Can’t stop, won’t stop. Must pickle. Spicy pickled carrots, the absolute perfect complement to any lunch or afternoon snack.

Click here for the recipe, and to read more.

Sometimes you want a bowl of comfort for breakfast and what’s more, you want it savory. None of that creamy oatmeal drizzled with maple syrup and topped with brown sugar nonsense. Nope, none of that. Though that can be nice too, I’m never one to knock sugar… But sometimes, what you’d rather have is a bit more cheesy, salty, and hey, maybe topped with a bit of bacon. Yes, that sounds nice.

There is nothing quite like a hot bowl of polenta for breakfast, brunch, or really even dinner. Polenta, that slightly coarser cousin to grits, is a bowl full of body, of rich carbs swirled together with cheese and butter. Topped off with a few slices of bacon and a fried egg, it is the perfect thing to start a day or greet you at the end of one.

To add to the wonder—as if bacon, eggs, and cheese could get any better—polenta practically makes itself. Cornmeal, water, and just a dab of attention results in a beautiful polenta. After that, any and all cheese can be added. Polenta is a great vessel for all the leftover bits of cheese you may have lying around and while I went with the classic brunch trio, you can really top polenta with anything. Leftover greens, garlic, a swirl of crème fraiche, anything goes. Consider a bowl of polenta like a blank pizza crust—anything can be piled high on top. Except this time around, there is no dough to roll.  Bellissima.

Recipe on the following page.

Some of the best things to wander into a kitchen and find in the mornings are swirled and covered with streusel. Though to be fair, some of the best things ever, regardless of time and location are swirled and covered with streusel.

I’m breakfast-cake addicted, as this lemon loaf and pound cake prove. There is truly nothing better than a slice of cake for breakfast. Not that statement really needs any backing-up or further argument. It’s a slice of cake after all, and you’re only young once. Might as well eat cake for breakfast. Especially when there’s no one around to tell you not to…

This cake really isn’t anything special, save for the fact that it’s absolutely delicious. It’s a standard coffee cake, complete with streusel, except in loaf form for easy consumption. Just imagine, a slice of coffee cake on the way to class, alongside coffee, with a good book, or after a night of bar trivia. Yup. Fills in the space in your stomach left behind by pitchers.

Unfortunately, my title-machine was a bit broken. I’m going to say it was distracted by an overload of cake. Hence the hastily tagged on ‘loaf.’ Sorry. If you’re really that disappointed in my creative-naming abilities, I suggest making a cake. And having a bit for breakfast. Any disappointment will disappear, I promise.

Recipe on the following page.

Good, simple food is an experience. When a meal is good, it’s so much more than sustenance. It’s about more than fuel, about three squares. Good food, especially when it consists of simple, fresh ingredients and minimal preparation, is about happiness. A meal is good when it causes you to stop, to position yourself around the plate and really revel in what you’re eating. Good food should make you happy, simply because it is delicious.

Good food also however, tastes all the better when it requires little prep. When you start with good ingredients, a good meal is never far away. This white bean tuna salad is all about fresh herbs, simple preparation, and good combinations. The white beans add creaminess to the salad, while the tuna provides protein. Additionally, it comes with an awesomely simple, zippy parsley dressing. All in all, it takes about 15 minutes to make, maximum. That’s good food, alongside some good cooking.

Recipe on the following page.

No, don’t eat that mayonnaise. Make your own aioli!

Click here for the recipe, and to read more.

Lentil Spread. It’s totally level two hummus. Delicious, green lentil level two hummus. Welcome to Hummio Party.

Click here for the recipe, and to read more.

Protein, protein, where are you? How do I get you on my plate?

Like most college students, in addition to being generally lost and blundering through day-to-day life, I am constantly in need of more protein. Carbs and sugars, being possibly the easiest things to both procure and make, are never in short supply. Fruits and vegetables take a bit more forethought, namely making sure one eats them before they go all rotty in the crisper. But protein, lean, fatty, white, dark, soy, succulent protein, is a fair bit harder to come by.

