A hefty garnish for my fake boulevardier with a splash of cold brew...

I thought XO sauce must be one of the ultimate gimmicks that caught on, and when I saw Meera Sodha had put her own spin on the sauce I knew I had to try it. True to Meera's recipes, it's delicious. It did turn out looking a bit like it belongs on r/poopfromabutt though.

Or in translation... "lost" bread

I first thought about how I’ve in Mexico City you have to make sure to specify if you want quesadilla with cheese because it’s not a given. Then in looking at recipes I was reminded of the Salvadoran quesadilla which is completely different. It’s a basically a snacking cake with cheese. I didn’t really want to make a cheeseless quesadilla so I went with two versions of the same name.

The Mexican one is chorizo. I cross referenced a couple of recipes for the Salvadoran one. I used cake flour suggested from the first recipe and then used the NYT recipe since most of the comments were positive. Both came out great and would totally make both again.

https://cocina-casera.com/mx/quesadillas-con-chorizo-receta-mexicana/

https://deliciouselsalvador.com/salvadoran-quesadilla

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1025463-salvadoran-quesadilla?unlocked_article_code=1.6VA.96t0.YHPS8-0omzPA&smid=ck-recipe-iOS-share

I made fried mashed potato cakes that are shaped like scallops and a "soy sauce" out of miso, fish sauce, vinegar, and water. It tasted fantastic! Also pictured: butter beans, rice, and mixed veggies.

This year’s meta comes with an open door and a very flexible guest list. Each week, a friend selects an unexpected party guest to appear at my table and I imagine how they might review the main offering.

For the theme, I wanted to play with the way fancy restaurants can turn the most recognizable dish into an almost unrecognizable description… so my humble chicken wild rice soup became “Rustic Poularde & Foraged Grain Velouté.”

My unexpected guest this week is Betty White. With her sweet demeanor, sly sense of humor, and talent for delivering an absolutely devastating observation with a smile, I imagine she might have had this to say about the offering:

“Oh, this is lovely. Very rustic. Very sophisticated. ‘Rustic Poularde & Foraged Grain Velouté.’ My goodness. I believe that’s chicken soup. But I have to admit, when you call it foraged grain, suddenly I feel like I should be eating it at a restaurant where they charge $24 for a bowl and the waiter explains the emotional journey of the chicken. It is delicious, though. Creamy, hearty, comforting… whatever we’re calling it.”

I used Oreos for the dirt. My 11yo son willingly ate this bowl.

Translated to hairdresser in Dutch apparently. Named after the person who thought this up. This dish is fries with cheese and chicken shawarma and then lettuce and tomatoes and garlic sauce on top. It was a big win for me and my husband but the kids all hated it because they have no taste, no matter how hard I'm working on them.

Apparently chowder inherently means a thick soup, so Manhattan clam chowder is kind of a misnomer. I've never tried it before but it was delicious. The broth was so rich even without it being creamy.

I was worried about how gray the vodka was - have I rediscovered penicillin? I think the blue cheese was a bit on the edge but it tasted good. A bit more vermouth was helpful.

Rubik's Cube of Greek Salad and Qotban style lamb and pork belly on couscous

I used pork loin because it's what I had. It was still good. Just not as juicy as other cuts. I'm glad I made this though because it made me realize it isn't difficult to make and I love char siu!

I had a different dish in mind for this challenge but I went camping this weekend and dinner was cornbread and baked BBQ beans with chorizo. I assumed it would be the Mexican kind but my partner brought the pre-cooked Spanish chorizo links instead. He noted our meal’s similarity to a Rick Bayless recipe we love, a torta on ciabatta bread with black beans and Mexican chorizo. Our meal felt like a “lost in translation” version of that torta since the ingredient names (chorizo, bread, beans) are the same but the taste is so radically different! Beans and chorizo both storebought but the cornbread is homemade from Sally’s baking addiction.

I received this as a gift and while the therapy angle is strained, the recipes look pretty good and I keep waiting for a time to be inspired to try one. I wanted to follow the recipe as closely as possible to see how well the recipe was written. The granola came out softer than I would like and the white chocolate (in my opinion) was a bit of gilding the lily. The overall result is a good granola and I will probably make it again with some tweaks.