Rom-coms and rice dishes
Welcome to Dining with Dragons: a brand new-sletter for the new year!
Happy New Year! New year, new-sletter, am I right?
Now that I’ve gotten that truly terrible joke out of the way (and my sincerest apologies for subjecting you to it… twice), we’re back with a new rendition of this newsletter! Again!
Welcome to Dining with Dragons, a weekly digest of what I’m reading and what we’re eating. I’ve missed writing, but also have a toddler, so rather than trying to write entire essays (lol) or try to make the rest of my day to day life sound interesting (every day is Groundhog Day with a toddler), I’ve decided to focus on the two things that I am most passionate about (and the only two things I really have time for these days): books and food!
I tend more towards fantasy than any other genre (although you’ll definitely see a good bit of sci-fi, rom-com, and a little of everything else scattered in from time to time). My all-time favorite book from when I was a kid was Dealing with Dragons, so the riff on that seemed like an appropriate name for the new and improved iteration of this newsletter.
And without further ado… this week’s food and fiction!
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What I’m reading
Magical Midlife Flowers: A Magical Midlife Novella by K.F. Breene
I had a Kindle Unlimited subscription that ended on January 3rd, so this was the last KU book I read this time around. K.F. Breene is one of my favorite KU authors, and her Magical Midlife series is my favorite of her books. I’ve been into “midlife” books lately (it’s possible I may have reached that age at some point), and these are a lot of fun (I’m still cackling about a certain scene in book 2). I do wish I’d read this between books 7 and 8 (I believe Flowers was originally released as a Kickstarter perk and only just made available to the public) because it does add a lot of context.
The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston
I always forget how much I love a good rom-com. I’ve been a sci-fi/fantasy type of reader all my life and only recently discovered the joys of rom-com, so please give me all your recs because I have a good bit of catching up to do!
This book hit all the right notes for me. I expected to love the itty bitty bits of time travel alluded to in the title and blurb, and I did! I wasn’t expecting how much it centered around food and books, but for obvious reasons (ahem, the entire focus of this newsletter) I was into it.
Currently reading: The Hurricane Wars: A Novel by Thea Guanzon
I’m about a third of the way through right now, and at first it was giving me Poppy War vibes, but now it’s gone a bit more in the direction of royal fantasy, which I’m always into. I especially always love fantasy novels that take place in Asia-inspired settings. That being said, this book isn’t quite sucking me in as much as I’d hoped it would. Perhaps I’m just not far enough into it yet, but it feels like it jumps around too much, never goes quite enough into depth in any one situation, and still hasn’t committed to what it’s main source of conflict wants to be. Even so, I’ll definitely be finishing it - it’s interesting and enjoyable, just not quite as un-put-downable as I’d hoped.
What we’re eating
ALL THE SUSHI. My family does a sushi feast for New Year’s Day, so we’ve had sushi (and other assorted leftovers) for daaaaays. This was our first year celebrating with the entire family since the pandemic started; I made less sushi than I used to (because: toddler) and still somehow ended up making 30 rolls (plus 4 dozen inari, but my mom stuffed them so all I had to do was top them). Spicy shrimp (or mushroom) inari and bacon crunchy shrimp rolls are a must every year (and last great for leftovers!); I also made some kappa maki, takuan rolls, and a vegetarian roll consisting of sweet potato fries, avocado, fried onions, green onion, and spicy mayo. I also always make kuromame (lucky black soybeans), but that’s easy because I make it ahead of time in the slow cooker. Tasty foods (and lots of leftovers) were had by all.
Frozen bulgogi mandu. Whenever we have a bunch of leftovers, my meal planning brain goes on vacation. And then every single time, I’m caught off guard when - oh shoot - we’ve completely run out of leftovers and what the heck are we going to eat today?! (This was much easier in the days before a toddler, an autoimmune disease, and getting older; back when we could get away with instant ramen, tuna sandwiches, and bowls of cereal for dinner.) In these cases, thank goodness for frozen dumplings! We always have these bulgogi mandu that we get from Costco on hand. 10 minutes at 370F in the air fryer, maybe some rice, kimchi, and fresh greens or cucumbers on the side, and we have an easy meal that even the toddler will eat.
