Since my unemployment, I’ve made a vow to step up my game in the kitchen by trying new things and making more labor-intensive meals. Well, I’m happy to report to my internet friends that I have been working hard in the kitchen!!
The other day when I decided to make hamburgers, I thought…why not make my own buns? Every time we buy a pack of buns, they always ALWAYS end up stale and hard in the back of the cabinet because we didn’t eat them all. Plus, I wanted to get over my fear of yeast, soooo…I did it!
They were dense and oddly shaped, but for my first time, I don’t think they were too bad! Mike really loved them and proceeded to eat the leftovers for breakfasts after that, spreading jam, butter, or (farmer’s market) cream cheese on them. I used this recipe with a mixture of whole wheat flour and unbleached all-purpose flour.
Yum.
I know I already showed it to you, but seriously, it was so good it deserves a second mention. I made a New York cheesecake with blueberry topping for the 4th of July!
It was delicious. Seriously. I used this recipe and substituted the cherries in the topping for our fresh blueberries.
To continue my madness, I thought it’d be a good idea to make my own flour tortillas. Omg, it was SO time consuming, but they were delicious. They kept for quite awhile and they were so soft and yummy.
I used this recipe and thought it was wonderful with the mix of whole wheat flour and unbleached all-purpose flour. Would I do them again? Not sure…rolling these out to paper-thin discs was a frustrating and long process. My tortillas finally started looking like tortillas around my 10th one…the ones before that kind of looked like amoebas. If I get a tortilla press…yes, I’d absolutely do it again.
To put on the flour tortillas, I made two kinds of hummus: a garlic scape and basil pesto hummus and a roasted red pepper hummus:
I didn’t use any recipes for these…I kinda just winged it. It was also the first time that I had ever bought dried chickpeas–be sure to cook them a looong time if you do this!
My next big undertaking?
Pickle the jalapenos that have been growing like crazy in our backyard!! I have about 50 of these suckers that I need to preserve since we can’t eat them fast enough!
Aaaand…
This week, I entered Big Apple Nosh’s Chef’s Challenge where I have to use two secret ingredients in a recipe. The secret ingredients? Peaches and Mint! Perfect for this chick who’s been spending a LOT of time at the Farmer’s Market. I’ll be posting my recipe by Sunday, so keep a look out for that!
Have you been adventurous in the kitchen lately? Do you like trying to make new things?
