Craving comfort food? Here's what I am cooking while social distancing.
These days, because I am adhering to the #StayHome order and practicing social distancing, I've been cooking up a storm. Every day, I am combing through cookbooks and pulling ideas from the internet on what to cook next. This is fun for me because I love to cook, but more importantly, I love to eat. Last week, I whipped up a few meals that are now my favorites.
Since we can't go out to eat, I'm cooking the dishes that I'd normally order at a restaurant. I've been craving Asian food lately, and decided to try my hand at Korean Beef Bulgogi, and it turned out great! This dish came out so flavorful and was restaurant-quality. We enjoyed this dish while watching The Madalorian on Disney+. Who else is obsessed with Baby Yoda? He's so cute.
I also made white rice and sautéed vegetables: onion, zucchini and mushroom.
I also cooked my grandmother's (who we all call Cookie) meat pie, which Jerry thought was amazing. It's similar to a Shepherd's Pie, minus the veggies, and add a delicious flaky crust. It's the ultimate comfort food and it's super simple to make.
Cookie's Meat Pie
2 pie crusts (I use Pillsbury's refrigerated pie crust)
1 medium onion
1.5 pound ground beef
8 oz tomato sauce
2 cups Instant Mashed Potatoes (follow instructions on package)
1 egg
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Dice and sauté onion. Add the ground beef to medium-sized skilled and cook on medium heat until browned. Drain excess liquid. Add tomato sauce and cook for 5-8 minutes, then let cool. Place one pie crust into pie plate, add beef, and top with mashed potatoes. Add second crust on top and press the crusts together to seal. Beat egg in a bowl, and brush top of pie crust with egg wash. Cut four slits in top of crust. Bake for 1 hour.
Last week, I also attempted my first roast chicken. I've cooked many turkeys for Thanksgiving (I've brined one, I've used cheesecloth, I went the traditional route...) but this was my first attempt at a chicken. Funny story, I accidentally cooked my chicken upside down (breast side down), luckily, this made the chicken super moist. (Cooking it this way is actually a thing. Who knew?) This is Ina Garten's recipe for Perfect Roast Chicken.
A couple of days later, I made mini chicken pot pies with the leftover chicken. I cut down on the peas and added corn instead.
My favorite dessert last week were these made-from-scratch Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies (recipe by Natasha's Kitchen). My mom made these over Christmas and I couldn't get enough of them. They're so good. Caleb and I baked these (that's his "super cookie" in the top right) and they were gone in two days. There were 24 cookies! I will definitely be baking these again soon.
So good!