Cooking Mag Mommy

Year of the Dragon- Chinese New Year -1/23/12

2012-01-25T19:40:00.000-08:00

Gong Hei Fat Choi! Happy Chinese New Year! I've mentioned many times I'm a sucker for themes and nothing brings out themes like international holidays. Chinese New Year is an easy holiday for anyone to celebrate. Chinese food (or an Americanized version) is easy to find and many websites suggest fun ways to decorate for the holiday. I used epicurious.com to find a simple kid-friendly menu and www.activityvillage.co.uk for some cute Chinese New Year printables. Eyrleigh and I decorated the table together. I had some gold place mats and napkins that I tied with red ribbon. I found some pillar candles and an Asian-style vase to make a centerpiece. We printed out a lantern to glue together and some lucky money envelopes. I slid some money in and Eyrleigh could barely wait to open her envelope. She was so excited!

The menu on epicurious was titled "Chinese in a Flash" and it was a super easy take on Chinese that Eyrleigh loved. The main dish of Hoisin Chicken in Lettuce Leaves was chicken and water chestnuts in a simple sauce. Eyrleigh doesn't like lettuce much, I think it's textural, so she ate her chicken without the lettuce. Flavor wise, this is not an outstanding dish but it has simple flavors and is super easy to make so until I have more time (no crying 6 month old who won't eat any of this anyway!), this menu gets the point across.

The Chinese Style Mushroom and Tofu Soup was also simple and not particularly flavorful but it was quick and easy. It is a great introduction to tofu if you are not sure what your child (or husband:) will think of it. The broth flavors the tofu and helps mellow the textural uniqueness of tofu. I served these dishes with brewed green tea.

The dessert is a bit strange and though Eyrleigh loved it, I'm not sure I will repeat this recipe. The Mandarin Orange Napoleons use the super kid friendly canned oranges which immediately makes them tops in my child's book. I however could live without the candy sweet little things and liked them even less in what basically amounts to cream cheese frosting. I also was very annoyed at the directions to bake the filo dough layers for 10-15 minutes. The first batch burned to a crisp in 10 minutes and even the second batch that I only cooked for 8 minutes was dark and tasted burnt on the edges.

Next year, I may try to amp up the authenticity in dishes but for my first Chinese New Year with two, this menu worked and allowed for some time to make some fun crafts. I tried to get Eyrleigh to make a dragon for Richard's place setting but she ended up gluing white paper and some origami I made. Rylynn played with (ate) her little toys and was just as happy with pureed butternut squash. I look forward to next year as Eyrleigh gets more artistic and Rylynn will be old enough to scribble something.

Resolving- 1/22/12

2012-01-25T17:45:00.000-08:00

I've always loved the prospect of a new year with new goals and new challenges. I hear some say that making resolutions just sets one up for failure but I for one love to feel like I can try again. I've even made and stuck to some significant resolutions over the years. After years of resolving the read the whole Bible in a year, I finally did it in 2001 and then again in 2010. Thankfully, major weight loss has never been an issue for me but in 2008 I did my first triathlon, in 2009 I did my first half marathon, and one of these years, when training doesn't involve pushing a jogging stroller, I will do a full marathon. This year, I didn't even think about resolutions until we were a few days into 2012. Rylynn was sick and we were up in New Hampshire at my mom and dad's.

I've always been a big fan of practical resolutions. Eat healthier is too vague and impossible to quantify. Eat more homemade meals is better but still not specific enough for me. My food resolution for this year was to make weekly menus to help us save money and eat healthier. This resolution stems from my total respect of a friend who writes out her menu for the month ahead of time and has it sitting on an easel in her kitchen. (Yes, Beth Etheridge is my organization goddess!) When I was blogging about Gourmet magazine, I loved that I never wondered what we would have for dinner. I just looked on the menu I had written from the magazine and made what it said. You would think there would be nights I wouldn't be "in the mood" for whatever I had written weeks before but I found that I was almost always looking forward to what I had written. I didn't have to think about what I was "in the mood" for and the freedom of that took away the desire for anything else.

I found the first week I wasn't prepared to write out a menu for the whole month. I didn't have the energy to plan that out and it didn't allow for repeats. (Okay, it did but I didn't know how close was too close.) I did however write themes for the days as a guide in deciding. Monday is my planned shopping day so it doesn't make sense to put a meal that took a lot of preparation. Tuesdays work for crockpot meals as those leftovers will be good in lunches throughout the week. Wednesday is perfect for my favorite Mexican cuisine, Thursdays for pasta, and Friday I wrote soup/sandwich or something special. To be honest, I am totally comfortable veering from this schedule but it gives me a base when I get stuck.

Well, the first two weeks are in the books and I have to say that it worked well. I didn't get pictures of every night. I haven't blogged as frequently so photographing my food isn't second nature anymore. I did take some pictures and I'm a little embarrassed. It looks like we ate out of bowls the entire two weeks. We didn't but I only remembered pictures the nights we did. I have a post coming up about my remorse for food snobbery but here let me suffice it to say that Taste of Home, a cooking magazine I had previously seen as less than gourmet has become the main tome in my cooking magazine library. This magazine uses very accessible ingredients, has lots of kid friendly recipes, and has upped their use of creative menus making it a new favorite. That being said, I used recipes from Bon Appetit and Food and Wine as well. I won't list the family menu here but I will say that the four pictures represent some really good dishes. The top picture is the Texas Beef Brisket Chili from Bon Appetit's October 2008 issue. Several reviews mentioned that the brisket was greasy so I used stew beef as recommended and used the crockpot instead of a dutch oven. I love the butternut squash in this chili. It adds depth and you can see from the picture that I also added beans toward the end of the cook time. This helped make the chili more of a meal and added some extra flavor to the meaty dish.

The second picture is the Baked Potato Cheddar Soup from this month's issue of Taste of Home. This soup was super thick (you can tell from the picture) and needed a little blending (I used my food processor) that the recipe didn't tell you about but it was very good. I served this soup with a No-knead Harvest Bread from the same issue that was excellent. In the third picture I had taken great liberties with the Zesty Chicken Tortellini Soup, also from Taste of Home, but again the soup was very good. The final picture is some Cornmeal Dinner Rolls, again from Taste of Home, that I will be making again and again. They are a yeast roll with a cornmeal base that are super simple and really delicious. I'm learning how to use yeast well. (Why did I not know until now that yeast stored in the refrigerator should be warmed to room temperature before using for the best results?) These rolls were one of my first real successes and I hope I can duplicate them again and again.

Craziness....Your name is December!-12/11

2012-01-23T19:23:00.000-08:00

Nope, didn't post the whole month of December! I'm only posting now so I remember a few things when I start the crazy cookie train next year. One, I do not like the combination of mint and chocolate. I know, I'm weird but Andes mints don't do it for me and sadly, neither do really cute, totally thematic holiday whoopie pies. The Chocolate Candy Cane Cookies in the December '05 Bon Appetit are beautiful. They scream Christmas cheer and if you do like the chocolate/ mint combination, by all means, make these! They just weren't for me. I want my chocolate rich and warm, the very opposite of a breath mint!

I did find a simple cookie that I want to make again and again and again and I don't even think you have to wait for Christmas. The Cardamom Crescents in the December '11 Bon Appetit were excellent. Sadly, my crescent making skills are somewhat lacking as the picture shows but do not be deterred. These cookies had a wonderful warm spice taste (I obviously like "warm" in my cookies.) and the pecans added depth to the flour base. I found myself eating these cookies in the morning as well as they were not too sweet and heavy. I didn't get a picture of the Chewy Ginger Cookies, also from the Dec '11 issue of BA but these were also a great simple cookie. The addition of raw ginger, ginger powder, and crystallized ginger made them delightfully spiced and a quick roll of the dough in raw sugar made every cookie look great. These cookies were my go-to cookie for exchanges this holiday season. They were quick to make, looked good, and every one loves ginger cookies at Christmastime.

Pajama Partying!-11/11/11

2011-11-29T17:54:00.000-08:00

Several months ago, I began looking around on the Internet for good ideas for a 4-year-old pajama themed party. I decided to have a pajama party when I realized that Eyrleigh's preschool's major fundraising event of the year fell on her actual birthday and there was no way I was going to pull off both on the same day. That left Friday night available for a party and what better way to party at night than in your pajamas!

I decided to choose the decorative stuff for the party around the pajamas Eyrleigh picked to wear for that night. We went shopping at some of our favorite stores at the mall and she FINALLY picked a pair of Old Navy pajamas that were liliac and purple with a cheetah (or it could have been a leopard, I never did figure that out!). So purple cheetah print it was! I'm not an animal print fan myself but there is a lot of animal print stuff out there so it made it easy...sort of. Purple cheetah print was a little tougher to find than pink. I never did find full bolts of purple cheetah print but I did find a website, Jellyrollfabrics.com, that had strips of purple and pink cheetah print to use in decoration.

Every good party has to begin with cool invites and I found some I loved on Etsy from a vendor, Cutie Patootie Creations ( http://www.etsy.com/shop/CutiesTieDyeBoutique). Stephanie was super quick to respond and made some changes that went perfectly with what I wanted. She changed the little girl's hair to red to match E's and changed the text on the thank-you card to let guests know to bring new pajamas to donate to the Pajama Program (check them out at www.pajamaprogram.org) in lieu of gifts. The only thing I would have changed was the wording of "regrets only" to "RSVP". I think RSVP makes people more conscientious about letting you know if they are coming and also would have let me know how many adults and extra kids to plan for.

I used the strips of purple and pink cheetah print fabric to decorate the table and used liliac and purple party supply stuff from Party City as the base. You can't see it in the picture but I also got a "Happy Birthday" banner from Cutie Patootie to go above the table. We had hot dogs, chili, chips, juice boxes, and soda available for dinner. Richard did grilling duties and Mom helped me with the chili that was in the crockpot all day. One of the other cool things I found in purple cheetah print was edible cake stickers. (link here) I always have my girlfriend Devi make the cake for us. She does a beautiful job (she decorated cakes for a bakery in college) and I love that E's cakes are one of a kind. The cake sticker was the size of a sheet of paper and Devi just cut out the pajamas, slippers, and letters for the cake and decorated around them. It made it really easy (for her, still would have been hard for me!) and though the stickers taste like fondant (YUCK!) there wasn't enough used to detract from the yummy buttercream frosting.

There are some wonderful party design sites on the web and I love to look through their amazing ideas for decorations and food. But here's the truth, kids could care less if you label the food with matching labels and color coordinate your table. Kids want to have fun and a party without activities will quickly become a nightmare for all involved. Since I had 40 (yes, you read that right!) kids on the invite list, never mind their parents and siblings, I knew I had to have lots of activities and have them spread throughout the house. My house is not that big and is chopped into rooms instead of the more modern large living/dining/kitchen area that can fit lots of people at once. The picture below shows the sign that greeted guests as they came in.

Each activity followed in the pajama party theme. The most ambitious project was to make each child a pillowcase with their name on it. I bought 14 yards of inexpensive white fabric and cut it in one foot sections. Using the fabric edge as the top seam, I simply sewed up the two sides and flipped the case inside out. Obviously these cases wouldn't fit standard size pillows but they were fun to decorate with stickers and could hold the treasures the kids collected in another activity. Mom and I cut every kid's name out of the cheetah print fabric in either purple, pink, or brown. I used Steam-A-Seal 2 Double Stick Fusible Webing to first iron the webbing to the print fabric, then the letters to the pillowcase. I didn't give myself time to reinforce these letters by stitching but it would have been a good idea as some of the letters started coming off at the party. I had debated printing the letters for each child's name on the computer but writing it out by hand was actually pretty cute! I attached a couple of pictures so it looks pretty doable. It really was!

I took an extra queen mattress and put it in the middle of the floor in Rylynn's room and let the kids jump on it. We let the kids play in Eyrleigh's room and set out her toys. We turned on Dinosaur Train, her favorite PBS show in the office, for kids to watch if they wanted. My dad, who generally hides during parties, hid out in our room with some stuffed animals and buckets. He had fun showing kids how to play Stuffed Animal Horseshoes! After the cake, we had all the kids move to the living room and we showed the birthday episode from the cute series "Harold and the Purple Crayon". As the kids left, we gave them a bag with a book ($1 books from Scholastic), Oreo cookies, and a carton of milk.

I was really happy with how the party went. It was a bit crowded and we forgot to tell our friend, Jennifer, who was taking pictures that our camera has a manual flash, so none of the midparty pictures turned out at all but really it was a success! The picture shows the almost 30 pairs of pajamas that we were able to donate to the Pajama Project for kids in need. How cool is that!

Pumpkins and Pinterest-10/27/11

2011-10-27T20:48:00.000-07:00

Ever since I began this blogging thing I've wanted to post my own recipe on "Cooking Mag Mommy". I struggle with one big question though. What makes a recipe mine? When am I no longer copying the ideas of others and coming up with something "original" to me? I mean...bake at 350. Not exactly a novel idea!   Tonight I made a pumpkin pull-apart bread adapted from a recipe I found through pinterest.com on the blog, "Sunny Side Up in San Diego". recipe link here Earlier this week, I had made a Garlic Parmesan Pull-Apart Bread I found on the blog "The Pastry Affair" using tastespotting.com, another awesome site I've been using to find great recipes on blogs. recipe link here The recipe I came up with used measurements and cooking techniques from both recipes but the finished product really was its own recipe.   And it was really good! Richard and I ate over 1/2 of it while watching the World Series tonight.
Here's my recipe!   I'm so proud...

Cinnamon Sugar Pull-Apart Pumpkin Bread with Rum-Soaked Raisins

6 Tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
1/2 cup milk
2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
11/4 cups sugar, divided
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups pumpkin puree
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 cup rum (optional)
1/3 cup raisins (optional)

Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Pour melted butter into large bowl then heat milk to warm in same saucepan. Add milk to the melted butter.  Cool milk/butter mixture to warm (between 100 and 110 degrees) then add the yeast and 1/4 cup of sugar. Let this yeast mixture sit until foamy, up to 10 minutes. Add the the pumpkin, salt, and 2 cups of flour. Stir by hand or mix in stand mixer with dough attachment until combined.   Add the rest of the flour 1/2 cup at a time and knead by hand or machine for 6 minutes, until the dough is smooth and elastic. Put dough in a large, lightly oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap or towel. Allow to rise in warm draft free area until doubled in size (an hour to an hour and a half). While dough is rising, soak raisins in rum in a small bowl if desired.

Melt the remaining 4 tablespoons of butter. Mix the the sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg in another small bowl. (If you choose to add rum soaked raisins, add them to the cinnamon sugar mixture.) Spray the bottom of a bundt pan with nonstick cooking spray.

Punch down dough and pull off small spoonful size pieces. Roll each piece of dough into a ball and dip in melted butter. Then roll each ball in cinnamon sugar mixture and put in bundt pan, covering the bottom with the small balls of dough. When all the dough has been rolled in cinnamon sugar and placed snugly in the pan, cover the pan with a clean towel and let rise for 30-45 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Bake the bread for 30-35 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes in pan then turn carefully onto wire rack or plate, then flip onto other plate or rack so bread holds its shape. Enjoy warm or at room temperature.

This yummy bread recipe was not the only pumpkin inspiration I've had of late. The very top picture is Rylynn looking all ready for Halloween with a cute shirt from her grandma and an adorable pumpkin hat. I whipped up that hat last week and have made two more since for several friends who have kids Rylynn's age.   It's so cute and easy. I found the directions through pinterest.com, on a blog titled "My Bountiful Life".   I linked her free pattern here. pumpkin hat pattern link here

I couldn't post about all my fun pumpkin themed projects without putting in a picture of my two favorite pumpkins all dressed up in their Halloween costumes. There is some debate between Richard and I about how exactly we came up with the idea to do slightly irreverent matching costumes for the girls. I'm sure you can tell from the picture but we convinced Eyrleigh to be a scuba diver (anything but a princess!). I found some great ideas...on pinterest...that involved her own black clothes, soda bottles, and duck tape. She looks great, though I seriously doubt she'll wear the goggles over her eyes at all! We found a infant shark costume at Old Navy for Rylynn and for my favorite part of the whole thing, I made Ry a little sign that says "Give my sister candy or I bite". I posted this same picture on Facebook and everyone loved it!

Great Halloween Read-Alouds-10/25/11

2011-10-25T12:49:00.000-07:00

There will not be a single mention of food or cooking in this entire post...wait, that was a mention! Oh well...
With Halloween right around the corner, I wanted to put in my votes for great Halloween read-alouds for preschoolers. These are my current favorites to read to Eyrleigh and Rylynn and I'm planning on bringing them along to E's preschool class party on Monday. Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson has all the qualities of a great preschool read-aloud. It has a wonderful rhyming cadence and a repetative story that is easy for young children to follow. There is even a "group participation" posibility if you want the kids to pipe up as the broom "whoosh"es away.

Last year I bought The Spooky Wheels on the Bus by J. Elizabeth Mills from the Scholastic Book Fair. Sung to the tune of the more traditional "Wheels on the Bus", this story is a great one for preschoolers and a reader who can sing. Using the numbers one through ten and Halloween themed bus "parts" and riders, the whole class can sing and act out this story together. This one is great for a party where sitting and listening just isn't in the cards. The kids can sing, wiggle, and make all the silly noises they want and still be a part of the activity.

