April 30, 2021

Avocado toast with a twist

April 30, 2021/ Rebecca Davis

Try a new take on the quick, easy, and healthy classic avocado toast with chickpeas, harissa, feta, tzatziki, pesto, arugula, eggs, and dukkah! #meandthemoose #avocadotoast #lunch #easyrecipes #breakfast

Refresh your breakfast and lunch avocado toast routines with these three quick and healthy spins on the classic sandwich staple.

I know, I know. Who really needs a recipe for avocado toast? Well, here’s the thing. I’m SO BORED with the standard base and toppings. I love everything bagel seasoning, but if I eat one more avocado smashed with it sprinkled on top, I’m going to turn into an everything bagel. Which might sound okay, but trust me, I would make a VERY SALTY bagel.

Anyway, here are some fun options I’ve been incorporating into the rotation!

Egg, pesto, and arugula liven up the classic avocado toast. #meandthemoose #avocadotoast #pesto #eggs #breakfast #lunch

Egg, pesto, and arugula avocado toast

1 piece of bread (your choice!)
1/4 large avocado, smashed
2 Tbsp pesto
1 egg, cooked using your preferred method
1 large handful arugula
flaky sea salt
drizzle of olive oil

Toast your bread.

While the bread is toasting, cook your egg however you like. I’ve used fried, poached, hard-boiled, and scrambled eggs in this and they all taste great.

Prep your other ingredients. I linked to my basic, kid-friendly pesto above, but there are loads of pesto recipes on this site OR feel free to use your own favorite recipe or a store-bought version.

Smash the avocado onto your bread with a fork and spread pesto on top. Add the egg and the arugula. Top with a sprinkle of salt and a drizzle of olive oil.

Crispy chickpeas, dukkah and harissa are a fresh vegan take on the classic avocado toast. #meandthemoose #veganrecipes #veganlunch #chickpeas

Dukkah, crispy chickpea, and harissa avocado toast

1 piece of bread (your choice!)
1/4 large avocado, smashed
1 can of chickpeas
1-2 Tbsp olive oil
pinch of sea salt
1 Tbsp dukkah seasoning (I used a Trader Joe’s mix, but dukkah recipes and pre-made mixes are easy to find)
1/4-1/2 tsp harissa spice
flaky sea salt
drizzle of olive oil (I used roasted garlic oil)

Preheat the oven to 400. Spread the drained chickpeas out on a sheet pan and pat dry with a paper towel. Drizzle with the olive oil and a large pinch of sea salt and bake for 10-15 minutes or until the chickpeas are crispy.

While the chickpeas are baking, toast your bread.

Smash the avocado on top of the bread and sprinkle with the dukkah seasoning. Top with about 1/4 cup of the crispy chickpeas. Sprinkle on your desired amount of harissa, flaky sea salt, and olive oil.

Quick-pickled cucumbers and onions add a lightly sweet and tangy bite to the salty feta and creamy, garlicky tzatziki of this new version of avocado toast. #meandthemoose #feta #tzatziki #avocadotoast #lunch #breakfast #quickpickles

Tzatziki, feta, and pickled cucumber avocado toast

1 piece of bread (your choice!)
1/4 large avocado, smashed
1 English or hothouse cucumber (use 3/4 for the pickles and the other 1/4 for the tzatziki if making yourself)
1/2 large white onion
1/2 cup white vinegar
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp sugar
1-2 Tbsp tzatiki (recipe here or use a premade version)
1-2 Tbsp crumbled feta

Thinly slice 3/4 of the cucumber and 1/2 of the onion. Combine with the white vinegar, salt, and sugar in a container with a lid. Shake well and leave to marinate for 5-10 minutes.

Make the tzatziki, if necessary.

Toast your bread. Smash the avocado on the bread and top with pickled cucumbers. Add the tzatziki and top with the crumbled feta.

April 05, 2021

Candy pretzel no-churn ice cream

April 05, 2021/ Rebecca Davis

No-churn vanilla ice cream with Easter candy and pretzel mix-ins is the easy, fun cooking project that you can do with your kids to use up that holiday haul! #Easter #icecream #icecreamrecipe #nochurn #dessert #sweetandsavory

If the Easter Bunny left you a LOT of candy this year (or you stocked up on post-holiday sales), this Candy Pretzel No-Churn Ice Cream is a fun way to use it up. AND, it’s so easy that my (newly) 6-year-old can make it mostly by himself!

