short stack yogurt is out!

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She’s here!! My new little yogurty child is officially out in the world and I can’t wait for you to meet her!! I’m so excited I could cannon ball into a pool of yogurt. Well, maybe actually more like a hot tub of yogurt soup because it’s still a little cold outside.

And with this book you can make yogurt soup! And yogurt pita to dunk in it! And yogurt soda to wash it all down! Basically just a lot of yogurty things that *might* not employ the most obvious uses for yogurt because showcasing these uses was a huge priority in writing this book. I mean, you all know how to put yogurt in a smoothie or layer it in a parfait, but maybe you’ve never put it on a pizza or in a chipwich or used it in its powder form before, and I hope this book encourages you to do all of those! The name of the game here is trying new things while having fun (and maybe also regulating your digestive system in the process).

If you haven’t ordered your copy yet, you can order it here!

Because there are no photos in the book, Chantell and Brett, Lauren, and I shot a bunch of the dishes to share here, and I’ve also been sharing a lot on Instagram with #shortstackyogurt. The dishes above are (in order): olive oil grapefruit poppy seed loaves with yogurt glaze, homemade yogurt pretzels, yogurt ranch salad pizza, harissa braised chickpeas with grilled lemon and feta, scallion marinated labneh balls, wild rice chicken soup with yogurt and saffron, mujadara with spicy yogurty lava, whipped cheesecake chipwiches with cookie dough and sprinkles, soft yogurt cookies with raspberry glaze, a kale, za’atar, and white cheddar frittata, and yogurt egg creams. Below you'll see some ~lazy b mac and cheese~. Some of my other favorite recipes from the book that aren’t pictured are: blueberry labneh scones, challah french toast with pickled onions and sumac yogurt, labneh grilled cheese with tomato thyme jam, and pistachio rosewater cake with labneh frosting.

🥛❤️🥛❤️🥛❤️🥛❤️🥛❤️🥛❤️🥛❤️🥛❤️🥛❤️🥛❤️🥛❤️🥛❤️🥛❤️🥛❤️🥛❤️🥛❤️🥛❤️🥛❤️🥛❤️

I am forever grateful to everyone at Short Stack Editions for allowing me to write about one of the best dang ingredients on the planet (buy all of their editions!), and also to all of you for letting me talk about yogurt until the cows come home. I cannot wait to hear what you guys think of these recipes. Tag your posts with #shortstackyogurt so that I can see them and also use the yogurt emoji liberally, please. 🥛🥛🥛🥛!!!

And! If you’re local, come celebrate this week at one of three launch events!! Thursday (3/15, 5-7pm) at Kittsona Lifestyle in Grand Forks and Saturday (3/17, 3-5pm) at Kittsona in Fargo will both be free, open to the public, and filled with yogurt cake. And on Saturday morning, Randi and I are hosting our Yoga + Yogurt event at her studio and I think it’s jussst about sold out but there might be one or two more spots left, so get to it.

Hooray!!! Enjoy Short Stack Yogurt, everybody!! 

-yeh!

Egg cream and mac and cheese photos by Lauren V Allen, Yogurt cookies photo by me, all others by Chantell and Brett!

P.S. Want to win a copy of both Short Stack Yogurt and Molly on the Range?? Leave a comment here! 

~yogurt book outtakes~

carrot, feta, and pistachio salad with orange blossom toss + a giveaway!

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hello from sunny los angeles where i am in town for a storm of fun things including filming with tastemade, talking about book stuff by the pool with alana (in 80 degree weather! omg), *researching* new restaurants like mh zh and kismet, hanging with extended family and my pops (!) who just happens to be in town too, and celebrating the launch of lily's book!! everyone together now: happy book birthday, lily!!!!

i am so excited that this day has come. lily and i have been talking about her book for two years now, and i still vividly remember the first time she told me about it. i was in los angeles to play an opera (it was this trip!) and after one of the shows lily and alana and i were standing outside at a bar downtown in a cloud of hot dog smell because alana had just bought a hot dog from a cart down the street. i buried myself in that smell because you know how i feel about hot dogs, and then from that cloud lily started listing all of the fresh herbs and edible flowers that her veggie-packed book was going to be organized by. there would be a mint chapter and a thyme chapter, and of course a whole section on roses. my mind went to salads but my nose was still on hot dogs and it created this perfectly wrong full-sensory moment that played out as if the meat scent accidentally got placed on the basil scratch and sniff and i was really, totally into it. 

