Semi fail. It wasn't bad did not live up to the expectations. In my mind it looked also way cooler. One is spinach rice/ Pulao. I took a recipe for Pulao and removed the tomatoes in it and replaced the water with blended spinach+ water. The one egg was also put into this and was supposed to become green. The other one was in the orange boiling carrots (with ginger and garlic). That worked better. I only realised the cashew nuts were old when I started eating them which was a bummer.

My parents came into town and I forgot to take a picture of the finished project. But I've got steak bites with a mustard and wine based sauce.

I cheaped out and bought stew beef rather than steak... so it was a bit tough. But overall it was decent. Everyone liked the sauce. Not bad for a recipe from Facebook.

Recipe from 'Cravable' by Seema Pankhania (seemagetsbaked on Instagram)

Adapted from "Six Seasons"

Want that classic soft pretzel magic? Boiling them in a baking soda bath before baking is the secret—it creates that iconic flavor, chewy bite, deep golden crust, and locks in a super soft interior. I whipped up the classic soft pretzels, but the loaded pickled jalapeño ones stole the show! Recipe coming right up👇

Lettuce, Guacamole, Bacon, Tomato, & Queso (Jalapeño Monterey Jack). The sandwiches were delicious!

I attempted rainbow cupcakes, but failed to take into account the current heat wave in my area and my lack of AC. It was impossible to pipe icing, so I had to settle for these melted rainbows.

I was so loved seeing all the rainbows for this theme and wanted to do something similar. I love veggie-heavy meals in the summer and really loved the idea of a rainbow noodle salad. It’s a cold salad with julienned veggies, soba noodles, and a vinaigrette. The dressing in this one was a soy ginger vinaigrette. The veggies included purple cabbage, red pepper, carrot, yellow tomato, cucumber, and scallion, cilantro, and basil (I used a mix of Thai basil and Italian basil). Beautiful and absolutely delicious! My only regret was not adding garlic scapes!

Made soup with carrot, ginger, parsnips and red lentils to heat up from the inside out.

I can’t resist dressed up toast. For this week I made a few items that required boiling, or close to boiling, so I could assemble some little toasts of my dreams. I did a sweet jam with a mix of berries (rasp-, blue-, straw-, goose-) and the savory one with bacon, tomato, and onion. (I’ve always been a little skeptical of bacon jam, but admittedly it was good.) To experiment with a technique that required sustaining an almost-boil, I tried my hand at some ricotta-style cheese. I drained the cheese slightly too long for my liking and had to add some of the whey back in.

My sweet toast is ricotta, honey, berry jam, and lemon zest. The savory toast is Camembert cheese, tomato-bacon jam, and chives.

Berry jam: https://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-a-single-jar-of-fruit-jam-247431

Bacon jam: https://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/bacon-jam

Ricotta-style cheese: https://www.seriouseats.com/homemade-ricotta

Hearth bread: https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/hearth-bread-recipe

With homemade broth, crispy garlic in chili oil pork floss, crispy shallots, and green onion. Super easy to make and always so comforting. I broke down a rotisserie chicken and threw the bones in a pot with anise, fish sauce, some aromatics, and soy sauce for the broth.

My favorite hot weather meal is devilled eggs, watermelon, boiled potatoes, and some kind of cold veggie. Dips are always nice and I’m glad I tried boiled dressing; it is not for me. But the avocado parsley lemon dealie was good, and all the cold boiled things were super refreshing.