Cooking With Christie

Cooking With Christie:

Finder of Lost ThingsLeave a comment

Inspiration: I enjoy make-ahead-meals. When coming home after a long trip, contending with a head cold, or simply suffering from brain fog — these freezer staples can be a lifesaver at dinner time. When, for reasons I don’t fully comprehend, it gives me a boost to put something on the table that’s slightly fancier than a tuna sandwich and a side of fruit. 

However, there’s one make-ahead-meal I’ve consistently struggled to make work — enchiladas. 

I’ve tried a half-dozen recipes, and they all had the same problem — the flour tortillas lose all their texture and become an overly soft, slightly slimy mess. Don’t get me wrong, they’re still edible, but it’s not necessarily a pleasurable palate experience.

Yet, I’m unwilling to give up on my dream of make-ahead enchiladas.

Then, just a few days back, whilst perusing my cookbook library looking for inspiration, I came across another, new-to-me version of make-ahead enchiladas. 

The book I found this recipe in.

And this version gave me hope.

Why? It calls for the sauce to be frozen separately from the pan of enchiladas. Moreover, you cook the tortillas and filling first — then — add the sauce and cheese. Thus, allowing the tortillas to crisp up before adding the wet ingredients.

Trying not to get my hopes too high, I started cooking….and…drumroll please…they turned out great! There was just a tad bit of sogginess, which I’m reasonably certain can be eliminated on the next go round! 

Woot! I’m definitely going to make these again!

The spices I used in the sauce, my MacGyvered pan set up when I ran out of space in my two pyrex dishes, and a glimpse of the fillingI used before rolling up the tortilla.

Helpful Hint From Me to You: This recipe calls for the chicken to be cut into strips. A perfectly fine method, however, I found it works better if the thighs are left whole during the initial cook, then shredded. This allows you to roll the tortillas tighter around the filling — which helps ward off soggy tortilla syndrome. 

Second, you can add more veggies than called for in the recipe. This not only allows you to stretch the filling even further, but also helps hide said green bits from the picky eaters in your life. Though again to ward off that dangerous moisture, if you’re using fresh veggies, pan-fry them first. If you decide to use a frozen veggie blend: Defrost them in the microwave first. Then, either use a slotted spoon or simply dump them onto a paper-towel-lined plate to remove the excess moisture. Either method works, but just remember to add them to the chicken after you’ve shredded it.

Agatha Christie’s Canon of Characters: Admittedly, it’s a bit difficult to see any of Christie’s sleuths making enchiladas. That being said, I think Captain Hastings, after his stint of living in Argentina, might appreciate the heat and texture of this dish!

My 52 Weeks With Christie: A.Miner©2025

Cooking With Christie: Unexpected Inspiration

Finder of Lost ThingsLeave a comment

Inspiration: Within the book What You Are Looking For Is In The Library, there’s a minor subplot woven into the story featuring rice balls. Due to the shaping required to produce onigiri and the possibility of adding filling, I’d always found this dish an intimidating undertaking. Yet, in the story, this staple seemed relatively easy to make.

Then we hit a week plus of mid-to-high eighty-degree days which always scrambling around for foods that require minimal heat to produce. Since rice has become a comfort food and rice balls can be eaten cold, I decided to try my hand at making them*. Looking about the internet, I discovered this excellent website that provides a base onigiri recipe, as well as three variants.

Deciding to stick with the basics on my first rodeo, I purchased the required sushi rice. Following the directions on the package, I cooked up my first batch. Now, after reading the website’s instructions and watching a number of YouTube videos on how to shape the rice into a triangle by hand (which frankly looked like magic to my untrained eye), I pulled out my far less fancy muffin scoop and set to work. 

What I failed to recall was that I had purchased an antique Chinese rice mold at an estate sale a year or so prior. Maybe I’ll use it if I ever make these when company comes over.

In any case, after stirring three tablespoons of ponzu and four tablespoons of yuzu furikaki into the steaming rice, I started scooping and, voila, in less than two minutes I’d two dozen riceballs! And they were just as easy to make as the characters in What You Are Looking For Is In The Library said they were! Even better? They taste great cold!

*(I’m not calling what I made onigiri because mine aren’t in the traditional triangle shape or wrapped in nori. Nor would I call the rice shaped in the aforementioned mold onigiri either, just to be clear.)

Agatha Christie’s Canon of Characters: I can easily see Colonel Race making and enjoying these during his bachelor days. Rice balls are easy to make, last for a while, and, if they don’t contain a fin based filling, are something that can be stuffed in a jacket pocket and eaten on the go. Which, if you’re caught up in an unplanned stakeout or suddenly break the case — having a bit of nutrition to keep your brain cells functioning at their peak is important!

My 52 Weeks With Christie: A.Miner©2025

Cooking With Christie: More From Molly on the Range

Finder of Lost ThingsLeave a comment

Inspiration: Recently, summer gave our region a break from the heat. With the mercury hovering in the low seventies, I sprang into the kitchen to where my mixer lives. Months had passed since I sent treats off to my husband’s coworkers, and this situation needed rectifying. Plus, I had a new cookbook to try out.

