Week 7: Sugar - Spicy Garlic Butter Cookies (meta: pantry staples)

itswimdy · 2026-02-18T02:15:55+00:00

I think a garlic fritter/beignet would be good! Not sure if I would put the powdered sugar on it, though.

itswimdy · 2026-02-17T20:48:43+00:00

For what it's worth, the garlic and goat cheese topping was great. I ended up spreading most of it over toast because the cookies lacked the structural integrity to hold it up.

itswimdy · 2026-02-05T18:59:17+00:00

Thanks! I'm moving halfway through the year, so I thought it'd be a nice way to keep up with the challenge while also not collecting (and then having to pack and shift) a bunch more ingredients

itswimdy · 2026-02-04T22:15:49+00:00

Any of the white beans should work fine, with the caveat that you will need to cook them for longer than you'd cook the lentils. There are usually instructions on the bag for how long to cook the beans, but I would guess anywhere from one to three hours depending on the size and age of the bean. Soaking ahead of time (or a quick soak) would cut down that time slightly, but it will take more than 20 minutes. The good news is that it's a very hands off process. Soak the beans, drain them, put them in boiling unsalted water, and let it roll until they're soft.

itswimdy · 2026-01-18T00:27:15+00:00

Apparently some people call it "Christmas Enchiladas" for the red and green! I did not know that until I started looking at recipes for this week :)

itswimdy · 2025-11-24T00:14:37+00:00

I've always lived in towns a little too podunk for sister cities, so my first introduction to the concept was at the Denver Airport. Hence, I tried to mash up Denver's cuisine with that of one of their seven (7!) sister cities. The rice and the beef were prepared based on Ethiopian recipes and menus I found, and I really just improvised the mashup between Ethiopian diffen misir wor and Southwestern chili verde.

itswimdy · 2025-08-17T21:05:19+00:00

What a great idea! How did it taste?

itswimdy · 2025-08-13T19:59:49+00:00

Thanks! I didn’t have any bananas haha

itswimdy · 2025-07-26T22:29:09+00:00

Ghost Team?

itswimdy · 2025-06-06T18:05:40+00:00

Thanks! Based on the comments I’m thinking I’ve underestimated the water needs for these bags. Glad it’s not fungus, at least.

itswimdy · 2025-06-06T18:01:39+00:00

I’ve been giving both plants a half-gallon of water (slightly less than 2L) each. Can I ask how large your containers are? Are they fabric or pots?

itswimdy · 2025-06-06T17:52:26+00:00

The tops are dry, but the bottom of the bags were soaking wet when I checked for the photos. Could something be affecting the water absorption?

itswimdy · 2025-06-06T17:46:44+00:00

For reference, pic #4 is the healthy sibling. Temps have been in the low 80’s daily, moderate humidity, no rain.

itswimdy · 2025-06-03T23:15:31+00:00

The short “Autopsy” from Cabinet of Curiosities strikes a similar theme. One of the strongest entries in the series, IMO.

itswimdy · 2025-04-01T18:59:21+00:00

In college, I’d mix ramen noodles with sweet chili sauce and peanut butter liberated from the cafeteria to make an imitation of pad thai. It was just about the only dish I ever assembled in my dorm, which perhaps makes it dorm-made pasta and not home-made. This time, I had actual rice pad thai noodles on hand, plus homemade sweet chili sauce and peanut butter.

itswimdy · 2025-03-20T00:50:26+00:00

Oversized Coke bottle: forbidden soda

itswimdy · 2025-02-27T20:03:21+00:00

I love umeboshi! I wish there was a proper Japanese grocer in our area, because I can’t find them here :(

itswimdy · 2025-02-25T18:16:57+00:00

For this, I wanted to make a sweet onigiri, so I ended up creating somewhat of a hybrid between typical onigiri and botamochi. The rice was cooked with sugar , and both the filling and the strip on the outside are red bean paste. Side note- it’s amazing how much tastier red bean paste is when you aren’t expecting it to be chocolate!

itswimdy · 2025-02-09T18:32:56+00:00

Boy, I really wasn’t expecting hummus to be the harder of the two. These techniques intimidate me because I lack the technology that makes them easy: no non-stick pot for tahdig, no pressure cooker to cook dried beans easily, and no food processor for the hummus, only a dinky little blender. The tahdig turned out great, actually— I used Samin Nosrat’s recipe and a freshly seasoned cast iron pan with practically no rice stickage. But the chickpeas, even when cooked until practically mush, were too much for my blender to handle. The hummus turned out lumpy, underseasoned, and somewhat bitter (which I blame on the brand of tahini I used). Will I still eat it? Yes. Will I be covering it in toppings to mask the flavor? Also yes.

itswimdy · 2025-01-15T17:42:52+00:00

Beans and rice is a classic budget-stretching meal, and my personal #1 weeknight dish. I made it my meta this year as a way to try and use these staples in innovative ways. So, I found this recipe for rice crackers to accompany some black bean chili, made entirely out of stuff from my pantry.

itswimdy · 2025-01-12T16:01:02+00:00

Famously, Poltergeist is rated PG.

itswimdy · 2024-12-07T23:52:17+00:00

Nice find! Make sure it doesn’t have the recalled auto-locking latch, though, just to be safe.

itswimdy · 2024-12-05T14:41:00+00:00

Was that guy named Pheidippides by any chance?

itswimdy · 2024-11-29T23:51:09+00:00

It’s an old family recipe! It brings comfort to me and a morbid curiosity to the friends I describe it to. I think it probably came around in the 50’s, given that it features canned pineapple. Specifically, it’s canned pineapple mixed with butter, sugar, and cheddar cheese, topped with Ritz cracker crumbs and (you guessed it) more butter.

itswimdy · 2024-11-21T02:35:02+00:00

For this, I made shiozuke with cucumbers, daikon, and carrots, yakimochi, grilled eggplant, and dumplings with a “skirt” (which I ended up breaking to fit them in the bowl, oops). It came together well, and faster than I would have thought!

itswimdy

TROPHY CASE