cookbooks

molly on the range bonfire outtakes + links!

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i am ketchuping. 

1. putting ketchup on everything because i:

          a) like ketchup a lot, and

          b) am mourning the loss of my summer tomatoes

2. catching up on various exciting things like mail (fall cookbook season, fuck ya!) and friends (you're dating who?? you've birthed a what?! when are you moving to l.a. again??) and sleep, and unexciting things like laundry and showers because i am home for a week! 

i had such a wonderful time in minneapolis this past weekend and now i have a few days before i leave again so i am savoring this bit of time at home, cooking dinner for eggboy and spending my evenings watching silicon valley on the couch. on tuesday, i am off to the west coast! is it still warm there? do i need to shave my armpits? i just found out that akhnaten is going to be in l.a. when i'm there and i am so wildly excited for this, i've got to remember to pack my opera glasses...

right now on the farm, we are in the calm that comes between the end of beet harvest and the beginning of winter. eggboy and eggpop are cleaning up the tractors so that they can go into hibernation, and macaroni have begun to slow their egg production. finally we can keep up with their eggs!

today i'm sharing some outtakes from one of my favorite sections in molly on the range, the bonfire party! almost exactly a year ago, i had my fargo friends and grand forks friends come over in their flanneliest selves and we roasted wienies and made s'mores. the whole thing was inspired by this phase that i went through in high school where every single day my friends would come over after school and we'd sit around a fire in broad daylight, roasting wieners and having senioritis. for the book, i updated the s'mores with homemade rosewater marshmallows and the wienies with jerusalem bagel dogs and harissa ketchup. adrianna made the jerusalem bagel dogs on her blog, so head that way for the oven method recipe! (the bonfire cooking method is in the book.) and below are some more recipes that my friends have made from the book. their posts, as well as all of the instagram and facebook posts that you guys have shared of adventures in molly on the range, have brought me so many happy tears it's like why do i even wear mascara anymore? i know i am bad at being mushy and lovey dovey but i am so gosh darn grateful for the support and excitement that molly on the range has received, i want to give you all one giant squeeze. 

michelle made italian rainbow cookie salad // sherrie made all of the alliums fried rice // jeanine made cauliflower shawarma tacos //sarah made the chocolate scone loaf and added orange! // billy made lindsay lohan cookies // nik made marzipan mandel bread // jessica made gruyere mac and cheese with caramelized onions // cindy made sprinkle cupcakes // betty made scallion pancake challah // brandon made walnut and brie mac and cheese // lyndsay made chocolate tahini cake // elizabeth made sprinkle cake // katherine made halva and added pumpkin spice (!) // tessa made sprinkle cake // jonathan made mini tater tot hot dishes // francesca made chocolate tahini cake // marie made chocolate tahini cupcakes // laura made baked oatmeal with maple cream and hawaij // brett made challah

...and if you've made something from molly on the range, remember to post it on instagram by the end of the month with #mollyontherange and #8daysofgiveaways to enter to win all of these fun things!

-yeh!

all photos by chantell quernemoen!

molly on the range is out!

in

it's out! it's out! molly on the range is officially--after 2 1/2 years of thinking about it and doing things about it--out. and i'm so happy it is because it's allowed me to do all these fun things this past weekend, like babble on the radio and hug all of my new york friendsies and eat hummus every single day. i've had such a swell time here, and it's only just beginning because tonight is a party and tomorrow is another one and the next day i have a flight later in the day so guess who's gonna do a tequila shot on wednesday night, me. it's me. 

how does it feel to have a book out, molly?? is a question i've gotten a few times and the answer is usually "like i need a red bull habit" or "grrrrrreat!" and then i'm like, huh, that's kinda dumb. let's analyze this further. so here's how it feels:

1. it feels like a million bucks! i get to schmooze with all you people and also have a conversation topic that is more fun than the weather, less scary than the election, and fulfills one requirement to pass the bechdel test. and i have tattoos to hand out! my five-year-old cousin put them all over her belly, it was the cutest gosh darn thing. 

2. it feels like i kinda want to do it again? like i've forgotten all of the pain and insanity and wouldn't really mind another large project to think about now that i know that i can actually complete a large project. i mean, maybe it'll be a book project, maybe it'll be raising a goat or a pig, but a book sounds less muddy. and i feel like even in the time since i submitted my manuscript, my tastes have changed and i've discovered so many new ingredients that i want to play with. like preserved lemons, i could never imagine writing a book these days without plastering it with preserved lemons. and yet there are none in molly on the range.

