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October and Ocracoke Vacation 2022 Food

Welcome back (to me, finally getting back to posting after a few week’s hiatus)! Here are the highlights of October food in our house, the wonderful food we made on vacation in Ocracoke, and notes on the cookbooks the recipes came from.

*This post contains affiliate links to some of my favorite cookbooks. If you click a link and make a purchase, I may earn a small commission.

Beets and Greens Phyllo Pie from Melissa Clark’s book, “Dinner In One”. We took the suggestion in the recipe notes and swapped roasted butternut squash for the beets, and I only had feta on hand (not the washed-rind cheese Melissa suggests), but this was still delicious and 10 out of 10 would make again — and will follow the recipe next time b/c it seems a funky cheese would only make this crispy, hearty, veggie pie even better.

Grilled picanha steak w/ romesco sauce, fried plantains, coconut rice and beans. This was my birthday dinner and the recipe is… basically in the title. Simple and delicious, and note to self to include more plantains and coconut rice in my life. What really made this meal sing for me was the smoked almond romesco sauce, which I do have a recipe for and it’s included at the end of the post.

Brazilian steak, rice, and beans on two plates

A bloomer loaf and a rye, ale, and oat bread from “Paul Hollywood’s Bread”. Anyone else glued to the current season (and every past episode, ever) of The Great British Baking Show? I can’t get enough of it, mostly because of Noel Fielding. But a couple years ago, the show also inspired me to buy Paul Hollywood’s bread cookbook and learn to make bread, from scratch, by hand– not a stand mixed or a bread machine in sight. IDK what it is but something about making a loaf of bread with my hands makes me feel like I’m in total control of my life and am awesome. I love this book b/c it explains the why behind the how which, it turns out, is pretty important with bread-making.

loaf of bread with oats on top on a cooling rack

Pizza with caramelized onions, homemade buttermilk ricotta, roasted mushrooms, and shaved brussles sprouts. Agh, my heart is aching that I don’t have a piece of this pizza right now. It checked every oniony, creamy, earthy, crispy greens box for me. And I MADE the ricotta! What! That recipe came from “To the Last Bite” by Alexis deBoschnek and was easier than I thought. I want to be the person who always uses leftover buttermilk to make ricotta. Then puts it on a pizza with mountains of brussles sprouts and mushrooms.

slices of veggie pizza and salad on two plates

And now on to the real fun… our Ocracoke vacation!! Here’s some of what we ate:

Scacciata from my one true cookbook love: “Italian American” by Angie Rito and Scott Tachinelli. My best description of this dish is a layered pizza? It has about 3 pounds of swiss chard and spinach cooked down with lots of garlic and wine, and loads of mozzarella. You make the dough, spread the filling, fold and repeat until it’s small, bake it, slice it, and all your friends say, “Wow“.

raw pizza dough with cooked greens and cheese

Oysters! My husband and friends foraged for and caught these oysters and were dining on them with lemon juice and hot sauce within about 30 minutes of pulling them out of the water. I mean… rockstars.

Smoked pork butt, ribs, and wings! It’s not an N.C. vacay without them.

Caramelized Onion and Short Rib Ragu with Pasta and crostini with smoked ricotta. Mmmmkay, the onion and short rib ragu is maybe one of my top 10 favorite things on earth and it is from, once again, “Italian American” by Angie Rito and Scott Tachinelli. I don’t think I need to explain why a ragu with that name tastes so good. We had it for dinner then again for lunch while dinner was on the smoker and I decided to become a badass for 15 minutes and smoke some leftover ricotta (with advice from “Via Carota” by Jody Williams and Rita Sodi). NBD.

pot of short rib pasta and a tray of ricotta crostini

Brief interlude for some 1718 Brewing food. The fried cheese cuuuuuurds:

Steamed buns and coconut curry pork meatballs. Yessss! These buns are on repeat from earlier this month, I will love them forever. And the coconut curry pork meatballs are a staple in this house from How Sweet Eats. The meatballs are so easy and the sauce is creamy and rich with a great punchiness from lime juice — fabulous.

coconut curry meatballs in a pan next to pot of rice

Baked eggrolls for lunch. Molly Yeh strikes again — this recipe came from her book “Home Is Where the Eggs Are” except instead of beef and store-bought coleslaw, I used leftover pulled pork and the Crunchy Asian Slaw from that same Molly Yeh book. I’m pretty sure you could fill these eggrolls with any combo of meat and cabbage-y thing and be successful. And yes, the eggroll wrappers and flour tortillas, but are still completely satifying.

Clean-out-the-fridge fried rice. This last-night-of-vacay dinner consisted of rice, pulled pork, minced up smoked chicken wing skin and meat, minced smoked rib meat, diced leftover roasted cauliflower, potatoes, and brussles sprouts, leftover coleslaw, and some croutons made from leftover brioche buns. Essentially, a masterpiece of leftovers.

I’m terribly sad vacay is over. But, a good smoked almond romesco sauce recipe can help me move on.

Smoked Almond Romesco Sauce

A smoky, tangy sauce to serve with steak, grilled tuna, or as a spread on sandwiches.

Author: Megan
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 10 minutes
Yield: 1 cup 1x

Ingredients

Scale

8 oz jarred roasted red peppers
3/4 C salted, smoked almonds
2 cloves of garlic
1 TBS tomato paste
1/2 tsp smoked hot paprika
1/8 tsp cayenne
2 TBS sherry vinegar
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp honey + more to taste
2 TBS olive oil

Instructions

Combine the first nine ingredients in a food processor and pulse to combine.
With the food processor running, stream in the olive oil.
Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary — sometimes, depending on how sweet the roasted red peppers are, I like to add an additional squeeze of honey.

Keywords: quick romesco sauce, easy romesco sauce, almond romesco sauce, smoked almond recipe

Early October 2022 Menus

What a couple of weeks it’s been! But also, why can’t it be fall all the time? Fall food = the best food.

*This post contains affiliate links to some of my favorite cookbooks. If you click a link and make a purchase, I may earn a small commission.

