what a silly week it's been. 

every other hour, eggboy comes in dripping with sweat from building the chicken coop, saying it's gonna rain! it's gonna rain! and sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't, sometimes it *really* does and even sets off the tornado alarms. i love a good rain storm but without any buildings around to break the wind or supply camaraderie/beer in the chance that the storms get really awful, it can be quite scary. luckily we have a basement with a comfy couch and i have my stack of cookbooks to keep me company. during the last tornado warning i read the bread exchange's book. do you know about that project? it is very cool.

we got one inch of rain last night in the time it took me to make pesto cucumber noodles and when the sun came out, our internet was nowhere to be seen! he must have gotten sick of me price hunting for the same nike shoes over and over and just left.

so i spent a good amount of time without the internet, getting things done like cleaning and writing and reading the directions on my new silicone mini loaf pan. oh and watching dvds! i'm back to working my way through harry potter and this morning i watched legally blonde while i was on the treadmill. i'm pretty sure i know every line by heart, is this low-viscosity rayon with a half-loop top stitching on the hem?

*classic*

another silly thing about this week, speaking of fabulous fashion-forward colorful divas, is that it's billy's popsicle week!!!!!! 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉 

yay! 

this year i have gone the ~savory~ route with a frozen bloody mary that is practically healthy, extra spicy, and gives you just the right amount of buzz to take the edge off of a tornado warning but not so much that you're too wasted to do anything productive when the rain stops. (if you're looking for the latter, don't try adding more vodka or else they won't freeze. just, like, have a few more or chase it with a shot or something.)

bloody mary popsicles

makes 7 3-oz pops

ingredients

2 c tomato juice
1/2 c vodka
2 cloves garlic, smashed
3/4 tsp celery salt
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp harissa powder
3/4 tsp worcestershire sauce
a squeeze of lime juice
a few turns of black pepper

clues

Whisk all ingredients together, pour into popsicle molds or 3-oz Dixie cups, freeze for 20 minutes. Insert popsicle sticks and freeze for two more hours. Serve with celery stalks (and/or an extra vodka shot) and enjoy! 

happy popsicle week, friends! be sure to check out all of the other popsicle week popsicles!

-yeh!

i have a really complicated relationship with herbs because, 

1) i love them

2) but apparently not enough to be able to keep them alive when i grow them myself

3) and apparently not enough to use them up before they go bad when i buy big massive bunches at the store.

this summer, eggboy has officially put me to shame in the herb growing department because he has been spearheading our garden and suddenly these past few days we are up to our ears in basil and rosemary. (get at me, pesto!) i kind of get it because he is a farmer. but one problem this doesn't solve is our love of fresh mint because we have been told *multiple* times not to grow it, since once it starts growing it does not stop until your whole yard is covered in mint. so fresh mint coffee, fresh mint milk shakes, fresh mint everything else doesn't make it into our lives as much as i'd like it to, but when it does and i spring for the big bunch from the store, we have to use it up, quick like a bunny. 

does anyone else have this problem with herbs or just me?

so taking a cue from these one ingredient, five dinners articles, i've got three (3!) fresh mint recipes here! the first is a tasty chicken pita that uses a hefty dose of my new favorite spice mix, ras el hanout, which is common in moroccan cooking. each spice maker has a different (secret) recipe, but it is often heavy on the coriander, cinnamon, and cumin. to give you your ancient grain fix for the day, the pitas are paired with a nice refreshing cucumber and tomato tabbouleh with mint. and for dessert: a fresh mint sundae, complete with homemade chocolate magic shell and yogurt in place of the ice cream for a healthier twist.

two of these recipes, the pita and the tabbouleh, come from blue apron, the magic meal subscription service that i'm obsessed with because it is basically a grown-up lunchable in that you get perfectly portioned ingredients in cute individual packages. (in other words, the perfectly portioned ingredients is one of my favorite answers to my herb conundrum.) every time my box is delivered i squeal out of cuteness and sigh out of relief that i don't have to put on pants to go to the grocery store and clap in excitement, especially if there's mint involved. all of the blue apron recipes that i've had are so freaking good and there are a bunch that i'm still itching to try, like five spice pork buns and spring miso ramen. i'll get to the recipes now but see below for some more info on blue apron and a link to get some free meals!

ras el-hanout chicken pitas

adapted from blue apron

makes 2

ingredients

1/2 c plain greek yogurt

1/2 cucumber, grated

1 clove garlic, smashed

juice of 1/2 lemon

salt and pepper, to taste

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1 tb ras el-hanout

4 tsp flavorless oil

2 plain, pocketless pitas

a handful of mint leaves

1 tb pistachios

clues

first, make your yogurt sauce by mixing together the yogurt, cucumber, garlic, and lemon juice, and season with salt and pepper. set it aside.

pat the chicken dry with paper towels. season both sides with salt, pepper, and the ras el-hanout. heat 2 teaspoons of the oil in a large pan over medium-high until hot. add the chicken and cook, loosely covering the pan with aluminum foil, for 3-5 minutes per side, or until browned and cooked through. transfer to a cutting board and set aside to cool slightly. 

add the remaining 2 teaspoons of oil to the pan, let it heat up, and then heat the pitas for about 30 seconds per side, until warm. 

to assemble, thinly slice the cooked chicken on an angle. spread a layer of yogurt sauce onto each pita, divide the chicken between the pitas, and top with pistachios and mint leaves. enjoy! 

cherry tomato & cucumber tabbouleh

adapted from blue apron

makes 2 servings

ingredients

1/4 c bulgur

4 oz cherry tomatoes, chopped into wedges

1/2 cucumber, chopped

a small handful of mint leaves

1 clove garlic, smashed

juice of 1/2 lemon

a drizzle of olive oil

salt and pepper, to taste

clues

heat a small pot of salted water over high heat. once it boils, add the bulgur and cook 12-14 minutes, until tender. drain it and return it to the pot. add the tomatoes, cucumber, mint (tear the leaves just before adding it), garlic, and lemon juice. drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper to taste.

enjoy! 

chocolate mint yogurt sundaes

makes 2

ingredients

3 tb chocolate chips

1 tb coconut oil

2 large mint leaves

1/2 c plain yogurt

clues

in a small microwave-safe dish, microwave the chocolate chips and coconut oil in 15-second increments, stirring after each, until melted.

chop up your mint leaves and divide them between two small bowls. using a muddler or the back of a spoon, crush the leaves and rub them all over the inside of the bowl. divide the yogurt between the two bowls and top with chocolate sauce.

enjoy!

-yeh!

thank you soooo much, blue apron, for sponsoring this post! i love you guys! some additional information on blue apron: they offer two meal plans, one two-person plan that delivers three meals per week and one four-person (family-style) plan that can deliver two or four meals per week. pricing is under $10 per person per meal and shipping is always included. blue apron ships to most of the country (they just added texas!) and the meals come shipped in refrigerated boxes, so even if you're not home to receive the boxes, they'll keep for a bit until you get there. there are a ton of awesome recipes, which can all be prepared in 40 minutes or less and they're each 500-700 calories per person. the blue apron chefs are always adding new recipes as well and if you're wanting to skip a week or cancel, you can do that at any time.

if you're wanting to try blue apron, click here! the first 50 who do will get their first two meals free!

whoops! i lied. i told you i was giving you three fresh mint recipes this week but actually i'm giving you four. so go ahead, smooch everyone, because you're gonna have really good breath.

eggboy and i are off on a road trip to chicago for one really quick second before wheat harvest starts. we're gonna eat car snacks and listen to the third plate on tape and hopefully not have to stop at too many gas station potties along the way, and when we arrive, we are going to eat many many tacos!

we're gonna miss macaroni, but they'll get to have some quality grandma and grandpa time :)

have a great weekend, everybody!

