Week 10 - Foam

Foam in the food context makes me think of two things: modernist cooking (not really my thing) and Top Chef (so many foams), so I had no idea what I was going to do for this challenge. I considered skipping it until I read on Modernist Bread that proofed dough was a closed-cell foam, bread was an open-cell foam, and fully baked bread was a set foam. I didn't know there were so many types of foam, but with that newfound knowledge, it was pretty easy to choose bread for this challenge.

I was doing a cooking class around this time where focaccia was on the menu, so I made focaccia for the foam challenge. Not sharing the recipe since it's not mine or publicly available, but it was a great class where we made focaccia, caprese salad, and wedding soup. A bit of a late night making three dishes at once in our not-very-big kitchen, but it was delicious!

Week 48 - Ketchup

Have you ever heard of banana ketchup? I didn't know much about it until this ketchup theme came up, because apparently a lot of people really dislike tomato ketchup and needed alternatives. (Didn't know that either!) It's very popular in the Philippines, which made it not only a good choice for the ketchup challenge but also for another entry for the Philippines in our AtWCC.

I followed the recipe at Curious Cuisiniere for making the ketchup, and it was super easy. Onion, garlic, ginger, a couple of mashed bananas, tomato paste, brown sugar, white vinegar, water, and cayenne. Some time on the stove to thicken, then a little cooling, and then blend it all up. Banana ketchup! Super easy.

I didn't really know what to use the banana ketchup for, but on Curious Cuisiniere, they suggested tortang giniling, a Filipino beef omelette, which they also had a recipe for. If you've been reading here for a while, you might think that wasn't going to happen since I don't really cook much red meat at home, plus B has an egg allergy, but we made it work with Impossible Burger and Just Egg, two vegan products that I'm incredibly grateful exist.

In addition to those, the omelette included onion, garlic, diced tomatoes, and some vegetables. It was supposed to be peas, but in prepping the meal, I discovered we were actually out of frozen peas (forgot to update our freezer inventory!), so we ended up using a corn, carrot, and asparagus medley, from which I picked out all the stalks of asparagus because they wouldn't have matched texturally. Next time, hopefully we can use peas as intended.

The banana ketchup was delicious. It added similar flavors to tomato ketchup, but much sweeter and less acidic. It was fantastic with the omelettes. The plate usually also contains some garlic fried rice, but I didn't have time to make that. I tried to fake it by putting some minced garlic over rice, but not the same. Hopefully whenever we make this next (and we do intend to make it again), we can not only remember to get some peas, but also make some yummy garlic fried rice. I love discovering new meals from these challenges, and this was something we'd never had before in our visits to Filipino restaurants. I used up the rest of the banana ketchup making Filipino spaghetti, but that's a post for another time!

Week 8 - Comfort Food

When I hear comfort food, one of the first things that comes to mind is soup. This challenge came up back in February, and I remember that we liked this vegan corn chowder. Unfortunately, I didn't write any notes, so I think I'm going to have to make this again to figure out what I did the first time. Definitely felt like comfort food though!

Week 7 - Mardi Gras

The Week 7 challenge theme was Mardi Gras, and although A made a king cake, I wanted to do something else for dinner. I found a recipe on My Cooking Spot for red beans and rice burgers described as "perfect for a Mardi Gras meal," so it sounded like it was worth a try!

The ingredients, slightly modified from the original recipe, were:

- 1/2 green bell pepper

- 1/2 large yellow onion

- 1/2 cup basmati rice

- 1 cup chicken broth with some extra hot water

- 2 cans of kidney beans

- 2 cloves of garlic

- 1 flax egg

- salt & freshly ground black pepper

- garlic powder

- smoked paprika

- dash of cayenne pepper

- a few tbsp olive oil, divided

On the side, we ate some Field Roast apple and sage sausages, and some sautéed vegetables (using the other half of the green bell pepper, the other half of the onion, and a red bell pepper).

I generally followed the steps from the recipe, and our one big change was that the sausage would be on the side instead of in the burgers. (I think it was our first time making this sausage, so we weren't sure how the texture would work with everything else.) I sautéed the green bell pepper and onion until soft, then added rice, cooked it for about 30 seconds, and then added broth. You were supposed to bring it to a boil and then reduce it to a simmer, but for some reason, the water disappeared almost instantly, so I had to add enough water to cover it and then let it simmer until done. [Note: I have no recollection of this happening now, since I made it in February, but when I wrote up my notes in a draft post 10 months ago, this is what I said, so I guess it happened! Really need to finish posts in a more timely manner...]

