Marching forward

Springing into another month.

After six months of post-storm limbo, Han and I moved to Portland, Oregon, this month. So, I guess I’m a West Coaster now, which is weird. Growing up, I never thought I’d leave New Jersey.

Change moves at an excruciatingly slow pace — especially when I’m most desperate for it to arrive. After sprinting through pastry school, I spent the last half year at a standstill while everyone else carried on as if the sky hadn’t fallen. I watched the paint dry as the walls slowly closed in on me, and now all I have is mixed-up metaphors.

Now, in Portland, we have more windows than walls. I just can’t figure out how to open them. Instead, on nice days, we leave the balcony door open.

In more ways than one, you can take someone out of New Jersey, but the Garden State never really leaves you. Maybe that’s true of everyone from everywhere. Case in point: I found good pizza within 12 hours of moving in.

If you’re in PDX, I highly recommend Baby Doll Pizza. Maybe it was the post-move hunger, but this is the best pizza I’ve had outside of New York or New Jersey. Period.

The pie was huge, with a chewy, thin crust and a sweet red sauce. (Bonus: They have an in-house delivery service, which means they don’t lose any of their profits, as would be the case with a third-party delivery service.)

I’ve recently become a ranch-on-pizza person, and their ranch was super flavorful, though on the thin side. This pizza fed us for three days while we unpacked, our kitchenwares buried among our Sonny Angels and winter clothes. We’re fully unpacked now. And, to be honest, I started baking when we still had boxes taped shut.

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What I’m Cooking

At the beginning of March, my mother-in-law and I made a giant lasagna. I made the sauce — aromatics, crushed tomatoes, basil, and fish sauce — and she assembled and baked the lasagna.

This lasagna fed the four of us for a whole week.

You’ll notice a common theme in the things I ate and made this month: Ease. Since we moved this month, I’ve leaned heavily on frozen foods subsidized with fresh veggies.

If there’s one thing about me and Han, we love to order takeout. At this point, I’m not sure that it’s fair to say it’s probably a habit from our days in New York. We just like to stay in! Our wallets don’t share that sentiment, though.

After we ran out of Babydoll leftovers, I (bravely) made one of our favorite meals to order: Impossible burgers and tots. In the future, I want to try burger bowls, which have been all over my TikTok FYP (and recommended by Emily and Riley).

I had my burger with Tillamook cheese, lettuce, red onion, Kewpie mayo, ketchup, and tomato.

Speaking of things I saw on TikTok, I made a rice cooker meal with tofu, leftover tomato, and chopped red onion. I thought this would be an easy pantry meal, and I was wrong. The rice was undercooked, the tofu was bland, and the tomato and soy sauce did nothing for flavor.

Maybe I should have read the instructions.

We spent the better part of our first week in PDX driving to thrift stores, and we must have passed by a half-dozen Taco Bell drive-thrus. Every drive-by left me with a growing craving for spicy potato tacos. So I made a batch with soyrizo, which I had for breakfast, lunch, and dinner throughout the week.

The shredded lettuce is an essential part of these spicy potato tacos.

Caesar salad with Impossible dinosaur nuggets has also been on my rotation. This meal comes together fast — I make a kewpie-based dressing and air-fry the nuggets.

Caesar salad recipe coming soon.

Pretty much the only thing I’ve baked since moving has been sourdough. Is anyone surprised?

I shared a bit about my process and the struggles of getting acclimated to a new kitchen in this month’s post for paid subscribers. Spoiler alert: It includes a flop bake that didn’t quite make the ‘Gram.

I made Rebecca Firsker’s New Jersey Crumb Cake recipe, which was an excellent dupe for B&W Bakery in Hackensack. A very nostalgic treat for me. Don’t get it twisted: This isn’t a coffee cake. It’s actually more crumb than cake and that’s the point. It was perfect.

What You’re Cooking

This month, like so many months, was about comfort. Life should be comfortable! That’s why I always keep a batch of chocolate chip cookies in the freezer — so I can bake one (or more) off whenever I need a sweet treat.

Believe it or not, I baked this cookie in my airy fryer.

These cookies have a complex, nutty flavor, a chewy center, and crispy edges. Everyone has their platonic ideal of a chocolate chip cookie, and this is mine.

This recipe is adapted from King Arthur Baking. It originally appeared in Crusty, a mutual aid zine.

I hope you enjoy this recipe. Please let me know if you make it!!