Bubble tea has come a long way since… well, I first heard about it. A lot of tea shops have taken shortcuts on how to make the tea, so instead of freshly brewing real tea, they will instead use cheap powders loaded with artificial flavors, colors, and excessive sugar, then charge you $5-7 for a low quality drink.

The good news is that while many shops have done this, a good number of other shops are doing the opposite. These shops are the ones that use fresh, seasonal fruit, make their own in-house tapioca balls, among other treats like grass jelly, lychee jelly, and pudding, use fresh milk (dairy and non-dairy versions), and freshly brew tea every single day. One of my and Chris’s favorite variations of bubble tea is fresh taro bubble tea, and I mean the REAL taro: the ones that use real, fresh taro paste and mix or blend it into the milk or tea, along with the tapioca balls or the jelly. Chris’s preference is pudding on the bottom, and I will take any and all of the above if there is fresh taro paste involved.

Since Chris’s cousin’s daughter is a big fan of taro, and I happened to see taro at a good price at the Chinese market while in Elmhurst last Friday, I decided to buy some to make homemade taro milk. At this time of year, taro isn’t actually in season and because of that, tends to be more on the pale white side in terms of color. The color of taro tends to vary: sometimes, it can be a nice purple color after steaming or boiling. Other times, it can be a pale purple or grey, and many times even just white or off white. After steaming my little taros today, they really didn’t turn any shade of purple at all like they do in the winter time. So in order to add color without using artificial flavoring (because at the end of the day, we all do eat with our eyes first, and the color of taro matters because people associate taro with the color purple), a lot of shops will add some purple yam or mashed ube and mix it into their taro paste. And that’s what I’m doing today for fresh taro milk!

As long as I’ve been baking, I’ve made endless different recipes of pumpkin bread. For many years since college, I used the recipe from my resident advisor from my sophomore year dorm, who was so kind and generous as to regularly make pumpkin bread, pumpkin ice cream, and other fall treats for the residents of our hall. But of course, I got curious to try and tweak many other recipes I’ve stumbled upon. And since, I’ve settled on a variation of Smitten Kitchen’s pumpkin bread, which uses an entire 15-ounce can of pumpkin puree and is topped with cinnamon sugar to create a decadent and crunchy “lid” on top. Quick breads like pumpkin or banana bread are so easy and quick to make that I rarely think of them as special or “occasion” bakes. They just seem like the type of thing you’d bake up when you wanted to have some decadent treat, but you didn’t want to put too much time, effort, or thought into something homemade. It’s the no-brainer crowd pleaser. And I always use coconut oil in place of vegetable oil, as I find that coconut oil keeps the bread more moist for much longer.

As last Christmas was the first Christmas we’d gone back to Australia with Kaia baby in tow (plus, I was still pumping!), I really did not want to spend that much time cooking or baking anything. So I found that I had left a can of pumpkin in Chris’s parents’ cupboard from the last time we were there (in 2019!), and then decided to use it for this same Smitten pumpkin bread. Thank goodness for the pumpkin being canned, so I knew it was still good to use! I didn’t think anything of it — I quickly whipped up the batter, poured it into an oiled loaf pan, put it in the oven, baked it for 65 minutes, and out it came. I didn’t even remember to bother with the cinnamon sugar topping. We brought it as a dessert for Boxing Day, and I couldn’t believe how many of Chris’s relatives raved about it. Even the young kids enjoyed it and kept coming back for more. Chris’s cousin, who is visiting this week, was totally obsessed with it. He kept coming up to me to compliment how good it was and said it was the best pumpkin cake he’d ever had. He even reminded me how much he liked it in the lead up to this visit, so I figured I’d indulge him and make the bread for this visit. So I made it this afternoon for him and his daughter to enjoy for the remainder of their trip.

Times like this are always a gentle reminder that while I may want to make something that looks fancy, has “different” flavors or textures, or has many elements or nuances of flavor, that the average person really doesn’t care for all that fussiness or hoopla; most people are satisfied by the simplest treats and desserts, the ones that are not fancy or expensive but are simply delicious and make you happy. In the end, the lemon bars, brownies, chocolate chip cookies, and pumpkin bread will still win everyone’s hearts.

