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What I ate last week. Ranked #182 in food podcasts in Mexico according to an email I just got.
NEWS & UPDATES
Sick this week so not many updates. Sick in the head as my mother would say
The zucchini in my fridge went bad so I never made the caramelized zucchini pasta or moussaka or zucchini bread
https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1022458-caramelized-zucchini-pasta?unlocked_article_code=1.-1A.ujKN.YIH-_xHLk-9D&smid=ck-recipe-iOS-share
I avoid making gratins because I don’t want to say the word gratin. How are we supposed to say it without sounding like an asshole
SCENTS
Scent name: Anatole Lebreton Bois Lumiere
Official description: https://www.anatolelebreton.com/en/index.php/parfum/bois-lumiere/?srsltid=AfmBOoqLkoBIJhBcRtooRy5AtrRPJL_G8cU7iLinR9c2Mmbg-OIrN3_W
My review: cherry chapstick, hot toddy, gift basket, a store in a small Victorian home that mainly sells dolls, pith, a dried out lawn, plastic slide, the edge of your yard where random things are growing because it’s turning into the woods, the the lady at the front desk at an elementary school, shelving units, a pink foam powder puff included in a child’s make up kit, november, sun drenched pile of fall leaves, going back to school, baby powder, driving past a hill, a newly constructed middle school
It’s a little old but kind of the perfect fall scent; instead of putting it away I put it in my cabinet to wear for fall. Honey is nice even though I don’t like eating honey. Slight spicy amber like neutrogena rain water.
INTERNET
IG
TIKTOK
Passionfruit merengue https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8cvNBeb/
Ultimate focaccia https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8cTde4V/
Monster https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8ccvpCF/
Steak hache https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8ccCYxt/
Why are you wearing a chefs jacket / 80 dollars later https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8cctcQM/
Neese’s sausage update https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8cwg1P1/
2nd birthday dinner in one day at the spaghetti factory which is very me eating 4 apps at a bar and then ordering five dishes at a sushi bar and then considering getting a hamburger at a cocktail bar for my birthday outing. Also food memory of panic attack at the spaghetti factory in Omaha Nebraska https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8cwW5Ar/
Black bean chocolate cake https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8codagA/
Do little fibers get into the dough https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP83drpnU/
Hope the Mr peanut costume protected their lungs from all the toxic debris https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP83kFA1F/
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP83hKmt1/
$60 rye bread https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP83BQKaq/
September 7, 2026 (Monday)
8am: Counter Culture coffee with half & half, made at home.
9:30am: Scrambled eggs and a toasted Ideal’s English muffin with butter and Trappist blueberry preserves, made at home.
2pm: Late July sea salt dippers with Tacodeli queso blanco.
4pm: A slice of pan de Cristal focaccia with butter, made at home.
5:30pm: Chicken soup with mushrooms, cabbage, and basmati rice, made at home.
7pm: A small scoop of Blue Bell Moollenium Crunch.
Trappist blueberry with butter was great
Diluted the queso with more milk and Texas Pete hot sauce. Brian thought it was great. Definitely less salty. Still probably won’t buy it again.
KA pan de Cristal but Roman Ball shape
45 min autolyse before adding salt and yeast to start a half recipe using arrow brand bread flour which is supposedly higher protein than KA and cheaper
Baked at 500 for about 15 minutes on a steel and 5 minutes on upper rack.
Super puffy; bubbles turned into giant puffs which makes sense because the bread inflates into one giant balloon. Would try again with overnight Roman ball method for some bigger individual bubbles.
Crackly and airy. Soft inside and crispy shattering crust. Gave Brian a small piece to try and he begged for more with butter. I compared this next to the leftover focaccia from the Boulted bread sandwich which looked like grocery store bread in comparison. Such a dense Crumb.
Chicken soup
Mushrooms, onion, garlic, cabbage, chicken
Chicken stock, S&B Japanese seasoning and soup mix, soy sauce, mirin
Ice cream was grainy. The blue bell containers are such cavernous abysses that they get freezer burn if you don’t eat all the ice cream right away.
September 8, 2026 (Tuesday)
8am: Counter Culture coffee with half & half, made at home.
9:30am: Leftover braised pork, eggplant, and mushrooms over rice.
12pm: A bowl of cornflakes with milk.
3:30pm: A handful of Late July sea salt dippers.
6pm: Broccoli cheddar soup with leftover pan de Cristal focaccia, made at home.
7pm: Arcor filled hard candy.
Started feeling weird the previous day, coughed in the night, woke up feeling weird and bad. Headache, sore throat, cough, but not quite debilitating enough to know if I was truly sick or if it was in my head. Brian felt fine so I wondered if I was making it up because I didn’t want to go back to work.
Soup
1 large head of broccoli, browned in butter
Onion, 7 cloves garlic, chili flakes
Josh wine, chicken stock, garlic powder, chicken bouillon powder, two small diced potatoes
Almost one pound of cheddar; cream, Texas Pete hot sauce
Cut cheddar with a knife that you used to cut garlic
September 9, 2026 (Wednesday)
9:30am: Counter Culture coffee with half & half, made at home.