at the time i was knee-deep in the planning stages of molly on the range, so it was natural that lily and i fell into roles as each other's deadline jazz freakout buddies, or maybe "book bridesmaid" is a more graceful term. (note to everyone writing a book: find a book bridesmaid or two because writing a book is way more labor intensive and freakout-prone than planning a wedding.) i was always so grateful to have a friend going through the same crazy book wildness that i was and i can't imagine going through it again without a friend like lil! now it's her turn to launch her book out into the universe and i am so happy that you'll all get to experience it. the whole situation offers this vibrant colorful approach to fresh things and it'll push you beyond your boundaries in the realm of edible flowers. some of the ingredients, like spirulina or rose petals, might be new to your kitchen, but the techniques are approachable and the world that lily creates within this book is so warm and encouraging.

so get this book. it’s filled with feel-good food and homemade body products that shows mother nature at her best. when you get it you first have to make the salad that eggboy and i have at least once a week, the greek salad with cumin-fried chickpeas and tahini mint dressing.

then you have to do the coconut mint scrub thing. (especially if a neighborhood bird accidentally introduced mint into your garden and now you have a garden of mint.) 

then make the jasmine ice cream that alana is posting about this week, which i’m eating right this very second. 

then you have to throw a hummus night and include this crisp refreshing carrot salad in the lineup. i have done this multiple times! i love having carrots in my salatim repertoire because they add color and starchiness without too much weight. and if you luck out and find rainbow carrots, this salad is a perfect way to showcase them. it’s heavy on the pistachios and feta, which makes me want to whip up a carrot cake with pistachios in it (and feta frosting? no that’d be gross), and it's in the orange blossom chapter, which is a chapter i could cook through five million times before having to buy another bottle of orange blossom water. i am so sensitive to it, i find i only need the teensiest bit to get the full effect. so typically when i make this salad, i start with 1/2 teaspoon of orange blossom water in the toss and then work my way up little by little, as if i were working with rosewater. i’ve also made huge batches of this salad for large groups of people using the shredder attachment on my food processor instead of a peeler to shave them. you can make a lot of it and prepare it a day in advance and it'll stay zingy and fresh. (if you do that, add the fresh mint right before serving though so it stays bright.) 

alright enough about salads, there's a rumor that lily made 36 gallons of cocktails for her launch party tonight so i am going to go drink them all. bye! 

carrot, feta, and pistachio salad with orange blossom toss

serves 4-6

from lily diamond's KALE & CARAMEL: Recipes for Body, Heart, and Table

ingredients

for the orange blossom toss:

2 tb olive oil

3 tb red wine vinegar

1 1/2 tsp orange blossom water

2 tsp honey

1/4 tsp ground cumin

1/4 tsp ground cardamom

1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes, plus more for garnish

1/4 tsp sea salt

 

for the salad:

10 carrots, washed and tops trimmed and removed

1 c coarsely chopped fresh mint leaves, plus more for garnish

2/3 c chopped toasted pistachio nuts

2/3 c crumbled feta cheese

clues

make the orange blossom toss: combine the oil, vinegar, orange blossom water, honey, cumin, cardamom, the 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes and the salt in a jar, seal, and shake to blend. alternately, whisk the ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.

make the salad: use a vegetable peeler, mandoline, or spiralizer to slice the carrots into long, thin strips. finely chop a handful of carrot tops (resulting in about 1/4 cup). place the carrot strips and carrot tops in a large salad bowl.

add the mint and pistachios, and pour the dressing over all. toss to combine. gently fold in the feta. top with mint and extra red pepper flakes, if you want an additional kick of spice.