The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything by Linda Williams is not a novel pick by any means. Almost every list I found of Halloween read-alouds included this classic. Don't worry though, kids could hear this one 100 times and still have fun. The repeating actions of the scary pumpkin man are great to keep kids engaged and acting out as the story goes along. Wiggling, shaking, nodding, and clapping is sure to keep little listeners engaged in the story and though the pumpkin man is a little scary for the really little ones, the ending is cute and not at all frightening.

10 Trick-or-Treaters: A Halloween Counting Book by Janet Schulman was a new one to me this year but I'm adding it to the repetoire. The rhyming verses and the counting back from 10 to 1 are great for a preschool class. The kids are just beginning to recognize numbers and this book has big contrasting numbers on each page that kids can see. Using their rhyming skills and the visual numbers, most 3 and 4-year-olds should be able to shout out the appropriate number as the story goes along. It's a great way to reinforce number recognition in a really fun story.
These are just 4 great read-alouds and I hope to find a few more in time for the preschool party next year! Reading other reviewers, I think I need to find In The Haunted House by Eve Bunting and Pumpkin Eye by Denise Fleming. Have a great week reading to your kids!

Christmas In October-10/25/11

2011-10-25T12:03:00.000-07:00

I've blogged since 2008 but in the last few months, I've finally started following other blogs. I've discovered something about myself. I am hopelessly into themes. Maybe it's the teacher in me but everything is more fun in themes...themed parties, themed food, themed lessons. I know there is a large and vocal group of people that find themes cheesy but I (and may I add, Martha Stewart) am not one of them. I love things all tied together around one central idea. That's why I've had so much fun with Eyrleigh's parties and what I've become really addicted to looking at on blogs that show parties all centered around everything from apples to zebras.

My last blog post was a seriously tardy review of our Halloween party and this post will continue that. Here is a quick summary of our Christmas party LAST year complete with allergy friendly food ideas, a game, a craft, and some fun Christmas stories.
The photo above is our table setup. Now that I've spent hours looking at all these classy party purveyors, I see we are pretty amateur but this is for two-year-old preschool class and not wealthy paying clients. I actually left my camera in the car for this party so I had to get my pictures from Lori.

Here are some of the cool things we did to make the food more fun. The fruit for the party was threaded on kabobs and stuck in a whole pineapple. If you look closely you can see the star fruit at the ends to give a Christmas look to our fruit tree. We also made little ham sandwiches. Jacob, Lori's son, has outgrown his wheat allergy and can have certain breads if they are made without milk products. We cut these little sandwiches in tree shapes with a cookie cutter. Like at the Halloween party, we made Jello Christmas bells in red and green and even cut out candy cane shapes from corn tortillas and fried them for chips.

Lori took some good closeups of our most creative additions to the food. We made little popcorn snowmen for the kids to take home. Basically, we made these much like Rice Krispie treats. We melted marshmallows, mixed it with popcorn, and rolled the popcorn into two balls. We used raisins for eyes, fruit leather cut into strips for a scarf, pretzel rods for arms, and Skittles for buttons. They were really cute and fun to eat. Lori also made some adorable Christmas mice. She used Enjoy Life chocolate cookies and dipped one half in melted baking chocolate (also from Enjoy Life Foods). The ears are sunflower seeds and the tails are red licorice rope. She even made a snowy bed of coconut. So cute!

Our craft went perfectly. The little Christmas mouse you see Jacob holding was was easy for the kids to assemble. The mom who made them cut out a red mouse shape from felt (basically a teardrop shape) and put two slits near the pointed end. She then cut out green ears (basically a dumbbell shape) that could be slipped through the slits in the red. The children were given two eyes and a small white pompom for a nose to glue on themselves. The candy cane attached by sliding into the loop created by the ears on the underside. The kids thought these were great and they didn't take a lot of parental assistance.

Our game was actually a repeat of one we played with the kids at Halloween...and I completely forgot to explain in that post. We choose a fast beat Christmas song, I think "Rocking Around the Christmas Tree". (At Halloween, we did the Monster Mash and Ghostbusters.) We placed two different Christmas themed shapes on the floor with enough of each one for each child. (Here you see we did gingerbread men and trains, at Halloween I did pumpkins and ghosts) We played the song and got the kids dancing then quickly stopped the music and shouted one of the two shapes. The kids had to run and stomp on the shape we called....kind of like musical chairs with no losers. The kids got to dance around and work on shape recognition and following directions. It was fun!

We read a few holiday stories too. The Night Before Christmas is always a great one and I have a beautiful pop-up one by by Clement C. Moore and Niroot Puttapipat. Snowmen at Christmas by Caralyn and Mark Buehner has cute rhyming and is easy for little kids to follow.

This final picture is just for laughs. Eyrleigh and Jacob are usually at school while Lori and I make the party food but because of timing, they played while we worked the day before the party. This adorable picture is the two of them playing in the Jello scraps after we cut out the bells. They ate some, they smashed some, and basically had a blast. Gotta love them!

Halloween in August-8/14/11

2011-08-16T12:16:00.000-07:00

I'm sure you've heard of Christmas in July...but Halloween in August? And what cooking magazine is doing that theme? Well no, Halloween in August is not a new trend, and no cooking magazine is doing a spread on it.
I've loved doing the cooking magazine reviews each month in the past but for a number of reasons, I've decided to change it up a bit on my blog. Sure, I'll still review recipes from cooking magazine, though I won't necessarily use a current issue or even a magazine recipe. For example, tonight I made Sweet Potato and Zucchini Bread ( link here) from a November 1992 issue of Bon Appetit. I do save old cooking magazine but not that old. I found this recipe on Epicurious, my favorite recipe site. (link here) I had zucchini and sweet potatoes and simply put both words in their search box. This recipe is for bread but you can see I made muffins and had great results too. This was actually the second time I did this recipe this week. Earlier I made bread and learned a little bit more about how to make this recipe successful. First of all, make sure you do not add more than the recommended amount of zucchini or sweet potato. It doesn't bake up well and is very wet. Also, the reviewers on the site are right. Use less sugar, I used a cup and a half instead of two and you can reduce the oil to 1/2 cup or use 1 stick of softened butter. I made these muffins with 1 cup white flour and 1cup whole wheat and it worked just as well as all white. These are a great bread muffin for any time of the year and since zucchini is cheap right now, give them a try.
Wait, you say, what about the title...and these random Halloween pictures? Well, I wasn't kidding about mixing it up. I will be adding some new elements to this blog and I'll start by harkening back to last Halloween. I told you in the previous post that one of the things that kept me busy while I was ignoring blogging over the last year was being a room mom for Eyrleigh's preschool. As room mom I, along with the other room moms, am in charge of the 4 classroom parties for the year. As a teacher, I loved coordinating our class parties but found them pretty stressful. I had to keep kids busy, moms happy, all while planning around teaching "real" subjects like math and reading. Being a room mom for Eyrleigh's class, all I had to do was plan the parties and boy, is that fun!
One of my close friends and fellow room moms is the parent of a little boy in Eyrleigh's class. This adorable little guy, Jacob, has lots of food allergies and Lori wanted our parties, understandably, to include only foods Jacob could eat. So our parties had to be fun and yummy while avoiding nuts, eggs, dairy, and wheat.
The Halloween party was the first party of the year and Lori and I agreed that it made sense to make all the food ourselves in Lori's kitchen to ensure there was no cross-contamination or accidental allergens. So instead of asking for food from parents, we asked for a $5 donation per party to defray costs. This worked pretty well, although we often spent more than $60 because some of the items were pricier specialty items.
The first Halloween themed picture above is just simple gift boxes I made for Eyrleigh's teachers. I bought cheap wooden boxes at Michael's, painted them black, wrapped them with Halloween ribbon, and glued on some cut-outs that were on sale. I filled the boxes with Halloween candy and had Eyrleigh give them to Ms. Tracy and Ms. Kathy. I was a teacher so I'm big on little teacher gifts.
The second picture is the kids' gift bags. The plastic cauldrons I've had forever and I have no idea where I got them. The bags were actually Walmart. I am NOT a Walmart fan but I have to say their Halloween stuff this year was pretty cute. We filled the bag with a pencil, bubbles, erasers, and Dum Dum candies (allergy friendly), again all from Walmart.
The best part of the party was of course, the food. Lori was the creative genius on this one. She uses websites to research which foods not only do not contain allergens but carry no risk of cross-contamination (products made on same equipment as those with allergens). One of the best candy companies for allergy friendly foods is Spangler Candies. The cupcakes pictured above are actually Spangler Candy Peanuts (link here) on top of Cherrybrook Gluten Free Cupcakes (link here) with Cherrybrook Chocolate Frosting (link here). The pumpkin stems are Glutino pretzels (link here). These cupcakes are super cute and everyone can eat them.

It's hard to see the detail in the next picture but we made our own chips for the kids. These were the simplest part of the whole meal. All we did was use a bat cookie cutter to cut out corn tortillas and fried them in oil. We used vegetable oil since Jacob is not allergic to soy, the main ingredient in most vegetable oils.
Another simple part of our party meal were the Jello pumpkins. Again, we just made a batch of Jello and used pumpkin cookie cutters to cut out the shapes. Our preschool is associated with a Methodist church so none of our students had pork restrictions. If you have vegetarian, Jewish, or Muslim students who can't have gelatin, here is a link for pork-free gelatin here.

My favorite cute food of the whole party was also one of the healthiest. We cut the tops of oranges and took the segments out which, with a bit of practice, was easier than you would think. I used a grapefruit spoon to get it started then pulled out the "orange part" and the white pith around it. We then cute out eyes, nose, and mouth just like you would a pumpkin. They made the cutest little fruit cups.
I don't know why I didn't get a picture of this but Lori also made meatballs as a main dish for both the kids and adults at the party. Each child is required to have an adult attend the party so we had calculated for adults to eat as well. I found a number of allergy free meatball recipes on the web so you can find one you like through Google.

Unlike adults who can have food alone and call it a party, things are different with a 2-year-old preschool class. We have four room moms in this class, seems a bit of overkill for a class of 12, but it's fun to work together. We agreed early to divide the party into 4 parts and each take a part. Besides food, we had a game time, craft time, and story time.
I didn't get a picture of the craft we did. Maybe it was the excitement of the first party or just ignorance that I would want to post pictures of what we did but I got nothing. The paper plate pumpkin I show here is an example of our craft. Since this is a two-year-old class, we painted paper plates orange beforehand. With older kids you could have the kids paint them but 2-year-olds, paint, and Halloween costumes are all a very bad combination, particularly since the party was before Halloween and the costumes would be needed again in a few days for trick-or-treating. We also precut the shapes for the mouth, nose, eyes, stem, and leaves out of felt. All the kids needed to do was put the cutouts in the "right" places and glue them on. Notice right is in quotes because most kids had a very abstact looking pumpkin by the end. You could tell whose parents helped the most, let's just put it that way. We put the loose shapes for each pumpkin together in baggies so each kid had a bag of the right shapes to begin with to avoid confusion.

I did the games so I have good pictures of those. I was pretty sure 12 kids doing one thing would be chaos at this age and I was right. It was tough enough to keep 6 of them in line so I was glad I had two games and the groups switched after a few minutes. Organized games are really tough at this age so I choose two really simple things and let them work on taking turns (also VERY tough at this age). The first game was a variation of Pin The Tail On The Donkey. I called it "Catch The Flies". I drew a spider web on large banner paper and glued on flies . Then I stuck Velcro to the backs of die-cut spiders from the School Box store. I put the fuzzy part of the Velcro on the flies and the kids had to take turns sticking a spider on a fly. I did 24 flies and spiders so each kid got to do it 4 times before they switched activities. It was super simple, not hard to explain, and they again practiced taking turns.

The second game was also really simple. I bought a cheap piece of plywood from the hardware store and painted a large pumpkin. I cut out the eyes and the mouth and found two squishy balls we had at the house. Each child got to try to throw the balls through the pumpkin's eyes or mouth. Glad we had the parents there for this one. Guess who chased the balls?! This game just rotated through until the spider game was done and worked again on the ever difficult "taking turns".
We also had a story time. We actually did the story right after the food so the parents could wipe down the tables and set out the craft. We did the games last so we could do another round if we had too much time. Thankfully, our class had playground time at the very end of the day so we were able to send them out to play at the end of every party and do a good job cleaning up without corralling kids. We had a few stories too but if I remember correctly we only ended up reading one because of time and kid attention span. The one we read, Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson, was perfect for kids this age because it wasn't too long, had lots of rhyming, and even a part where the kids could participate.
For our first party as room moms, Lori and I were really happy about how everything went. The kids loved the food,and the craft, games, and story were age appropriate and relatively successful at holding the kids attention. It's not the best picture of her but I know my little Princess Presto had a good time and she was really excited to have Mom at school with her. Happy Halloween...really late...or maybe just a bit early!

Hambrick's-Party of Four!-8/1/11

2011-08-01T18:22:00.000-07:00

On August 24th of last year, I wrote a innocuous little post on this blog about my husband being a good sport about my creative culinary exploits. And then....nothing....for over 11 months. What happened, you may ask? Well, the picture at left tells a rather significant part of the story but not the whole thing so I'll try to summarize here in case another 11 months go by before I post again. (Okay, I will seriously try not to do that!) The year 2010 started off on the wrong foot with the loss of our fourth pregnancy (Thankfully, pregnancy #2 had resulted in Eyrleigh!) at 18 weeks. We were still reeling from the devastation of that event when my only sibling, my brother Ben, committed suicide at the end of February. Then in April, Richard's company hired a new CEO and things professionally went south from there for him. Since a blog is a public format and could therefor be accessed by anyone, including this individual, let me suffice it to say that after 9 years with the company, Richard knew his days were numbered. In November, this was further clarified by an incredibly unbelievable event that left our family and many of Richard's co-workers shaking their heads. Richard began the job search in earnest and in March of this year, took a job with a new company.

Despite a very upsetting November for us on a professional level, on November 9th, Richard's 34th birthday, we found out we were pregnant again for the final time. Some may ask how we knew this would be the final time...we knew. We had decided after the last miscarriage that we would try until the end of 2010 to have another child and if we were not pregnant or had another pregnancy loss, Richard would have surgery to make sure we were done. The stress involved in the process was not something we wanted to feel indefinately. So less than 2 months from our deadline, we began to think that Baby #2 might actually happen.

After our past experience, this pregnancy was even more anxiety producing than the last four. I gave myself blood thinner shots daily and increased some levels of hormones and vitamins. I saw not only a regular ob, but also a high-risk specialist to make sure everything was going fine. At 32 weeks, we found out that our little girl had a sizable cyst on her ovary but it shrunk as she grew and is no longer a concern. Throughout the whole pregnancy I had an incredibly limited diet because of severe acid indigestion so my cooking creativity came screeching to a halt.

I tell all this not to say I didn't cook at all for over 11 months but to show that life began to take on a higher level of intensity and creative cooking, and therefore the blog, faded into the background. I actually looked back at my calendar for August 24th of last year and that day was the Back to School Fair for Eyrleigh's preschool. I was a room mom in Eyrleigh's class and even subbed a few times at the preschool. I really miss the creative aspects of teaching and the adult interaction of work. It was on a much lesser scale but I loved being on the "mom" side of school.

On July 8th, Rylynn Candace Hambrick was born and after several weeks of family in town and numerous meals brought by friends (some are still coming!), Saturday night was the first night we really got creative again and I was reminded of my delinquency in regards to this blog. I say "we" because the initial inspiration was Richard's. He mentioned that he felt like shrimp po'boys. At first, I was nonplussed but when he did the legwork, downloaded a recipe, and headed to the store with a list, I was getting excited. Richard actually found his recipe on the The Food Network site at this url http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/aarti-sequeira/shrimp-and-pineapple-not-so-po-boys-recipe/index.html .

Working together (Richard said I hijacked his recipe) with a little help from Eyrleigh, we made the pineapple relish and fried up the shrimp in cornmeal. The pineapple relish is delicious. I kept just taking spoonfuls by itself. The spices don't overwhelm the sweet but cut it perfectly. Richard fried the shrimp in cornmeal and cajun spices, Eyrleigh's got just cornmeal as she is still a bit whimpy when it comes to heat. These po'boys sure were messy but they were excellent and easy to make. I paired them with a simple pasta salad I lived on when I was pregnant. It's a bit bland but made a good compliment to the flavor packed sandwiches.

Shrimp and Pineapple Not So Po'Boy Sandwich (foodnetwork.com)- A

He Even Eats Sardines-8/24/10

2010-09-07T19:04:00.000-07:00

My husband is a really good sport. I was reminded on several occasions this week how many spouses, husbands in particular, would take no part in the experiment I've been blogging about for over a year and a half. Some friends came to eat last week and the wife made a point to tell me her husband did not eat vegetables. He's a great guy but I'm really glad I'm not married to him. I couldn't handle a picky eater. And I'm 100% sure a picky eater could not handle me! Another friend, after I told her what we were having for dinner, asked very incredulously if Richard would eat that.

Tonight I think I found Richard's least favorite food. It's sardines. I had to eat them as a kid so though I don't love them, I can eat them. Richard took one bite of the sardine spread and asked what I had made him eat. The recipe for Grilled Monterey Sardines with Lemon and Herbs in the To Big Sur, With Love article in this month's Bon Appetit called for fresh sardines. I didn't want to search for fresh sardines, though Super H Mart or Whole Foods might carry them. I instead made the "Sardine Shortcut" recipe that followed the actual recipe and used canned sardines. As I already mentioned, Richard was less than thrilled with the dish but it was a creative use of the protein-packed fish. The food processor ground the small bones found in canned sardines and that really helped me like the dish better .

