In this year of covid-19, cooking meal after meal has us all looking for new ideas or inspiration for a fresh twist on an old favourite. Below are a few meals I enjoyed cooking in the month of July. Please take good care of yourselves and take what you need. Thank you for stopping by.

1. Spaghetti with garlic and oil

During this lockdown period, I started a vegetable garden. It is very satisfying eating legit farm-to-fork. A quick lunch on the weekend starts off with pinching a few leaves of spinach from the garden. While the spaghetti boils in the pot, in a separate pan fry lots of garlic, red pepper flakes, and spinach. When the spaghetti is almost al dente, mix it with the vegetables and top it off with cheese. Simply delicious.

2. Thai Basil Stir-Fry

This is another quick meal that is ready in about 15 minutes. The ground meat that I had available was beef, and since Thai Holy Basil is impossible to come by here, I simply used regular basil—a lot of it. This meal with rice is simple and yummy.

3. Hamburger Buns

The foundation of an epic burger is freshly made burger patties, homemade burger buns and whatever toppings you like. This recipe makes excellent buns. Although the next time, I think I will divide them into 8 buns instead of 6 (they were huge). The rise time was less (weather, altitude?), an hour for the first rise, and less than that for the second. Something to keep in mind though is that it is a little involving but it is totally worth it.

4. Waffles

To title a recipe “perfect”, or “the best” places the bar very high and I tend to give them the side-eye. But when Pailin says this is the perfect waffle recipe, she ain’t playin’.

5. Pizza

One day I will attempt to make pizza dough the way she does, but at the moment I am perfectly content with the dough recipe I have. What I loved is her technique of assembling the pizza on baking paper, while heating the baking sheet so that the crust hits a hot surface immediately. This makes a difference in the crust for sure.

6. Chicken shawarma (NYT).

7. Turkish Bread

Shawarma is meant to be served on pita bread but I really wanted to make this Turkish bread. With the massive burger buns still fresh on my mind, I divided the dough into 9 instead of 6 and I rolled them thin about 9inches. The key to cooking these is patience. When the bread hits the pan, give it almost a complete minute to puff up. Also, cook it on medium low heat (or if your stove is like mine and just has 1, 2 and 3, cook it on 1). Brush with butter and sprinkle some fresh parsley.

8. Quick Pickled Red Onions

Chicken shawarma, Turkish bread and a Greek salad of tomatoes, cucumbers, pickled red onions, olives and feta cheese. I had never attempted a quick (as in it is ready in 30 minutes) pickled red onion, but after using this recipe, this is now a staple in our fridge.

9. Fudgy Brownies

Spice Bangla’s videography is a work of art. Her recipes are also amazing. These brownies are truly fudgy and sweet (half the sugar quantity). Even the uncooked dough is delicious. However, because of how rich they are, I think they will be a yearly treat.

“I could give up cooking, but I am no quitter.”