I’ve somehow let over three weeks go by since the last time I wrote. Before our trip, I prepped and photographed six recipes to share with you while I was away, approximately one per week. It was good planning on my part, but I arrived home a few days ago and I seem to have only managed to post three of them. Whoops. In reality, I decided that this trip wasn’t the time to be fretting over my blog schedule and unanswered email inquiries – and I’m glad I did. It was nice to let go of some of it for a few weeks, to focus my energy each day on where we were and what we were doing. That’s not to say I traveled anxiety-free or without letting thoughts of home occasionally slip into my mind, but I let go of a lot more than I usually do, especially during our time in Japan, and I enjoyed the trip so much more for it.

I had originally intended this recipe for my February fitness goal post, but fitness goals are another thing I’ve let slide. I’m not too concerned about it – we spent 6 weeks walking 10+ miles a day, not sitting on a couch. Still, this is the kind of food I am very much looking forward to eating now that I am home – simple, light, and nourishing. We had fairly few “Western” meals during our 6 weeks in Asia – a few hamburgers in Hong Kong, a pizza one night. Both Hong Kong and Japan have such incredible food cultures, we were never bored with or tired of the local offerings. I wasn’t particularly anxious to get home, but walking through the door Monday night I was surprisingly happy to be here. And there are things that I’m looking forward to now that I’m back – yogurt and berries, real avocado toast, affordable wine and brie, giant grain salads. Planning for our garden this spring and getting back into decorating the house. Probably most of all, seeing my friends and family. And it’s almost spring! I might skip winter every year.

Now that I’m home, I’m also excited to be back in the kitchen (or at least I will be once we’ve managed to get some groceries). I’m full of inspiration for soups, noodles, dumplings, and street food – don’t be surprised if this blog takes a decidedly Asian slant for the next few months. But before we get to all that, I have this Nordic-inspired, healthy salmon and rice bowl for you, with pickled beets and dilled sour cream. It is super quick and easy to put together, and satisfying without being heavy. It’s also seasonally appropriate, beets being one of the few vegetables we New Englanders can get locally in the middle of winter. In fact, revisiting it now, I’m thinking this might be a good one to go on my grocery list this week. Enjoy!

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Scandi Salmon Bowl with Pickled Beets and Dilled Sour Cream

Pickled beets adapted from Gourmet. Serves 4.

• 2 beets, boiled until tender, peeled, and thinly sliced
• 1/4 c. sugar
• 1/4 c. water
• 1/2 c. apple cider vinegar
• 1/4 tsp mustard seed
• 1/4 tsp dill seed
• 1/2 c. sour cream
• juice from 1/2 fresh lemon
• 2 TBS minced fresh dill
• 1 shallot, peeled and finely minced
• sea salt, to taste
• 3 c. prepared brown rice, farro, or other nutty whole grain
• 8 oz. hot-smoked salmon, flaked into bite-size pieces

1. Place thinly sliced beets in a heatproof bowl. In a small saucepan, stir together sugar, water, cider vinegar, mustard seed, and dill seed, and bring to a gentle simmer over low heat. Simmer for 5 minutes, then pour over the sliced beets. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for at least 24 hours before serving.
2. To prepare the dilled sour cream, mix sour cream, lemon juice, dill and minced shallot together in a bowl until evenly combined. Season to taste with sea salt.
3. To serve, fill 4 bowls with a few scoops of cooked rice or farro. Top the rice with the flaked salmon, a few pickled beets, and a dollop of sour cream. Best served when rice is still slightly warm.

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It’s been a whirlwind two weeks in Hong Kong. We’ve been to temples, beaches, horse races, mountain-tops and markets selling everything from parrots to orchids. I’ve eaten more bowls of noodles and dumplings than is good for one person, totally offsetting the extra steps and uphill runs. It’s rained every day save one, but somehow it hasn’t held us back much. I’m enjoying myself and there have been some real highs, but I’ll admit that at times it’s also a little overwhelming. That can happen when you’re sharing an island with 7 million people! Still, I’m so happy I’m here and that Trevor is here with me. I’m taking copious notes on everything to share with you when we get back, but for now, I’m mostly just soaking it all in.