The main dish, Lamb Kebabs with Mint Pesto, underwent a major change. I didn't find an acceptable cut of lamb at my local Publix so I used beef instead. Mint often partners with lamb but I found this pesto was still excellent with beef. I love kebabs because of the distinct flavor of each element and these were excellent. I had worried that the mint pesto would be reminiscent of mint jelly, something I often find a bit too sweet. It wasn't as was a great match for the onions and peppers as well.

The Summer Bean Salad with Toasted Walnuts and Pecorino Fresco was a simple salad with beans. I couldn't find yellow beans so I just used green beans and it worked fine. The dressing was equally simple and light. The dessert for tonight was actually three recipes in one dessert. The base was the Orange Polenta Cake, a loaf cake with the texture and taste of polenta. I had no orange peel so I added lemon peel and a bit of orange extract. It worked and gave the cake a bright orange flavor. The use of yogurt kept the cake from getting heavy and too oily. I didn't mind the extra texture of the polenta. At times, it can be almost gritty but it worked in this dessert to give depth to the cake. The Vanilla-Scented Plums and Blackberries were just what the recipe states, plums and blackberries marinated in sugar and vanilla. It was a simple but delicious topping for the polenta cake. The final touch was the Buttermilk Ice Cream. This super-smooth custard ice cream is an excellent ice cream to show off the flavors of the other elements but has enough tang to stand alone. I really like this ice cream and found it much more interesting than plain old vanilla.

Grilled Monterey Sardines with Lemon and Herbs (Sardine Shortcut)-B

Lamb Kebabs with Mint Pesto-A

Summer Bean Salad with Toasted Walmuts and Pecorino Fresco-B

Orange Polenta Cake with Vanilla-Scented Plums and Blackberries and Buttermilk Ice Cream-A

Too Much of A Good Thing-8/23/10

2010-09-07T18:32:00.000-07:00

Last night I wrote about the corn menu in this month's Bon Appetit. Tonight, I will echo my sentiments. A menu based on a staple of summer is a great idea but sometimes there is too much of a good thing. Tomatoes may be a fruit but they do not belong in dessert. I'll begin by describing dessert first since that was the most glaring example of too much tomato. The Tomato Tarte Tatin had some key problems. First, the sugar did not caramelize in the time given. Since the dessert is inverted, it's virtually impossible to tell this before it's too late. Second, the tomato taste is still very strong. I was eating sugary stewed tomatoes on a pastry crust. Not very appetizing. Third, the amount of water released by the tomatoes made the entire dish swim in liquid. You can see the excess water around the edges of the dish in the picture. I ate a piece but then with Richard's agreement, threw this dish away immediately. It was too soggy by then to last anyway.

The appetizer of Bruschetta with Rosemary, Roasted Plum Tomatoes, Ricotta, and Prosciutto was a much bigger success. You can see Eyrleigh's hand in the picture and she was pretty excited about this dish. The roasted tomatoes were simple to make and would make a great addition to lots of meals. The ricotta and shaved ham (replacing proscuitto) were excellent additions and the dressed greens on top added freshness and crunch. This was also a great visual look too with the contrast of red and green. The main dish of Seared Rib-EyeSteak with Tomato-Caper Relish was a pretty simple seared steak with a relish dressing. I like steak so no complaints there. The relish was simple as well with tomatoes, fresh cilantro, and capers. I realized while making this relish that I had no capers so I replaced them with cocktail onions. It's actually a pretty straight switch with a slight vinegar tang and mild bite. I liked the relish but would not say it was incredibly memorable. The called-for side dish of the menu, Olive-Oil-Roasted Tomatoes and Fennel with White Beans, was a pretty creative dish and deviated from the tomato theme enough to bring variety. I unfortunately added the oil for the whole recipe then realized I was halving the recipe. It did make the final product a bit oily but it still tasted great. The taste was very hearty and this dish would be a good vegetarian main. (More on that in just a few posts!)

All in all, I enjoyed the meal portion of the tomato menu. The dessert I could have definitely done without but I read some reviews from other posters on epicurious.com and some people really liked the tomato tartin. I just may have had bad luck with the caramelizing and that created the liquid disaster.

Bruschetta with Rosemary, Roasted Plum Tomatoes, Ricotta, and Proscuitto-A

Seared Rib-Eye Steak with Tomato-Caper Relish-B

Olive-Oil-Roasted Tomatoes and Fennel with White Beans-A-

Tomato Tarte Tatin-D

Can You Be Too Corny?-8/18/10

2010-08-30T17:32:00.000-07:00

This month's Bon Appetit has 3 menus created to make use of 3 essentials of the summer garden season. I raved in an earlier post about the outstanding zucchini menu that I shared with our friends, the Knapp's. Tonight was corn's turn to shine. Last night, I made the first recipe from this menu to beef up another menu and lighten the amount 3 people had to eat from this one. I really enjoyed the Tagliatelle with Fresh Corn Pesto and would add it to this menu if a few more people were eating with us. Tonight, I made the other 3 recipes that began with a main dish of Grilled Mustard Chicken with Fresh Corn Polenta. I choose to bake the chicken instead of grill it and I was happy with this change. I find it really hard to monitor the grill temperature for bone-in chicken and often get the outside too crispy before the inside is done. This dish has enough flavor without the added smoke of grilling as well. The seasoning under the chicken skin added wonderful flavor and as you can see from the picture, the skin was perfect. The polenta was a good match for the chicken. It was creamy and rich from the addition of corn kernels.

The side dish of Summer Corn Saute with Tons of Herbs was impressively creative for basically cooked corn. The herbs were an excellent addition while still allowing the fresh corn flavor to shine through. The amount of butter seemed a bit excessive at first but it worked with the herbs and shallots. Dessert was the biggest stretch of the group. I know the goal of the menu was to use corn in every recipe. The Corn Panna Cotta with Dulce De Leche was corn in name only. The panna cotta was steeped in corn cobs but I could tell no discernible corn flavor in the rather bland custard. The dulce de leche was absolutely neccesary to give the dessert flavor. The sprinkling of corn kernels was attractive but really mean nothing flavorwise. This menu is creative but seemed to be trying a bit too hard with the dessert.

Grilled Mustard Chicken with Fresh Corn Polenta-A Summer Corn Saute with Tons of Herbs-B Corn Panna Cotta with Dulce De Leche-C

Food Disasters-8/17/10

2010-08-23T18:13:00.000-07:00

I really have been lucky. For as much as I cook, I really should have some better stories about the stuff I've messed up on than I do. Really, other than a Polish meal my friend Heather and I made that the salt got away from and a white chocolate cranberry cheesecake that Richard swears was the worst thing he's ever eaten, I've got very little. (A few early blog posts may beg to differ but let's not go into that now.) The only reason I even thought of food failures tonight is that once again I made something with white chocolate and once again, it did me wrong. You can't really tell in the picture (I guess that was the point.) but tonight's White Chocolate Cherry Mousse Pie was full of tiny little white lumps. They weren't lumps of chocolate as far as I could tell. The mousse didn't congeal smoothly and it was off putting. The cherry compote was wonderful but the pie itself, either because of or in spite of the lumps, didn't have a uniform taste. Sometimes it tasted more like white chocolate (which incidentally, I'm not a big fan of) and sometimes it seemed more beaten egg. I felt I mixed the components well but something went wrong in the chemistry on the dessert.

The main dishes went a bit better. My first dish was Tagliatelle with Fresh Corn Pesto, a recipe I'd stolen off the corn menu mentioned in an earlier post. I plan to make the rest of the menu tomorrow but that menu looked too big for just the three of us so I split it up. This pasta dish was a creative twist on the green basil pesto we are more familiar with. I really enjoyed the dish and found both the use of bacon and flavorful corn would make this a very filling almost meatless main by itself. The pesto was easy to make and adhered well to the pasta, the sign of a good pasta dish.

I also made the Quick-Brined Grilled Pork Chops with Balsamic Glaze on page 53. If you saw the recipe in the magazine you would notice that "with Treviso" is missing and rightly so. I shopped at Publix today and they had neither radicchio nor endive so I just left these out of the dish. This was a simple dish with a reduced Balsamic vinegar dressing. I wouldn't say the chops were spectacular but as often true in this project, I learned how simple it is to make a very glamorous sounding sauce that could spice up chicken, beef, or pork.

Quick-Brined Grilled Pork Chop with Treviso and Balsamic Glaze-B
White-Chocolate Cherry Mousse Pie-C

Do Blueberry Stains Come Out?-8/16/10

2010-08-23T17:53:00.000-07:00

I sure hope blueberry stains come out because after tonight's meal, I had a few of them and so did Eyrleigh. I've mentioned before one of the things I look about Bon Appetit is the magazine is enthusiastically thematic, sometimes to the edge of being cheesy. Tonight was one of those borderline nights. Grilled Salmon with Quick Blueberry Pan Sauce sounded strange from the get-go. Blueberries are a quintessential fruit, little pockets of sweetness that seem only fitting at the conclusion of a meal. Pairing them with a rich fatty fish like salmon seemed a gamble at best. To be fair, the dish wasn't bad, though I wouldn't say it was really good either. I just didn't think the flavors worked. You could taste blueberry, you could taste salmon but the compliment just didn't work for me. The herbs, garlic, and shallots helped cut the sweetness along with the vinegar but the taste of blueberry was still there. I almost felt bear-like, rumbling along from the mountaintop blueberry patch to the cold stream full of fish. Maybe that's what they were going for...

The dessert was a much more traditional use of blueberries. The Blueberry Cobbler with Easiest-Ever Biscuits did have some really easy biscuits. The only problem was that the use of sour cream made them chewy instead of the more expected flaky. I won't say they were bad, just different. The cobbler was excellent but there wasn't quite enough of it. I got a lot more biscuit than berry with each bite and I would have preferred it the other way around.

Grilled Salmon with Quick Blueberry Pan Sauce-C

Blueberry Cobbler with Easiest-Ever Biscuits-B

For the Love of Zucchini-8/10/10

2010-08-23T17:36:00.000-07:00

This month's Bon Appetit has 3 menus based completely on 3 staples of summer gardens, zucchini, corn, and tomatoes. Tonight I played caterer again and was bringing dinner to my friends, Devi and Dan Knapp and their two girls, Sophie and Lily, ages 5 and 3. I really enjoy this almost monthly tradition and it gives us a chance to see our good friends on a weeknight. I try to precook as much of the meal as possible and bring everything I need, down to the salt, so I can put it together quickly with a minimum of disruption to Devi's kitchen. Tonight I made the zucchini menu and I'll try to explain not only how the food tasted but how I packed it "to go". The menu began with Tender Zucchini Fitters with Green Goddess Dressing. Since the zucchini needed to be grated and drained before frying up the fritters, I actually transported the grated zucchini rolled in a dish towel. The extra drying time was great. I often find that anything I try to frying while still containing liquid turns into mush. These fritters were crispy on the outside while still retaining enough liquid to make them soft on the inside. I brought all the ingredients to mix in with me and mixed them quickly before frying. I also made the Green Goddess Dressing ahead of time and what a simple wonderful dressing. The fresh herb taste was outstanding.
Next came the Shaved Zucchini Salad with Parmesan and Pine Nuts. This almost totally raw salad is amazing. The thin sliced raw zucchini tastes fresh but because of the slice, feels softer than biting into a raw zucchini. The simple oil and lemon dressing compliments the flavor without overwhelming the zucchini and basil and the pine nuts add variety and crunchy. The Parmesan is a perfect addition with its note of salt.

The main dish was Halibut with Zucchini Salsa Verde and by now, you'd think you'd be tired of zucchini. The zucchini in this dish is very understated with cilantro, onion and lime taking on the main flavors. The fish was cooked simply but perfectly as the recipe stated and worked well with the salsa verde. Neither component was too strong and they tasted good together. The kids, who had been reluctant to try all the green on their plates, eventually took little bites and then proceeded to eat their meals with enthusiasm. Sophie, the oldest and most skeptical, admitted she really liked the fritters and even asked for a second one.

Dessert was the Zucchini-Pecan Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting. Much like a carrot cake, the zucchini gave the cake a moist full flavor without using a lot of fat or butter. The only "fat" was a quarter cup of olive oil. Despite this healthy rap, the kids loved the cake. The cream cheese and butter in the yummy frosting probably didn't hurt either. Devi told me this was her favorite of my meals at her house and I had to agree. Every component of this meal was excellent and zucchini was used in such unique and innovative ways, we didn't feel tired of it even at the end of the meal. If you love zucchini, look no further.

Tender Zucchini Fritters with Green Goddess Dressing-A

Shaved Zucchini Salad with Parmesan and Pine Nuts-A

Halibut with Zucchini Salsa Verde-A

Zucchini-Pecan Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting-A

America the Beautiful-8/9/10

2010-08-18T18:17:00.000-07:00

I mentioned in a post not long ago that June got away from me. I didn't post once the whole month. In hindsight, July wasn't much better. I posted only four times and made only fifteen recipes from the month's Bon Appetit. June's excuse was the bi-annual trip to my parents house in New Hampshire, where we attended my brother's burial service and a special memorial service held at his work. The trip is usually a vacation but this year carried a bit more weight. Our more restful summer vacations took place in the month of July and the beginning of August this year. Eyrleigh and I got the chance to join my friend, Lynette, on a trip to Sarasota, Florida where we enjoyed the ocean for a few days and spent a day at the surprisingly extensive Ringling Circus and Art Museum. Then on the next to last day of July, we all flew to Denver to attend the wedding of Richard's brother, James. We decided that spending almost $800 on airfare for 3 days was ridiculous so we added a week long trip to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. As I sat one morning looking out from the top of Mt. Washburn in the middle of Yellowstone, I thought about the ocean I looked out at only a few weeks before. We have an amazing country. The variety of vistas is incredible. The flora and wildlife is spectacular and even the human imprint upon these places is at times, brilliant and endearing. I love to travel around the world but I was once again reminded that we have some pretty extraordinary places to see right here at home.

That tangent didn't seem to have much to do with cooking but I know that in a way, cooking something special and sitting down to dinner as a family to enjoy it helps make each day unique, a bit like the days you spend on a vacation. The place may be the same but each new meal is something different, something special, and a bit like a mini-vacation. That first home-cooked meal after a vacation doesn't have to be super special to feel different. Tonight, I made a recipe from this month's Bon Appetit magazine titled Ribeye Steaks with Garbanzo and Green Bean Salad. I made a rather major change though. I grilled chicken breasts instead of ribeye but the salad was the same. The salad was the real crux of the recipe anyway. The meat was flavored with chili powder and mesquite and I think chicken worked as well as steak here. The salad was another success for chickpeas/ garbanzos. I loved this salad with the fresh crunch of green beans and red onions.
There are nineteen desserts in this month's Bon Appetit and I'm in trouble if I make all of them since it's already the 9th of the month. I thought I'd get started with a simple Toffee, Pecan, and Peach Crisp. The recipe called for individual servings but I didn't have the right size ramekins so I made one large dish. This dessert was really much better than it looked. The toffee in the crust added a sweet note while the pecans added crunch. Sadly, the dish looked a bit sloppy but it tasted great.

Ribeye Steaks with Garbanzo and Green Bean Salad-A
Toffee, Pecan, and Peach Crisp-A-

Hostess with the Mostess-7/27/10

2010-08-18T17:14:00.000-07:00

My grandmother, Ruth Elder, was in many ways the inspiration for this blog. She has always been my ideal of the perfect hostess. Her home was beautiful. She was an interior decorator and was still working into her 70's. Her style was probably best described as Classic. Each room was filled with antiques but never looked cluttered or dark. She loved large windows, long drapes, and soft colors. My grandparent's house was always immaculately clean and anyone who entered was offered a cold drink and something to eat as soon as they arrived. Someday, I'd like my house to be the type of place where people feel comfortable as soon as they enter. I don't want to worry that they see a spider web in the corner of the ceiling or that there are unwashed dishes in the sink. I want to remember to offer everyone a drink and have something in the pantry for them if they are hungry.

I'm not there yet. I have dishes in my sink right now. I'm sure there is a visible spiderweb somewhere and just the other day, I found a dead roach on the living room floor. But I'm trying. I invited a group of friends over for dinner tonight and the house looked pretty good and the food was yummy. Everyone had fun and that's really what it's all about. My goal is to do this more and when I do it, to stop stressing so much about it.
Tonight I made 4 recipes but I am going to write about 6 here. I made two recipes last night and forgot to take pictures so I'll include those recipes at the end here. Two families, the Connors and Taylors, joined us for dinner and we had Ribs with Chipotle-Cherry Barbecue Sauce. The recipe in the magazine was actually called "Dinosaur Bones" but I didn't have time to special order extra-large beef ribs. The ribs were tender as cooked and the sauce was a good mix of spice and sweet. Joel and Rebecca Taylor had actually joined us earlier in the summer for the Pincho Ribs with Sherry Glaze and these ribs were not as lip-tingling spicy. The kids even tried them although all our kids are under 5 and ribs are just not a popular choice for that age.

