Spicy, Giant Crunchy Corn by Alison Roman

I truly can’t believe I’m writing this. The final recipe. 

There were days when I wished time would speed up so I could arrive here. There have been far more days when I wished time would slow down to delay things a little longer. I wish I could go back and taste certain dishes for the first time, feel the rush of those small victories all over again. I wish I could relive all of the conversations and community shared around those meals. 

For a whole year, my social life has primarily revolved around a cooking project. For a whole year, I’ve filled moments of solitude, of dreaming about the future, of rest, of worry, of exhaustion - with cooking and writing. It would be impossible to count the hours spent on this project, but there’s really no need to do that. I would do it all over again. 

It feels sort of odd to end such a journey with a recipe as simple as spiced corn nuts. Somehow this one slipped through the cracks till the very end. Yet, after what’s felt like a marathon of the past month, perhaps it’s fitting to end with a snack that only requires baking corn nuts in oil, then tossing them in nutritional yeast and aleppo pepper. What results are highly addictive and oddly irresistible toasty corn kernels - perfect for a party or sharing with coworkers the next day. A dish meant to be shared. (I couldn’t for the life of me find quicos, so I used the Love Corn brand of corn nuts, which are less salty).

This project started out of a desire to reincorporate my artist-self back into my daily life. After years of studying theater and making art all the time, the years since have felt drier, lacking. This project changed that by providing an outlet for self-expression and personal growth all in one. I don’t want to go back to my old way of being. I’m ready to keep going. 

This is not the end. I believe it’s only the beginning.

225 recipes cooked, 0 to go. Goal: Complete.

Any Excuse to Make Shrimp Cocktail by Alison Roman

a small NYE crew to eat my shrimp cocktail

Hello, and welcome to my Shrimp Confessional. I vow to tell the truth, and nothing but. 

Confession #1: My one and only excuse to make shrimp cocktail is the fact that this recipe exists in Nothing Fancy. There are no other excuses. Shrimp cocktail has always made my stomach do a tiny flip. I can tolerate shrimp when it’s warm, not when it’s cold. 

Confession #2: I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I actually followed some of Molly Baz’s advice instead Alison Roman’s (smh). Alison’s instructions say to “peel, but not devein” the shrimp before boiling. She then tells us we can devein the shrimp if it reallllly grosses us out, but she promises it’s not a big deal. IDK about you, but eating poop is a big deal to me, so I had no choice but to devein the shrimp. But how to go about it? Alison seems to assume that readers already know their way around shrimp.

I received Molly’s “Cook This Book” for Christmas from my younger brother. I went to see if Molly had anything to say about shrimp, and lo and behold, she wrote a shrimp cocktail recipe as well. Reading her recipe sort of felt like cheating, but I truly needed to learn what to do. Molly's recipe includes a QR code that leads to a 45-second video demonstrating how to devein shrimp. It was all I needed to feel confident. (You know those YouTube how-to videos that spend the first few minutes just promoting their channel before they actually get to the part you were hoping to see? Well Molly’s video was not that, and I just want to say, thank you.)

I faced a moral dilemma. Molly says to devein, but not peel the shrimp before cooking. Alison literally says the opposite. What’s a dame to do? As I confessed earlier, I actually went with Molly on this one. To devein, she instructs us to take a sharp pair of kitchen scissors, cut a straight line down the shell on the shrimp’s back, and using a paper towel, pull out the vein from the head-end. After the shrimp is cooked, then you can remove the shells. This method worked well for me. 

Molly’s cooking method differs slightly, as well. She says to bring water to a boil, drop the shrimp in, cover the pot with a lid, and turn the heat off. After 4 minutes, the shrimp are ready. And she was right. Alison says to keep the water boiling and cook the shrimp without a lid. I’m sure it’d produce the same result, but if I’m going to cheat, I might as well cheat all the way. I still boiled the shrimp with a quartered onion and peppercorns per Alison’s recipe. I’m told that it added great flavor to the shrimp…

Confession #3: I didn’t taste the shrimp. I truly was not in the mood. Plus, there’s something about removing poop from a creature that removes its appetite appeal. Like I said, though, I’m told that they had a nice flavor, and the cocktail sauce seemed to be a hit, too. I used yuzu kosho as my hot sauce of choice, which prevented the tomato flavor from dominating the sauce. I also went with Alison’s directive to use Heinz ketchup, because why not. 