this cake is a nice rich chocolatey moist thing that's been infused with fresh mint leaves and frosted all ombré-like, making it the cool kid in school. the frosting also has mint in it! it is double mint. like the gum, but better.

chocolate mint cake with buttercream frosting

makes one 2-layer 8-inch cake

ingredients

cake:

about 8 fresh mint leaves

1 1/4 c whole milk

1 3/4 c sugar

1 3/4 c all-purpose flour

3/4 c unsweetened cocoa powder

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp kosher salt

1/2 c flavorless oil, like canola

1 tb vanilla extract

2 large eggs

3/4 c boiling water

frosting:

about 8 fresh mint leaves

2 c unsalted butter

4 c powdered sugar

a good pinch of salt

assembly:

green food coloring

clues

cake: 

preheat oven to 350.

grease two 8-inch round cake pans and line the bottoms with parchment.

muddle the fresh mint leaves in a saucepan and pour in the milk. bring to a simmer over medium heat, and keep it at a low simmer (lowering the level of the heat as needed), stirring often, for 15 minutes. remove it from the heat, strain out the mint leaves, and measure out 1 cup of milk. set it aside to cool slightly. discard the remaining milk and mint leaves. 

in a large bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients. in a medium bowl, whisk together the milk, oil, vanilla, and eggs. (make sure that the milk has cooled enough so that it doesn't cook the eggs!) whisk the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and then stir in the boiling water. pour into cake pans and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. begin checking for doneness at 28 minutes.

let cool in the pans for 10 minutes and then turn the cakes onto a lightly greased cooling rack.

frosting:

muddle the fresh mint leaves in a saucepan and add the butter. melt the butter and heat over medium low for 15 minutes, stirring. strain out the mint leaves and then add the butter to a large bowl. place the bowl in an ice bath and use an electric mixer to beat it until it becomes pale and fluffy. beat in the sugar and salt.

assembly:

once your cakes are fully cooled, level them. place one layer on a cake board, spread a thick layer of frosting on top, and then place the other layer on top of that. use an offset spatula to frost a thin layer of frosting all over for a crumb coat. place the cake in the freezer or refrigerator so that the crumb coat firms up. divide the remaining frosting into five bowls and color four of them with green food coloring, increasing the amount of coloring for each bowl, so the colors get darker and darker. Fill a piping bag fitted with a large round tip with the white frosting and pipe around the top edge of the cake. Once you’ve made a complete rotation, squeeze out all of the remaining frosting from the bag and then fill it with the lightest green and pipe directly next to the frosting that you just piped on. Repeat until you’ve covered the whole cake. Use a bench scraper to scrape off all of the excess frosting and create smooth edges. Scrape off the bench scraper each time you scrape down the cake. (for some helpful cake decorating tips, go here.)

enjoy!

-yeh!

this post features wooden measuring cups, measuring spoons, a mixing spoon, and a spatula from one of my most favorite makers, polder's old world market. it is a family-owned company that makes some of the most beautiful handmade wooden kitchen utensils that i've ever used. i've had these goodies for months now and i use them nearly every day. they are the sponsors of this post and from now until the end of the month, they are offering 25% off of all orders with the code yeh25! thanks so much, polder's!!!

also pictured in this post: cake stand // mixing bowl // saucepan

it's happened. i've suddenly found myself knee-deep in county fair culture and i don't see myself ever coming back. and i don't think i need to because there are multiple county fairs every weekend during the summer in minnesota and north dakota. multiple! is that normal? are you not technically a county unless you throw a fair every summer with fried food and creeptastic rides and 4-h ponies?

i'm really tempted to spend an entire summer only going to county fairs on my weekends for a statewide county fair tour. i think i would learn a lot. even just from going to this one, i witnessed my first cow competition, met the biggest bunnies i've ever seen in my life, and learned all about cat diabetes from a presentation by a kid who is sure to be a future veterinarian of america. there was also an actual hay growing competition! 

this whole time i thought that fairs were just about the fried food, but i've been proven wrong. 

i can't wait until i get to go to the state fair, where there is all of this fried madness and, rumor has it, an entire barn where you can watch animals giving birth. i meannnnnnn....whoa.

how was your weekend??

-yeh!

p.s. read all about what i ate at the county fair in last week's grub street diet!

pictured: bag // dress

our garden is vomiting tomatoes right now and as a result i am vomiting happiness and sorry that's gross i didn't mean to get on the subject of vomiting...

what i mean is, i've been having fresh tomatoes at just about every meal these days and it's glorious. tomatoes in my breakfast salad, tomatoes and basil on toast, tomatoes shoveled into my mouth on a homemade pita that i just can't eat without feeling really really bad for peeta mellark. 

i may be dressed like it's fall, because outside the mosquitos are monsters and the air conditioning inside is blasting hard, but i've been dining like a summer queen because our garden is nailing it this year, if i do say so myself. i guess it helps to be married to a farmer.

i am a winter girl but with tomatoes, i forget about that.

my love for fried green tomatoes began four years ago at the now-closed sel de mer, in williamsburg. i wrote kind of an awkward ode to their fried green tomatoes here. (tl/dr: it was like a green tomato donut and it was perfect in every way.) but because i am such a wimp when it comes to deep frying, today i am showing you an oven fried version-- you can eat about three times as many as the fried kind before you feel all barfy. and with the amount of tomatoes coming out of my garden, i need all the help i can get eating these guys. did i mention i'm having a tomato party tonight? i don't think my guests know it yet, i should probably go warn them...

ooh and there's a sauce! it's oniony and garlicky and kind of like a lighter fresher version of french onion dip. v easy to make and if you have some sumac lying around, i recommend adding a pinch, but it's not necessary.

oven-fried green tomatoes with garlic and onion yogurt sauce

makes 4-6 servings

ingredients

4 large green tomatoes (or 6 smaller ones)

kosher salt and black pepper

3/4 c flour

1 1/2 c panko bread crumbs

1 1/2 tsp sweet paprika

2 large eggs

1/4 c buttermilk

sauce:

4 cloves garlic, smashed

1/2 purple onion, finely chopped

1/2 c plain greek yogurt

kosher salt and black pepper

clues

preheat the oven to 400f and place an oven-frying rack (or metal cooling rack) over a large baking sheet and set it aside.

cut the tomatoes into thick slices and season both sides with salt and pepper.

set up three bowls: one with the flour, one with the panko, paprika, and a pinch of salt and pepper, and one with the eggs and buttermilk (beat them to combine). coat each tomato slice in flour, and then the egg mixture, and then the panko and then place on the oven-frying rack one inch apart. spray the tops with cooking spray and then bake for about 20 minutes, until golden brown. let cool slightly before serving.

to make the sauce, mix together the garlic, onion, and yogurt, and then season to taste with salt and pepper.

enjoy!

-yeh!

thank you so much to edyn for sponsoring this post! these tomatoes and all of the other goodies from my garden were grown with the help of a handy new gadget called the edyn garden sensor, which is a device that sticks in your garden to relay tips and information about moisture, lighting, soil nutrition, and a whole bunch of other fun stuff to your phone. it also tells you when your plants are about to ripen! so you can know in advance when you need to start planning your own tomato party. it works in wifi, so if you're looking to check one of these puppies out, make sure your garden gets wifi or you can use a repeater. if you're a beginning gardener, a full on farmer who wants to geek out (hi, eggboy), or somewhere in between, check it out!

our chickies are not so little anymore! they are like full on teenagers, complete with feathers and the ability to fly. there they are eating watermelon with eggboy at two weeks old, and the photos with the cucumber were taken just last week, when they were a little over a month old. can you believe how quickly they've grown?! remember when they had just hatched??

here are some things that happened in month one:

-they took lots of little dirt baths

-they ate watermelon, cucumber, pulp from our juicer, and bugs

-we discovered that the free straight run exotic chick that came with our flock might actually be a rooster

-they got to meet mum (their grandma!) who said, on a very hot day, what happens when it gets too hot? do we get chicken nuggets?

