Lemon Polenta Cake

A former coworker introduced me to this recipe. She had been on vacation in Italy and this cake was served at the breakfast buffet at her hotel. She had one bite and fell in love. She and her husband went down to breakfast early the next day to make sure they wouldn't run out before she got all that she wanted to eat. After she returned home, she made this cake and brought it into work to share, and promptly hooked all of us on this delicious treat too. I knew she liked to make Nigella Lawson's recipes (chocolate fruit cake was another recipe she always made for holiday parties), so when I went looking for lemon polenta cake recipe and saw Nigella Lawson had a recipe for it I knew this was the right one.

She passed away four years ago today, but I always think of Barbara when I make lemon polenta cake, and I like to think her joy lives on each time I introduce someone else to it.

Notes:

• I like to serve it with fresh berries on top.
• You can also top the cake with lemon curd, which is 100% unnecessary but it definitely tastes good.

-----------------

RECIPE: Lemon Polenta Cake

Smitten Kitchen's Perfect Meatballs and Spaghetti

I'm on a roll with the Smitten Kitchen recipes lately! I saw this on her Instagram recently and had to try it because it looks delicious, the meatballs are baked in the oven (the only way to do it as far as I'm concerned), and both my husband and I are big fans of spaghetti and meatballs.

Changes/deviations:

• I used half ground chuck (beef) and half ground pork for the meat.
• I doubled the meatballs because I wanted leftovers and there wasn't a good way to only buy 1/2 pound of each type of meat when I was buying it. I used 3 eggs (doubled would have been 4).
• Used angel hair pasta instead of spaghetti because it's what I had
• Cooked meatballs for ~15 minutes because they weren't done after 12 minutes, and I think it's because I made mine bigger than the recipe asked. Apparently my estimation of 2 inches is a lot bigger than 2 inches, haha. I ended up with 16 large meatballs (doubled recipe) while the recipe photos show 12 meatballs for a single batch. whep.
• Accidentally doubled the garlic in the sauce even though I wasn't doubling the sauce. Sometimes too much garlic can ruin a dish but a couple extra cloves' worth was fine here.

Verdict: Definitely will make again. It's a little more fussy than what I'm used to (! lol because this is supposed to be easy, and it was) but well worth the effort. The meatball mixture felt kind of soft but they cooked really nicely and smelled wonderful. You can really smell the cheese in them. Since I was only making it for two people I might cut back on the pasta next time, though I also don't want to prepare pasta 2-3 times for this. I had never made pasta like this where you heat it again with some of the sauce and reserved pasta water and it was great! This would be a really good, easy thing to make for a dinner party.

RECIPE: Perfect Meatballs and Spaghetti

Blood Orange Margaritas

I have been wanting to try these ever since a coworker told me how much she loved them when she made them. Now that it's finally blood orange season again, I got my chance. I served them with carnitas tacos. I did not change anything about the recipe.

Verdict: They were definitely good, but not blow-your-socks-off good (for me at least). Given how hard to source and potentially pricey blood oranges can be, I don't know that I'll go out of my way to make these again, but I am definitely glad I tried it!

RECIPE: Blood Orange Margaritas

Vermontucky Lemonade

I ran across this on Smitten Kitchen and I had fresh lemons, so I decided to give it a try! It's basically maple lemonade with bourbon whiskey (I used Buffalo Trace, and the smaller amount of it). I wasn't sure how maple and lemon were going to taste together but I was curious.

Verdict: It was pretty nice! It was a little bit watered down tasting but I am almost certain it's because of some not great decisions about how I prepared the lemonade. I don't know that I'll go out of my way to make it again since bourbon is not my first choice of things to drink (and if I do drink it I tend to drink it by itself) but I'm glad I tried it, and if someone put this in front of me I'd happily drink it. I'd even try it again if I would make the lemonade properly.
Edit: After thoroughly chilling it and letting it stand in the fridge for a few days I think the lemonade tasted better.

RECIPE: Vermontucky Lemonade

Blueberry-Lavender Bundt Cake with Lemon Glaze

I wanted to try something that combined blueberry, lavender, and lemon flavors. A cake seemed like a good way to do it. Any two of those three ingredients go well together, so why not all three?

Notes/changes:

• I added 2 tbsp of culinary lavender to the sugar. I used a suribachi (a Japanese-style mortar and pestle with grooves in the bottom of the bowl) to grind the lavender with 1/4 cup of the sugar before adding it to the bowl with the butter. The lavender flavor was pronounced -- I could smell and taste it, and it was plenty strong but not overwhelming for the people I served it to. I'm glad I resisted the urge to use 3 tbsp, though if I were making it just for myself or people that I know like the taste of lavender I think 3 tbsp would be better.
• I used plain 2% Greek yogurt instead of sour cream, which has a little less moisture but worked just fine.
• I disagree with the recipe's instruction of using only liquid shortening to grease the pan (especially oil) because it falls down the sides of the pan before you can flour it. I used about 1/2 tbsp of soft (not melted) butter + flour on a nonstick pan, and had zero problems getting it out of the pan.
• Baked for 53 minutes and this was plenty, maybe could have even done with less.
• I made lemon glaze instead of the vanilla glaze in the recipe. I thinned out the leftover filling I had from these cookies with more lemon juice because I wanted to use it up, but honestly it will work way better without the cream cheese. If you wanted lemon icing you could use the recipe with the blueberry cake, but omit the vanilla and use fresh lemon juice instead of milk.

