It's a Donut Party

 Earlier this year I promised the kids that we would have all of their friends over for a donut decorating party. Things got busy and I kept postponing putting together a plan for it. Then we found ourselves quarantined. We have not had donuts for 9+ weeks.  What? Maybe it's not that crazy for some people, but under normal circumstances, we eat a lot of donuts so it’s pretty crazy for us.  When we go on vacation, we definitely hit up the local donut shop.  We have a few around the country that we make sure not to miss when we are in the area. There’s something so comforting about a freshly fried and glazed donut. Or the cinnamon and sugar ones you get at the apple orchard? Those are amazing. After 9 long weeks of donut deprivation, I finally caved and decided to make some for Paul’s birthday. Like most people, deep frying at home is not my favorite pastime.  I hate using so much oil in one go and, it just seems sort of unsafe to have a big pot of bubbling oil on the stove.  

But once in a while…even I will deep fry. And you know what? In this case, it wasn’t messy or scary at all. It was easy. Probably too easy, because now I’m thinking about fried chicken, fried pickles, and all kinds of other things I want to deep fry.  I can tell you right now, it was a LOT easier to make donuts than to make a birthday cake (and I did not endeavor to make both - #sorrynotsorry). And they were really good, despite my inexperience (if I do say so myself). Yay!!!

The birthday boy requested old fashioned donuts with maple glaze. The recipes are here and here. I made chocolate glaze too, because the kids always choose chocolate glazed, but we all liked the maple ones best. And truly, there is nothing like a super fresh donut. It was such a treat and somehow I felt less guilty eating them because they were not just donuts, but also “a project”. I love the feeling of trying something new and having it be a success, or just not a total failure. That works too. The downside of this donut success was that we were the only ones around to enjoy them. I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that it made me think about how much I miss gathering with family and friends, cooking for other people. 

The smell of the oil brought me straight back to my grandma’s kitchen in Japan.  And let me just say, she LOVED feeding others and NEVER shied away from frying. There are so many smells and tastes that bring her back to me.  Isn’t it amazing how smells and tastes carry with them such strong memories? How we remember exactly where we were and who we were with when we smell or taste something? There are also times when I taste something and my first thought is that my best friend or my brother or my dad would love this, and I need to remember to make it for them. That has definitely happened a few times since we’ve been quarantined. 

 So, while the kids are bummed that they didn’t get to have a donut party, they did get donuts. Finally. I wonder if the taste or smell of homemade donuts will always remind them of this crazy year when we weren’t able to go out or even have our family over for dinner like we usually do. What will they remember from this unprecedented time in history? Certainly the youngest two won’t remember a thing and maybe that’s for the best but I know that Emmett will and Isla might. I hope they remember eating donuts, having a lot of extra time with their siblings and parents and enjoying the lack of structure, even as they miss their friends, extended family and normal routines. I hope the smell of bubbling oil takes them back to somewhere they don’t mind going like it does me. 

Stay safe everyone and please continue to support your local small businesses. It means everything.

Flour Tortillas and Painted Walls

What week is this? Eight? Nine? In some ways, it feels like just yesterday that we were going to the office, school, running errands and being out in the world.  In some ways it feels like all that is in the distant past.  It’s fair to say that we are used to it now, but also missing the way things used to be. Of course we miss our friends and the family members who we are not quarantined with. We miss our babysitter who really is a part of the family and as Emmett will tell you, seeing her is the very best part of his day. We miss our teachers and co-workers and talking to people without the internet or a cellphone. It’s amazing to me how even my three-year-old now, as if instinctively, stops and waits for us to cross the street when she sees other people on the sidewalk.  In some ways it feels like we are living out scenes from a bad sci-fi movie.  These are the things I don’t like about being quarantined. But there are so many things that I’m thoroughly enjoying. Really? Really. 

Not having to get outside-world ready in the mornings or wake the kids up and make sure they are dressed and ready to go, all within the time limits set by my commuter train schedule is AWESOME. 

