Rubbishy Cookery

  It’s that time of year again—holiday parties! You have to bring something, you can’t arrive empty handed, but what can you whip up rubbishly without appearing rubbishy? I can help you. These nuts are originally from a published recipe on a long-forgotten bougie recipe blog, but I’ve pimped them up so much I don’t feel any compunction to confess to any plagiarism. These nuts are original Rubbishy Cookery now baby. Ingredients: Directions: This first part is the part I’ve “borrowed” from the other posh blog (whose name I’ve forgotten so I couldn’t credit them even if I wanted to. Sorry not sorry!). Toast a tray of mixed or single type of nuts at 300F for about 10-15 minutes or until the nuts are fragrant and light brown inside, without burning them: This part is critical (and thanks to the other highbrow blog of long forgotten title): get those hot nuts into a bowl and pour in a good glug  of tamari sauce and a smaller glug of toasted sesame oil—they will sizzle hard and evapo...

  Wow—today is not only the 50th rubbishy post, but also the Winter Solstice, and where I live, the first winter storm (a nor’ easter, no less!) of the year! Let’s get cosy and make a warm pot of Tuscan soup! Ingredients: What you’ll notice in the photo above is the great deal on ground turkey—enjoy today, 50% off! What a deal! What you may not notice in the photo above is that the fresh kale was harvested from my backyard garden just hours before the storm started.  Imagine—a December harvest of kale! And half price ground turkey! I feel hashtag blessed. Directions: Start by mixing ingredients for the turkey meatballs: ground turkey, a generous handful or two of quick cook rolled oats, 1-2 tablespoons-ish each of garlic powder, onion powder, dried thyme, dried basil, not pictured but assumed S&P, and a really good amount of finely grated Parmesan cheese. Mix it all up with your hands and add more oats if necessary to get a good texture, i.e., one in which to form meatball...

It’s holiday season—the most wonderful time of the year! Let’s have eggnog lattés! Ingredients: I’m making a decaf eggnog latté because I’m feeling seasonal, but not so much that I want to be up all night. But you do you. Note the equipment involved: stovetop espresso maker and milk foamer (the latter was previously seen in Recipe #37, matcha latté). If you have an actual espresso maker, by all means use it! Directions: If using a stovetop espresso maker, take it apart and first add cold water to the base to the level of the bottom of the little screw on the side: Next, add the middle section with the basket for the ground espresso and fill gently with the coffee. I don’t pack it down and it seems to work better this way with this device: Screw on the top, and it’s ready to go. Next, add water to the bottom section of the stovetop milk foamer: Not too much water, about a couple of centimetres worth, you want the water to boil quickly and a lot of steam to build up in the bottom section...

  I was making this recipe for baked beans long before I had an Instant Pot, and so you can too. But as you’ll see, the IP makes everything a whole lot simpler. Ingredients (the night before): What we have in the photo above is two cups of dried Jacob’s cattle beans in a large bowl of water to soak overnight. You can use any beans you like here. To be more of a classic canned baked beans, use the smaller white “navy” beans. Full set of ingredients: Note: feel free to add bacon or ham or other pork product if you want the meaty version. Directions: The next morning, drain your overnight soaked beans and place in the IP with water covering, but not exceeding the halfway measure, to avoid overflow: Check the manual for pressure cooking time for the beans you’ve chosen and soaked. Since Jacob’s cattle beans aren’t listed, I’ll approximate the time based on similarly sized beans listed here: And choose 8 minutes: I let it have a slow release after the 8 minutes, and here they are, prett...