Rebecca is a vegetarian so I wanted a creative pasta option for her. The Pasta Salad with Cherry Tomatoes and Green Olivada had no meat in it and a good mix of salty cheese, meaty olives, and fresh tomatoes and even the non-vegs of the group like it. Sherrana and Phil Connor's daughter, Lily, loves olives and she ate the olivada alone. The Root Beer Baked Beans needed a short cook time so they were a good choice for a busy night. The root beer was noticeable but not too sweet. Unfortunately, the flavor was not as rich as slow roasted baked beans. (As a side note: Richard took the beans to work the next day and both he and I felt the beans were better after a day.) I had most of the previous night's Malted Milk Cookie Tart but at the last minute, I decided to make the Mixed Berry Shortcakes with Vanilla Whipped Cream. I was glad I did. The Malted Milk Cookie Tart became rock hard after sitting in the fridge for a day. The tart was good but incredibly rich. If someone is a die-hard chocolate fan, this was a winner but I found it overwhelmingly sweet. The Mixed Berry Shortcakes were pretty traditional biscuits with berries and cream but this dessert carries the taste of summer. Kids and adults loved this dessert and it didn't need any fancy extras.

As I mentioned, last night I made a quick Rosemary-Lemon Grilled Turkey Cutlets and Red-Skinned Potato Wedges. This super easy weeknight meal was good but nothing to rave about. A simple dressing with garlic and rosemary over the grilled potatoes was a creative simple way to dress up the meat and potatoes staple.

Dinosaur Bones with Chipotle-Cherry Barbecue Sauce-A
Pasta Salad with Cherry Tomatoes and Green Olivada-B+
Root Beer Baked Beans-B
Mixed Berry Shortcakes with Vanilla Whipped Cream-B
Malted Milk Cookie Tart-B
Rosemary-Lemon Grilled Turkey Cutlets and Red-Skinned Potato Wedges-C+

Bird's Eye View-7/12/10

2010-08-17T18:07:00.000-07:00

Richard was my photographer tonight. He got impatient waiting for me to take a picture of our food before we could eat and he just grabbed the camera. He just got home from work and was pretty hungry. I didn't have the heart to retake them because he thought he was being helpful but I don't like the "bird's eye" view of this food. Looking at the picture makes me a little dizzy, like the plate will start spinning in a circle any moment. I'm going to make this a short blog post so I don't have to keep staring at the pictures. Tonight I made two dishes from this month's Bon Appetit magazine. Neither were a dish that intrigued me greatly but tonight crept up on me and I needed quick and easy. I made the Piri-Piri Chicken on page 69 and to be even quicker and easier, I used boneless chicken breasts instead of a whole chicken. I might have sacrificed a depth of flavor in the meat itself but with a flavorful sauce, I knew there would be plenty of flavor in the sauce. The chicken was good but not outstanding. I'd love to try the Portugese classic dish made by a master. I'm sure it is much better than the dish I made.

My second dish for tonight was the Quinoa, Garbanzo, and Spinach Salad with Smoked Paprika Dressing. I used to hate garbanzo beans. There have been some great recipes in the last few months of cooking magazines that are changing my mind about my mom's chick peas. This dish was really good. The spinach was actually an awkward add on. The bean salad was great without it. The feta, tomatoes, quinoa, and garbanzos dressed with a simple vinegar and oil dressing with a dash of paprika is definitely something I will make again.

Piri-Piri Chicken- B-

Quinoa, Garbanzo, and Spinach Salad with Smoked Paprika Dressing-A-

An Ode to the Beatles-7/7/10

2010-07-22T17:44:00.000-07:00

If you ever want to have a thematic dinner for the Beatles The White Album, I think I've found your menu. My grandmother used to talk about the importance of color on each plate and I failed to heed her message on this one. Tonight's meal was good, just a bit too monochromatic. For dinner, I made the Grilled Mahi-Mahi with Thai Coconut Sauce and the Creamy Cilantro-Lime Slaw. As you can see from the picture, the Thai coconut sauce was bit runny but it was very good and a great addition to not only the fish but the rice as well. Mahi-mahi is a pretty mild fish and this sauce had some wonderful flavors that complimented without overpowering the fish. The slaw had an Asian flare (or Mexican, depending on how you looked at it) so it paired well with the fish. The crunch of the slaw and the mild heat of the chile worked well also. I guess it's not a very British menu for the Beatles but they traveled the world. I'm sure they loved Asian food too.

Grilled Mahi-Mahi with Thai Coconut Sauce-A-

Creamy Cilantro-Lime Slaw-B+

Lost June: Call if Found-7/6/10

2010-07-22T17:34:00.000-07:00

I love the month of June, don't get me wrong. Graduations, weddings, and Father's Day are all great events. I just don't cook much in June. For the last two years, we've done the bulk of our summer traveling in June and it throws off any attempt on my part to cook anything of real consequence. We headed up to my parents' house in New Hampshire on the 10th for my brother's burial service and some much needed family time. The bulk of the first week there was dealing with the graveside service and another memorial service at his work. This was really draining on all of us and much like when we were up there immediately after my brother's death, we had lots of food given to us and didn't do much cooking at all. The second week was much more relaxing but Richard had headed back to Atlanta so I spent a lot of time visiting old friends and hanging out with my parents. I made a killer strawberry-rhubarb pie one night. I was really proud of how it turned out. Mom drove back with me to Georgia since Richard and I had driven the car up and she didn't want me to drive home alone with Eyrleigh. We got home just in time for my birthday, July 1st. So yes, I did not make a single cooking magazine recipe in June. But, you know what, that is okay. Tonight, I got July off to a thematic start. I had written in my menu plan from this month's Bon Appetit magazine Grilled Chicken and Peaches with Chipotle Peach Dressing but when I was picking up the ingredients, I decided to stay with peaches and add the Deep dish Peach Pie with Pecan Streusel Topping for dessert. I mixed it up with some Quick-Pickled Cherry Tomatoes with Dill. At the last minute I invited my friend Christina and her young son, Tyler, one of Eyrleigh's best buds to come for dinner so I was glad to have a nice dinner planned. I made the Quick-Pickled Tomatoes and peach pie while Eyrleigh took a nap and was able to have fun swimming with the kids right before we threw the chicken and corn on the grill. The chicken was good, though I found the glaze did not adhere well to the chicken. The grilled peaches were great though and mixed with the cooked chicken served well as a glaze. The pickled tomatoes were also good but again, how many pickled tomatoes can one eat? I thought they would make a great addition to a more complex salad.

Another summer favorite, Grilled Corn with Honey-Ancho Chile Butter, was devoured by the kids. I actually didn't give them any of the rather spicy butter but they sure loved the corn. The adults loved the butter than had a delightful mix of spice and sweet and worked well with the meaty mid-summer corn.

The peach pie gets my vote for best dish of the meal, maybe even the month and it's only the first day. This pie was excellent. The soft sweet peaches melted in your mouth and layered perfectly under the crunchy pecan strudel. I'd let Eyrleigh help me spread the crust and there had been more than a few patch jobs in it and it was still outstanding. Wow, I'm getting hungry just writing about it. Off to have more pie.

Grilled Chicken and Peaches with Chipotle-Peach Dressing-A-

Quick-Pickled Cherry Tomatoes with Dill-B

Deep Dish Peach Pie with Pecan Streusel Topping-A

Fire Up the Grill-5/27/10

2010-07-22T16:54:00.000-07:00

Ah, the smoke of the grill means summer is just around the corner. Let's call tonight a warm-up since all I had to do was finish off some ribs I'd slow cooked this afternoon. I invited some friend's over so it was best I didn't need to spend lots of time tending the flames. I'm never very vigilant and stuff gets black. Tonight, I actually let Richard man the grill and he did well. The recipes I cooked tonight came from a party menu in this month's Food and Wine that was hosted by a television star I've never heard of. Honestly, I find it a bit irritating that Food and Wine loves to name drop in their articles. I'm not really into food superstars and even less into movie stars...but I digress.

The Pincho Ribs weith Sherry Glaze were a bit hit with every one but Rebecca. As our group's only vegetarian, she is very tolerant of the presence of meaty ribs at dinner. These pork ribs were incredibly tender and the glaze was very flavorful. I venture to say, maybe a bit too flavorful. The kids weren't sure about the heat but the adults gobbled them up..at least the ones that eat meat.

The pickled Cherry Tomatoes with Fennel was another entrant into the somewhat perplexing fascination with including something pickled with large party menus. I get that incorporating each flavor is important but I'm rarely that impressed by the recipes. Maybe I'm not gourmet enough but a little side dish of Vlasic's baby dills would be just as good. The cherry tomatoes and fennel were pretty good but I never thought, "Wow, I want to eat this again!". It was pickled tomatoes and fennel, just what you would imagine.

I added one recipe that wasn't a part of the prescribed menu. Ribs call for a summer side dish like potato salad so I made the Potato Salad with Hummus-Yogurt Dressing. The use of yogurt was a great fat-cutting measure and didn't affect the flavor much. The hummus added a rather odd sesame flavor but I think it was more about something new. I made the mistake of overcooking the potatoes and that affected the flavor but that wasn't the fault of the recipe.

The Tamari Almonds that were included with the menu as a cocktail snack were good but I didn't taste the tamari. They didn't taste a whole lot different than salted roasted almonds. I like salted roasted almonds but the extra work didn't deliver extra flavor.

The dessert, Chocolate Stout Tiramisu, was interesting. The chocolate-stout cake was not very sweet, almost bitter, and I was worried when I tasted it by itself. The marcarpone filling was very sweet and it balanced out the bitter cake. There was not enough reduction to really soak all the layers of cake. So in short, I liked the cake but wouldn't make it again. The flavor was distinctive but not memorable.

As an extra touch, I made a special dish for Rebecca, who doesn't eat meat. The Grilled Tofu Steaks with Piquillo Salsa Verde were really pretty good. Grilled tofu is just smoky-tasting tofu but the piquillo salsa verde was really yummy. The peppers, capers, and vinegar gave it some good tang and flavor. The tofu held together pretty well on the grill too which sure helped with visual presentation. I think Joel and Rebecca will come back.

Grilled Tofu Steaks with Piquillo Salsa Verde-B

Pincho Ribs with Sherry Glaze-A-

Tamari Roasted Almonds-C

Pickled Cherry Tomatoes and Fennel-B-

Potato Salad with Hummus-Yogurt Dressing-B

Chocolate-Stout Tiramisu-B

A Special Gift-5/26/10

2010-07-07T18:35:00.000-07:00

The other night I made the bulk of the Moroccan meal in this month's Food and Wine but I still had the Moroccan Lamb Stew with Noodles to make. In keeping with the theme, I made this recipe tonight. It was pretty labor-intensive, something that cooking expert, Paula Wolfert, is not afraid of if the recipe tastes right. The use of powdered sugar was a bit strange at first but the bit of sweet was surprising. I really liked this dish for its mix of rich lamb, crunchy almonds, flavorful noodles, and the aforementioned powdered sugar. I even got to pull out a wonderful old fondue pot of my grandmother's that made this dish look great. Sorry for the rather cloudy picture. It really did look good.

The title for this blog came from the second recipe I'm writing about. Last night I took some friends who just had a baby dinner. I get a bit nervous about experimenting on friends, especially when the dish has to travel well so I just made lasagna and bought salad and bread. I looked in this month's Bon Appetit for a good cookies recipe and found Carrot Cake Cookies with Cream Cheese Icing on page 70. These cookies were very yummy and tasted just like carrot cake in cookie form. My only concern was that my cookies were quite flat, unlike the rounded cake-like cookies in the picture. I think my problem was using all-purpose flour, instead of the called-for cake flour. Seems like a little switch but it may have made a big difference in how these cookies looked and stayed together. Oh well, the new mommy loved them and that's what gifts are all about.

Moroccan Lamb Stew with Noodles-A-

Carrot Cake Cookies with Cream Cheese Icing-A-

8 Hours in Morocco-5/24/10

2010-07-07T18:13:00.000-07:00

Every time I give blood for the American Red Cross, one of the questions I must answer is "Have you been to Africa?". Yes, I have. I spent a total of 8 hours one day the summer of 1988 in Morocco. This visit did not put me at risk for AIDS, an epidemic through much of the continent but it did show me a much more wonderful side of this diverse and beautiful part of the world, its food and landscape. I've got to be honest. I don't remember much from that whirlwind day. We were staying on the Rock of Gibraltar for the summer as part of a youth mission project and could see the coast of Morocco every day. One morning we caught a boat and headed to Tangier.

I remember touring a cave. A little research shows me that it was probably the Grottoes D'Hercules as I know we looked out from the cave onto the ocean. We then headed into the city and walked through the most colorful, fantastic market I have ever seen. Everything seemed to be for sale in the small alleys between the earthen colored buildings. We then headed to a restaurant where we sat on cushions and ate with our hands. I was in awe and have loved the food of Morocco ever since. This month's issue of Food and Wine grabbed my attention with a wonderful article about Paula Wolfert, the foremost authority on Mediterranean cooking stateside. Tonight's meal was delightful and reminded me of that blink of a day in Africa.

Without exception, all the adults (Devi, Dan, Richard, and I) chose the Pot-Roasted Eggplant with Tomatoes and Cumin as our favorite dish. This appetizer is wonderful. The flavor is deep, rich, and blends beautifully. The texture was perfect. Eggplant can often be too mushy but this dish was not. This dish would work great with pitas or sliced French bread, like I used. I added two recipes that were not in the article about Morocco to this menu for two good reasons. One reason is Devi doesn't do lamb, the meat called for in the recipe given. I replaced the lamb with the Middle Eastern-Inspired Chicken with Tahini Sauce on page 116. This recipe was pretty simple and basically involved marinating chicken and putting tahini on the side. We all agreed that the marinade did not make a big difference on the chicken. The yogurt may have helped the chicken stay moist but there was negligible difference in flavor from plain grilled chicken. The tahini sauce was a bit strong for all of us. The sesame flavor was overwhelming and made your mouth feel inexplicably dry.

I also added the Carrot and Chickpea Salad on page 106 of this month's Food and Wine. This dish was an appropriate compliment to the main dish and had cumin and chickpeas, both common flavors of the region. This salad was good and a creative use of chickpeas. I often find chickpeas a bit dry by themselves and the carrots and dressing were flavorful and added texture. For dessert, I poached the pears on page 162 but I left out the prunes. Four kids under 6 and prunes can lead to unintended consequences. You can see I used some Pepperidge Farm Butter cookies to round out the look. These pears were delightful. The balance of sweet and flavor was perfect and one doesn't feel guilty after a dessert as refreshing as this one. Eyrleigh was sad I hadn't made more. I may have to return to Morocco with her before too long.

Pot-Roasted Eggplant with Tomatoes and Cumin-A

Middle Eastern Inspired Chicken with Tahini Sauce-B

Carrot and Chickpea Salad-A-

Poached Pears with Prunes-A

Yes, I Can Cook on Weekends!-5/22/10

2010-06-09T12:59:00.000-07:00

I don't usually cook on the weekends, at least recipes from magazines. This weekend I was inspired or maybe just hungry. I even woke up early enough on Saturday to make muffins. Richard makes fun of my total lack of productivity most mornings so this was quite a feat. The Chocolate Chip and Banana Muffins in this month's Food and Wine were worth waking up for. They were basically a moist yummy banana bread with chips wrapped up in a muffin paper. They did not take an hour to make, even though the recipe said that.

This weekend also began the culinary tour of North Africa, with a heavy dose of Moroccan food. The Chicken Chorba with Walnuts from the "Why French Women Don't Stay Fat" article was really simple and really good. As you can see from my picture I paired this dish with couscous and raisins, one of my all time favorite sides. Chicken thighs were a great choice for this dish because the richer tasting dark meat stood up to the flavors of the broth and enhanced the whole dish.

This issue of Food and Wine had a bit of fun with hummus, using it as a flavoring agent for other dishes, but I think the best way to enjoy hummus is by itself with a few crunchy pita chips. The recipes on page 124 was pretty simple but I did make a few flavor changes to suit our tastes. The 1/4 cup of tahini was a bit too much sesame for me. I reduced the amount of tahini and increased the amount of lemon juice and paprika. I also added a bit of water to make this hummus a bit softer. Great simple recipe to make use of my new food processor!

Banana Muffins with Chocolate Chips-A

Chicken Chorba with Walnuts-A-

Easy Hummus with Tahini-B

Ode to Guedo's- 5/21/10

2010-06-02T18:45:00.000-07:00

Nothing beats Guedo's tacos. Sorry, they just can't. This classic taco stand on the corner of Chandler and Arizona in ironically the city of Chandler, Arizona is my all time favorite taco place. I lived in Chandler for 4 years and went to Guedo's almost weekly. If you ever are in Phoenix, it's worth the trip a few miles south to Chandler. If you're lucky, you will arrive during Ostrich Festival to add to your joy.

Today I made the last two taco recipes in this month's Food and Wine Taco World article. They had nothing on Guedo's. The first taco I actually made for lunch, just for me. The whole concept of the L.A. Gas Station Taco struck me as a bit too odd to try for dinner. In retrospect, I made the right decision. Don't get me wrong, these tacos aren't terrible. They are just a combination of things you could buy at 7-11 or QuickTrip. These tacos were filling but for me, the flavors and textures didn't really work. The beef jerky really threw me off but I've never been a fan of beef jerky. It was too chewy and you were chewing it 5 minutes after the rest of the taco. I will admit I left off the pork rinds. I hate pork rinds! There was just too much going on and way too much gloppy cheese. (Are you with me? Processed American cheese is a textural nightmare.)

