Scallion Pancakes

Notes:

• I froze two of them for later. It's a little harder to make sure they get cooked in the middle without burning the outside but they still taste really good.
  

Verdict: I already knew I liked scallion pancakes, and fresh homemade ones are even more of a treat. They're kind of a lot of work, but really delicious.

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RECIPE: Cong You Bing Scallion Pancakes (The Woks of Life)

Watermelon and Strawberry Smoothie

I have been making this for so long I forgot where I originally found the recipe, but it is a great way to use up a lot of watermelon and is a nice fruity drink for summer. It also lends itself nicely to becoming an adult beverage with the addition of vodka or gin.

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RECIPE:

Watermelon-Strawberry Smoothie
Makes about 2 1/2 cups

2 cups fresh watermelon, cubed
1 cup frozen strawberries
1 tbsp sweetened lime juice (or 2 tsp lime juice and 1 tsp your favorite sweetener), or to taste

Place all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth, about 20-30 seconds. Pour into a tall glass. Serve immediately.

Candy Apples

Candy apples were something I never had until I was an adult, but heard about from old cartoons. Caramel covered apples are more common where I live, but no bright red candy apples. Until I made them for myself for Halloween in maybe 2008 or 2010. I really enjoyed them. Fast forward to 2020, where I was looking for ~a e s t h e t i c~ treats to make myself for a Halloween tea party, and decided I wanted to make these again.

Please, please cut them before you try to eat them or you'll have a bad time.

Notes:

• Use smaller apples because they'll be easier to handle and coat.
• I used Honeycrisp apples because I like how they taste fresh. Any apple you like to eat fresh that's more on the sour side will work great.
  
• If you can get freshly picked apples from your local orchard or farm market for this, I highly recommend it. You will definitely be able to taste the difference.
  
• Try not to have too much candy coating pool on the bottom, because it's hard and difficult to bite through.
  
• These are best consumed the day they are made, or possibly the next day. They do not keep well.
  
• To eat them, DO NOT try to eat them by biting into the side of a whole one. Cut them into pieces with a knife first.
  

Verdict: I remember these being way more delicious the first time I made them. Maybe I have grown out of them but honestly, I think I'd rather just have a plain apple. They're pretty and look impressive, and are an iconic traditional Halloween treat, but from now on I think I'll stick to other apple desserts I know I like better. But if you like hard candy and sugary treats, or are just nostalgic for an old fashioned treat, these will do the trick nicely.

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RECIPE: Candy Apples (Just a Taste)

Refrigerator Garlic Dill Pickles

 

I only remember going down there once as a kid, but in my grandma's basement there were shelves lined with jars full of pickles, and whenever we came to visit (usually once a year) she would send us home with a few. They were my favorite pickles, and I was always sad when they were gone. I was always a little weirded out by the spidery looking heads of dill in the jars, but I knew that was what made the pickles taste good.

Fast forward to being an adult and developing a taste for the refrigerated, non-shelf-stable kind (because it's the only thing that came close to tasting like the ones my grandma made), and then finding myself with an overabundance of cucumbers in the summer (not sure what possessed me to buy an entire ice cream pail full of pickling cucumbers at the farmer's market, but I did). I was really excited when I found out I could make pickles without having to can them, and they were the kind I liked the most!

It feels good to pick up and carry the pickle torch forward into the future (ha).

Notes:

• You want to pack the jars tightly enough that the cucumbers don't move around much (they will float if they're not packed tightly), but not so tightly that there's not enough brine in the jar to flavor them.
• I don't leave them at room temperature for a couple of days like the recipe instructs; I wait until they cool to room temperature, then transfer directly to the fridge. They still taste great.
  
• Sometimes the garlic will turn blue in the brine as it sits in the fridge, but this is harmless!
  

Verdict: I love them. This is my first time posting about them, but I've made this recipe for quite a few years and it has become my go-to when I'm not in the mood for sweet pickles.

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RECIPE: Refrigerator Garlic Dill Pickles (The Creekside Cook)

Miso and Black Sesame Caramel Popcorn

This recipe entered my social media orbit earlier this spring and I just had to try it. Salty and sweet? Sign me up.

Verdict: It was OK. The fact that I only had miso with dashi (fish broth) in it made it taste kind of odd, but in general everything else was great. I will likely try again when I have miso without dashi in it.

 

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RECIPE: Miso Black Sesame Caramel Corn (Smitten Kitchen)

Puppy Chow

A friend of my mom's introduced my family to this treat when I was about 6 or 7 years old by having us help her make it. It gets its name from looking sort of like dog kibble. You may know it by another name, such as People Chow or Muddy Buddies. This is another thing that you only ever used to be able to get by making it yourself, but I have seen it fully prepared and for sale in some grocery stores. I have very recently found friends who also know what this is from their childhood and absolutely love it. If you love the combination of chocolate and peanut butter and you also like sweets, you'll probably love it too.

