Category: TikTok

If you could have any superpower, which one would you choose?

Flying does seem like a lot of fun, but if I really had to choose just one, I would go for invisibility.

But I would be the most boring invisible person ever.

I wouldn’t be like creeping on people, because that’s just really not my style and I don’t want to see that anyways.

I wouldn’t be solving mysteries, or finding out state secrets or anything like that.

I would really just be experiencing life without any of the awkwardness.

I don’t have to worry about people judging me. I don’t have to worry about doing the wrong thing. I can just go places and experience things and observe the world without any of my social awkwardness causing problems.

What superpower would you go for?

This stir-fry was really tasty, but holy mother of red pepper flakes it ended up SO spicy. I always seem to forget just how spicy red pepper flakes are – they seem so innocuous! – and may have dumped far too much in.

I only had red cabbage instead of green, but I loved how colorful it ended up.

Overall, aside from the spice issues, I’d happily make this one again!

Stir-Fried Udon with Pork

from Bon Appetit

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp vegetable oil, divided
• 4 cups coarsely chopped cabbage (from about 1/4 medium head)
• 2 7-oz packages instant udon noodles, flavor packets discarded
• 2 tsp toasted sesame oil
• 8 oz ground pork
• 5 scallions, white and pale-green parts coarsely chopped, dark-green parts thinly sliced
• 2 tsp finely grated fresh ginger (from a 1-inch knob)
• 1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
• 1/3 cup mirin
• 1/3 cup soy sauce
• 1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds, plus more for serving

Cooking Directions

1. Heat 1 tbsp vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium-high. Add cabbage and cook, tossing often, until edges are browned, about 4 minutes. Reduce heat to low and continue to cook, tossing often, until thickest parts of cabbage leaves are tender, about 4 minutes longer. Remove from heat and set skillet aside.
2. Place udon in a large heatproof bowl (or pot if you don’t have one) and cover with 6 cups boiling water. Let sit 1 minute, stirring to break up noodles, then drain in a colander. Transfer noodles back to bowl and toss with sesame oil. Transfer cabbage to bowl with noodles. Wipe out skillet.
3. Heat remaining 1 tbsp vegetable oil in same skillet over medium-high and add pork, breaking up and spreading across surface of pan with a spatula or tongs. Cook pork, undisturbed, until underside is brown, about 3 minutes. When pork is browned, break up meat into small bits. Cook, tossing, just until there’s no more pink, about 1 minute. Add chopped scallions (the pale parts), ginger, and red pepper. Continue to cook, tossing often, until scallions are softened and bottom of skillet has started to brown, about 1 minute. Add udon mixture, mirin, and soy sauce and cook, tossing constantly, until noodles are coated in sauce (be sure to scrape bottom of skillet to dissolve any browned bits), about 45 seconds. Remove from heat and fold in 1 Tbsp. sesame seeds and dark-green parts of scallions. Top with more sesame seeds before serving.

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What are your favorite cozy things to do when it gets cold?

Here in LA, it’s finally getting to fall temperatures in the 50s and 40s. It’s breezy and cold and I am ready for all the cozy things.

I’ve been making so much soup this year. I’m bringing out the extra blankets, turning on the heater. I’ve got my fuzzy socks on.

So I want to know, what are your cozy things? What should I do? What should I bring into my life to make everything more cozy?

Because while yes, I am a California girl, which means I’m a total weather wimp, I do like it when it’s more cold than hot. But again, I’m in California so we don’t do cozy as well as the rest of you do so, I don’t know. What do you do that’s cozy?

This was another recipe that I, once again, expected to be tastier than it actually was. (Although, to be fair, I didn’t make the mint oil so maybe that makes a big difference?)

Did we enjoy how heartily healthy it was? Absolutely. Am I going to make it again? Probably not.

