even more.

We had this with that bright green spinach, sipping the leftover wine, and dreaming of sunny days and balmy nights. Bermuda can’t come soon enough!

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Shrimp Scampi with Linguine

Source: The New York Times

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons butter
• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 8 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 cup dry white wine or broth
• ¾ teaspoon kosher salt, or to taste
• ¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, or to taste
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 2 pounds large or extra-large shrimp, preserving the shells if desired
• ⅓ cup chopped parsley, or more to taste
• Freshly squeezed juice of 1 lemon
• ¼ – ½ cup cooked pasta water (if serving with pasta)
• Accompaniments: Spaghetti or linguine, or crusty bread

Instructions

• Optional but recommended: Rinse the shrimp shells under cold running water. Heat a saucepan over medium heat and add a drizzle of olive oil. When oil is hot, add the shrimp SHELLS (not the shrimp!) and toss for 30 seconds in the hot oil. Add the wine or broth and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer for 5 minutes. After five minutes, strain the wine or broth for use. I had about 7/8 of the cup of liquid left after simmering.
• In a large skillet with a lid, melt the butter with olive oil over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the wine or broth, salt, red pepper flakes, and lots of black pepper and bring to a simmer. Let wine or broth reduce by half, about 3-4 minutes.
• Add the shrimp into the liquid and spread them out in an even layer, then cover the pan. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the shrimp just turn pink and have curled up into a loose "C" shape ("C" stands for "cooked," "O" stands for "overcooked"), 2 to 4 minutes depending upon their size. Stir in the parsley and lemon juice. Toss with pasta or serve with crusty bread.
• A slightly fussier step for serving with pasta: Try the following and you'll have silkier, thicker sauce.

  First, DON'T add the parsley and lemon juice yet - cooked lemon juice can get a bit weird.

  About a minute before both the shrimp and the pasta are done, ladle the pasta water into the sauce. Add the pasta and toss, continuing to cook everything over medium-low heat, about 1-2 minutes, until everything is combined and the sauce has thickened. Add parsley and lemon juice and toss to combine.

Notes:

I clearly didn’t need to simmer all my shrimp shells! Ha! You only need about a cup or so. Freeze the rest for later use or discard.

If making the shrimp wine / stock – to skim or not to skim? That is the eternal question. I did not skim, and did not notice any off flavors.

If you’ve added some pasta water, tossed everything over the heat, and your sauce still looks watery, you might not have simmered off enough wine, or you may have more dilute pasta water (I tend to cook my pasta in as small a pot and as little water as possible). I would suggest you stop cooking, as if you keep going, you’ll overcook the shrimp and that would be sad. Sauce with starch in it also tends to thicken a bit more as it cools, so try to let it rest for a few minutes and it should get thicker.

I cooked one pound of linguine for the above quantity of scampi, and think it was a bit too much. In the future I would probably serve this with about 3/4 of a pound of dried pasta. I also should have added more parsley!

“A minute before the shrimp and the pasta are done”??! How on earth am I supposed to make this happen at the same time?? Yes, I know. The best food is often slightly annoying to make, but that doesn’t mean we should strive for mediocrity! You’ll see in my pictures that my shrimp are a bit overcooked – oops. I try to buy large or jumbo sized shrimp – they usually have a bit more wiggle room when you overcook them. But ultimately, if you want to serve shrimp scampi with pasta, the best way to get all that delicious liquid to adhere to the pasta (and why would you waste even a drop of that magical, buttery, garlicky goodness?) is to toss the hot pasta with the hot sauce immediately, so you’ll have to do some brain calculations to try to finish cooking both at the same time. But in the end – just do the best you can – it will be okay if one or the other is a tad bit overcooked, and nobody is judging you on a weeknight. I would recommend you err on the side of finishing the pasta first – you can drain it, keep it on the side, reserve some pasta water, and wait for the shrimp to be juuuuust about done, then toss everything together. It will be great!

Or, you can just serve the scampi with crusty bread.

Made this? Have some feedback? Let me know! Leave a comment below, or tag #trialbyfryer on Instagram!

