Yesterday sucked.  What even was the sheet of ice on the roads and the 6:45 am meeting I had an hour away? Did your day suck too? Do you need a mindless 25 minute activity to decompress and fill your tum?

Tada! Risotto.

Making risotto is too good.  You have to care the first couple times you make it but after that you can make it over and over infinity different ways while being able to check out and calm yourself after a shit day.   And at the end of a bad day what is better than what is essentially a fancy cheese/carb combo?

We made lemon risotto last night.  You could easily add spring vegetables to make this a primavera, a handful of spinach, or sundried tomatoes.  It’s DELICIOUS served solo or with a little chicken/fish.  Giada hollows out some lemons and serves the risotto in them as an appetizer (she’s so wild) and Ina forms them into a patty and makes risotto cakes (she’s so awesome).  It’s your world when it comes to risotto.

In a saucepan heat over medium low 6 cups of chicken stock (I only had 5 on hand so I added a cup of water and no on died).  Heat on medium 1.5 tablespoons butter and 1.5 tablespoons of olive oil in a large sauté pan. Saute two diced shallots in this for 6 minutes until softened.  Add two cups of Arborio rice (you can’t swap out the rice type- I’m watching you).  Toast the rice for one minute and then add 0.25 cups of DRY white wine.  Then drink this wine the remainder of making/devouring the risotto.  Stir the rice with the wine for 30 seconds and then add 1.5 cups of the warm stock.  Now the rest of this is really chill.  You just stir the risotto constantly for 25 minutes.  Every couple minutes (and every time the risotto looks like it is getting too dry) add 0.5 cups of stock.  You want the rice to be cooked but still have some bite to it.  Mushy risotto is for losers.

Okay that’s it.  Now you could flavor it however you want but we added the juice from 1.5 lemons, the zest from 2 lemons, 1 cups of freshly grated parmesan, a small handful of chopped flat leaf parsley and 1.5 tablespoons of butter . Yeah more butter.  This is why risotto tastes so good at a restaurant.  Don’t be janky just own it and add the extra butter.

So you literally just hovered over a carb pile for half an hour stirring/salivating/forgetting how much your day sucked.  Don’t feel better?

Normally pancakes are not my go to because they often taste like leathery disks doused in a maple syrup that actually has nothing to do with maple (get REAL maple syrup- I like Grade B).   This recipe, however; is a perfect go to for delicious pancakes.  It is also a perfect thing to make if you have left over buttermilk from making Blood Orange Cake.

These pancakes are clouds.  My taste buds exploded eating them.  If you’ve ever eaten a pancake and said to yourself “hmmm these taste especially amazing but why? they are just pancakes…” the answer is buttermilk and egg whites.  Read on for further detail.

At first I thought basic pancakes were too boring for this blog.  Then I ate them and thought- I would give this recipe to you guys as a true gift.  And if you are better than me and have a real griddle you can make them into cute and perfect circles which I did not.

Adapted from Martha Stewart’s Best Buttermilk Pancakes.

In a large bowl, whisk together 2 cups of flour, 2 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp baking soda, 3 tablespoons of sugar and 0.5 tsp kosher salt.

In a separate bowl, mix 2 egg yolks, 4 tablespoons melted butter and 3 cups of buttermilk.  Note: if you get distracted recapping your night with your roommate and take awhile before you mix the wet and dry ingredients, the cold buttermilk will bring the melted butter back to its solid state and things will get weird so…don’t do that

BARELY mix the wet and dry ingredients together.  BARELY. BARELY AT ALL.

Whisk the two egg whites in a bowl until they are stiff.  Fold this (BARELY) into the batter.  This is the secret step that makes them taste extra legit.

Okay batter is done.  Leave it to me to make pancakes that requires three bowls in the batter-making process.  If you are hung over and are just trying to get a carb in your trap as soon as possible, you could simply whisk the dry ingredients, add the wet ingredients (including the two eggs- yolk, white and all) and BARELY mix.  They just won’t taste like clouds sent from heaven.

Heat your griddle (janky sauté pan if you’re me) to medium low.  The pan is hot enough when you put a drop of water on it and it jumps around and dries up.

Using a pastry brush, lightly brush melted butter on the pan.  There are 4 f’ing tablespoons of butter in this batter plus buttermilk so you don’t need to fry these in an inch of butter.

Ladle the batter to the size you want.  When there are bubbles all over the pancakes you can flip.  If you suck at flipping like I do it’s okay they still tasted amazing.

I kept all mine warm on a baking sheet in a 200 degree oven while I made the rest.  I also put our plates in there (these pancakes deserve to be served on a warm plate).  I dusted them with powdered sugar and served them with maple syrup I warmed on the stove.

OH BABY THESE ARE SO GOOD I ATE ROUGHLY 20395803285032532 OF THEM.

I know most guys think once they consume quinoa they have to turn in their man card. Let alone quinoa in a salad. That is why we are calling this the POWER CRUNCH SALAD. Wooooo so masculine. It has all the worlds texture and tastes supa good- you won’t even be grumpy it’s a quinoa salad. Also, for those of you who never make shit off our blog, this salad requires no actual cooking. Just assembling. So no excuses.

Okay so there is no lettuce in this salad (it’s cool, I’ll wait here until you’ve calmed down). The base is straight up veg (aka power aka crunch on crunch on crunch).

I used:

– a half a bunch of radishes sliced thin (and halved)
– a cup or two of green beans cut into one inch pieces
– a cucumber peeled, seeded, halved and sliced (they were out of english cucs- jerks)
-a yellow pepper cut into one inch bites
-4 scallions sliced (not the super green/shitty/flavorless part)
-a handful of chopped parsley
-a cup or two of cooked red quinoa that has cooled- you could use any quinoa… I believe the basic white-ish one is cheapest.. also, I cook mine in chicken stock instead of water for more flavor….To cook quinoa, put 1 cup quinoa with 1.5 cups stock (white trash option: water) and bring to boil then reduce to simmer cover and wait 15 minutes.

Once you have these partying in a bowl, squeeze two limes and a good glug of olive oil over the ingredients. I added a quarter cup or so of pumpkin seeds because I had them left over from the Granola Crusted Walnuts. Sprinkle on a generous pinch of cayenne pepper. Now add crumbled feta… I suggest as much as you feel is appropriate plus 10%.

Trust me this tastes so good. You could throw a piece of chicken or fish on top or just devour as is- yum!