What We've Been Making at Hey Sis Try This // Vol. 1
I give the pot a stir and smell the rich aroma when tomatoes meet cinnamon and cumin and cocoa and chilies. The flour dusted pasta dough sits on the counter waiting to be rolled and cut and boiled in salted water. I drain and rinse the black beans that bubbled all afternoon after their overnight soak. There is a smoky taste to them which sounds intentional but truthfully just means they were left forgotten on the stove top this afternoon and scorched in the drying pot. I can’t seem to throw them away after all that work so I decide over-smoked beans will have to do. You can’t have Cincinnati chili without beans.
As I write all of this down it sounds fancy, pretentious even. Cincinnati chili is something you can buy in a drive thru or at a mall cafeteria, or at the very least prepare with a packet you pick up at the store, some ground beef and water, rather than the 8 different spices, vinegar, a pinch of sugar, and tomatoes bubbling now in my pot. I was just at the grocery store yesterday so I could have picked up a can of beans and a package of spaghetti instead of making them at home. Right now as we all navigate our way through a global pandemic when we are both teacher and parent, coworker and therapist, there is no better time to call in a few short cuts.
And yet I cook on. Not because I feel I must. Because it is what makes me feel most alive.
Our kitchens are seeing more action than ever before. Three meals a day, seven days a week, times as many members as sleeping beds in each house. The dishwasher is exhausted (the husband and the machine.) Restaurants are hurting now which kills me. Cooking is an art and I hate to see the arts destroyed. I love watching friends supporting local restaurants with regular carry out orders. We have done a little of this ourselves.
But mostly we cook.
For a moment, I wondered if I was doing this wrong. All too often I compare my experience to others. (I am working on this.)
But as I pass out plates to my children and watch them devour a meal I just worked so hard to prepare, I can’t help but feel that this is exactly what I need to be doing right now.
When the world is uncertain and energy levels are low, when so much is canceled and so many questions unanswered, when I’m scared and tired and bored and overwhelmed all at the same time, I know that I can cook. I know that cooking onions in butter caramelizes their bitter into sweet. I know that spices taste more alive when toasted. I know that I have to plan ahead and be gentle and be patient if I want the dough to rise. I know that salt makes everything taste better.
At a time when there seems to be so little I know, these are the lessons my kitchen has taught me over the years and it is these things I cling to.
And so I cook.
My sister is much the same. We text each other recipes and pictures from our kitchen adventures. It’s what we have always done. It’s why we started this blog after all. "Hey sis," we say. "Try this," we still say.
I’d like to think we both learned this from our mother. I’d like to think if our mom was raising her children and teaching her students and managing her own stress in the middle of a pandemic, she would still be cooking. She was always cooking. She was also finding new recipes to share. Not because she had to, but because, after a long day of working and parenting, it is where she came alive.
And so we cook.
And you know what else we do? We share what we are cooking.
Even before a pandemic drew us into our kitchens, I felt a calling to bring some life back to this cooking blog space. I miss it. I miss cooking with my sister. I miss cooking for others. But sharing about what I have been cooking feels like the next best thing.
So I gathered up a few recipes my sister and I have been cooking.
And you know exactly what I said, don’t you…
Hey Sis, Try this!
What We Have Been Making:
Well there’s been pizza, of course. Always pizza. So many options. Emily has been using these amazing calabrian chili peppers. We love chili crunch oil and honey. Looking forward to all the options from our gardens coming soon. Our house uses this dough recipe, minus the grapes and prosciutto although now I’m intrigued.
Emily made these Potatoes Sautéed in Butter from the Julia Child cookbook. Her oldest said "mom you should always make potatoes this way." He is not wrong. Butter and potatoes. What’s not to love?
She reminded me how much I love those potatoes, especially with Bouef Bourguinon. I decided a pandemic is a perfect time to make this rich comforting multi step meal. And then I didn’t have beef, because pandemic pantry problems. So I thought I would use chicken and see how it went. And then I discovered I was actually just making Coque Au Vin, which is something I have never made and always wanted to. It was as amazing as you might imagine, and quicker than with beef.
Emily has the ideal frying set up, of which I am incredibly jealous. She drools over this Spanish Fried Chicken recipe. Also she freaked out a bit when Suzanne Goin shared her story about it. Food nerds.
Emily makes this Better Than Take Out Udon recipe once a week. And I have a beautiful head of cabbage in my fridge right now that might just have to turn into it.
This Coconut Curry Noodle Situation was the perfect use up what you have date night dinner. A little leftover homemade pasta, a package of ramen, the mixed veggies the kids didn’t eat, some leftover rotisserie chicken. Bon Appetite! (Or whatever they say in Thailand.)
This Cuban Black Bean soup was the perfect rainy spring soup. And these Cheddar biscuits from a fave cookbook of ours made it even better.
Emily eats salmon at least once a week. I still struggle with loving salmon. It was AMAZING in this Butter Salmon recipe. I mean, come on, butter. But she also recommends this one.
We both love this Lemon Fusili with Arugula recipe. I didn’t have any arugula, so Emily suggested kale. She did not steer my wrong. She rarely does. (Don’t tell her I said that.)
Ok, there are more, so many more. But my fingers are tired of typing. As you will notice in the title, I am hoping to make this a regularish thing, maybe. Don’t @ me.
Your turn! What have y'all been cooking up at your house? Tell us. We’ll try it.