“I live in constant terror that someone around me might be even a little bit peckish” said Nigella Lawson once, and honestly, she gets me. My Notes app is full of recipes that look good, my counters with food experiments, and my thoughts are occupied by yumminess I remember and want to have again.

It’s very hard for me to start being health-conscious vs cravings-led, but people have started to confuse me for an adult a lot recently (only because of my age! So unfair!). That tells me I need to walk right past the trendy Dubai Chocolate and the Crumbl Cookies dupes, and into the high protein/high fibre section of the popular food scene.

Cucumber salad

The concept of Girl Dinner or as we call it in the UK, picky bits, sparked a lot of viral content.

From egg flights (a way of eating a lot of exotic-combo devilled eggs I’m absolutely on bord with) to tinned fish date night, people have been making themed plates of various yummy nibbles and moving away from the concept of cooked mains and side dishes.

And absolutely nothing has captured the public forums as much as Logan Moffitt’s intro, “Sometimes, you need to eat an entire cucumber”:

His recipes always start with slicing the aforementioned entire cucumber into a container with a lid that can be shaken (not stirred). And then, the combinations are legion: tzatziki style, cream cheese and smoked salmon with red onions, sprinkled with furikake (Mr Mod R actually licked the plate), peanut cucumber salad, chilly crisp salad… There is almost nothing you can’t add to a sliced cucumber, shake well, and Bob’s your oyster.

My favourite involves soy sauce, sesame oil, sesame seeds, kimchi (or just gochujang), MSG, vinegar. Heavy is the hand that adds the garlic in this house, but as always with aromatics, you do what works for you.

As Icarus before us, we sometimes fly too close to the sun, and discover the combinations are not exactly unlimited. Peanut butter and jelly (jam) cucumber salad? Let’s not.

Cottage cheese cheesecake

The world went a bit wild with cottage cheese, because hello, affordable high protein source! Everything was made out of it at some point, from cottage cheese sandwich wraps, to cottage cookie dough and cottage cheese pizza bowls.

This is the only recipe that stuck with me, works every time, and is so delicious my lactose will just have to be tolerated.

Ingredients:

• 1 egg
• 120 grams of cottage cheese (that’s a cup in freedom units)
• 1 scoop of protein powder that you like (30 grams for most brands)- I always go with vanilla, they just seem to have figured out the taste of it better
• 1 tablespoon of Greek yogurt, in a complementary flavour (depending on how dry my cottage cheese is, or whether I’ve used low-fat, sometimes I add a bit more)

This is the base recipe. You can blend it and bake it just as is in a 160 C degree oven for about 20 minutes and get something ok. But as with life, if you want happiness, you can start adding the good stuff in: a teaspoon of vanilla or other extracts (coconut was amazing!); grated lemon zest, my favourite; top it with berries, nuts, chocolate chips; add maple syrup, honey, other sweeteners if you like things very sweet. The cheesecake sky is the limit.

This makes two servings (one for me now, one for me later) and has so much protein if I’m not careful I could turn into Lord Swoledemort! My horcruxes would all be Christmas fruit cakes, no one touches those.

My ongoing recipe experiment: I made my own pickled pineapple spears. I’m from Transylvania, we pickle everything that stands still long enough, but I’ve only seen this from the US and never would have thought about it on my own. I used the brine recipe my family uses for zucchini pickles: 30 grams of salt and a tablespoon of honey per litre of water, 1 horseradish, 2 bay leaves, peppercorns and mustard seeds to taste. If it doesn’t work, I’ll try the green tomatoes brine next.

Next food adventures: Find/make ooey Gooey St Louis butter cake – either original yeasty version or cake mix version, probably both. Apparently, it’s life changing. Maybe if I eat it, I go to the next level? I could sure use some of that.

What have you been nibbling on lately? And did you know you can do it whilst listening to the Magic Rises Graphic Audio adaptation released today?

The post Friday Foodies first appeared on ILONA ANDREWS.

Since the 2020s are determined to go down in history as The Roaring Whatthefucks, to borrow a Bug-ism, and our collective stress is on the rise, life’s simple pleasures like reading a good book and eating a good meal have become more important than ever.

Food is my love language. You know how people say someone is either a Lover or a Fighter? Well, I’m an Eater! And a food explorer: my favourite dish is always the one I haven’t tried yet, which does mean I sometimes end up on the part of the culinary map where dragons be.