Early October 2022 menus

What we made lately, with notes:

Saturday, 10/1/22: Crispy eggplant spaghetti and kale salad. Confession: I stole a Japanese eggplant from our neighbor’s garden and used it in place of the zucchini in this Pinch of Yum Spaghetti with Crispy Zucchini recipe. This recipe taught me a valuable lesson: we should be coating more things in egg, panko, and parmesan. The eggplant became like a savory, cheesy eggplant brittle and was delish on top of chewy noodles.

Sunday, 10/2/22: Chicken Noodle Soup with Sherry and Cream. My most favorite recipe I’ve ever written. A couple of our friends make this recipe on the reg and another requests it when he visits, and that makes me smile.

two bowls of chicken noodle soup with Ritz crackers

Monday, 10/3/22: Fall veggie fried rice w/ dijon maple dressing. This is the third time I’ve made this for the folks at the inn I cook for, they love it, and I STILL have not posted the recipe here on the blog. Bright purple cabbage, roasted veggies, seared smoked sausage, rice — maybe the beauty can just speak for itself for now:

rice and vegetables in a skillet with a wooden sppon

Tuesday, 10/4/22: Steak and slaw bao buns. I have no words. These were the Molly Yeh buns I made last week and had leftovers of in my freezer. Some form of supernatural intelligence entered my brain and said, “Microwave the buns, then SEAR THEM IN STEAK JUICES to crisp the bottoms.” That, combined with Molly Yeh’s recipe for Crispy Asian Slaw from her new book “Home Is Where the Eggs Are”, and my go-to quick-pickled cucumbers, was the best decision I’ve made in all of 2022.

steamed bao buns lined up on a cutting board

Wednesday, 10/5/22: Chicken and butternut squash mafe curry. This is now on repeat in our house — a twist on a Food & Wine recipe for lamb and sweet potato curry that checks all the coconut milk and peanut butter boxes.

Thursday, 10/6/22: Pizza Thursday!

Friday, 10/7/22: Chicken, bacon, and slaw grilled cheese. On this day, I had to speak on a zoom meeting for work, in front of perhaps 150+ people? I was so nervous and therefore have almost no memory of these sandwiches — I was too busy being relieved the meeting went well.

On to week two of this post!

What we made last week, with notes:

Saturday, 10/8/22: Leftovers! I don’t want to admit it was leftover pizza, because then we ended up making pizza on Friday as well and I am now just a carbohydrate. In our defense, we had to get a new dishwasher this day and we started installing it around 6pm, so there was no time or space for dinner.

Sunday, 10/9/22: Saag paneer. Not only did the mounds and mounds of spinach in this recipe help make up for all the pizza, but it was shockingly delicious. I already like pretty much any saag paneer but this one topped them all and made me feel impressed with me! The recipe came from Melissa Clark’s new book, “Dinner In One”. Perfectly heavy on the cumin seeds, garam masala, and shallots, plus a little buttermilk and heavy cream and just yes. Yes, yes, yes. I used The Big Moo baked cheese instead of paneer. One time Joey and I made our own paneer… this was better.

Monday, 10/10/22: Peanut Chicken. This peanutty, veggie-loaded recipe is my ride or die. I will love her forever.

Tuesday, 10/11/22: Tamale pie and salad. I always love the idea of tamale pie then am only mildly interested once it’s on my plate. This was a very easy recipe, also from Melissa Clark’s book, “Dinner In One”, and is super filling and easy to add kale, more beans, or other stuff to, which we did. And, the cornbread topping has a blanket of crispy cheddar cheese on top — who’s not here for that? But, I feel like I need to be more physically active in order to truly appreciate tamale pie’s heartiness.

Wednesday, 10/12/22: No cooking! Joey was out, it was just me, and I ate a bagel.

Thursday, 10/13/22: Pasta Amatriciana. If you want to feel like a total boss in the kitchen, get some pork shoulder, tomatoes, pecorino, lemon juice, and this recipe from “Italian American: Red Sauce Classics and New Essentials: A Cookbook” by Angie Rito and Scott Tacinelli. I made this for the girls I play spades with and it was a real moment. The slow-cooked cubes of pork gave the sauce a depth of flavor I’m not sure I’ve accomplished in my kitchen before and I felt like an Italian-cooking queen.

Pasta Amatriciana in a bowl with a wedge of lemon and grated pecorino

Friday, 10/14/22: Pizza and salad. As many other posts on this blog will tell you, I’ve been hunting for a new pizza dough recipe. Sadly, I have nothing to report after this one b/c we used fresh store-bought dough. The search continues.

That’s all!

Late/End of September 2022 Menus

Another twofer this week because things have been super busy around here. We dogsat Bear’s bestie, Dubbie, for a few days. 102-yr-old legend, Mamaw, passed away peacefully. And Joey and I celebrated our 6th anniversary. Life, y’all!

*This post contains affiliate links to some of my favorite cookbooks. If you click a link and make a purchase, I may earn a small commission.

Here we go:

late September 2022 menu

What we made last week, with notes:

Saturday, 9/17/22: Jalapeno poppers for a friend’s block party! We attended an annual fall block party at a friend’s house this night and I brought baked, bacon-wrapped jalapeno poppers from Dinner at the Zoo’s recipe. They were great but the real thing worth mentioning here is the friend hosting the party had a chef friend smoke a half pig and a bunch of chickens for everyone. The aroma! Good god.

Sunday, 9/18/22: Grilled pork and cider-braised cabbage and apples. This recipe was from Anna Stockwell’s cookbook “For the Table” and used a thin cut of pork shoulder I ordered from Porter Road — it was basically a pork steak. And, we braised big hunks of cabbage and halved apples in apple cider in a cast iron skillet right on the grill. Fall, y’all! Also a pickled shallot salsa verde. And to go with, the author recommends a whiskey/apple cider/lemon juice cocktail, which we def did, except with bourbon. Liquor makes me cranky these days but a little wine fixed that.

