In this era of COVID-19 quarantining, one of my biggest joys has been trying out new recipes. I’ve gladly tossed aside my quick-and-easy mindset to cooking, and I’ve replaced it with more complex undertakings that require 30-60 minutes. I’ve also seriously considered buying a sous vide, a food torch, or a 5-lb tub of Nutella….
Crunchy Baked Falafel Pockets
One of my favorite hobbies is going to Trader Joe’s without a defined shopping list. It’s an unpredictable adventure with just the right amount of risk. (How many unnecessary things will I buy? Stay tuned to find out!) This is the way in which I discovered many of my favorite TJ foods: champagne grapes, frozen…
Savory Oatmeal
You’ve probably figured out by now that I like switching things up. So when the idea came to me to rethink one of my breakfast favorites — oatmeal — I jumped on it. Savory oatmeal. What is this madness, you might ask? But think about it. Sometimes you wake up and don’t want sugary toast, sweet…
15-Minute Vegan Beef Tacos
As much as I love spending time creating in the kitchen, I simply don’t have time these days to explore as much as I’d like to. What happens to your diet when you don’t have time? Some might resort to fast food. Some might befriend their neighborhood vending machine. Some might eat copious amounts of…
Crispy Crunchy Wraps
You take a bite. The warm tortilla crunches soundly against your teeth, breaking into brittle shards as the delicious contents reveal themselves to your taste buds. This is the ideal wrap—crunchy and light, simple enough to make on a weekday but good enough to bring to a potluck. The best part is this: all you need…
Vegan BBQ Pulled Pork
This. Is. Amazing. And also one of my favorite food hacks. Who knew that jackfruit – a spiky-looking fruit thing – could be used to make a nice, hearty barbecue? Obviously, this won’t be the exact same as pulled pork. But it does have way fewer calories if that’s what you’re into, and is also way better in…
Baked Honey & Soy Sauce Chicken Thighs
Astoundingly tender. Sweet like warm honey, yet dangerous like an addiction. If you have chicken thighs in the freezer, thaw them now. Break out the honey left over from the No-Oven Honey Roasted Almonds. If you don’t have soy sauce, go buy some right now. If you’re going to try one main dish from anything on…
Vegan Mashed Potatoes & Gravy
A real thing that happened recently, while planning a Friendsgiving: Friend: “We still need someone to make mashed potatoes and gravy…” Me: “Ooh I could do it! I could make vegan mashed potatoes and gravy!” *collective “uhhh” around the room and frowns of disgust* So apparently I’ve been living around such a bubble of tree-hugging millennials that I…
Chocolate Biscotti
I always thought making biscotti would be complicated just because they were so classy. In my mind, biscotti were in the same category as croissants – a coffee shop delicacy that I could never recreate at home. You can imagine my delight when I found that this wasn’t the case at all! I think…
Sweet ‘n Crunchy Toast
If you haven’t had some version of sugary toast for breakfast lately, you’re missing out. Because you know, nothing beats warm toast for breakfast. It gives your taste buds that early-morning buzz. It gives your ego that early-morning boost (because toast + powdered sugar + strawberries is what a real adult professional would do)….
Try This: Baking Powder + Pancake Mix
Sometimes, you need pancake mix. It’s for those mornings when you don’t feel like beating together this many eggs and this much flour, then mixing (but not over mixing!) and then eating pancakes 20 minutes later, after which most have already cooled since you cooked them in separate batches. But the other option, pancake mix, gives…
Vanilla Crème Brioche
Perhaps the most fascinating thing about French cooking is the artistry. It’s all about the quality of ingredients, the slow simmers, the nuances of flavor. In a rushed world that often treats cooking as a chore, French cooking reminds us to pause and savor. And this is the perfect thing to savor – it’s buttery and…
Actually Healthy Greek Yogurt Potato Salad
What’s the secret ingredient in this little potato salad? Well, sit down, kids, and let me tell you a story. Once upon a time, there lived a Potato. Now, this Potato was a kind and easy-going fellow, and he easily made friends with some other little foods. Some of his friends were bad apples, though….
