day-after-thanksgiving rye steamed buns + friday links

ok so i have had just enough corn casserole to get me through the next few weeks until eggmama makes it again for christmas. how about you?? how was your thanksgiving?! do you own stock in stretchy pants yet? my thanksgiving was spent making lindsay lohan (oreo + peanut butter) pie and dancing around to on the town in front of the television as eggboy miraculously avoided a train wreck while making his first ever turkey (and stuffing and more stuffing and pie). i'm so proud of you, eggboy!!!

most of the things we ate were delicious: the corn casserole, tennessee's brussels sprouts, hawaii's mochi stuffing, and california's sourdough kale stuffing were my favorite. we are still deciding what we thought of the salty pluff mud pie. and i don't know if i had eaten too much by the time the grape salad was passed around, or if the sour creamy slimy appearance got to me... but i just couldn't do the grape salad. i'm sorry, grape salad, i wanted to like you. 

now it's snowing and i am back to working on my gingerbread village: i've assembled all of my buildings, i figured out how to make royal frosting icicles, and rudolf is taking a dip in a jolly rancher hot tub. mum kept asking where the sukkah was, but i opted for a huppa to be more relevant with the timing because holy eff, i am getting married in less than a month!!!!!!! ahh!!!

for my final west elm recipe, i have these day-after-thanksgiving rye steamed buns, which were inspired by the typical day-after-thanksgiving sandwich and milk bar's thanksgiving croissant! turkey, stuffing, and cranberry sauce, all cozy in a bun. so don't eat all of those leftovers yet, go proof some dough and steam some bao! get the recipe here.

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friday links!!

instant ramen with american cheese 

"Do you ever dream up what the Big Gay Ice Cream menu would have looked like in 1621?"

emoji search at nyt cooking is the best early christmas present ever.

i miss hong kong!

this linda lomelino interview!! i love her so much.

ok, thanksgiving is over, i know, but i still want to make these stuffing dinner rolls.

it is a loaf of bread, it is a bagel. it is a bagel bread loaf. omg.

michelle's asian style thanksgiving though!!

this gingerbread cake is gonna get made today.

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happy friday, everyone!!

-yeh!

p.s. i also did a fun little thanksgiving-y radio interview in the midst of my pie making, you can hear it here!

naptime in a bed of stuffing

you know, for how good stuffing tastes, you'd think it'd dress a little nicer for the occasion. it always looks so disheveled and unkempt, like please, we are at an event, would it have killed you to run a brush through your hair? (i guess i shouldn't talk?) it was probably stuffing's beat up homeless look that kept me from trying it for the first approximately 18 years of my life. if someone had told me that it's just bread with a few harmless vegetables and tons and tons of fat, i would have been all in.

maybe that was my family's plan all along: keep molly alienated from the stuffing so that there's more for us.

oh well, they won!

but now i'm making up for lost time. i've been dipping my toes in these past few years with challah stuffing, sufganiyot stuffing, and a soon-to-come bagel stuffing, and now i'm thinking i'm grown-up enough to make a boozy one. it's inspired by shelly's pretzel panzanella, it references my past life as a mustard collector, and it requires you to open a can of beer, pour a little bit into the stuffing, and then pour a lotta bit into your mouth because what is a giant dora the explorer float without a slight buzz anyway? oh, and bacon!!!!! duh. 

this recipe is over on jones dairy farm's stuffing microsite! it might be one of the jolliest sites ever, because my stuffing is cozied up next to outrageous things like cinnamon roll stuffing and hawaiian sweet bread stuffing and a bagillion other casseroles of love that i just want to take a nap in once i'm all tryptophanned out and ready to explode. 

thanksgiving is in 15 days people!!!!!!!!!!! get jazzed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-yeh!!!!!

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thank you so much to jones dairy farm for sponsoring this post!!! they are the bee's knees and you should all check out their stuffing site because it's got >25 stuffing recipes, a stuffing vs. dressing poll (team stuffing 4ever), cooking tips, a $1 off coupon, and a really great aqua/lime green color scheme. follow them on fb and twitter for giveaways, tips, and other fun goodies!

