Autumn Waldorf Chicken Salad (AKA “Falldorf” Chicken Salad)
Excuse me, but I have a bone to pick with time. It’s moving too fast.
After over eighteen months of this global panini, it suddenly feels like the world is holding down the accelerator to get back to “normal” while still figuring out how to drive. Meanwhile, I’m the dad in the passenger seat slamming on imaginary brakes.
I want to get back to living a normal life just as much as the next person, but a tiny part of me doesn’t feel ready. First of all, if I’m being *real* honest and vulnerable, I’m still getting over the heartbreak of watching live music vanish in front of my eyes last March. On the other hand, despite the sadness, I enjoyed being forced to slow down. I have loved not having to live out of a suitcase, getting to actually have weekends, and suddenly having all the time in the world to plan and cook delicious meals. Also, I’ve finally gotten to pursue my dream of turning this blog into a business. NBFD!!!!!
I’m truly not complaining (I’m grateful to have stuff going on), but when your personal and professional schedules suddenly go from zero to sixty, it can be a little scary. But, since there’s not much I can do to slow this transition (it was going to happen eventually!) all I can do is control how I respond.
Naturally, I am responding with food.
One Pot Tortilla-Style Coconut Chicken Soup
It’s the most wonderful time of the year! And no, I don’t mean the holidays (they’re fine). I mean DUTCH OVEN season.
My enameled cast iron dutch oven is one of my most prized kitchen items, especially in the cold months. My reasons:
- It lasts *forever.* I got mine five or six years ago and even though it looks worn in, it still functions just as well as the day I got it. And I use it A LOT.
- It’s naturally non-stick, but still gets an incredible sear because of the heavy bottom.
- It’s multi-purpose. I use it for soups, stews, braised meats, pastas, literally whatever. It also bakes bread beautifully.
- There is nothing on this earth more convenient than a one-pot meal, and dutch ovens are one-pot meal royalty.
- Nothing says “cozy” more than standing over a heavy pot, cooking up something piping hot and nourishing while your kitchen smells like heaven. Some of my favorite, most lasting food memories have been created around my dutch oven, or dutch ovens in general.
If you don’t have a dutch oven yet, I HIGHLY recommend you invest now or tell Santa (or whatever you call your aunt) to put it on your gift list, because it will be the real MVP when you’re staying at home this winter. I use a Lodge brand 6 qt., which at less than $100 (sometimes less than $75!) is an incredibly good value for its durability.
I digress. The moral of this very long introduction is… Get your hands on a dutch oven, and then make this soup.
Vegan Pumpkin Mac & Cheeze
NOTE: As a member of The Kitchn Cabinet, I was given free products from Daiya Foods in exchange for a recipe post. All opinions and thoughts in this post/all related posts are my own, and were not influenced by the company and/or its affiliates.
Happy fall, y’all! The weather here in New York is cooling down, the trees have started to turn, and you’d better believe I have decorative gourds and cinnamon brooms ALL over the place. I don’t know a single person who doesn’t love this season, and even if I did, I wouldn’t believe them. We all know they secretly ask for pumpkin syrup at the Starbucks drive-thru. (Just own it.)
This year though, I will admit that the crisp air is bringing with it some conflicting feelings. The beautiful spring and summer weather really alleviated a lot of cabin fever during quarantine, and it’s going to be a different situation when the weather gets colder. The holidays will be different than usual too, but since food is exempt from social distancing protocol, I’m soothing my worries by developing ALL the holiday recipes and preparing my kitchen for the cold weather. (Just ask the 15 qts. of homemade stock I made yesterday.)
Heirloom Tomato & Fig Salad
The end of summer is upon us, and it’s bittersweet. Now that Labor Day Weekend has passed, many of us are resuming regular work or school hours, putting our beach supplies back in storage, and saying goodbye to cookouts and rooftop bars. But even if you do work normal hours all throughout the summer, there’s something about that post-Labor Day feeling (i.e. today, right this very second) that’s just kind of a bummer. But it doesn’t have to be.
I LOVE this time of year. It marks a transition from not liking how my violin strings sound 75% of the time (#gutstrings #humidity) to thinking they sound pretty okay 75% of the time. It means that soon, I can stop worrying about maintaining a pedicure and get my cute boots on until at least March or April. And soon, I can go apple picking and make ALL THE PIES!! But for now, it’s still technically summer for another month, and all of the perks that come with crisp, cool weather aren’t here yet. So how can one really make the most out of this weird, transitional SummerFall? Two words: fresh produce.
Pear and Honeyed Goat Cheese Galette (Grain Free)
I might be the worst food blogger ever.
OK, that’s dramatic. It has been three months since my last post though, which might be a new personal record of negligence (*sobs quietly into pillow*), but I’M BACK! It feels so good to be posting a recipe again after taking some time off to get settled into my new program. This first semester at Juilliard Historical Performance, aside from being completely surreal , has FLOWN by. Between performances, lessons, gigs, being a hashtagpracticehermit, academic courses, and life in general, I’ve been a busy bee. In the last few weeks alone, my HP friends and I have performed on the radio, played for a live-streamed master class, finished a series of concerts in Boston and NYC, and are now gearing up for our tour to Holland (!) in a few weeks. I can’t believe that, at least for now, this is the new normal.