In cooking forums and groups all over the internet, everyone always has the same question over and over again: what’s the best nonstick pan for X or overall? And the answer that someone will inevitably give, multiple times over, is: Cast iron! Carbon Steel! If you season them properly, then they will always be perfectly nonstick!

The problem, though, is “seasoning” can seem very bewildering to someone who is not used to this type of cookware. “Seasoning” really means ensuring that the pan always has a nice coat of fat on it to keep it slick. This means that the more you cook with it and have some sort of oil, butter, or animal fat on it, the more “seasoned” the pan will become. I’ve mostly used my big cast iron pan for roasting chicken, but I’ve shied away from using it for everyday cooking out of fear that things will stick. Well, I finally tested its nonstick quality yesterday morning when I made a butternut squash, kale, and goat cheese frittata: I sautéed my aromatics, tossed in my pre-cooked kale and butternut squash, added in the eggs, and baked the frittata in the cast iron pan in the oven for about 10 minutes. When I popped it out to cool and loosened the edges, I was pleasantly surprised to see how easily the frittata released. And when I finally used my flat spatula and pushed it onto my cutting board to serve, I felt so much glee at the frittata easily sliding off the cast iron pan, right onto the cutting board. IT DID NOT RESIST OR STICK AT ALL.

I was so happy about this for at least the next few hours that all I could think was: my cast iron pan is well seasoned! It tolerated the frittata! WHOPPEEE!!!! It seems like such a simple thing, but I suppose that is where it’s important to find joy — in the little things in life like a well-seasoned cast iron pan that allows your frittata to release without problem!

On Thursday night, after finding out that yet another packet of dry active yeast was still alive, I finally decided to carry out a goal of mine since maybe five years ago: baking no-knead brioche. Funnily enough, as much as I adore brioche and think it’s likely one of the top five best breads on earth, I haven’t made it since 2012. Yep, that’s right: that means it’s been ELEVEN YEARS since I last made this incredible, ethereal buttery bread. Back then, I made brioche the “old fashioned” way, which meant making sure that literally everything, from the bowl, the counter, the spatula, the utensils, EVERYTHING was super cold. The idea is that to make a really luscious, buttery, almost flaky brioche, you need to allow the butter never to fully melt, otherwise the dough would just get far too sticky, which means you couldn’t knead it without making a total mess. This would THEN require you to add more flour… meaning you’d eventually just get a glorified challah. To be clear, I am in no way knocking challah because challah also ranks quite high up there for one of my favorite breads, but brioche is just not challah, and challah is not brioche.

So when I heard about America’s Test Kitchen’s innovative version that would remove the kneading completely, I was floored. No kneading? How is that even possible? What else is blasphemous about this — it uses MELTED butter as opposed to ice cold butter.

Of course, since the ATK version came out, many others have modified it and made it… a little healthier to say the least. The version of the recipe I used uses two sticks of butter for two standard sized loaf pans, which, if you can imagine without chuckling, is actually considered LIGHT for brioche, especially in comparison with ATK’s original recipe, which uses far more butter. And instead of kneading the dough (with melted butter, which is still very shocking to me as someone who has only ever made brioche the traditional way), you “fold” the dough from bottom to top several times over the course of about two hours. As each 30 minute period passes, the dough becomes easier to work with, more pliable, and slightly less sticky.

Well, I made the original dough on Thursday night. I let it proof in the fridge for almost two days. And today, we came home early from our Saturday outing so I could shape my loaves and bake. And WOW – I am never going back to the traditional method of brioche ever again: The brioche proofed beautifully and baked up with this gorgeous brown shade, almost flaky on the top. And the crumb was moist, buttery, spongy, and perfect…. If I do say so myself. This recipe is definitely a keeper, and I’ll take folded brioche over kneaded brioche any day now!!!!