Having a much better idea of what the kids’ academic capabilities are and getting to watch them interact with each other throughout the day is nice - even though it makes me feel like my pre-quarantine parenting was probably inadequate.

I love that I’m more active throughout the day without the hassle of squeezing in a workout.  Yes, I’m moving more because I’m constantly cleaning, doing dishes, laundry, cooking a million meals a day and taking the kids on walks and bike rides outside in between meetings. Not all of these activities are fun, but not feeling guilty, or gross for sitting in a chair all day feels great. 

My birthday was this week and one of my best friends sent me the sweetest video of her little family singing happy birthday to me. I love that I can play it over and over again and always relive the sweet memory of them at this (crazy) moment in time.  We can’t hug our friends, but they still know EXACTLY what we need.  

Masterpiece in progress.

 I love the “mural” my kids painted on our wall in the dining area.  It bought me 30 minutes of quiet and so many little kid smiles. Eve’s face in the photo above (PRIDE!!!) says all you need to know. The downside is that she wants to paint ALL OF THE WALLS now. Per a close friend of mine, “She might get her wish depending on how long this goes on.” Totally agree. Ha. 

Creative projects have provided me with an outlet for stress. While there is not a whole lot of time for this, I have been making fabric masks with the outsized goal of eventually making enough to donate to restaurants and local businesses that remain open. I haven’t gotten very far, but turn to it when I can. 

I’ve also been able to tackle a bunch of new recipes because cooking is easier when your kitchen is always just feet away. I prep meals when I have time and then I’m able to slip them in the oven whenever. As a result, I was able to make this incredible roast chicken on a weeknight, something I wouldn’t normally be able to get away with given its 3 hours cooking time. I’ve also made a ton of bread and even got out the tortilla press over the weekend. 

“La Isla Tortilla”

For the tortillas, I used a recipe from Anson Mills and made a double batch. You can find it here. I have their special flatbread flour so I used that, but I substituted regular all purpose flour for the pastry flour in the recipe.   I’m not sure how it would work with all purpose, or other types of flour.  I think if you are careful about not using all of the water at first, just incorporating it little by little until the dough comes together, you will be fine.  Like most Anson Mills recipes, this one is very detailed and has pictures of how things look along the way which I always find very helpful.  Also, you don’t need a tortilla press, it’s easy to just roll these out with a rolling pin.

Make a bunch of little balls of dough.

When your arms get tired, and they might, enlist whoever you are quarantined with to give it a go.

Wrap tortilla around a rolling pin to get it into the pan.

It only take a couple of minutes per side. The tortilla starts to puff up and get little air pockets.

Done. These were chewy in the best way and had SO much more flavor than store bought ones. Totally worth the effort. Not that we had anywhere to be.

I’m so glad I doubled the amounts listed in the recipe because these were pretty time consuming to make. But there was so much to enjoy about the process, I just turned on a little music and kneaded and pressed and griddled and let the world melt away for an hour or so. It was therapy in the form of carbs. Delicious carbs.  

These are best fresh off the griddle (drizzled with honey) but keep for several days. I froze a bunch of ours too. I’ve been eating them for breakfast with jam and cottage cheese and making my new obsession...egg quesadillas. Check out the video of how to make them here. So simple. So good. The snack equivalent of a warm hug. Big hugs to you and yours. Stay healthy and safe! xo

Creamy-ish Mushroom Soup

Soup always makes me feel better.

Is it just me, or does it feel like these weeks in quarantine are going by as fast as ever? Maybe it’s the fact that there is just so much to do. I know it’s vastly different for people who live alone, don’t work full time, or don’t have children, and there are positives and negatives for all.  For me, there’s always something, more like at least three or four somethings that I should be doing at once.  It’s sort of exhausting but it also keeps me going, keeps me from worrying too much, wasting time thinking about all of the possible ways this pandemic will shape our lives going forward when it’s impossible to know.  Amid impending mass layoffs at my company, I’m grateful that I don’t have the luxury of time to spend speculating as to whether or not I will lose my job, panicking over the possibility that I will. 

