Ricotta Pancakes with Lemon Curd

My roommates officially think I'm crazy.

I'm currently living in an Airbnb with two close friends for the summer while we transition apartments. The previous Airbnb was super cute, but the kitchen was lacking: a hot plate, mini fridge, and a toaster oven were all we had to work with for two weeks. This second place at least has a full kitchen and boasts around 20 different pots and skillets; but oddly at the same time, it has almost no other kitchen tools. And so the improvising begins.

The other day I made a delicious jar of homemade lemon curd--gold, I tell you!--and obviously, I had to make something worthy of spreading such a delicacy on.

Enter, ricotta pancakes. Light, tender, melt-in-your-mouth good. An ideal vessel for lemon curd.

I had all the ingredients except ricotta, which I promptly bought. That night, lying in bed dreaming about the pancakes, I suddenly panicked. What makes the pancakes so light and tender? Whipped egg whites. And not simply whipped, but whipped to stiff peaks. Oh no.

No stand mixer. No handheld blender. Not even a whisk.

The next evening, I assessed the kitchen situation. I would have to whisk the egg whites by hand...with a fork. And with a blender bottle insert held with tongs. Oi.

I separated the eggs, let them come to room temperature, and added cream of tartar to give myself as much of an advantage as possible.

Then I began to whip. And whip. And whip.

It was hard work, but I did see progress. After 10 minutes, the egg whites were not only frothy, but starting to gain some volume.

And then they didn't. They started to deflate. That was when I realized that the back of the fork was hitting the egg whites and deflating the poor, delicate things!

I switched to the blender bottle-tong contraption. Definitely not ideal. But after 20 more minutes of whipping as fast and hard as I could, switching hands when needed, I had soft peaks! Good enough for me--it was 80º in the kitchen, with no AC.

From there it was smooth sailing, and I cooked up a whole pile of pancakes to eat in the following mornings. I was relieved they tasted good after all that hard work!

If you're interested in these recipes, here are the ones I used (I highly recommend NOT whipping the egg whites by hand haha):

Ricotta Pancakes from Food 52

https://food52.com/recipes/24533-cottage-cheese-pancakes-with-creme-fraiche-and-seasonal-fruit

Lemon Curd from Sally's Baking Addiction

https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/how-to-make-lemon-curd/

Egg Casserole

This recipe may seem pretty average and unexciting...but let me tell you, there is nothing boring about the flavor at all! Somehow, the simple ingredients of eggs, milk, cheese, bread, meat and a few flavorings all come together to create something delicious.

We've been making this casserole for years at home, but recently, I paired it down to a single-serving to fit in my mini cast iron skillet. Perfect, since it's just me here! It was ooey-gooey, cheesy, and delicious, and I burned my tongue about a million times because turns out 350º cast iron is a great insulator and I had no patience. But you should do this immediately. It was SO cute and fun and delicious. No sharing with other people or my future self required!

Sausage Egg Casserole
Serves: 3-5

6 slices white bread, cubed
1 lb. bulk pork sausage
1 cup shredded cheese (sharp, Swiss, or mixed)
6 eggs, slightly beaten
2 cups milk
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp. mustard
1/2 tsp. salt
dash of pepper

dash of nutmeg


Brown sausage in frying pan; drain grease. Place bread on bottom of greased 9x13 pan or baking dish. Sprinkle on sausage next, followed by cheese. Combine remaining ingredients and pour over.
Cover and refrigerate for several hours or overnight. Bake 350°F for 45-50 min.


Customizations:
-Replace sausage with cubed ham
-Change up the cheese (eg. mozzarella, smoked gouda, swiss, pepper jack)
-Add chopped vegetables (just sauté in oil before adding to casserole to make them a little softer)
-Refrigerating for at least a few hours is recommended, but if you are short on time, you can put it straight into the oven.
-Single-serve: I think I made 1/3 or maybe 1/4 of the recipe, which was a big serving but I most definitely devoured it all myself.

Soft Pretzels Buns and Sugar & Spice Pretzel Bites

It's like the last 9 months up until now was practice for being quarantined. As a freelancer and an introvert, I spent a lot of time at home (where I live alone), so I had a daily routine down, learned how to fill up my time, and how to (more or less) motivate myself to be productive.

Now, in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic, I get to put all of those skills to good use. Although relatively little has changed in my life compared to other people's lives, quarantine still sucks. There's less work, less freedom, less social time, and as time goes on, a growing feeling of apprehension.

I've found that for me, apart from being active and facetiming with friends and family, one of the best ways of dealing with, well, everything, is baking. So the other night I had a friend over, and we had a baking and bingo night. On the menu: sloppy joes on soft pretzel buns, and sweet and spicy pretzel bites.

The pretzel dough is a relatively quick yeast dough, although it is very hands-on as there are a number of steps involved. Keep in mind that not only are these pretzels delicious, so you'll want to eat all of them as soon as you make them, but you should eat all of them immediately because they taste best fresh!

Using the pretzel roll recipe from Sally's Baking Addiction, we split the dough in half. From one half, we shaped six rolls, and from the other half, we made pretzel bites by rolling ropes, cutting them into pieces, and rolling the pieces into little balls.

After boiling, we baked the pretzel rolls per Sally's instructions.

After boiling the pretzel bites, we baked them for 10 minutes, then brushed them with melted butter and rolled them in a half recipe of the sugar mixture before baking for 5 more minutes. Below is the recipe for the sugar & spice topping, and the link for Sally's recipe. Enjoy!

Sugar & Spice Topping

1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 Tbs butter, melted

Boil pretzels per Sally's instructions. Bake for 10 minutes; remove from oven. Brush with melted butter, then roll in sugar & spice mixture. Bake for another 5 minutes.

*Note: This mixture is enough for the full pretzel recipe from Sally. If making half of the dough into rolls and half into pretzel bites, only use half of the sugar & spice topping.

Sally's Pretzel Rolls
https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/easy-pretzel-rolls/#tasty-recipes-67648