-they accidentally got into rat poison that we didn't know was left in our garage from when egggrandma lived here and we freaked out completely and went to the vet who gave us little vitamin k shots to give to all of them and they're all ok now but it was scary.

-eggboy spent a lot of time and got very sweaty converting the old playhouse in our backyard into their coop

-one of them got a little wound so we tied a bandage on her leg and she spent the day inside with me. we split a cucumber. she's ok now.

being a chicken mama is hard work! but it's so worth it just to watch all of them waddle and run around and cuddle with each other and cock their heads all adorably to the side. it's so freaky to watch them grow so quickly and i thought that once they got past their newly hatched ball-of-fluff stage they wouldn't be as cute, but oh man, they're still so cute. they are feathery balls of glee that make me so darn happy i could spit. 

-yeh!

thank you so much to the american egg board for sponsoring this post!!! being a chicken mama has helped me gain a whole new appreciation for the farmers who are a part of this board. eggboy and i are seeing first hand how important it is to make sure our chickies get enough light, safe housing, and nutrients, and i can't even imagine what it would be like to have to care for tons more hens like the farmers on the egg board do. did you know that 208 million eggs are laid each day in america and most of those eggs are laid between 7am and 11am?? i can't wait to have a freshly laid omelette from my hens once they start laying :) to find out more about where eggs come from, check out incredibleegg.org!

my refrigerator plays a lot of roles: experiment incubator, keeper of the butter shelf, cheese vault, condiment storage center, shielder of leftovers i just don't want to deal with right now, and over the summer, salad bar.

i am very into making big batches of cold prepared foods and keeping them in containers in the fridge for when eggboy runs in for a quick snack or during long days of cake testing when i've reached my cake quota and need a gosh darn plant in my belly at a moment's notice.

i like salad bars. a lot. they make eating vegetables easier and in my dream house there is a self-replenishing salad bar. (like smart house, with salad.)

my favorite cold foods these days--and we'll call them cold foods because salad bars aren't just about traditional salads, right?--are hummus (obviously), a cold curry cauliflower situation (recipe coming soon!), israeli salad (which by the way i am leaving for israel this weekend!!!!!), and this grilled pineapple salsa that's got prosciutto in it which is magic. 

magic because it isn't just for chips. it's for toast, and eating straight, and tossing with some greens to make an actual salad, and *wait for it* pizza..........

pizza gif pizza gif.

at the end of the week, if there's any of this pineapple salsa left, we throw it on a pizza for pizza friday because true story, this salsa happens to be all of our favorite pizza toppings in a bowl.

an all-purpose salsa, if you will.

grilled pineapple + prosciutto salsa

makes about 5 cups

ingredients

1/2 pineapple, cut into wedges

2 roma tomatoes, chopped

1 green bell pepper, chopped

1/2 purple onion, chopped

4 oz prosciutto, chopped

a good squeeze of lime

salt, pepper, and smoked paprika, to taste

clue

heat a grill or grill pan on medium high heat and grill the pineapple wedges on both sides until you get pretty brown marks. let them cool and then chop.

in a large bowl, toss together the pineapple, tomatoes, bell pepper, onion, and prosciutto with a squeeze of lime and a few good pinches of salt, pepper, and paprika.

enjoy however you'd like!

-yeh!

this salsa is shown here on a great new thing: freschetta's new gluten free pizza! it's true, eggboy and i do a lot of jazzing up of frozen crusts or pizzas on friday pizza night because when you live on a farm where no restaurants will deliver, you do that after a long hard day! so we've had our fair share of gluten free crusts and can tell you that this freschetta one nails it. it's chewy and flavorful and truly one of our new favorite gluten free pizzas (you can #trustthecrust!). full disclosure, freschetta has sponsored this post, but (!!!) i'm so happy they did otherwise i don't know how i would have found out about this new gf pizza because i am a hermit and don't spend as much time perusing the new products at the grocery store like i used to. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ anywho, this pizza, which is certified gluten free, comes in cheese and pepperoni, in both single serving and large, and it's in stores now!

last week, two of the most wonderful humans on the planet got married. lydia and ben have been friends of mine since juilliard, and on friday i sat weepy on the couch as jacob, who was in north carolina catering their little six-person wedding, live texted the thing to me:

they signed the paper! it's official!!!!

*****ahhhhhhhhh!!!!!! i am crying****** 😂😭😂😭😂😭😂😭 is she the most beautiful human on the planet?1?1?!!!!!!!!! 

pull yourself together! and yes. she is. now, i'm about to put the rosemary on your cake, how do you want it???

whatever feels right!!!!!! make it pretty!!!!! i am so weepy happy!!!!!!!!!!

by all accounts, it sounded like a total dream. and i was so *tickled* that they asked me to make their cake. shipping a decorated cake is something new for me, so earlier in the summer, i did a test run where i put a buttercream frosted cake on dry ice and shipped it 2-3 day in a styrofoam cooler. it worked! but in the end, i strayed from the buttercream route and shipped a sturdy room temperature cake wrapped in tons and tons of bubble wrap. it was very tahini and halva centric, as lydia and i have bonded over a mutual loooove of halva, and i aimed to keep the decorations elegant and classy and quirky, just like her :) here is what i made:

the bottom layer // a simple chocolate cake, filled with halva floss and tahini that i sweetened a bit with sugar.

the top layer // layers of tahini dirty blondies baked in my favorite mini cake pan, and covered with apricot jam.

the whole thing got wrapped in marzipan, decorated with marzipan braids and fresh rosemary, and gobbled up by the new mr. and mrs.

congratulations, lydia and ben!!!!!!!!! welcome to married life!!!

-yeh!

pictured: cake stand // cake server // mini cake pan // scissors

something that i was taught when i moved to the farm was that farmers fall into one of three main tractor camps: john deere, case, and new holland. i had already known about john deere because remember in high school when clothes with the john deere logo were popular for no reason according to kids in the suburbs who had never been to farms? but when i got here i quickly learned all about case because eggboy is a case man and case is the best (!) and here, look at case win tug of war against john deere. so all of our tractors and things are red which look really nice against the golden yellow wheat, a bit christmas-y against the beet greens, and in general, a really nice look and i applaud past generations of eggs for their decision to go with case.

the last time mum was in town we found this tractor cookie cutter at the home of economy and the cookie cutter guy on the tractor has eggboy's hat, so we had no choice but to get one. i took him for a little spin last week to celebrate the first day of wheat harvest and naturally, i was expected to decorate my cookies with red. no green food coloring in site.

here i'm using a recipe and decorating technique from juliet sear's new book, cakeology. what a book! it is like the triple black diamond ski slopes of cake decorating, with airbrushed things and intricate hand painted things and the hamburger cake to end all hamburger cakes and they are so gosh darn beautiful. i think it's going to be a good few years before i can master one of those cakes, but it is something to aim for! the cutout cookies in her book are so tasty and fun to decorate though and i love the idea of using the same cookie cutter for both the cookie and the layer of decoration. juliet uses fondant for her doggie cutouts, but here i'm using some coconut marzipan that i picked up in new york a few months ago (and also kate's book has a recipe for it that i've been meaning to try). of course, feel free to use any cutout shape that you'd like. but if you use a tractor, you'd better decorate it red :)

coconut marzipan tractor cookie cutouts

adapted from juliet sear's cakeology

ingredients

7 oz unsalted butter, softened

3/4 c sugar

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 large egg, lightly beaten

1 2/3 c all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting

for decorating:

16 oz coconut marzipan or regular marzipan, kneaded with a bit of food coloring

about 1/4 c frosting or icing, for sticking 

clues

Preheat the oven to 350 and line two baking sheets with parchment.