I wanted to share this hearty Loaded Baked Potato Soup in advance of the impending blizzard facing my friends and family back at home this weekend. I’m not trying to rub it in – Hong Kong is due to experience record low temperatures this weekend, dipping down into the mid-30s. Not as advertised for a country on the same latitude as Cabo! So I will also be cozying up to a bowl of soup this weekend, most likely with noodles in it.

Loaded Baked Potato Soup came back onto my radar for the first time in years on the way home from our engagement trip to Vermont – we stopped at a little bagel shop halfway home and I ordered a bowl of it as soon as I saw it on the menu. For someone whose ultimate childhood meal consisted of 2 orders of the loaded potato skins at a local restaurant where 95% of the clientele was over 60, it was impossible to resist. I understand that this recipe is a bit pedestrian, a little clunky, and definitely all-American but I’m all for it anyways. It’s based on a deep-seated American love for potatoes, bacon, and sour cream served in concert – an utterly delicious combination that has almost no nutritional value. But it’s so good, and even more so when the weather is cold and your energy is flagging. As an added bonus, it’s easily made from pantry ingredients – as long as bacon and cheddar cheese are staples in your pantry, too – so those of you on the East Coast can whip it up without a trip out into the cold and snow.

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Loaded Baked Potato Soup

Adapted from Betty Crocker. Serves 6.

• 6 oz. bacon, cut in 2-inch lengths
• 1 onion, peeled and diced
• 3 large russet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
• 4 c. chicken stock
• 3/4 c. light ale
• 3 TBS butter
• 3 TBS flour
• 2 c. whole milk
• 1 1/2 c. shredded cheddar cheese, plus more for garnish
• salt and pepper to taste
• 4 scallions, thinly sliced, for garnish
• sour cream, for garnish

1. In a large stockpot, arrange bacon in a single layer and cook until crispy over medium-low heat, about 3-4 minutes per side. Cook in batches if necessary. Move the cooked bacon on a paper-towel lined plate, reserving the grease in the pan. When cool, crumble into small pieces.
2. Add the diced onion to the reserved bacon grease and cook, stirring frequently, until soft and translucent, about 5-7 minutes. Add the diced potato and the chicken stock and bring to a boil. Boil until potatoes are very tender, about 15-20 minutes, then add the ale and remove from the heat. Use an immersion blender to blend the soup until smooth. Return to the heat over medium-low, at a very gentle simmer.
3. In a separate saucepan, melt butter over medium-low heat. Add flour and whisk vigorously, cooking flour for 1-2 minutes until it gives off a nutty fragrance. Slowly drizzle in milk, whisking constantly as you do to incorporate into the flour and butter mixture. Continue cooking over medium-low heat until mixture has thickened into a sauce. Remove from heat and stir into the blended potato mixture until evenly combined. Remove potato mixture from heat and add cheddar cheese a handful at a time, stirring to help the cheese melt into the soup. Season soup to taste with salt and pepper. Ladle the soup into bowls and top with the crumbled bacon, sliced scallions, sour cream, and additional shredded cheddar cheese. Serve hot.

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So, the friendly people over at Marx Foods recently asked the internet-at-large “What have you done to be a good foodie this year?”  And, being a member of the internet-at-large, I felt compelled to answer them.  It would’ve been rude not to, right?

And so I began pondering.  Pondering and musing.  This was my first year blogging, and I’m getting the hang of it.  My second year cooking for myself, and people seem to think I’m alright at that.  My 21st year eating, and I consider myself a master at that.  So I have some experience with food.  But what about this year made it different?  Seeing as how it’s finals week and I’m a senior in college and I’ve been having all sorts of deep thoughts about the value of a good education and how college has changed me and what on earth I am going to do in the real world, the answer came to me pretty quickly.

