Unfortunately, I was unable to keep to my regular posting schedule because of a little thing called life.

I flew back from Boston to LA on Thursday night, completely negating any kind of follow-up post I intended to make about Boston on schedule. After that, I was busy with James’ surgical year-end banquets/get-togethers/etc. (Surgeons like to party—and why not? They have it pretty stressful 99% of the time!)

When James was away on Sunday for one of his last calls of the year, I was sure that I’d be able to make up for lost time. And then I got sick.

I hate how unproductive you must be while sick in order to get better. I languished on the couch, unable to read anything because of a headache and unable to sleep because I oscillated between being too hot and too cold. When your immune system is kicking into overdrive in order to fend off whatever is causing your illness, your body is left with exactly zero percent energy. I kept fading in and out of consciousness, hoping that each time I awoke next I would feel better.

As James pointed out later, I probably exacerbated my sickness by not allowing myself enough to eat—did you know that your body needs 1.5x as much food intake as you normally eat because it expends so much energy in rising your overall body temperature? By the time he came home from call on Monday, I looked like a specter. Luckily, he had enough sense to force feed me despite my protests; as much as I hate to admit it, that reason is probably why I managed to recover today.

So what does any of this have to do with food?

Well, less than an hour before I came down with said illness, I had been trying out a new recipe for baked chicken nuggets. Unfortunately, they ended up being the only solid food I managed to eat on Sunday—certainly not enough for a sick person’s metabolism. But as for a healthy alternative that’s low in calories—great for everybody else!

The best part is that you can make a large amount in advance all at once, freeze the leftovers, and use them later at your discretion. No more excuses about healthy food taking more time out of your day—and no more deep-fried pink slime McNuggets. (I’m guilty of loving them as much as anybody else, but I’m moving onto healthier pastures.) My favorite condiment with these nuggets is plain ol’ ketchup, but anything you have on hand will be delicious, I’m sure.

I have very fond memories of my grandmother making snickerdoodles for my family when I was little. She used the same cookbook that she had been using for years—the Betty Crocker Cookbook, published in the 1960’s. The cover was worn and the binding a little tattered, so she covered it with one of our elementary book covers—a picture of Mickey Mouse, books in hand and schoolhouse in the distance. Whenever I saw that book on the counter, I knew that in time the kitchen would be filled with the delicious smell of cinnamon, sugar and butter.

When I became older, she allowed me to assist her with the basics—rolling the dough into balls, tossing them with cinnamon-sugar, and placing the dough balls on the baking sheet. I would hop around with impatience and glance through the oven glass for the next 10-15 torturous minutes as the smell of cookies wafted throughout the entire house. I could barely contain myself when my grandmother pulled them out of the oven and shooed me away as she placed them on a cooling rack. And when I finally got to bite into each cookie, armed with a tall glass of whole milk… the memory still makes me smile, no matter where I am or how I’m doing.

I stole (borrowed?) that Betty Crocker cookbook from my house my junior year of college, determined to bring that happiness to fellow parishioners at my parish’s bake sale. Hoo boy—that did not go well. It was probably a combination of my ineptitude, the 30-year old oven at my apartment, and the fact that I didn’t adjust the recipe to high altitude (which ties into the first reason). Being in a pinch, I ended up “baking” a brownie mix from a box instead. I tried a few more times to recapture the magic that my grandmother had woven with her snickerdoodles, but even after I made altitude adjustments to the recipe I was still at an impasse.

I started trying recipes that I found online, desperate to figure out where I went wrong and what would work best. And after a few tries, I finally found this recipe on Simply Recipes—and it was perfect. Crispy on the edges, soft on the inside, with just enough cinnamon kick to tickle the taste buds. I’ve made this recipe for my closest friends, for my lovely coworkers, and everyone in between. Out of all the cookie batches I’ve made in the past, this one seems to have the most positive response. And although my taste has moved on (my favorite is oatmeal raisin nowadays), the act of making and baking snickerdoodles will always make me nostalgic for those long-ago days in the kitchen where I’m ten years old again–giggling and rolling dough in cinnamon sugar with my grandmother’s sharp-eyed supervision.

Someday, though… someday I’m going to tackle that dang Better Crocker recipe again, and I’ll finally master it! (I still have the book sitting in my bookshelf… no, I never gave it back. What a bad granddaughter I am!)

Recipe modified from Simply Recipes.

My first memorable experience with scallion pancakes (蔥油餅, cōng yóu bǐng) was with James at his family’s restaurant six years ago. I remember being initially enchanted by the aroma of sesame oil and the scallion-flecked surface of its golden crust. Once I took a big, crispy bite, the crunch was then followed by chewy layers of green onion and dough. Whether I chose to dip each slice into the sauce provided or not, I was in heaven. Delicious, fried doughy heaven.

We’ve since moved to Los Angeles and have a veritable gold mine of authentic Chinese/Taiwanese food at our fingertips (hello, San Gabriel Valley!) but whenever we feel too lazy to make the drive out east, we make whatever we feel like eating at home. I’ve slowly increased my repertoire to include three-cup chicken (三杯雞, sān bēi jī) and mapo tofu (麻婆豆腐, má pó dòu fu), but only recently tried my hand at scallion pancakes. I’ll be honest—the first few attempts were less than fruitful. Too crispy, not enough layers, not enough flavor, not enough scallions… I was especially frustrated at my inability to capture the crispiness of the outside compared to the doughy, chewy layers on the inside.

Eventually I found a way to make scallion pancakes that satisfied my cravings and earned a thumbs-up from James (which meant a lot to me since he grew up making them after all!). It’s a little more time-consuming because it involves brushing layers of sesame oil and re-rolling the dough for each individual pancake—but getting the consistency just right was a triumph in itself for me.  I would never claim that these could trump the restaurants here in Los Angeles that have been doing their amazing scallion pancake thing for years– I’m looking at you, Sin Bala and Earthen Restaurant—but you’ll be pretty darn close for a first-time attempt. And for those of you that don’t have the convenience of living 20 minutes away from Chinatown—this will be a delicious, authentic discovery.

A few notes (as always):

• Do you like onions? I do, so I included the white part of the green onions in the recipe. If you would prefer a more subtle flavor, just use the green part of the onions and compensate by using 4 stalks instead of 3.
• Boiling water is necessary for the initial mixture of flour, salt and scallions because it encourages the dough to stick together much faster than cold water.
• Be careful after your dough comes together! Poke it first after you initially turn it onto a work surface to knead. If it’s too hot, give it a minute to cool and try again.
• The dough will be extremely sticky to work with, but try to be as sparing with flour as possible. Using too much flour will dry out the dough and will make the final product more like a cracker than chewy.
• If you want to try for more flaky, chewy layers you can add more layers of sesame oil after the initial two that I list in the recipe—I found that two was sufficient enough to get the consistency I wanted.
• Scallion pancakes are oily. I know, I sound like Captain Obvious, but seriously—you can place them on paper towels after pan frying, but don’t press the oil out of them or blot them of oil. Otherwise, you’ll get scallion crackers.  Yes, I am (unfortunately) speaking from experience.

Isn’t this great? I make the mistakes so you don’t have to! May your scallion pancakes be crispy, chewy and delectable…