Place the butter, sugar, salt, and vanilla into a mixing bowl and mix until just combined, either by hand or using a stand mixer on low. The mix should still look grainy but be thoroughly incorporated.

Add the egg a little at a time with your mixer on low or with a wooden spoon, until fully incorporated.

Add the flour to the mixture and mix until a dough forms. If the mix is a little sticky, add a little more flour, or, alternatively, if it’s a bit dry add a few drops of water. You will know it’s right when the dough comes together without leaving sticky traces on the bowl and it forms into a nice shiny pliable ball.

Dust the work surface with flour and roll out the cookie dough to 1/4 inch thick. 

Cut out your shapes, place them on the cookie sheets, and Bake for 10–12 minutes until golden brown around the edges. Cool on a wire rack.

to decorate, roll out the marzipan and cut out shapes using the same cookie cutter that you used for the cookies. pipe a few squiggles of frosting onto the cookies and then stick the marzipan directly on top.

enjoy!

-yeh!

something that doesn't show through on the internet is my chicago accent. i have been told that it's very strong. i won't admit that it's strong, but after hearing myself talk on video a few months ago, i'll admit that an accent indeed exists.

no one growing up ever thinks that they have an accent, right?

chicagoans don't have accents right? (lol!)

i was first informed of my accent towards the end of high school when i started spending my summers on the east coast, at tanglewood. it was the first time in my life that a majority of my time was spent with people who weren't from chicago, and suddenly i was *different*. i couldn't say "practice" or "alex" or any word with an "a" without being giggled at! and what really gave my chicagoness away was my pronunciation of "salad." i could not order an effing salad without a percussionist saying "syaaaaaalad? do you want a seeeyaaaaalad? what's a seeeyalad anyway???"

so i stopped eating salad altogether.

i stopped using the letter "a" altogether.

i stopped talking altogether. 

i mean, no, i didn't actually do that, but i still can't order a salad without holding my breath for a moment and waiting for someone to mock me.

so, here's a salad that's worth every unit of mockery on the east coast. an eggs benedict salad that's basically all of the great eggs benedict ingredients, tossed with fresh greens: soft cooked eggs, warm canadian bacon, a hollandaise drizzle that's got a nice bit of dill, and the best part, english muffin croutons. here, i've used homemade english muffins from the huckleberry cookbook because they are the absolute best english muffins in the world, but if you want to use another english muffin, go ahead.

eggs benedict salad with dill hollandaise dressing

makes 4 servings

ingredients

2 thick english muffins, chopped into cubes

6 slices canadian bacon

4 large eggs

8 oz mixed greens

1/4 purple onion, thinly sliced

kosher salt and black pepper

hollandaise dressing:

1 large egg yolk

1/4 c unsalted butter, melted

2 tsp lemon juice

1/4 c olive oil

1 sprig fresh dill, chopped

kosher salt and black pepper

clues

make the croutons: spread the english muffin cubes out on a baking sheet and bake them at 400 for about 15 minutes or so, until they reach your desired crispiness. i like em still a little soft.

cook the bacon: brown it on both sides over medium high heat, and then chop it into 1/2-inch pieces.

boil the eggs: bring a large pot of water to a boil, carefully add the eggs, and cook for 7 minutes. transfer them to an ice bath, peal them, and then slice them in half. 

place the greens, onions, croutons, bacon, and eggs on a serving platter. sprinkle everything with salt and fresh pepper. 

to make the dressing, add the egg yolk to a food processor or blender. blend the yolk, and then gradually drizzle in the butter, lemon juice, and olive oil, and then add the dill. season with salt and pepper to taste.

dress the salad to your liking and enjoy!

-yeh!

thank you to the american egg board for sponsoring this post! america’s egg farmers launched the good egg project to educate americans about where eggs come from and encourage people to eat well and do good every day. check out the good egg project site to learn about hen nutrition, environmental improvements that have been made by egg producers in the past few decades, and to see a slide show illustrating the steps that eggs go through to get to the grocery store.

hey, my husband's name is eggboy and i just made an egg cream. hold your tongue on the jokes, i already made them all, they are already so last week. (actually if you have a good one, i wouldn't be opposed to you saying it.)

but ok, egg creams! a classic new york drink that has nary an egg, just whole milk, seltzer, and chocolate syrup. my percussion teacher in college, gordon, informed me during one of our timbale lessons that it has to be fox's u-bet syrup. absolutely has to be. (it's not an egg cream without fox's, molly, now please show me how much cascara you practiced this week...something like that.)

past the basic ingredients, everybody has a different way of making it and everybody's way is the best. some add the syrup at the beginning, some add it after the milk and seltzer, some have strong opinions about the type of glass used... and i am just a shy middle-of-nowhere dweller, very far away from the closest fox's and there is a nutella stain on my pants. do you get where i'm going?

here's a photo of rob and me on the night i had my first egg cream, at sammy's roumanian. r.i.p. my bangs. i didn't hate my first egg cream, i didn't love it, but over the years the sensation of drinking a fizzy chocolate milk has grown on me so much, especially because it makes me all nostalgic for sammy's and rob and brian and my earlier years in new york. it's a fun drink, a festive chocolatey one, and something that everybody should try twice.

nutella egg cream

makes 2

ingredients

1/2 c nutella

3/4 c whole milk, very cold

1 c seltzer, very cold

clues

in a bowl of measuring cup, whisk together the nutella and 1/4 cup of milk to make a syrup.

divide the remaining milk between two glasses and then top with the seltzer. mix in the nutella syrup, dividing it evenly between the glasses. enjoy!

this post is part of sherrie + renee's #drinkthesummer party!!!! i wish it was an i.r.l. party bc holy crap is it hot in israel. i need a cold drink. but it's on the internet, the second best party place in town! go to their blogs to check out all of the other amazing drinks that are part of this party!

-yeh!

greetings from my last day in israel! i am about to begin my zillion hour, three-flight journey home, and if my calculations are correct, i will return right in the thick of wheat harvest. 

i love wheat harvest. the golden wheat fields and the green grassy yards and the bright blue skies make the most rockin color blocking vibe, and the whole place smells like pizza. it's like a pizza-scented rothko. a scratch n sniff rothko.

it's great.

and of course another great thing about harvest is the farm lunches!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

most of the days this summer, eggboy has been able to come in for lunch, but during harvest, if there is good weather, work doesn't stop for lunch. which is laaaaame because that means i gotta put on pants and go outside when i wanna see him during daylight hours (#hermit), but awesome because i was made to pack cute lunches. and while i shouldn't take credit for all of the farm lunches, as eggmama is by far the main farm lunch maker, occasionally the inspiration strikes and i go on a lunch-making binge, complete with fresh scones and love notes.

before i left, inspiration hit in the form of corn. and bacon. and eggboy's love of mexican food. and the cutest little fold-up spork i ever did see*. this maple bacon polenta is exactly what it sounds like: creamy, buttery cornmeal polenta with a swirl of sweet maple syrup, topped with a handful of crispy bacon. it's super quick and easy to make and the combination of corn, maple, and bacon is delicious. and the other dish here, the mexican corn salad, is a sporkable version of elotes, mexican street corn on the cob that's been covered in cream, cotija cheese, cilantro, and lime. this version is a little extra spicy and a fresh contrast to the polenta.

maple bacon polenta

makes 4 servings

ingredients

4 slices bacon

2 c water

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1/2 c corn meal

1/4 c whole milk

3 tb unsalted butter

1/4 tsp paprika

Black pepper, to taste

3 tb maple syrup
 

clues

crisp up the bacon in a skillet. while it's cooking, make the polenta.

