fried brussels sprouts with lemon, parmesan, and breadcrumbs

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okee doke, i am back from california, under my pile of wearable blankets, and have got just enough time to do a load of laundry and catch up on designated survivor before packing back up and scooting over to chicago and indiana for two of my final fall tour stops! it feels so good to be home, *especially* because eggboy kept up with all of the leftovers while i was gone so our fridge is not the war zone i expected! instead it's shiny and clean and ready to be filled up with lefse dough for the holidays. somehow there are zero eggs in our house though. macaroni, what the heck?? i was all ready to get back and try these steam scrambled eggs that alana just posted about (you use an espresso steamer to cook them!) but that will have to wait until macaroni get back to work. what are they even doing. 

it's probably for the better that i don't dive into a new recipe just yet because i have kind of a lot to unpack still and no clue where i'm going to put it all. on my trip i acquired a dozen new cookbooks 😬, a collection of sprinkles (from alana who brought them back from europe and my new friend amelia who brought a custom mix to me at my san francisco signing (!)), and some new warm weather gear in the form of socks that feel like a bear suit and a sweater that i'm never taking off. luckily it all fit in my allotted three checked bags (remember that time i packed light? lol) so if you need me i will be out back, building an igloo of cookbooks and a hot tub of sprinkles.

i have a brussels sprouts recipe for you for thanksgiving! typically my family roasts them or shreds them and turns them into latkes, but this year i'm going all in and deep frying the suckers. the first time i fried a brussels sprout was when i made the brussels sprout risotto from yotam ottolenghi's plenty more. it's the most beautiful bowl of lemony, parmesan-y, brussels sprout-y rice but i couldn't help myself from eating most of the fried brussels sprouts before they even made it into the mix. so i decided that i needed a whole dish of them cause yolo. i kept the lemon and parmesan components of yotam's recipe but then flung the sprouts onto a little bed of yogurt for a nice cool contrast and finished em off with breadcrumbs for texture and harissa powder for heat. and they're fried in olive oil, so you feel less bad about deep frying. i mentioned this in my sweet potato chip post, but trust that i'll never let you forget that you can deep fry in good olive oil since, as i learned at olive camp last year, it has a smoke point well above the temperature that's needed to fry. i'm using california olive ranch's everyday olive oil, which comes in nice big bottles and deep fries beautifully. you'll use a lot for this recipe, but whatever's leftover can be saved and used for future frying or to grease the pan for an omelette. a brussels sprout infused omelette, is that weird sounding?

fried brussels sprouts with lemon, parmesan, and breadcrumbs

ingredients

califorinia olive ranch everyday california extra virgin olive oil

12 oz brussels, halved and completely dry

kosher salt

plain full fat yogurt

a fresh lemon

a handful of panko breadcrumbs

chopped fresh parsley

parmesan

black pepper

harissa powder or paprika

clues

heat 2 inches of olive oil in a heavy-bottomed saucepan. clip on a thermometer and heat the oil to 375ºf. working in batches, fry the brussels sprouts for a couple of minutes until browned and the outer leaves are crisp. be careful because the oil will splatter.

transfer the sprouts a wire rack, and sprinkle with kosher salt while still hot. 

spread a large dollop of yogurt onto a shallow bowl or plate and top with the fried brussels sprouts. add a large squeeze of lemon and top with breadcrumbs, parsley, freshly grated parmesan, black pepper, and harissa powder, or paprika.

serve and enjoy!

 

-yeh!

thank you so much, california olive ranch, for sponsoring this post!

butternut, bacon, and apple hotdish

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tomorrow i go home to eggboy, the autumn, and probably a bunch of leftover containers that are still in the fridge from before i left two weeks ago. i am so gosh darn excited for two of those things! and to eggboy's credit, there are a zillion experiments in our fridges, some of them intentional and some of them unintentional, which i sometimes actually need for recipe development purposes so he's become trained not to throw anything away without explicit instructions. (like, have i told you that the clown cone, sprinkle cake, and cookie salad from molly on the range are still in my freezer because i was paranoid i'd lose all of my photos and would have to reshoot everything?)

so what's currently in our fridge is likely a bunch of butternut squash dishes. we got so much squash from our garden this year that i went wild with my cookbooks and cooked up a squash storm every day before i left. two of my favorite dishes were anna's butternut and cannellini gratin and claire ptak's squash cobbler. anna's dish is less creamy than a typical gratin, it's more like a hearty vegetable soup, and claire's dish opened up a world of savory cobblers to me. i couldn't get them out of my brain so eventually i combined them, added apples from our apple trees, and called it a hotdish like the lady of the north that i am. it pretty much follows the hotdish equation:

meat* + vegetables** + creamed soup*** + a starch****

*bacon

**squash and onions

***okay, even though there's soup in here it isn't creamy but there's cheese on top so that's some good heavy dairy that counts for something?