Monday, 9/19/22: Chickpea and tomato curry with rice and toasted almonds. A slow cooker dinner! I loved this, and am happy I resisted the urge to add ground turkey — I feel like it would have muddled the flavor and this recipe from Alex Guarnaschelli’s book, “Cook With Me” was perfect as is. And toasted slivered almonds on top? Yes. My bowl was half-eaten before I remembered to snap a pic:

bowl of chickpea and tomato curry on counter top

Tuesday, 9/20/22: Gyro bowls. This one surprised me! It is gyro meat that tastes like the real deal, made from ground beef. On a weeknight. In a loaf pan. Kinda like a pate of some sort? IDK, IDC — it worked and I thoroughly enjoyed it in a bowl of fresh, crisp veggies with lots of feta and yogurt sauce. Find the recipe here on The Modern Proper. (The recipe calls for ground beef and ground lamb, I only had beef so cut the recipe in half and it was still enough for me and Joey + leftovers.) Please enjoy this too-dark lap shot:

Gyro bowls with bread and a glass of wine

Wednesday, 9/21/22: Leftover pork, cabbage, and apples in Mandarin pancakes. Molly Yeh made me make dim sum and I’m very happy about it. I saw her toasting these Mandarin pancakes in a dry skillet and peeling them apart to make paper-thin wraps for a Peking chicken filling and thought: I gotta do this. Except with leftover grilled pork, cabbage, and chopped-up apples from Sunday sauteed in gochujang, hoisin, and sambal oelek. Come on! It was amazing.

Thursday, 9/22/22: Leftovers! Enough cooking already.

Friday, 9/23/22: French onion soup. Never enough cooking! I’ve made FO Soup approximately 85 zillion times in my life, decided to try this NYT Cooking recipe from Sara Bonisteel this week, and it was by far the simplest and most tasty of the bunch. Way to go. Adding the flour (use Wondraflour if you suck at dissolving lumps like me) and letting it boil for 10 minutes was the trick — it got perfectly thick and the flavors were spot on. Also, no toasting the bread! Just broiling it with the gruyere on top gave it plenty of texture around the edges while the middle stayed soft and melty in the soup. A+

For baking last week I revisited an old fave: my Peanut Butter Pretzel Cookies. This time, I actually let the dough rest in the fridge overnight and I think it did make the texture better.

Now on to this week:

end of September 2022 menu

What we made this week, with notes:

Saturday, 9/24/22: Frozen pizza and salad! No explanation needed.

Sunday, 9/25/22: Root vegetable pot pie and salad. It’s not fall until you pot pie something. Joey was not sold on this at first (hello, no meat), but we both fully enjoyed it and ate almost all the leftovers, which is saying something given it’s a double-crust pot pie loaded with hearty veg. This recipe came from the cookbook “To the Last Bite” by Alexis deBoschnek and I highly recommend. The mixture of veggies is customizable; I used turnips, yukon golds, carrots, and sweet potato and really need to remember this one when I have one or two of a few veggies lying around — it’s is an ideal way to use them up. Note to self: always remember the flaky salt on top of the crust. Heaven. Also, someone teach me to crimp a crust. Please.

Monday, 9/26/22: White Chicken Chili. I’m just going to say, the method and the bacon are where it’s at with this. So easy, super smoky, and you don’t even have to add salt b/c the other ingredients are so dang flavorful on their own. This recipe is on repeat in this house. Thanks, Pinch of Yum!

Tuesday, 9/27/22: leftovers!

Wednesday, 9/28/22: Take-out Thai food from Pok’s Art!

Thursday, 9/29/22: Anniversary celebration dinner at Urban Kitchen❤️

Friday, 9/30/22: Skirt steak steamed buns and Maangchi wings. Stop everything and look at these wings right now:

Now, go to Maangchi’s YouTube, watch, and learn. These wings are the reason I need this blog — there needs to be a record of things that are so deliciously crispy, your eyeballs could break from looking at them. I can’t continue talking about these or else I’ll cry. Just know: potato starch is king, and a wing sauce with heat, sweet, salt, and tang is queen. Moving on… Molly Yeh made me make dim sum AGAIN! As our anniversary celebration #2 (neither of which were on our actual anniversay🙃), we made Molly Yeh’s steamed bun recipe and subbed in skirt steak for flank steak and they were so fun and turned out perfectly. For us, the curry powder drowned out the rest of the flavors, but otherwise 10/10. Bonus: the leftover buns are in our freezer!

ingredients for skirt steak steamed buns on a pan

Good times all around. See ya next time.

Mid-September Menu + Spicy Coconut Noodles

Another tasty week in the books. Let’s discuss! (Also, someone got new markers!! Me.)

*This post contains affiliate links to some of my favorite cookbooks. If you click a link and make a purchase, I may earn a small commission.

mid-September dinners

What we made last week, with notes:

Saturday, 9/10/22: Pizza and salad! I mentioned last week I’m on a quest for a new pizza dough and, to that end, I tried the NYT Cooking highly-rated pizza dough recipe this week. It was good — my personal favorite for homemade dough so far. What I’m really looking for in homemade dough is for it to emerge from the oven with big, pillowy bubbles. This one had the beginning of one bubble. So, ya know… it’s something. I’m still searching and Joey still prefers store-bought Publix dough.

Sunday 9/11/22: Spicy Coconut Noodles. I started out with Melissa Clark’s recipe for Gingery Coconut Noodles with Shrimp and Greens from her new cookbook “Dinner In One”, and ended up with the Spicy Coconut Noodles recipe shared below, which uses chicken breasts, a hot little gochujang/sambal olek marinade, a bunch of chopped green beans, and subs in pasta for rice noodles. We looooved this and I have to think it’s due to that mound of spaghetti being cooked in a spicy coconut milk bath. Fab!

Monday 9/12/22: Kimchi Fried Rice. A hit! And this recipe also came from that same Melissa Clark book. I made this for the crew at my friend’s inn and my only regret was not being able to include the fluffy scrambled egg that Joey and I got to enjoy with it (scrambled eggs + make-ahead meals for large groups just don’t mix in my mind).

Tuesday 9/13/22: Pizza again! Nope, we did not follow the plan. But, Joey and I did do something this day that’s been 10 years in the making: we took our boat over to our local Indian spot, Masala Bay, for lunch and ate all the things. Ah-mazing.

dishes of Indian food laid out on a table

Wednesday 8/13/22: leftover Indian food!

Thursday 8/14/22: Dinner at mom and dad’s. My mom made paella with shrimp, scallops, mussels, and chorizo and WHY do I not ever make paella?? It was so good.