Place the water and salt in a saucepan and bring it to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to medium, whisk in the corn meal very gradually, and continue to whisk until the mixture has thickened. Reduce the heat to low and stir in the milk, butter, paprika, black pepper, and maple syrup. Taste and adjust seasonings as desired.

When the bacon is done cooking, pat off excess fat and give it a rough chop. Sprinkle the bacon over the polenta and serve.

enjoy!

mexican corn salad

makes 8 servings

ingredients

2 tb flavorless oil, like canola

8 ears of corn

kosher salt and black pepper

1/4 c mayo

1/4 c sour cream, crema, or plain greek yogurt

2 tsp paprika

1 tsp cayenne

2 tsp lime juice

8 oz feta or cotija

2 tb chopped cilantro

clues

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Chop the corn kernels off of the cobs and add the corn to the skillet with a good pinch of salt and a few turns of pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 10-15 minutes, until browned. 

In a large bowl, mix together the mayo, sour cream, paprika, cayenne, and lime juice. Add the corn and stir to coat. Stir in the feta and cilantro. Serve immediately or chill and serve it cold.

enjoy!

-yeh!

*the cutest little foldable spork i ever did see has come c/o the newest member of our sturdy farm lunch container family, genuine thermos brand®'s new dual compartment food jar. it has a section that'll keep your polenta hot for five hours and a separate section for your mexican corn. it's sturdy enough to get the eggboy seal of approval (i.e. it can get tossed around a tractor on a regular basis), and yes, that spork, i squealed when i saw it.

thank you so much to genuine thermos brand® for providing compensation and product for this post! all opinions are mine.

haifa, jerusalem, the dead sea, tzfat, the negev, the galilee

the funniest thing happened this week! i got on a plane all sweaty and smelly from the thick israeli summertime and 24 hours later, got off in grand forks, shivering because suddenly i was in the center of fall. it's like i had traveled through time, so consider me a regular marty mcfly.

on my first morning home, i woke up right in time to hear macaroni sing his cockadoodledoo. what a sound!! i imagine it's kind of like hearing your human kid talk for the first time. i piled on a blanket and scurried into the kitchen to brew coffee from a little instant packet that's been hiding in my suitcase since the first kibbutz of my trip (and thank goodness it was there, apparently eggboy was too busy with harvest to replenish our coffee beans while i was gone). i sprinkled it with hawaij and then left it to cool while i ran outside to say hello to macaroni and yank some onions from the ground for my morning salad. oh man it was cold! two weeks in 110º will really make you forget what 60º feels like.

and then in the fall morning light, over salad and tahini and coffee laced halva and hawaij laced coffee, i unpacked and repacked all of my most favorite memories from the past two weeks into imaginary little jars that i will keep forever and ever:

the dash to the tzfat lahoh man, and his hotter than hot zhoug,

a successful (painless!!!) dip in the dead sea,

chili halva, nougat halva, stringy halva, nutella halva...

a rugelach threesome in the middle of mahane yehuda,

the hummus to end all hummuses, in haifa, with a hardboiled egg and a pool of magic tahini,

asaf avidan singing that one day, baby we'll be old, while we snaked through the desert and into an area that was so close to the border, my phone thought we were in jordan,

riding a camel named monica,

my first ever bites of kubbeh, 

a speakeasy in jerusalem,

40 new friends...

i could go on and on, but i'm saving some for my tel aviv post! and i've still got to unpack and find places for the pounds of halva and tahini that almost made my suitcase overweight. *almost* (and if it was, you know i would have chugged that tahini cognac-style so it wouldn't go to waste.)

-yeh!

thanks so much to israel experts for sponsoring this post! a majority of these past few weeks was spent as a staff member for israel experts' culinary themed taglit birthright trip. it was the same one i attended as a participant two years ago and i loved it! if you're interested in applying for this trip, you can find out more information here. registration opens september 8th, but pre-registration has already begun, so you can begin your process here with the referral code mynameisyeh33 and israel experts will contact you to choose a trip option. questions can be directed to: info@israelexperts.com or 1-800-218-9851!

tel aviv

if the farm was just one of those things like a couch that could be strapped to a u-haul and moved to another place and if with some crazy effed up futuristic wizardry, the spot where i'm sitting right now just vanished and minnesota went missing and we were forced to relocate where would we go?? what would we do? could i bring my little town and all of its cozy winters?

would we go to montana? maybe!

asheville? when we retire.

tel aviv?????? right now??? yes.

that place is the tits! i have never felt more at home in a place that was so far from my home. sure, the food is great, the sun is always shining, there's a party every night, etc., etc., but what really made this place more than just a hummus-y beach vibe backed by the sweet sounds of matkot and hydration via shoko b'sakit was the people. everybody that i met was so welcoming and nice. not just nice in a pleased-to-meet-you/that's-a-pretty-shirt way, but nice in a real honest warm way, like how they all make sure you have somewhere to go for friday night dinner, how they open up their home if you feel like inviting instagram over, and how if you mention that you'd like to sharpen your pita skills, they're there with flour and an oven. 

if i was tel aviv's mum i'd be kvelling. 

i had countless wonderful experiences in my short time there, from making tahini cake and pretzel challah for al hashulchan, to feasting on three courses of the best shrimp i ever ate with naama and lama, to l'chaim-ing with so many amazing friends, old and new...

one of these days i'm gonna get on the mic and ask if any of you in tel aviv would like to swap houses for a winter. so get ready, go buy a coat.

here are some things i would like you to know about tel aviv if you're planning to go there:

going on a tour with delicious israel is a requirement if you care about food. inbal, the owner, knows everything about everything and will not take no for an answer if, for example, the special secret spice man at the levinsky market has closed up shop for the day but you're about to board a plane and need an emergency stash of ras el hanout. 

catit is where josh, jeff, and i lost our shit over what was easily one of the top three meals of our lives. it was fancy and beautifully plated and i yelled at jeff for wearing shorts to it, but it wasn't stuffy, it was just so good.

i had a really great almond pulpy cocktail situation at imperial.

yom tov's halva is a *revelation* and their cheese stuffed hibiscus is something everyone needs to try at least twice.

the turkish breakfast at the cookbook cafe is everything i aspire to make for the breakfast table.

bread and co was two doors away from my airbnb and i am positive that if i lived in tel aviv, this is where i would sit every day with my shakshuka in a bread bowl and a cold coffee and morning twitter.

feincook is a very cool hip kitchen studio space with fun cooking classes and the most delightful people.

the freshest, most beautiful sodas in the world may be found at café levinsky 41, and sipped alongside colorful balls of homemade marzipan.

dr. shakshuka, abu hassan, orna v'ella, lehamim bakery, and night kitchen were a few more places that i loved.

mizlala, miznon, north abraxus, eatwith habanot, mashiah, and port said were the ones that got away, but they're at the top of my list for next time.

food pictured in this post: a chocolate chili ganache cake with marzipan hearts and a halva + berry pizza made with the extraordinary bazekalim, a tahini + fig cake and kashkaval stuffed pretzel za'atar challah which will be in the november issue of al hashulchan, fig + silan + tahini + dukkah toasts, a feta + watermelon + mint cake which, ok, is actually #notacake.

