Made an awesome dish this afternoon of spicy Korean eggplant. It was a hit! The eggplant was nice and creamy, and the sauce had a nice heat to it. I'll definitely be making this again, and it's so cheap to make, which is also a win.

Recipe that I used is from here, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfXK7vc-Z7A

Been using my bread maker to make pizza dough and make pizza at home. Cheaper and more rewarding then ordering out.

Turns out I had a mulberry tree growing near my apartment the whole time. While it would have been nice to have a few more mulberries for the filling, it still came out good with this recipe:

https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/berry-cobbler

I think this is my first baked cake. Inspired by Ascendance of a Bookworm series.

It's a bit out of focus but still clear enough to see.

I made myself a BBQ burger. BBQ sauce, ketchup, lettuce, red onion, bacon, with cheddar cheese.

Made delicious Moroccan spiced lamb tacos in fresh naan with:

• onions pickled in apple cider vinegar, white vinegar, lemon juice and a touch of honey
• thinly sliced cabbage
• fresh made tzatziki (made this morning so the flavors could marinate)
• tomatoes roasted with garlic, onion, salt, pepper, and oregano

UPDATE: Recipes and instructions!

These are not all original recipes, but most of them are modified, so I've included the recipes as I made them, but also links to the original recipe source.

Bread

Naan (source) (Naan can be made ahead. I made mine fresh before prepping the meat)

Ingredients:

• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 cup warm water
• 1/4 oz. active dry yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons)
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup plain yogurt (I use whole milk greek)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 Tablespoon garlic powder (approximate. I didn't measure, just dumped some in)
• 1 Tablespoon onion powder (approximate. I didn't measure, just dumped some in)
• 1 Tablespoon chili powder (approximate. I didn't measure, just dumped some in)
• 1 -3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• butter for the skillet
• salt for cooking the naan

Instructions:

• Heat the water to around 105-110F (approx 40-43C)
• Add the yeast and sugar to the water and whisk until blended. Let sit for appox 10 minutes to bloom the yeast. It should be foamy
• Put the flour on a large countertop/work surface and add the spices. Mix together with your hands, and when well mixed, make a well in the middle of the flour mixture.
• Add the yogurt, yeast mixture, and 1 Tablespoon olive oil to the well
• Knead the mixture together. If the mixture feels a little dry, add more olive oil as needed, a little at a time until it doesn't feel dry.
• Knead the dough for 10-15 minutes until it is smooth and shiny
• Add a Tablespoon of olive oil to a large bowl and coat the sides and bottom of the bowl with the oil
• Place the dough in the bowl and cover with a damp towel.
• Place the bowl in a warm spot to rise for a minimum of one hour until doubled in size (I like to let mine rise for 2+ hours)
• Once risen, turn the dough out onto a cutting board and divide into 8 equal pieces
• Lightly flour your workspace and your rolling pin
• Pre heat your skillet and add a teaspoon of butter. (I use a cast iron but any larger skillet will do, I also cook the naan as I'm rolling out the other pieces. If this is too much, roll out all the dough first, and then cook it)
• Roll out the pieces of dough into around an 8in/20cm diameter. It will be irregularly shaped, which is fine. Flip and turn the dough frequently as you roll it out and dust with additional flour as needed to keep it from sticking to the rolling pin or your work surface
• When cooking, lightly salt the first side of the dough and place it in the pan, and then sprinkle salt on the other side.
• Cook for 2-3 minutes per side. The dough should bubble up nicely and brown nicely as it cooks.
• Stack on a plate for serving.

Garnishes

Note: Highly recommended to make these ahead to allow the flavors to meld. I made all the garnishes in the morning

Pickled Onions (This is part of the Moroccan Spiced Lamb recipe below but I went rogue with this one)

Ingredients:

• 1/2 red onion thinly sliced
• 1-2 T white vinegar
• 1-2 T apple cider vinegar
• juice of one lemon
• a touch of honey

Instructions:

• Mix everything together in a bowl. If making day of, cover and let sit at room temp to marinate. If making day(s) ahead, cover and refrigerate until needed.