Will I ever stop getting burned by Bon Appetit recipes that look delicious on paper and in their perfectly-styled photos, but in reality are… just okay? Yes, but only often enough to keep me trying their recipes even though I’m mildly disappointed by them every 4 out of 5 times…

Beans and Greens Soup

from Bon Appetit

Ingredients

Soup:

• 3 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, finely grated
• 1/2 cup cranberry or navy beans, soaked overnight, drained
• 1/2 cup dried chickpeas, soaked overnight, drained
• 1 tsp ground turmeric
• 1/2 cup green lentils, rinsed
• 5 oz baby spinach (about 7 cups), chopped
• 1 cup chopped cilantro leaves with tender stems
• 1 cup chopped parsley
• 1/2 cup chopped dill
• 2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
• kosher salt
• freshly ground pepper

Assembly:

• 6 tbsp vegetable oil, divided
• 1 large onion, very thinly sliced
• 1/3 cup whole-milk Greek yogurt
• 1/4 cup buttermilk
• kosher salt
• 2 tbsp dried ground mint

Cooking Directions

1. Heat oil in a large pot over medium. Add onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until golden brown and soft, 6–8 minutes. Add garlic, cranberry beans, chickpeas, and turmeric and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Add 8 cups cold water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, bring to a simmer, and cook, stirring occasionally, until beans are halfway cooked (they should still be very al dente), 25–35 minutes. Add lentils and cook, stirring occasionally, until beans are creamy but still hold their shape, and lentils are tender, 25–35 minutes (the soup may look a bit thick, but don’t fret; the greens will release liquid when they’re added, thinning the soup out a bit).
2. Add spinach, cilantro, parsley, and dill and cook until greens are just wilted and have slightly darkened, 4–6 minutes. Stir in lemon juice; season with salt and pepper.
3. While soup is simmering, heat 3 Tbsp. oil in a medium skillet over medium-high. Add onion and cook, stirring often, until golden, 6–8 minutes. Reduce heat to medium and cook, stirring occasionally, until onions are slightly charred and crisp, 14–16 minutes; season with salt. Transfer onions to a plate; cover with foil to keep warm.
4. Meanwhile, mix yogurt and buttermilk in a small bowl; season with salt. (The mixture should have the consistency of heavy cream.)
5. Wipe out skillet and heat remaining 3 Tbsp. oil over medium. Add mint and cook, stirring often, until mint oil is fragrant and slightly darkened, about 1 minute. Transfer to a small bowl or measuring cup.
6. Divide soup among bowls and pour yogurt mixture over soup. Drizzle mint oil over soup, then top with fried onions.

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When I was a kid, I was part of a Girl Scout Troop. Every year, we’d go to a winter camp, where we’d go up to the snow and stay in cabins.

There was this big lodge where we would gather for meals, but we would also play games, play pool, stuff like that.

One year, my troop was in the lodge playing games, playing pool, you know, having fun, and my troop leader had brought her entire family that year. So my friend’s older brother, mom and dad, everybody was there.

Everyone else in our troop was playing games, obviously having fun… and there’s me, sitting under a table, just watching.

After a while, my friend’s older brother comes over and peeks under the table and is like… “Are you okay?”

“Oh, no, I’m fine. Everything’s fine. I’m just watching.”

“Er… can you smile for me? Are you having fun?”

He was seriously concerned about if I was having a good time or not, and I’m just over here being an introvert, being like “no, this is great. I just want to sit here and observe and not have to deal with people and I’m having the time of my life.”

He was so worried about me. Yeah… I’m an introvert.

This is one of those recipes that honestly looked a lot more interesting than it turned out. I think, from that bright yellow color, I just expected it to be more flavorful – my mind probably thought “curry”.

BUT we still easily scarfed it down, so I wouldn’t say it was truly a fail either.

The flavors definitely felt very Japanese in that subtle sort of way, so it wasn’t bad. But I recently saw another golden rice recipe from an actual Chinese source, and that one looks waaay more promising, so I may have to try that sometime when I end up with leftover sushi rice again.