While that was cooking, I mashed the kidney beans in a mixing bowl. When the rice was done, it was time to add garlic, the flax egg, all the seasonings, and the rice mixture to the beans, and then shape it into patties. I cooked the patties on each side in olive oil until crisp. As you can see from the picture, they weren't really burger patties that you would recognize as burger patties, and they definitely weren't round. They did mostly stick together, but they were kind of more like sautéed rice scoops.

Overall, the dinner was fine. The "burgers" could have used some more seasoning, but they did taste good. I don't think it screamed Mardi Gras as a theme, but A's king cake more than made up for it.

Week 6 - English

We've never really been morning people, so when we visited London a few years ago, we never had a chance to try a full English breakfast. Unless B's egg allergy miraculously disappears before our next trip there or we can find a vegan restaurant making one, the closest thing to a full English breakfast we could have would be whatever we can make at home, so the Week 6 challenge theme, English, seemed like the perfect time to try it out.

The traditional full English breakfast, per Wikipedia, consists of bacon, eggs, fried or grilled tomatoes, mushrooms, toast, and sausages, with some plates including black pudding, baked beans, and bubble and squeak. All of that was doable for us, except the eggs would need to be replaced with vegan eggs (and scrambled instead of fried), bubble and squeak was not happening (if you've seen any of my previous attempts, this would be a no-brainer), and I had no idea where we would even find black pudding here.

Since this was a pretty straightforward breakfast, I didn't follow any recipes. Our fry-up ended up containing:

- bacon

- scrambled Just Egg

- grilled tomatoes

- grilled mushrooms

- toast

- vegan apple and maple breakfast sausages

- baked beans

- roasted red potatoes

There are some sites that list potatoes in the English breakfast (like Serious Eats), but until now, I didn't realize that most of them don't. One site even said they were frowned upon as filler. Oops. I guess I merged some typical American breakfast plate ideas into our English breakfast!

While each component wasn't difficult, dinner did take a while to put together, since it was coordinating eight different components. I would make this again though, as I do enjoy breakfast for dinner, and it has a lot of foods we do like as a family. I've learned, now that I've read the Wikipedia link, about all the different regional variations of a full breakfast, so, especially as we head into the UK section of the AtWCC (whenever that is), I can see us exploring this more!

Brussels Sprouts with Parmesan Cheese

Trader Joe's recently started carrying these roasted seasoned Brussels sprouts with parmesan cheese. Not sure if they're here for good or seasonal, but they were an interesting addition to the frozen section on a recent trip.

Ingredients were fairly straightforward - grilled Brussels sprouts halves, parmesan, olive oil, salt and pepper, and garlic. They were easy to make on the stovetop - less than 10 minutes in a skillet. We were really excited to try them, but our excitement quickly turned to disappointment. They were so, so salty. I didn't look at the nutritional facts when we bought them, but if I had, I would have noticed that the entire package had 1560mg of sodium. That doesn't sound that terrible in the realm of prepared foods, but even portioned out, that's a good amount of your recommended daily intake when you consider that it's not even that many sprouts in the package, so you would be eating other food (and sodium) alongside it. Flavor was okay, some hits of parm here and there, but mostly just salty.

Buy again? No, too salty for us. Prefer just taking the frozen petite Brussels sprouts and seasoning them ourselves, even though it takes more time and effort.

Week 49 - Leftovers

When it comes to food, Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. What better way to use up leftovers than in a Thanksgiving sandwich?

This one has vegan turkey roast (Trader Joe's), stuffing, green bean casserole, and gravy. Mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce would have made it better, but we had a small Thanksgiving dinner this year. (Thanks COVID... again.) Still a delicious sandwich.

Week 40 - A Recipe You've Been Wanting to Try

I did a lot of virtual cooking classes during the pandemic before things started opening up again after vaccines, and even though I attended multiple classes on dumplings, potstickers, and wontons, I was never able to make them. Why? Because every single wrapper I could find either had egg or was made on the same equipment as egg, and it wasn't worth the risk with B's allergy. I knew that there was one wrapper that was completely vegan, made by Nasoya, but it wasn't until this fall that we were finally able to get it. I had a hard time initially trying to figure out what to make for the Week 40 challenge - a recipe you've been wanting to try - because there are so many, but this seemed to fit, since I've been waiting to make wontons/dumplings for so long.

