the un-magnificent lives of adults
bizarrely good stir-fry and the vegan smoked cheddar mac of your dreams
Ah, January. The only month that is actually three months long. I’ve been feeling a little more accomplished this week, though— I finished a piece of writing I’ve been working on for awhile, and got back to knitting after ignoring it since just after Christmas. I mostly like to knit while watching tv, and I’d started a sweater with a really fiddly yarn which didn’t allow me to do both, so I just didn’t work on anything. But I wound some new yarn and started a hat to get back in the swing of it, and when I’m finished I’ll start working on a more straightforward sweater (the first sweater is in purgatory for awhile… we’ll see if I come back to it).
It was also my youngest brother’s birthday this past weekend, and some of the family got together Tuesday night for dinner at Sushi Mori in Coquitlam, where you can order from a novella-sized menu of special rolls and hot dishes. Once again we were too busy having a nice time to take photos of the excellent food, but I recommend the spicy agedashi tofu, which has a great texture and a sauce I want to eat like a soup, as well as any of the aburi oshi, and the Barbie Doll roll. My sister brought along a cake from True Confections— angel food with Grand Marnier Bavarian cream— which most of us loved, but the birthday haver wasn’t a fan of its strong alcohol taste. The restaurant brought him some green tea and mango ice cream, though, so it was okay.
Anyway, I hope you’re all holding up, powering through, doing whatever it is that gets you through this month which can feel really dreary and tiring. Eat a big piece of cake. Turn the oven on and roast something just to warm up your house. Order takeout because the sun sets at 4pm. Watch tv under your warmest and heaviest blanket with a bowl of your favourite chips. (Can you tell I’m pulling from my own coping strategies here?)
Do you ever make something that you make all the time, but do it a little differently than usual because you’re missing some key component or have something specific that needs to get used, and then accidentally create a masterpiece of the genre? This happened when I went to make the smoky vegan mac & cheese with squash that I make often in the wintertime, but had no other vegetables in the house to add to it. We just had spaghetti squash to use up and I wasn’t that excited about it, really. I enjoy the texture variance of having some mushrooms or kale or something else in there, too, and I am well-known for thinking spaghetti squash is kind of mid. However, this turned out really delicious and satisfying to eat, and I had a bunch of inquiries about the photo of it on twitter and instagram, so I’ve outlined the changes to my original recipe in case you want to try it.
Basically, just reduce the amount of pasta to 250g (8oz) and increase the squash to about two cups without including any other vegetables, aside from the onion and garlic. I used a whole medium spaghetti squash (roughly 500-600g) I’d roasted ahead of time, but you could also steam it over the pasta water pot if you’re doing it the same day you want to make the dish. Keep in mind that these changes are specifically for spaghetti squash which will hold its shape and texture in the sauce— squash purée as in the original recipe will incorporate into the sauce. I also used a big spoonful of Guilin-style chili sauce in place of the hot sauce I usually use (a mix of Frank’s and Pain Is Good) and I really liked it. Please let me know if you make this; I’d love to know how it turned out for you!
Another thing I make often in the darkest, coldest months is a riff on a brussels sprout gratin from the book Six Seasons. I always do half the suggested amount of sprouts as potatoes, because I always have them this time of year and they make it feel like a complete enough dish that I don’t need to make something else to go with it (though it is very nice with a crisp salad alongside). It’s homey and just rich enough to feel a bit like a treat for a Sunday night dinner, but not so rich you need to lie down after.
Roast potato wedges, sliced onion, and brussels sprout halves with oil, salt, and pepper at 400°F until they’re almost the texture you’d like them to be for eating (I usually start the potatoes & onions, then add the sprouts after ten minutes or so). Then put them in a baking dish with cream or milk—I use oat milk usually because that’s what we keep in the house— and top with diced or torn pieces of prosciutto, grated cheese, and breadcrumbs. This is also good without the prosciutto if you don’t eat meat! Bake it for another twenty minutes or so, and broil for a minute or two to brown the top. The recipe calls for gruyère which is great, but I didn’t have any this time and I used a mix of pecorino and aged provolone, with absolutely no complaint.
In variations on a theme for the week, I had to use the last of the brussels sprouts we got off the dollar rack, and I created an uncommon stir fry because I was kind of at a loss. Usually when I do this thing, where I’m just throwing together ingredients that need to be used before they’re no good, I’m just hoping for something that’s edible and for those ingredients to be gone. But occasionally it turns out to be something delicious that I look forward to making again, and I get to feel pleasantly surprised with myself for inadvertently being a good cook, as if it isn’t something I’ve actively worked to be for years.
I started with some diced carrot and the sprouts cut into quarters, seared in the pan with the lid on to keep the moisture in, and then added some cubes of half a leftover brick of smoked tofu, and a sauce made from mixing some chili miso, mirin, and a dash of soy sauce into the last few tablespoons of a jar of kimchi. Sweet, savoury, crunchy, spicy— what’s not to like? It was really good over jasmine rice with some kewpie mayo, toasted sesame gim, and a bit of extra chili miso for garnish on top.
Also this week, because we let some bananas get too soft, Jeff made a loaf of his banana bread (originally based on this recipe), which is always perfect. I feel like some people got banana bread fatigue from the beginning of the pandemic, but luckily that never happened in this house. When I make it I like to add chocolate chips because I feel it should be able to moonlight as a dessert, but Jeff used walnuts this time, which are classic and tasty too. And a little dusting of shredded coconut on top before baking makes for a nice texture.
Thanks for reading— if you enjoyed this newsletter, please 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, life is tough, so please enjoy this peaceful image of a frog cooking soup.