Fresh off my challah win, I flipped a few chapters further into Molly On The Range (a cookbook by Molly Yeh that you should totally pick up) to her Chocolate Chip Cookies Without The Chocolate Chips recipe. (It has a shorter name, but this one is more fun.)

Let me tell you, these cookies are fabulous. 

The addition of flaky sea salt to the top of each scoop of dough adds way more to the experience than I could have ever imagined and is what makes Chocolate Chip Cookies Without The Chocolate Chips utterly fantastic to eat.

Above and beyond this, Yeh recommends making the dough one day and baking it the next, thus allowing the flavor to fully develop! A feature I absolutely love in a bake.

The scoops of dough before baking!

However, I did need to alter one aspect of Yeh’s recipe, the size of the cookie. In the book, she suggests forming the dough into a hockey puck sized disk. From past experience, my husband’s coworkers don’t care for cookies this size. They prefer a touch of something sweet to go with their coffee, not something the size of a teacup’s saucer. However, as adjustments go, switching to a smaller size was easy enough to accomplish.

Agatha Christie’s Canon of Characters: I can easily envision Miss Marple making these when she wants a rich, delicious cookie that isn’t overly sweet. Even better? Without the inclusion of chocolate chips, she doesn’t run the risk of smearing slightly melted chocolate onto her yarn and staining whatever soft and woolly piece she’s knitting for a friend.

My 52 Weeks with Christie: A.Miner©2025

Cooking With Christie: Intimidation

Finder of Lost ThingsLeave a comment

Inspiration: Despite shaping bread dough nearly every single week of the year, apparently, my brain doesn’t consider the basic cylinder I place in a loaf pan a shape. (My little grey cells can be real jerks sometimes.) Due to this perception, I’ve shied away from challah’s braided form for years, despite finding this style of bread intriguing.

Enter Girl Meets Farm.

I really enjoy watching and listening to Molly Yeh’s enthusiasm for food on her aforementioned television show. So, upon locating one of Yeh’s cookbooks on the shelves of my local indie bookshop, I immediately flipped it open….And spied a recipe for Pimento Cheese Babka. (Yes, this too is a shaped loaf, but I’m willing to try A LOT if there’s melted cheese in my future.)

What I didn’t realize, until after the book came home with me, was this savory take on babka was based on Yeh’s Basic Challah recipe. Moreover, in Molly On The Range, Yeh’s included six other variants above and beyond the babka. 

Figuring: If that there are that many different things you can do with a single recipe — it seemed reasonable to assume Yeh’s challah was probably a pretty forgiving dough. So on a recent random Monday, I screwed up my courage and gave this Challah recipe a whirl. 

Upon rereading the instructions on that grey morning, I noticed a line I had skimmed past in previous perusals — Yeh’s instructions on how to make the dough one day and bake it the next. A feature I really appreciate in any recipe.

Look mom, I did a thing!

How did the braided loaves turn out? I think the dough was a touch overproofed, as the plaits on my first loaf tore slightly whilst baking. Though, in retrospect, that could’ve been due to panically pulling the loaf from the oven five minutes after it hit the heat to apply the forgotten egg wash. And I completely spaced sprinkling the flaky sea salt called for onto said wash on both loaves.

All that being said, for a first try, my challah turned out great! Especially when topped with melted cheese and dipped in tomato soup!

I would highly recommend Molly Yeh’s cookbook, Molly On The Range. Above and beyond being well laid out, Yeh’s instructions are straightforward, clear, and broken up into sensible steps. Moreover, Yeh’s introductions to each recipe are generally brief and contribute to the overall understanding of the dish (and are often funny). 

Although you can find many of Yeh’s recipes online, the book provides better context and is easier to follow (for me at least) than their Food Network website counterparts.

Another variation on Yeh’s Basic Challah recipe!

Agatha Christie’s Canon of Characters: I can easily imagine Miss Marple, Tuppence, or Lucy Eyelesbarrow whipping up this bread to serve at a fete or feast with friends — as not only does the plaits look impressive but, apparently, it’s easy to impart complex flavors via this loaf to complement other dishes being served as well!

My 52 Weeks With Christie: A.Miner©2025

Cooking With Christie: Birthday Cake Cookies

Finder of Lost ThingsLeave a comment

Inspiration: I wish I could say that I made these cookies for someone’s B’day, but alas, it’s the recipe’s use of sprinkles that drew me to this particular cookie. These tiny flecks of color always make me happy when I get to sprinkle them into one of my bakes. 

Despite my passion for sprinkles of any variety, if this were back in March, I would’ve shied away from baking them. However, since reading Kate Lebo’s series of arguments in The Book of Difficult Fruit, I am far less trepidatious about using imitation or cheap(er) almond extract in my bakes. Which is a wonderful thing, since almond extract is one of the key tastes in the quintessential birthday cake flavor. (BTW: If you haven’t read The Book of Difficult Fruit, I highly recommend you give it a try. Click here for my full review.) 