Friday 8/15/22: Trader Joe’s Cacio e Pepe Ravioli with Cajun Alfredo Sauce. We’d planned on eating leftovers but had this instead and it tasted like canned spaghettios, which to me, is a good thing.

This week’s baking efforts: Brown Butter Brown Sugar Cookies. I make these preeeetttty often — they’re the just-right combo of nutty brown butter and molassas-y brown sugar and the texture is perfectly crinkly-soft. The recipe is from America’s Test Kitchen’s “New Essentials Cookbook”, although I think they’re just called Brown Sugar Cookies in there. Why they don’t call out the brown-butteriness in the title, I’ll never know.

Now on to this week’s recipe. It’s a goody❤️

Mid-September Menu + Spicy Coconut Noodles

noodles with lots of herbs and spinach in a skillet with tongs

This recipe is a twist on the Gingery Coconut Noodles from Melissa Clark’s cookbook “Dinner In One”, using spaghetti noodles, chicken breasts, a spicy marinade, and green beans.

Author: Megan
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour
Yield: 4 servings 1x
Category: dinner

Ingredients

Scale

1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts, sliced into thin pieces, about 1” long
1/3 C gochujang sauce
2 TBS sambal olek
3 TBS coconut oil
6 scallions, thinly sliced (keep the white and green parts separated)
2 jalapenos, thinly sliced (divided)
1/2 lb green beans, chopped into 1/3“-long pieces
4 cloves of garlic, grated on a microplane
1” of fresh ginger, grated on a microplane
1 can coconut milk
2 C chicken stock
1/4 lb spaghetti
2 TBS fish sauce
1 5 oz container of spinach, roughly chopped
juice of 2–3 limes
1 C chopped fresh herbs (I used cilantro, basil, and mint)
chopped peanuts, for garnish

Instructions

In a medium bowl, combine the sliced chicken breast, gochujang sauce, and sambal olek, toss to coat, and let sit for 20-30 minutes.
In a skillet over medium-high heat, heat the coconut oil, then add the marinated chicken breast. Cook, stirring once or twice until the chicken is seared on the outside – about 7 minutes. Transfer the chicken to a plate and set aside. Do not wipe out the pan.
Melt the remaining TBS of coconut oil in the same skillet, then add the scallion whites, half the jalapeno, and the green beans. Cook, stirring occasionally, until soft and the beans turn bright green – 3 to 4 minutes. Add the garlic and ginger and cook, stirring, for 1 more minute.
Increase heat to high and dd the coconut and chicken stock to the pan, stirring to combine. Once the mixture comes to a boil, add the spaghetti. Cook, stirring occasionally until pasta is al dente – about 9 minutes. Add more stock if the mixture gets too dry.
Stir in the fish sauce, the reserved cooked chicken, and the spinach, and cook until the spinach is just wilted. Taste and season with as much of the lime juice as you like, and/or add more fish sauce or a pinch of salt if it needs it.
Sprinkle remaining sliced jalapenos, chopped herbs, and peanuts over top and serve.

Notes

*The cooking times and nutritional info noted in this recipe are approximate.

Keywords: easy chicken breast recipe, coconut milk noodles, spicy noodle recipe

Early September Menus

This week’s post is a twofer with no real recipe b/c I’m a bit behind schedule — a bit behind all of life, actually but that’s ok. I couldn’t just skip a post because there’s been so much good food the past two weeks and I need a record of it!

*This post contains affiliate links to some of my favorite cookbooks. If you click a link and make a purchase, I may earn a small commission.

last days of August, first days of September dinners

What we made last week, with notes:

Saturday 8/27/22: Kimchi and bacon grilled cheese with fries. What else do you need on a Saturday night? This was Pinch of Yum‘s recipe, except I added spinach to the bacon/kimchi mixture. We eat this sandwich on the reg — it’s pretty much perfect.

Sunday 8/28/22: Pasta e fagioli with garlic bread. Ok, this I ate all week long with many, many Ritz crackers and it was so satisfying. The recipe came from a book I’ve mentioned before, my all-time fave: “Italian American: Red Sauce Classics and New Essentials: A Cookbook” by Angie Rito and Scott Tacinelli. If you have a mouth and like to cook even a little bit, buy this book. Just LOOK at the tiny pasta and the greens and the broth and the Parm:

Pasta e Fagioli in bowls with bread on the side

Monday 8/29/22: Chicken and squash mafe curry. I thoroughly regret not snapping a picture of this because it was a real highlight of the week. I used a lamb and sweet potato curry recipe from the latest Food & Wine magazine — the recipe is not on their website for me to link to here but it has both peanut butter and coconut milk (like, wow), and a super flavorful spice blend. I swapped in chicken thighs and butternut squash for the lamb and sweet potatoes and I gotta make this again and write it all down, it’s a definite keeper.

Tuesday 8/30/22: Tacos. TACO TUESDAY mmkay

Wednesday 8/31/22: Merguez meatballs with roasted squash and salad. This recipe kinda sorta came from a book called “For The Table” by Anna Stockwell except I used merguez sausages I got at the state farmer’s market instead of ground lamb and turned the whole thing into a flatbread/wrap situation with lots of pickled onions and cucumber and feta and a pistachio gremolata. I thanked myself for those bright ideas.

Merguez Meatballs and Roasted SquashMerguez Meatballs and Roasted Squash

Thursday 9/1/22: Summer squash and onion lasagna and salad. I must must must come back to this one someday and write out the whole recipe. I basically combined the caramelized squash and onions from Vivian Howard’s book Deep Run Roots with the lasagna verde from Italian American, which includes an incredible, bright green pistachio pesto and a creamy bechamel. I mean, come on.