-yeh!

we are in the midst of sugar beet pre-haul right now!

eggboy and his crew are working on opening up the sugar beet fields and doing little harvest test runs to make sure that all of the equipment is running smoothly before sugar beet harvest officially starts on october first. this is a super important step because sugar beet harvest is the mother of all harvests: it's so intense, it goes for 24 hours a day, and it can be really unpredictable. last year's harvest was a dream because the weather was perfect, but who knows what this harvest is going to bring. luckily, i've still got a month to prepare myself mentally for the long eggboy-less hours. (and you've still got a month to plan your trip to visit me and keep me company!)

of course, even during pre-haul, eggboy needs a lunch! this week, cauliflower is on the menu. sometimes i question cauliflower and need to google it to make sure that it's actually healthy because aren't healthy foods supposed to be really colorful?? whatever, the internet says it's healthy so i'm gonna go with it. i am slowly but surely expanding my arsenal of cauliflower recipes, which until recently has just included dan barber's cauliflower steak and smitten kitchen's cauliflower fritters, but this summer i got some inspiration in california via an alarmingly good curried cauliflower salad at lemonade. so this cold curried cauliflower recipe is totally based on that. it's sweet and nutty and curry-y and great. and then this soup represents my excitement about soup season being around the corner. it's pretty simple to make and packs creaminess and flavor thanks to the addition of swiss cheese and paprika. so go get thee some heads of cauliflower! 

cauliflower swiss soup

makes 4-6 servings

ingredients

2 tb unsalted butter

1 yellow onion, chopped

2 large carrots, chopped

2 stalks of celery, chopped

kosher salt and black pepper

2 cloves garlic, smashed

1 tb sweet paprika

5 cups chicken broth

1 head cauliflower, chopped

1 c shredded swiss cheese

Hot sauce, to taste

clues

Melt the butter in a large pot over medium high heat. Add the onion, carrots, celery, a good pinch of salt, and a few turns of black pepper, and cook, stirring occasionally, for 7-10 minutes, until soft. Add the garlic and paprika and cook, stirring, for 1-2 more minutes. Add the broth and cauliflower and bring to a simmer. Simmer for 20 minutes, until the cauliflower is tender. Add the swiss and then use an immersion blender or food processor to blend until smooth. Taste and adjust seasonings as desired. Serve with additional swiss and a few shakes of hot sauce.

enjoy!

cold curried cauliflower

makes 4-6 servings

ingredients

1 head cauliflower, chopped into florets

2 tb olive oil

1 tsp kosher salt

 curry vinaigrette (ingredients below)

1/2 c golden raisins

1/2 c toasted almonds, roughly chopped

curry vinaigrette:

1/2 c canola oil

1 small onion, chopped

1 tb curry powder

1 tb dijon

1 tb honey

1 tb apple cider vinegar

1 tb lemon juice

kosher salt and black pepper

clues

Preheat oven to 400. Toss the cauliflower in the olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Spread out on a sheet pan and roast for 20-30 minutes, until brown and tender.

to make the vinaigrette, first make a curry oil: coat the bottom of a pan with about a tablespoon of the canola oil and then cook the onion over medium high heat for 5-7 minutes, stirring, until soft and translucent. Add the curry powder and cook, stirring, for 1-2 more minutes. Pour in the remaining oil and let it sizzle over medium heat for 1 minute. remove it from heat, let it cool, strain out the onion and allow the curry to sink to the bottom.

Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk together the dijon, honey, vinegar, lemon juice, and a good pinch of salt and pepper, and then pour in the oil (carefully as to not disturb the curry at the bottom). Whisk together the vinaigrette. add the roasted cauliflower, raisins, and almonds, and toss to coat. Chill until serving.

enjoy!

-yeh!

i'll be packing up eggboy's cauliflower lunch in genuine thermos brand®'s new dual compartment food jar, which has two separate compartments, one for your soup and one for your curried cauliflower. it is super sturdy, holds enough for a filling meal, and is perfect for the tractor. for more info on this great new thing, check out genuine thermos brand®'s site.

thanks so much for providing compensation and products for this post, genuine thermos brand®!

i've killed another basil plant. i was going really really strong, pesto-ing up a storm and making tomato sauce like the italian grandma that i'll never be. eggboy tried to make me feel better using some farmer jargon, something along the lines of how my basil plant knows that it's about to be fall, so it's discontinuing growing on its own. but it's an indoor plant! don't indoor plants not have seasons? isn't that the point of them being indoor plants?

oh fuck it!

i think i'm done being an herb mama for a while.

and while we're on the subject, i think i've also been a terrible chicken mama lately, too. i was caught threatening to waffle falafel the other night because he's been really at it with the cockadoodledoos in the mornings. (falafel is boy macaroni's new name, by the way. he needed a new name to differentiate himself from the ladies.) i'm so nervous, i don't know what we're going to do with him! he is so loud in the mornings. and the afternoons. and the evenings. i think our next line of defense is going to be to pull some sort of acoustic wizardry in the coop and insulate it so the sounds are muted. they didn't teach us chicken coop acoustics in music school, i wish they would have.

ok, but back to basil.

i imagine i'll get one, maybe two more batches of bruschetta out of my little dead plant, but for a big final end-of-basil-season blowout, and because labor day is nearly here, i figured i'd make a cake.

this cake is inspired by some good lookin' basil cakes that i've seen on the internet here and there. it's a super basic but super good rich chocolate cake and it's covered in buttercream that's been infused with fresh basil and whipped up with creamy mascarpone. the subtle basil flavor is a nice little touch if you're looking for an extra special cake that says "happy labor day!" or "happy fall!" or "sorry i killed you, mister basil plant, but look, it wasn't for nothing!"

basil mascarpone buttercream frosted chocolate cake

makes one 2-layer 8-inch cake (the cake in these photos is 1 1/2 batches)

ingredients

cake:

1 3/4 c sugar

1 3/4 c all-purpose flour

1 c unsweetened cocoa powder

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp kosher salt

2 large eggs

1/2 c flavorless oil, like canola

1 c whole milk or buttermilk

1 tb vanilla extract

3/4 c boiling water

frosting:

10 fresh basil leaves, torn

2 sticks unsalted butter

8 oz mascarpone

3 cups powdered sugar

a pinch of kosher salt

assembly:

fresh basil leaves

marzipan kneaded with a bit of green food coloring and cut into leaf shapes

clues

cake: 

preheat oven to 350.

grease two 8-inch round cake pans and line the bottoms with parchment.

in a large bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients. in a medium bowl, whisk together all the wet ingredients except for the boiling water. whisk the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and then stir in the boiling water. pour into cake pans and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. begin checking for doneness at 28 minutes.

let cool in the pans for 10 minutes, and then turn the cakes onto a lightly greased cooling rack.

frosting:

muddle the basil leaves in a medium saucepan. add the butter, melt it over medium heat, and then reduce the heat to low and cook, stirring often, for 15 minutes. strain out the basil leaves, transferring the butter to a bowl, and freeze it for about 5 minutes, until it's partly firmed up but still a little soupy. (if you have the room in your freezer, you can freeze it in a large bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer. if you don't have the room in your freezer, freeze it in a small bowl and then transfer the butter to a large bowl for the next step.) 

give the butter a few folds so that it's evenly creamy. if it's still a little too soupy, stick it back in the freezer for a few minutes and then try stirring it again. once it's creamy, beat it with the mascarpone and then gradually mix in the powdered sugar and salt.

assembly:

once your cakes are fully cooled, level them. place one layer on a cake board, spread a thick layer of frosting on top, and then place the other layer on top of that. use an offset spatula to frost the cake smoothly all over. decorate with basil leaves and marzipan leaves as desired. enjoy!

this post features a cake stand, towels, and wooden kitchen tools from the amazing vermont farm table. eggboy and i got a vermont farm table rolling pin for a wedding gift and i've been obsessed with this company ever since! they're a small family-owned operation that specializes in custom handcrafted wooden tables, seating, and other kitchen goodies that are built to last for generations. i love all of my vermont farm table goods. they are so sturdy and handsome and made with beautiful (often reclaimed) wood. and here's the best part: they've offered to give away a cake stand to one of you lucky ducks! to enter this giveaway, check out their site and leave a comment here with your email address telling me which cake stand you prefer, as well as what you'd serve on it. open to u.s. residents. i will be picking a winner at random next week! update: this giveaway is now closed.

