Happy sixth night of Hanukkah!
Ha ha. Ready for another giveaway? Let’s do this!
Today’s prize is a big honking box full of books.
Amanda: Help, I have too many books. But I have an assortment of new, unread romances and adjacent genres that I’d love to give away. This giveaway could have multiple winners as I have a ton of books from authors like Alyssa Cole, Beatriz Williams, Eloisa James, and Jenny Holiday.
Said box will have at least five books, but likely more. Pretty much, however many I can get on in there with some Tetris-ing.
Want to enter? Yay!
Just leave a comment and tell us what recipe you cooked most this year? Got a link? Let’s nosh!
Standard disclaimers apply: I am not being compensated for this giveaway. Void where prohibited. Open to international residents where permitted by applicable law. Must be over 18 and ready to get your read on. If your box contains a Linus whisker, please consider yourself blessed by my furry monster. Or as I like to call him: my Stinky Cheese Man.
Comments will close 16 December 2020 at or near 12pm ET, and winner will be announced shortly afterward.
Good luck, Happy Hanukkah, and thank you for being part of Smart Bitches!
Winner update: I’ve picked three comments because I have a lot of books to give away.
Our winners are:
My most-cooked recipe this year was stir-fry made from whatever I had left in the fridge. It helped me avoid the store!
Lemon broccoli pasta 🙂
Stir fry. A constantly to for me, it’s simple and I can use whichever veggies are on sale.
It’s been the year of soup for me. The one I made most was a simple chicken, squash and kale soup. So easy, hearty, and cozy!
The sheet pan dinner: protein and sides, roasted together in one pan for 30-40 minutes. We especially like chicken thighs; while the skin gets crispy in the oven, the drippings flavor the potatoes and other veggies, and cleanup is less painful because there’s only 1 dirty pan to worry about.
I’ve been baking bread. Mainly using recipes from “Josey Baker Bread”
The pioneer woman’s refried beans! Which then went into burritos or tacos
Cheese quesadillas! My local store sells premade, uncooked tortillas, so I cook two, put thinnish slices of cheese between them and let it melt. Cheddar is good, swiss is good, American is very melty but honestly kinda of gross by itself. I put pickles on it sometimes and sometimes a fried egg. It’s been a year of simplicity and familiarity. (If I’m out of tortillas, I make toast, put it in a cast iron pan, put cheese on it, and broil it for open-faced sandwiches. Branston pickle and cheddar is very tasty.)
Mixing berries with skyr is the closest I’ve come to cooking this whole year.
There’s two that are tied. Focaccia (especially with sage and/or sundried tomatoes). And Instant Pot Meat. That’s not a recipe as much as me dumping meat in the instant pot with whatever spices or herbs I have on hand. Very fancy I know.
Soup for me as well! I’ve been making chicken stock forever but apparently that makes me very trendy and cool if I call it bone broth instead… anyway my favorite is a curried red lentil soup that I basically thrown any leftover vegetable I have on hand into. Squash, cauliflower, sweet potatoes-it’s always different and always good.
Unfortunately, I *hate* cooking so it was mostly take-out for me this year. I know, I know … but I also felt compelled to help support local food providers as much as possible. And sushi or Vietnamese food was my go-to, at least once a week. If I was forced to eat my own groceries, it was usually breakfast for dinner, or cereal.
I have eaten approximately 1 million boxes of Zatarains Jambalaya since March.
I’ve made burritos at least once a month this year. It’s comfort food.
The recipe I cooked most this year was a classic over-easy egg sandwich. I’m not sure if it’s exciting enough to be considered a recipe, but two eggs between toasted bread is always a delicious and healthy meal and it was definitely my go-to breakfast this year.