If you want to be extra (gross), you can put it in a bowl, pour milk over it and eat it like cereal, like I did very occasionally when I was a kid. Yikes! Seriously, it tastes better all by itself.

Notes:

• Instead of shaking it in a bag to coat it with powdered sugar, my mom used to leave the cereal in the bowl, sift the powdered sugar over the chocolate coated cereal, and mix until it was coated. This way tends to coat the pieces less evenly but might potentially be less messy and involve fewer containers.

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RECIPE:

Puppy Chow
Makes about 8 cups, serves 8-12 as a snack

6 cups Crispix cereal (about 1 12 oz box)
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup creamy peanut butter
½ cup (4 oz, 1 stick) butter
2 cups powdered sugar

Place cereal in large mixing bowl and set aside. Melt together chocolate chips, peanut butter, and butter on stove or in the microwave on high power in 30 second increments, and mix until fully combined. Pour chocolate mixture over cereal and stir gently until coated. Place 1 cup powdered sugar in a large, clean paper or plastic bag; add half of the cereal, close the bag and shake until coated. Repeat with second cup of powdered sugar and other half of cereal mixture. Store in an airtight container.

Chex Party Mix

My mom has made this mix of cereal pieces, pretzels, and nuts with a buttery, savory coating baked on during the winter for end of year holidays and sometimes the Superbowl for as long as I can remember. As of late she likes to give it for holiday gifts instead of cookies. It's nice to have something salty when there are usually lots of sweets around.

When I was little, I don't think you could regularly buy this already prepared but I think in the late 1990s or early 2000s it started being mass produced. These days you can get it at just about any grocery store and probably even at most convenience stores, and there are all kinds of crazy flavors (hot cocoa anyone? it reminded me of puppy chow) but you should still try making your own because it tastes a LOT better. It's incredibly easy to make, more buttery, maybe not so overwhelmingly salty, and you can put in or leave out any cereal or salty snack you like to suit your tastes. Below is my family's version, tweaked just a little further to suit my own specific preferences.

My favorite pieces have always been the wheat Chex that are super saturated with the coating. Loved them as a kid, still love them now.

Notes:

• My mom always makes a giant batch (usually 3 times what is listed below) to use up all the boxes of cereal she has to buy to make this instead of getting left with a bunch of half-full boxes of cereal. She bakes it in a big turkey roasting pan. As long as you end up with the correct volume of ingredients (9 cups of cereal and 3 cups nuts/pretzels/crackers/etc) for the amount of coating you're making, the ratios can be entirely suited to your tastes and what you have. (It's a lot easier to finish eating a whole batch than you might think!)
• If you don't want to buy separate boxes of rice and corn cereal, buy a kind that has rice on one side and corn on the other (i.e., Crispix or a store brand of that).
• My family's version uses cashew nuts rather than mixed nuts. My mom likes to put in plain Cheerios (the cereal) but I leave them out. I was never a fan of rye bagel chips because the texture is so hard and the pieces are pretty large compared to the other ingredients, so I don't use them.
• Important pretzel notes: the mini pretzel sticks are very nostalgic and essential in my eyes, but you can use other small, thin pretzel shapes that are easy to bite into if you can't find mini sticks or (gasp) don't like them.
• You can also make this on a rimmed baking sheet (I recommend a half sheet pan). Instead of making the sauce in the pan, melt the butter in the microwave in a medium microwavable bowl or on the stove in a small saucepan, add seasonings, and pour it over the cereal mixture in the large bowl and stir to coat before transferring it to the baking sheet.
• Other ideas for add-ins for some variation: cheese crackers, sesame sticks, bagel chips, peanuts or another nut of your choice.

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RECIPE:

Chex Party Mix
Adapted from the recipe by the manufacturers of Chex
Makes about 12 cups

3 cups corn Chex or other corn based lattice-weave cereal
3 cups rice Chex or other rice based lattice-weave cereal
3 cups wheat Chex or other wheat based lattice-weave cereal
1 1/2 cups whole cashew nuts, or a mix of cashew nuts and peanuts
1 1/2 cups mini pretzel sticks
6 tbsp (3/4 stick) unsalted butter
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 ½ tsp seasoning salt (Lowry's is the only brand I know of, haha)
¾ tsp garlic powder
½ tsp onion powder

Preheat oven to 250°F. Place cereals, cashews, and pretzel sticks in a large bowl and stir gently to combine. Place the butter in a large roasting pan that is big enough to hold the cereal mixture with some extra room, then put the pan in the oven to let the butter melt. When it is melted, stir in the Worchestershire sauce, seasoning salt, garlic powder, and onion powder. Add cereal mixture to the roasting pan and stir gently until evenly coated. Bake 1 hour, removing the pan from the oven to stir the mix every 15 minutes. Spread on paper towels or clean kitchen towels until completely cooled, about 30 minutes. Store at room temperature in a zippered plastic bag or other airtight container.