Take me to the ice cream!

I’m obsessed with no-churn ice cream. Most recipes you’ll find are basically the same— a carton of heavy cream, a can of sweetened condensed milk, a pinch of salt (but not in this recipe because we’re using pretzels), some vanilla extract, and whatever mix-ins you like. Some recipes use a bit of cream cheese, but I prefer it without.

*There are two ways to make the ice cream base: You can whip the cream first and then fold in the condensed milk, OR you can combine them and whip the whole mess together. Obviously, it’s faster to do the milks together, but you risk over-mixing. Whipping the base too much can lead to a buttery texture in the final product, which is a little gross.

Whipping the cream on its own lets you see how thick it’s gotten, so you’re less likely to overdo it. If you’re a newbie or just worried, use this method.

I usually dump them both together and whip until I see tracks in the mixture that stay put for a few seconds before melting back into the gloop. Just note: When you mix the two liquids together, you WON’T achieve a stiff peak like you would with cream alone.

My favorite part of this particular recipe is the pretzel-Rolo concoction. You basically melt a Rolo (or any other chocolate and caramel candy) in the oven for 3 minutes and then smoosh another pretzel and some sprinkles on top. They’re like a chocolate-covered pretzel with a caramel sprinkle bonus! And much less messy to make!

Also, if you’re like us, you always have some stale pretzels in the back of the cabinet that no one really wants to eat. This is a great way to resurrect them.

Candy pretzel No-Churn Ice Cream

Time: 20 minutes + 8 hours of freezing
Yield: About 5 cups of ice cream

10-15 Rolo candies (or other chocolate and caramel candy)
20-30 mini pretzels
2-3 Tbsp sprinkles
2 cups heavy cream (1 pint)
14 oz sweetened condensed milk (1 small can)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1-2 cups chocolate candy, roughly chopped (I used milk chocolate bunnies and Cadbury eggs, but use whatever you like!)

Heat the oven to 350.

Spread half of the pretzels on a parchment-covered sheet pan. Top with one Rolo or other chocolate and caramel candy. Melt in the oven for 2-3 minutes.

Remove from the oven and top each melted chocolate piece with another pretzel and glitz them up with some sprinkles. Put in the fridge to chill while you make the ice cream base.

*Combine the heavy cream, condensed milk, and vanilla extract in a large bowl or in the bowl of a stand mixer. (See notes above for different methods for making the base.) Mix with the whisk attachment until you see visible tracks in the cream that stick around for a few seconds before melting back into the gloop.

Roughly chop whatever candy you’re using. Remove the pretzels from the fridge and roughly chop those too. Gently fold the chopped candies into the ice cream base. Pour the mixture into a metal or other freezer-safe container and freeze for at least 8 hours.

March 15, 2021

Browned butter and leek mashed potatoes

March 15, 2021/ Rebecca Davis

What’s better on your Easter or Passover table than some decadent (browned butter! cream!), spring-y (leeks!) mashed potatoes?

Take me to the spuds!

Spring holidays are the best. They feel like a gateway to blue skies, warmer weather, and, this year, like we’re one step closer to some sense of safety and normalcy. Maybe that’s overstating it, but last year’s holidays were SO WEIRD, right?. I was about 5 minutes postpartum with Z, so I’m sure everything felt worse in that state, but I remember being so afraid. We knew so little about Covid and how it spread. We wiped down our groceries with BLEACH. I was afraid to go in our front yard. We left our mail outside for WEEKS. WHAT THE FUCK.

Anyway, this year has been wild. I was actually imagining talking about it in the future. It’s going to be one of those conversations where the other people all went through the same thing, but we all need to talk about it like we were the only ones.

Anyway, about the potatoes. These are so quick and easy, but a little fancy and extra, which is what I like on a holiday table.

But let’s talk about ricing your mashed potatoes for a sec, shall we? I’m an avowed lazy cook/cleaner. I think it was years of dishwasher-less NYC kitchens that conditioned me to avoid extra dishes at any cost, so I really resisted using a ricer for a long time (and I still don’t use it unless it’s a special occasion). Some people are ricer devotees for achieving those ultra fluffy, creamy potatoes. And when you’re making straight-up, unadorned mashed potatoes, I do think the ricer makes a difference.