-yeh!

thank you so much to vermont farm table for sponsoring this post!

one uncrustable pb + j // at adult summer camp, to soak up the fireside marshmallow vodka and to fuel a late night game of heroes' quest with my new camp friends. i was the wizard! i named him frank and killed an ork with my sword and we totally crushed that game. 

one breakfast beer // if you've ever been sad that your summer camp days are behind you, just sign up for adult summer camp and then embrace the nice bearded guy at the breakfast buffet who is dispensing fancy breakfast beer from a keg.

another uncrustable pb + j // in the car on the way to minneapolis!

a pile of cherry tomatoes from our garden // also in the car on the way to minneapolis and while considering the idea that cherry tomatoes are nature's gushers. would you agree?

a vegetarian jimmy john's sammich // i think i'm becoming a vague vegetarian.

coconut bacon // no really, i actually think i'm becoming a vegetarian.

a roasted cauliflower and chickpea taco // prepared by none other than a couple cooks!!!! **happy dance** 

an ottolenghi's black pepper tofu taco // i brought tofu to a party. who am i. 

a boozy beef banh mi taco // melissa made beef and when melissa makes beef you stop entertaining the idea of becoming a vegetarian. 

pie, cookies, one luxurious bite of a morning bun // the details of which i must keep secret because they were test runs of recipes for sarah's book (!!!!) ohmygah, you're going to absolutely *need* that book. 

a variety of swedish pancakes // savored in #thefauxhouse over blog shop talk, glorious blog shop talk <3

one bite of many different glam doll donuts // with my brunch club ladies! 

a pile of salad // from whole foods on our drive back from minneapolis. our options were: stop at the state fair for dinner of fried things on a stick or stop at the whole foods for vegetables and more vegetables. we chose the opposite of yolo-ing on that one but now we have really fantastic hard-to-find-in-our-little-town vegetables for the week and i am so excited about it. 

ricotta stuffed whole wheat challah // i made these mini loaves of challah for the drive to summer camp on friday night! they were kind of in celebration of friday pizza night, because when you eat cheese stuffed bread with a fresh tomato, you basically have pizza. 

you can go a few different directions with these little loaves. i made a few personal-sized rolls and a few that are perfect for sharing with a friend (or perhaps... a date!). you could also make one large loaf, but that's not as fun. i tossed a bunch of za'atar into the dough to add extra flavor, and topped them with pumpkin seeds and sesame seeds for protein and prettiness. the seeds also add such crunchy textural fun to a fluffy challah and creamy ricotta party. these loaves are round because rosh hashanah is coming up (!!!), and yeah, with the whole wheat and seeds and everything they're definitely healthier than last year's marzipan challah and brown sugar challah, but you should go check those out too because the more challah the better the new year!

ricotta stuffed whole wheat za'atar challah mini loaves with pumpkin seeds and sesame seeds

makes 8 personal rolls or 4 medium shareable loaves

ingredients

dough:

2 1/4 tsp (1 packet) active dry yeast

3/4 c warm water

1/4 c + 1 teaspoon sugar

1 tsp kosher salt

2 c all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting

1 1/4 c whole wheat flour

1/4 c za'atar, optional

2 large eggs

1/3 c flavorless oil, like canola or vegetable

filling

1 c ricotta cheese

additional shredded cheese (optional... i like using a sprinkling of parmesan cheese)

kosher salt

eggwash + topping

1 egg yolk beaten with 1 tablespoon water

pumpkin seeds

sesame seeds

kosher salt + black pepper

clues

dough:

In a medium bowl, combine the yeast, warm water, and 1 teaspoon sugar and give it a little stir. Let it sit for about 5 minutes, until it becomes foamy on top. 

Meanwhile, in a large bowl or the bowl of stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, mix together the salt, flours, za'atar (if using) and remaining sugar. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the eggs and oil.

When the yeast is foamy, add it to the dry mixture immediately followed by the egg mixture and stir to combine. Knead, either by hand on a floured surface or with a dough hook for 7-10 minutes, adding more white flour as necessary (but try not too add too much), until you have a smooth and slightly sticky dough.

Transfer the dough to an oiled bowl, cover it with plastic wrap and let it sit at room temperature until it has doubled in size, about 2-3 hours. 

to shape:

Divide the dough into 4 or 8 parts, depending on how big you'd like your loaves to be. Pat them out into long rectangles (about 2 1/2" x 9" for personal rolls, 2 1/2" x 18" for medium loaves) and then spread with a thin even layer of ricotta. top with a sprinkling of additional cheese, if desired, and a sprinkling of salt. Roll up the rectangles the long way so you have long skinny snakes and and pinch the edges well to seal in the cheese. Roll the snakes into spirals to get round loaves and then let them rise for 30 more minutes.

Preheat the oven to 375ºf. 

Brush the loaves with a thin even layer of egg wash and then sprinkle with pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, salt, and pepper and bake until golden brown. Begin checking for doneness after 25 minutes. Let cool slightly and enjoy! Preferably with a fresh tomato. Do the challah/fresh tomato double fist.

-yeh!

photo credit to alex for that second to last photo (of what melissa titled "the real housewives of food blogging" 😂), and photo credit to eggboy for the photo of me with a wooden spoon that i whittled at camp!!!! 

with maya from bazek alim!

the other day i was strolling around tel aviv and i was a little bit blue because all of my travel companions had left the country without me (!!) and i still had one day until my flight. i mean, it was exciting because i still had one whole day and i could spend hours at the market debating between this za'atar and that za'atar or walk around my airbnb with no pants on if i wanted to, but that feeling of my trip being nearly over and that other feeling of having to navigate the bus system all by lonesome made me bluer than i should have been in such a sunny city. it felt like the last day of camp :(

but then suddenly, a jingle on my phone! (did you know that phones work kind of pretty well overseas now?!)

it was maya from bazek alim, saying something to the effect of, "hi! would you like to come over and make molten halva lava cakes???"

and all of my blues were gone. vanished! because halva and cake are my safe words and my kryptonite and my drugs of choice, all smashed together. maya inviting me over for halva cake was kind of like how in college if ever one of the percussion boys knew that i was in a salty mood, they could just compliment me on my hair and suddenly they'd be my best friend.

anyway.

within five minutes of sitting down in maya's apartment/prop room, i had a halva cake from test batch #1 in my belly, a stack of not-yet-available-in-the-states cookbooks sitting on my lap, and a high powered air conditioner covering my person. fantastic!

we baked the afternoon away. we made halva pizza and inbal's cake. maya introduced me to tonka bean, i perused her prop shelves, we talked about blogs... halva was everywhere, caramel was everywhere.... it was glorious. the tastiest of afternoons.

when maya offered me a molten halva lava cake, i did what i always do with dessert. i ate one bite and savored the living daylights out of it, planning to not eat anymore since i knew that there would be more sweets soon. usually i can stick to this plan pretty well. this time i absolutely could not. somewhere between the chewy eggy outer cake and the smooth puddle of caramel that was flavored with just the right amount of tahini, i tossed my plan to the wind and downed the thing. i was bonkers for it.

they're fussy cakes to make, they over bake sooo easily (and i know from experience), but when they're right, they're right. and it still amazes me that they require such basic ingredients.

this recipe is all maya's doing. it is loosely adapted from this french book. (lol, maya, do you even speak french?!) and you can find maya's post and recipe, in hebrew, here. 

molten halva lava cakes

makes 6

ingredients

3/4 c sugar

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

2 tb water

1/2 c heavy cream

1/2 c unsalted butter, cut into cubes

3 eggs

4 tb raw tahini

2 tb flour

flaky sea salt, for topping

clues

preheat the oven to 350f. grease six 1-cup individual ramekins or muffin tins. 

place the sugar and salt in a wide heavy-bottomed pan. stir in the water and cook over high heat until sugar melts into a sandy puddle. once this happens, avoid stirring, to prevent crystallization. continue cooking sugar for 2-4 minutes until it turns a light amber color. reduce heat to low and carefully stir in the cream. continue to stir until mixture smooths out. add butter, cube by cube, stirring, until mixture is thick and homogeneous. remove from heat and let cool slightly.

gradually stir the eggs into the warm (but not hot) caramel mixture, one at a time, and then stir in the tahini. add flour and stir until smooth. 

scoop mixture into the muffin tins and bake until puffed with a 1-inch jiggely circle in center, begin checking for doneness at 8 minutes. 

sprinkle with flaky salt and enjoy!