****flakey buttery biscuits! 

the base has the lightness of anna's dish, but the biscuits add some oomph that make it a good special occasion meal or sunday supper.  i had chantell and brett over from fargo to enjoy it on a crisp fall morning the other day. we wandered around the farm, collecting squash from the garden, apples from our trees, and eggs from macaroni for the biscuit egg wash, and i wore my new fall fashions from old navy. you guys i'm so excited to be partnering with old navy again because you know how i won't shut up about how my current favorite aesthetic is naptime-chic? (as in garments that double as blankets so that no matter where you are, you are always as cozy as you'd want to be for a nap? think huge scarves and piles of soft layers.) old navy has all of that right now. blankety scarves, shirts that are comfy enough to be pajamas but nice enough to wear when guests are over, and that red and black lumbersexual number pictured above that's soft like a robe. and of course i like layering on all of my tops over their jeggings, aka yoga-pants-disguised-as-jeans, aka good apple tree shimmying pants.

the whole situation is as cozy as a nice hot bowl of this butternut hotdish so i'm hoping this post is encouraging you to be cozy both inside and out. 

butternut, bacon, and apple hotdish

serves 8

ingredients

1 lb thick cut bacon

2 large purple onions, thinly sliced

kosher salt

2 lb squash, seeded, peeled, and chopped into 1/2” cubes

leaves from 6 sprigs fresh thyme

black pepper

crushed red pepper

2 large apples, chopped into 1/2” cubes

1/4 c white wine

1 c vegetable broth

for the biscuits:

2 c flour

2 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp kosher salt

14 tb unsalted butter, cold and cubed

1/4 c heavy cream

1 large egg

cheese, optional

clues

preheat oven to 425ºf.

in a large skillet or pot, crisp the bacon. Transfer it to a paper towel. drain off most of the fat from the pan, you’ll want a thin coating to remain, add the onions and cook over medium high for 10 minutes, until soft. add the squash, thyme, a few turns of pepper and a few pinches of crushed red pepper and cook for 10 more minutes, stirring occasionally, and then add the wine and broth. give the bacon a rough chop and add it to the pan along with the apples. bring the mixture to a simmer and then reduce the heat to low and simmer for 15-20 minutes, while you make the biscuits. 

to make the biscuits, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. add the butter and, using a food processor or pastry cutter or your hands, incorporate the butter until the mixture is the consistency of oatmeal. mix in the cream until the mixture comes together to form a dough. turn it out onto a floured work surface, pat it out to 3/4” thick and then cut out round biscuits, re-rolling scraps as needed.

(note: you can also use torn crusty bread as the topping for your hotdish. i like this as a lower maintenance weekday option.)

pour the squash mixture into an oven-safe vessel such as a casserole dish or cast iron pan or dutch oven and then top it with the biscuits. brush the biscuits with the beaten egg and top with black pepper and grated cheese, if desired. bake until the biscuits are golden brown, begin checking for doneness at 25 minutes. enjoy!

-yeh!

pictured: jacket // shirt // sweater // jeggings // scarf

thank you, old navy (@oldnavy), for sponsoring this post! post your own style tips with the #oldnavystyle hashtags! disclaimer: per my sponsor agreement, the product links in this post are affiliate links. 

slice and bake cheese crackers

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hallmark movies, sufjan christmas, lefse parties, please get at me!!! the holiday season is upon us and i am here for it as aggressively as ever. last year my holiday season was half spent sneaking out of holiday parties to the nearest fast casual restaurant with my laptop and book manuscript, and the year before that it was spent planning our wedding and not having too many sufganiyot so that i could fit into my dress, but this year i am buying extra stock in stretchy pants and spiking everything with schnapps. it's gonna be so great! i still have some book tour stops* but those are all about partying, being merry, and eating cookies so they're only gonna further my descent into becoming one big ball of chrismukkah. 

