Hello friends & followers, home-cooks & microwave connoisseurs, eaters of all kinds & from all places to this fun little e-mail newsletter: FOOD & STUFF! (Any Parks & Rec fans out there? You’ll understand the inspo for the name of this newsletter) Each month, I, (Grace Leuenberger), will round up recipe recommendations and food thoughts and deliver them right to your inbox.
Here’s some categories you’ll find in any given newsletter:
Everyday Eats: Where I share recipes that I have eaten this month during breakfast, lunch, and dinner…and snacks, desserts, and bevvies, etc.!
Food Flex: Where I share a more complicated recipe that I made. This category will be little bit of a flex, sure. But this is my newsletter so I’m allowed to be a little narcissistic, right?!
Pining Over Past Plates: Where I share a recipe I made a while ago that I haven’t recently made or eaten but wish I had because it was good in the past and I’m sad I don’t have it now :(
The Cookbook Look: Where I’ll share a cookbook I’ve been enjoying lately, or own, or like, or HATE…who knows.
& Stuff!: This newsletter is called Food & STUFF so maybe I’ll share some food-related stuff, too. Like a tool I like, or a video, or whatever I want.
In this first edition of Food & Stuff, I will explore ALL of these categories because there are no rules here! Read on to learn what I’ve been cooking and eating, some tips on maximizing springtime vegetables, and which alcoholic beverage is my favorite…
Everyday Eats
Breakfast
Kickin’ things off here with one of my go-to, all-time favorite breakfast foods that I make and eat on a nearly weekly basis: Ginger Molasses Granola. This recipe comes from one of my favorite cookbooks: Run Fast, Eat Slow. I love eating this granola over a smoothie bowl (my go-to smoothie is mixed berries + unflavored almond milk + plain Greek yogurt + a spoon of raspberry preserve + a spoon of salted almond butter + chia seeds) with some fruit, or over just regular yogurt, or double-fisting it like a champ.
Lunch
I must begin by admitting that I often struggle with lunch. I’m a big leftovers gal, so typically I eat whatever I had for dinner for lunch the next day. However, in the spirit of lunch, I wanted to share my friend Cait’s very seasonal, very highly recommended lunch recipe from Smitten Kitchen: asparagus and egg salad with walnuts and mint. At the risk of sounding like a character out of Portlandia, I will tell you THIS is the time to go get asparagus at your local farmers’ market because it will BLOW. YOUR. MIND. Locally grown asparagus* is like eating vegetable candy. Please try it! For me. For the farmers. For the seasonally-appropriate Smitten Kitchen asparagus toast!!!
* P.S. If you’re interested, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has a seasonal produce guide that can help you explore different fruits and vegetables throughout the year. Many rootin’-tootin’ food bloggers often have catalogs of recipes that utilize/maximize seasonal produce, which is a cool way to make your mealtime a little tastier and a little more fun! The cookbook Simply in Season is also a great resource to check out on cooking seasonally, too.
Dinner
For my birthday, my parents gifted me a subscription to a cooking club called Natalie Cooks! So far I’ve really been enjoying the structure of cooking alongside a community, as the club has an active Facebook group, too. The recipes are easy yet interesting and are pushing me out of my normal cooking and eating routines! While a lot of the recipes are only available for subscribers, there was one I really liked that was posted on a different blog: Korean Bibimbap Bowls.
I know that I’ve included a fair amount of Run Fast, Eat Slow recipes in this newsletter, and that’s not just because running is a big part of my life (it is!)…it’s because these recipes are legitimately incredibly tasty! You don’t need to be a runner to eat these. You just need to be a person with a mouth who is willing to give kimchi a try!
A few other dinners have included:
Salmon Burgers with Dill Pickle Spread (don’t knock the pickle spread until you try it!) which I adapted a bit by using raw salmon and grilling them.
Chicken chimichangas from La Isla, the Mexican restaurant of my youth and the love of my life. My parents brought these for my birthday, and I ask you all: is there anything better than a deep-fried burrito smothered in queso with a side of pico de gallo and guacamole?!? I think not.
Snacks
I love snacks—this is a pro-snack newsletter! A recent snack that I’ve been enjoying is these iron-rich granola bars. Another snack I’d like to recommend is this mango lassi (vegan if you want it to be)—refreshing and delish!
Food Flex
Last weekend was my roommate’s 25th birthday which of course meant it was an occasion to flex! However, I did a couple of sneaky flexes because they were actually super easy and NOT complicated. First, I made homemade pizza which began with a very simple, yet flex-worthy pizza dough crust recipe by Pioneer Woman. Next, I made half of the pizza margherita-style with a base of homemade pesto that I froze from my basil crop last summer (recipe here). Homemade pesto is a great way to up the flavor and flex without too much hassle and it’s soooo much better than storebought. The other half was a brussels sprouts pizza with balsamic red onions from Cookie and Kate. I like to add goat cheese to this and then finish it with some lemon zest!
Pining Over Past Plates
I am not necessarily pining over this plate of cauliflower tacos (though it IS a favorite recipe that’s often in my dinner rotation so go check it out and make it) but rather I am pining over the margarita in the background…y’all I LOVE margaritas! My goodness, they are good. If anyone out there has a good recipe for homemade margs, let me know…
I’m also thinking about this strawberry rhubarb galette I made in May 2019…tis ALSO the season for rhubarb, so I may just need to resurrect that recipe as well! I love the tartness of the rhubarb paired with the nutty buckwheat crust here. Extra delicious with a scoop of vanilla ice cream (but what dessert isn’t?!)
The Cookbook Look
This month we can take a look at a cookbook I just got titled Dessert Person by Claire Saffitz. I’ve only made two recipes out of it so far—Seedy Maple Breakfast Muffins (pictured below and video with recipe linked here) and the brown butter cream cheese frosting over confetti cake. I loved both! What I really like about this cookbook (besides it being about my favorite genre of food) is the recipe matrix which places recipes on an axis based on time and difficulty. It’s a great thing to reference for the home cook! Sometimes you want a project bake that makes you feel like a contestant on the Great British Bake Off, and sometimes you want cookies and you want them now!!
& Stuff!
“Just the crows and the beef.”
Today’s & Stuff is, of course, a video clip from Parks and Recreation where Ron and Chris face off to make the best burger. It’s my joy and my inspiration for the name of this newsletter. May this clip bless you, as it blessed me.
If you liked reading the first edition of Food & Stuff, reply and let me know! I’d love to hear what kind of things you’re interested in cooking, reading about, or getting my amateur opinion on. And if you have any friends that would be into this kind of thing, too, do share this with them and invite them to opt in to receive Food & Stuff, too! ALSO: I’d love to hear what you have been cooking and eating, too (especially for lunch, lol). Get in touch and share!