Tzatziki Sauce (source)

Ingredients:

• 1 English cucumber
• Salt
• 5 to 10 garlic cloves minced
• 1 tsp white vinegar
• 1 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 2 cups plain Greek yogurt
• 1/2 - 1 cup dill (my wife LOVES dill, so adjust this to taste. We don't measure, she just adds handfuls of dill)
• Fresh cracked black pepper to taste

Instructions:

• In a large enough bowl for all the ingredients, add the vinegar, olive oil and garlic and whisk together
• Grate the cucumbers on a box grater or with your food processor
• Using a cheese cloth, in batches, squeeze the water out of the cucumber. There will be a lot of water. They don't need to be perfectly dry, but squeeze out a bunch of the water. Put the squeezed cucumber in the bowl
• Add the yogurt, dill, and salt to taste (I add around 1 T salt, but I like salt), and mix everything together with a spatula. Cover and refrigerate to allows the flavors to marinate

Roasted Tomatoes (this is an original recipe)

Note: We put them on the tacos cold/room temp

Ingredients:

• Tomatoes of choice (we sometimes use grape tomatoes, roma, whatever tomatoes we happen to have)
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Salt
• Pepper
• Dried Parsley
• Onion powder
• Garlic powder

Instructions:

Note: None of this is measured, so add everything to taste. If you need a starting point, if using 1 pint grape tomatoes, use approximately 1t garlic powder, 4T parsley, and 1T of the rest, and 1T olive oil to coat. Adjust as necessary depending on the volume of tomatoes you are roasting.

• Pre heat oven to 400F/205C
• Line a baking sheet with parchment paper
• Cut up tomatoes. If using grape or similar, cut in half. If using roma or larger, slice around .25in/2.5cm thick
• Place tomatoes in large bowl/tupperware that has a lid
• Drizzle with olive oil for coating.
• Add in all spices
• Cover bowl and toss to thoroughly coat tomatoes with oil and spices
• Spread tomatoes out on baking sheet, use more baking sheets as needed so that the tomatoes aren't layered on top of each other
• Cook for approximately 50 minutes, but keep an eye on them so they don't burn. I like my tomatoes with some caramelization, so I tend to like to go an hour or longer depending on the tomatoes. (but I'm always watching them so they don't burn)

Sliced Cabbage

Ingredients:

• small head of cabbage

Instructions:

• thinly slice

Meat

Moroccan Spiced Lamb (source)

Ingredients:

• 1 lb ground lamb
• 1 tsp. sea salt
• ½ tsp. garlic powder
• ½ tsp. ground cumin
• ¼ tsp. ground ginger
• ¼ tsp. ground cinnamon
• freshly cracked pepper
• 1/2 jalapeno pepper de seeded

Instructions:

• Char the jalapeno over an open flame (I do it over a gas burner). Once it reaches your desired level of char, dice finely and set aside in a small bowl
• Add the spices to the bowl with the jalapeno
• Brown the lamb in a skillet
• Once browned, remove from heat and remove some of the grease (I sop it up with paper towels) so that it's not swimming in the fat
• Return to heat on low and add the spice and jalapeno mixture to the meat and mix well. Turn off heat and set aside.

Assemble

Instructions:

• Spread some tzatziki on the naan
• Add the lamb
• Add the onions
• Add the cabbage
• Top with tomatoes
• Enjoy!

Served with some sparkling rosé. My local store had tails on sale and I had not had them in a while. Never want to go that long again without having them because boy is lobster really good.

This was just a simple recipe of melted butter with garlic, dill, paprika, old bay, salt and pepper brushed over it before and after following this recipe since they also had a video on how to cut the lobster. Though I ended up using my fingers for most of it.

The salad was another easy recipe and we ended up mixing some of the extra goat cheese and lobster drippings together for a delicious cracker topping.

Three sets of tortillas was not enough to eat all of this... I'm so full!

Made chicken gyros today, made the chicken, tzatziki sauce, and the pita bread. It all tasted fantastic.

Cilantro lime rice, garlic black beans, chipotle chicken, queso fresco, corn salsa, fresh lettuce.

But those tomatoes really stole the show

Look at that browned crust.

Tomato sauce, mozzarella, and "red devil" beer sausage.

Red Thai chicken curry with coconut rice Cucumber salad Grilled chicken satay

These are basically samoas (the Girl Scout cookie) built on top of full sized Scottish shortbreads, laden with caramel, toasted coconut, and dipped in chocolate. Normal samoas are designed so you can eat the whole box before you hate yourself. These accomplish that aim with just one.

It seems that I'm into sweet stuff lately...