Current Obsession: PB2
The three certainties in life are death, taxes, and the universal human experience of spooning peanut butter straight from the jar at 1:00am. And although peanut butter is packed with energy and “healthy” to people with self control (read: no one), it still has a lot of saturated fats and unnecessary calories. Which is why PB2…
30-Minute Spiced Chicken Thighs
You probably know chicken. You probably know it’s pretty easy to make, it’s almost always savory, and it plays nice with a bunch of different other foods. While I’ve been mostly vegetarian/vegan lately, I do enjoy some nice, responsibly-raised chicken once in a while. I usually go for the chicken breasts (lean and mean) —…
Try This: Toasted Croissants
I realize that French food connoisseurs might have something against this, but for me, this is a way of living. I will never eat croissants the same way again. A flaky, buttery, warm, crunchy, delicious start to the day. It’s especially delicious when you use a big fluffy croissant, snatched right out of the glass…
Healthy Marinated & Steamed Tilapia
My mom is a seasoned veteran of the home cooking world, but even she raved over this recipe. “Cici,” she said excitedly on the phone. “You have to try this out.” “Oh, okay, yeah,” I replied, hoping she wasn’t using her mom senses to detect what I was eating at the moment. “What are you doing…
Simply Crispy Asparagus
I was really excited about having my own apartment kitchen this year, but then I realized something: I actually don’t eat a lot. For example, one day I raided the bulk foods section of my local grocery store. Among my digs: precisely $0.21 worth of black rice. Not that I counted the grains, but there were 132 of…
Molten Chocolate Cobbler
Oh my goodness. The bliss you experience with this cobbler is greater than any bliss you have ever experienced. That is no exaggeration. I’m not lying. I’m still not lying. It’s not opposite day. It’s still not opposite day. But seriously. This piping-hot mess, with its gooey ooey center that slowly oozes a streak of…
Baked & Breaded Fish Fillets
Don’t get me wrong, I love my deep-fried fish fillets—preferably wedged between two sides of a warm and soft taco shell, embedded between a sprinkling of vibrant vegetables and topped with some form of zesty sauce. But we can’t always have what we want. Sometimes we have to (try to be) somewhat (kind of) healthy….
Simple Onion and Bell Pepper Stir-Fry
This is the ultimate Asian comfort food: easy to make, simply delicious, and goes really well with plain white rice. It doesn’t get any easier than this. Stir-frying is already one of the simplest cooking techniques, and the onion-and-bell-pepper combo is one of my all-time favorites. The onion’s aroma mingles with the crispy freshness of the…
Try This: Easier Hard-Boiled Eggs
Have you been overcomplicating hard-boiled eggs? Probably. At first I thought Martha Stewart’s recipe was complicated just because she’s Martha Stewart. But then I found other recipes that called for the same kind of method: cover the eggs with one inch of water, leave on stove for exactly this many minutes, drain carefully, la la…
20-Minute Lentil Soup
Ah, is there a food as comforting as soup? Warm, savory, aromatic. The perfect adieu dish for a cold cold winter that is soon to be over (tomorrow, in fact!). The problem with soup is that it’s often unhealthy. Now, I’m certainly not opposed to the occasional splurge on cheese and butter and sugar, but soup is one…
Crunchy Chewy Kitchen Sink Cookies
Oh wow. These turned out way better than I had anticipated, and I couldn’t wait to share this recipe with you! These cookies ate the perfect balance between crunch and munch: they’re crispy and golden brown on the edges, and melty-gooey in the center. Absolutely stunning, and absolutely killer with a glass of cold milk….
Two-Ingredient Microwave Fudge
Seriously, if this isn’t the simplest fudge you have ever encountered, I don’t know how I can help you. This one recipe inspired me to think about starting up a new section of this blog, called Kitchen Easy. Get it? It rhymes and it sounds like Kitchen Cici! Oh come on, don’t be stingy with…
Rosemary Cheese Bread
Carbs are delicious. Especially when they’re in the form of an imperfectly-formed, warm loaf of bread, inside of a crinkly and obnoxious paper bag fresh from the bakery. When it’s crispy and chewy on the outside, and moist and fluffy on the inside. When the dough has been aged just the right amount, giving it…
Easy One-Step Pumpkin Cake
It’s perfect timing, really. Now that Thanksgiving and the holidays are over, it’s high time to load up on some of those delicious grocery store sales. You know: the $1 festive cake mix, the 50¢ box of candy canes. This time, though, it was the $1.24 canned pumpkin that caught my eye. And then I wondered…
Scrumptious Oatmeal Carrot Muffins
Do you fear the muffin man? I used to. But these simple little muffins changed everything. Now, you might recall that in the Kitchen Cici episode “Seriously Amazing Blueberry Muffins,” there were quite a few careful steps. I mean, those amazing blueberry muffins took some real deep-seafood-fried cooking patience. I have no idea what I just said….
Savory Profiteroles
The perfect appetizer, the cutest little bundle of joy, a savory-delicious mid-afternoon snack. Ladies and gentlemen, may I present to you: a savory take on the classic chocolate-and-whipped-cream French profiteroles. These are inspired by stuffed mushrooms, but they come with a bit more novelty than their American fungus counterparts. These are fantastic made just for…
Sweet ‘n Buttery Carrots
What can you do when you wake up one day and find that 6 pounds of carrots have found their way into your fridge? Well, you could make carrot muffins, carrot cake, and carrot soup, but that will only get you so far. What you need to do is eat straight carrot. I’m sorry, there…
KITCHEN CICI 