Flour & A Flow State

Losing track of time in the kitchen, Friday night pizza & Saturday night arepas

Oct 23, 2023

Hi there,

With this season of being life being so busy, it had been a long time since I entered a kitchen flow state. That changed last Monday. I logged off of work, had a phone date with Natalie and got cooking. I started with pumpkin bread, then made a curry with the remaining pumpkin. Then I made some rice and then I decided to roast some almost mushy cherry tomatoes. The kitchen smelled great and I got to eat warm pumpkin bread. It was so relaxing and helped me have good meal options all week. My apron was covered in flour and my laptop was a little dirty too, but I felt way better than when I had started. It felt so good to improvise a bit, to let my fridge and pantry guide things without a strict plan.

This week, paid subscribers will get a recipe—I’m going to write about cooking eggs—there’s a lot to it!

Now, let’s dive in.

Something to cook:

My family’s pumpkin bread is a fall tradition and I made a loaf on Monday evening and have been eating it all week (I froze some as well). A slice with a cup of coffee is the ideal way to start the day. If you make two loaves, you’ll use an entire can of pumpkin.

I only have one loaf pan so I used the rest of the pumpkin to make this pumpkin chickpea curry (I did a half batch and made some substitutions because this was an unplanned cooking situation). Even without turmeric and lime, it was very good (and pumpkin gave it a golden color) I served it with rice for lunch for the next few days and it reheated it very well

The aforementioned mushy tomatoes got roasted with some onion, olive oil, salt and pepper. I ate them with a veggie burger in a vague chopped salad situation later in the week.

Another easy dinner that overdelivers is frozen tortellini with pesto and sauteed mushrooms. Since it’s fall, we should all be putting apple slices in our grilled cheeses. And a reminder to celebrate anytime you get a perfectly ripe avocado.

Tilden and I cooked dinner on Saturday (well mostly, she cooked, which was the best). We had arepas with all the fillings: halloumi, semi refried beans, and spicy roasted carrots and sweet potatoes. And of course, we topped it all with spicy green sauce.

Not over the very cute ghost candles Tilden has for Halloween

Something to order:

My dad invited me to a wine masterclass with Chris from Bedrock at Flatiron Wines. It was so much fun and I loved geeking out about old vines, some of which are from the late 1800s—we visited Bedrock’s tasting room in 2018 and I’ve been lucky enough to try many of their wines over the years. They’ve done lots of research and DNA testing to learn about these grapes and how best to take care of them. After the class, we got dinner at Bocca Cucina, which had incredible handmade pasta—I tried a new to me shape, Scialatelli, with smoked mozzarella, tomatoes, and eggplant.

Frida, Isa and I got dinner at Crosta in Park Slope—there are few things better than eating sourdough pizza with your friends after a long week and then having cocktails on the couch afterwards and watching Tiny Desk Concerts.

Leah, Erika, Gabriela, and I saw Las Culturistas perform and got dinner/had a culture catchup before at Flex Mussels, which is always a good idea for a group dinner.