-yeh!

update: this giveaway is now closed. 5/8/2017

p.s. i have one copy of KALE & CARAMEL: Recipes for Body, Heart, and Table to give away! leave a comment telling me about your favorite salad to enter! open to residents of the continental u.s.

scallion pull-apart bread

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for the first time since last summer when my mom accidentally spilled coffee all over the cable box attached to the small tv in our kitchen, we have a small working tv in our kitchen. so now, as if the phone and the internet weren't enough of a distraction to make me almost chop all of my fingers off every time i slice a vegetable, i now have olympic rugby and rowing doing that too. which is a good problem to have because the olympics are so great, duh. my favorite parts so far have been the 41-year-old gymnast, the swimming relay with michael phelps, men's volleyball, and the cycling race because it was the same commentators as the tour de france and it made me nostalgic for three weeks ago. my least favorite part was when i got so pumped up for the new zealand women's rugby team to do the haka but then they didn't! does anyone know why? i live 4 the haka. 

when i get sick of the olympics i turn on bojack horseman, my new favorite show. it's so weird and funny. i tried watching stranger things but spent the entire first episode with my hands over my eyes like the scaredy cat that i am and at the end i was still too scared to even walk to the other end of the house by myself without fearing that eleven would appear and suck me up into whatever alien layer she came from. great soundtrack though, no?

anyway. now that my book has gone to print i can really shamelessly cook anything i want from any cookbook i want. before it went to print, there was *always* the option of retesting a recipe from it, but now i don't even have that! so i've been busting through all of ottolenghi's books and all of the great books that just came out or are about to come out and one of my new favorite books is kristin donnelly's modern potluck. there are so many things i want to make in it. i made three recipes from it the weekend it arrived, including some crispy harissa chickpeas, a ribollita that had this addictive preserved lemon pepper relish swirled about, and these here scallion pull-apart rolls, which were a recipe that i contributed because the book is itself a little bit of a potluck, with a few recipes from different contributors. i was soo happy that she asked me to contribute and i felt like these scallion rolls would be a fun, festive, transportable addition to any potluck lineup. they are kind of like big fat scallion pancakes! 

and also big hat tip to julia turshen and gentl + hyers for the inspiration for these photos with the raspberry jam buns in small victories (that is another great book that you should get this fall!).

scallion pull-apart bread

from kristin donnelly's modern potluck

ingredients

for the dough:

2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast (1 envelope)

1 tb sugar

3/4 c warm water

3 c all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting

2 tsp kosher salt

1/2 c vegetable or canola oil, plus more for the bowl

for the filling:

roasted sesame oil, for brushing (about 1/4 c)

8 scallions, finely chopped (about 1 c)

kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

red pepper flakes

1 large egg, lightly beaten with 1 tb water, for brushing

toasted sesame seeds, for topping

clues

make the dough: in a glass measuring cup, combine the yeast, sugar, and warm water. let stand until it foams at the top, about 5 minutes.

meanwhile, combine the flour and salt in a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. stir in the yeast mixture and the oil and mix to combine. knead for 7 to 10 minutes, until smooth and springy. transfer the dough to a lightly greased bowl, cover with a damp towel or plastic wrap, and let rise until doubled in size, about 2 hours.

make the filling: brush an 8-inch round cake pan with a thin layer of sesame oil. 

on a lightly floured work surface, roll the dough out into a long rectangle that's about 24 inches by 9 inches. brush the dough with a thin layer of sesame oil, and sprinkle with the scallions, a pinch of salt, a few grinds of pepper, and a pinch or two of red pepper flakes. roll the long side of the dough up like a jelly roll and brush the outside with more sesame oil. cut the roll into 1 1/2- to 2-inch pieces and arrange the pieces cut side up in the cake pan. cover and let it rise for 30 more minutes.

preheat the oven to 375ºf.

brush the dough with the egg wash and sprinkle with sesame seeds and a bit more salt. bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until the top begins to brown. let cool briefly and serve.

and! in the spirit of a potluck, you can leave a comment here to enter to win some great lidded transportable dishes from pyrex! to enter to win a Pyrex® Simply Store® 4 Cup Flowers Storage Dish W/ Turquoise Lid and Storage Plus® 4 Cup Turquoise Lane Storage Dish w/ Turquoise Lid, tell me about your favorite potluck dish and be sure to leave your email in the comment form! giveaway open to u.s. residents. a winner will be chosen at random next week.

