Recipes That We Both Endorse

Cute W sent me a recipe to try: Spicy Corn and Shishito Salad. This link is paywalled, but when I searched by the recipe name, the same recipe showed up, shared by some enterprising blogger has copied the recipe word for word, with attribution, and it shows up high on the results list.

I was very excited when he sent me this particular recipe because it is healthful. I’d been giving him a bit of a hard time lately because whenever I’m trying a new recipe, it’s something that’s good for me. My philosophy is: I don’t actually need to come up with more delicious desserts that I enjoy. I need to find more easy & yummy variations on vegetables and protein. Cute W, on the other hand, is more likely to get excited about tweaking a chocolate chip cookie recipe or creating a splendidly authentic and complicated dinner.

In fact, I’ve sort of had to zip my lips about this complaint, because now I’ve given poor Cute W a bit of a complex about it, and I do want him to have Beautiful Kitchen Freedom. Sometime recently he tried a new cookie recipe in part because it sounded like something that I would find unappealing. And I did find it unappealing. I mean, I still had to try one, but beyond that, I was not tempted. So I’m trying to hold my tongue, but honestly, by the time I realized that I should just shut up about this, I had already created a list of recipes to share, and you should have these recipes. So for the record: Cute W gets to make whatever he wants. And lucky for both of us, every once in a while, we come up with new recipes that we both enjoy.

Here are some new recipes that I brought to the household that we both like:

• We both like the Celery and Apple Salad shared by Gia Pendergast. It is very simple and surprisingly tasty. I almost always have celery in the house, and Cute W is not a particular Celery Enthusiast, but he likes this salad as well as the other one I often make with extra celery tops.
• We both really like this “Life Changing Lettuce” which is really a basic vinaigrette that leans hard on garlic. For both this and the previous salad, I typically just make it with dinner assuming Cute W might not even be interested in trying it, and then it’s an Unexpected Triumph when he agrees that it’s tasty. This is another very simple salad, but it’s different than our typical go-tos, so it’s a nice change.
• I’ve already shared my homemade crackers, of which I am inordinately proud, but it brings me even more joy that Cute W loves them, too. They are made up of a ga-jillion different seeds as well as crushed-up multi-vitamins (not really, but almost).
• And finally, we both agreed that this Chilled Soba Noodle Salad with Chili Walnuts and Shrimp from Jenn Eats Good is a keeper. I added sugar snap peas because there’s always room for more vegetables. I am actually a little bit fussy about shrimp, so I might make this with chicken next time.

Meanwhile, here are a few of Cute W’s recent culinary triumphs:

• These Potatoes from Poppy Cooks that I’ve mentioned before are the best potatoes I’ve ever eaten (and there is stiff competition in this category). Part of the secret involves a big pan full of hot oil. Cute W is such a fan of this preparation that now, when he makes Chicken Chowder, he prepares the potatoes like this instead of just chopping them and throwing them in. And, okay, yes: it does make the potatoes altogether more delicious and elevates the soup. But I laugh because it is part of our ongoing trend of making recipes more difficult. Which, if you go back and read that one, now we use homemade crust for both the potpie and the pizza, and Cute W makes the pizza sauce from his garden-grown tomatoes and basil. We are looking into getting a cow for fresher mozzarella.
• Cute W’s made “Tom Cruise Cake” from Plain Chicken, so-called because it replicates a famously delicious and expensive cake that the Scientologist gifts to friends. This cake is uh-MAZE-ing, I’m sorry to say, and the recipe is also huge, so if you bake it, make sure that you have a lot of eaters lined up. SO moist. Delicious. Dammit.

• Cute W recently made Bon Appetit’s Best Bolognese, which is a completely delectable concoction that includes beef chuck at 20% fat, pancetta, whole milk, cheese, and of course, pasta. I regret to inform you that it is completely glorious.

• He also concocted some Mango Sticky Rice with help from the recipes on Joyous Apron and Scientifically Sweet. Lucky for Cute W, he already had an authentic steamer, and Asian stores carry the recommended special rice, and the result absolutely tastes as good as what you’d order for dessert at a great Thai restaurant. As desserts go, it is not the most unhealthful, but again, I don’t really need to acquire new desserts to crave. And this is absolutely crave-worthy.

And it is off-topic, but I have recently made two more recipes that are very healthful and extremely delicious, and I’m going to share them with you even though Cute W did not actually try them. First, this extremely tasty Arugula and Artichoke Dip shared by SnackBeNimble. It is the answer to my problem of figuring out how to use up a whole container of arugula by myself because Cute W is not a fan. It also features a lot of basil, so if your garden is overflowing with basil and you need a variation from pesto, I gotchu. I made this while M was visiting, and she liked it, too. My one variation is that I think that next time I’ll use pre-minced garlic from a jar. I love-love-love garlic, but the garlic overwhelmed the other flavors a bit, especially after some refrigeration. This also works well as a yummy spread if you want to make a fancy-pants sandwich.

And finally, I just made this Shredded Tofu by FitGreenMind. I don’t know why it had not occurred to me, over the past 30-odd years, to try shredding my tofu. As it was cooking I realized that this preparation is similar to the Spicy Tofu that my college used to serve in the dining hall. I loved that Spicy Tofu so much! It is one of my Foods of Yore that I have pined for over the years (not quite as much as the lobster risotto that I ate in a restaurant in Brooklyn in the late 1990s, but yes, I have thought of it often). Of course, it was shredded! Why didn’t I think of that? This preparation is extremely simple, plus a block of tofu fits nicely into my toaster oven pan. Hooray for easy, complete protein.