Summer Squash and Onion Lasagna on two plates

Friday 9/2/22: Collard green pizza and salad. I had half a big bag of collard greens left after Sunday’s pasta e fagioli and they sure did end up sauteed and on my pizza Friday night. New thing: I’m on a quest for the best pizza dough recipe. I’m over my go-to pizza dough at the moment, although I haven’t found one I like better yet. This one did not quite do it for me, but even bad pizza is good pizza:

Pizza on parchment paper with marinara sauce

And that’s the end of that week! On to this week, where I took far fewer pictures:

Early September dinners

What we made this week, with notes:

Saturday 9/3/22: Rigatoni with sausage, basil, and mustard cream sauce and salad. I get big end-of-summer-almost-fall vibes from this meal. It’s a crossover dinner! The recipe is from Food & Wine, and the whole thing only takes up the space of one paragraph. Read: it’s easy.

Sunday 9/4/22: Moroccan roast with chickpeas and couscous with lemony broccolini. 10 out of 10 would make again, just for the smell. It’s pot roast but with harissa, cumin, and cinnamon and my house smelled like heaven for at least 4 hours. This recipe was perfect and came from Colu Henry’s book, “Colu Cooks“. The picture doesn’t do it justice but it makes me happy to remember this meal.

Moroccan Roast with Chickpeas and Couscous with Broccolini

Monday 9/5/22: Grilled wings; grilled moo cheese, pork tenderloin and broccoli rabe subs, roasted potatoes, and brownies. It was Labor Day! And we had friends over and had a ball. Is it a good idea to make hot, time-consuming sandwiches for a crowd? No, but these pork and broccoli rabe subs are really, really good. They’re from America’s Test Kitchen’s “New Essentials Cookbook“.

Tuesday 9/6/22: leftovers!

Wednesday 9/7/22: leftovers again! Joey wasn’t home so I didn’t cook.

Thursday 9/8/22: Lentil soup in bread bowls. If you ever need a self-esteem boost, make these bread bowls from Molly Yeh. If you follow the recipe exactly, you will end up with restaurant-quality bread bowls and feel like a total superstar. I sort of regret not making the lentil soup she serves in them but I had to try the recipe from “To the Last Bite” by Alexis deBoschnek. Alexis warns it will seem weird that the bacon in the soup is not crisped, it just simmers/cooks along with everything else in the stock, then you thinly slice it at the end and add it back to the soup and the pieces end up as velvety little flavor bombs. I agree it did taste wonderful and yes, it was weird.

Lentil Soup in Bread Bowls on a countertop

And with that, we’re done! Looking forward to more great food and trying out some new stuff next week.

End of August Menu + Macadamia Rum Bars

Sending silent thanks to the universe that it’s almost September and we’re quickly approaching the absolute best time of year on the OBX. Finally! But, while it’s still August, let’s recap this week’s dinners:

*This post contains affiliate links to some of my favorite cookbooks. If you click a link and make a purchase, I may earn a small commission.

end of august dinners

What we made this week, with notes:

Saturday 8/20/22: Brothy fregola, broccoli rabe, and prosciutto with grilled cheese. Hot soup in August is totally fine by me and this one was fun. At first, my taste buds were like, “NO!” because the broth became pretty bitter, thanks to the broccoli rabe. But… I also could not stop eating it. I think the salty prosciutto, the parmesan, the tiny pasta, and the rich broth just made it all alright. I would not have liked it as much without the bitterness. It all works. This recipe came from Colu Henry’s book, “Colu Cooks“, from which everything I’ve cooked so far has been fab. Here’s a pic of this meal, which has me frustratedly sighing at how much better the picture would be had I put a couple of spoons in the dang bowls. Oh well.

bowls of soup and a plate of grilled cheese sandwiches

Sunday 8/21/22: Frozen pizza and salad!

Monday 8/22/22: Giant Dinner Salad. A Serving Tonight staple. This time I made it with kale, brown rice, roasted carrots and chickpeas, smoked almonds, golden raisins, feta, and chicken. So goooood.

Tuesday 8/23/22: Scallion feta dip; corn, zucchini, and shrimp salad; steak and tuna with romesco sauce; roasted potatoes; and pistachio cake. Our good friends Tara and Jamie (of the lovely blog and YouTube channel Savory Saver) were in town and came for dinner! I barely remember how good the food was because it was so nice to see them and catch up (and there was more than one bottle of wine involved), but I know it was indeed good. My favorite part was the romesco sauce, which I need to document with a full recipe at a later date, but is roasted red pepps, smoked almonds, sherry vinegar, honey, and olive oil all blended in a food processor. Can literally eat it by the spoonful, all by itself. We had it with a seared sirloin steak (was very nervous about this cut being tough but Tara has a sixth sense for when to flip a piece of meat and she nailed it).

Wednesday 8/24/22: Trader Joe’s sweet corn, burrata, and basil ravioli with fresh tomato butter sauce and salad. The menu board said miso harissa noodles for this night but it wasn’t in the cards. This ravioli was in our freezer and felt much easier. The sauce was pretty much this Fresh Tomato Butter Sauce recipe, which I should make more often than I do.

Thursday 8/25/22: Grilled wings and salad. Should we talk about why we eat wings so often? Sure. It’s because we messed up our CrowdCow order twice in a row and now have enough wings to feed a football stadium. It’s fine, we’re fine. For this, we once again used the Buffalo Wild Wings thai curry sauce. It’s addictive!

Friday 8/26/22: Steak al limon with roasted potatoes and creamed kale. Big steakhouse vibes over here! This steak was interesting — the marinade/sauce was lemon juice, sugar, chiles, and fish sauce and I’m glad we tried it but not sure I’d make it again. The creamed kale on the other hand… holy cow. I used the Greatest Creamed Greens recipe from Alison Roman’s book “Nothing Fancy“. I want more RIGHT NOW.

plates of steak, potatoes, and greens with a glass of red wine

I mean… I’m pretty proud of this week of food. High fives. For the recipe this time around, I’m sharing the baked good that’s been most successful with the guests at the inn I bake for each week: Macadamia Rum Bars. It’s a version of my mother-in-law’s recipe and I believe she got it from a cookbook, sorry I don’t know which one. But these bars are foolproof and so sweet and gooey and crunchy, and just a little boozy. Love!

Macadamia Rum Bars

A sweet cookie crust topped with a lightly boozy, gooey coconut and macadamia nut filling.