*alert! new tour stops have been added including grand forks and berlin! and a handful of other events near and far are brewing, so hold onto your butts. 

obviously one of my favorite parts about planning the holidays is thinking up menus: which dumplings will be at our dumplings of the world party, which latke toppings will make their debuts, and how i'm going to decorate eggboy's 30th (!!!!) birthday cake. one component that's sometimes kind of a challenge is the appetizers. usually my holiday meals are basically all large appetizers (dumplings, latkes) or so staunchly main-course-oriented (thanksgiving) that i avoid complicated appetizers to allow for more room and energy for the bird and its stuffing. in the latter case, simple things like cheesy twists or a block of cream cheese with jalapeño jam dumped on it do the trick, but my family's been falling back on those for years, so this year i'm adding a new recipe to our arsenal of unfussy cheese appetizers: slice and bake cheese crackers!

i am really excited about these because they are the combination of two of my favorite childhood snackees, slice and bake cookies and cheez its. they can also be prepped far in advance, frozen, and baked up fresh so they're hot and ready for the party. these pimiento-flecked bbs feature Roth’s alpine-style grand cru reserve, which is made right in wisconsin but has a strong gruyère-like personality that will make you feel fancy and festive. it's such a flavorful cheese that these crackers really don't need to be a served with much else. you could pair them with some apricot jam or onion jam, but i like them all by themselves. and also all to myself... so make a double batch...

slice and bake cheese crackers

makes 40 crackers

ingredients

8 oz roth grand cru reserve cheese, shredded

1 c flour

a good pinch of kosher salt

a few turns of black pepper

1/4 c unsalted butter, cold and cubed

optional: 2 oz diced pimientos, drained

2-4 tb cold water

Sesame seeds, poppy seeds, or everything bagel topping

clues

place the cheese, flour, salt, and pepper in a food processor and pulse until combined. add the butter and pulse until the mixture turns to small pea-sized pieces. continue pulsing and add the pimientos, if using, and water, 1 tablespoon at a time, until the mixture resembles couscous and sticks together when you squeeze a small amount in your hand.

turn it onto a lightly floured surface and use your hands to work the mixture together into two cylinders that are each about 2” wide. roll the cylinders in seeds or everything bagel topping and then wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 4 hours or up to 3 days (or freeze for up to 3 weeks and thaw in refrigerator overnight before going onto the next step).

preheat the oven to 425ºf. line two baking sheets with parchment and set aside.

slice the cylinders into 1/4” slices, arrange on the baking sheets about 1" apart and bake until lightly browned. begin checking for doneness at about 15 minutes. remove from the oven, let cool on the pan, and enjoy!

-yeh!

thank you to roth cheese for sponsoring this post!

head this way for a roth cheese coupon!

corn dog in a bowl

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hiiii from san fran where i am full on spam, pizza, and happiness because go cubs!!!!! i had such a great night last night at my signing at the mill (people made t-shirts about it!!!) and then hurry scurried back to my hotel to watch the cubs win. i screamed, duh. today i am guest chef-ing at the twitter office and then i'm hoping to go see the golden gate bridge and eat some vegetables! it has been sunny and perfect scarf weather and ok let's talk about corn dogs! 

one of my favorite recipes that was cut from molly on the range is also one of my oldest blog recipes. it emerged when I was deep in preparations for my senior recital and feeling blobby about a breakup. It was enough stress to cause me to not eat for like, a day, and when I snapped out of it I found polenta and a sausage in my fridge and whittled this meal which was enjoyed from under a layer of pink juicy velour. It tasted just like a corn dog and you could eat it with a spoon.

Since then, I’ve shepherded this dish into adulthood with a smooth buttery polenta, a big thick wiener, and a pile of sautéed greens to class up the joint. The greens are optional, of course, but i think they add some nice color, and kind round everything out into a dish that's fit for a quick yet civilized supper. 

I'm posting it today in celebration of cynthia from two red bowls and her new baby (bowl 3!!!!!). seriously look at this little nugget. i mean, that nose!! those cheeks! so squishy and cute. if you know cynthia, you know that she is the sweetest, and her man, b2, is also the sweetest, therefore we can pretty much bank on little b3 growing up to be a total heartbreaker. watch out, future kiddoes of the world! 

so... we know that baby showers are supposed to happen before the baby is born but b3 jumped the gun a little so now it's just a big old party of food in bowls, hosted by alana and steph. you should head over to their sites for a list of all of the other great bowl food that was birthed onto the web today for this tasty celebration (pun intended). welcome to the world, b3!!!! 

corn dog in a bowl

makes 4 servings

ingredients

2 c water

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1/2 c corn meal

1/4 c whole milk

3 tb unsalted butter

1/4 tsp paprika

2 tsp sugar

Black pepper

4 hot dogs or sausages, heated until cooked through

Hot sauce, to taste

Sautéed greens, optional

Ketchup, if you’re into that kind of thing

clues

Place the water and salt in a medium saucepan and bring it to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to medium, gradually whisk in the corn meal, and continue to whisk until the mixture has thickened. Reduce the heat to low and stir in the milk, butter, paprika, sugar, and a few turns of black pepper. Taste and adjust seasonings as desired, and stir in additional milk if the polenta gets too thick. 

Serve in a bowl topped with a hot dog and a few shakes of hot sauce. Add greens and/or ketchup, if desired. 

-yeh!