Today, however, I’m sharing trendy recipes of (hopefully) the same yumminess level Ilona has accustoms us all on the blog!

Pesto Eggs

This takes a little trust, but if you’re willing to take the leap, you will be met with great rewards. As our culinary overlord Orro well knows, there is nowhere to hide with the humble egg and that’s where true mastery shines.

The concept is simple enough: instead of cooking oil for frying eggs, use pesto! I’ve also tried it with omelette, both work deliciously.

About ¼ cup of pesto or 2 very heaped tablespoons spread on the bottom of your pan. Heat up the pesto, crack 2 eggs, and sprinkle with your usual seasonings. Cook for 1 or 2 minutes, then put a lid on and make them as runny or cooked as you usually do. Mr Mod R is Italian so I put this on toast spread with ricotta, but avocado toast or plain bread also works wonders. Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good here!

As for the pesto, it can be your regular basil pesto, a sundried tomatoes pesto, or my favourite: home made wild garlic pesto. About 6 cups of wild garlic (or 200 grams bunch), 3/4 cup of raw almonds or pine nuts, 1/2 cup of parmesan, a pinch of salt, 1/2 cup of olive oil and optionally the juice of half a lemon. I’m a Lemon Girl, everything is more balanced with acidity for me, but make it your own.

Fare la scarpetta might not be the done thing, but I assure you even Count Sagredo would do this in private if presented with pesto eggs for breakfast hehe.

Green Goddess Salad (credit BakedByMelissa)

Lol, got all that? No worries, me neither the first time around, but breaking the speed of light is not actually necessary for making this salad hehe.

This recipe makes enough for 4 adults, or 2 adults and leftovers- because cabbage is sturdier than lettuce, it doesn’t go all flollopy in the fridge and even people with wilted texture aversion can enjoy it on the second day.

Salad Ingredients: 1 small head of cabbage, 1 large cucumber (what I believe is called English cucumber in the US) or 3-4 smaller garden cucumbers, 1/4 cup of chives, 4-5 green/spring onions.

Dressing Ingredients: 1 cup of basil, 1 cup of spinach, 2 cloves of garlic, 1 small shallot (or onion), juice of 2 lemons, 1/4 cup of olive oil, 1/4 cup of nuts (original recipe calls for cashews and walnuts, but pine nuts or almonds work too if walnuts give you issues), 1/3 cup of nutritional yeast, 1 teaspoon of salt and 2 tablespoons of rice vinegar.

Chop your salad ingredients by whatever tool you prefer into relatively small pieces, as the main method for eating this is scooping with tortilla chip. Add all the dressing ingredients to a blender and blitz until liquid consistency, then mix in a large bowl.

Is it a replacement for guac? Truthfully, no- it’s a different beast altogether. But, especially with the avocado shortages, it’s a good idea to have in your back pocket. The main revelation was adding nutritional yeast to salad dressing- it’s delicious and slightly parmesan-y and I’ve been doing it to other salads ever since.

Baked Feta Pasta

I would call this *the* viral recipe during the main leg of the pandemic, to the point where stores were out of Feta cheese because so many people were trying it. Its origins are lost in the liminal timespace that was 2020, but as far as I can dig, credit goes to this Finish blogger.

Ingredients: 4 cups of cherry or grape tomatoes, 1 block/7 oz of Feta cheese, 1/2 cup olive oil, 3-4 cloves of garlic (peeled and crushed), 7-8 basil leaves, chilli flakes to taste, black pepper. 10 oz of dry pasta, cooked separately* until al dente.

Crowd the tomatoes around the block of Feta in a smaller baking dish than you think you need, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle your seasonings, then bake for about 30 minutes in a 400F oven, until the tomatoes turn jammy and the Feta is golden.

The OG recipe puts the tomatoes with their vines still on, and adds the basil and the garlic in the beginning, then kicks up the temperature for the last 10 minutes. You do you, but I found that burns both the aromatics and I don’t like stems in my sauce ::shrug::. I also found I didn’t need the extra salt.

I only add the crushed garlic and the basil once the my roasting tray is out of the oven and let the residual heat cook them, whilst I mix everything together. Then add the pasta, with a few tablespoons of reserved pasta water if you desire a more emulsified texture.