CHICAGO

when i lived in new york, a trip home to chicago meant a quiet getaway filled with days of relaxation and nights of movies or going out makeupless for shakes at the steak n shake, and then falling asleep to the silence of the suburbs. it was all about family time and scones and laziness.

now that i live in the opposite of new york, a chicago trip means eating all the tacos, getting in all the bagels, seeing this, seeing that, going to trader joe's and the asian market and stocking up on every single thing that's not available in north dakota, walk walk walking, trying new cheese, and putting an ounce of effort into personal presentation because, my heavens, there are so many people!

it's an odd and unexpected change, but so far it has been:

1. a perfect dose of city life for this newly converted farm human.

2. good for reminding me how lucky i am to have found a boy that is from a land where traffic means a slight 60 second delay on main street. (you should have seen the look on all the egg faces when they saw chicago's st. patrick's day traffic.)

3. fattening, but worth it because deep dish.

4. an appropriate amount of time for getting mildly shitfaced with my homegirls.

5. good inspiration for new foods, new design, and new fashions.

6. filled with slushy and realizing that that's probably why winter gets such a bad rap. see, up in these parts, it's so cold that the snow and ice don't have the chance to melt down to slushy until the spring. it's a much cleaner winter than the one i grew up with.

7. a practice in non-awkward human interaction because, again, there are so many people.

last week in chicago we went to some of our old standbys and also met a few new wonderful places:

blue door farm stand: home of my dad's new favorite food (their massive carrot cake), cute rustic floors that would be perfect in the farmhouse, and jam stand jams!

bob chinn's crab house: after so many years, this place is still the bee's knees. and i had forgotten how kryptonite-y their garlic rolls are.

das radler: i was sincerely overdue for a schnitzel and some spätzle and the company of hipsters.

big star!: eggboy's favorite. we've learned to always go during lunch to avoid the wait.

the bourgeois pig: i've never been to paris, but i imagine that all of the coffee shops there are just like this one.

mizrahi grill: i could take a bath in their hummus and then sleep a perfect night's sleep in a bed made out of their pita.

-yeh!

brisket on sourdough with sriracha shaved brussels sprouts

there is a possibility that i spoke too soon about wanting winter to stay.

i know this because over weekend, when a recipe arrived in my inbox from sweet tara for steamed buns that require three (3!!) ingredients for the dough, the only thing that prevented me from acquiring the required self-rising flour from the shop across the street was the task of bundling up for -21ºf. 

never before in my life have i stopped at an obstacle when steamed buns were involved. 

but you guys. i've been wearing two pants, two-three pairs of socks, and two fleeces under my down coat on a regular basis. 

and my snot freezes. and my skin is cracky.

so while i do love winter food with all of my heart, i wouldn't mind the ability to go outside wearing just one layer and possibly pick a tomato from the ground.

on the bright side: i've been testing brisket recipes for the passover installment of molly on the range and have the terrible burden of having so much leftover brisket in my fridge. life is so tough, right? one day soon, when it warms up to positive degrees, i will make steamed buns with brisket in the belly. but for now, i have a delightful winter sandwich.

brisket on sourdough with sriracha shaved brussels sprouts

makes one sandwich, but can easily be doubled/tripled/septupled

ingredients

olive oil

2 thick slices of crusty sourdough

1 thick slice of brisket

1/2 c shaved brussels sprouts

a pinch of kosher salt

1 tb sriracha mayo* (or more)

*i keep a squeeze bottle of the stuff in my fridge and you should too. i use 1 tsp sriracha for every 1/4 cup of mayo, but add more sriracha as you wish.

clues

heat a grill pan or skillet with a bit of olive oil over medium heat. toss on the bread, and if the brisket is cold from being leftovers, toss that on too to warm it up. heat both sides of the bread (and brisket).

in a separate pan, heat a bit more olive oil over medium-high heat and add your brussels sprouts. season with salt. cook til soft and slightly browned and then toss with sriracha mayo. (you could also keep your sprouts raw if you'd like)

assemble and destroy!

-yeh!