I decided to make pork wontons, but the only instructions I could find at the time from the classes were for shrimp wontons, so I loosely followed a recipe from Bon Appetit instead, with the intention of trying to fold them the same way they did in the class. As is probably obvious, I was terrible at folding the wontons. I tried all different shapes, but most of them came out looking horrible. The folded-over triangle was probably the best one, and the wontons just looked so empty, but that was the most I could stuff them without them breaking. I wasn't great at making them the last time I tried either. This is why I pay for them at restaurants, although I'll keep trying again here and there.

I made some green beans with onions in the air fryer alongside the wontons, based on a recipe from Allrecipes. They were pretty good, although they looked more like Chinese dry-fried green beans than they tasted. We haven't experimented much with making vegetables in the air fryer yet, but since these turned out well, maybe we'll do it more.

Overall, the dumplings were fine, but not great. The sesame sauce from the Bon Appetit recipe was delicious though, and it was good on both the dumplings and the green beans. It'll probably be some time before I attempt dumplings again, but hopefully next time will be better.

Week 41 - German

I love learning about dishes from all over the world (no surprise, given our Around the World Cooking Challenge), and when I was watching one of Beryl Shereshewsky's videos about sandwiches a while back (love the whole series - video link), I heard of something called toast Hawaii for the first time. Apparently it's ham, cheese, and pineapple on toast (sometimes with a maraschino cherry on top), and it was made popular in West Germany in the 1950s by a TV chef there. It sounds a lot like our (very controversial) Hawaiian pizza, but based on German commenters, it still seems decently popular now (although it seems most skip the cherry, which was fine by me, since I did not plan on buying maraschino cherries just for this). I marked it down on my list for the German part of the AtWCC, and with the Week 41 challenge being German, it sounded like a great brunch!

Although the dish seemed straightforward enough to make without a recipe, I used the one at Daring Gourmet as a guide for oven temperature and cook time. Basically, toast the slices of bread (I did 6, two for each of us), melt the butter, and then to each slice, add a layer of butter, a slice of ham, a pineapple ring, and a slice of Swiss cheese. I baked it at 425 degrees for 10 minutes, and the cheese was melted, so this was pretty quick and easy.

The one complication I did have was that we had no cans of pineapple rings, and when we went grocery shopping the day before, they had no cans of pineapple rings. I'm actually not sure if Whole Foods even sells pineapple rings. So I took the pineapple chunks we did have, halved them, and made my own rings, and it worked out just fine.

The toast was really tasty and a great breakfast! If I made this again, I think I would use a little extra butter (did 1/2 tbsp for each slice of bread) and add garlic powder and some pepper to the melted butter before spreading it. I also think that, if I use the same ham that I did this time, I would use two slices instead of one for some extra ham flavor, as this one was sliced fairly thin. This toast is similar to some I've made in the past, but with pineapple added, and although I'm not a huge sweet-savory person, I do think it was good with the pineapple. Then again, we also like Hawaiian pizza, so it's no surprise this worked for us.

Week 42 - One Pot

There are many dishes that can be made in just one pot, but the easiest, in my opinion, are soups and chili, which are also perfect for the cold weather. I did this challenge back at the end of October, so I decided on chili, and then upgraded it to pumpkin chili since it was Halloween week. Also, I'm not Texan, so this chili had lots and lots of beans.

The final ingredient list for the chili was beefless beef (from Trader Joe's), onion, peppers, garlic, kidney beans, white beans, black beans, tomatoes, pumpkin puree, corn, vegetable broth, and taco seasoning. We ate it alongside a pumpkin bagel, and it was a great fall dinner!

Week 43 - Single Use Gadgets

It's been a while (again). I thought it had only been a few weeks, but apparently the last post was in September. This year is really flying by. I hope I manage to post about the whole challenge before the year is over, even if they're just super short posts to remind me that, yes, I did do that challenge week!