Golden Fried Rice with Salmon and Furikake

from Bon Appetit

Ingredients

• 4 large eggs
• 4 cups chilled cooked short-grain white rice
• 5 tbsp vegetable oil, divided, plus more for drizzling
• kosher salt
• 1 12-oz skinless, boneless salmon fillet, cut into 1″ pieces
• a 1″ piece ginger, peeled, finely chopped
• 1/2 small onion, finely chopped
• 1 tsp sugar
• 4 scallions, white and pale green parts finely chopped, dark green parts thinly sliced, separated
• 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• furikake (for serving)

Cooking Directions

1. Separate egg yolks from whites, placing yolks in a medium bowl and whites in a small bowl. Add rice to bowl with yolks and mix to break up any clumps and coat each grain with yolks (take your time with this as any clumps will cook together); set aside. Stir 2 Tbsp. oil into egg whites and season lightly with salt.
2. Heat a dry large nonstick skillet over high. Add egg white mixture and cook, pushing around constantly with chopsticks or a heatproof rubber spatula, until gently set, about 30 seconds. Transfer to a plate. Wipe out skillet if needed.
3. Heat 1 Tbsp. oil in same skillet over medium-high. Season fish with salt and cook, undisturbed, until golden brown underneath, about 2 minutes. Turn and cook just until lightly browned on the other side and opaque throughout, about 1 minute. Transfer to another plate. Wipe out skillet.
4. Heat 2 Tbsp. oil in skillet over medium-high. Cook ginger, stirring, until very fragrant, about 20 seconds. Add onion and season with a pinch of salt. Cook, stirring, until onion is translucent, about 1 minute (remove from heat if onion starts to go past golden brown). Add reserved rice mixture, sprinkle with sugar, and season with salt. Toss to combine, then cook, undisturbed, until rice is beginning to warm and crisp underneath, about 1 minute. Push some of the rice to the side to clear a few inches in skillet. Drizzle a bit of oil into the clearing. Add scallion white and pale green parts and garlic and cook, stirring, until just softened and fragrant, about 45 seconds. Toss into rice mixture and cook, tossing occasionally, until warmed through and rice is crisp and chewy, about 3 minutes. Return cooked egg whites to pan and cook, tossing and breaking up with spatula until distributed. Return salmon to pan and toss once to combine.
5. Divide among plates and top with furikake and scallion greens.

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I love bananas, but I don’t tend to buy them very often.

Because… fruit flies. They always attract fruit flies.

But every once in a while I’ll buy them because maybe there’s another recipe, or they’re on sale, or they just sounded really really good… and of course I never eat them up in time before they start to go brown and attract fruit flies.

And so this is one of the things that I really love making with bananas that have definitely started to overripen a little bit.

I love muffins. I really really love banana chocolate chip muffins. And these have the added benefit of having pecans in them, which totally makes them healthy! Totally legit for breakfast.

These are just sweet, tasty, but filling muffins, and they’re really really good. And it’s the perfect thing to do if you’ve got some bananas going old.

When I bought bananas for the kiwi muffins, I ended up with a bunch leftover.

We didn’t get around to eating them before they started to overripen, which means OH DARN guess I have to make something with them.

I love banana bread, but given the choice I always end up making banana chocolate chip muffins. They’re pretty much my favorite type of muffin!

Banana chocolate chip muffins

adapted from Kitchen Confidante

Ingredients

• 1 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup (half a stick) unsalted butter
• 1 egg
• 3 very ripe bananas, mashed
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 cup chopped pecans (optional)
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips, plus more for topping

Cooking Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Prepare two muffin pans with cupcake liners.
2. Cream sugar and butter. Mix in eggs, one at a time, then add the bananas.
3. Sift or whisk flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Add pecans if using.
4. Add dry ingredients and buttermilk to egg mixture, alternating until incorporated. Try to end with the dry ingredient addition, and be sure not to over mix. Stir in chocolate chips.
5. Fill each muffin tin 3/4 full, then top with remaining chocolate chips.
6. Bake muffins for about 18 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

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Most of my life I thought of myself as not a creative person.

There’s so many times I’ve said, oh, I’m just not creative enough for that. Oh, that’s so cool that other people are doing that, but I’m just not creative.

And for me, it felt like the truth.

I didn’t have that many opportunities to be really really creative.

In dancing, it was always doing somebody else’s choreography. With programming, yes, you could be creative with solutions, but you’re kind of always given a specific problem to solve and then you have to figure out how to solve it, so it’s not really go create anything that you want to create.

And the thing with the sushi is I am all of a sudden getting the opportunity to be super super creative on a daily basis.

I have to be so so so creative and when you’re given that opportunity… all of a sudden the creativity begins to flow.

Weird, that.

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