The magazine where I found this recipe.

With imitation almond extract in hand, I set about whipping up these festive treats….Only to realize I didn’t own vanilla bean paste or all-natural jimmies, the recipe writers recommended using. The latter I already knew I was missing. However, on my birthday, my husband gifted me a three-pound container of jimmies to play with in my bakes — and they are definitely not all natural. Though it went against the recipe’s recommendation, I went with what I already had on hand. 

The vanilla bean paste was more troubling. 

However, by the time I read the recipe’s fine print, I was already neck-deep in multitasking, and pausing my cookery to run to the grocery store for a single ingredient wasn’t a viable option….So I improvised. Using two teaspoons of vanilla powder and the innards of one vanilla bean in an attempt to recreate the clean taste of the missing paste. Which worked surprisingly well!

The other alteration I made to these bespeckled treats was reducing their size. Rather than portioning off the dough in half-cup scoops, I used my standard tablespoon-and-a-half scooper — then adjusted the cooking time for the smaller cookies. (For me, large cookies are great as a special, sometimes treat you buy at a bakery. But for the everyday cookie? Smaller is definitely better, as they are far easier to dunk in a cup of coffee.) 

Cookie dough!

However, what I enjoy about these large cookie recipes is that if you do decide to reduce their size, they typically yield about two dozen cookies rather than the standard thirty-six to forty-eight.

Even with these minor adjustments, the cookies turned out great! Soft and cake-like, they went down a treat with my husband’s co-workers.

Agatha Christie’s Canon of Characters: I definitely think Miss Marple would make these Birthday Cake Cookies. They are simple to whip up, easier to transport than cupcakes, and still make the recipient feel special.

Of course, the byproduct of this gesture isn’t anything to sneeze at either. 

Taking the time to bake something especially for them, plus the sheer act of recalling their birthday in time to act on it, could potentially lead the recipient to reveal a piece of crucial information they might not have otherwise divulged to Miss Marple during an investigation. 

Though I don’t see this beloved elderly spinster as being this Machiavellian, I don’t think she would turn away from using every advantage she could — if someone was in imminent danger. And since St. Mary Mead’s an invention from the mind of Agatha Christie, imminent danger could be very deadly indeed.

My 52 Weeks With Christie: A.Miner©2025

Cooking With Christie: Everyday Sourdough

Finder of Lost ThingsLeave a comment

Inspiration: Over the past few years, I’ve struggled to make and maintain sourdough starters. Much like my fermentation experiments, my forays into these fermented starters always seem to crash and burn before I ever get to the good part — baking! Irritated at the latest failure, I sat down with a stack of cookbooks devoted to sourdough and started studying. Whereupon I found two simple tips/tricks that kept my starter alive long enough to bake with. 

First and easiest fix: wrapping the jar of starter in a kitchen towel. Apparently, my kitchen is a tad too cool for a starter to thrive and it needed a blanket. 

The second solution required a trip to our local farmers’ market, more specifically to the stall selling organic heirloom varieties of flour. According to several books, these small-batch flours contain a variety of micronutrients that help starters flourish, whereas plain old white flour from the grocery store strips away these nutrients.

And it worked!

Happy to have finally made a sourdough starter that lived longer than a couple of days, I started scouring these same tomes for a recipe and found a simple one in King Arthur Baking Company’s Baking School — a straightforward Sourdough Sandwich Bread recipe. 

And it turned out magnificently fluffy!

Unsurprisingly, within a week of making this loaf, my starter died — again. But now I’ve hope!

There’s a similar recipe on their website, but it has way more steps and ingredients. I would highly recommend purchasing the book instead. Over the years, Baking School‘s become the baking book I keep turning to when I need a recipe that turns out beautifully the first and one hundredth time. (BTW: I’m not paid for this review or for making the recipe; I just really like their stuff.)

Christie’s Canon of Characters: Though Agatha Christie’s sleuths often struggle to find and nail down that book’s ne’er-do-well, I don’t know if they’d apply the same deductive reasoning to their failed bakes. Poirot probably would, though I can’t imagine him flubbing up repeatedly on something as supposedly simple as a starter. 

Miss Marple probably mastered this technique early on and teaches it to the long string of maids she hires to help her out around the house. Perhaps Tuppence would struggle? Only because she’s pulled hither, thither, and yon by her three kids, husband, and murder cases. Colonel Race globe-hops entirely too much to even contemplate something as needy as a starter. 

Superintendent Battle, yes, he’s the one who would both want to try making bread and figure out why it failed. He strikes me as a man who would enjoy puttering around the kitchen with his wife and daughters during his off hours. Perhaps not failing on purpose, but still enjoying the exasperation of one of his female family members showing him “the right way” to ensure the bread turned out every time!

P.S.: Here’s a picture of the modest Dagwood Sandwich I made that night for dinner using the sourdough bread!

My 52 Weeks With Christie: A.Miner©2025