Pizza & Movie Night #2: Saltburn (2023)

Ok, without giving away any spoilers, this movie was a letdown. It had many elements that were building up to a great movie: good cinematography, unsettling vibes, unhinged characters...but then after a first solid half, it took a nose dive, complete with a Wes Anderson-style reveal montage at the end. Talk about spoon feeding your audience. Where is the trust??

The pizza, however, was a great success this week.

No knead, no fuss, overnight sourdough bread

Hello baby.

There are a lot of sourdough recipes out there but this one is mine, cobbled together, and tested over and over to yield the most success I've had baking this notoriously demanding bread style. I love being rewarded with a gorgeous loaf made with little labor. No more waking up in the middle of the night to fold, or really worrying too much about the timing of things. This is as simple as sourdough gets, imo.

Pizza & Movie Night #1: The Holdovers (2023)

Hello hello from 2024, my first post this year, here's some pizza I made for our newest tradition where  G and I are planning to stay in on Fridays or Saturdays to do pizza and a movie. We have a shared Note app where we keep track of what we want to watch, or recommendations from others as we get them. I stole this idea from Austin Kleon, which seemed like a great way to chill at home in the winter even if we don't have kids. This week we watched The Holdovers, which I enjoyed more than I thought I would. 

Creamy One Pot Mushroom Pasta

 

I wanted to make a one pot no-fuss pasta dish that was rich in umami mushroom flavor and creamy without the heaviness of cream. Look at the unctuous glossy sauce coating every centimeter of glorious pasta surface area and tell me I didn't succeed! Gochujang is once again my secret ingredient for depth of flavor and hint of heat without overpowering the earthiness of the mushrooms. This recipe is much better using half fresh mushrooms for their meatiness, half dried mushrooms for the liquid (brown) gold you get from reconstituting them.

Panko Broiled Green-Lipped Mussels

A lot has been happening in the world since my last post. G is currently on a 3 week tour with his band and I have a lot of free time on my hands, which I've not completely been able to enjoy because of how much the Palestinian genocide has permeated my thoughts and daily conversations with others. It weighs heavily on my mind and I worry we're watching what little humanity we have left be torn to shreds, dividing us as people even further than we've ever been, on a global scale. Still no ceasefire. It robs the appetite, and I have not been cooking well or eating much on my own. These mussels were something I whipped up with stuff from my pantry, they are nutritious, cheap, and just fancy enough to seem like more effort than they were, but only require 15 minutes to prep and cook, start to finish.