Author: Megan
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 45 minutes
Total Time: 55 minutes
Yield: 16 squares 1x
Category: dessert, snack

Ingredients

Scale

Cookie crust:

1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1/4 C sugar
1 C flour
pinch of kosher salt

filling:

2 eggs
1 1/4 C light brown sugar, firmly packed
2 TBS flour
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 C flaked, unsweetened coconut
1 C macadamia nuts, chopped
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 TBS rum

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8×8 cake pan and line it with parchment (leave some parchment hanging over the edges for easy removal).
Make the crust: In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the butter, sugar, and flour and mix until thoroughly blended. Press the mixture evenly over the bottom of the cake pan (no need to wash out the bowl, you can reuse it for the filling). Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes, until beginning to brown.
Make the filling: In the same bowl you used for the crust, combine all of the filling ingredients and mix until thoroughly blended. Spread this mixture evenly over the baked crust. Return the pan to the oven and bake for another 20-25 minutes or until the filling is firm and golden brown on top.

Notes

*The cooking times and nutritional info noted in this recipe are approximate.

A stand mixer is not necessary — you can make this recipe stirring by hand or using a hand mixer.

In the photo, I cut these into smaller-than-usual squares because I was making them for a group that requests bite-sized servings.

Keywords: macadamia recipe, macadamia rum cookie bars, coconut recipe

Late August Menu + Crispy Pecorino Romano Chicken Sandwiches

Shall we talk about what we’re eating? Here’s what went on at our house this week:

Usually we deviate from the white board slightly but, this week, I’m glad to say it all went pretty much as planned. Let’s discuss the juicy details, and keep scrolling for how I finally perfected the Crispy Pecorino Romano Chicken Sandwich pictured at the top, which has been haunting my dreams.

*This post contains affiliate links to some of my favorite cookbooks. If you click a link and make a purchase, I may earn a small commission.

late august dinners

What we made this week, with notes:

Saturday 8/13/22: Fig, caramelized onion, and bacon pizza. Come on. Do I need to say this? It was obviously amazing. The recipe came from NYT Cooking except I used fresh figs we grilled last week and added shredded fontina and goat cheese to the blue cheese called for in the recipe. More is more when we’re talking cheese.

Caramelized Onion, Fig, and Bacon Pizza on a cutting board

Sunday 8/14/22: Beef phyllo pie with salad. Wowzers… this was even better than expected and I expected a lot — it is super-seasoned meat wrapped in flaky pastry, after all. I’d originally planned to add some sauteed zucchini and bell peppers but then thought, “Calm down here, just try it the way the recipe was written.” Very glad I did — this phyllo pie needs nothing but the beef, the feta, the fresh herbs on top, and maybe a little lemony yogurt sauce on the side. The recipe came from the cookbook “To the Last Bite” by Alexis deBoschnek . Except, her recipe used lamb. Lolz, I guess I didn’t follow the recipe 100% but whatever — it was still amazing and will be making it again!

Monday 8/15/22: Chicken mole with cilantro-lime beans and rice. A repeat recipe in our house from America’s Test Kitchen’s book, “Dinner Illustrated: 175 Meals Ready in 1 Hour or Less”. It sounds wrong, but this mole sauce can be made in like… 10 minutes. And it’s reeeeeaaalllly good. This time, I used the leftover chile-peanut salsa from last week’s skirt steak tacos in the mole and it worked great!

Tuesday 8/16/22: Crispy Pecorino Romano Chicken Sandwiches! Recipe below! Proud to say, on what ended up being the third try, I finally nailed the right combo of ingredients (following last Sunday’s fried chicken cutlet disappointment). The elements that righted all my past sandwich wrongs: a toasted brioche bun (not a kaiser roll!), my standby Crispy Pecorino Romano Chicken recipe (crackly and crispy, not greasy like previous attempts), and homemade quick pickles for a much-needed tangy crunch. Hallelujah.

Wednesday 8/17/22: –leftovers–

Thursday 8/18/22: Smoked ribs with cola BBQ sauce, roasted sweet potatoes, and salad. Fun times and a good bottle of shiraz were had on Thursday. This cola BBQ sauce is where it’s at. The recipe came from Toni Tipton-Martin’s cookbook ,”Jubilee” and is the sauce she pairs with the orange-glazed wings shared last week. Loved! I mean… look at these freaking ribs:

Friday 8/19/22: Pasta with white vodka sauce, garlic bread, and salad. Heck yeah! A deceptively simple recipe that tastes like the best alfredo sauce you’ve ever had but better, from my all-time favorite book, “Italian American: Red Sauce Classics and New Essentials: A Cookbook” by Angie Rito and Scott Tacinelli. I bought this book b/c Bon Appetit wrote about its mussels stuffed with pepperoni rice recipe and I thought, “These people get me.” I’m quickly cooking my way through the whole thing and am very glad I tried this buttery, creamy, onion-and-shallot-laced pasta. It’s fab. No photo b/c we ate it too fast.

What a tasty week! Now please enjoy this crispy chicken sammy:

Crispy Pecorino Romano Chicken Sandwiches

crispy chicken sandwiches on parchment paper

Thinly sliced chicken coated in a mixture of grated pecorino romano cheese and breadcrumbs and pan-fried, topped with shredded cabbage, parmesan, and quick pickles, sandwiched between toasted brioche with a generous layer of lemony mayo!

Author: Megan
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 50 minutes
Yield: 4 servings 1x
Category: dinner, lunch

Ingredients

Scale

1 English cucumber, thinly sliced
1 tsp salt, plus more for seasoning the mayo
1/2 C white vinegar
1/3 C sugar
black pepper, to taste
1/2 C mayo
1/4 C greek yogurt
a squeeze of lemon juice
Crispy Pecorino Romano Chicken
shaved Parmesan
shredded napa or savoy cabbage
4 brioche burger buns, toasted

Instructions

Make the quick pickles: in a large bowl, toss thinly sliced cucumber in a teaspoon of salt and let sit for an hour in the fridge with a heavy bowl on top to help press the liquid out. Drain off the liquid, stir together the vinegar and sugar until the sugar has dissolved (or mostly dissolved) then toss the cucumber slices in the vinegar mixture, season with pepper, and refrigerate until ready to eat.
Make the lemon mayo: stir together the mayo, yogurt, and lemon juice. Season with salt, to taste.
Assemble the sandwiches in this order: toasted brioche bun, lemon mayo, 1 piece of Crispy Pecorino Romano Chicken (slice in half and stack it to make it fit), shaved Parmesan, quick pickles, shredded cabbage, more lemon mayo on the top half of the toasted brioche bun.