Verdict: My coworkers and husband really enjoyed it, and I am also pleased with how it turned out, especially for how easy it was to make. I'd consider making it again.

RECIPE: Blueberry-Lavender Bundt Cake with Lemon Glaze

Szechuan Green Beans and Ground Pork

 

This is a recipe I stumbled upon when I had ground pork and didn't know how to use it. I was looking for recipes and I thought this one sounded good. It's probably the best recipe I've ever tried on a whim, honestly. It's pretty simple to make and incredibly good! Even my parents like it! I have made this many times in the last 10 years or so and the version written below takes my preferences into account.

Notes:

• The photos above depict a double batch.
• This is not meant to be swimming in sauce like a lot of American Chinese food.
• I partially cook my green beans before adding them because adding them in raw results in them being not quite cooked. Be sure you drain the water from your green beans really well or it will prevent the ingredients from frying properly and dilute the sauce.
• The original recipe specifically called for white rice but eat it with whatever rice you like. I have eaten it with white Japanese rice, white jasmine rice, and brown Japanese rice, and all were quite good.

------------------

RECIPE:

Szechuan Green Beans and Ground Pork
adapted from a recipe by Leeann Chin and Katie Chin, originally published in Cooking Light, April 2006
Serves 3-4

2 cups hot cooked rice

2 tbsp hoisin sauce (Lee Kum Kee brand is my favorite)
1 tsp sugar
1/4 to 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper (more if you like it really spicy)
2 teaspoons low-sodium soy sauce
1/2 pound ground pork
1 tsp corn starch
1/8 tsp salt
1/8 tsp freshly ground white pepper (if you don't have white pepper, black works too)
1 tsp peanut or canola oil
1 tsp minced garlic
2 1/2 cups cut green beans, partially cooked and drained very well (I partially cook frozen ones in the microwave and then squeeze some of the water out before adding to the pan)

Stir together hoisin sauce, sugar, red pepper flakes, and soy sauce in a small bowl and set aside.

Combine pork, cornstarch, salt, and pepper in a bowl or on a plate until just mixed.

In a large non-stick skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. When oil is hot, add garlic and fry until fragrant and very light brown, being careful not to let it burn. Add the pork mixture to the pan and fry until it is no longer pink, stirring occasionally with a wooden spatula to break it into large crumbles. Add the green beans and fry for about 3 more minutes, stirring occasionally. Make a well in the center of the pan and pour the sauce into the well. Once it has heated up and starts to thicken and bubble and caramelize (about 1 minute), stir it into the pork and green beans to coat. Serve over hot cooked rice.

COOKING LIFE HAX: Ponzu + sesame oil dressing

I stumbled upon a life hack tonight for all my Asian salad dressing needs: drizzle ponzu (Kikkoman has the easiest one to find where I live) and toasted sesame oil over your salad and mix it, then eat. You don't even have to mix them together first before pouring on your salad. This goes especially well over something super simple like spring mix and tomatoes.

Teriyaki Pork Rice Bowl

Today's adventure in cooking is once again brought to you by Just One Cookbook! I turn to Nami's blog for many a Japanese food recipe because it covers a lot of good home cooking recipes that I miss from my host family, and new home cooking recipes to try. Donburi (rice bowls) remains one of my favorite genres of Japanese food, so I was excited to try this when I saw it.

Pork chops are something that can be hard to make interesting. When I was a kid my mom would bread them with crushed crackers and pan fry them, and I liked them even if they could be kind of dry. My husband had only ever had them coated in Shake-n-Bake and it was a frequent meal at his house. He didn't like it all that much to begin with and quickly got sick of it, so for the longest time he was convinced he hated pork chops. He was really suspicious the first time I said I was making pork chops, but once I assured him there would be no Shake-n-Bake anywhere near it he agreed to try it. I am slowly trying to make his knee jerk reaction to the words "pork chops" go away, and so far he's liked all the ways I've prepared them. Just don't call them pork chops when you tell him what it is and it's fine. ;) We've half jokingly taken to calling them "pork steaks" instead, haha.

This, however, was the first way I've had pork chops that I thought was exceptional.

I tripled the recipe since I had a family size package of pork chops, and it seemed like it would make good leftovers. I made very minor substitutions: bottled minced ginger and garlic instead of fresh because it's what I had, and baby spring mix instead of iceberg lettuce. I made sure the garlic was drained really well since it was going to be cooked in oil. I also cooked the sauce down slightly after removing the pork chops from the pan to make it a little thicker. I tasted the sauce all by itself after reserving it from cooking and it seemed like it was missing something, but on top of the finished dish, it's perfect! Resist the urge to add anything to it. I feel like the amount of cornstarch listed is very generous and you could easily do with less; I used maybe 3/4 of that amount.

Verdict: For how easy this is to make, it was REALLY good. My husband also really liked it. I will definitely be making this again!

RECIPE: Teriyaki Pork Donburi