The kind of life we wanted
+ Crispy Ground Beef and Broccoli Bowls, Lemon Bundt Cake, and recipes for St. Patrick's Day
Welcome to Let’s Get Lost! I’m Rebecca, a recipe developer, food photographer, passionate people watcher, and chaser of new experiences. You might know me from my recipe websites, Of Batter and Dough and A Little and A Lot.
My husband and I are nomads without a home base but with many modes of transportation, namely an RV, a motorcycle, and a sailboat. I write recipes and stories for curious people who believe experiences are more important than things and who want more adventure.
Get every issue and recipe directly on rebeccablackwell.com.
My grandma and I were both born on March the 11th, her in 1928 and me in 1975. She always said I was her favorite birthday gift and, thanks to my Dad, I even gave her a birthday card on the day I was born. It read, “You didn’t think I’d forget your birthday, did you?” Growing up, I kind of thought everyone shared their birthday with a grandma.
One year she bought me a card that said, “Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to me. Happy birthday to us. Happy birthday to we,” and when I opened it, she sang the words to me. That little song stuck and we sang it to each other every year, much to my teenage annoyance as I got a bit older. (It was only a facade, the annoyance. I didn’t really want to be too cool for our birthday song.)
There is a lot of my grandma in me. We both married at the absurdly young age of 19. I told her we were getting married before Steve had even proposed. I knew it was coming and couldn’t wait to tell her. She was, understandably, a little bit horrified and started to tell me that we were way too young until I pointed out that she was also 19 on her wedding day, and what was she going to say to that?
She was the kind of person who showed you she loved you by feeding you. I adopted this trait and passed it right along to our kids. When he was 20, our son Corey asked for the recipe for grandma’s snickerdoodles. He made her a batch in the weeks before she died, when she was still able to eat one, and she was exuberant in her praise of the young baker’s abilities.
From what I can tell, my grandma lived exactly the kind of life she wanted. The life she wanted does not resemble the life I wanted, but that’s not the point. The point is that we both knew what we wanted and then went about getting it.
With my birthday right around the corner, that’s mostly what I’m thinking about. I have a long list of regrets, of should haves and wish I would haves. There are things I wish were different and things I wish I could change. We are who we are and the demons who chased me at 13 are still in pursuit at 51, they are just a little bit slower, perhaps a little bit softer, and not nearly as scary.
But the life I have is the life I want.
Many of the choices I have been afforded are exceedingly generous in a world where choices are generally quite limited. We don’t choose where and when we are born, the people we are born to, and the circumstances we are born into. We don’t choose our personality, or our brain chemistry, or the overall state of how everything grew together before we even were allowed to take our first breath. We are born with the genetic makeup of the many generations that came before us and we had no say in its particulars. We are the product of everyone else’s choices long before we have a chance to make one of our own.
There is no such thing as a self made anyone.
I am happy to take credit and give credit to my grandma and I for creating lives we love. But our ability to do so was a pure stroke of luck.
Year by year, I am trying to see the truth in that and to not take it for granted.
This week’s menu
Crispy Ground Beef and Broccoli Bowls and Lemon Bundt Cake
Crispy Ground Beef and Broccoli Bowls
I have recently “rediscovered” ground beef. For years, I rarely used it, opting for whole cuts of meat in nearly everything that called for beef. But, over the past several months, I’ve been using it more frequently.
I’ve used it to make the homemade krautburgers of my childhood, super easy and affordable stuffed peppers topped with cheese and tortilla chips, and these cheeseburger quesadillas, which are not something I ever thought would come out of my kitchen but they are SO GOOD we can’t get enough.
What I’m trying to say is that ground beef is having a moment around here. So, a few weeks ago, when I went into the kitchen to make beef and broccoli bowls, I reached for ground beef instead of something like strips of flank steak.
My first attempt was ok, but it also lacked the texture I was hoping for. I wanted the ground beef to clump together and have a crispy exterior, almost like the edges of a smash burger. I also wanted the ground beef to be rich and flavorful all by itself, even before coating it with Asian chili sauce.
After some experimentation, I discovered that mixing ground beef with cornstarch, egg whites, soy sauce, a bit of toasted sesame oil and rice vinegar did the trick. 🙌
The idea is based on a technique called “velveting”. Velveting is most often used to improve the texture of strips of beef before cooking with vegetables over high heat. But, it works with ground beef as well, producing tender clumps of flavorful meat with a gorgeously crispy exterior.
The crispy chunks of ground beef combined with rice and veggies in a delicious, spicy Asian sauce is deeply satisfying. I hope you love it as much as we do.
Lemon Bundt Cake with Tart Lemon Glaze
Citrus is one of my favorite flavors and as we do with things we love, I use it a LOT. So this is not the first lemon cake you will find on this site. But, I wanted something a little different from say, my lemon olive oil loaf or this show-stopping 8-layer lemon cake.
I wanted the kind of tall, generous slices you get from a bundt cake that rises all the way to the top of the pan as it bakes. Bundt cakes are both beautiful and unfussy. They stand on their own and don’t require any filling or frosting. They are a study in simplicity, easy to transport, slice, and serve.
But also, I wanted a very soft, light, and tender texture with a lot of bright lemon flavor, and this can be tricky. Lemons are highly acidic and when it comes to baking, acid is key to achieving a soft and tender texture. But, too much acid and the whole thing falls apart.
So, to add a lot of lemon flavor without a level of acid that would destroy the cake’s structure, I included a generous amount of lemon zest which I soaked for a while in lemon juice. This soak tenderizes the zest, allowing it to melt into the batter. I also added some lemon extract or lemon oil and then glazed the cake with a double layer of tart lemon icing. This produced a cake that’s exceptionally light, with a sliceable structure, and rich, buttery lemon flavor that any citrus lover will swoon over.
Next week is St. Patrick’s Day and in our home that means Corned Beef and Cabbage and Irish Apple cake
This is my all time favorite way to cook corned beef and cabbage. Corned beef brisket and cabbage cooked in a Guinness spiked broth until the meat is so tender it falls apart and the cabbage is soft and buttery.
Right before serving, glaze the brisket with brown sugar mustard sauce & serve with creamy parsley buttered potatoes.
This recipe includes instructions for making Corned Beef and Cabbage in your Slow Cooker or in your Instant Pot.
This is a soft vanilla cake that’s subtly sweet, packed with apples, and gently flavored with cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. It’s equally delicious smothered in vanilla custard sauce or buttery whisky sauce, or eaten plain and perfectly unadorned.
I should tell you that there is some variation in what’s considered a classic Irish apple cake, so here’s what you can expect from this recipe:
Tall, thick slices of vanilla cake flavored with a hint of cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves
A LOT of tart, crisp apples
A crunchy, sugary topping that’s the perfect contrast to the soft vanilla cake and tart apples (it’s my favorite part of this cake!)
This newsletter would not exist if not for the members of The Lost Supper Club, who show their support with a paid subscription thus ensuring that the vast majority of readers can keep reading this newsletter for free. As a thank you, I try to provide those paid subscribers with some cool stuff, including three free cookbooks. Find out more about becoming a member of the Lost Supper Club.
❤️ Did you know that if you hit the heart or recycle symbol at the top or bottom of this post, it makes it easier for other people to find this newsletter?