Let me be clear, this is not meant to be braggy, but matter-of-fact.
I make INCREDIBLE buttermilk biscuits. Tiny towers of fluffy layers, gorgeously golden. crackly crust on top, tender within. The perfect vehicle for everything from more butter to a whole breakfast sandwich, I spent a full winter perfecting them in college, and it shows.
This past year plus that we’ve spent at home, one of the things that has brought me peace is baking challah. I don’t pretend to be more observant than I am- I bake, often weekly, not always timed freshly for Shabbat, but for joy of cooking and eating, for cultural connection. And in many ways, my baking routine has become meditative for me.
I was talking with my girlfriend Cassandra last week, who is also an immigrant, about where this trend of perfectly iced sugar cookies came from. It wasn’t a thing when we were kids, but now business has boomed and there are so many talented makers crafting the most beautiful cookies! I’m no artiste, so this post isn’t about those kind- if you are looking for artwork and perfection I can recommend my friend Jen in Los Angeles or learning through the World Cookie Summit. These are easy, yummy sugar cookies, plain and simple.
I’m breaking from my typical positive attitude to start this post with a complaint: I’ve tried so many other cream cheese frosting recipes, and I’m perpetually disappointed (I’m cringing just thinking of the flour fiasco I got up to on Ashe’s birthday this year. ) As I did on his birthday, I always wind up relying on my go-to cream cheese icing, and it’s past due time I shared it on here.
We’ve been in quarantine for nearly two months, and this time feels so strange that I’m not even gonna touch on that because I don’t have the words yet. But I was raised in a family where food is love, and one thing I do know is that feeding my boys brings normalcy and routine to these surreal days, even when I can’t remember the last time I went to a store. (I’m asthmatic, so David makes our limited store trips.)
We’ve been getting grocery deliveries too, grateful that community supported agriculture is continuing to help feed our family despite how much I miss shopping at our weekly farmers market. And I’ve been posting our daily kitchen antics on instastories but wanted to put them all in one place for easier reference.
If you’ve been around here a minute, you know I was born in Trinidad and my family and I emigrated to the United States when I was four. All things Trini still make my heart sing, and we’re so disappointed that our first trip home to Trinidad with Asher won’t be happening this spring like we’d planned. I’m determined that Ashe will grow up knowing where his roots trace, even if we’re far away, so I’ve been making more Trinidadan food lately.
This chicken and channa curry is total comfort food for me- the version I make is just a little different than my mom’s, which is scrawled in the margins amending the version in the Naparima Girls High School Cookbook (like the Trinidadian Joy of Cooking) but that roundabout recipe is typically Trini. It’s easy and flexible to modify for what you have on hand, and super savory and delicious. You can make it thicker like a stew, or serve it with rice, roti, naan- whatever you’d like!
I could be more modest as I say this, but the fact remains- I make some killer chocolate chip cookies.
Most frequently, I use Sally’s baking addiction’s recipe– it’s speedy (because it uses melted butter) and consistently delicious. It makes huge cookies- I prefer them slightly smaller, about 2 tablespoons each. If you are loyal to specific chocolate chip cookie recipe, do you, by all means, but keep reading for my tips for the yummiest chewy chocolate chip cookies!
Man, oh man, it was good to be home in New Orleans. The official excuse for the trip was a wedding, for one of my college roommates and sorority sisters. But we always want to spend time with David’s mom, have friends and family to love on, new babies to meet and kiss, so our weekend in NOLA was a long and busy one.