Red curry with veggies, salmon, and shrimp. There were two themes for this week: “Oh no, we’ve run out of leftovers, what do we have in the freezer,” and “dang it I bought too much shrimp, what can I make to use it up?” This was of the latter category. I mixed 2 cans of coconut milk with 4 tbsp red curry paste (2/3 of a jar; we like this one because it doesn’t have any added sugar or other junk), then added 1/2 lb frozen green beans and 2 sweet potatoes (about 10 oz, peeled and cut into 1” cubes; I’d probably use 3-4 sweet potatoes next time) and simmered it over medium heat until the sweet potatoes were fork tender. I tossed in the (already cooked) shrimp at the very end, and then served it over cooked sushi rice. It turned out incredibly satisfying and the toddler ate a ton of it, so I’ll probably make this again very soon.
Pasta and meatballs. Another freezer meal. I had these meatballs in the freezer, warmed them up in the microwave, then tossed them in a pot with a jar of pasta sauce, 1 cup of pasta cooking water, 1 lb cooked pasta, and a tbsp or so of ghee (or butter). If I’d planned ahead, I might have topped it with fresh basil, lemon zest, parmesan, or (if not feeding it to a toddler) red pepper flakes (side note: why are red pepper flakes always SO much spicier then I expect?); as it was, I served it as is, with sides of roasted delicata squash (25m at 400F), air-fried asparagus (14m at 400F), and Olive Garden breadsticks that we also just happened to have in the freezer.
Shrimp and tofu “pad thai”. Emphasis on the quotes around pad thai, because not only was I trying to use up various random ingredients in the fridge, but I also had none of the right ingredients. But the husband requested pad thai to use up the shrimp, so… I made my best attempt. The tamarind concentrate in my pantry expired years ago, and the shrimp was getting to the point of almost questionable, so I didn’t have time to order more, so I tried using this recipe for a tamarind substitute. Then I used this recipe for the pad thai (with the addition of fried tofu, as inspired by Chez Pim’s original recipe, which I had luckily saved because it no longer appears to be online), cut the sugar in half, and omitted or poorly substituted most of the ingredients. Despite all that, it turned out tasty! Definitely not pad thai, and a bit on the salty side (which was clearly entirely user error), but tasty nonetheless. And even better on day 2, when I refried the leftovers with a bag of bean sprouts and an extra half cup of water.
Mochi puffs. Part of my Christmas gifting this year consisted of a bunch of snacks I ordered from Bokksu (which, if you order from there, be aware of long delivery times and that your package may get stuck in customs for a while - my package finally got here three weeks after I ordered it, literally an hour before we were about to leave for our holiday gathering with the recipients!) I got mochi and senbei and other assorted treats, and of course got enough that we could try a little of everything too. It was all tasty of course, but these mochi puffs were the unexpected winner.
Imagine little meringue puffs, but even more unbelievably light, that melt in your mouth with a delicate crunch. We’ve tried three flavors: cheese, kinako, and black sesame (there also appears to be a black sugar flavor, but we haven’t been able to get our hands on that one yet.) The cheese flavor is VERY fake cheese-y - if you’re a fan of cheetos or other powdered cheese-coated puffed snacks, you’ll probably love them, but they were a bit much for us. The kinako and black sesame flavors, on the other hand, are exactly what we want in a snack. Not too sweet, deliciously nutty, extremely craveable. The toddler is addicted to them.
That’s all for this week! What have you been eating and reading lately? Reply to this email or let me know in the comments - I’m always looking for food inspiration and books to add to my TBR!
Hello girl! I love you girl!