Ever since I learned about roasting vegetables maybe 8 years ago (it’s impossible to think that I never roasted a vegetable before then!), I’ve been roasting all the vegetables. I’m obsessed with eating my veggies, and this is such an easy, quick, brainless way to get a side of vegetables in. Besides, what’s not to love about little caramelized vegetable bits coated in olive oil, sea salt, and freshly cracked black pepper? James and I probably roast some vegetables with our dinner 70% of the time. They take absolutely minimal prep, and then you just stick them in the oven, set a timer, and forget about them. Plus roasting has introduced me to completely new vegetables, and reinvented boring old ones – roasted carrots are heaven on earth. All of our roasted vegetables follow a basic process described here.

Some tips that I have learned:

1. For best results, pat the vegetables dry with paper towels and do not crowd them – make sure air can circulate around each piece. The drier the vegetable, the better it’ll crisp up and form a nice char from the roasting pan. I usually prep the vegetables as the first or second thing I do during cooking, then just let the vegetables air dry a bit while I’m prepping other things. If the vegetables are wet, they’ll steam instead of roast. Similarly, if they’re too crowded, they’ll also steam from the moisture evaporating from neighboring vegetable pieces. Steaming means you’ll end up with softer, mushier vegetables. Crowding the vegetables are often something I am guilty of, because I am lazy and I want to cook a whole bunch of vegetables but wash only one baking sheet. Life is choices.
2. To turn or not to turn? Turning vegetables about halfway throughout the roasting process ensures that vegetables brown evenly on all sides. I, however, have begun more and more to skip this step as I am lazy (this seems to be a recurring theme…) and often otherwise occupied. So, my vegetables tend to be extra caramelized and brown on one side, but still bright and green or orange on the other. I like this contrast, and don’t think it deters from the texture or taste. If you are after more even browning, give the vegetables a toss or a turn about halfway through the cooking time.
3. Temperature. I fudge this a lot. Usually I roast everything at 400°F with good results, but if my oven has to do double duty, I usually defer to the temperature of whatever else I’m cooking, as vegetables are less fussy. So I’ve roasted vegetables pretty much anywhere between 350°F and adding more roasting time (vegetables not as crisp, slightly mushier) to 450°F and subtracting roasting time (danger of burning / cooking unevenly). Just keep an eye on the veggies, taste regularly for doneness, and they’ll be okay.
4. I usually just eyeball the amount of oil, salt, and pepper. You’ll want to drizzle the oil over all of the vegetables after spreading them out on the baking sheet. Salt liberally – I sprinkle salt all over the vegetables, making sure I’ve hit every piece. After you’ve mixed everything together, oil should be coating every vegetable piece in an even layer. More delicate vegetables like asparagus or zucchini require less oil, but hardier vegetables with florets like broccoli or cauliflower have more surface area, and thus require more oil. It should sort of feel like you’re rubbing massage oil onto the vegetables – an even coating is good, but too much is not necessary!
5. Bored with salt and pepper? Some other seasonings I love: crushed red pepper, cumin, crushed Szechuan peppercorns.

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Roasted Vegetables

Ingredients

• Vegetables (Favorites: brussels sprouts, asparagus, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, zucchini)
• Good quality olive oil
• Good quality sea salt
• Freshly ground pepper

Instructions

• Heat oven to 400°F. See note about temperature above.
• Wash vegetables and trim any tough ends, stems, or stalks away. Cut into bite size pieces. For asparagus, I usually halve them. For brussels sprouts, keep those leaves that fall off when you trim the sprouts! They roast up into the crispiest, most wonderful little chips.
• Spread vegetables out on a baking sheet. Drizzle olive oil over the vegetables, and sprinkle a generous amount of salt and pepper. Good quality olive oil, salt, and pepper matter here, as they are often the only seasonings I use. Mix with your hands and ensure that all pieces are coated with olive oil and seasonings.
• Roast for 10-25 minutes. Time will depend on the kind of vegetable and size of the vegetable piece. Here are some recommended times for my favorite vegetables:

  Asparagus: 10-12 minutes

  Zucchini: 15-18 minutes

  Brussels sprouts: 15-20 minutes, depending on size

  Broccoli: 20-25 minutes

  Cauliflower: 20-25 minutes

  Carrots: 20-25 minutes

Can I tell you a secret? I am shocked by how many variations of pan-seared or baked salmon there are out there – salmon is so easy to cook. Who are these people who are like, let’s make it harder by adding a mustard white wine sauce, a honey glaze, a pecan maple crust? I kid, somewhat – I know these enhancements are likely delicious, but when I think salmon, I think dinner-on-the-table-in-20 minutes. James and I eat bare, unadorned seared salmon, seasoned with only salt and pepper, sometimes with a splash of lemon, probably twice a month or so. We don’t even buy any special salmon – just whatever is in the seafood counter at our local supermarket, and after sizzling in some olive oil, it is absolutely delicious.