Notes

*The cooking times and nutritional info noted in this recipe are approximate.

Keywords: crispy chicken sandwich, pecorino romano chicken, chicken breast recipe

Mid-August Menu + Orange-Glazed Grilled Wings

Back again with another week’s worth of dinners and a recipe! Here was the original plan for the week:

We didn’t totally stick to this plan but came pretty close. Pizza delivery made an appearance and one meal was swapped out because our grocery store didn’t have what I needed, plus I found FIGS at the farmer’s market. Fig life forever.

*This post contains affiliate links to some of my favorite cookbooks. If you click a link and make a purchase, I may earn a small commission.

Mid-August dinners

What we made this week, with notes:

Saturday 8/6/22: Grilled fig and cheese skewers w/ hot Italian sausage. Man, this was a good one. We were meant to have grilled halloumi and veg skewers but my local search for halloumi only turned up something called The Big Moo baked cheese, which I now never want to be without. It can be grilled or cooked in a skillet and tastes just like a grilled cheese sandwich, except no bread. We threw the above-mentioned figs on skewers with the cheese, some red onion, and tossed it all on the grill alongside sausage. *Chef’s kiss* and so good for summer. Check it out:

Sunday 8/7/22: Fried chicken cutlet sandwiches with fries. This was… ok. I was following a recipe for the breaded and fried chicken cutlets and, IMO, it ended up too greasy-tasting. We can do better! Stay tuned for round two of this meal next week.

Monday 8/8/22: We ordered pizza! I did also make the coconut curry meatballs mentioned in the photo above but that was for the folks I cook for at our local inn. I used this coconut curry pork meatball recipe from How Sweet Eats, used turkey instead of pork, subbed ground almonds for the breadcrumbs, (one of the gals at the inn doesn’t like to eat pork and is gluten-intolerant) and added sweet potato and spinach. For me, this recipe is as good as takeout. Winner! I just didn’t make enough for Joey and me to eat, plus we had friends over for haircuts… it was a busy night, so pizza was the solution.

Tuesday 8/9/22: leftoveeeeers

Wednesday 8/10/22: Skirt steak tacos with chile-peanut salsa. This recipe came from Alison Roman’s cookbook ,”Nothing Fancy”. The salsa, which is just toasted dried chiles, peanuts, and oil, came out a little bitter (I think b/c I overtoasted the chiles). However, we added lime juice and honey and it ended up tasting good enough that I’m going to reuse it in a mole sauce this week. Fab!

Thursday 8/11/22: Curried turkey and vegetable quinoa. Here, I was messing with a simple recipe from Alex Guarnaschelli’s book, “Cook With Me” by adding zucchini, red onion, and tomatoes to a ground turkey quinoa pilaf seasoned with curry powder. I topped it with the spicy chakri mix from Trader Joe’s, which turned an otherwise soft, semi-textureless meal into a crunchy adventure. Loved, and will be making it again with even more tweaks.

Friday 8/12/22: Orange-glazed grilled wings, roasted broccoli, and fries. Wing recipe below! What a way to end the week.

Orange-Glazed Grilled Wings

orange-glazed chicken wings on a sheet pan

Grilling chicken wings on indirect heat for 15-20 minutes, then tossing them in a sweet and salty orange glaze and throwing them back on the grill for a couple minutes prevents the glaze from burning and gives you perfectly sticky, glazed, grilled wings. The glaze recipe came from Toni Tipton-Martin’s book ,”Jubilee”. (In the book, she shares a method for oven-baking the wings if you prefer not to grill them, and pairs them with a delicious barbecue sauce.)

Author: Megan
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 25 minutes
Total Time: 30 minutes
Yield: 20 wings 1x
Category: dinner, lunch, appetizer
Method: grilling

Ingredients

Scale

20 chicken wings
canola oil for coating the wings
3 TBS orange marmalade
1 TBS light brown sugar
1 TBS soy sauce
1 TBS lemon juice
1 1/2 tsp of kosher salt, plus more for seasoning the wings
1 tsp black pepper, plus more for seasoning the wings
1/4 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp ground cumin
2 TBS toasted sesame seeds

Instructions

Preheat a grill, setting one side to medium heat and one side to medium-high.
Pat the wings dry with paper towels and either brush them with canola oil or use a canola oil spray to coat them on all sides. Season with salt and pepper.
Whisk the remaining ingredients together in a large bowl and set aside.
Place the wings on the side of the grill set to medium heat and grill for 15 to 20 minutes, turning occasionally, until the skin is just starting to show grill marks and the wings are cooked through.
Transfer the wings to the bowl with the orange glaze and toss to coat. Place them back on the grill, this time on the side set to medium-high, and cook for a few minutes longer, turning occasionally, until the glaze is showing grill marks. Be careful not to take your eyes off the wings during this step, as the sugar in the glaze can easily burn.
Sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds and serve.

Notes

The cooking time and nutritional info noted in this recipe are approximate.

Keywords: grilled wings, grilled chicken wings, grilled glazed wings, orange-glazed chicken wings

Early August Menu + Grilled Vegetable Bolognese

Hiiiii! It’s been about a million minutes since I’ve posted but I’m excited to try something new here today: sharing last week’s menu from our house! Selfishly, I want these weekly menus here because I want to document the memories. IDK why but I remember most things through what I was cooking or eating at the time. So, here we are. Also, I’m including a pretty wonderful recipe for a grilled vegetable bolognese that only a monster wouldn’t love.

*This post contains affiliate links to some of my favorite cookbooks. If you click a link and make a purchase, I may earn a small commission.

Early August dinners

What we made this week, with notes:

Saturday 7/30/22: Cassoulet on toast with a green salad. The cassoulet was frozen leftover from the winter, when I made a real-deal, legit cassoulet with homemade duck confit and all. Bucket list! The recipe came from Michael Ruhlman’s cookbook “From Scratch” and was completely delicious piled on some toasted, crusty bread. A squeeze of lemon on top and a salad on the side were just right to balance out the richness.