The second taco was the Fresh-Chorizo-and-Potato Tacos. Richard mentioned quickly that these would make great breakfast tacos. I agreed. The potato was more of a breakfast taco addition and I plan to heat up the leftovers in the morning for a variation of red flannel hash. These tacos were very good and had good spice but they were heavy.

I added a light summer salad that I will certainly make again. The Santa Fe Quinoa Salad was excellent. I replaced the cilantro with zucchini in this simple salad and it worked great. You could replace just about any fresh and colorful vegetable and it would work with the lime and cumin dressing. The cocktail onions were a brilliant addition with the right amount of tang. Can you tell I really loved this one?

L.A. Gas Station Tacos-C

Fresh Chorizo and Potato Tacos-B+

Santa Fe Quinoa Salad-A

The Magazine Review-5/20/10

2010-05-20T19:19:00.000-07:00

I admit I have a little obsession with cooking magazines. At one point, I was receiving 5 different cooking magazines in the mail each month. One, Taste of Home, was a gift subscription and I didn't renew it when it ran out. The other, Gourmet, has ceased publication so I no longer get that one. The other three, Bon Appetit, Food and Wine, and Cooking Light are all great magazines, but for different reasons. The following comparisons are mostly my opinion but you may find them helpful if you are looking to subscribe to just one. (Gasp!)

Bon Appetit

Bon Appetit would classify as my long-term favorite, though month by month I choose my favorite magazines based on personal preference for recipes and interest in the articles. Bon Appetit has lots of creative menus and I like menus to help put similar recipes together. There are often several articles with a cultural theme (either country or region) with accompanying recipes. Bon Appetit did change their design style in the last several years and I find the new aesthetic a bit bare with lots of white and neutrals. Food is colorful and I do wish the magazine reflected this a bit more.

If you like "The New Yorker", you will like Bon Appetit. (They are published by the same company.)

Food and Wine
I've gotten Food and Wine and also love this magazine. It also includes menus, though usually fewer than Bon Appetit. Food and Wine tends to be a bit more thematic, like articles on tacos or a particular food item. Food and Wine spends a bit more effort on wine, given the name. My only real complaint with F & W at times is the "superstar" nature of the magazine. They focus quite a bit more on superstar chefs and other people in the world of food. I'm just not as into that. They also have a lot of travel information that is a little outside the average American price range.

If you like "People" magazine, you will like Food and Wine.

Cooking Light
I started getting Cooking Light several years ago when it hit the grocery store newstands in force. I'm pretty sure this magazine has gained the most readership of the three I've mentioned in the last few years. This magazine plays to the desire of many Americans to lose weight and still eat well. This magazine has some great low and reduced fat recipes while still having a gourmet bent. I enjoy the menus and tips for making traditional recipes healthier. My only complaint with this magazine is the lack of many serious articles about food topics. It's pretty much a purely recipe magazine with some fitness tips thrown in.

If you like "Shape" magazine, you will like Cooking Light.

I've gotten a few other magazines over the years but these are my main three. I got Taste of Home for a few years from my mother-in-law but I found it a bit simplistic. It's a great one if you need a casserole dish, though. I've gotten a few copies of Vegetarian Times and really like it. Obviously, I don't eat exclusively vegetarian but if I did, this magazine would be a necessity. I've seen Cook's Illustrated and I'm intrigued by the premise of no adds and extensive research. Maybe someday.

Tonight, I made three recipes from this month's Food and Wine. It was listed as two but the Pork Schnitzel with Warm Potato Salad was really two separate dishes. The Pork Schnitzel was an easy and delicious version of the classic German dish. The use of panko or Japanese breadcrumbs was a great adaptation. Panko is light and crispy and prevented a heavy, greasy feeling that sometimes results with breaded food. The Warm Potato Salad was a vinegar based potato salad that was a good match for the pork. This potato salad would not be good for a summer picnic but worked well here.

The Roasted Turnips and Greens were also pretty traditional in flavor but the olives and nuts added some creative notes. This recipe may not work with every main dish but it paired well with the pork and potatoes. The natural spice of the turnips made the greens seem almost sweet. The little bit of orange may have helped that too.

Pork Schnitzel with Warm Potato Salad-A-

Roasted Turnips and Greens-A-

In Honor of Ho Chi Minh-5/19/10

2010-05-19T17:29:00.000-07:00

For those of you not in the know, today was Ho Chi Minh's birthday. I wouldn't have known this either if I didn't need an excuse to make 3 different dumpling recipes for my family tonight without looking like a lunatic. Check that... maybe I am a lunatic. But at least I know more about Ho Chi Minh than the average bear. Ho Chi Minh, the namesake for the current capital of Vietnam, was the leader of the Viet Minh Independence movement and the leader and president of North Vietnam at the time of the Vietnam War. He was a follower of Communist ideals and is credited with unifying the Vietnamese people under his leadership. And his birthday was a dang good excuse to make some dumplings. Food and Wine this month has an article "A Lesson in Dumplings" and I made all three variations. The Lemongrass Chicken Dumplings were our favorite. The fresh lemongrass and crunch cabbage was a good combination. My new food processor made quick work of all the chopping and Eyrleigh even helped me stuff a few. The Pork-and-Kimchi Dumplings were a little spicy for Eyrleigh but I liked the spicy note of the kimchi and ginger. The Watercress and Tofu Dumplings didn't hold together as well, as could be expected but still had crunchy water chestnuts to give them texture. The only disappointment was the dipping sauce. There was too much vinegar and it overwhelmed the other flavors. Soy sauce alone would have been a better match for all the dumpling flavors.

I mixed up the dumplings with the Xie Xie Tofu Salad with Pickled Vegetables. This deconstructed Asian-style salad was a yummy veggie addition to the meal. The carrots were pretty spicy and Eyrleigh didn't enjoy them but the cabbage and tofu were a hit. The flavors weren't strong but they were a great match for this meal as dumplings can get heavy after you've had a lot of them. And yes, I had a lot. Thanks, Mr. Ho Chi Minh and Happy Birthday!

Lemongrass Chicken Dumplings-A

Pork-and-Kimchi Dumplings-A-

Watercress and Tofu Dumplings-B+

Xie Xie's Tofu Salad with Pickled Vegetables-B+

My Daughter is a Cannibal-5/18/10

2010-05-19T17:23:00.000-07:00

This title is not exactly appropriate for a food blog but I have to get this off my chest. I know Eyrleigh is not perfect but I can't tell you how very upsetting it was to me to see that she bit her little friend, Joanie. Worse, I didn't see it happen and only noticed a bite mark when I was telling Joanie's mom about another booboo she gave herself. I felt terrible that I hadn't even noticed what Eyrleigh had done. Thanks for listening. Some days, cooking just takes a backseat to the dramas of parenthood. I made a meal from Food and Wine but I don't have the energy and creativity to come up with any other blog topic. It was just the kind of day that makes you cringe.

I really love Indian food but tonight's variations from this month's Food and Wine were a bit bland for my taste. I baked the Grilled Tandoori-Style Chicken Drumsticks in the oven. The recipe even allowed for it but I think grilling would have really improved the flavor of this dish. The smoke would have added a good note to the mild yogurt marinade. The yogurt sauce with the next recipe really helped out this main dish too.

The Curried Cauliflower and Green Been Salad with Lemon Yogurt was a very good roasted vegetable dish. I would have liked a bit more spice but the vegetables were very good as written. I eliminated the bread and I don't think I missed anything. It just seemed extra and not essential. It may have added some crunch but I didn't want the oil. The yogurt sauce was a basic riata and added to both the salad and the chicken.

Grilled Tandoori-Style Chicken Drumsticks-C

Curried Cauliflower and Green Bean Salad with Lemon Yogurt-A-

The Fatal Flaw-5/17/10

2010-05-19T17:16:00.000-07:00

The fatal flaw of cooking fish is the strong smell that goes along with it. I did laundry today and I'm afraid I'll sleep with a faint odor of lobster. I'm reminded of a restaurant we ate at on the water in Bar Harbor, Maine this summer. Three days later, my sweatshirt still smelled of fish. I love the fish while I'm eating it but smelling it in your clothes the next morning is not quite so nostalgic.
I've always wanted to make bouillabaisse. It's one of those classic dishes that just sounds delicious. My friend, Mark, would reschedule anything to attend his parents Christmas Eve dinner of bouillabaisse with friends. Now that I've made Ted Allen's Lobster Bouillabaisse from this month's Food and Wine, the bloom is off the rose, shall we say. I liked it but may not move it into the weekday rotation or even plan an event around it. It's a lot of fish and I found the flavor a bit overwhelming. My mussels may be at fault though. You will see that they did not make the soup. I'd actually hoped to make this soup on Friday, but because of book club, a birthday party, and a ball game, it's now Monday. My mussels didn't make it. They were all opened and stinky. I had to use some canned clams I had instead. Ted Allen, of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy fame, may blame this for my disillusionment with bouillabaisse but honestly, if this one thing was the difference, this dish may be a bit too high maintenance for me.
Usually, a sabayon is a similar dish for me. I like sabayons but I'm not so entranced that I've added this dessert to my regular repertoire. The elderflower liqueur, St. Germain, sounds wonderful but I've tried to limit my budget by substituting expensive alcohol for things I have. Last year I made marshmallows with Lillet for a Gourmet recipe and I had quite a bit remaining. I'll admit Lillet is not a true liqueur but it does have a distinct flavor. I used it and really liked it in the sabayon. I used exclusively strawberries because of the overabundance I had remaining from strawberry picking at a local farm with the kids. I really liked this dish so I think my substitutions worked. I remembered sabayon as a bit airy and weak but this was thick and rich. Thanks, Ted!

Ted Allen's Lobster Bouillabaisse-B
Elderflower Sabayon with Berries-A

My Mountain of Books-5/14

2010-05-16T15:11:00.000-07:00

I love to to read. As a kid, I would disappear to my room for hours to read a book. Thankfully, I read quickly and can create vivid pictures of the setting and events of books in my mind. I grew up with books stacked in every room in our house and now I have done the same. Over a decade ago, I joined a book club created by my friend, Kim, and when I taught at Rock Springs Elementary, I led a book club of staff members. When I stopped teaching, I didn't want to stop having book club so a teacher friend and I still meet. We met today and I made two cookie recipes from this month's Food and Wine for our snacks. The cookies were good but I thought the book was better. It was titled "Thinking in Pictures: And Other Reports from My Life with Autism" by Temple Grandin. This book was very non-traditional, as you would imagine a book by an author with autism would be. The story was rarely narrative, more often written as a factual article, expressing the research and musings of Ms. Grandin. The sequence of the story often jumped around and at times I, as a reader, had to go back and reread a section to follow the author's train of thought. Despite these differences, the book was fascinating. My godson, Connor and my cousin's son, Owen, are both autistic and I found her analysis of the mind of someone with autism accurate and enlightening.

Don't get me wrong, the cookies were good but food doesn't last with you as long as a good book. I have books on my shelf I will always treasure. Cookies rarely last a day. I initially planned to make the Pecan Shortbread with Chocolate Drizzle on page 126 but when I realized that this recipe only made 8 cookies, I needed more. So I made the Granola Cookies with Chocolate Chips on page 128 as well. The Pecan Shortbreads were very tasty but very very crumbly. I lost one cookie in the transfer and did some early taste testing. I think this was a result of the ground pecans. The nutty flavor was great, though and for a small gathering, these would be perfect.

I was a bit more worried about the Granola Cookies, mostly because I made a few substitutions due to lack of correct ingredients. First of all, I had no butter and used shortening instead. I didn't notice any ill effects and actually the shortening mixed in well without warming it to room temperature. The second substitution was more visual. I didn't have chocolate chips so I cut up a chocolate bar. The chocolate taste was still there but not as well dispersed and there was not the familiar lumps of the chips. My final substitution was dates for apricots. I think this one was a one for one trade and simply changed the flavor a bit. I liked the dates, a common ingredient in many granola bars anyway. Despite a whole lot of substitutions, these cookies disappeared. They were great. The first batch got a little crispy and so I shortened the cook time to 14 minutes and this was perfect for chewy, chunky granola cookies. I'll be making these again.

The last recipe was not the afterthought it looks like on this blog. I made the Shaking Beef on page 68 last night and didn't have time to blog. Since it was one recipe by itself, I decided I could add my thoughts on it here. I liked the dish. You really can't go wrong with filet mignon. But that was part of the problem. This dish wasn't stand out enough to justify spending $14 on one pound of meat alone. It was basically an Asian beef dish with a soy-vinegar sauce. There are much cheaper ways to get this flavor without buying filet. The watercress was simply a bed of greens and though yummy, could have been baby spinach and not made that big a difference. I still like the book better!

Pecan Shortbread with Chocolate Drizzle-A-

Granola Cookies with Chocolate Chips-A

Shaking Beef-B

The Missing Grocery Caper-5/12/10

2010-05-12T18:11:00.000-07:00

I love mysteries. I read the Nancy Drew and

Hardy Boys books as a kid, Sherlock Holmes as a teenager, and Agatha Christie as an adult. But I don't like mysteries when it comes to my groceries. I know I picked up at least 3 things at Food Lion yesterday that never made it to my house. I distinctly remember picking up ham for the pea soup I made tonight, fillet for the Shaking Beef I'm making tomorrow, and bananas for Eyrleigh. None of these made it home. I checked the receipt. Thankfully, it looks like I didn't pay for these items either so some time between putting them in my cart and checking out, they disappeared. I have a few guesses what happened but no real clue. Eyrleigh could have taken them out... though I doubt that. I had one of those double carts with a smaller basket on top and a larger one on the bottom. I could have left these items in the bottom part, underneath the top basket. That seems really spacey of me to miss 3 items, one of them bright yellow but it's possible. Eyrleigh had her first grocery store meltdown while we were checking out. I have never bought her candy from the grocery store checkout aisle but she choose yesterday to decide to scream for candy. Needless to say, I was flustered, okay, really angry at her, while checking out and had to enter my discount card number 3 times. Between her crying and shouting and the nasty looks from the lady behind me, I was not in peak form. I'm not calling this case closed but that's the best detective work I've got.

Tonight I began the meal with the hamless Sweet Pea Soup with Ham and Croutons from page 112 on this month's Food and Wine. The ham may have added a flavorful note but my complaints with this soup were more with texture. The spinach left stringy pieces in the soup. I didn't mind the flavor but it wasn't as rich as a long simmering split pea soup. It tasted like blended peas and spinach with a bit of onion. It was

nothing spectacular.

My meal plan for tonight was a bit less formal so I choose to add one of the hummus adaptations, the Hummus Deviled Eggs. Eyrleigh was thrilled. She ate 3 of these eggs and would have had one or two more had we let her. The addition of hummus to traditional deviled eggs was less surprising than I would have thought. It added a little tang to the filling but really wasn't all that different. That's a good thing if you like your deviled eggs and want to cut down on the mayonnaise.

One of the best things about trying lots of new recipes is the realization that some foods are more accessible than you think. I love crab rolls but I only eat them on vacation in New England. Tonight, I used crab meat from a can I bought at Food Lion (that did not go missing!) and made really good crab rolls. The purists may argue that canned crab meat in Georgia doesn't have the flavor of salt and sea that you taste when you order from a shack on the ocean. I agree, these weren't perfect but for those nights I want to close my eyes and pretend I'm in Old Orchard Beach again, these rolls will work just fine. With a little mayo, a little lemon, and the crunch of celery, the flavor of the sea still comes through, even here, a long way from the ocean.

Sweet Pea Soup with Ham and Croutons-C

Hummus Deviled Eggs-B+

Crab Rolls with Lemon Aioli-A-

Tequila with Ricky-5/11/10

2010-05-11T16:10:00.000-07:00

When I lived in Phoenix, I was only 5 hours away from San Diego and from there, it was only a quick drive into Mexico. One year a friend from Michigan, Eric Seelye, came to visit me and we hopped in the car and drove to the Baja. I laugh a bit now at how blase we were about the trip. So blase that Eric left his wallet on the top of a pay phone, we drove away, realized he left it and it was still there when we went back. That night we stopped for dinner in the town of Rosarito, below Tijuana. Our waiter, Ricky, was delightful and when we mentioned we had no idea where we were spending that night (I told you we were blase!), he offered to let us pitch our tent behind the restaurant. When we woke up to the ocean crashing below us and a beautiful view of Rosarito Beach, we felt like we'd spent the night in a five-star hotel. The next year, I took Richard back to Baja and just down the road from the restaurant we'd eaten at the year before was a little place called Ricky's. Sure enough, Ricky remembered me and treated us to lots of free tequila and a wonderful meal of fish tacos.
Actually, I'm not sure we had fish tacos. Remember the part about the free tequila... But either way, fish tacos are the dish that in my mind conjures up images of the Baja. Tonight's dinner was Crispy Fried Fish Tacos from the Taco World article in this month's Food and Wine. I think I might be able to give Ricky a run for his pesos. These were really good fish tacos. The recipe used some Asian ingredients like hoisin sauce and panko but the flavor was authentic. The hoisin sauce gave the dressing for the tacos a wonderful tang and the panko was the crunchy base for the fried coating. I used frozen bagged tilipia fillets and they worked beautifully. This dish sure made me miss the stark beauty of the Baja peninsula and the warm welcome of Ricky.
A playful main like fish tacos called for a simple fun dessert. The Espresso-Shortbread Brownie Bars were a good fit. Combining shortbread cookies with brownies is a fun twist on both. The espresso in the shortbread cuts some of the sweetness of the brownie. I'm not a huge chocolate person, nor a real cookie lover, but if this describes you, make these. I also thought milk was an absolute requirement to the enjoyment of these bars. They are a smidge dry without it.

