December Cooking Notes
Everything I cooked (this month is accidentally an Alison Roman recipe blog—sorry, not sorry)
Welcome to Home Cooking Diary, a newsletter on my journey as a home cook—the successes and failures alike. Cooking log, photo diary, and recipe recommender. This is a recurring installment in which I recap my month of cooking and highlight noteworthy meals. Note: if you’re reading this as an email, you may want to read it in your browser, lest it cut off at the end.
December, historically, is always a weird cooking month for me. And last year was no exception. Regardless of whether I’m hosting a holiday meal, I find myself toggling between not cooking much at all (because end of year is always chaos), and cooking more elaborate meals than is typical (just feels right for the season whether I’m hosting or not). Our first holiday season at the bookstore was just as wacky and intense as you would expect. As a one-woman business the experience left me with less time in the kitchen than usual. Gone are the days logged-off of email and doing nothing but watching holiday movies like my life depended on it—Christmas in Connecticut, When Harry Met Sally, Desk Set, You’ve Got Mail, The Family Stone—and cooking and baking in the background for two straight weeks: one of the great benefits of my former life working in corporate publishing. I still managed to watch all of those movies this year, but that’s beside the point!
I didn’t do ANY cooking projects, and I pretty much exclusively cooked Alison Roman recipes, which goes to show little effort I put into finding new recipes to try or deviating from old favorites. I swear this isn’t an Alison Roman blog, but Whenever I’m at a loss for what to pull together for dinner I often turn to her soups, like Dilly Bean Stew, her Split Pea, and the brand-new Squash and Lentil Soup recipe, which is already becoming a mainstay. I always have cabbage, potatoes, lentils, canned beans, and lately winter squash, on hand and those soups are forgiving if I’m missing something like parsley or dill or even broth. OH and I’ve found myself craving her pork soups—both the Italian version with fennel seed, chili flakes, and broccoli rabe, and the Asian-inspired one with tamari, white onions, and rice noodles. The only baking I did was Claire Saffitz’s Almond Poppy Seed Bundt Cake (which I wrote about a couple letters ago) and AR’s Ginger Molasses Cake (from Sweet Enough), and I baked it in someone else’s home, which always discombobulates me. It came out dry, and I didn’t have fresh ginger—I probably should have abandoned the enterprise altogether as soon as I realized we didn’t have fresh ginger.
Both of her holiday-adjacent Home Movies recipes were highlights of the month: the Pork and Red Chili Pozole was a project, and turned out so so well. I’m excited to make it again, this time with even more tomatillos. It requires chilis that I was not able to find at any regular grocery store, but luckily the Latin grocery a block away from the bookstore came through on Guajillo chilis. There’s no point in making this if you don’t have that ingredient. The Slow-Roasted Overnight Leg of Lamb with Potatoes and Brothy Chickpeas was divine. There are few things more satisfying than the ease and magic of this meal. It involves so little prep beyond seasoning the lamb, and putting the ingredients together in a Dutch oven. I made it when my mom was in town helping with Tycho, so it qualifies as a holiday meal.
I’ve made Dan Pelosi’s Pastina a few times now, and for whatever reason it doesn’t work well for me. It often comes out bland, I think because there is surprising little salt added if you follow the recipe to a T. Next time I try it I’m going to add salt along with the broth, and more cheese at the end, and allow it to simmer a bit longer than the recipes specifies. I can’t seem to nail the texture. There’s always a bit too much liquid and not enough flavor.
Lastly, I received a lovely gift of Burlap and Barrell spices from my MIL Kim (hi, Kim!!!!) for Christmas, and amongst them was Sun-Dried Tomato Powder, so I had the bright idea of adding it to poaching liquid for shrimp, served over polenta. It came out pretty stellar—I was so pleased. Recipe to come soon! I decided to create a version with more a more accessible tomato ingredient so that the powder isn’t required.
Everything I cooked last month
12.3.23 / Pastina (Dan Pelosi, Let’s Eat); vanilla ice cream with brown sugar oat topping
12.4.23 / Leftover Thanksgiving turkey sandwich with cranberry sauce and mayonnaise
12.5.23 / Split Pea Soup with crusty toasted bread (Alison Roman, A Newsletter)
12.6.23 / Pot of chickpeas
12.7.23 / Bucatini with chickpeas, olive oil, lots of cracked black pepper and parm
12.15.23 / Pastina (Dan Pelosi, Let’s Eat)
12.18.23 / Spicy Pork Noodle Soup (Alison Roman, A Newsletter); Pork and Red Chili Pozole with Cabbage (Alison Roman, A Newsletter)
12.19.23 / Oatmeal with peanut butter and pumpkin spice and maple syrup; Dilly Bean Stew (Alison Roman, A Newsletter)
12.23.23 / Herby chicken cutlet with arugula and herby yogurt (a Reed meal)
12.25.23 / Ginger Molasses Cake (Alison Roman, Sweet Enough)
12.26.23 / Almond Poppy Seed Bundt Cake (Claire Saffitz, Dessert Person); Lentil Soup with Sausage and Split Pea (my recipe, Home Cooking Diary)
12.27.23 / Pot of Domingo Rojo Beans to bring to a party
12.28.23 / Tomato-Poached Shrimp with polenta (my recipe, coming soon to Home Cooking Diary); Slow-roasted leg of lamb with potatoes and brothy chickpeas (Alison Roman, A Newsletter)
My next letter will include a recipe for Keek’s Potato-Leek Soup—I’m very excited to share it.
What I’m reading this week / Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar (Knopf: 1/23/24) is an absorbing memoir that serves as a singular character study, an Iranian-American family saga, and an unexpected love story. And each time I thought I knew where it was going I was surprised. I LOVED it. It deals with really heavy subjects (suicidal ideation being one of them, for those that need the heads up) but somehow feels light and sweet at the same time. A tough thing to pull off!!!
I’m about halfway through We Were The Universe by Kimberly King Parsons (forthcoming this summer), and so far it’s a really cathartic read for me—as a mom nearly two years postpartum. I felt myself in the opening scene—set at a playground as the protagonist Kit is watching her four-year-old daughter Gilda—in the most visceral way. When I read it I see how entrenched the emotional ping-ponging is for new moms (all moms?), and reading the book inspires me to be kinder to myself.
Sorry I forgot to get the fresh ginger:( but excited my kitchen marble made it into the newsletter:)!