Week 43's theme was single use gadgets. We generally try to avoid single use gadgets because we have such limited kitchen storage space, but I was reminded of one that we definitely use for cooking - our waffle iron! Before that, I was just going to post a photo of the Oxo grape cutter, a single use gadget (although not entirely, because it works for grape tomatoes too) that has changed our lives for the better over the past few months. How did we not know this existed before I saw it on Instagram?

For the challenge, I decided on the bacon cheese scallion waffle from Serious Eats, taking advantage of one of B's sick days to make something new for brunch. I stuck fairly close to the original recipe, but with substitutions of flax eggs and vegan DIY buttermilk. My proportions of the bacon and scallions were probably a little off, but I wanted to use up our scallions (and get more veggies in the dish) and I didn't feel like searching the freezer for where we put the rest of our frozen bacon.

The waffles were delicious! Definitely needed more bacon though. They were also a little too salty, so next time I think I would use much less salt, especially if adding in more bacon. Maybe more cheese, more scallions too, but I think we just like extra fillings. The whole thing came out to about $6 for the same number of very large waffles, so even if the cost got pushed up from using more bacon, it would still be a very affordable brunch for three. I would make this again.

Week 38 - Earth, Wind, and Fire

The Week 38 theme, Earth, Wind, and Fire, completely threw me for a loop. I understood the choice based on the time of year when the challenge fell (September), but what would I make for earth, wind, and fire? I could see picking one of the elements, but all three? Was it meant to be about the '70s? Since everything is very open to interpretation, it could really be any of those, but I decided to go with the elements. Unfortunately, trying to conceive of a dish from scratch to cover all of the elements was difficult, as I was not feeling very creative at the time, so I ended up just taking something I was already going to make and fitting it into the challenge. I did that a lot in 2017, which was part of what led me to stop doing the challenge back then, but this time, it felt less like I was doing that as a chore to finish the challenges and more that I just had no clue what else to make for this particular one (if that makes sense).

So, for Earth, Wind, and Fire, I made BBQ cheddar baked chicken with a side of three bean salad. Earth for the vegetables and the beans which grow out of the earth, wind for the side effect of beans and maybe also for the chicken (because they have wings? Is that too much of a stretch?), and fire because the chicken was made in an oven. I followed the Budget Bytes recipes for both the chicken and the salad, although I used cilantro in the salad so I wouldn't have to buy both parsley and cilantro for the week. Both were great, and I definitely want to make that salad more.

Hatch Chile Cheddar Popcorn

Remember when I said I was going to try to catch up on all the outstanding posts when I was sick? Yeah, me too. That didn't happen. But hopefully, with less than 4 months until the end of the year (how is that so soon?!), I can pick up the pace a little bit.

First up, this hatch chile cheddar seasoned popcorn from Trader Joe's. The ingredients list there had nothing surprising - just popcorn, sunflower oil, cheddar, and spices that included green bell pepper powder, hatch chile pepper powder, onion powder, and garlic powder.

Overall, we thought it was fine. Tasted a little bit like cheddar, a very light hint of spice, but the flavors weren't very strong (and not because I was getting over being sick). We've definitely had better hatch chile products from Trader Joe's (like the mac and cheese), so it was just okay for us.

Buy again? Not for us.

Week 33 - One Color

Challenge week: 33

Theme: One color

Theme note: I'm a big proponent of eating the rainbow, so the idea of eating just one color for a whole meal didn't really appeal to me. (A lot of the submissions I've seen on Reddit since I made this were so creative in making balanced meals, but I lacked culinary inspiration and creativity when I was choosing.) Instead I made a dish with multiple ingredients of one color with some sides that brought in some others.

What we made: Tortilla española (yellow onions, yellow potatoes, Just Egg)

How much it cost (with estimated breakdown): Very estimated, since not only did I not write this down after making it sans recipe, but I didn't even take an ingredient photo. Thinking $5.67 for the tortilla, with an additional $3.50 or so for the carrots and mushrooms on the side.

- 1 yellow onion ($0.50)

- 1 can of diced potatoes ($1.99)

- 1 container of Just Egg ($3.15)

- salt and pepper ($0.03)

Challenge quick review: We were really impressed with how well the tortilla española came out. Did it sink in the middle once moved to a plate instead of being solid like a cake like the ones we've had at restaurants? Yes. Was the texture a little different because ours was vegan? Yes. Did it need more potatoes? Maybe. But did it taste good? Yes. It was really easy to prepare, but I never could have made it without A's help because the flipping part was both difficult (such a heavy pan) and intimidating (what if it all fell apart?).