Crispy Fried-Fish Tacos-A
Espresso-Shortbread Brownie Bars-A-

Isn't It Ironic.. Don't You Think-5/10/10

2010-05-10T17:23:00.000-07:00

When I started posting to my blog about tonight's meal, I noticed that several of the visits on the live traffic feed were from bonappetit.com. Curious, I jumped over to bonappetit.com to see how someone got to my blog from there. Sure enough, just one click off the homepage of Bon Appetit, my blog is quoted and linked to. Fifteen months after I start this blog and 5 posts after I decide to switch up my cooking magazine from Bon Appetit to another magazine for the month, Bon Appetit puts me on their blog list. Alanis Morissette would be proud. Ah well, hopefully Bon Appetit is not like our local grocery store competitors. A Publix employee literally whispered "Kroger" when I told her Eyrleigh could tell the difference between grocery stores because of free cookies. She looked around surreptitiously as if someone would fire her if they heard her even mention the name of the "other" grocery store.
Tonight's meal was from Food and Wine and in all likelihood I'll stick with my plan to finish out this month with Food and Wine. It was kind of nice to see my blog on bonappetit.com, though. My pictures didn't look half bad next to the others.
It's just nice to know someone found what you had to say interesting enough to share it with a national audience.

I didn't intend to make a vegetarian meal but tonight's meal was all veg. I made the Smoky Ribollita, basically a minestrone soup, on page 57. This soup was a good version of the traditional Italian soup. The white beans added a meaty depth to the soup and the smoky paprika gave extra spice to the veggies. It didn't take long to make and the chopping was managable.

I also made the Farfalle with Spring Vegetables to fill out the meal. Honestly, I wasn't a big fan. This dish was pretty flat. The veggies were good, especially the peas but some cheese, probably a Parmesan or Romano would have really helped. Cooking water is not sauce in my book. The bread made strange "croutons" for the pasta that added crunch but didn't really blend with the pasta and vegetables.

Smoky Ribollita-B

Farfalle with Spring Vegetables-C

A Little Extra Smoke-5/7/10

2010-05-10T17:19:00.000-07:00

Look closely at the picture to your left. That is not pepper you see. That is burnt stuff. It wasn't enough to make the dish inedible but it did contribute to authenticity. The dish I made tonight was called Smoky Paella with Shrimp and Squid from this month's Food and Wine. Mine almost got a bit smokier than recommended. When the recipe says "...bring to a boil over high heat 10 minutes" and doesn't mention stirring, I suggest you stir. I didn't and had to do a bit of scraping resulting in the black stuff at left.
I love paella and truth be told, consider myself a bit of an expert, for an American. When I stayed in Spain in 1996, I had the most amazing paella almost daily with whatever fish was bought that day. Tonight's version was a bit disappointing. Something was missing, perhaps a few more types of fish or shellfish. The rice was rather thick with the tomato paste and didn't absorb the flavors of the additional fish. It wasn't terrible but I won't be repeating this one, with or without the extra smoke.

Smoky Paella with Shrimp and Squid-C

Cuatro Tacos for Cinco De Mayo-5/5/10

2010-05-10T17:10:00.000-07:00

I'll begin this post by apologizing. These four tacos look exactly the same but you must believe me, they are not! Last night, I invited several families from our church small group over for Cinco De Mayo. I guess I started the margarita part of the evening a little early (while cooking, of course). In all the rush of cooking, hosting, and ... uh...bar tending, I didn't take any pictures. This picture was taken by Richard at lunch the next day. Pretty good looking leftovers if I do say so myself.
This month's Taco World article in Food and Wine magazine has seven taco recipes but I didn't think I could pull off all seven. Three of the tacos I made for the party involved premaking a marinade and simply grilling the meat before serving. That's a pretty easy way to do a party. I had very little to do once people arrived. I just lit the grill and let the charcoal do its thing. I did have a vegetarian friend coming so my fourth taco was the tofu variation.
The Chili-Spiced Skirt Steak Tacos were a two-hour marinade with ground spices and lime juice. It smelled wonderful and grilled up well. Next time, I might let this marinade sit overnight like the pork and chicken. The recipe called for skirt steak, a cut that I find unreliable. Sometimes it's really good and sometimes it's very chewy and tough. I used New York Strip and sliced it after grilling. It was delicious but I would have liked a bit more depth to the marinade.
The Grilled Chicken Tacos were an overnight marinade. The marinade didn't look great but I thought it was the best flavored of the three marinades once grilled. The chicken thighs grilled beautifully and smelled wonderful. The last minute addition of parsley and paprika added an extra kick as well.
The Tacos al Pastor or pork tacos marinaded overnight as well. The marinade was the most work but I almost thought it was too busy, almost too many flavors to really get a strong feel for any one thing. The recipe called for boneless pork shoulder. I bought picnic shoulder and I'm not sure this was the same thing. The pork seemed fatty and tough before grilling but it grilled up pretty well. The grilled onions and pineapple suggested with this recipe were great additions to all the tacos.
The Crunchy Tofu Tacos had promise and I'm actually glad I waited a day for Richard's picture. We had the leftovers for dinner tonight too and both Richard and I thought the tofu was better today. Yesterday the fried coating was almost soggy and didn't have the strong flavor one would expect from chili powder and chili paste. Today, I still found the flavor a bit weak but the coating had dried out and had a bit more crunch.
I also, or should I say, my friends and I made the Pico de Gallo and Avocado Salsa recommended with these tacos. Both were traditional accompaniments and added fresh, authentic flavors to the tacos. We cut the water out of the Avocado Salsa recipe because it just would have thinned the flavor. These are both simple to make and worked well. I will admit I made another batch of the bean sauce from the 5/3 post. Man, that stuff is good!

Chile-Spiced Skirt Steak Taco-B
Grilled Chicken Tacos-A-
Tacos al Pastor-B
Crunchy Tofu Tacos-C
Pico de Gallo-A-
Avocado Salsa-A-

After I Learn Italian-3/4/10

2010-05-04T17:31:00.000-07:00

Cooking magazines love to use fancy names for recipes to make them sound more authentic and delicious. Tonight I made Buccatini all"Amatriciana, basically Italian for tubular pasta with bacon and tomato sauce. It sounds much fancier in Italian. I think everything sounds fancier in Italian. I need to learn Italian or at least go to Italy to hear it spoken for awhile. How I missed the entire country when I backpacked through Europe is beyond me. I think Eyrleigh and Richard would really love to go there too.

Though Buccatini all'Amatriciana sounds complicated, it wasn't and the use of store-bought tomato sauce made it downright simple. I replaced the pancetta with low-sodium bacon and realized I had no more Romano cheese so I used Manchego. It worked. The flavor added to the store-bought sauce was an improvement. I may not duplicate this recipe exactly again but this recipe reinforced that anything can be added to a commercial sauce to give it an extra dimension. That's worth remembering on the nights I get home and have to whip something together.

Though the combination of Caesar salad with Italian food is more an American invention, I went ahead and made the connection tonight. The Caesar Salad with Crispy Tofu Croutons on page 130 of May's Food and Wine was a creative twist on this classic salad. The croutons were definitely different from regular croutons in both taste and texture. Though I liked the little cubes of fried tofu, they remained soft in the middle and didn't fool anyone as to their true identity. The silken tofu used in the dressing, though, was a perfect replacement for the fatty oil and egg white used normally. The texture was identical, minus the oily residue, and the flavor was identical. I overdressed the salad, as the picture shows, and the lightness of the dressing made it tolerable. I'll need to remember this dressing for the future, though I'll probably return to good old bread croutons.

Caesar Salad with Crispy Tofu Croutons-B+

Buccatini All'Amatriciana-B+

I Am Benedict Arnold-5/3/10

2010-05-04T17:10:00.000-07:00

You may remember the story of Benedict Arnold, the general who betrayed the American Revolutionaries and joined the British forces. So I'll admit my traitorous act was not that great but I have decided to change magazines for the month of May. I sat down this week to look at my new cooking magazines and I got to be honest, the line-up in Food and Wine just looked better and more doable. It's not that I can't make Caramelized Pork Belly and Shrimp with Spicy Fish Sauce and Padron Peppers Stuffed with Tetilla Cheese. It's just that it's hard to find those ingredients and I would spend an inordinate amount of time hunting high and low to make my recipes authentic. I also was a bit over butter and flour. The six cake recipes last month did me in and I swear my stomach is still flabbier as a result. The Food and Wine recipe list had fewer desserts and several of those were lighter in nature (like Poached Pears with Prunes, not exactly a high fat treat!). There is a whole article on one of my personal favs, tacos and a whole group of recipes using tofu in interesting ways. So traitor or not, I'm changing alliances, at least for the month of May.

Tonight I began simply with only one recipe, Chile-Honey-Glazed Salmon with Two Sauces on page 64. The salmon in this dish was very similar to the salmon I made on April 13th. Instead of grilling the salmon, I baked the salmon in the oven. It's neater and I hate grilling fish indoors. It smells up the house forever. This glaze was spicy and sweet with one substitution. I had agave nectar and used that instead of honey. The tomatillo salsa was good but be warned, it's pretty spicy as written. The black bean sauce was excellent. In fact, this sauce could have stood alone as a recipe, it was that flavorful. Chipotle, cumin, garlic and onion were pretty simple additions but made the bean dip the highlight of the recipe. I ate two tortillas dipped in this sauce alone. This recipe would make excellent salmon tacos too.

I'm not a complete traitor yet. I bought some rhubarb last week but never made the Bon Appetit recipes that called for it. I went back to last month's Bon Appetit to make the Rhubarb Galette with Creme Fraiche on page 68. I learned two things while making this recipe. Eyrleigh has inherited my love of raw rhubarb dipped in sugar and I need a new food processor. Yep, I love that sweet-sour combination and so does my daughter. The galette was excellent and very easy to make, even without a food processor. It's a good thing Mother's Day is Sunday so I've made a request for a Cuisinart 9-cupper. I chilled the tart crust while the rhubarb soaked in sugar. It tasted amazing with a simple scoop of vanilla, forget that fancy creme fraiche. Ahhh, the taste of summer.

Chili-Honey-Glazed Salmon with Two Sauces-A-

Rhubarb Galette with Creme Fraiche-A

April's Best-4/30/10

2010-05-02T18:41:00.000-07:00

April ended for our family with a fun little road trip to Galveston to attend Richard's Ironman 70.3 triathlon. On the way there, we stopped in New Orleans to sample the world-famous beignets at Cafe Du Monde and take in a New Orleans Zephyrs baseball game. As you can tell, Eyrleigh approved of the beignets, though we traded out the classic cafe au lait for chocolate milk. We enjoyed the wonderful hospitality of our friends, Deb and Butch, in Houston and ate several wonderful meals with them. Deb even made the cover recipe from May's Bon Appetit for us. It was really good, though we all agreed cheese may have helped jazz up the pasta a bit. Richard was very pleased with his race. He finished a 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, and 13.1 mile run in 5 hours and 54 minutes. We all enjoyed staying right at the race site, Moody Gardens Resort, with our friends, Jon and Laura. We visited another road food icon, Martin's in Montgomery, Alabama on the way home and had the best fried chicken and southern soul food ever.

Immediately upon returning home, Richard headed out to Salt Lake City on a business trip until the end of the month. I didn't make any more Bon Appetit recipes for just Eyrleigh and I. I finished the month only making 22 of 52 recipes, not exactly a representative sample but I'll pick a few standouts. I did make every cake in "The Great American Cake" article and 6 of 10 recipes in "Spring's Big Three". My favorite recipe was one of the cakes. The Lime Angel Food Cake with Lime Glaze and Pistachios on page 107 was outstanding. With a light and springy cake base, the citrusy sweet glaze was a perfect match for the crunchy pistachios. This was an excellent variation and a real flavor stand out. I didn't really have a dish that fit into the month's worse category. You can see by rating that I found some dishes a bit blah, like the Grilled Calamari with White Bean Stew, but nothing was terrible. Let's see if I can make over 30 recipes from next month's magazine.

The Great Catfish Debate-4/20/10

2010-04-20T16:48:00.000-07:00

Catfish is not a topic upon which I have a great
wealth of knowledge. It was by complete accident that I walked into the Great Catfish Debate. I had intended to make the Slow-Roasted Halibut with Shaved Asparagus and Fennel on page 84 of this month's Bon Appetit.
Super H Mart, my local Asian market, did not have halibut but I did remember that another recipe I planned to make later in the week called for bass. I saw a nice looking white fish labeled "basa". Rather naively, I assumed this was Spanish for bass. Many of the employees speak Spanish so that was a plausible explanation. A quick Google search proved I was wrong. Basa is a type of catfish, native to the Mekong River in Vietnam. Realising I had purchased a completely different type of fish, I began to look up recipes to see how best to cook this fish. Almost immediately, I began to read warnings about the safety of basa. Several websites spoke of the filth in the Mekong River where these fish grow and the likelihood of this fish to carry toxic chemicals as a result. See http://randomsay.wordpress.com/ I got a little freaked out. Was I going to poison my family by cooking this fish? I decided to do a bit more research. What I found was quite interesting. Several American catfish producing states had banned basa (or its cheaper cousin, tra) because of health concerns but nowhere could I find actual health infractions. I could find no evidence from FDA testing of high chemical content, no news stories of food borne illness. In fact, I found several recipes from high-end chefs that raved about the mild flavor and smooth texture of this fish. In fact, in a blind taste test preformed by the University of Mississippi, people preferred the taste of basa. Maybe this all a bit of brouhaha for nothing. I found the following musings rather entertaining so I'll link them here. http://mises.org/daily/1890 The question is...Did we eat the fish? We did. Will I eat it every week? No.
I ended up using the basa to replace the halibut in the Slow-Roasted Halibut with Shaved Asparagus and Fennel Salad. This substitution was a bit of a stretch but we are leaving for Texas tomorrow and I didn't want to head out to the second grocery store of the day to find halibut. Basa is as advertised. It is a very mild tasting white fish that had firm smooth flakes. Probably the best thing was that my kitchen did not smell the least bit fishy after cooking. The breading for the fish was baked, eliminating the oily results of fried fish breading. The asparagus and fennel salad was very lemony, almost masking the flavors of the vegetables.
In a slightly ironic twist, I also made the Leek and Ginger Matzo Balls in Lemongrass Consomme. Why is this ironic, you ask. Because basa is a catfish, making it very NON-kosher. Whoops! Thankfully, I hadn't invited anyone to dinner who followed kosher regulations but it was a bit strange to serve a classic Passover dish, matzo ball soup, with a non-kosher main dish. This soup was more traditional than you would think. The lemongrass and ginger flavors were almost undetectable. I liked the soup but would not say it was much better than a Manischewitz soup in a box.

Leek and Ginger Matzo Balls in Lemongrass Consomme-B

Slow-Roasted Halibut with Shaved Asparagus and Fennel Salad-B+

Moroccan Mole with Maple-4/19/10

2010-04-19T17:20:00.000-07:00

I really can't imagine what a Moroccan mole with maple would taste like and to be honest, I doubt it would taste good. But tonight, I pulled off a combination of flavors that would put the fusion restaurant fad to shame. I combined 3 recipes from this month's Bon Appetit that in the logical world had no business being served together. But I think I pulled it off!

My mom and dad have stopped back by on their way home from visiting friends in Florida. I had a doctor's appointment today and didn't get home until 4:00. I didn't feel like hiking back out to the grocery store so I looked through the fridge and matched stuff I had with recipes. Here it is; Carrots, Moroccan Carrot Soup. Steak, Steak Mole with Cilantro. Maple syrup, Maple Cake with Maple Syrup Frosting.

Mom had mentioned when she was here last week that the recipe for Moroccan Carrot Soup on page 53 looked excellent. My mom loves healthy vegetarian or near vegetarian recipes and often makes meals for us in New Hampshire that have no main meat dish. She was not disappointed. I left out the yogurt drizzle at the end and it was not missed. This is a fresh pleasantly spiced soup that starts any meal well.

In a nice touch of continuity, the Steak Mole with Cilantro was rubbed before grilling with cumin, the key spice in the carrot soup. The steak was then served with a side of quick homemade mole, made with canned crushed tomatoes and chocolate chips. This quick version of mole doesn't have the same complexity of authentic Mexican mole but it had some of the same flavor components. I probably wouldn't make this sauce again though because of the prevalence of excellent jarred moles, even at our local grocery store.

With Mom and Dad here, I wanted to take advantage of the extra people to eat cake. Richard, Eyrleigh, and I would not be able to walk if we ate the 6 cakes in "The Great American Cake" article all by ourselves. Mom and Dad bring us maple syrup from a friend's sugar house in Vermont every time they come to visit so we have no shortage of real maple syrup. The cake portion of this recipe used no sugar, just 2 cups of maple syrup. The batter seemed pretty runny but it baked up beautifully. The maple flavor was pretty mellow and I thought the chopped nuts added a nice touch. I had worried that I chopped the nuts too fine but they baked in well and added flavor without too much texture. The frosting was good too. I was a little shy on powdered sugar, had only 2 cups not 3, so my icing went on a bit thin as you can see in the picture. The flavor didn't appear to be affected though and using less powdered sugar even allowed the maple flavor to shine through. I wouldn't recommend this combination for everyone but for us, for tonight, this meal was a great combination.

