July Cookbook: Everyone’s Table by Gregory Gourdet
Well, it happened to me. This week I finally broke down and bought an air fryer. It’s this fancy Cuisinart one that doubles as a toaster oven, something I’ve been considering purchasing for a while anyway. “It’s practical,” I told myself out loud. (To be fair, a metal box with seven cooking functions and the ability to roast a whole chicken probably is practical to someone with counter space.)
Every time I turned on my oven to toast a single slice of bread, there would be a little voice in my head whispering, “get a toaster oven, a toaster oven, a toaster oven...” I grew up on a toaster oven. Toaster ovens gave me some of the best pizza rolls of my life. So why didn’t I have a toaster oven?!
For one, I live in a shoebox. My utility closet is already packed with an ice cream maker, a fancy waffle iron and a crockpot I have literally never used. I couldn’t possibly fit another appliance. But if I have learned anything about being a maximalist (that's a nice way of saying “hoarder”) it’s that if there is a will, there is a way.
Yes, it lives in my coat closet and yes, I have to drag it out every time I want to use it and YES, it is comically large when sitting on my little kitchen cart. But now, instead of heating up my whole apartment for a piece of buttered toast, I can get a quick arm workout instead.
I have yet to use the air fry function, but I am eager to see if it lives up to the hype. Air fry gang, what should I try first??
Whenever I make a smoothie, I’m usually just trying to convince myself it’s “like a milkshake” the entire time. But on these hot summer days, when I am working from my A/C-less apartment, a smoothie is one of the only things that can keep me going. It's cool, refreshing, and only requires about 11% of brainpower to make. The red berry, goji berry and hemp seed smoothie (pg. 331) has quickly become one of my favorite smoothies. It calls for a mixture of raspberries and strawberries, pineapple, orange juice, a touch of maple syrup, hemp seed and goji berries. I swapped the hemp for some flax seeds since I already had those on hand, and the only goji berries I had were covered in dark chocolate. (This will come as a shock to no one, but the addition of dark chocolate was successful.)
Next, I made the whole roasted jerk cauliflower (pg. 80) for a weeknight dinner. Crispy on the outside, perfectly tender on the inside, and with just enough West African heat to keep you wanting more. I was a big fan of this dish, as I knew I would be. I love roasted cauliflower in just about any capacity. (If you live near a Postino, run don’t walk to get their crispy cauliflower!) Even though it’s not the prettiest thing I’ve ever made, I think it will be one of my favorites of the month.
People don’t talk enough about how Colorado is actually hot. When I moved here last spring, people had the nerve to tell me I “didn’t need A/C” when I discovered my new apartment didn’t have a window unit. Lies and deception. Now here I am, sprawled out on my bed, starfish-style, trying to cool off after turning my oven on. Thank heavens for this coconut lemonade (pg. 336). Turns out, when you mix coconut water, coconut milk and lemon juice together, it becomes a refreshing oasis.
As an afternoon snack, I tried the energy balls with walnuts, apricots and dates (pg. 134). I’m usually weird about dried apricots – as in, I ate them once 15 years ago and didn’t like them – but I figured I wouldn’t mind once it was mixed with a bunch of stuff. These were tedious to make, as it yields a pretty large mixture. I would just roll a few balls at a time throughout the day, snacking on one or two as I go. They made a great, healthy snack! According to my neighbor Stacey, "These slap!" You heard it here first folks.
Then I made the turmeric-marinated cod with ginger and dill (pg. 187), minus the dill. (By the time I actually got around to making this dish the dill had, you guessed it, rotted. 😞) This was a different take on how I usually cook white fish, but I really enjoyed it! The earthy turmeric with a bunch of herbs and other greens made it a great light lunch.
On Friday, I made the strawberry jam (pg. 316) so I could take a crack at the vegan strawberry ice cream (pg. 348). I had never made jam before, but it’s something that I had been interested to try for a while. This recipe seemed simple enough – toss a bunch of berries in a dutch oven with some maple syrup and lemon juice, then watch them simmer. The smell that filled my apartment was incredible. The directions didn’t say to do this, but I ended up using an immersion blender toward the end to make sure all of the strawberry chunks were smooth.
This was also my first time making vegan ice cream. I blended together the soaked cashews, coconut cream, palm sugar and vanilla extract to create the base. I didn’t have any palm sugar so I substituted it with coconut sugar, as the two seemed interchangeable based on all of the other recipes in this book. I immediately recognized this as a bad idea because coconut sugar is brown, making my vanilla ice cream base look more like chocolate. 🤦🏻♀️ I was hoping to have a pretty pink strawberry ice cream by the end but it turned out to be more of a chocolate strawberry look. But hey, at least it tasted good!
(This recipe has also been Stacey approved.)
In other news…
I made this orzo with summer squash and pesto from the NYT.
I grabbed drinks at Forget Me Not, a florist shop turned cocktail bar, where they charge $15 for three little pretzels.
I am now a fan of the Coca-Cola with Coffee and I’m not afraid to say it.
I baked this lemon poppyseed coffee cake.
Thanks for reading, sweeties! 🍎