As a side note, I made this less than a month ago, and I was already having trouble remembering exactly what I used, what I did, etc without notes or photos. I have a lot of weeks to catch up on, so some of them I think are going to just be photos of completed challenges without much detail. Sorry. Apparently the stress of 2021 and all the sleep deprivation has meant these things just don't stick in my brain anymore if I don't take notes. Currently stuck at home sick, so time to push to get all the past challenge posts done, so I can write better current posts!

Cheese Empanadas with Cassava Crust

It's been a long, long time since we've written about something new we've tried at Trader Joe's (since January!), but I've noticed that, without these posts, we really do forget if we've tried something and whether or not we liked it. So, time to get back into it!

We picked up these cheese empanadas with cassava crust ($2.99) on a recent visit. We're no strangers to empanadas, but the cassava crust here sounded unique, and the filling of cheese, caramelized onions, and spinach sounded delicious. The ingredients list on the box was simple and had everything you'd expect to find based on the description - a basic crust of cassava flour and starch, water, oil, and salt, and filling of ricotta cheese, caramelized onions, mozzarella cheese, spinach, salt, and pepper. No additives, nothing you couldn't pronounce, very straightforward. There were instructions for both the oven and the air fryer, and since I kept forgetting to make them while preparing the other components for dinner, we went with the air fryer, which took 10 minutes.

Unfortunately, they were just okay. The spinach was visible but didn't really add much to the flavor, and we completely forgot there were supposed to be caramelized onions in it until we re-read the box. You couldn't taste them at all. It mostly tasted and texturally felt like a ricotta cheese-stuffed empanada. The shell wasn't as crispy or crunchy as other empanadas we've had, but if that's not the cassava, maybe we just needed to air fry it a little longer. It was a good complement to the much stronger-tasting ceviche that we ate for dinner, but on its own, it was not that exciting.

Buy again? Probably not. They were fine, but we didn't love them.

Week 30 - Camping

Challenge week: 30

Theme: Camping

Theme note: I have not gone camping, and honestly, don't really have much desire to go camping, so no first-hand knowledge or experience with this theme. I realize now that the last time there was a similar theme (outdoorsman in 2016), I made chili too, so I guess I have a type when it comes to "outdoor" cooking.

What we made: one-pot veggie chili cornbread casserole, adapted from the recipe on Vegetarian 'Ventures

How much it cost (with estimated breakdown): $13.33 (dinner for 3 + 2 lunches for 2)

- 1 yellow onion ($0.50)

- 1 red bell pepper ($1.34)

- 1 green bell pepper ($0.86)

- 5 cloves of garlic ($0.10)

- olive oil for sauteing ($0.30)

- 1 cup vegetable broth ($0.75)

- 1 can fire-roasted diced tomatoes ($0.87)

- 1 can pinto beans ($0.99)

- 1 can black beans ($0.83)

- 1 can red kidney beans ($0.90)

- 1 can corn ($0.92)

- about 8 oz of mild salsa ($1.65)

- spices (in decreasing amount): chili powder, garlic powder, oregano, cumin, freshly ground black pepper, salt ($0.28)

- 2 cups cornmeal ($1)

- 1 cup AP flour ($0.16)

- 2 tsp baking powder ($0.06)

- pinch of salt ($0.02)

- 1/3 cup butter, melted ($0.45)

- 2 tbsp maple syrup ($0.60)

- 2 cups oat milk ($0.75)

Challenge quick review: As I was pulling out the ingredients for this challenge meal, all I could think was, "Who would bring all of this to go camping?" The original recipe post did talk about bagging up spices, chopped vegetables, the dry ingredients for the batter in advance, but it still seems like a lot of stuff to lug around, plus the heavy pot and cookware, for one meal in the outdoors. But I guess that's why I don't go camping.

As for the recipe itself, the chili was tasty, the cornbread was good, and it was an easy one-pot meal. I had never made cornbread on top of chili before, but it was convenient and quick just throwing the batter on top. I wasn't sure if it would really work, but it did, and I liked how the cornbread picked up some of the sauce from the chili. A thought it was good, but he would have preferred making our favorite cornbread and favorite chili recipes separately and just adding the cornbread on top of the chili. In addition to convenience, it was a very economical meal, very filling and a lot of food that lasted for days. I would make this combo again.