As to why, that’s not so clear. But I’ll guesstimate and say that it has something to with both price and difficulty of preparation. It’s much harder to make a chicken breast taste good than it is to pull together a salad. At least in my kitchen. Pureed soups, as it appears, are much easier for me to make than a hamburger. While that may make no logical, or practical sense, it’s the truth in my kitchen.

This week, I set out to fix the protein dearth, with quinoa. While that may seem a great deal harder than cooking up a piece of chicken– and it very well may be– it sure is more interesting. And colorful. And flavorful, too. A curried quinoa salad in fact, fulfills my protein requirement. Quinoa, being the super grain, has an inherent amount of protein and topped with a spiced Greek yogurt dressing, this salad is unstoppable in its desire to protein-ate.

The puns are back—clearly my brain has been fed. It must be the quinoa salad, with its spicy nuttiness, the sweetness from the cranberries, the toasted quality of the almonds, and the freshness of the parsley and carrots. It’s the kind of protein-packed dished that happily sits in the refrigerator for days, waiting patiently to add a side of protein to any part of the day. Or a spoonful, eaten standing up. What a team player, this curried quinoa salad is.

Recipe on the following page.

Can’t stop, won’t stop. Must make soup. For this week’s Soup Sundays—which have apparently become a thing here at Bakelist—is a soup that is near to my heart, and oh so dear to my stomach. Celeriac, or celery root, soup, that thick, creamy puree with the sharp, nutty taste of celery. Sounds weird? Oh, it is. And man, you haven’t seen weird since you’ve looked at a celeriac.

While celeriac looks like a dirty, gnarled little root baby, underneath the skin in a luscious, fragrant white flesh which, when simmered and pureed with a bit of onion and a couple cups of celery, it makes a wonderful soup. Because celeriac is a bit of a tighter tuber than potato, it adds a great, natural creaminess to any vegetable puree. Balanced against the neutral addition of a potato, this soup is rich without being overpowering, comfort in a bowl. Topped with a couple sourdough croutons and one or two fresh herbs, it’s truly one of the best soups out there.

So Soup Sundays, don’t judge. The best time to make soup for the week is during the late morning, early afternoon on Sundays, obviously. Soup really is the perfect meal to tackle aftet a Saturday night, especially a pureed soup. Since everything is going into the blender anyway, it all can be roughly chopped before going into the soup bath. Nothing needs to be pretty, and real talk, any chance to slack off on presentation worthy diced vegetables is a chance worth taking. And after easy soup making for lunch, you’re ready for the rest of a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Recipe on the following page.

The salad dressing I grew up on: Lemon Caesar. Home in a salad. Way better (better for you too) than that silly ol’ buttermilk ranch…

Click here for the recipe, and to read more. 

So about my obsession with soup: it’s become a real problem. I no longer plan solid meals, it all revolves around what I cook up in my big soup pot, which I have yet to name. And perhaps, if I am at the stage where I’m naming soup pots, I should take a moment and consider grilling something. Maybe make soup pasta, it’s at least kind of soup like before you drain it. Anything really, that can’t be slurped up out of a bowl.

My feelings on soup are clear. How can you not love something that layers multiple flavors on top of each other, marrying them together in something hot which can be eaten right up out of a bowl? It’s a lazy man’s meal perhaps, but I’m addicted. Take for example, this wonderfully complex roasted carrot soup with cilantro matzo balls. I’m not even Jewish and yet I leapt at the opportunity to follow holiday law and make soup.

Passover of course, is reminiscent of matzo ball soup, even for the non-secular. But I would have no run-of-the-mill chicken stock swimming with plain matzo balls. No, it would have to be an extraordinary soup. A soup which combined the sweetness of roasted carrots, the subtleties of white wine, and the fresh taste of cilantro. Through in glorified dumplings and there it is, Roasted Carrot Soup with Cilantro Matzo Balls. A bowl in hand is enough to convert anyone to the Soup religion. (Yup, I went there. Soup, my dinner savior.)

Recipe on the following page.