officially sick of pumpkin

but still willing to develop *this* pumpkin dessert for you if you want 👉👈

FRIENDS, HI!

Apologies for missing Happy Hour last week, I was OOK (out of kitchen) for my brother’s engagement party (!!!) down in Los Angeles.

their adorable (vegan) cookies and cream cake

Obviously, the best part of traveling anywhere is trying new restaurants/food, so I feel like it’s only right to share (mostly) everything I ate on my 2-day trip (with ratings, of course):

(Ratings: 1-5 = meh, wouldn’t recommend AT ALL; 6-8 = definitely good food, but not worth going out of the way for; 8-10 = highly recommend, you should definitely try it out)

• Met Him At A Bar (funky, fresh, casual Italian with delicious pasta)- 8.5 / 10

• Toast Bakery Cafe (a fun little breakfast spot) - 7.8 / 10

• Emmy Squared Pizza (small Detroit-style pizza joint affiliated with Santa Monica Brew Works) - 6.9 / 10

Ok now for the substance!

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Brown Butter Carrot-Glazed Carrots

I shared these last year on TikTok and they were a hit (I found out months after sharing that the kitchn reviewed them on their website, which made me very happy!!). I personally love them for how simple and foolproof they are to make. Plus, they’re extremely delicious (I truly believe they could turn a carrot-hater into a carrot-lover).

All that said, here’s how to make them!!

Ingredients

• 7-8 large carrots

• 16 fluid ounces of 100% carrot juice

• 1 tbsp orange juice

• 2 tbsp unsalted butter

• salt, to taste

Preparation

1. In a large saucepan, add carrot juice and orange juice and bring to a soft boil. Add in carrots and cook until fork tender. Remove carrots and set aside. Continue cooking carrot juice until it’s dark orange and thick (it should be able to coat the back of a spoon).

2. In a separate pan on medium heat, cook the butter until the milk solids are golden brown (this should take around 3-5 minutes). Add in the cooked carrots and saute until the carrots are reheated. Add a pinch of salt and stir.

3. Toss the carrots and brown butter back into the reduced carrot juice, plate, and serve, OR plate buttered carrots and top with the thick reduced carrot juice and serve.

I had the idea of turning the oat crisp topping of a fruit crisp (aka the best part of a fruit crisp) into a cookie and so I tried to bring my idea to life. Unfortunately, it did not pan out the way I thought it would.

It was clearly in dire need of fruit - it was a bit too sweet and honestly, a bit boring. I’m going to keep trying to make it work because I could be wrong and there is a good possibility that I’m approaching it the wrong way. I’ll keep you posted.

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OK so this wasn’t anything at a restaurant (since I’ve already shared my recently-visited restaurants with you), BUT it is something I bought on a whim at Trader Joe’s: Scandinavian Swimmers

I actually bought these as a joke because every time I pass them in the store I laugh - I imagine the people who came up with the name “Scandinavian Swimmers” used Thersaurus.com to find synonyms for Swedish and Fish and went with the first results.

Turns out they’re delicious AND better than Swedish Fish. Plus there is more than one flavor of fish/swimmer in each package.

Quite honestly, this week was dull in the learning department for me, other than learning from cooking mistakes, like failing to turn a crisp topping into a cookie or trying 4 different times to develop a perfect pumpkin blondie recipe. Speaking of which, I am now stumped on which blondie recipe to focus on.

Because pumpkin blondies have been slightly difficult when it comes to perfecting the texture, I’m now sick of pumpkin. So much so that I’d like to abandon the pumpkin blondie idea and start fresh with an apple crisp blondie. What do you think?

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Not to rush time (I’m still processing the fact that we’re already in mid-October), but I’m planning so much content for Thanksgiving and Christmas this year and the thought of the holiday season is getting me very excited!!!! Hope you’re ready for lots of dish breakdowns!!! 😈

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What’s on the menu next week (as of now):

1. a dessert jar blondie recipe (so pls help me decide between apple or pumpkin)

2. another dish breakdown

3. a chicken-related video

4. making cabbage delicious

That’s all for today!!! ILY all, cheers!!!! 🫶

💛,

Zoe