Week 5 - Whole Spices

Challenge week: 5

Theme: Whole spices

What I made: Coconut chickpea curry, but since I made it in the beginning of February and decided while making dinner that it should count for whole spices because I was using them (whole cloves and cardamom pods, didn't actually use the cinnamon sticks in the picture), I don't really have any notes and am not 100% sure what recipe I was using as a starting point. (This is also why I should write things more timely!)

Challenge quick review: I do remember that we really liked this coconut chickpea curry and that I wanted to make it again, so I probably should have taken better notes on what I did. It's possible I have a handwritten note about it somewhere on my desk, so if I find something, I'll update it here. It was really hard to figure out what to do for this challenge that would "spotlight" whole spices, but I ended up deciding that putting them in curry was good enough. I've actually used whole spices plenty of times since then, mostly because we don't have non-whole cloves or cardamom, and one tip would be to make sure you find them before you serve the meal. Luckily, I was the one who crunched into the cardamom pod, but that's my takeaway from week 5!

Week 29 - Grilling

I really intended to catch up on all these challenge posts a couple of months ago, but my brain has had a really hard time focusing on writing these days. Probably because I aggressively moved my sleep schedule up by 3 hours in less than a month, breaking some bad sleep habits/schedules that I've had for over a decade. Anyway, still a little too sleep-deprived (and feeling jet-lagged without any traveling) to feel super inspired to write, but I do want to catch up on these challenge posts so I don't forget what I did (more than I already have). Maybe it'll spark something in my brain, and I'll be able to get back on the writing train.

Going backwards through the challenges (which I have mostly been keeping up with, even if I haven't been documenting it on time), here's Week 29!

Challenge week: 29

Theme: Grilling

Theme note: We have no outdoor space, so the closest we were going to get to grilling was to use the grill pan.

What we made: Grilled Impossible Hawaiian BBQ skewers using the recipe from the Impossible website (with some modifications, like using our open bottle of Trader Joe's sweet and spicy pineapple BBQ sauce instead of making their sauce)

How much it cost (with breakdown): $13.73 (dinner for 3 + a little leftover veggies for lunch)

- 1 package of Impossible Burger ($5.99)

- BBQ sauce, enough to baste the skewers, probably 2/3-3/4 cup ($1)

- 2 green peppers ($1.99)

- 1 orange pepper ($1.79)

- 1 red onion ($0.79)

- 1 can of pineapple chunks ($1.50)

- dried oregano ($0.05)

- onion powder ($0.05)

- garlic powder ($0.03)

- salt ($0.02)

- freshly ground black pepper ($0.02)

- avocado oil spray to coat grill pan ($0.50)

(Ingredients note: Probably should add a little for the skewers too but got those so many years ago that I have no idea how much they would have cost. Also, it did not need 3 bell peppers like the recipe said. Two would have been sufficient. We still had more peppers, onions, and pineapples after filling up our skewers, so we just cooked the rest on the side and had some leftovers for another day.)

Challenge quick review: Delicious skewers, and the BBQ sauce was a great match for them. A few of the burger pieces fell off the wooden skewers during the cooking process, but since it was a grill pan and not an actual grill, they ended up completely fine. I did mess up a little in prep when I forgot pineapples on one, but at least I remembered by the second one. We ate the skewers with a tarragon parsley potato salad (a vegan version loosely based on an Ina Garten recipe sans dill), and it was a very tasty, summery meal. The only negative was that it all took a little longer to make than I had originally planned, but I think part of that was making both the skewers and the potato salad at the same time in a limited amount of kitchen space. Would make both dishes again.

Week 9 - Korean

I wrote this back in March, but I think I was waiting to publish it until I had finished all the weeks in-between. I'm not planning to go in order anymore since I'm so behind, and this is posted pretty much as written two months ago.