Shout out also to this spicy Italian sausage and bow tie pasta recipe which is refreshing, filling, and utterly scrumptious. It was the dinner I ate the most this year, though my partner was usually the one actually cooking it.
https://www.seasoningbottle.com/spicy-italian-sausage-with-bow-tie-pasta/
Molasses cookies! The recipe is out of the Soframiz cookbook, which is just a great cookbook, generally. They’re dreamily easy, taste amazing, and I have spent way too many mornings telling myself that eating cookies for breakfast is basically like having a flat muffin so this is totally fine and good and healthy.
Also, a whole lot of pasta e fagioli, because it tastes like home and comfort (and garlic, can’t forget garlic) and this is a year I’ve needed all of those things.
Comfort food is the best – french toast made from stale challah
Radish-top soup!
Roast, pickle, give away the radishes. Don’t really care for them. But soup made from the radish greens is delicious.
My most made recipe this year are scrambled eggs.
When I was growing up, my mother would sometimes serve scrambled eggs, and while I liked the taste of them, I did not like the texture. It was slightly rubbery because mom would cook them dry.
Then I went away to school and the scrambled eggs served in the cafeteria were always undercooked, sloppy and unappetizing.
It wasn’t until I was served scrambled eggs in an upscale restaurant that I had some that were the perfect combination of flavour and texture: soft, creamy and delicious.
So I set out, at the tender age of fifty, to learn how to make this deliciousness, and by applying the „practice makes perfect“ principle I have finally got them down to an art. I have them plain on toast for breakfast, loaded with whatever I have on hand for a light lunch, or with a smidgeon of sugar and some cardamom for a protein-rich dessert.
I make a spicy oatmeal that’s become a bit of a comfort food for me. I basically fry up a base made up of familiar flavors (sometimes an Italian tomato-garlic-herds combo, sometimes a curry style base of onion-garlic-ginger-spices), add water or stock, bring to a boil and then add oatmeal. It’s very versatile, I can add whatever, subtract whatever. It’s been a go-to during pandemic times.
2020 was all about comfort food- lasagna. I’m lactose intolerant (but I can literally “take a pill”) so it’s not heavy on cheese, except cheddar and prolovone. Real noodles (I’ve done the no-boil but they are not the same), good sauce and lots of it, cheese, mushrooms, onions, more cheese on top. Okay so it is heavy on cheese. Two pills it is!
Scrambled eggs
I mostly made tuna pasta ale. It’s the ultimate comfort food.
I’ve done a lot of takeout this year- first because pandemic and second because they started remodeling the kitchen in May and didn’t finish till November. But I’ve been adding veggies and frozen shrimp to make my ramen a little more filling
I don’t cook, but I do bake. And I made an awful lot of Kongo Squares this year. I think everyone else on the planet calls them Blondies (chocolate chip cookies in bar form), but the ancient recipe from Good Housekeeping calls them Kongo Squares so my family does as well.
I have been making a lot of tofu. Mainly because husband does the shopping and he buys it a lot. Budget Bytes has some really nice recipes and I especially like her ginger peanut sauce. Sweet, but good!.
Probably cauliflower fried rice or roasted broccoli and cauliflower.
Butternut and Leek Risotto, with mascarpone and parmesan.
I only made this once, but it was so easy and really tasty. Homemade irish cream (Bailey’s)
https://smittenkitchen.com/2016/12/homemade-irish-cream/
Other than that definitely making a lot of basic pasta dishes that are large and filling, since everyone has been home most of the year, and we need to stretch the food to last more than one meal (and getting into the endless cooking loop)
The comment on this recipe that says “this is the highest flavor to effort ratio of any recipe I have made is spot on.” I make it with frozen green beans to make it even easier.
https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1020970-turmeric-black-pepper-chicken-with-asparagus?smid=ck-recipe-iOS-share
Ooooh, we love cooking in this house! There’s a lot of favorites that come back often, the most useful is homemade pizza. I use Ricardo’s recipe for the dough except I let it rise 2 to 3 hours instead of just 1 and the result is extra chewy. (A commenter also suggested using beer instead of water in the dough recipe, and I want to try that.)
