Sergey and I have been on a Japanese cooking kick. This is one of our recent favorites. Because neither of us has what you'd call a sensitive palate, we tripled the shiitake mushrooms and swapped greens out for green onions.
"I do not like beans," I said to my husband. "Beans are mushy and overcooked and disgusting and... oh, you mean you can adjust soak time on beans so they're a little al dente? And you can pick different beans? Well why didn't you say so in the first place..."
Our neighbor served us a fantastic shrimp boil one evening, and we begged for the recipe. Here is how we make it at our house.
Sergey loves crispy cookies. In search of ways to get homemade cookies like that, he found a cookie press that made tiny cookies with lots of ridges. Success! Tiny little crunches of joy.
One of many recipes we begged our neighbor for. She is a quintessential Hostess and comes out with delightful cookery and spreads like this.