Being quarantined with little kids has its moments, for sure, but it also has THIS! And no, Emmett does not call me “micchelle”!

There are so many immediate needs I need to attend to here. I’ve got to just keep going. Roll with the punches, and remember that while my worries and fears are real, they are also trivial compared to those that so many others are facing at this time. Also, the weather is finally getting better and we are still healthy and safe with so much to be thankful for. This week we got a huge box of toys from our cousins in England and it was like Christmas! Better than Christmas! The kids were so excited and have been having a blast with all of their new toys over the last few days. Isla learned how to ride her bike without training wheels and Eve learned how to ride a bike with them. Both are SO proud. Even though, admittedly, being a 24-7 parent instead of a “working” parent can test my patience, this extra time with the kids is such a blessing.  They are so funny, so full of joy, so quick to adapt to even these crazy circumstances. I’m striving to be more like them.  

Not to toot my own horn, but it seems that others were inspired by my recently organized pantry and decided to follow suit.

One small success was lunch today. I love cooking but it’s not easy to keep up the enthusiasm when you are cooking multiple meals a day and don’t necessarily have the time or resources to plan or prepare them the way you would like. Still, I’ve been trying to find new recipes so that I can expand my repertoire and continue to enjoy the process. I don’t know about you, but I think most people who cook get excited when they find a recipe they want to try and realize that they already have all of the ingredients on hand.  That is probably especially true right now. This was that and then some. It’s from Bon Appetit, where I have been getting a lot of good recipes lately. The recipe is vegan, usually not a selling point for me, but right now, a recipe that doesn’t require me to use up any of my precious stash of chicken stock is more than welcome. This one was simple. Mushrooms, cashews, thyme, garlic, onions, shallots, miso and olive oil. And the reviews! This recipe got rave reviews on bonappetit.com! I always read the reviews before I invest in a recipe. This time, I was a little incredulous, but I’m a believer. This soup makes my “dinner party list” and not just for vegans or vegetarians (but if you happen to be one, MAKE THIS). Even I didn’t miss the meat or dairy one bit. It is insanely good. And that’s without the garlic oil, which just puts it over the top (and makes it fancy). I’m generally not a fan of recipes with sub recipes. No one is a fan of recipes with sub-recipes, am I right? But the garlic oil only took three minutes to make and was definitely worth the lift.

Garlic oil. This would be great drizzled on pasta, pizza, or as a dipping oil for fresh bread.

Of course, I didn’t follow the recipe exactly. I added some dried porcini mushrooms that I found in the back of the cupboard which I soaked (along with the cashews) while I was cooking the fresh mushrooms, onions and shallots. After adding the wine, I added the porcini-cashew mixture and soaking liquid to the soup, along with a little less than the suggested volume of water. Then, after simmering the onion-shallot mixture with the porinis and cashews, I blended them with the miso until the soup was completely pureed. Finally, I added the sauteed fresh mushrooms back in for texture and let it simmer for a few minutes. Final result? Yum. I cannot believe something so easy and dairy free could be so creamy and full of flavor.

Step one. Saute your fresh mushrooms.

They cook down a lot, this is how they should look before you remove them from the pan.

Puree (cashew-porcini mixture + shallot-onion mixture and water) before adding the sauteed mushrooms back in.

Garlic oil ingredients in the pan (added red pepper flakes - we like things spicy).

Three minutes later…

I won’t have any leftovers but if you do, pasta sauce would be a great option. Just reduce it over the stove by simmering it for 30 minutes or so until it thickens up a little more. Toss with pasta, top with garlic oil and parmesan. Pour yourself a big glass of wine and call it self-care. Call yourself a genius. Have seconds.

Here’s to happy surprises in uncertain times.