-yeh!

basil mascarpone buttercream frosted chocolate cake + a giveaway

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i've killed another basil plant. i was going really really strong, pesto-ing up a storm and making tomato sauce like the italian grandma that i'll never be. eggboy tried to make me feel better using some farmer jargon, something along the lines of how my basil plant knows that it's about to be fall, so it's discontinuing growing on its own. but it's an indoor plant! don't indoor plants not have seasons? isn't that the point of them being indoor plants?

oh fuck it!

i think i'm done being an herb mama for a while.

and while we're on the subject, i think i've also been a terrible chicken mama lately, too. i was caught threatening to waffle falafel the other night because he's been really at it with the cockadoodledoos in the mornings. (falafel is boy macaroni's new name, by the way. he needed a new name to differentiate himself from the ladies.) i'm so nervous, i don't know what we're going to do with him! he is so loud in the mornings. and the afternoons. and the evenings. i think our next line of defense is going to be to pull some sort of acoustic wizardry in the coop and insulate it so the sounds are muted. they didn't teach us chicken coop acoustics in music school, i wish they would have.

ok, but back to basil.

i imagine i'll get one, maybe two more batches of bruschetta out of my little dead plant, but for a big final end-of-basil-season blowout, and because labor day is nearly here, i figured i'd make a cake.

this cake is inspired by some good lookin' basil cakes that i've seen on the internet here and there. it's a super basic but super good rich chocolate cake and it's covered in buttercream that's been infused with fresh basil and whipped up with creamy mascarpone. the subtle basil flavor is a nice little touch if you're looking for an extra special cake that says "happy labor day!" or "happy fall!" or "sorry i killed you, mister basil plant, but look, it wasn't for nothing!"

basil mascarpone buttercream frosted chocolate cake

makes one 2-layer 8-inch cake (the cake in these photos is 1 1/2 batches)

ingredients

cake:

1 3/4 c sugar

1 3/4 c all-purpose flour

1 c unsweetened cocoa powder

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp kosher salt

2 large eggs

1/2 c flavorless oil, like canola

1 c whole milk or buttermilk

1 tb vanilla extract

3/4 c boiling water

frosting:

10 fresh basil leaves, torn

2 sticks unsalted butter

8 oz mascarpone

3 cups powdered sugar

a pinch of kosher salt

assembly:

fresh basil leaves

marzipan kneaded with a bit of green food coloring and cut into leaf shapes

clues

cake: 

preheat oven to 350.

grease two 8-inch round cake pans and line the bottoms with parchment.

in a large bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients. in a medium bowl, whisk together all the wet ingredients except for the boiling water. whisk the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and then stir in the boiling water. pour into cake pans and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. begin checking for doneness at 28 minutes.

let cool in the pans for 10 minutes, and then turn the cakes onto a lightly greased cooling rack.

frosting:

muddle the basil leaves in a medium saucepan. add the butter, melt it over medium heat, and then reduce the heat to low and cook, stirring often, for 15 minutes. strain out the basil leaves, transferring the butter to a bowl, and freeze it for about 5 minutes, until it's partly firmed up but still a little soupy. (if you have the room in your freezer, you can freeze it in a large bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer. if you don't have the room in your freezer, freeze it in a small bowl and then transfer the butter to a large bowl for the next step.) 

give the butter a few folds so that it's evenly creamy. if it's still a little too soupy, stick it back in the freezer for a few minutes and then try stirring it again. once it's creamy, beat it with the mascarpone and then gradually mix in the powdered sugar and salt.

assembly:

once your cakes are fully cooled, level them. place one layer on a cake board, spread a thick layer of frosting on top, and then place the other layer on top of that. use an offset spatula to frost the cake smoothly all over. decorate with basil leaves and marzipan leaves as desired. enjoy!

this post features a cake stand, towels, and wooden kitchen tools from the amazing vermont farm table. eggboy and i got a vermont farm table rolling pin for a wedding gift and i've been obsessed with this company ever since! they're a small family-owned operation that specializes in custom handcrafted wooden tables, seating, and other kitchen goodies that are built to last for generations. i love all of my vermont farm table goods. they are so sturdy and handsome and made with beautiful (often reclaimed) wood. and here's the best part: they've offered to give away a cake stand to one of you lucky ducks! to enter this giveaway, check out their site and leave a comment here with your email address telling me which cake stand you prefer, as well as what you'd serve on it. open to u.s. residents. i will be picking a winner at random next week! update: this giveaway is now closed.

-yeh!

thank you so much to vermont farm table for sponsoring this post!