3. cool and good and great and all of the positive feelings. i've had so many scrapbooks and moleskine diaries throughout my life, and this is just like that but bound nicely and illustrated and, as the kids say, legit. i am so happy with it and so excited to share stories that go deeper and weirder than my everyday banter on this here blog. 

so i made a cake about it. i was going to make one layer of every cake from the book and stack them on top of each other, but then i counted them and that would have been 13 (thirteen!) layers, and structurally i'm just not confident in that. so this is a "greatest hits" cake. speculoos, vanilla cardamom, chocolate tahini, sprinkle, and pistachio. it was good, we ate it at the little pizza party that i threw for my grand forks and fargo friends who helped with the book. eggpop dug out the whole chocolate layer and futureeggbrother (did i mention eggsister got engaged??!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) dug out the whole pistachio layer. i love watching people getting physical all up in my cakes.

all of these cake recipes are in the book! but, if you're looking for some recipes today, here are some that my very good blogger friends have made from the book in the past week or so!!

lily made coconut malabi with persimmons (!!!), a genius seasonal variation since the one in the book has roasted rhubarb. and also she made me nostalgic for our "camp" days.

dani made mac and cheese and took this insanely stunning ingredient shot that i'm obsessed with. i love how real it is, how all of the ingredients look like they were pulled straight from the fridge and *just woke up that way*. 

matt and beau made mandel bread and answer the question "what even is mandel bread!?" perfectly. and made me even more excited about going on a trip to boise next week, because i just found out they're coming!!!! what should we do in boise, friends??

stephanie made burger slider cakes and added cake fries and a shake!!!!! i had such a cute attack. i screamed.  

sonja and alex made fried rice and have me pretty much convinced that i should road trip out to indianapolis right after my third chicago event. right?? right. 

alexandra made mandel bread for dorie greenspan's #cookiesforkindness project, which is so sweet!!!! (sidenote: i met dorie yesterday and she is such a gem!!) <3 <3 alexandra's family miiight have eaten them all before she could share, hehe, it's ok i would have too. 

shelly made mac and cheese and made a reference to amelia's notebook that hit the nail on the head!! amelia's notebook was such an inspiration for me and i am so happy that molly on the range shows it. 

cynthia made fried rice and i just loved seeing this dish through her amazing styling eyes. it's such a simple dish that i had to reshoot a couple of times for the book because rice is hard to photograph! but cynthia made it look soo beautiful. 

alana made a scone loaf and added sprinkles! because she knows me better than i know myself. and then she and her man took that loaf to europe! knowing that i am playing a part in the plane snacks of my close friends makes me feel so warm and fuzzy inside. 

have a great week, everybody!!!! 

-yeh!!

 

chocolate halva spread + a #mollyontherange x stewart & claire chocolate halva lip balm giveaway!

in

my favorite lip balm in the whole entire universe now comes in chocolate halva flavor.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i have tried every single lip balm in the world, including, obviously, lip smacker's dr. pepper, and a tragic macaroni and cheese flavor from the candy store near columbus circle. at summer camp, no care package was complete without lip balm, and in college, practically every other laundry cycle was graced with a lip balm explosion. i have since gotten better at this.

so i *know* lip balm, i am never without lip balm, i put it on morning/noon/night/16 times in between, and i can say hands down that stewart & claire's is the best. it's not sticky and it works so well, even in grand forks winters, and it's made by kristin! who just wrote the modern potluck cookbook! get one! so now i am just about bursting with glee because as part of the molly on the range book launch, it now comes in halva flavor. it's made with sesame oil and askinosie cocoa powder, and lisel's endpaper drawings are all over the label. it is a dream come true. i'm giving away a handful of these to those who've preordered (only one more week to preorder!), and if you don't win one or are in need of 12 more, there will be a limited supply available for sale on the stewart & claire site.

and! in case all of this talk of chocolate halva has left you with a massive insane craving, here is a super quick recipe for nutella's middle eastern cousin, chocolate halva spread. it's right out of molly on the range, and it's in a little spread section with white chocolate pistachio butter and marzipan butter. use this on toast, over ice cream, or eat it straight with a spoon!

chocolate halva spread

makes 3/4 cup

ingredients

4 oz chopped milk chocolate

1/2 c tahini

1/8 tsp kosher salt

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

clues

melt the chocolate in a double boiler or by microwaving in 30-second increments, stirring after each, until melted and smooth. stir in the tahini, salt, and vanilla. it will thicken as it cools.

enjoy!

(also hi from new york!!! i just got here yesterday, right in time for the taste talks awards. now i'm sitting in a hotel room in tarrytown silently freaking out about my first ever panel, at the nyt food for tomorrow conference. and on thursday, book festivities start with a trip to roberta's for heritage radio! and some personal news, my hair decided it wanted to start parting down the middle, so that's where we're at. book tour, commence!!)

if you've preordered molly on the range and would like to win a a stewart & claire chocolate halva lip balm, leave a comment here with your dream lip balm flavor! we're giving away 30! open to u.s. residents. enter now through pub date (10/4) and have your preorder receipt ready for if you win!