Moroccan Carrot Soup-A-

Steak Mole with Cilantro-B

Maple Cake with Maple Syrup Frosting-A

Paying the Man-4/15/10

2010-04-15T19:22:00.000-07:00

Richard and I got our tax return in early February. I've never waited until April to do my tax return, never mind the 15th. I wouldn't be completely honest if I said I never procrastinated on anything. A few college papers were slipped under a professor's door just a few minutes before 5:00. It's just that I've almost always gotten a tax return so I look forward getting a few extra dollars, the sooner, the better. So tonight's dinner had nothing to do with taxes or running to the mail. Thank goodness for that!

Tonight, I made another recipe from Bon Appetit's "Spring's Big 3" article, a collection of recipes using asparagus, peas, and artichokes. The Lasagna with Asparagus, Leeks, and Morels was a vegetarian lasagna with a cream sauce base. I've not always been happy with cooking magazines non-traditional variations on lasagna but this recipe passed the test. The cream sauce was thick and the meaty mushrooms gave depth to the dish. I really like this lasagna. My only frustration was trying to find little dishes to make "individual" portions as the recipe called for. I would have appreciated a note at the bottom of the recipe that adapted cook times for a one-pan version of this lasagna. I have very little use for 2-cup baking dishes so I don't have a set of 4 and had to adapt with 2 small dishes and 1 other a bit larger.

I'd made several rather large cakes lately so I choose a lighter dessert to accompany tonight's dinner. The Coffee Granita with Cardamom Whipped Cream on page 53 was a simple, light dessert with great flavor. I love coffee ice cream so I was excited about this recipe. Just sugar, water, and some espresso powder! How easy is that! It tasted just like you would expect, frozen coffee with whipped cream. That's how Starbucks has made their millions and I paid way less than $4.25. This is a great simple dessert for a night with friends. I wouldn't recommend it for the under 10 set, unless you are planning an all-nighter.

Lasagna with Asparagus, Leeks, and Morels-A-

Coffee Granita with Cardamom Whipped Cream-A

You Can't Eat Just One-4/14/10

2010-04-14T16:47:00.000-07:00

"Have you ever had just one pistachio?" If you recognize this line, you've watched the popular "NCIS" show a few times too. I'm not a big t.v. watcher. I watch sports and the "crime drama" shows and that's pretty much it. With the crime dramas, I have a pretty quick trigger. If things get too graphic or involve crimes against women or children, I turn them off. I don't want nightmares from my t.v. I didn't have a television growing up and I have trouble remembering that the events on a show are not real. I'm good enough at creeping myself out in a dark house at night, I don't need someone else to help me.

You may be wondering what the television tangent has to do with tonight's meal but it does relate, sort of. I've been charging through this month's Bon Appetit article "The Great American Cake". We are not even to Tax Day and I have just one cake of the six left to make. Tonight I made the Lime Angel Food Cake with Lime Glaze and Pistachios. I was quite intimidated reading the recipe with all the sifting, folding, and 10 egg whites. (No clue what I'm going to do with the 10 yolks now!) But really, this was a pretty easy cake. A stand mixer and the battery powered sifter I totally laughed at when I got it saved me a ton of time and babysitting. Looking at the cake in the magazine against mine, I think I could have chopped my pistachios even smaller, to almost dust, but other than that, mine was a pretty good replica. It tasted fantastic. I've always found angel food good but a bit dull for all the work but the lime glaze and crunchy pistachios really worked on this dessert and it stood up to my spicy dinner dish well.

For dinner, I made the Paneer Curry with Peas on page 89. I haven't found a local grocer, Asian or otherwise, that reliably carries Indian products so I took the suggestion of the article and replaced the paneer with chicken. I could have also used tofu to keep the meal vegetarian. This dish was an excellent introduction to curry. The flavor was mild but distinctive and almost any meat could be used in place of the paneer. The addition of peas is very common to curry and added a fresh flavor and texture. Served over rice, this was a simple meal that didn't use many dishes or take much time. And yes, you got more than one pistachio in every serving!

Paneer Curry with Peas-A

Lime Angel Food Cake with Lime Glaze and Pistachios-A

Take A Deep Breath-4/13/10

2010-04-14T16:43:00.000-07:00

I've mentioned before that one of my favorite things about doing a blog that attempts to make each month's recipes from a cooking magazine is sitting down at the beginning of each month and writing the "menu". I use the term "menu" loosely because I often change the menu as I go along to fit in with the day, what I have planned, and if I get to the grocery store. Today I had a rather ambitious plan that included half the recipes from the Passover menu I didn't get to during Passover. I didn't get to the Asian market to get lemongrass and I didn't make the soup ahead so I could chill it and skim the fat for the matzo balls. So needless to say, that menu wasn't happening. I also flat out didn't feel like racing around, spending several hours finding and making unfamiliar recipes. Today was the kind of day I needed something familiar. The last few months have taken a lot out of me emotionally and I notice some days I'm just sad. Not inconsolable or overwhelmed by any one event in particular, just sad. Sad about the things I can't control, sad about the things I'll miss, sad about that any of this even happened. I realize I'm not the only one who has had bad things happen or even close to the worst things happen but some days life just gets a little heavy and this was one of those days. Cooking makes me feel better but too much just wears me out. So I made a switch to the menu and made the super easy cover recipe and called it a day. I still had four panna cottas from yesterday so dessert was done.
The cover recipe of Bon Appetit this month, the Salmon with Sweet Chili Glaze, Sugar Snap Peas, and Pea Tendrils, was very easy. Unfortunately, I don't have a garden right now, beyond a few potted herbs, so pea tendrils were not available. I guess I could have checked the Asian market but again, I was going for super easy tonight. The glaze was a snap to put together and the peas were simply sauteed with some ginger, garlic, soy sauce, and wine. Even I can remember this recipe for a quick weeknight meal with a side of white rice. Ahhhh, easy is good!

Salmon with Sweet Chili Glaze, Sugar Snap Peas, and Pea Tendrils-A-

Venting About Artichokes-4/12/10

2010-04-12T17:50:00.000-07:00

I find artichokes insanely frustrating. You start with this fist size vegetable and by the time you are done trimming them, you have barely a finger worth of edible food. Don't get me wrong, I like artichokes but I feel like I'm wasting something every time I prepare one. With three recipes this month calling for fresh artichokes, I'll be getting some practice trimming them and filling up my kitchen trash with lots of leaves.

Tonight's artichoke dish, Sauteed Chicken Paillards with Artichoke Hearts on page 91 of this month's Bon Appetit, was a good recipe to start off. The artichokes were simply trimmed and sliced and used as a sauce for chicken breast. The sauce had a mixture of wine, chicken broth, and butter. These traditional flavors complimented the artichokes and blended nicely with the pan-fried chicken.

I decide to make the Grilled Calamari with White Bean Stew as a side dish/salad for the chicken. The name of this dish was bit deceiving. There was a salad accompanying the beans and since they were drained of almost all liquid, it wasn't really stew at all. I found the recipe a bit more work than necessary for the result. The salad was almost an afterthough with a oil and lemon dressing. The calamari and beans were good but not outstanding and I didn't fell the herb oil added much of anything. I may use the bean alone as a simple side in the future. The clam juice and onion added a nice simple flavor to the canned beans that would make a nice side for a steak or chicken dish.

The dessert I made for tonight, Bay Laurel Panna Cotta, was excellent but I wasn't sure how much the extra step of steeping bay leaves added to the dish. I wish I could have compared traditional panna cotta to this version. I didn't notice a distinct flavor of bay leaves. The dish was wonderfully creamy and perfectly sweetened, however. I think next time I'll just leave out the bay leaves. The suggested cashews and candied orange peel didn't add much either. Just stick with the basics on this recipe and you'll be very happy.

Sauteed Chicken Paillards with Artichoke Hearts-B+

Grilled Calamari with White Bean Stew-C+

Bay Laurel Panna Cotta-A-

Do They Make a Cake Level?-4/10/10

2010-04-12T17:26:00.000-07:00

Google can tell you just about anything you want to know. No, I don't think anyones invented a cake level to help straighten crooked cakes. The links that connected to my Google query offered up a portable clothes washer and a chainsaw, neither of which would have helped the Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake I made today from this month's Bon Appetit. There were a few suggestions I will remember for next time to keep my cake from resembling the "Leaning Tower of Pisa". I left each of the three layers as they had baked in the cake pans, with a higher point in the center. The web suggested that flattening each layer in a uniform manner keeps your cake from leaning to the side. Another suggestion was to avoid touching the cake. I guess your hands make it more likely to crumble. I can proudly say that I didn't touch this cake. I actually made this cake for a couple in our church small group who just had a little boy on Easter Sunday. I thought making a completely new recipe for other people was a bit cruel on the off-chance it wasn't good but how can you go wrong with chocolate cake? I did cut off a bit of one layer so I could evaluate the flavor of the cake... and make sure I didn't poison anyone. This cake was super-chocolaty and very moist, a perfect cake for the chocolate purist. The frosting was also a purist's dream. It used 3 sticks of butter, powdered sugar, and melted baking chocolate. This was a cake for the chocolate lover. I'm kinda wishing I'd had a bigger piece right now!

Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake-A

Daddy Shout Out!-4/5/10

2010-04-05T19:00:00.000-07:00

We miss you, Daddy! Richard is on a business trip in Louisville, Kentucky and we miss him. My parents are still here and the time is going pretty quickly but it's always a bit weird when Daddy is not at home. I almost feel guilty about making tonight's dinner while he is gone. It was really good and I wish he could have enjoyed it with us.

Bon Appetit added a new column this month called "Sunday Suppers". I actually think this is just the "Family Style" column renamed but the concept is the same. A meal should bring family together and be a time of conversation and togetherness. That's what we did tonight. Eyrleigh and I enjoyed a wonderful meal outside on the deck with Grammy and Dada. The Chipotle Roast Chicken Tacos began with the real deal, a wonderfully moist roast chicken. I forget how easy it is to roast a chicken and how wonderful they taste. This chicken was rubbed with chipotle butter and roasted with onions and garlic. This chicken was easy to shred and simply was put on tacos with avocado and a bit of sauce. The tacos were wonderful and other than taking some time, this was easy to do.

The side dish of Poblano, Potato, and Corn Gratin was good but need a bit of tweaking. The recipe called for a quick saute of the poblano peppers. They needed much longer to soften and should

not have been left in long strips. The peppers were still too chewy and the pieces too big to be easily eaten in the dish. The rest of the dish was very good but was a bit unnecessary with the one dish tacos. This dish would have been a great match for a Mexican spiced chicken or steak

dish. We can try that when Richard gets home!

Chipotle Roast Chicken Tacos-A

Poblano, Potato, and Corn Gratin-B

Bunny Joy-4/4/10

2010-04-05T18:32:00.001-07:00

I go a little crazy with Eyrleigh's Easter basket. When I was a kid, my parents felt it was important to focus on the more religious side of Easter. I remember going to church early in the morning to celebrate the sunrise and Jesus' resurrection. I don't remember getting an Easter basket, except one year when we spent the Easter weekend at my aunt's in Alexandria, Virginia. Now, as an adult, I see my parent's intent as a noble one but I can't deny that I always felt a bit left out. The baskets are just fun! They are fun to make, fun to get, and help to celebrate the joy of the day and the spirit of the season. The year Eyrleigh was born I had her name embroidered on a basket and we fill it to the brim each year. One of her favorite surprises in this year's basket was the little magnetized bunnies she holds in the picture.

There was an Easter menu in this month's Bon Appetit but because of the arrival of my parents and a busy weekend, I just made a few recipes and used Honey Baked Ham to fill in the gaps for Easter dinner. My first recipe was not for Easter dinner at all but for the rush before we all headed off to church. My dad and uncle were the only two who rose early for the sunrise service. The rest of us slept in and needed as much time as possible to get ready. The New York Style Crumb Cake was a perfect answer to breakfast on the run. The cake was yummy, though a bit dry but the strangest thing happened. The crumb topping sunk to the bottom. I can't explain why. I put it on top, I swear, but when I took the cake out, the crumb topping was on the bottom of the pan and was incredibly difficult to cut through. Any thoughts as to why this happened would be greatly appreciated because I am completely at a loss.

The two recipes I made to go along with Easter dinner were a great match to the Honey Baked Ham my mom and dad bought. The Sisi's Corn Pudding in the Easter menu was simple to make and tasted wonderful. This recipe is a real keeper. The corn was creamy and baked up beautifully in the time called for. I loved this dish.

For dessert, I made the Vanilla Bean Bundt Cake with Vanilla Glaze and Strawberries instead of the recommended Cream Puffs. This was a decision based on time and ingredients more than preference. I found the bundt cake a bit bland. I dressed it up a little for the holiday with pink coloring in the glaze and some pastel peanut M&M's but this was not a real showstopper of a dessert. The strawberries helped a bit but I still felt the cake was a bit dense and dry. I liked my little eggs around the top though. How very festive of me!

New York Style Crumb Cake -C

Sisi's Corn Pudding -A

Vanilla Bundt Cake with Vanilla Frosting and Strawberries-B-

Elvis Sighting-4/3/10

2010-04-05T18:26:00.001-07:00

To the chagrin of many a Southerner, I don't know much about "The King". I couldn't name more than a song or two he sang and aside from knowing he had a daughter who married the other King of Pop, I am very unclear of the details of Elvis' life. But even I knew he loved peanut butter and banana sandwiches. I had a birthday party to attend tonight and didn't want to arrive empty-handed. I whipped up a quick batch of the Banana Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting on page 110 of this month's Bon Appetit. Unfortunately, my culinary connection was lost on the birthday boy, who like me was too young to remember Elvis in his heyday. The cupcakes were really good and the combination worked. They felt a bit healthier than traditional cupcakes, though I doubt they were. The peanut butter flavor and the complexity of the banana muffin were a great twist on the often cloying cupcake. There was a bit more frosting than necessary but if you like peanut butter and frosting, this was a good thing.

Banana Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting-A

No Fooling!-4/1/10

2010-04-05T18:10:00.000-07:00

In some cruel April Fool joke, I let my subscription to Bon Appetit run out. I remember several years ago getting hounded by Conde Nast Publications almost daily to renew my subscription. For some reason, they didn't even send me a renewal offer this time. I had to go out today and buy my Bon Appetit at the store so I could begin my April recipes. Since I was a bit late getting my April issue, I didn't have time to plan out this month's recipes. Tonight I picked a quick one dish meal that could feed my parents, Richard, Eyrleigh, and I.

I've loved paella since I spent the summer of 1992 in Barcelona. The quick version on page 89 of this month's Bon Appetit did not have the same complexity as the classic Spanish version filled with shellfish and sausage but it was good for a weeknight. The chicken thighs were flavorful baked in the rice and the chorizo added a spicy component without overpowering. My only complaint was the size of the peas. They were just too big and sat awkwardly in the rice mixture. I didn't find the mild flavor a good compliment either. Diced green and red peppers may have been a better match.

I tried to make the quickest dessert in the whole issue,, the White-Chocolate Dipped Strawberries with Citrus Sugar on page 50, and was pretty unsuccessful. Word to the wise: Don't use white chocolate chips in place of white baking chocolate. Whatever quality makes the chips hold their shape while baking also prevents the chips from melting well. You see the results above. I compensated by simply putting the citrus sugar on the strawberries and then whipping some cream to put on top. I crumbled the smashed white chocolate over the whipped cream and strawberries. If I do say so, this joke of a dessert was pretty good.

Quick Chicken Paella with Sugar Snap Peas-B

White-Chocolate Dipped Stawberries with Citrus Sugar-B+

Out With a Fizzle-3/31/10

2010-04-05T18:07:00.001-07:00

If the saying goes "March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb", my blog would be more like "March came in like a whisper and went out like a fizzle". Not really a memorable quote but sure true of my month. I missed the first week of the month because I was mourning my brother and finished the month with a bout of sickness and minor surgery that made cooking less than attractive. I'm glad when I began my blog again in February I assured myself that I would not stress out about not finishing every recipe for the month. I fell way short in March. I made only 21 of 53 recipes in this month's Bon Appetit. That's not exactly representative of the issue. My final recipe to review was the Chicken Parmesan Burgers on page 48. As you can see from my picture, I was losing steam as the events of the last few month and their aftermath caught up with my immune system. These burgers were a good use of the traditionally bland ground chicken. This was a great simple weeknight recipe using things found most days in anyone's kitchen. Beyond that I don't feel quite right reviewing the month as a whole when I didn't make even half of the recipes in Bon Appetit but in this case, just trying was a success.

Chicken Parmesan Burgers-B+

The Dinner Not Eaten-3/21/10

2010-03-21T16:53:00.000-07:00

In all the days I've blogged about my cooking, I've never had a day like today. A friend invited us last night to come play tennis in their neighborhood at 7:00 tonight. The invitation did not mention a cookout. As I was finishing dinner around 6:15 tonight, the same friend called and asked where we were. The plan had changed and a group of our friends had begun grilling out at the tennis courts around 6:00 and they wanted us to join them. She'd forgotten to call me back and let me know of the change. Richard heard about the cookout and immediately asked if dinner could wait a night. I'd finished making it already but we hadn't sat down to eat so I agreed. Here are my pictures of the dinner not eaten. I did take a few bites to review the recipes but most of this meal will be eaten tomorrow from leftover dishes. I took the brownies to the tennis cookout as our last minute contribution.

