Two dinners and much cake

Cooking when you can't feel your fingers

Hello!

I’ve almost recovered from carpal tunnel syndrome, which meant losing feeling in six of my 10 fingers, a side-effect from pregnancy (woo!). At the start it was rough - I couldn’t open my own water bottle, do my own buttons or feel my baby’s cheeks.

There were a few months where we barely cooked, which was actually really nice, especially with meals from friends and family, plus a meal delivery service.

So expect some low-key recipes below, plus recommendations for some non-food things too!

Golden mushroom and orzo soup

This was the first recipe I made from Alison Roman’s new cookbook Something From Nothing. It’s dead easy and has minimal knife work - instead you tear the nicest mushrooms you can find into bite-sized pieces and only need to slice garlic.

It’s online for paid subscribers to Alison’s newsletter and also on Epicurious, which I believe has a limited number of free recipes non-subscribers can access each month (it’s hard to work out tbh!). If you have a copy of this cookbook, the kimchi and rice soup with a jammy egg is equally fast.

Zingy Greek turkey meatballs with dill yoghurt

I made my first Caroline Chambers recipe recently (via Haley Nahman) and boy did it live up to the hype! I’m a huge fan of lemon-heavy food so this was right up my alley. It’s a Greek-inspired meatball dish with feta, zucchini, baked couscous (!) and a dill yoghurt. This is the most involved meal we’ve made in awhile, probably more for the weekend in this stage of my life, but it’s well worth it for flavour alone. So tangy and feta-filled.

Two of the best pantry cakes

Everything topped with icing sugar

Baking was one of the things that help me feel like myself again after having a baby. We’ve had a lot of visitors over summer (easily the best time to visit lutruwita/Tasmania), so plenty of reasons to bake. These two are oil-based cakes, which means minimal prep and longer shelf life!

Some quick notes on each:

• Lime yoghurt cake: A Smitten Kitchen one-bowl where the citrus is flexible. I’ve been baking this one for years (possibly more than a decade!) and and have never made the blackberry sauce because I am lazy. It’s so nice on its own or with fresh berries.

• Dark chocolate olive oil cake: This is the chocolate cake I make when it’s not my birthday. It’s rich, dark and super moist, meaning you can make it in advance. It’s worth the stand mixer step! I’m always surprised by how good this cake is.

Spinach egg bites

I’ve always been someone who has needed lots of snacks. These spinach, egg and cheese bites from Eric Kim (NYT Cooking gift link) really hit the spot. They’re like the savoury twin of another favourite of mine, harvest muffins (NYT Cooking gift link). They use frozen spinach so they’re pretty quick to make and way better than my usual boiled egg snack. I don’t have a non-stick muffin tin and hit a snag with the muffins sticking, so I’d use muffin liners next time or realistically, invest in a silicone muffin tray. P.S This is my first year trying cottage cheese. It is… fine?

Other things!

• One and Only by Maureen Goo (via Viv Chen, a very fun romance book set in LA)

• Palaver by Bryan Washington (a real meaning-of-life read)

• Kenyak chocolate is the very best! Tony and I both bought our Valentine’s Day gifts from here. Try the classic hazelnut bar, chocolate honeycomb and the chocolate truffles.

• Queer Renegades podcast from SBS, hosted by the excellent Farz Edraki

• The On The Job YouTube series hosted by Priya Krishna from NYT Cooking. Three favourite eps include yum cha, room service at the Plaza hotel and the sorority house chef.