However, there are going to be lumps in these potatoes because we’re adding leeks, so I recommend skipping it and saving yourself some time and dishes.

Want to make these extra decadent and fancy? Add a drizzle of cream on top of the potatoes along with a sprinkle of flaky sea salt and some Aleppo pepper to finish it off. It’s *chef’s kiss*.

Brown butter and leek mashed potatoes

Time: 20 minutes, all active
Yield: About 4-6 side servings

1 lb Russet potatoes, peeled and chopped into 1-inch pieces
¼ cup heavy cream + more for drizzling
1 tsp kosher salt, divided
4 Tbsp butter
1 small leek, trimmed, quartered and sliced
¼ tsp pepper
Pinch of Aleppo pepper (optional)

In a medium soup pot, cover the peeled and chopped potatoes with cold water. Bring to a boil over a high flame. Once boiling, continue cooking at a rolling boil (you may need to turn the flame down if the water threatens to boil over) for 8-10 minutes or until the potatoes are fork tender.

While the potatoes are boiling, clean and chop your leeks and set aside.

Add the butter to a small pan or pot and heat over a medium flame until the butter has melted and begins to bubble vigorously and pop slightly. If the popping is too much or too dangerous, turn the flame down slightly, but you want to maintain the bubbling. Let the butter cook for 1-2 minutes and check to see if little brown bits are separating and falling to the bottom of the pan beneath the bubbles. The butter should smell nutty. This may take a few minutes longer depending on your pan and how cold your butter was to start, so keep checking regularly.

Once the browning has begun, add the leeks and ¼ tsp salt to the pan and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 5 minutes, until the leeks also begin to brown. If the browning happens too quickly, turn down the flame.

Drain the potatoes and add ¼ tsp salt. Mash well.

Add ¼ cup heavy cream to the mashed potatoes and whip vigorously with a spatula or whisk. When the leeks and butter are sufficiently browned, add them to the potatoes. Season with the remaining ½ tsp of kosher salt and ¼ tsp of pepper, or more to taste.

September 22, 2020

Warm potato salad

September 22, 2020/ Rebecca Davis

Potato salad might be the perfect transitional food: It’s reminiscent of the BBQs and long summer days that we’re leaving behind, but as we head towards fall, what’s more comforting than a bowl of starchy goodness?

Bring me to the potatoes!

Phew. I am in the thick of this motherhood in a pandemic thing, y’all. (While also trying to be okay with what we have [in-person school half of the time; outdoor, distanced playdates], and what we don’t [travel, grandparents without preplanning, sports, activities]. I was about to actually start this blog post asking, “from where is our worth derived?” And then I said to myself: GET A GRIP BECCA, THIS IS JUST A FUCKING FOOD BLOG.

One thing I’m really missing, and I think we can all relate to this somewhat, is that sense of having discreet portions of the day. I blame the pandemic, the world being both literally and figuratively on fire, and being home all the time, but having a 5.5 month old baby who is, thus far, schedule resistant, also doesn’t help.

Whatever the cause, I miss those few downbeat moments every day where you could switch from one mode to the next. Now I feel like I’m never able to focus on one thing completely. I can’t just test a recipe or take some photos. Instead, I’m doing that while comforting a crying baby and finding a very specific episode of Paw Patrol on the DVR and getting some water and searching for a missing Lego and nursing and and and.

On the flip side, I find myself not tuning in to my kids entirely either, which makes me really upset with myself and this fucking situation we’re in. I think that fear, anger, resentment, and frustration makes it hard for me to find the bandwidth for a really involved pretend game or art project or science experiment. But that sucks for my kids because they aren’t responsible for the pandemic. But I’m also human and I can’t be the perfect mom all day, every day. * PRIMAL SCREEEEAAAAAMMMMM *

But anyway, time marches on and suddenly summer has turned into fall. I don’t know what we did with the warm months. Did they even happen? Who knows.

We did celebrate summer produce thanks to our prolific cucumber, zucchini, and basil plants AND our favorite farm stand. Now that fall is bearing down on us, there’s nothing like a meal to mark the changing of the seasons and this potato salad is the culinary equivalent of a light jacket: A nod to both warm and cold, casual and cozy.

While potato salad might seem relegated to side-dishery, I topped this with a runny egg for an unexpectedly fab breakfast. Try it!

