A Little Bit of This... And That-7/19/09

As you may have realized if you read this blog regularly, despite returning home from vacation almost halfway into July, I am well on my way to finishing Gourmet's recipe for the month. Throughout this project of making the recipes from Gourmet for each month, I always find those recipes that don't fit well with the others. Today was a bit disjointed as I made a few recipes that didn't seem to fit well into another menu. Yesterday, I'd spent over an hour making a chicken salad so it's somewhat surprising that I would try another so soon.
The Walnut Chicken Salad with Green Apple Vinaigrette was a much simpler version of chicken salad, using much of the same flavors as the famous Waldorf Salad. This salad is mayonnaise free and is quick to make. I was not a huge fan of the flavor, however. The dressing as called for was not enough to coat the chicken so there was a lot of dry chicken. The flavor of the dressing was good but again, there was not enough of it to effectively flavor the chicken and really make the salad tangy and delicious.
One of the hardest recipes to put in the right place was the "Le Cake" Aux Olives Et Au Reblochon, a savory quick bread taken from the featured cookbook for July, A Table in the Tarn.
This bread was packed with a variety of ingredients such as Reblochon cheese, pancetta, and olives. Reblochon is a soft French cheese that I was unable to find so I substituted Brie. I cooked the bread the recommended time and the skewer came out clean, but it still tasted doughy. Some of this may have been due to the soft cheese but it was an off putting sensation and we ended up throwing out the bread. Even after the bread had cooled a day, it was still strange to have gooey bread. I think there was too much going on in this bread to really enjoy one flavor and it ended muddling all the flavors.
The last recipe I did today was from the "The Last Touch", the section at the end of the magazine that focuses on a particular theme or ingredient. This month the theme is ice pops with a grownup kick. (I initially toyed with calling them "adult Popsicles" but thought this name might give the wrong idea.;) I made the Pina Colada Ice Pops with pineapple, coconut milk, and rum. This was actually my second recipe from this section. I made the Watermelon Margarita Ice Pops yesterday but neglected to take a picture thinking I could do it later since I had 4 left. Sadly, I forgot to put the ice pops back in the freezer and they melted. I suppose I could have refroze them but they were actually rather unimpressive so I will just tell you the Watermelon ones looked just like the picture above but they were pink instead. The Watermelon Ice Pops were very subdued in flavor (Why did I add water to watermelon in the blender?) and I did not taste the tequila at all. I did make non-alcholic ones for Eyrleigh, for the record. The Pina Colada Ice Pops were the opposite, so boozy I couldn't really detect the pineapple and coconut flavors. Eyrleigh's were excellent, though so I think next time I'll just make the ice pops without the rum.


Walnut Chicken Salad with Green Apple Vinaigrette-C

"Le Cake" Aux Olives Et Au Reblochon-D

Watermelon Ice Pops-C

Pina Colada Ice Pops-B

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