Everything Drop Biscuits with Cream Cheese

April 19, 2023May 4, 2023 by akc

Much like Deb I am not an authority on biscuits, but I do enjoy them. I wanted to have some thing special but easy on hand for breakfast on our anniversary, and decided to make the Everything Drop Biscuits with Cream Cheese from Smitten Kitchen Every Day.

We have a jar of Everything Spice Mix from Zucker’s Bagels in NYC, so I used that instead of assembling my own mix. The biscuits came together very quickly, but it was messy to form them and get them coated in the everything mix. I was also unsure how big to make them to get 12, as there wasn’t any guidance. I ended up with 6 big ones and 6 small-to-tiny ones.

Given the different sizes I ended up pulling the tiny ones out at 10 minutes, the small at 13, and the large ones went for 20 minutes. They didn’t really turn golden, but the ones in the picture didn’t look particularly golden either.

We let them cool briefly before digging in. They’re tasty plain, but I also enjoyed mine with a bit of spicy honey.

I’d initially planned to bake half and freeze half following her suggestion, but decided to just bake them all off at once. They were best on day one, but I didn’t notice any big drop in quality on day two. (I let them cool all day and then put them into a container that I left on the counter.)

Two biscuits sit on a white plate with a red and black edging. The biscuits are oddly shaped, with nooks and crannies throughout. They're coated in sesame seeds, poppy seeds, toasted onion, and toasted garlic. — Everything Drop Biscuits with Cream Cheese from *Smitten Kitchen Every Day.*

(Bucatini) Pangrattato with Crispy Eggs

April 15, 2023April 6, 2023 by akc ♥ 1 Comment

Often when my husband is out for the evening, I make myself some kind of simple pasta dish, usually relying on things we already have on hand. I’ve done Deb’s Simplest Spaghetti al Limone and her Foolproof Cacio e Pepe, but I wanted to try a new one. The Spaghetti Pangrattato with Crispy Eggs from Smitten Kitchen Every Day looked delicious and I had everything except the spaghetti. I used bucatini, despite Deb’s low opinion of it.

Pangrattato is an Italian topping that is essentially bread crumbs sautéed in olive oil with whatever herbs and seasonings sound good to you. Having had another pangrattato via Bon Appétit’s Winter Squash and Kale Pasta with Pecan Breadcrumbs I knew it would be delightful. (And yes, you should make that Bon App recipe, but don’t use noodles, use a rigatoni or something else you can more easily stab onto a fork next to a chunk of squash.)

This is pretty simple. While the water came up to a boil I made the pangrattato, using panko for extra crunch, and omitting the lemon zest because all our lemons had seen better days. I did eventually nudge the heat on the pangrattato up a notch because it’d been going for probably three minutes and I didn’t see any change in color. Once I turned up to medium low, it finished up pretty quickly. At that point the pasta went into the pot and I started on the egg.

I was a little nervous about the crispy egg but I’ve read about making these and watched videos so I decided to just trust the process. (Here’s two minutes of Kenji López-Alt being extremely opinionated about fried eggs while demonstrating the technique.)

I let the oil get just to where I saw it shimmering, got it mostly onto one side of the pan, and cracked the egg in. (In retrospect I should have cracked the egg into a little bowl and then poured it into the oil. I didn’t get any shell into it but there is no way you’re fishing that out when you’re making a crispy egg.) The egg puffed up pretty quickly and started browning at the edges almost right away. I spooned some oil over a few times and tried to keep an eye on the bottom. When it looked good to me I took it out and I actually just let it sit on a clean spot on the cutting board. I did have a hard time getting the egg out — it kept flipping over — but we got there.

I realized too late that I didn’t save any pasta water, so I combined the oil you use to finish the pasta with a little splash of white vermouth. I also tossed in some of the pangrattato to get a bit of it incorporated into the dish. And yes I did add parmesean to the pangrattato.

This was a very tasty and simple meal. I liked the addition of the egg and enjoyed how savory and crunchy it was.

Some bucatini is tangled up in a shallow white bowl, topped with golden brown pieces of panko. A crispy fried egg sits on top. The whites are bubbled and the edges are golden brown. — Spaghetti Pangratta t o with a Crispy Egg from Smitten Kitchen Every Day.

Romesco, Chickpea, and Smashed Egg Bowl

April 11, 2023April 5, 2023 by akc

Based on the stickie note flag on the page, the Romesco, Chickpea, and Smashed Egg Bowl caught my interest when I first got my copy of Smitten Kitchen Every Day. Which was immediately upon publication in 2017, so it’s an example of why I’m doing this project.

I did make some substitutions and changes for this recipe, somewhat treating it like a template. Here’s the rundown:

I did not roast my own red peppers. My husband makes a romesco with jarred roasted red peppers and it’s delicious, so I decided to save myself some time. I got a jar of whole roasted red peppers and was able to get two of them out without much difficulty.
I used fresh tomatoes (the “on the vine” kind from the grocery store) and did not peel them.
I made some quinoa because it felt like it’d go really well, and indeed it did.
I used greek yogurt because that’s what I keep on hand. Sometimes I’ll thin it out but I didn’t bother this time.
I used fresh baby arugula because we already had some we needed to use.