202 recipes cooked, 23 to go.

Smashed Eggs and Fancy Fish on Crackers by Alison Roman

Now that I’m two-thirds of the way through this project, I’m starting to face up to the more daunting and/or “ew, not for me” recipes in Alison’s books. Some of them I’ve already made (like the sour cherry and sesame galette, or the grilled branzino with lemons all of the ways), and had surprisingly good results. A few of them (like the whole roasted snapper) I’ve deemed “good, if you like that sort of thing.” 

Smashed eggs and fish on crackers is one of these “good, if you like that sort of thing” recipes. I’ll probably never make this again, but if cured fish paired with mayonnaise and a jammy egg sounds like a fun party to you - you’ll love this. 

Amongst the many topping options that Alison gives, I made my snack with: 

• Half a gluten-free Everything Bagel, toasted

• Mayonnaise 

• A six-minute egg (yum! So easy! 6 minutes!) 

• Slices of Dad’s Scotch Gravlax (I have SO much to say about it here)

• Parsley 

• Flaky sea salt

149 recipes cooked, 76 to go.

Creamy Sesame Turmeric Dip by Alison Roman

The creamiest dip that I ever did eat, in fact. This largely simple spread includes three creamy ingredients: cream cheese, sour cream, and tahini. Not only that, but we’re instructed to combine them in a food processor, which gives a dense whipped cream effect. 

The other step involves heating olive oil and sesame seeds in a skillet until toasted and fragrant. Once removed from heat, add ground turmeric and swirl to combine. Pour the mixture onto the fluffy creamy goodness that awaits in a serving bowl.  

I served the dip alongside almond crackers, pita crackers, and sugar snap peas. Next time I’ll also throw in radishes and carrots. The dip practically begged me for a wider veggie display. (For those of you wondering, TJ’s now sells vegan cream cheese and sour cream. Which means everyone can eat this dip!)

133 recipes cooked, 92 to go.

A Very Fine Spritz by Alison Roman

I tasted my first spritz ever in the hill country of Austria. Sounds idyllic, right? Not quite. Don’t get me wrong, an aperol spritz on a European afternoon is about as idyllic as it can get. But there were other factors swirling around my spritz that took away the awe of it all. 

First of all, I was extremely jetlagged. I was running on about 4 hours of sleep, which never feels good, and on top of that, was dealing with some pretty severe nausea and heat exhaustion. I wasn’t in Austria with my husband or friends who could cheer me up, either. I flew there with my coworkers. And let’s just say, they saw no need to comfort me. Only criticize. My stress levels were at an all-time high. I was there for a pretty cool reason, though. Our client wanted to create a commercial about the elderberries that they source for their natural supplement products. So we travelled with a film crew to capture the elderberry harvest. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity, but I spent most of it just trying to convince others that I sort of knew what I was doing. Which can be hard to do when you can’t even convince yourself. 

I look back on that experience and have so much more grace for myself than before. I was brand new to this role. This was my second shoot EVER, and it was in a foreign country that spoke a different language with coworkers who didn’t make my job easier. Amidst the 3:30am wake-up calls and the 14-hour shoot days, my only respite came in the form of spritz’s. The Austrians seem to offer them at every meal! And while my companions ordered beer, my stomach had way too many knots to handle a lager. So I ordered a spritz. 

My dear friend Madeline, who I mention quite a bit on this blog, helped me reclaim the beauty of a spritz shared with a friend. She loves to experiment with simple syrups, liquors and different kinds of bubbly. Madeline herself captures the spirit of very fine spritz. So it was only fitting to make her an Alison spritz when she and her husband Sam came over. 

Alison’s spritz is simple and flexible: one-third liquor, like Campari or Aperol (we chose Rinomato which is on the more bitter side of Amaro’s), one third sparkling water or wine, and one-third regular white wine. Oh, and lots of ice. It’s refreshing, delicious, not anything truly different from other spritz’s, but a nice ingredient ratio to go by. It was a gorgeous evening and we enjoyed our drinks in our sunlit apartment for what would be our last time together there. 

Very fine, indeed. 

128 recipes cooked, 97 to go.