-yeh!

sugar beet sugar cookies + a #mollyontherange tattoo giveaway!

in ,

i covered portland in tattoos this weekend! it was the least i could do in exchange for being filled up with my favorite candy in the world, tahini drenched toast from alon shaya, and shakshuka so beautifully covered with hawaij that it nearly brought me to tears. and tahini semifreddo with sumac on top! (note to self: find a more uses for sumac in dessert) oh, it was a delicious weekend at feast. it was my first time, but i had michelle to lead me around and drive us to tusk in a little cozy coop when our feet got squishy in the rain, and jonathan and todd to film a bunch of it. we made a cute stop motion and a candy covered cake and something that required a scissor lift but that video hasn't been released yet so idk what that was about. there were also lots of photo booths:

and a nacho cheese fountain! 

and a person walking around in a costume that was either a bed bug or godzilla (??) or something of that aesthetic... 

so tattoo sleeves seemed appropriate and i felt extra cool and *in* with the chef crowd when mine started to fade and look like real tattoos. if you're wondering what the heck these tattoos are, they are all of lisel's illustrations from molly on the range! they include the following:

-a burger

-a recipe for hawaij

-a cake

-pizza dough ingredients

-a handy dandy "#mollyontherange" which is probably going to make it onto my forehead at some point during my book tour

-and a sugar beet!

michelle wanted to give herself a sugar beet sleeve but i told her we had to save some to give to you guys (it still looks good though, no?? that is her arm and picture with the boba tea up top!) mr. beet has been called a turnip, a parsnip, a nondescript root vegetable... but no, he's a little white beet that's modeled after all of the beets that eggboy is about to pull out of the ground in just 10 days when harvest starts.

i can't believe harvest is almost here!! this will be kind of a weird one since eggboy will become completely nocturnal and i'll be in and out for the tour. i'm bummed that i won't be able to be around every day to restock the little table in the workshop with homemade treats for all of the farm workers, but i've started filling up our deep freeze with some things that eggboy can defrost and put out for everyone. 

day 1 is going to be these sugar beet sugar cookies! they are a super simple sugar cookie, iced with an even simpler glaze, and decorated in a way that caters to my clumsy inability to do detailed work. i have no idea how people in those instagram videos make celebrity faces with icing (!!). but for these i just pulled out every green sprinkle i own and mixed up some edible water color paint and went to town. i'm having trouble finding an online listing for my cookie cutter, but if you google "carrot cookie cutter" some similar options pop up.

happy almost beet harvest, everyone!! 

sugar beet sugar cookies

makes 16 beets

ingredients

cookies:

3 c all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp kosher salt
1 c unsalted butter, softened
1 c sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
1 large egg
confectioners’ sugar, for dusting

icing:

3 c powdered sugar
1/4 c whole milk + more as needed

for water color effect:

a few drops of food coloring
a splash of vodka

sprinkles, for decorating

clues

preheat the oven to 350ºf. line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.

in a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. in a large bowl with an electric mixer or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat together the butter and sugar on medium high until pale and fluffy, 3-4 minutes. reduce the speed to medium and add the extracts and egg and mix to combine.  reduce the speed to low and then gradually add the dry ingredients and mix to combine. pour the dough out onto a clean work surface and give it a few kneads to bring it all together. divide it in half, wrap half of it plastic wrap, and refrigerate it while you roll out the first half. (alternatively, you can make the dough in advance, wrap all of it in plastic wrap and refrigerate it overnight.)

dust your work surface and a rolling pin with confectioners’ sugar or flour and roll out the dough to 1/4” thickness. cut out sixteen beets with a cookie cutter.

use a small offset spatula to transfer them to a baking sheet, 1" apart. re-roll scraps and repeat with the remaining half of the dough. bake for 10-12 minutes, until the bottoms are lightly browned. let the cookies cool on the pans for 5 minutes and then transfer them a wire rack to cool completely.

icing:

in a small bowl, mix together sugar and milk, adding more milk a tiny bit at a time until it's spreadable/pipeable. 

assembly:

add icing to a piping bag and ice cookies as desired. for the watercolor effect, mix together the food coloring and the vodka and brush onto icing that is fully dry. don't worry, the vodka will evaporate! decorate other cookies as desired with sprinkles. enjoy!

if you've preordered molly on the range and would like to win a sheet of #mollyontherange temporary tattoos, leave a comment here! we're giving away 30! open to u.s. residents. enter now through pub date (10/4) and have your preorder receipt ready for if you win!

-yeh!

p.s. molly on the range tour dates are out!! click here for more info. many of the events are ticketed, so be sure to get those while you can! and i am so excited to have deb from smitten kitchen and phyllis from dash and bella joining me at a couple of the stops!