As a side note, I know some people get nervous about cooking fish, but I find searing salmon much more relaxing than steak (one minute too long = tough!! unchewable! Ahh!!) or chicken (too little fat = more likely to stick and burn). I buy regular farm-raised salmon, and – environmental and ethical quandaries of aquaculture aside (ugh, why can’t we have nice things…) – it is really quite a forgiving fish due to its high fat content. Even if you overcook it a bit, it still has good flavor and won’t get tough and chewy like steak tends to. If you remain unconvinced, however, here is more information than I can ever provide on searing salmon. One important tip is to get salmon with the skin on – it will insulate the fish while it’s cooking so the meat doesn’t get tough, and is also just delicious (like the texture of crispy chicken skin) when seared properly. Yum!

In the same vein, I’d also like to extol the virtues of storebought pesto. No, it will not be better than the homemade variety with fresh basil. But it also doesn’t take 20 minutes and / or a food processor to make, and it will still be delicious for a weeknight dinner! Especially if you splurge out and can buy fresh pasta – you won’t even notice you’re using store pesto. I always have dried pasta in my pantry, and whenever I’m looking for an easy carb side, I pick up some pesto. I try to look for one that has basil as the primary ingredient, as opposed to canola or sunflower oil. You can also always punch up the flavor by adding some chopped fresh basil.

And, because no dinner is complete without vegetables (one of my dinner MUSTS. I NEED vegetables), nothing beats simple sautéed kale. This time, James tossed in some GINGER in addition to the garlic we normally use. Not lying – I was doubtful, and afraid that the ginger would overpower the kale. However, the sweetness of the kale played off the ginger beautifully, and the ginger really elevated the dish from boring kale to absolutely transcendent, transformed kale! I have a feeling I’m going to do a post dedicated to ginger and all the things we’ve been adding it to…

So there you have it. Easy salmon + easy pasta + easy vegetable = filling, nutritious, healthy dinner. Why make life harder than it has to be?

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Pan-Seared Salmon with Pesto Pasta and Gingery Sautéed Kale

Ingredients

For the Salmon

• Salmon fillets with skin that are about 6-8 ounces each (however many servings you want, just make sure they are all about the same size)
• Salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• Olive oil

For easy storebought pesto pasta

• Pasta, either dried or fresh
• Storebought pesto

For gingery sautéed kale

• 2-3 cloves garlic, peeled and coarsely chopped
• 1 tablespoon coarsely chopped ginger
• 1 bunch kale
• Salt and black pepper
• Olive or canola oil

Instructions

• Put a large pot of water on to boil for the pasta. Salt water liberally - at least a tablespoon or more of salt.

  For dried pasta: most dried varieties cook in about 10-13 minutes, so I recommend you wait for the water to boil and put the pasta in to cook just before you start cooking the salmon. Make sure you give the pasta a stir every once in a while, though, especially at the beginning of cooking, so that it doesn’t all stick together.

