Sheet Pan Chicken Tikka

While a lot of things about our new house are great, we get Indian food much less often now. We were spoiled previously because we had a really good Indian restaurant close enough to walk to, and on nights we wanted to order food instead of cooking it was a convenient and tasty treat. I tried for a while to make good Indian food but never really came close to what I was looking for, so I kind of gave up. However, when I saw this on Smitten Kitchen's Instagram, I had to try it.

Verdict: Would definitely make again. While this is not exactly a substitute for Indian restaurant food it WAS really good and scratched the itch nicely. I loved the marinade for the chicken! It was a little bit labor intensive but well worth it. I think I liked the potatoes and cauliflower even more than the chicken. I also loved the quick pickled red onions on the top. They are bright, fresh, and colorful.

RECIPE: Sheet Pan Chicken Tikka

Holiday Bakeathon 2017

This year was a bit different from usual, marked most heavily by the absence of Sarah, one of our main Bakeathon participants. But it is for the best reason: she is cooking and helping out at her friend's bed and breakfast in Auros, France for 3 months. I invited my friend Paula to join this year in her place, and we scaled back the recipe list a little bit so that we wouldn't be working for quite so long.

However, Sarah was in our minds and hearts; we regularly sent photos to Sarah throughout the day, listened to Beyonce while we worked, and talked smack about white chocolate in her stead (even me, even though I like it). Sarah doesn't like white chocolate, so any recipe I suggest with white chocolate is usually met with some resistance. This year I included one because she wasn't around to nix it, and the white chocolate made the recipe difficult. She tried to warn me.

We've created a tradition of making some sort of a house or structure or diorama type scene with things from the leftover gingerbread dough that is too tough/saturated with flour from rolling (though I usually end up eating it anyway). This year was a tiny house, 2016 was a campfire and tent to which we added some of the ninja bread men.

RECIPES

• Spicy Gingerbread Cookies (Smitten Kitchen)
• Cream Cheese Frosting
• Cinnamon-Sugar Rugelach
• Matcha Green Tea Spritz (Good Housekeeping) -- the white chocolate in this recipe completely hosed the shaping. It solidified in chunks when we mixed it in because the rest of the ingredients were cold, and the chunks clogged the piping tip and made me sad. I’d make it again but leave out the white chocolate. Save it for dipping or drizzling over the finished cookies instead :)
• Almond Spritz (Taste of Home)
• Peanut Butter Chocolate Swirl Bark (Two Peas and Their Pod)
• Salted Caramel Nuts (The Barefoot Contessa) -- We added a couple of teaspoons of bourbon whiskey at the same time as the vanilla, and loved the result. Once the nuts were mixed in, it solidified way too fast to get the nuts spread out. They’re definitely more salted caramel nut clusters rather than individual nuts. That said, they were quite good. I don't know whether or not this clumping is because we put bourbon in it.

BAKEATHONS PAST

• 2016
• 2015
• 2014