11am: Leftover chicken and mushroom soup with rice.
3pm: A slice of white sheet cake from Walmart and a piece of cheddar cheese.
6pm: Bosnian musaka, made at home.
7pm: Blue Bell black raspberry fudge ice cream.
Went to Walmart to get 10x, eggs, huge bag of mozz for pizza, and Riccola sugar free lemon mint cough drops. Almost got the pumpkin face lofthouse cookies but then decided to check out the sheet cakes. Almost got the mini sheet cake but then realized they had a slice of sheet cake so I just got that and it tasted exactly like I thought it would. It tastes just like how I remember McDonalds sheet cake tasting.
Bosnian musaksa - no tomato https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8cK6pyr/
12oz pork, half an onion, four cloves of garlic, harissa spice blend
Potatoes – par baked, then add egg custard
3 eggs, 2c milk, 1/4c cream, garlic powder
Rest of the potatoes for about 30 minutes at 425 and then removed from the oven to pour in the egg custard mixture, which I kept refrigerated, but then realized that I could not pour it into the glass Pyrex dish because then it might explode because of the temperature change so I did have to heat up the custard. Baked for another 15-20 mins and let ride in a turned off oven because Brian wasn’t home.
Pickled peppers would have been good with this
Black raspberry tastes like any old blackberry or black raspberry ice cream you’d get from a place that doesn’t make their own ice cream. Too sweet.
I can tell that I’m sick because I associate the way I feel with eating jello when I was little and sick
September 10, 2026 (Thursday)
8am: Counter Culture coffee with half & half, made at home.
10am: Late July sea salt dippers with Tacodeli queso blanco.
12:30pm: A piece of cheddar cheese.
5:30pm: Sanmaruko curry croquettes over egg fried rice with Bull-Dog tonkatsu sauce, made at home.
7pm: Arcor filled hard candy.
September 11, 2026 (Friday)
7:30am: Counter Culture coffee with half & half, made at home.
9:30am: Two sunny eggs and sriracha on olive oil toasted pan de cristal focaccia, made at home.
2pm: Cheese curds and a cajun chicken sandwich from Cook Out in Oxford, North Carolina.
5pm: Cheese pizza with pecorino romano and basil, made at home.
6pm: Blue Bell black raspberry fudge ice cream.
Went into town to mail a letter a domino’s gift card code to my dear friend in germany who loves german domino’s and realized it was the hot sauce festival. Saw a man in a camo patterned kilt.
I’ve watched more of Dave’s pizza ovens content, and I don’t know how I feel about him. Something about him makes me feel uneasy. I found out that he has a wife and plays hockey. He made chicken vodka cutlet sandwiches for his entire hockey team, but didn’t give everybody the chicken sandwiches until after they played hockey so you know that shit was soggy. There’s another pizza guy named Dough Guy who also has a wife and kids and is obviously a skater and looks so large that it looks like if he was looking to redesign his kitchen, he could crumble it up and crush it in his hands like a foil ball. The kitchen counter comes up to his knees. Kevin anxious today By large I mean what I presume to be Nordic or viking bone structure. Basketball player dimensions. I would imagine that being a large human would make making large pizzas a lot easier, and it makes me understand why men might be the only gender of humans that are making pizza on the Internet. I’m still seeking a woman or anyone else besides a man who makes pizza. If you have encountered a woman that makes pizza. Let me know or anyone besides a man. Anyway, even though the guy is yet another pizza guy which is a category of guy I like the way that he explains things and he feels a little bit more genuine whereas Dave’s pizza oven feels like the kind of person who wants they stopped talking? Would it be listening to what you said in response instead they would be scanning the room frantically or saying, yeah yeah that’s crazy real fast and not listening. To be honest, they would probably both not listen to you at a party, especially if you’re a woman, but this is what we’re working with in terms of pizza instruction for home ovens. Also, when dough guy opens up his fridge the top shelf is almost entirely filled with Coke Zero and muscle milk. Keep him in your prayers. My algo has been taken over by other men making pizza and yes it is only men. There are more of them. And they all love to strain their faces when they bite the pizza.
Dave’s pizza oven 24 hour dough; yield 1 x 12” pizza
NOTE: there is a typo in this recipe, as Tiktok commenters point out, and as his page also points out. The recipe says the yeast should be .03% so it should be 1g instead of .1g; so I used too little yeast. Will remake for the next episode.
117 g bread flour
50 g all-purpose flour
4.3 g salt
0.1 g instant dry yeast (CORRECTION; USE 1G OF YEAST)
103 g cold water (use crushed ice to get temperature around 45°)
3.3 g olive oil
3.3 g sugar
you are using a stand mixer, here’s my recommendation; I mixed by hand because my dough hook doesn’t work with such a small amount of dough although I hear the paddle is a good option especially for high hydration dough
add water, flour, yeast and sugar
mix on low for about ten minutes, or until the dough reaches 60°
cover and rest for 30 minutes
add the salt and mix for 3 minutes on low
add half the oil and mix on medium until absorbed. Then add the other half
once all the oil is absorbed, drop the speed back down to low until the temperature is roughly 70°
cover and rest for 30 minutes.
do at least one series of stretch and folds and check the window pane test.
