At the Table

It's been about a month since I shared some of the new recipes I've been trying during isolation. I had a bit of a lull but am back at it, and have plenty more to share including some new favorites.

But first, one of my recent discoveries has been Colu Henry, who is a NYT Cooking contributor. I saw a photo of her creamy white beans with herb oil on Instagram, made it almost immediately, and soon after ordered her Back Pocket Pasta: Inspired Dinners to Cook on the Fly. The two recipes I've tried so far are sausage risotto with balsamic-roasted shallots and Sicilian escarole & sausage (with orecchiette pasta and pine nuts!). Both were delish, and I've got about a dozen pages marked of other recipes I want to try - always a good sign. And seriously, anyone who includes a recipe for aperol spritz on her website and in her pasta book is my kind of cook.

So here's what else is worth sharing:

Smitten Kitchen

• cinnamon sugar scones - quick and easy (and fun) to make and so tasty! Will definitely make again.

• quick pasta and chickpeas - seriously, one of my favorite new recipes. I've made it twice, after ordering the circle pasta, anellini, which makes it look kind of like spaghettios, but it tastes much more sophisticated, especially since it is also finished off with herb oil. mmm mmm good.

• quick zucchini saute - so simple, but with the addition of toasted almonds, is a unique change of pace. This, too, will stay on the regular rotation.

• my favorite brownies - these were very much to my liking, considering they contained my favorite Maldon flaked salt. If fact, similar but just a tad different than my stand-by brownie recipe, which also has flaked salt as a key ingredient.

Smitten Kitchen Every Day

• polenta-baked eggs with corn, tomato, and fontina - a perfect Sunday brunch recipe. Polenta-lovers that we are, I'll definitely make this one again.

• grilled yogurt flatbread - Unlike the flatbread I tried a few weeks ago, this recipe contains yeast. Though I liked the first recipe, this one was even better, and honestly, hubby gets all the credit, as he actually made these.

Half Baked Harvest

• Crispy Sage Lemon Butter Chicken Piccata with Mashed Cauliflower - oh goodness, this was delicious. I've had cauliflower disguised as mashed potatoes before and this isn't that. This is wonderfully tasty mashed cauliflower, and it goes perfect with that chicken.

Lastly I finally got around to trying the recipe that was all the rage at the beginning of the pandemic - dalgona coffee. I used the recipe from delish, and cheated by putting just a little vanilla coffee flavoring in my milk, but it was worth trying, for sure.

So thanks for bearing with me as I post these both to share and to remember. It's been good to add this kind of 'creativity' into our stay-home routine.