everything in moderation (including coffee)

a newsletter written by me, zoe, with brain fog

HI FRIENDS!

I’ve been somewhat bedridden for most of the week with what I believe is the flu so I feel like the following should be noted before we dive into this week’s newsletter:

1. I didn’t get to cook much this week (the extent of my cooking was making Goodles)

2. I have brain fog from being sick, so please forgive me if any of this is written poorly (I’m doing my best)

Hopefully, I’m on the other side of whatever I got sick with because the holidays are right around the corner and this whole being sick thing is NOT the vibe I’m going for this year.

Ok enough of that, let’s just dive into things…

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Okay, so between you and me, I didn’t necessarily make these THIS week, but I have had an English muffin for breakfast every day since I made a double batch last Friday night… so obviously I have to share the recipe. 🤪

If you’re not a parent of a sourdough starter, it’s not hard to make at home. However, I can’t really speak from experience because my mom gave me some of her starter earlier this year.

If you’re not in the mood to make yours from scratch, I highly recommend going to your local bakery and asking if they sell starter. You can also buy it online from King Arthur OR you can do what I did and ask someone you know to give you some of their starter (hopefully for free lol).

Just promise me that if you do get a starter, you won’t become an overprotective/overbearing sourdough starter parent. Because at the end of the day, it’s literally just flour and water.

English Muffins

Ingredients

100g (1/2 cup) lukewarm water

105g (1/2 cup) buttermilk

115g (1/2 cup) active sourdough starter

7g (2 tsp) active dry yeast

30g (2 tbsp) white cane sugar

350g (2 1/2 cups) all-purpose flour

10g (1 1/2 tsp) salt

cornmeal

Preparation

1. In a large bowl, combine water, buttermilk, starter, yeast, and sugar and stir. Let the mixture sit for 5 minutes. Once the mixture is slightly bubbling on the surface, add flour and salt and knead. If using a stand mixer with a dough hook attachment, knead on medium speed for 10 minutes.  If using your hands, this process will take around 15 minutes.

2. Once the dough is slightly tacky and passes the windowpane test*, cover and let the dough rest at room temperature for 3-4 hours, or until the dough is doubled in size (time will vary depending on the temperature of your kitchen).

3. Sprinkle around ¼ cup of cornmeal on a baking sheet. Once the dough is doubled in size, divide it into 6 rounds, place each round on the cornmeal-coated baking sheet at least 2 inches apart, and cover. Allow English muffin rounds to rise for 45 minutes to 1 hour (English muffin rounds should grow slightly and appear puffy, but not deflated).

4. Preheat your oven to 375ºF.

5. Heat a large skillet on low heat. Cook 3 English muffins at a time on the preheated skillet, making sure there’s at least 1.5” of space in between. To speed this process up, use 2 large skillets/pans (3 English muffins on each). Cook for 4-5 minutes on each side, until each side is golden brown. Place par-cooked English muffins back on a baking sheet and finish baking in the oven for 8-10 minutes, or until the center reads 200ºF (using a meat thermometer).

6. Allow muffins to cool for at least 15 minutes before serving.

*To learn about the windowpane test, watch my video demonstration

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I learned that I need to change my drinking-6-cups-of-coffee-a-day habit STAT.

I saw a video this week where someone claimed that coffee “shrinks” the brain. Being a chronic skeptic of almost everything I hear/read/see, I obviously went online to find data to back it up, and while I didn’t find any “coffee shrinks your brain” data, I did learn that based on one study done in Australia, they found that participants who drank more than 6 cups of coffee a day were more likely to develop dementia (😭).

Listen, you should never rely too much on any one study, BUT this was definitely a good reminder that moderation is key with most things in life and too much of anything is a bad thing.

So here’s to 2-3 cups of coffee a day from here on out!!!

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Shella Good Goodles. They’re truly the best of all boxed macs. 14g of protein per serving (so 35g because I’m eating the whole box), 15 grams of fiber, and an ingredient list I can actually understand (although I don’t understand how they’re making all of these ingredients taste like boxed mac n cheese).

Fair warning, not all flavors are delicious. The Down the Hatch flavor was honestly really disappointing (like I kind of hated it?).

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This wasn’t necessarily something I tried this week, but it is something I had and was reminded of how superior they are.

Reese’s SHAPES (bats, pumpkins, trees, or whatever is in season). Like I personally would never go out of my way to eat a Reese’s, but put them in a seasonal shape and I’m immediately taking a trip to Target to grab a bag.

I think it’s a combination of Reese’s shapes having 1. more peanut butter and less chocolate, which creates 2. a better mouth feel. If you missed out on the Halloween-themed shapes, don’t worry, they sell Reese’s trees for Christmas.

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On Halloween night (before I got sick), we went on our daily walk, while everyone was out trick-or-treating and it was SO CUTE 🥹. The cutest costume was a 3-year-old dressed up as a little piece of sushi. Again, SO CUTE!!!

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OKAY, THAT’S ALL!!! BTW I purposefully left out “what I ate at a restaurant” because we simply did not go out to eat (bad for R&D, but good for my wallet) 🤘😔🤘.

Hoping for full health next week, because we have a lot of content planned.

Thanks for tuning in, ILY ALL!!

💛,

Zoe