Store on the counter for 20 hours, or 12 hours and then chill until ready to use (I put it in the fridge after 20 hours or around 11am; took out about 3 hours before baking)
Updated version that does a 1-2 day cold ferment.
Raw pizza sauce: 14oz container of Cirio crushed tomatoes, dash of salt, tsp of sugar, dash of oregano, black pepper, garlic powder
The tiktok guys always make it directly in the pizza can and then say that it keeps in the fridge; I Hope they are transferring it to another container
This is the way to go IMO; so easy and tastes like a simple NY slice
525 for 11 mins
Sauce, pecorino Romano, mozz, salt, then brush crust with olive oil when out and top with more pecorino. Really good. I’m going to keep making pizza. So affordable when you think about how expensive a pizza is these days. $20 and up plus you have to go pick it up. If I get really good I may invest in a larger steel to make 14” and 16” pizzas.
September 12, 2026 (Saturday)
8am: Counter Culture coffee with half & half, made at home.
9am: Scrambled eggs and a slice of olive oil toasted focaccia, made at home.
1pm: A black and white cookie, made at home.
2pm: Fried chicken from Wilton Grill in Wilton, North Carolina, half of a brownie, and crackers at Brian’s parents’ house.
7pm: Two black and white cookies and a bottle of Blue Moon.
Full batch of black-and-white cookies, yield 20 cookies with a 1/6 cup scoop. First batch on a nice new tray came out perfect perfectly second batch came out a little wonky on an older tray that I had also topped with a small tsp of extra batter, and the third batch was on my small very thick and sturdy Trey that was last to bake off so I kept it in the fridge then the freezer and it spread way too much. Not sure if it was the amount of time that had passed or the temp fluctuation or what. Had exactly 300 g of confection sugar left, which was a miracle so shocked I took a picture.
Poured a bit of fresh hot coffee over the chocolate to melt it. I hate melting chocolate and setting up a double boiler so this was a good innovative move for me. I don’t have a microwave. I should rename this podcast microwave-free cooking.
Did half apricot, half raspberry Trappist jam / preserves. Super thin shellacking
These were perfect but next time leave multiple hours for them to set properly. Although the next day the chocolate icing was a bit grainy looking and not nice and firm like the white icing. Honestly I don’t think you need the chocolate at all especially if you have the jam layer.
I was afraid nobody would eat them since they’re a northern thing but one person put a bunch in a to go container and went home with them 45 mins into the reunion. I still have some left because I could only fit 8 on a 12” ceramic pizza plate.
3 plates of brownies. 2 deviled eggs. Cheese casserole. 2 Pasta salad, cheese casserole. Should have made potato salad.
Roomba talk came up again:
Lawn roomba
Apparently the new roomba won’t smear stuff all over your house
In the same way that a lot of older men talk like they learned how to speak from watching steve martin / don rickles, the next generation of men sound like they learned to speak through watching cartoons; met a young woman who tells long and winding stories that go nowhere with the confidence of a much older man who is used to having a captive audience of secretaries and “girls” in quotations; my girl will fax that over to you
One man there who talks like foghorn leghorn A fat woman nearly knocked me over
And this is why I talk to myself
September 13, 2026 (Sunday)
9:30am: Counter Culture coffee with half & half, made at home.
11:30am: A sausage, egg, and cheese biscuit with Texas Pete hot sauce, Bo-rounds, and an unsweetened ice tea from Bojangles in Oxford, North Carolina.
3pm: Two black and white cookies.
6pm: Panang curry with chicken, potatoes, and white romano beans over basmati rice, made at home.
I love Texas Pete hot sauce on a biscuit item
Languishing white flat italian wax beans in the fridge that Brian got from the farm he used to work at when we went to the farmer’s market and they were pretty dirty and I wasn’t sure what to do with them. Perfect for slow cooking in a curry. Plus I didn’t have any other vegetables besides potatoes and carrots.
Panang curry paste fried in some neutral oil and coconut milk cream, the rest of the can of coconut milk, chicken stock, water, Chicken powder packet from a pack of ramen, sugar, soy sauce, vegan fish sauce made from pineapples, apple cider vinegar. Started rice and simmered the beans for 30 mins, added potatoes and simmered 15 mins more, at which point the rice was ready to be fluffed and sit. then added in the already mostly cooked chicken from making stock for 10 more minutes while the fluffed rice sat. This was a rocking curry. Could have used more heat.
Honorable Mentions (diabetes summer)
Green goddess https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8WY8TXF/
Eclair cake https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8WpJYC7/
NYT crumb cake
Wacky cake with mayonnaise
Iambaker / cupcake project vanilla cake
Chocolate chip cookies
https://www.afamilyfeast.com/copycat-entenmanns-chocolate-chip-cookies/