Monday, July 24, 2023
Good morning!
TikTok is where I go to learn I have no original experiences.
But also: A kimchi factory!
Loved reading about New Zealand’s fruit ice cream [NYT, unlocked]
Last summer, in a fit of nostalgia, I walked us down memory lane to the distant year of 2007 to reminisce about what I was cooking then on my nascent food blog. I was delighted to realize that so many of the things we’d cooked in 2007 we were still cooking 15 years later. Well, if you think 2007 was a busy summer on smittenkitchen.com, wait until I tell you about 2008.
2008 was the year of knee-high gladiator sandals, shuttered sunglasses, liquid leggings, and the year I quit my day job to Smitten Kitchen full-time I did not rest for a second. From a watermelon feta salad (so modern!) to my friend Molly trying to convert us all to dry-rub ribs (it worked on me!), to cold-brew iced coffee, the easiest blueberry crumb bars, and the cutest plum cake, oh and I also made my first wedding cake and took you along for the ride. I think we could cook this summer only from 2008 and never run out of good things to eat. Should we start this week?
Cheers,
Deb
I’ve written three cookbooks and I’m a tiny bit biased, but I think you’d love them all. I’m thrilled that this warmer weather means you might be able to cook some of my summery favorites from my most recent cookbook, Smitten Kitchen Keepers, such as: zucchini cornbread and tomato butter, clam chowder with bacon croutons, zucchini and pesto lasagna, and raspberry crostata, strawberry summer stack cake, and the blondie chipwiches. Were you looking for a list of all the recipes in each of my cookbooks? I added these a new, separate page this week and hope it makes it easier for you to find everything you want to cook.
buffalo chicken cobb salad
New: This Buffalo Chicken Cobb is one of the best dinner salads I have ever made and I now crave it incessantly. It's got everything: a heap of colorful vegetables, grilled chicken, and lots of unsolicited opinions, all served help-yourself style so everyone ends up with the salad of their dreams.
chopped vegetable, watermelon and feta salad
Watermelon, feta, diced vegetables, and absolutely no cooking is forever a summer mood.
marinated eggplant with capers and mint
Back in 2008, we scooped these broiled slices of eggplant that had been briefly marinated in red wine vinegar, capers and mint with a flatbread (below), some bean salad and delicious pink wine and it was the perfect summer dinner, then and now.
crisp rosemary flatbread
For a perfect nah-I-just-needed-a-snack snack with cheese, dips, or even to scoop up a well-chopped salad, these four-ingredient flatbread crackers are my forever favorite. They keep so well, I think we should make them right now.
huevos rancheros
Back in 2008 I explained this weird little way I made, and still make, huevos rancheros at home, with an egg fried right onto a pan-crisped tortilla and then topped with everything wonderful. Is it breakfast? Is it dinner? All of the above, please, something I'm never not craving.
kefta and zucchini kebabs
Tiny spiced lamb or turkey meatballs and coins of marinated zucchini are grilled on skewers and served with a minty garlic yogurt sauce. I always wish I made these more often because I don't think it's possible to get tired of a combination this delicious.
herbed summer squash and potato torte
There's no such thing as too much zucchini; it's just more excuses to make this crazy delicious crispy-edged easy summer dinner. We have wedges with salad for a light meal; grilled sausages for a heartier one. I have never regretted making two.
molly's dry-rubbed ribs
My friend Molly made the most amazing ribs on Memorial Day of 2008. Prior to that day, I thought I liked mopped, or barbecue sauced-up ribs. I immediately became a dry rub convert, and begged her to let us know how she did it. Thanks Molly!
dimply plum cake
Way back in the archives is an adorable plum cake from Dorie Greenspan I had fun refreshing a decade later -- it's now one-bowl, too. I realized that while it's great with small plums, large ones are particularly dramatic and wonderful as they infuse the cake. Don't miss this beauty.
breakfast apricot crisp
The easiest crisp in the world (you pull apricots apart with your bare hands!), has just enough oats, raw sugar and almonds to make for a week of wholesome breakfasts with a hearty dollop of yogurt. Who's in?
blueberry crumb bars
Pie, schmie. These bars are all about the buttery, lemon-flecked streusel -- half-pressed below and half sprinkled over a jammy blueberry filling, and they never last.
cold-brewed iced coffee
Sunday 5-Minute Project: Make a pitcher of the easiest, cheapest recipe in history of recipes for a week free of overpriced coffee shop runs. Put all the money saved in that "next vacation/escape the heat wave" fund.
project wedding cake
Almost exactly fifteen years ago, with absolutely no experience or clue, I made a wedding cake for friends. It was fun!
shop my favorites
Ever wonder where I get my cutting boards, paring knives, offset spatulas and more than you see when I cook? I've created a page on Smitten Kitchen with links to some of my favorite kitchen items, the ones I'm asked about the most. I recently added several new favorites I’ve bought in the last year. For each item, I've attempted to provide a range of shopping links so we're not just focusing on one giant retailer.
See you next week!