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I made 2 Korean dishes both from Maangchi recipes for dinner last night. One is fairly familiar & easy, garlic green beans, but the other was new and a bit more complicated.  Spicy Braised chicken . 
I made some adjustments, as usual. I used boneless skinless chicken thighs instead of breasts & I used applesauce instead of sliced apple. I also used American style red pepper flakes instead of Korean since that is what I had at home.  For the garlic green beans I used frozen instead of fresh and I thawed/cooked them very briefly in the microwave before adding them to the cooked garlic and oil in the hot pan. You finish it with sesame oil, off the heat which was the main difference from how I normally make garlic green beans. 

I served them together over rice in a bowl and they were good. Next time I make this I will make enough for leftovers & used sliced apple. If you want to try out Korean home cooking Maangchi has been making YouTube videos for years. She is a Korean immigration who lives in NYC(I think) so she has knowledge of traditional Korean cooking & how to adapt it to available ingredients in the US.

The other day I made a new recipe, marmalade muffins. They turned out good and were very tasty.

I used a master muffin recipe and altered it some. I used Greek yogurt instead of sour cream, as that's what we had. I also used white sugar & then added a tbsp or so of molasses since i was out of brown sugar. I added 1/3 cup & a heaping Tablespoon of orange marmalade & folded it in at the end. Next time I think I'll use a bit less sugar or molasses as they came out a bit browned where they touched the tin.

For dinner tonight, I made a batch of chicken and dumplings and roast carrots on the side.

I used this base recipe for chicken and dumplings with some changes. https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/chicken-and-dropped-dumplings-recipe-1949787

I made it with about half the weight of chicken using chicken thighs. I cooked them in my instant pot. I halfed the dumplings recipe as well. We ate all the dumplings already.  I'll just make more when we eat it next. My partner and I both love these dumplings.

The roasted carrots were seasoned with brown sugar, salt, honey, black pepper. I cooked them at 350 so the sweet sauce didn't burn.

I've enjoyed doing more baking at having time and end the day with a clean kitchen while unemployed. Today I made some buns for sandwiches & tried a new recipe for summer squash bread, which was tasty. I used brown sugar instead of white sugar that the recipe called for and I left out the golden raisins since I don't have any. I also cut the recipe in half since I only have 1 loaf pan. 

This is the bun recipe - https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/beautiful-burger-buns-recipe. 
This is the summer squash bread recipe which was original recommended by ysabetwordsmith . https://www.food.com/recipe/ella-bella-s-healthy-summer-squash-bread-435894

I have also been doing more crafting. I got some nice fiber as a birthday present & I've finished hand spinning the first of two 4 oz packages. I figured out a better way to predraft the fiber so the second half of the singles are much more regular. I'm still a beginner spinner so I'm happy with the improvement. I haven't started on the next package but I'm looking forward to it.

I also finished a shawl that I was working on for quite a while. I still have to block it when I can find the space/time to do so. I'm trying to decide what to make next. I'm thinking about making some slippers for myself or some knit fidgets. I'm wanting to try out some small things that I can sell without taking a long time to produce. 

I've also been listening to a lot of audiobooks from my library. I use Libby & cards from two libraries which is great. I just picked up the Mistress of the Empire by Raymond E. Feist and Janny Wurts. I had to return it to the library & wait to get it back after putting a hold on it. So I'm in the middle of the book & have about 60% of it left. I'm hoping that I can finish it before having to return it again. The other day I finished The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik which is the last book in the series. I enjoyed it but the book was a bit dark for my taste atm. I realized I enjoyed darker fiction a lot more when I was younger & didn't have a job & adult life to worry about. I've also recently been enjoying some romance books by Ruby Dixon specifically the Ice Planet Barbarian series and the Aspect & Anchor series. They are what I would call spicy fluff. They both have fish out of water & culture clash as part of them which is fun. I really like the people reading the Ice Planet series. It is read by Mason Lloyd & Hollie Jackson in alternating POVs which is how the books are written. The books follow different characters in the series like many romance novel series do & they do a great job of making the character's have different voices through the series. 

A lot of my reading these days is done using audiobooks from the library, so that I can read while at work or doing chores. Today I finished the 16th book in the Dresden files at work, which is the 2nd to last book out. I like long series and I wanted to get a new series started before I finish this one. Plus I have to wait for the hold to come in. I also wanted something a bit lighter. So I checked out the first few books in the Song of the Lioness series by Tamora Pierce. I've read the circle of magic books by her & I really enjoyed them. But I never read her other universe, so I thought it would be a good time to do so. I just finished the first book, which is under 6 hours on audio. I enjoyed it and have already checked out books 2 & 3. 😁😁  With this book done I've read 19 books so far this year. That's not counting fanfiction or reading here on DW. I wonder if anyone's made a program to track that.

As for cooking tonight I made a new dish, which is from the sorted sidekick app. I'm a decent cook but I struggle with meal planning & shopping.  So far this has really helped and my partner & I have enjoyed most of the recipes.  This one was polenta with kale & crispy turkey on top. I did make some changes including using stock instead of milk to make the polenta & using turkey instead of beef, but it was quite tasty. I don't know that I'll make it again but we'll see. I do have most of a bag of polenta to use up.

I've done some comfort cooking & comfort eating this week.

I made chocolate tofu pie earlier this week. It's very rich & super tasty. I used a Martha Stewart recipe for the phyllo pie crust & alton brown's recipe for the filling. I didn't have coffee liquor so I used some instant coffee & sugar instead. This is the first time I've made this but it turned out well.

Today I made some chicken noodle soup which is an old favorite comfort food and I made crackers too. It was another first time recipe that turned out well. It was very easy, but cutting was a bit fiddly. https://www.seriouseats.com/diy-oyster-crackers-recipe