This came out really well, and there’s a lot here that you can prep ahead of time. While it did make a lot of dishes, you can get it down to one skillet/frypan instead of two, just by wiping it out a bit after the first use. And if you make the eggs or the romesco ahead of time, that’ll cut down on the pile of dishes as well.

We had this for dinner and it was quite good. We particularly liked the combination of romesco and yogurt, and I was glad I made the quinoa, I liked the greens & grains vibe. The soft-boiled eggs work nicely here, but you could do whatever your preferred egg is.

I did find that the raw garlic here is a little overpowering. I used one large clove; next time I think I’ll try one small clove. I might also throw it in the pan with the tomato for a minute to mellow it out a bit. When serving I’ll also chop up the charred scallion, as they were difficult to cut once they were in the bowl, and I wanted it to be a little more distributed.

I did get the marcona almonds for this, but they are pricey (moreso than I thought, apparently I wasn’t paying quite close enough attention when I did the grocery order). While they’re a nice touch I think you’ll do perfectly fine with regular regular roasted almonds.

The front of the image is dominated by a slightly chunky red romesco sauce. It's been poured on top of some tricolor quinoa and a wilted & browned scallion. On top there are some chopped marcona almonds and parsley. Towards the back of the bowl there's some arugula peeking out from under a small blap of yogurt. Next to that, a soft boiled egg has been broken open and rests on top of some chickpeas. — The Romesco, Chickpea, and Smashed Egg Bowl from *Smitten Kitchen Every Day*.

Sizzling Beef Bulgogi Taco (Salad)

April 7, 2023March 28, 2023 by akc

I think I might have served the Sizzling Beef Bulgogi Tacos from Smitten Kitchen Every Day as tacos the first time, but I decided right away that I like it better as a salad, so that’s how I serve it. I’ve tried this with turkey and with Impossible grounds and both were fine, but since this is one of two beef dishes we make, and we don’t even have beef monthly, it’s not really worth the substitute.

As with many of Deb’s recipes this comes together in a flash. And, you can prep everything and just wait until a few minutes before you want to eat to cook the beef. Easy!

We typically get three servings out of this, although the third is sometimes on the small side.

A pilot of chopped romaine lettuce rests in a shallow white bowl. The lettuce is very lightly dressed, just enough to catch the light, and topped with chopped cherry tomatoes, toasty pieces of browned ground beef, and a shower of toasted sesame seeds. A wedge of lime peeks out from the back right. — The Sizzling Beef Bulgogi Tacos, served as a salad, from *Smitten Kitchen Every Day*.

Sheet Pan Chow Mein

April 3, 2023March 28, 2023 by akc

Deb recently shared this Sheet Pan Chow Mein on Instagram, and I immediately saved it and queued it up for an upcoming dinner. I like that it’s vegetarian and that it’s not similar to anything else we already make. Deb’s recipe is a spin on something from one of Hetty McKinnon’s cookbooks, which may or may not be this recipe for Crispy Sheet-Pan Noodles with Glazed Tofu.

Based on what I saw in the comments I didn’t quite follow the instructions to the letter. Folks were saying that their veggies burned, so I roasted the veggies using my own experience of how quickly things roast in my oven. I had also seen folks on Instagram saying there wasn’t enough sauce, so I doubled it (and used 1 TB each of hoisin and oyster sauce). I also added 1TB of rice vinegar, as I’d seen someone saying it wasn’t acidic enough. When I tasted I agreed and I think the addition of rice vinegar balanced it perfectly.

I used 2 small broccoli crowns, 8oz of sugar snap peas, 2 carrots cut into coins, a can of baby corn (cut in thirds, they were huge), and a red bell pepper. I used two sheet pans and kept each veggie to itself, so I could easily pull them off if they needed to come out of the oven. (I used a bowl to toss them in the oil and salt.) For the first roast, the carrot and pepper came out after 10 minutes, and everything else went for 5 more.

If you don’t have a lot of experience to draw on, either in general or with your current oven, my recommendation is to let everything go for 10 minutes, then check and start checking again every 5. When in doubt, take them out, as they’ll continue cooking even if you take them off the tray. Not to mention that they’re going back in again later.

I mixed the veggies together and then they went back on one sheet pan while I did the noodles on another. The veggies roasted again for 10 minutes. The noodles roasted for 15 minutes total, but probably could have used another 5. The texture was good but there weren’t really any crispy bits. I think this will vary widely depending on the thickness of your noodles, how wet they are when they go in the oven, and whether you use a silicon mat or just oil the sheet pan. (I used a mat.)

Deb calls for egg noodles, so I had gotten the Manischewitz fine egg noodles. But since I got them from grocery delivery I didn’t know that they are very short and definitely not what you’re looking for here. I’d use some kind of wheat-based noodle; you could even get a couple of packages of instant ramen. I happened to have some Somen on hand so I used that, which worked just fine.

We enjoyed this, and it was easy to put together. You could easily chop the veggies ahead of time (or get them pre-chopped). If you wanted you could do the first roast ahead, and then just roast them a bit longer while the noodles are in the oven. It’s also the kind of thing where you can definitely use whatever veggies you like, so this is a great recipe to keep on hand as a clear out the fridge option. I think the key there is to keep a close eye on the veggies so you can pull things out as they need.