We love Korean food, but I had a really, really hard time choosing a dish for this challenge. I wanted to avoid anything too spicy, so that eliminated a bunch of dishes, and I also needed to skip anything with ingredients that required a visit to a Korean grocery store, since we were doing our best to not go out while all the COVID variants spread around the city. (Present day note: We were not vaccinated at the time, and no timeline had been announced for our age range yet.) My initial thought was pajeon, but at the time I was trying to choose a dish, B was in the middle of an anti-green food phase, so that was out. Eventually, after watching a bunch of YouTube videos (in Korean and English), I decided to try out a type of hotteok that was potato pancakes stuffed with cheese. I didn't follow any specific recipe, but tried to put them all together for the ingredients we had.

The ingredients for the hotteok, which I decided to make vegan for my lactose intolerance, were:

- 2 large Russet potatoes ($1.23)

- 2 pinches of salt ($0.02)

- 1 tsp sugar ($0.03)

- 1 tbsp cornstarch ($0.10)

- freshly ground black pepper ($0.02)

- large handful of shredded mozzarella cheese ($1.67)

- 1 tbsp vegan butter ($0.16)

The cost for the hotteok was about $3.23. We ate it with a can of green beans and some smoked salmon, but not sure how much the whole meal cost since we bought the smoked salmon almost four years ago on a trip to Vancouver. My guess would be that the entire meal was under $10 though.

The steps for making the hotteok were:

1. Prep - peel potatoes and chop into large chunks.

2. Add potatoes to small pot of cold water with a pinch of salt, bring to a boil, and then cook potatoes until fork tender.

3. Drain potatoes, add to large mixing bowl, and mash.

4. Add pinch of salt, sugar, cornstarch, and black pepper to the mixing bowl, and mix well until smooth.

5. Take small handfuls of the potato mixture, roll into a ball, and then flatten out into a bowl shape in your hands. Add a little mozzarella, and then close up the potato to seal in the cheese. Roll into a ball again, and then flatten into a disc.

A bit of an uneven flame...

6. Melt butter in skillet over medium low heat, and then add the potato balls. Cook until both sides are golden brown.

The finished product tasted like mashed potatoes with a slight hint of cheesiness. It probably would have been cheesier if I had used non-vegan cheese or a different brand, because this one wasn't super cheesy in flavor. They were good for B, because it meant mashed potatoes without having to use a spoon. Overall, they just tasted like pan-fried mashed potatoes. Glad we tried it, but might try a different type of hotteok next time.

Week 20 - Julienning

How is it already mid-May?! The last time I finished a post here, it was the end of March, still cold outside, we hadn't been vaccinated yet, and most people were still taking the pandemic seriously (or at least pretending to). I'm so behind on the 52 week cooking challenge posts and the Around the World Cooking Challenge posts and the WorldEats posts that I think I might need to start doing shortened versions for some of them, so that I can still track/share our journey but not have it be such an overwhelming task. The Week 20 challenge seems perfect for a quick entry.

Challenge week: 20

Theme: Julienning

AtWCC country: Philippines (counting for both challenges, see below)

What we made: Pancit, based on a Filipino cooking class we took

How much it cost (with breakdown): $21.67 (dinner for 3 + two lunches for 2)

- 1 lb noodles - $3.99

- 1 package of Short Cuts roasted chicken - $5

- about 1/2 lb of shrimp - $3.87

- 1-2 lbs of carrots - $1

- 1 bunch of celery - $1.59 (probably only 1/2 bunch but the other 1/2 froze and had to be thrown out)

- about 1 lb of snap peas - $3.50

- 1 yellow onion - $0.37

- minced garlic - $0.05

- a couple big scoops of chicken broth - $1

- a few tbsp soy sauce - $0.45

- a few tbsp oyster sauce - $0.85

Challenge quick review: I could have done an entire dish of julienned vegetables, but we were already scheduled for a pancit cooking class, and the carrots needed to be julienned, so it seemed like the perfect opportunity to knock out this challenge without spending hours in the kitchen trying to precisely chop vegetables. I am not the best with making exact sizes and shapes when chopping things, since they're all going to end up in the same place anyway and close has always seemed good enough here.

As for the pancit itself, I did a lot of the prep and A did most of the actual cooking, and it was so good. It tasted like pancit you might get at a restaurant. Since the recipe isn't really public or ours since it was from a cooking class, we don't feel right going into any further detail on the "how" in another post, so I'm going to count this for the AtWCC here too. We did explore something new (for our kitchen), which is the whole point of that challenge. We have a lot more noodles, so I see a lot more pancit in our future!