What's Cooking August 2022 Wrap Up

Summer is over! Not officially but September is coming quickly. School has been in for over a month in Georgia so September doesn't seem much like the start of a new year.

I did buy new pens for journaling. I like to use every color depending on my mood of the day. No new notebooks, folders, calendars.

I keep thinking I'm not cooking much but then I look and see that we eat twice a day and sometimes I even cook twice a day. I am in kind of a slump lately.

I've been making easier recipes lately, recipes I've made before so I don't have to wonder if they'll work. I've found that leeks keep very well and we love them. Some leeks, shrimp from the freezer, pasta, dinner. I use a lot of recipes from David Leite's site because they're tested and have great tester comments.

We love a good, hearty salad so this chicken salad was on the menu and it was tasty. Publix has the beans in a nice size package.

I made more bread because I had time and my starter refreshed quickly. I used this recipe but with some changes. I know the recipe works so I've been modifying it some. Plan to Eat lets me copy the recipe and make changes so I now have four versions of it - regular, with some whole grain, with sunflower seeds and this last one with added seeds and grains.

Love this recipe and the bread pan. Perfect size, cooks nicely, easily sliced loaf.

Trying to use what we had and not waste food, not grocery shop before necessary. Pasta carbonara is perfect for that with a salad. Bacon in the freezer, eggs, cheese, pasta.

Pork and potato tacos, made them before, quick pickled onions, some roasted okra on the side.

I made a little too much starter when I made the bread, so I wanted to use the discard and not discard the extra. Husband loves pancakes, I'm a more savory breakfast person but added a side of bacon and all was well.

Electric skillets are the way to go! I didn't really use one much at home, I had them for library cooking programs since there are no kitchens when I do library programs, but this is so much faster and easier.

I also had some blueberries that needed to be used and I hadn't baked a cake or cobbler with them so pancake topping. Wash the berries, put them in a pan, add a little water, turn on and get them to a boil, add a little sugar if needed, I used a little honey, simmer until thick. Can also make a little cornstarch slurry to thicken. Serve over pancakes. Or ice cream, yogurt.

I needed pizza and my favorite dough takes some remembering. But I did it! And need to always remember. I start it around 11 pm.

It looks like it will not be dough, not possible to do what the recipe says, but follow the recipe and all will be well.

I made two for dinner and put two in the fridge. I found some cooked sausage in the freezer, had some sauce, and then foraged for what looked good including a box of spinach that needed to be used.

One pizza was sausage, banana pepper, spinach, cheese, the other was the cheeses pizza from New York Times. Find the recipe, there is a paywall, and make it. I did not have taleggio cheese so used a bit of truffle cheese I had. It is delicious.

I preheat the pizza stone for about an hour, 475 degrees, bake on parchment, no fires yet, these took about 11 minutes.

Also one new recipe Vietnamese Garlic Noodles. I was wary of the cheese and amount of garlic but so delicious. I halved the recipe for us and had miso salmon. Neither particularly photogenic but tasty.

Also pork chops with tomato sage gravy but used pork tenderloin medallions, chicken broth from the freezer (!).

Husband was away at a retreat so I foraged and had a sausage pizza, found arancini cheddar broccoli in the freezer, some bolognese, a salad with salmon.

Now it's grocery shopping day. And our air conditioner does not want to work, so no cooking today. For sure no bread baking!

My fun activities this week included pen shopping (don't judge), haircut, Sunday retreat that was wonderful.