Warm potato salad

Time: About 15-20 minutes, mostly active
Yield: about 3-3.5 cups of salad

1½ lbs small potatoes (new, fingerling, red, etc; cut any larger ones so that most pieces are about the same size)
¼ cup mayonnaise or Greek yogurt
3 Tbsp dijon mustard
¼ cup chopped red onion (about 1 thick slice from a medium or small onion)
2 Tbsp finely chopped chives
1/4-1/2 tsp kosher salt
¼ tsp smoked paprika
Dash of red wine vinegar or 1 tsp of chopped capers

Microwave the washed potatoes in a glass bowl covered with plastic wrap on high for 10 minutes. Or cover the potatoes with cold water until they’re just submerged. Heat over a high flame until boiling. Boil, lowering the flame slightly to avoid the water boiling over, until fork tender, about 12-14 minutes.

While the potatoes are cooking, combine the rest of the ingredients in a large bowl and mix well.

Once the potatoes are fork tender, add them to the mixture and stir to combine. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed.

September 18, 2020

Chicken burgers with pub cheese

September 18, 2020/ Rebecca Davis

The easiest, fastest chicken burgers you can make that are packed with flavor and a real crowd pleaser. #meandthemoose #burgers #chickenburgers #dinner #easydinnerrecipes #fastdinnerrecipes

These easy, fast chicken burgers are packed with flavor and ready in under 30 minutes. They’re what I cook on nights when it’s suddenly dinnertime, everyone’s hangry, and I need a quick, crowd-pleasing meal.

Take me to the burgers!

Guess what?! Change is hard! I sent my little off to Kindergarten on Monday (we’re on a hybrid schedule so he’s in school one week and at home the next) and then wandered around my house for 5 hours like I’d never been here before. (And he went back to Pre-K for almost two months this summer, so I don’t know why it felt so weird!)

That happens to me any time I go through a big transition. The edges suddenly feel a little fuzzy and I temporarily forget how to negotiate my day. It’s no wonder my kid struggles with change too.

How do you deal with change? Is there something that anchors you when the seas get rough? For me, it’s cooking. When I feel off kilter, I need to cook something. It focuses my mind, forces me to think about the present, and following a recipe is really helpful when I just want someone to tell me what to do.

So, here is a fab recipe for chicken burgers. If you’re feeling strange as this new school year starts, I’ll be the grown up telling you, “Make these for dinner. Here’s how.” Problem solved.

A couple of notes:

The heat of the skillet is important. A good sear on both sides and then covering the pan and letting the meat steam as it cooks seals in the juices as well as cooking the meat pretty fast.
I try not to handle the raw meat mixture too much; the more you mix the meat, cheese, and spices, the tougher and more rubbery it can get.
DO NOT, I REPEAT: DO NOT use another bowl to mix these ingredients. Use the container that the ground chicken came in. Save a dish.

Chicken burgers

Time: 25 minutes, mostly active
Yield: 4 burgers

1 lb ground dark meat chicken (I like to use leg meat)
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp fine sea salt
½ tsp cumin
½ tsp coriander
pepper to taste
¼ cup pub cheese
2 Tbsp olive oil

Sprinkle the seasonings and plop the cheese onto the ground chicken in the package. Using your hands, mix thoroughly, but try not to over mix. I like to make sure that there aren’t any pockets of dry spices, but if there are still blobs of cheese, that’s fine.

Heat a skillet over a medium high flame. Add the olive oil and heat until the oil slips easily around the pan. Add patties with ¼ of the mixture in each one, trying to shape them into rough circles.

Get a good sear on one side. If the pan is hot enough, this should take about 3 minutes. Flip and sear on the other side, 3 more minutes.

Turn the flame to low and cover the skillet. Cook until the burgers are firm and have reached an internal temperature of 165, about 10-12 minutes.

Me & The Moose

Me & The Moose

Elevated family food

Me & The Moose

Avocado toast with a twist

Egg, pesto, and arugula avocado toast

Dukkah, crispy chickpea, and harissa avocado toast

Tzatziki, feta, and pickled cucumber avocado toast

Candy pretzel no-churn ice cream

Candy pretzel No-Churn Ice Cream

Browned butter and leek mashed potatoes

Brown butter and leek mashed potatoes

Warm potato salad

Warm potato salad

Chicken burgers with pub cheese

Chicken burgers

Me & The Moose