*Please, for the love of the Italian Grandmother Collective, cook pasta separately! I, too, suffer from Thick Thighs Thin Patience syndrome, but one pot pasta dishes are not worth the time save.

Bon Appetit!

The post Food, Glorious Food first appeared on ILONA ANDREWS.

I must be still really tired because the novella’s edit just drained me to nothing. I stopped cooking and cleaning. I just edited for like 2 weeks straight and my brain feels like it’s just done. So in an effort to focus on the positives, behold my list of Yays.

• Novella has gone out to the beta readers. Yay.
• Septic tank has been pumped. Yay.
• Kid 1 ordered a cleaning service for Friday. Yay.
• End of edits celebration dinner accomplished yesterday. Yay.
• I woke up with a horrible headache, but Ibuprofen and Excedrin are working. Yay.
• Exterminator is coming tomorrow to spray for bugs and scorpions. Yay.
• Kid 2 sent another chunk of her project. Yay.
• I am going to take another mental day off today. Yay.

Some yays require further explanations.

The so called novella is now even longer, almost 45,000 words. ::stares at the offensive novella:: Why are you so long?

The official length for fiction works are as follows:

• Short story: under 7,500
• Novelette: between 7,500 and 17,500
• Novella: between 17,500 and 40,000
• Novel: over 40,000

So this novella is 7,000 words longer than The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Joy.

We tried to cut things. But most of the editorial feedback was “put more things in.” We did. Oh well.

Septic tank yay. It is amazing how much peace of mind pumping the septic tank can bring you. The second house we ever lived in had a sewage issue. It came up into the yard. It came up into the house. We had no money to fix it and Gordon’s mother who owned the house either wasn’t able to or didn’t want to admit the problem existed. I am forever traumatized by sewage. We’re good for at least a couple of years. Hopefully.

Celebration dinner. Before you ask, it was soft tacos/fajitas with mango pico de gallo and cantaloupe cucumber salad. Kid 1 made her trademark guacamole. We used shredded Mexican Cheese mix for the fajitas.

For meat, we had steak and chicken. Steak was marinated in a mix of lime juice, a bit of taco sauce, chopped cilantro, salt and HEB Beef fajita spices. Chicken was 4 chicken breasts, marinated in Urban Accents Chili Taco Simmer Sauce, cilantro, and HEB Chicken fajita spices with a splash of lime juice. HEB should pay me for product placement.

The simmer sauce can also be bought from Urban Accents website. I found it lacks acidity to be very effective as marinade, so adding about a lime’s worth of lime juice does the trick. I am planning on making my own chili sauce with a bit more sweetness. I found a recipe online and I will report back on results.

Both chicken and steak can be grilled. Chicken can also be baked in the oven at 375 degrees for about 30 minutes. Yes, I know recommended time is 20, but I like to be thorough. When I bake this particular recipe, I rest the chicken breasts on a wire rack set in the pan and I think it adds to cooking time. Steak can be broiled. Don’t forget to wrap the soft taco size tortillas in foil and stick them in the oven while the chicken is baking. They will come out nice and warm.

Pico de gallo is traditionally made with serrano peppers, but we skip them in our family because Gordon prefers mild foods and the chicken is relatively spicy already. Every Texas family has their own spin on salsa and pico de gallo. For mango pico de gallo House Andrews style, you will need ripe tomatoes, sweet onion, mango, salt, lime, and cilantro. Chop everything up, salt, squeeze a lime into it, and mix. If the meat is less spicy than chili chicken, I sometimes add a dash of chili powder to pico de gallo to add a bit of heat.

We do it by volume: 2 parts tomato, one part onion, one part mango. So if you chopped up a cup of tomatoes, you will need half a cup of onion, half a cup of mango, and enough cilantro to make it look pretty. I normally buy one bunch of cilantro and use half. Sometimes I use more. Cilantro is like garlic. Everyone has their own tolerance.

You can also put peach into pico de gallo instead of mango. But it needs to be firm.

I like these assemble-your-own style of meals because everyone gets what they want. Fajitas and tacos are my favorite.

Now I am going to go outside and mow the back yard with electric mower while Gordon mows the front. I love the electric mower so much. No fumes, no gas, no weirdness.

The post It’s Thursday, yay. first appeared on ILONA ANDREWS.