-yeh!

...and when i say "weekend scenes" i really mean "a whole bunch of other tasty shit that i ate this weekend plus a snazzy beautiful letterpress calendar from kenden." because! this weekend i made the wedding desserts for randi and her new mister and then spent all day sunday with brisket and challah and apples from our trees. it was a dangerously tasty weekend. so tasty that i wasn't even that jealous when donny live texted his dizengoff hummus experience to me. (look at it. it was essentially a sext.) 

details on some of the things in these photos are top secret because they are going in my book! but the chocolate chip cookies are from samantha's new book and they've got coconut and pistachios in them and they were so effing good, i wish i would have periscoped the drunk reactions i got to them when i brought them to a bar on friday night. people went cray.

and then the round chocolate sandwich cookies are my very extremely un-australian interpretation of the tim tam, by way of sarah's bright new book. i mean *i know* that a tim tam should be rectangular, *i know* that they're supposed to be fully covered in chocolate and not just half covered in chocolate, and *i definitely know* what a tim tam slam involves. (i did approximately 30 of them in one sitting in high school when jon the drum major returned from australia with tim tams by the ton. (and if you haven't done a tim tam slam, you have an assignment. due yesterday.)) but ok, these guys are round because my rectangle cutting skills are subpar and i'm a dumb american with a shiny set of round biscuit cutters. i don't know, i don't really have an excuse. i'm sorry, sarah, i'm sorry, australia.

they taste mighty good though!! they are essentially a homemade oreo that's been covered in chocolate (what is not to love???) and i added a bit of peanut butter to the filling for fun! 

tim tams

makes 14

from sarah coates' the sugar hit!

ingredients

cookies:

1/2 c unsalted butter, softened

1/2 c sugar

1 large egg

1/4 c unsweetened cocoa powder

1 c flour

pinch of salt

filling:

1/2 c unsalted butter, softened

1/4 c peanut butter (optional)

1 c powdered sugar

1 tb unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tb malted drink powder (like ovaltine or horlicks)

coating:

7 oz milk chocolate

1 tb coconut oil

clues

cookies:

cream together the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. beat in the egg. add the cocoa powder and beat until smooth. fold in the flour and salt until incorporated. turn the dough out onto a piece of parchment on a work surface, top with another piece of parchment and roll out to a large rectangle about 1/4" thick. put the dough on a tray and freeze for 30 minutes.

preheat the oven to 350º and line 2 baking sheets with parchment. 

take the dough out of the freezer and slice it into 1 1/4" x 2 1/2" rectangles. separate the rectangles and spread them out on the lined baking trays. bake for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

filling:

cream the butter and peanut butter (if using) until soft, sift in the remaining ingredients and beat until well combined. spread a heaped teaspoon of filling on half of the cookies. top with the remaining cookies, then put in the refrigerator to chill while you make the coating.

coating:

place the chocolate and coconut oil in a heat-proof bowl and melt together in the microwave on high in 30-second increments, stirring after each. once the chocolate is mostly melted, remove and stir gently until smooth.

take a chilled cookie and carefully coat it in the chocolate. place it on the lined baking tray. chill until firm. enjoy!

-yeh!

it might be risotto season. i don't know, i don't really go outside these days unless it's to see macaroni or to pull an onion from the ground. minnesota is at its peak buggiest. so everything i know about the weather, i know from your tweets or what eggboy tells me about it (or i smell it on him). the two have kind of been giving me conflicting results these days because apparently it's hotter than hot in new york but cool enough to avoid sweating in other places (like here). but by my calendar, fall is around the corner and that means risotto season! so, here: your green light to go stand above a stove for 45 minutes. 

this risotto is inspired by the yemeni lahoh stand in tzfat that i love so very much. lahoh is a sour flatbread, similar to injera, and at this particular stand, they top it with cheese, za'atar, tomatoes, onions, fresh herbs, and zhoug. zhoug is a suuuuuper spicy yemeni condiment that is dangerously hot but also oddly refreshing because a lot of it is made up of fresh cilantro and parsley. i really like it on all things, but i avoid saying the word "zhoug" out loud at all costs because it is by far the most difficult word i've ever tried to pronounce. you have to inhale and exhale at the same time and do some acrobatics with your throat to really get it down. i'm working on it. i just tried googling a pronunciation video to show you but it doesn't look like there are any online... one day i'll periscope my zhoug pronunciation practice sessions, or something. 

zhoug is super easy to make. you just put a bunch of stuff in a blender, you don't even have to rip any herbs off of their stems. and then whatever you don't use for this recipe, you can store in the fridge for your morning eggs or you could even freeze it into little cubes and defrost it bit by bit.

so this dish is indeed what would happen if a yemenite and an italian got together and made a food baby. and whyyyyyy the sudden italian influence? (other than i love risotto and risotto season is here?) i'm going to tuscany! with davinci wine! just for a bit, i'll be back by beet harvest, but alana and brandiego and rebecca and i are headed off on saturday to be davinci wine storytellers and i am so gosh darn excited. after seeing celeste's tuscany photos from when she was a storyteller, i couldn't not go. so here i am, packing all of my dark colored clothes to allow for plenty of wine stains, and they're also stretchy to allow for pizza and pasta and, yes, risotto!

zhoug risotto with fresh tomatoes, onions, and za'atar

makes 2-4 servings

ingredients

4 c chicken broth

1/4 c olive oil, plus more for serving

1 small onion, finely chopped

kosher salt

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 c arborio rice

1 c davinci pinot grigio

1 c shredded parmesan, plus more for serving

2 tb zhoug (recipe below), or to taste

black pepper

chopped fresh tomatoes, chopped fresh onions, fresh cilantro and/or flat leaf parsley, and za'atar, for serving

zhoug

5 jalapeños, deseeded

4 cloves garlic

1 bunch flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped

1 bunch fresh cilantro, roughly chopped

1 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp ground coriander

1/4 tsp cayenne

a good pinch of salt

1/4 c olive oil

clues

bring the chicken broth to a low simmer and allow it to stay simmering while you prepare the other ingredients.

in a large pan, heat olive oil over medium heat. add the onion and a pinch of salt and cook until soft, about 5 minutes. add the garlic and cook for 2 more minutes. add rice and cook, stirring, for a few minutes until it is slightly toasted. add one cup of broth and cook, stirring, until it is absorbed into the rice. repeat this process with the remaining 3 cups of broth and the cup of wine. 

stir in the parmesan cheese and zhoug. taste and add more zhoug, if desired, as well as salt and pepper. spoon into bowls, drizzle with olive oil, and top with tomatoes, onions, fresh herbs, za'atar, and more cheese. enjoy with davinci pinot grigiot!

to make the zhoug:

put all of the ingredients in a food processor and blend until it has the consistency of pesto.

store leftovers in the fridge for a few days, or freeze.

-yeh!

as a davinci wine storyteller, this post was created in partnership with davinci! follow along on my travels with #davincistoryteller!