I had to report for a jury summons this week, and while I’m relieved I wasn’t selected to serve (I can’t afford to miss ten days of work), it was interesting to see the process. It took a few hours of mostly sitting around, and when they let us go, I had the strange novelty of being downtown with nothing to do imminently. I thought about taking myself out for lunch but couldn’t come up with a single place nearby that I felt like going to and could afford, so I ended up just catching the boat back to North Van, and grabbing a fried chicken sandwich from Cream Pony to eat at the brewery. There’s something to be said for places you feel comfortable, I guess. It was also the first of December, so I treated myself to their white chocolate candy cane donut— hopefully the first of many peppermint treats I’ll get to enjoy. Some people love pumpkin spice season, I love chocolate mint season and I will not apologise for it.
On Black Friday, I refused to do even one more task after getting home from work, so Jeff picked up Chinese takeout from Orange Door. It’s not fancy, the spicy dishes are really spicy, and they have about 130 menu items to choose from. It was exactly what I wanted.
This weekend I’m celebrating my birthday by hosting a few friends over for some of my favourite movies (this year it’s Tampopo, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, and Dazed and Confused) as well as a dinner of ramen and of course, a birthday cake. People can come for one movie or all of them, whatever they have time for, and I look forward to it every year— it’s a great way to see some of my favourite people without having to leave my home.
In the great spaghetti squash saga, my desperation grows. I roast one each weekend and then tear through all my resources as I try to figure out something to make with it. On Saturday we made pizza, and used it on one of those, thinking that if it wasn’t good, I at least might end up on the fucked up looking food account. But it was good after all, on an olive oil base with mozza and provolone on top. I fried some sliced onion in butter, and then added some thyme and oregano with lots of black pepper, and the roasted squash just to cook some more of the water out of it for a few minutes. At the end I splashed in a bit of milk, but I think next time I’d also add some lemon juice or maybe white wine vinegar; I think the flavour could have been rounded out a little.
The other pizza was pretty standard, just olives and some leftover hot capocollo from when we made the last pizza, but I puréed a can of fire-roasted tomatoes to use for the sauce and it made for a really rich flavour. Normally I just use the plain tomatoes since they’re cheaper, but I was out of those and this was such a nice change.
On the weekend, I went in the fridge for a lemon and found that I actually had an embarrassing surplus of limes (the result of an impulse buy off the dollar rack), so I made a vegan coconut-lime cake. I like vegan cakes because there’s no waiting for butter to come to room temperature, so I can throw one together as soon as the mood strikes me. In the freezer I found some chocolate icing leftover from something else, and even though chocolate and lime wouldn’t necessarily have been the first combo that popped into my head, I pulled it out to thaw. A classic win-win: I got to use up something from the freezer, and save myself from having to make icing, which always feels like a lot more work than making the cake.
The cake has a great texture variance with the shredded coconut baked in, and I love the light flavour of the lime zest, which worked quite well with the chocolate, actually. Since I didn’t make the corresponding lime icing which would have used up the juice from the zested limes, instead I used them to make a gimlet with gin from Pacific Rim Distilling and some rosemary from the garden. The perfect thing to enjoy while the cake was in the oven.
On Sunday, I took chicken out of the freezer for a specific thing, and then was unable to make that specific thing. Two days later, I remembered it in the fridge, cursing my past self as I now had to use it. Luckily, chicken thighs with the bone still in are really easy to make into something delicious without a lot of effort, because they don’t necessarily need anything fancy done to them and they’re more difficult to overcook than chicken breasts. I made a jerk seasoning to rub them with, then cooked them in a cast iron pan in a high-heat oven— the skin gets super crispy but the meat stays juicy, and they’re done in around half an hour. At the same time, I roasted some garlic and a jalapeño, and made a pan of potato wedges.
The garlic and pepper were for the sauce, which is just done in the pan with the drippings and a little water and lime once the chicken’s cooked and moved to a serving dish (another reason to love a cast iron). This recipe comes from the Milk Street: Tuesday Nights cookbook and it’s a nice contrast, perfectly tart and spicy. I also made a green salad in tarragon dijon vinaigrette, so the plate wouldn’t be solely meat and potatoes. Jeff used a knife and fork, but I picked up my piece of chicken and ate it with my hands like an animal (it enhances the experience).
Also this week I made two lovely soups, perfect for this frigid weather. The first was curried tomato & red lentil, to use up the coconut milk I’d opened for the cake and the tomatoes I’d opened for the pizza. The recipe comes from Ottolenghi Simple, a book I use often, and this recipe in particular is one I return to a lot. I made it without the cilantro this time because I didn’t have any, and it didn’t suffer at all for it, particularly served alongside a nice crispy sourdough grilled cheese.
Because we accidentally bought way too many shiitakes, the other was a vegan New England-style clam chowder, made with a cashew cream base and chewy shiitake mushrooms in place of the clams. It uses seaweed to give the broth a bit of the sea flavour— the recipe calls for chopped nori; I had dulse flakes so I used those. I’ve made this once before and really enjoyed it, and was excited to make it again. It doesn’t taste like clam chowder exactly, but it’s flavourful, hearty, and comforting in the same way, which is what matters.
THE GIFT GUIDE
If you give gifts this time of year, I’m sure December snuck up on you as quickly as it did me. I wanted to put together a brief new gift guide for you— I truly had almost zero time to do so, but I’ve managed to include a few useful items below. Here is last year’s, as well— I don’t think anything on there will be so out of date as to be irrelevant. I hope some of these ideas are helpful for you! Please note I do not make any money from the links below and am including them only because I love you. Thank me by sharing my newsletter with your loved ones.
Books: I’ve been loving Eric Kim’s Korean American, and I’m looking forward to Deb Perelman’s new one, Keepers. The Casual zines— full of lovely, homey recipes— now ship to Canada if you order a bundle of four or more, which would be great to share among a few stockings. Alternately, you could get someone a digital subscription so they automatically receive PDFs of all new issues.
Tools: An Aeropress: small, portable, makes a great cup of coffee (as the only coffee drinker in my house, I use it daily and love it). A silicone tray to make the fun big ice cubes, or the round ones, for cocktails like old fashioneds and negronis. A tiny whisk for dressings and sauces, and some cute prep bowls. Any of the tools in my previous gift guide (those are the real MVPs).
Food: Coconama chocolates, made here in North Van (and they have vegan options)! A jar of chili crisp, which I put on so much stuff— I really like this one which is pricey, but the classic Lao Gan Ma is still great and only a few bucks at T&T. Anything you’ve made yourself! It may feel like a cop-out, but I truly cherish the times I’ve been gifted a jar of someone’s jalapeño jelly or a big container of homemade bits & bites.
Drinks: House of Funk is not only a wonderful brewery, they also roast their own coffee, which comes in beautifully designed tins. If your gift recipient is a fan of complex, medium-bodied brew, I can recommend their beans. There are a wide variety of gin makers in BC (juniper grows here!) and no two taste exactly the same— I like the ones made by Copperpenny and The 101.
Thanks for reading— if you enjoyed this newsletter, please smash that like button below, or share it with someone new! I like providing this to you for free, but it does still involve time and effort, so donations I can use towards cookbooks or future treats are much appreciated.
Finally, now that December’s here, I recommend NYT Food’s holiday cookie collection if you need baking ideas! I have a couple standby recipes I make every year, and then I usually choose one or two from this list. As a subscriber I can share up to 10 recipes per month, so if you don’t have access and there’s something in particular you’d like to try, feel free to reply to this email.