Sunday 7/31/22: Grilled Vegetable Bolognese with garlic bread and a green salad. The recipe is shared below! The sauce freezes perfectly so we were eating this leftover. High-fives to me for cleaning out my freezer last week, I guess!

Monday 8/1/22: Veggie Fried Rice. A Serving Tonight staple in this house and a great use for leftovers!

Tuesday 8/2/22: Grilled chicken wings and sauteed corn and leeks with fresh mozzarella. When I tell you we tossed the wings in the Thai curry sauce from Buffalo Wild Wings, it sounds weird that we paired them with anything involving fresh mozzarella. But, IDK… it worked! We threw some fresh jalapeno and lime juice in with the corn and leeks and lived happily ever after. If you’re in need of a good method for grilling wings, refer to this NYT recipe for Chicken Wings With Gochujang, Ginger and Garlic and use any sauce/seasoning you want. It’s foolproof!

Wednesday 8/3/22: Potato and Leek Top Frittata with goat cheese + marinated red peppers on toast. Leek tops! Eat them. The cookbook “To the Last Bite” by Alexis deBoschnek will show you how; this frittata recipe and the marinated red pepper recipe came from there and were super good.

Thursday 8/4/22: Chopped Thai Salad. We used this recipe from Pinch of Yum and threw in some savoy cabbage and chicken thighs we grilled on Tuesday night while the grill was already fired up for the wings. HUGE fan of this salad.

Friday 8/5/22: Tuna steaks with miso noodle salad. When your friend texts to offer fresh-caught tuna, you say yes. We seared the tuna steaks and dunked each bite in a fiery homemade wasabi-yaki sauce. I also added a miso noodle salad on the side that I think I ruined by adding some of that savoy cabbage from Thursday. What should have been a lovely, creamy noodle dish ended up a sad, watery salad. Boooo. But yay for tuna:

raw tuna steaks being seared in a hot skillet

Just for fun, here’s the original menu I wrote out at the start of the week. Didn’t stick to it 100% but still a delicious week. (The food marked for the Inn is what I cook for the staff at my friend’s beautiful Corolla Village Inn❤️)

On to that bolognese recipe…

Grilled Vegetable Bolognese

This grilled vegetable bolognese is my attempt at recreating an amazing charred vegetable bolognese my mom and I ate at chef Ashley Christianson’s Raleigh, NC restaurant, Death & Taxes. It’s smoky, loaded with summery veg flavor, and somehow hearty and light at the same time — a fabulous pasta dish for hot summer nights.

Author: Megan
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour 45 minutes
Total Time: 2 hours 5 minutes
Yield: 6 servings 1x
Category: dinner
Diet: Vegetarian

Ingredients

Scale

3 carrots, sliced in thirds lengthwise
1 eggplant, sliced in 1/4″ thick slices lengthwise
2 red bell peppers, stemmed, cored and sliced into two or three large, flat peices
1 large sweet onion, sliced into 1/4” thick rings
2–4 green onions
1/2 a head of cauliflower, cut into 2 or 3 steaks
3 ribs of celery
1 pint of cherry tomatoes or any tomatoes you have
olive oil
kosher salt
pepper
crushed red pepper
roasted garlic puree or 2-3 cloves of minced garlic
1/3 C chopped sundried tomatoes
1/4 C tomato paste
1/2 C white wine
1 lb long pasta (I used bucatini)
reserved pasta water
grated parmesan
crispy fried onions for serving (store-bought French’s brand is perfect)

Instructions

Preheat a grill to medium-high.
Drizzle all of the vegetables with olive oil and season on all sides with salt and pepper. Grill the veggies, turning them occasionally, until nicely charred. (For the cherry tomatoes, I used a perforated grill pan. You can put them on skewers if that’s easier, or just grill larger whole tomatoes.
Allow veggies to cool slightly, then roughly chop them all.
Add both kinds of onions, the carrots, and the celery to the bowl of a food processor and pulse until a coarse paste forms.
Heat 2 TBS of olive oil in a large nonstick skillet or whatever pot/pan you like over medium heat, add the onion/carrot/celery mixture, a large pinch of salt, and cook, stirring occasionally for 30-45 minutes or until nicely browned.
Pulse the remaining chopped vegetables in the food processor and add them to the pan with the onion/carrot/celery mixture. Cook, stirring occasionally, until most of the water has evaporated.
Add a tablespoon or two of roasted garlic puree or 2-3 cloves of minced garlic, sundried tomatoes, and cook for another minute.
Add the tomato paste and cook 3-5 minutes more. Season with another big pinch of salt and however much crushed red pepper you like.
Add the white wine, turn the heat to low and allow the mixture to cook for another 30 minutes or so, adding water as needed to prevent burning/sticking. I used about 3/4-1 C of water total. Also, taste as you go and add salt as needed. The vegetables can take a lot of salt, especially as you add water to them. Just remember you’ll be adding salted pasta water and salty cheese later.
Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil and season it with salt. Add the pasta and cook until just shy of al dente.
Using tongs, transfer the pasta to the pan with the vegetable mixture and toss to coat, adding enough pasta water to allow everything to move around easily. Let the pasta and sauce cook together for another minute or two, then turn off the heat, grate in some parmesan, and toss. Serve with extra grated parmesan and crispy onions on top.

Notes

The times and nutritional info noted in this recipe are approximate.

Keywords: grilled vegetables, vegetable bolognese, summer pasta, how to use up vegetables, grilled vegetable pasta, what to do with grilled vegetables

Tortellini Pasta Salad with Prosciutto, Shallots, and Peas

Like many good things in life, the credit for today’s recipe goes to someone’s grandma. I found a version of this dish on The Kitchn, who found it via Reddit user nomoanya, who’s grandma was obviously a genius for pairing pasta, pork, and peas in a ready-to-eat gem of a dish. Nomoanya noted that this “elegant yet simple” tortellini pasta salad dates all the way back to the 70’s and I am definitely here for any recipe that still holds up half a century later. However, like the taste tester at The Kitchn, I have some thoughts.