Zuzia's Food Blog

A novice cook's cooking blog

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Some Tasty Links

The internet is a wonderful place. From keyboard cat to 2048, the internet is full of entertainmenty goodness. Not surprisingly, it’s also filled with yummy recipe goodness. Below, I’ll link some of my favorite recipes to date along with words of praise for how talented they’ve made me look.

Dinners: 

Lemon Butter Chicken - I was so surprised when I first made this dish. I think this ended up being the first actually flavorful dish I had made. I’ve used it many times since, sometimes substituting the chicken thigh for chicken breast (though it definitely tastes best with thigh...). The flavor is rich and buttery. It’s probably not the healthiest dish out there, but whatever. It tastes fantastic.

One Pan Mexican Quinoa - When I made this, I accidentally added too much lime.... but I’m convinced that if you follow the recipe, this dish would be great!!! It’s light but certainly filling. The flavors all mesh together well. And, c’mon, who isn’t a fan of avocado?? And to top it off, this is a “one pan” recipe, meaning clean up is super easy! Nate’s only criticism with this is that there was no meat. Pssh... carnivores. 

Carrot-Ginger Soup - This soup is healthy, delicious, and “in season” for fall. It’s not the most filling soup because there’s not a whole lot of substance to it. I think if I were to make it in the future, I’d bake some bread along with it or make it a side to a more filling dish. Still, it was yummy and the recipe made enough for me to enjoy it for the next few days! ;D

“Korean Beef” - Not sure how Korean this dish is because it calls for ground beef... but it still tastes great. It’s slightly spicy (for my poor white-girl taste buds) and rich in flavor. I’ve cooked this about 4 or 5 times now, and it turns out well even when I’m missing some ingredients. I like serving this with rice and carrots, though I’d like to find some more “authentic” Korean sides to serve this with in the future.

Sweet Potato Fries - I. Love. Sweet. Potatoes. They seem to be everywhere in grocery stores right now, alongside pumpkins, but I can’t and won’t complain. This recipe gets a gold star for being almost painfully simple and producing incredibly mouthwatering results. 

Desserts: 

Cranberry (err..cherry?) Pie - Sadly, I haven’t been too adventurous on the baking front. I was somehow motivated enough a few weekends ago to try baking pie (for the first time ever, I might add) by myself. A lot of work went into this pie, both in prep work and clean up work, but it was so worth it. I used cherries instead of cranberries though, but the pie was still absolutely to die for. Nate, Nate’s friend and I each had multiple slices as soon as it came out of the oven! The filling was sweet, gooey, and delightfully runny while the pecan crumble topping was satisfyingly crunchy and nutty. Some pro tips: eat this warm! Also, don’t over fill the pie with filling because it may spill over the edge of the pan and you spend 15 minutes trying to scrub it clean... 

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Recipes from the Homeland

I have a really simple go-to recipe that has saved my butt countless times. 

“Kotlety”. 

**Not my pictures

I used to help my mom with this dish when I was younger. It’s really easy, doesn’t require many ingredients, and can be prepared using a variety of meats! The top image, for instance, is made from either ground beef or ground turkey while the bottom image is a pork cutlet. I’ll be sharing my two favorites below :)

Ground Turkey Kotlety 

Ingredients: 

1 lb ground turkey, 2-3 eggs, breadcrumbs (I use “Italian” because it’s more flavorful, but plain should work too), and your preferred cooking oil (I use olive oil)

Instructions: 

Roll chunks of ground turkey into balls, and flatten them a little like in the first picture. When flattened, the kotlet should be a little smaller than the size of your palm. 

In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs. On a separate plate, have a small pile of bread crumbs ready.

Coat each kotlet in eggs and then roll in breadcrumbs. The breadcrumbs should stick really well to them. If they’re not, you didn’t coat the kotlety in eggs fully enough. Also, make sure the breadcrumbs are completely covering the surface of each kotlet. 

With the stove at med-high, pour about 1.5 tbsp of cooking oil (or at least a decent glob of oil) on a medium sized frying pan. After the pan heats up, you can start cooking your kotlety! 

Cook each side for about 5 minutes, turning them with a spatula. If you notice that the outside is cooking quickly, reduce your heat. These taste best when they’re a medium brown color, so we want them cooking at a heat that doesn’t burn the outside and cooks the inside throughly! You can check to see if the meat is fully cooked by cutting the fattest kotlet in half with your spatula.

Once done, serve with mashed potatoes, tomatoes, peas and carrots, or kapusta! :D

Chicken Breast Kotlety

**These are very similar to the above recipe, so everything but the first step is the same. 

Ingredients: 

1 lb chicken breast, 2-3 eggs, breadcrumbs, your preferred cooking oil

Instructions:

Take each chicken breast and tenderize with a meat tenderizer (funny enough, I don’t own one of those yet, so I use a real hammer). You want the thickness of these to be at about a half-inch. Pro tip: if you cover the meat with a sheet plastic wrap, the juices won’t squirt everywhere and there will be less clean up for you! 

In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs. On a separate plate, have a small pile of bread crumbs ready.

Coat each kotlet in eggs and then roll in breadcrumbs. The breadcrumbs should stick really well to them. If they’re not, you didn’t coat the kotlety in eggs fully enough. Also, make sure the breadcrumbs are completely covering the surface of each kotlet. 

With the stove at med-high, pour about 1.5 tbsp of cooking oil (or at least a decent glob of oil) on a medium sized frying pan. After the pan heats up, you can start cooking your kotlety! 

Cook each side for about 5 minutes, turning them with a spatula. If you notice that the outside is cooking quickly, reduce your heat. These taste best when they’re a medium brown color, so we want them cooking at a heat that doesn’t burn the outside and cooks the inside throughly! You can check to see if the meat is fully cooked by cutting the fattest kotlet in half with your spatula.

Once done, best served with mashed potatoes, tomatoes, peas and carrots, or kapusta (sauerkraut)! :D

Like I said, a very simple and tasty meat dish! It’s done in 20 minutes or less, and clean up isn’t so bad. You may want to soak the dish used for breadcrumbs, though, so they’re easier to scrub off later! :)

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A Fall of Firsts

Since moving to Seattle with my wonderful husband of 3 months, Nate, I can honestly say that this is a Fall of firsts. I’m newly married, living in an apartment for the first time in a city I’ve never before visited. It’s my first time really grocery shopping, budgeting, paying taxes… The whole adult shebang. One of the most adventurous firsts to add to the list is cooking multiple dinners a week. I spent a lot of the summer day dreaming about having my own kitchen and trying out recipes that have been collecting dust in my browser’s bookmarks tab for far too long. So! With a few weeks of cooking under my belt and some successful recipes, I’ve gathered enough confidence to start keeping a blog that follows my cooking endeavors. It’s mainly for my own amusement, but also something potentially useful to people looking to make decent dishes on a budget. I hope this blog becomes practical for all my friends in a similar stage of life. 

Happy cooking!