Food Odyssey: October 2020

I can’t believe it’s already November. Well I can, but I can’t. Like thank God 2020 is almost over, but man, 2021 is around the corner! November 2020 is definitely going to be a month to remember. If you see this post before election day and you live in America (Tomorrow! November 3!), here is your reminder to go vote! Now let’s jump into the third installment of the Food Odyssey series. As always, I am reminding you that I am not associated or affiliated with any influencer, blog, brand, etc. that I mention. If ever I am sponsored or have a connection with someone, you will know. I am just here to share my food adventures and give you my honest opinions.

Since it is officially fall, we must breakout the apples. Apple desserts are probably my favorite kind of dessert. Their texture, tartness and how they beautifully pair with cinnamon just makes them the perfect addition to so many baked goods. Recently, Sally from Sally’s Baking Addiction recipe blog came out with an apple cinnamon babka recipe. Come on… y’all know I wasn’t going to pass this up. Bread + Apples + Cinnamon = ME in the kitchen baking. That equation is as fundamental as the second law of thermodynamics.

What I like the most about this recipe in particular is that it has large ribbons of the cinnamon apple filling running through it. Generally when I see a recipe for cinnamon bread, it looks like bread with cinnamon sprinkled inside. What is the point? I don’t want to taste a hint of cinnamon in CINNAMON bread. I shouldn’t have to squint to see if there is cinnamon somewhere. Go big or go home. This recipe does it right. It is so good and it freezes well.

While we’re on the subject of babka, my little cousin who’s in his first semester of college requested a s’mores babka. I know s’mores doesn’t exactly fit the fall theme, but there is never a bad time for s’mores…is there?

This recipe is from The Modern Jewish Baker by Shannon Sarna. The recipes in this book for challah, babka, rugelach and others are creative and pretty good. I did make a few modifications to this recipe in particular. She gives you the total amount of filling to use and tells you to divide that by three for three loaves. I found that that was not enough filling for all three loaves, so I completely disregarded her recommended amounts of nutella, marshmallows and graham cracker, and just spread enough of each to create a nice thin, three layer spread over the dough before rolling. You don’t want to overfill because it can get messy and ooze out all over the place (it has happened to me before). She also doesn’t give any dimensions for rolling out the dough into a rectangle, so I just rolled it out until I thought the dough was at a thickness where it wouldn’t tear, but also wasn’t too thick. One final note is that the crumble on top comes together nice, but it has a lot of flour in it. I found that the crumble came out a little hard. Perhaps it was me keeping my bread in the oven for too long, but the bread itself seemed fine. I would experiment with making a crumble with cold butter next time. Otherwise, it was delicious. Very rich, very sweet. Me and my cousin enjoyed it.

But enough about s’mores. Back to the fall theme and back to Sally. She also came out with a recipe for soft pumpkin cookies. They are easy to make, not too sweet, fluffy and topped with a maple cream cheese icing.

I know I sound basic by saying this, but I really have become a fan of the pie spice mixture. Cloves, ginger, nutmeg and cinnamon are just so warm and inviting. They even add somewhat of a savory element to my baked goods. I know some people shy away from these spices because they can be overwhelming, but I think these cookies are spiced just right. I also used homemade pumpkin puree to make these. I have heard quite a few people say that they think making pumpkin puree is a time consuming and difficult process, but it really wasn’t. If you don’t mind cutting a pumpkin in half, taking out the seeds and throwing it in an oven for an hour, you’re good.

This next recipe isn’t necessarily fall themed, but I always seem to make it around this time of year for some reason. Baklava! I love baklava. From the flaky, thin pastry dough to the sweet, nutty filling, it’s so good.

This recipe comes from the Natasha’s Kitchen recipe blog. It is a simple recipe, but it is a time consuming process. This baklava has 40 layers of filo dough, all of them brushed with butter. I think it takes me about an hour to assemble before throwing it into the oven. I’ve made this recipe about 3-4 times now and it always comes out perfect. I had a friend tell me last year that baklava wasn’t baklava unless you use rose water. Perhaps that’s the traditional way, but this recipe is great without it. That same friend literally ate half the pan of this rose water-less baklava, so I think that says it all.

Let’s move away from the sweet things and talk about a few savory dishes I have tried this month. So I tried a sheet pan pasta. I did not know that was thing, but I had to get rid of some cherry tomatoes, kale and chicken, and this happened to check all the boxes.

This recipe is from the Two Peas & Their Pod recipe blog. I was actually surprised by how much I liked this. The filling has mozzarella and parmesan cheese, sour cream, Dijon mustard, chicken, tomatoes and kale. The top is then covered with panko bread crumbs. It was well seasoned, creamy, crunchy and easy. You can use rotisserie chicken for this. I had roasted a whole chicken a couple days earlier and used that for this recipe. My chicken was already seasoned with garlic and rosemary, but that was a nice addition to the flavors of this dish in my opinion.

Lastly, I made bulgogi tacos for the first time. Bulgogi has seemingly taken on many forms these days. I am very particular about my bulgogi marinade. There are a lot of recipes out there for bulgogi marinade that just aren’t quite right to me. For example, I’ve tried some healthy bulgogi bowl recipes, and they don’t do this dish justice. If you’ve never had a more authentic version of beef bulgogi, you are missing out. That being said, this recipe is not that.

This recipe is from the Damn Delicious recipe blog. We have a sweet and savory ground beef filling, slightly caramelized kimchi, a sriracha mayo sauce and some red onions to top it all off. I liked this recipe, but I’m not going to say it was amazing or that it necessarily hit the spot. I would make it again, but I think I prefer my bulgogi on white rice with some sour kimchi straight from the jar. That’s just me. Someone try this and tell me what you think. Or tell me if you’ve tried an amazing version of a bulgogi taco elsewhere. I don’t know how I feel about it yet.

That’s all I have for you for October 2020. I hope you enjoyed reading this post. Please feel free to comment below and tell me what recipes you’ve been enjoying lately. Here’s a picture of Hunter to brighten your day on your way down to the comment section. God bless and happy voting!