  For fresh pasta: this cooks much quicker, so if using fresh pasta, I actually recommend you finish cooking the salmon and the kale before cooking the pasta. The salmon will be fine resting a bit, and the kale will still stay warm through the quick pasta cooking time.
• Food Prep. Prep the kale, washing the leaves and discarding the tough, hardy stems. Tear leaves with your fingers into large pieces about the size of your palm, or roughly chop with a knife. Cut salmon into equally-sized fillets of about 6-8 ounces each, if necessary. Pat salmon fillets dry with a paper towel – dry salmon sears better than wet salmon, and is also less prone to sticking to the pan. Season with salt and black pepper on the side without skin.
• When pasta water has boiled, add pasta. Continue to boil the pasta, stirring occasionally so the pasta doesn't stick.
• Cook the salmon. Heat about 1 tablespoon of oil in a 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat. When the oil is hot and shimmering, put in the salmon fillets, skin side down. Try not to crowd them to get a good sear. Cook for 6-7 minutes. Don’t move the salmon once you’ve put it down! Pushing it about risks tearing the flesh and interfering with that nice sear you want. The salmon will be ready to flip once the flesh on the side turns from a fleshy pink to a lighter, opaque white about ¾ of the way up the sides of the thickest part of the fillet.
• Cook the kale. While the salmon is cooking, cook the kale. Heat 1-2 tablespoons of olive or canola oil over medium-high heat in a large saucepan or wok. When oil is hot, add garlic and ginger and cook for about 1 minute, or until fragrant. Add kale and about a quarter cup of water, and season with salt and pepper. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally. Add more water if you notice the bottom of the pan looking dry. The kale is done in about five minutes, when it turns a deep, vivid green and is tender to the bite. Remove from heat while you get everything else ready, but don't cover the pan - the steam will overcook the kale and make it soggy and sad.
• Back to the salmon. When the salmon is ready, flip salmon and cook for an additional 2-3 minutes. Salmon is done when it flakes easily. You can test for this by pressing down gently in the middle of a fillet (turn it back around first so that you’re poking the flesh and not the skin!) or by prodding it with a fork or paring knife to see if it flakes. You can also test the temperature in the thickest part of the fillet with a meat thermometer - it should read 120°F (49°C) for medium-rare, or 130°F (54°C) for medium. James and I tend to prefer salmon cooked to medium-rare or medium – that is, it’s still a bit translucent pink in the middle, like the appearance of medium rare steak. This is totally okay and I encourage you to try it – the resulting salmon is utterly tender and melt in your mouth. However, if you prefer your fish more well done, cook it for a bit longer to desired doneness. 
• Drain pasta and toss immediately with lots of pesto sauce.
• Serve each salmon fillet with a dollop of pasta and a dollop of kale and revel in all your free time!

Notes:

Please don’t be intimidated by the number of steps! There are a lot of tips and recommendations written in the recipe that aren’t really action items.

That being said, there is a potential panic moment where you may still be stirring the kale, but the timer has gone off to flip the salmon! Panic! Don’t worry. Kale is a hardy enough vegetable that it doesn’t overcook easily. Even overcooked kale still retains a bit of chewiness and structure, and doesn’t become mushy like, say, spinach. So – breathe – cover your kale, go and flip the salmon, and when you’re done, uncover the kale and give it a toss to mix together any overcooked bits with undercooked bits, and it’ll be perfect.

Room temperature salmon fillets will cook more evenly and sear better (crispier, crunchier skin) than cold fillets. I’ve cooked salmon fillets straight from the fridge with little problem (I am lazy and don’t always remember), but if you have the foresight, take the fillets out of the fridge about 15-20 minutes before cooking to let them come to room temperature.

Jackie, why does your kale pot look so small in the pictures? This is a classic case of “do as I say, not as I do.” I hate washing big pots, but desire LOTS of vegetables. I reconcile these two not reconcilable statements by stuffing too many vegetables in too small a pot. This risks resulting in many bad things: burning the vegetables or aromatics on the bottom because you’re unable to stir properly, overcooking the vegetables on the bottom, undercooking the vegetables on the top, spilling the vegetables everywhere when you try to stir. If you’re feeling lazy, brave, and foolish, try it! Even if any and all of the above happens, you’ve still got a pan of vegetables, and vegetables are delicious. If, however, you’ll do as I say and not as I do, try to find a pot that will be only about ¾ full once you add all the vegetables. This will allow for more air circulation so that vegetables will cook more evenly, and will also allow you to stir the vegetables more easily, which also results in more evenly cooked vegetables. In the end, life is choices, and so you do you.

You could also serve the salmon with any variety of easy carb or vegetable – basmati rice, boiled potatoes, baked potatoes (will take about an hour to cook but are totally hands off after they go in the oven), roasted vegetables, steamed vegetables, sautéed vegetables… endless variations on a very simple, very delicious theme!

Made this? Have some feedback? Let me know! Leave a comment below, or tag #trialbyfryer on Instagram!