Toppings are whatever’s in the fridge
– tomato sauce, or olive oil+sprinkled dry italian herbs or pesto as base (or bechamel if it’s seafood pizza) for base
– salami or leftover chicken or sausage or firm tofu rolled in curry or frozen spinach or shrimps, etc.
– mozarella or cheddar or Oka or feta or Brie, or a mix of it all depending of whats lurking in the cheese compartment
– onions or eggplants (slighty cooked before hand) or seasoned squash (slighty cooked before hand) or brocoli (steamed before hand) or mushrooms (I like ’em crispy so I precook them), asparagus, cherry tomato halves, etc. (one vegetable I did not like on my pizza: avocado… that surprised me, avocado is always a + as far as I’m concerned, but not on pizza).
8 mins in the oven at 550°F – bonus if you have a pre-heated pizza stone to turn the dough heavenly (no soggy dough!)
Another bonus: the kids love to do the pizzas, from rollong the dough to decorating. We do pizza at least once a month, sometimes more.
Then there’s the Olive+Gourmando banana muffins (with sour cream made fluffy with baking soda, cardamom+cinnamon and walnuts). The kids love it si much they refuse to eat the last bananas until they’re black just so we’ll have to make muffins. (Hey! I found the recipe in English!! https://whatsheshaving.com/tag/olive-et-gourmando/)
We also do lots of Ramen, especially the husband. He makes a mean pork bones chasu.
My newest discovered favorite recipe: Japchae, with glass noodles https://mykoreankitchen.com/korean-glass-noodle-stir-fry-japchae/
Except I soak my dehydrated mushroom 3-4 hours instead of just 20 min, and I add cabbage, usually cooked like this: https://www.chinasichuanfood.com/glass-noodles-stir-fry-with-shredded-cabbage/ (I only took the cabbage part of this recipe).
Haha, as you can see I’m a food nut (and I’m holding back to not add anothe dozen fav recipe!). We may live in a pig pen (a cleaning nut I am not…) but we eat like royalty!
I got really into thai curry,helped greatly by chef Jet Tila’s videos on YouTube. Also this yummy mango curry https://minimalistbaker.com/thai-yellow-coconut-curry-mango/
During quarantine, I baked a basic yeast bread (with a touch of honey), following Martha Stewart’s recipe, multiple times. (An out-of-state friend sent me yeast when shelves here were bare.) That bread was amazing!
I should add that since we got an Instapot a few months ago, I’m making mac-and-cheese like a fiend: a pound of macaroni pasta and four cups of broth. Pressure cook six minutes (five if you prefer al dente). Quick release. Switch pot to the sauté function and stir in a small can of evaporated milk, three tablespoons unsalted butter, two teaspoons dried mustard, and 12 ounces of your favorite cheese(s), grated (do not use pre-grated cheese—sacrilege!)—we like a combination of gruyere and the sharpest cheddar we can find. Bonus: throw in some cooked broccoli and/or shredded cooked chicken. Voila!
Omg I’ve made the Smitten Kitchen
“roast chicken with schmaltzy cabbage” so so much. I’ll usually also throw in a potato to bake in the meantime. Delicious!
Definitely chili. I actually bought a bigger pot, so I could make larger batches and freeze them in 1-2 serving Tupperware.
I’m another for a year of soup! I signed up for a produce box this year to reduce grocery store visits while making sure I still consume vegetables. It’s been great for things like using spaghetti squash instead of pasta, but the number one thing I keep ending up doing is making vegetable soup with whatever odds and ends I still have. Particularly the celery – I’ve never been able to develop a taste for it raw.
Stoffers’ Cheesy Potatoes. Microwaved lunch. Fast. Good. Fairly inexpensive, at least at my grocery store.
(time is a valuable commodity in my life)
BBQ Pork Nachos! 2020 has been all about comfort food.
I’ve been working on perfecting my homemade pizza!
I have a toddler, so we have cooked a lot of macaroni and cheese this year, but probably the recipe that is made the most often is pancakes, because we have them every Sunday. I have to confess that my husband does most of the cooking, though.