Greens Cakes
a leftovers extravaganza
Last week’s snack was something I’m calling Greens Cakes: a bad name that feels weird to say but yet I’ve grown fond of it. My sisters encouraged me to call them something else, and as always I’m really grateful for their feedback, which is like a loud water fountain that you can never turn off.
Greens Cakes came about because we were about to leave for Virginia for Thanksgiving, and I secretly love the task of emptying the fridge before a trip.
For example, the morning of our flight on Saturday I thinly sliced and fried a bunch of leftover cebollitas and made us elaborate breakfast tacos, 2 hours before we were supposed to leave for the airport, before I even packed a single piece of clothing. Thank you John for washing the subsequent dishes!! Yes I am horrible to live with.
Greens cakes consisted of some wilted spinach/arugula/chard mix that was going to go bad, mixed with some spinach I had cooked and frozen before our last trip. I had a little bag of leftover caramelized onions in my freezer, so I added those and knew right away I was off to a great start.
From there I added the last little bit of a tub cottage cheese, some cumin, salt, and pepper, nutritional yeast, and a ton of chopped cebollita greens. I had to buy cebollitas for a recent recipe test and was stuck with a much bigger bunch than I needed, so cebollitas have been a part of nearly every meal since Tuesday. I’m sure you know the feeling.
My secret weapon in these cakes was this pickle sauce that I made before the trip before our last trip, intended to save few dying bunches of parsley, dill, and chives, which I blended with a few pickle slices and some yogurt. I’ve been using it as a salad dressing, but a short pour was perfect here too.
I recently had to test a creme brulee recipe twice, which required 16 egg yolks, leaving me with this gift:
I added a few to the greens, along with a bit of flour to help bind, then I formed the mixture into patties, squashed them into some panko, and gave em the ol’ one/two (I fried them).
With a dollop of plain yogurt and some lemon, Greens Cakes immediately entered the Hall of Fame of Best Things I’ve Made - they were so crunchy on the inside, but then silky on the inside, and also relatively healthy(?) or at least full of vitamins if you care about that kind of thing. I fried the whole batch, let them cool, and then bagged them up to throw in my freezer, because present Laura loves future Laura, except for when she prioritizes breakfast tacos over packing and ends up forgetting her toothbrush.
I bought these striking orange lilies from Costco a few days ago so I attempted a few lifestyle shots, my favorite of which included the pile of receipts I’ve been ignoring and the floss picks I can’t be bothered to put away in the bathroom, a whole 2 feet around the corner.
Here’s a Greens Cake in the sunshine, on its way to my mommy/neighbor. I am horrible to live with, but not terrible to live near. I think.
I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to write about today’s Tangible Thing™, because it’s been nearly the sole focus of my free time since the beginning of September.
2017 was a momentous year for two reasons - one, John and I started dating. And two, a video game called Hollow Knight came into this world. In spite of it being as old as and more important than my relationship, I only learned about Hollow Knight a few months ago because its long-awaited sequel, Hollow Knight: Silksong was released.
My cousin-in-law, Pedro, a man of great taste and loyal reader of Laura’s Dinner, mansplained the Hollow Knight universe to me, and from there I was intrigued enough to buy the game for just $15, mere tuppence compared to the value it has brought to my life.
Anyone who plays a lot of video games already knows this, but the world of modern and indie video games is one full of beautiful art, great music, challenging puzzles, and layered storytelling. Too often dismissed as child’s entertainment, a video game as engrossing and well-made as this one forces me to be patient, persistent, and curious, and to see something through to its end. On top of that, it’s been said that reading or watching fictional stories is known to make people more empathetic, not that I need anything to make me feel feelings more deeply amirite.