Learning.  This year, in the realm of food and in pretty much all the other realms of my life, the thing that has been most significant throughout my experiences has been learning.  In terms of food and blogging and eating, I’ve learned a ton.  Big things and little things.  Big things like how to take a decent food photo, how huge the difference is between high quality and cheap ingredients, and how much work (but oh how rewarding too!) blogging can be.  Little things like how to like mushrooms and tomatoes, two foods I was convinced I hated a year ago, how incredible slices of fresh avocado can taste, that cardamom is what makes danish pastries taste like danish pastries and not just any other baked good, and how to consistently make good pasta dough.  I’ve tried countless new recipes, ordered meals I wouldn’t have touched as a kid, and discovered incredible websites.  On any given day I probably spend a good hour or two thinking about food and recipes and menus – sometimes actively, but sometimes passively, like when I’m sitting in class and realize that half of my notebook is filled with flavor combinations rather than steel code stipulations like it should be.  And I like it.  I hope I can find a way to make this learning continue and deepen.

In the non-food portion of my life I’ve learned a lot too.  Probably too much to say.  So I’ll just touch on the big stuff… like how to take care of my own finances.  How to dress and talk and smile for job interviews.  How to be rejected from said job interviews.  How much I truly love to dance.  How to stop crying and pull yourself together when you’ve been dumped and your world feels shattered.  How frustrating research is.  How good independence feels.  How important being with other human beings on a daily basis is.  How little I know about what I want in my life.  How much time I have to figure it out.  How to save your last tailgate.  And on and on.

And there you have it.  That’s what’s made me a good foodie, and a good student, and good at being myself this year.  And since I couldn’t leave you without a recipe, in the spirit of learning to like new things and those friendly people over at Marx Foods, I decided to try their Hungarian Mushroom Soup.  They posted it a few weeks ago, and although they aren’t flavors I usually work with, the recipe really intrigued me.  Maybe it’s the time of year.  Maybe it’s my recent mushroom kick – now that I know I like them, I want to eat them!  Maybe it’s my inner Eastern European.  Who knows.  But I made it, and although I was apprehensive beforehand, I liked it more with every bite.  It tastes very authentic (although you should know that my only authority in that matter comes from one week in Hungary last year), and rich and the dill really comes through in a great way.  It also took 30 minutes to come together, including 20 minutes of time soaking the mushrooms, so that was a nice surprise.  Everyone loves a 10 minute meal.  The only thing that put me off about it was the chewiness of the reconstituted mushrooms – next time I would either chop them up into smaller pieces pre-soak, or blend the soup when it was finished.

One last thing… Since they asked, the gift I would most like to receive if a stocking full of edible goodies happened to arrive on my doorstep from Marx Foods would be saffron threads.  Why?  Honestly, because they are way out of my weekly food budget range, and they have such a lovely flavor and I keep having to not make recipes where they are a key ingredient.

Hungarian Mushroom Soup

Reposted from Marx Foods, scaled down to serve 2.

• 1/2 oz. dried mushooms
• 1 TBS butter
• 1/2 c. diced onion
• 1 TBS flour
• 1 c. milk
• 1 tsp. paprika
• 1/2 c. stock or water
• 2 TBS sour cream
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp. dill
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. vinegar

1. Pour boiling water over mushrooms to cover.  Let stand 20 minutes.
2. In a medium saucepan, sautee onions in butter until translucent.  Add flour and cook for another 2 minutes, stirring constantly.
3. Add mushrooms and their soaking water and stir until thickened.  Add milk and paprika and cook 2-3 minutes.
4. Add 1/2 c. stock, sour cream, lemon juice, dill, salt, and vinegar and stir until all incorporated.  Cook 2-3 minutes more to let flavors combine.  Serve hot with a dollop of sour cream.

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