Whew, there’s a lot of pressure for a first post! Which is why I’m turning to the tried-and-true, classic, utterly foolproof Melissa Clark for some support. I love the New York Times Cooking section, but Melissa Clark is always dependable, relatable, and makes the most approachable videos. This particular chicken dish is bright, salty, flavorful, and oh so easy. It takes a bit of time with the cooking, but it’s mostly dead time waiting for the chicken to brown / cook, etc., and the food prep is minimal. The anchovies are magical, adding a umami, robust flavor to the dish – do not skip them! They don’t make the resulting dish taste fishy at all. Also, if you happen to have a can of sardines in your cupboard and are wondering whether sardines and anchovies are similar and you can substitute them… they’re not. You can’t.

I doubled the recipe for leftovers and also because I conveniently had 10 anchovy fillets in my tin. The recipe calls for chicken thighs, but Melissa Clark says you can substitute breasts (and subtract 3 minutes off the final cooking time). I also imagine it would be delicious with drumsticks or even whole chicken wings as well. I also coarsely chop the garlic because I like eating roasted garlic pieces with my chicken, but if you don’t particularly care either way, you can just leave them smashed and it’s even less food prep.

When you’re done and the kitchen is fragrant with garlic and lemon, please serve this with crusty bread, buttery noodles, rice, or some other mild carb to soak up all that delicious sauce. You will have a lot of it, and trust me – none of it should be wasted! We ate it with basmati rice and roasted vegetables. You’ll have time to prep and cook some simple sides such as these while the chicken is cooking, and should be able to get a balanced, restaurant-worthy dinner on the table in under an hour. This chicken is definitely a weeknight staple in our household!

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Garlicky Chicken with Lemon Anchovy Sauce

Adapted from the New York Times

Ingredients

• 2 ½ pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs
• 12 garlic cloves, peeled, smashed, and coarsely chopped
• ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 10 anchovy fillets
• 4 tablespoons drained capers, patted dry
• Crushed red pepper
• 2 lemons, juiced
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Fresh chopped parsley, for serving

Instructions

• Heat oven to 350°F. Season the chicken thighs liberally with salt and pepper and let rest. Mince two of the garlic cloves and set aside. In a large, ovenproof skillet (I used a 12-inch cast iron pan) over medium-high heat, add the oil. When the oil is hot, add the remaining 10 chopped (or smashed) garlic cloves, anchovies, capers, and a couple of dashes of crushed red pepper. Let cook, stirring with a wooden spoon to break up the anchovies, until the garlic browns around the edges and the anchovies dissolve, about 3 to 5 minutes.
• Add the chicken thighs to the pan and cook until nicely browned on one side, about 7 minutes. Don’t worry - you won't burn the garlic. The chicken will release juices as it hits the hot pan and sort of braise all the aromatics you’ve just fried in the oil. Flip the thighs, place the pan in the oven and cook about another 7-10 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through. You can check doneness with a meat thermometer - the thickest part of the thigh should read 165°F. Don't worry if your chicken still looks a bit pink - thighs can look pinkish, especially near the bone, even when cooked.
• When the chicken is done, take the skillet out of the oven and transfer the thighs to another plate. Heat the skillet and its juices over medium heat and add the minced garlic and half the lemon juice. The juices should begin to simmer – cook for about 30 seconds, scraping up any browned bits on the bottom of the pan. Return chicken to the pan and cook it in the sauce for about another 30 seconds.
• Drizzle the remaining lemon juice over the chicken and garnish with a handful of chopped parsley. It makes a beautiful dish served straight from the pan!  

Final Notes:

*Longish cook time, but much of that is dead time

**This is what my timer said, but I have no idea why it was so long. Maybe I was fussing around with my whole extra pound of chicken (see below)! I’ll update if necessary once I’ve made this dish again. Because I will be making it again. And again and again and again!

Eagle eyed readers will ask – why is there so much chicken in your pictures?? I confess – I completely goofed, and accidentally added a whole extra pound of chicken – that is, in addition to the quantity specified after doubling the original recipe. What can I say – somehow, I thought that 3.5 = 2.5??? Anyway, it still came out delicious. The chicken was a bit blander and the juices more watery and so the whole dish wasn’t as rich, but the flavor that was there was still great. So don’t worry – even if you’re as absentminded as I am, this recipe is utterly forgiving.

Made this? Have some feedback? Let me know! Leave a comment below, or tag #trialbyfryer on Instagram. Happy cooking!