The main dish I made tonight, the Chicken Cutlets with Asparagus, Capers, and Shallots on page 49 of this month's Bon Appetit, was pretty ho hum. It was put up against some pretty tough competition. Our friend, Cody, spent the day smoking ribs. Arlene and Matt visited a local independent butcher for some amazing hamburgers. In its defense, the chicken was moist and the light lemony sauce was good on the vegetables. It was just not fair to put this weeknight dish against some really great barbecue classics on the first really warm weekend of the year.

The Vegetable Slaw on page 22 was worthy of bringing to the cookout. (In retrospect, why didn't I?) The mix of greens had good variety of flavor and good crunch. The sweet-sour dressing was light and coated the colorful slaw well. The different flavors of the sesame and safflower oil prevented the dressing from just tasting "oily".

I was not as impressed by the Chocolate-Orange Brownies on page 21. I like my brownies gooey and these brownies were very dry, almost cake like. The orange flavor was a bit strange and didn't really complement the chocolate. They also didn't seem to bake well. The middle collapsed and the edges were too crispy in the time given.

Chicken Cutlets with Asparagus, Capers, and Shallots-B

Vegetable Slaw-A-

Chocolate-Orange Brownies-D

Ekalaka, Montana-3/19/10

2010-03-19T18:37:00.000-07:00

I've only been to the state of Idaho for about 6 hours. So I can't speak much to the beauty of the state but the pictures from the article "Backcountry Bolognese" in this month's Bon Appetit reminded me of the summer I was a camp activities director in Ekalaka, Montana. This tiny town in southeastern Montana epitomizes the vastness of the West. We drove for several hours on a dirt road just to get to the camp. The quiet that was broken only by the whistle of the wind was starkly beautiful. The pictures of this article reminded me of that summer and the special energy that fills this amazing part of the world.

The menu began with a Smoked Trout Crostini with Grilled Fennel and Red Onions. I couldn't find smoked trout at the local grocery store so I asked a smoked tuna to stand in. It worked in my opinion. Richard is less of a fish fan but I did notice he reached for another helping after his "sample". The fennel and onion were muted in the roasting and didn't overpower the more mild smoked fish.

Last year Richard gave me a pasta maker and I don't get to play with it quite as much as I would like. I got to play with it today. The Pappardelle was fun to make because of the more free form of the noodles. This kept the noodles from sticking together, a problem I haven't quite figured out how to avoid. The Bolognese Sauce was very meaty and a bit salty but very good. It coated the noodles well and stood up to the extra richness of the homemade pasta. I made the full recipe and was able to freeze quite a bit for later.

The Arugula Salad with Caramelized Onions, Goat Cheese, and Candied Walnuts is a salad with all kinds of things going for it. I loved every component of this salad and could have eaten lots more. It was a bit of a chore to make each component and took a bit longer than the average salad but it was worth it. The croutons weren't any better than store-bought and could have saved a few minutes and a few dishes.

The dessert with this menu was a bit simplistic and though easy, anticlimactic. Basically, ice cream with a coffee-chocolate sauce, there isn't much else to say. It was good but a bit too basic for gourmet. After a long day of backcountry skiing, I'd like to reward myself with a few more calories.

Smoked Trout Crostini with Grilled Fennel and Red Onions-B

Homemade Pappardelle with Bolognese Sauce-A-

Arugula Salad with Caramelized Onions, Goat Cheese, and Candied Walnuts-A

Ice Cream Sundaes with Chocolate-Coffee Sauce-B-

The Leprechaun Did It-3/17/10

2010-03-19T18:12:00.000-07:00

Seriously, I did not just make an entire St. Patrick's Day meal and forget to take pictures. Blame it on the leprechaun. He stole my before shots. If nothing else, these pictures prove the meal was edible. There is a handy little menu guide at the back of each Bon Appetit magazine that gives suggestions for menus that do not appear as a set in the magazine. There was not an article about St. Patrick's Day but there was a nostalgic article about the food of Ireland written by Andrew McCarthy of '80's movie fame. Guess the guy can act and write. In my own three trips to Ireland, I cannot wax nostalgic about brown bread or the pounds of potatoes I ate, served in many forms. As I sit here, I remember the scenery and very little about the food (other than the copious amount of potato dishes and excellent beer). Maybe I'll have to plan my next trip to be a bit more gourmet.

The main dish recommended for the St. Patrick's menu, the Braised Pork Shoulder with Potato-Fennel Puree on page 68 of this month's Bon Appetit was part of another menu in the magazine but worked well because of the addition of a potato based side. I don't remember seeing very many pigs in Ireland but I sure ate a lot of sausages so they must have hidden them somewhere. I rarely roast whole sides of pork and always worry about under cooking them but the pork was perfectly cooked in the time given. It was moist and flavorful and looked much better than my picture. The Potato-Fennel Puree looked a bit odd if you are expecting mashed potatoes. The fennel had roasted to a dark brown but the result was a much deeper flavor than mashed potatoes. I really enjoyed the puree, though a little creamy Irish butter would have perfected it.

Mrs. O'Callaghan's Soda Bread was the object of Mr. McCarthy's deep affection but I was not as well... affectionate. I found the bread dry and would have liked even a simple caraway sprinkling on the crust or a raisin or two to add interest. My other frustration was that the center looked undercooked even after the called for cooking time. I've made better soda breads (see last year's St. Patrick's post).

The dessert choice for this menu was a refreshingly different but very appropriate choice. The Meyer Lemon Shortcakes with Meyer Lemon Curd and Mixed Citrus "Marmalade" was the British Isles personified. The combination of shortcakes, lemon curd, and marmalade was delightful. I'd never made marmalade and was pretty pleased with my results. The lemon curd was simple to made and had that sour-sweet combination that perks up a heavy dessert. The best part of the dessert though was the shortcakes. These mildly sweet biscuits with a wonderfully light texture were so good I've had one by itself as writing this blog post. Thankfully, the leprechauns didn't steal my leftovers.

Braised Pork Shoulder with Potato-Fennel Puree-A

Mrs. O'Callaghan's Soda Bread-C-

Meyer Lemon Shortcakes with Meyer Lemon Curd and Mixed Citrus "Marmalade"-A

Martha Stewart Does NOT Do Baseboards-3/16/10

2010-03-19T17:24:00.000-07:00

In the doctor's office yesterday, I randomly picked up an old copy of some Martha Stewart magazine. Suffice it to say, it was from September so it had been sitting in that office for awhile. At the beginning of the magazine was a short column that ostensibly was Martha's actual calendar for the month. Out of curiosity I read the entries. Yoga with Michael, I could believe. Laundering and storing away the summer weight blankets sounded like a totally Martha thing to do. But wipe down trim and baseboards, I ain't buying! There is no way Martha Stewart actually wipes down the trim and baseboards in her numerous homes. Pays someone else to do it, maybe, but Martha hasn't done that in years, if ever. Believe me, I like looking through cooking, gardening, and home design magazines as much as the next girl but not one of the meals, gardens, or homes featured in these magazines are the product of one very creative and extremely neat person. It's just not realistic. Martha Stewart has a team of people that do this stuff for her. So please, don't try to deceive the hard working average woman who by herself is trying to feed her family, take care of her yard, and clean her house into thinking Martha Stewart or any other icon of domesticity is some isolated Superwoman. That's just cruel.
I'm just amazed I finished dinner and a film crew visiting my house would have been vastly disappointed. I watched my friend's daughter, Joanie, and added a cute picture of her enjoying dinner. Let's just not guess what it looked like under her chair when she was done. Martha would not have approved.
Tonight's dinner was a big hit with the under-3 set but the adults really like it too. I made the Eggplant Parmesan Rolls with Swiss Chard and Fresh Mint on page 73 of this month's Bon Appetit. The best part of this dish was that it was totally vegetarian but you didn't even notice. The eggplant was meaty and the robust tomato sauce gave you flavor galour. I was a bit nervous that the chard would be to gritty for the girls but baked up in creamy ricotta, you hardly noticed the rougher texture of the chard. This was a great dish.
Dessert was actually more popular with the little ones than the adults. The Chocolate, Almond, and Banana Parfaits were a bit too rich for my style. I got through the first layer but had no desire to eat the second. The chocolate sauce was the kicker. I'd made the angel food cake from a mix and it was good but just too much. Eyrleigh and Joanie didn't get through their desserts either but they sure loved every bite.

Eggplant Parmesan Rolls with Swiss Chard and Fresh Mint-A-
Chocolate, Almond, and Banana Parfaits-B-

Define an Amateur-3/15/10

2010-03-19T17:15:00.000-07:00

When I began to blog about my cooking, I was a bit naive. I thought my blog would eventually serve the same purpose as my husband Richard's triathlon blog, to get to know an online community of people interested in the same things as I was. That hasn't really happened and I long ago gave up being frustrated about it. You see, cooking blogs aren't really for amateurs. An amateur is defined as a person who does something as a pastime or hobby, not for income. Every cooking blog I've come across is not amateur, that's for sure. Check out any blog list online at Bon Appetit or Food and Wine. The blogs connected to these sites are hard-core and designed to sell. The authors of these blogs have careers and/or educations as writers, chefs, photographers, and many even work in the web design arena. That's tough to compete with when you are a stay-at-home mom who got her degrees in education. Having a super cheap digital camera probably doesn't help either. I'm sure there are some other true amateurs out there, people like me who love food and use writing about it as a creative outlet. If you are out there, and ever read this blog, give me a shout. I'd love to hear from you but until then, I'll just keep writing to Stacy and hoping I can convince her to come to Georgia to have dinner soon. (Love you, Stac!)

Tonight's dinner did not rank in the annals of blogging fame for difficulty. I made the Pineapple-Glazed Chicken with Jalapeno Salsa from page 34 of this month's Bon Appetit. I'd originally planned to make this meal over at my friend Devi's house but I forgot I had to watch Dylan (see the 8/26 post where Dylan and Eyrleigh helped make ice cream) and wouldn't get to her house in time. That said, this dish was super easy and super fast and I feel bad for canceling. I totally could have pulled it off. The chicken was simply baked in the pineapple juice and came out moist and beautifully browned. The salsa was excellent and not too sweet or spicy. Richard and I finished it off, though it was meant to serve 4. It took no time to put together and the flavors blended well immediately without chilling.

For dessert, I made the Coconut Creme Brulee on page 22 of this month's Bon Appetit. The coconut flavor was distinctive even though the solid coconut had been strained out. My only complaint was that the custard was a bit lumpy. As always, this could have been an error on my end but I really followed the directions quite closely so I don't know what happened. I did mess up on the top. I don't have a kitchen torch that works so I used the broiler. My rack was too low and so it took much longer to heat the sugar and in fact, I didn't get it hot enough. The top didn't have that distinctive crack, more like a crumble. Oh well, guess that's what you get for being amateur.

Pineapple Glazed Chicken with Jalapeno Salsa-B+

Coconut Creme Brulee-B-

South of the Border-3/12/10

2010-03-17T19:53:00.000-07:00

I love Mexican food. How can you go wrong with lots of cheese, avocados, and slow cooked meat? My mom credits me with introducing our family to Mexican food. There were no Mexican restaurants in our part of New Hampshire when I was a kid. One night, I used the kid's cookbook "Meals from Many Lands" and made tacos. The local grocery store had an Old El Paso kit. That may not have been all that authentic but we were introduced to some basic components of a cuisine I now eat often several times a week. Tonight, I made a Tex-Mex dinner that combines Mexican flavors with an American classic, cornbread. The Pork and Poblano Tamale Pie in this month's Bon Appetit was a slow roasted pork-filled flavorful version of this classic. This recipe took a lot of dishes and took almost 3 hours so I wouldn't say it was quick or easy, but it was very good. I was a bit worried about the jalapeno pepper but it mellowed out in baking. It was a bit too spicy for Eyrleigh but certainly not too spicy for Richard and I. The only complaint Richard and I had was that the cornbread layer was too thick and there was not enough yummy filling.

Pork and Poblano Tamale Pie-A-

Kids Aplenty (and why did I not photograph them?)-3/11/10

2010-03-11T18:01:00.000-08:00

Most of the cooking I have done for this blog has been eaten by 3 people. That's Richard, Eyrleigh, and me. I would love to have people over more often but there are a few things that give me pause. First, I'm never 100% sure how each meal will taste. I'm usually very impressed with most things I make from Bon Appetit magazine but every once in a while, I get a dud. I'd hate to make a dud for guests.

Next, I make a huge mess when I cook. I can't help it. I use too many dishes, don't clean as I go, and often spill something while trying to go quickly. It's very embarrassing to have guests see my really messy kitchen.

Finally, I never think to invite people until the last minute. I just don't think that far ahead most of the time. When I do invite people ahead of time, I get nervous about the two other things I just mentioned.

Well, tonight I had my friend, Jenn, over and her kids, Christian and Callie. Jenn's husband, Gregg, has been in New Zealand for work for the last week. On the rare occasions that Richard is out of town, the evenings are the hardest. Eyrleigh's starting to get tired and I'm not as patient as I was earlier in the day. It's a bad combination and I was hoping I could spare Jenn some of the same difficulty. It was great to have her over and I was pretty well prepared for tonight's dinner. The kitchen was reasonably clean and I'd warned Jenn that the risotto would take a bit of stirring.
I had a yummy kid friendly menu planned from the Family Style article in March's Bon Appetit. The menu began with an Edamame Dip with Pita Chips. This is where I wish I'd taken pictures of the kids. Callie was in love with this dip. Her mouth was ringed with green and she sat by the table asking for more. This dip was super simple and very good. The store was out of fresh basil so I just skipped it altogether. I made my own pita chips but there is not a big difference between homemade and store bought. This dip will definitely resurface in my resume.

The Fennel and Celery Salad with Pumpkin Seeds was creative and had great crunch. The kids weren't real fond of it but the adults enjoyed it. The Parmesan cheese was a nice balance for the rather mild flavor of the fennel and celery. The light citrus dressing was easy and allowed the other flavors to balance.

The Primavera Risotto Nests with Fried Eggs were good but a strange main. I could see this meal making a good brunch. The risotto was chock full of vegetables while still having a rich creaminess to attract the kids. The fried egg added protein but as Richard commented, once you ate the egg, you wanted a bit more. Without the egg, the risotto became more a side than a main. The dish was good but something was missing. It sure wasn't the kids!

Edamame Dip with Pita Chips-A

Fennel and Celery Salad with Pumpkin Seeds-B-

Primavera Risotto Nests with Fried Eggs-B

Making Do-3/10/10

2010-03-10T19:25:00.000-08:00

When I wrote my last post about what I made for dinner, I fully expected to finish the five recipes I had left from February and write a somewhat clever summary about the month's Bon Appetit recipes. Well, life doesn't always go as I've planned it. On Friday, February 26th, I learned that my only brother, Ben, had taken his life. For the next 10 days, I ate food made by other people who know that, though nothing heals the hurt of death, the gift of food gives those who grieve one less thing to think about. I love my brother and I really miss him. It makes me so sad to think that he ended his life because he loved nothing enough to keep living. Depression is like that. You can't see the great love around you and you no longer feel great love. I have so much in my life I love, my husband, my daughter, my parents, my friends, reading books, waking up late, cooking, and even writing this blog. I could go on.

Tonight, as I was making my first real meal since returning home, I realized something. It began when I carried a whiny Eyrleigh, just up for her nap, toward the car to run to the store. It was almost 5. I thought about the list in my pocket and began to calculate leeks for onions, got that... not enough tuna, but I have crab... no chips, but I have Ritz crackers. I turned around, took Eyrleigh back inside and made dinner with what I had.

That's a bit like life after you lose someone you love. You make do with what you got. The recipe doesn't taste the same. It feels like something is missing. But one day you make a substitution that tastes surprisingly good and though you will always miss the original, you begin to find the recipe is beginning to taste better again.
Tonight's dinner of Tuna Noodle Casserole with Leeks and Fresh Dill from page 77 of March's Bon Appetit was really good with a few substitutions. I had no leeks so I used onions. I had no fresh dill but I did have dried dill. I had only one 3-ounce bag of tuna but I had some canned crab meat to add to make enough meat. The Ritz crackers were whole wheat and were a healthier substitute for potato chips. All the substitutions worked, though the crabmeat was more mild in flavor than the tuna. The roux was a prefect consistency and didn't add a lot of time over the traditional recipe.

My dessert, the Blood Orange Polenta Upside-Down Cake with Whipped Creme Fraiche on page 91, had some substitutions too. Blood oranges are not easy to find. I just used regular navel oranges. I replaced the creme fraiche with sour cream, something I almost always do in cooking magazine recipes. The thing I was most proud of about this recipe is catching the caramelized sugar at just the right point. The color was perfect and though I should have sliced the oranges thinner, the top was perfect when inverted. The cake was good too, not overly sweet or gritty. One warning is to wrap the leftover cake well immediately after eating. It dries out quite quickly.

Tuna Noodle Casserole With Leeks and Fresh Dill-B+

Blood Orange Polenta Upside-Down Cake with Whipped Creme Fraiche-B+

Weeknight Euro-2/24/10

2010-02-24T18:40:00.000-08:00

A good friend of mine has a deep love for all things Hungarian and tonight's meal reminded me of her (Hi Stac!). What a simple but delightful set of recipes to transport you to Central Europe. Okay, none of the recipes were classic European recipes themselves but the use of red cabbage, caraway seeds, and hazelnuts and chocolate combined for an easy dinner with some really great flavors.

The Caraway Chicken Breasts with Sweet-and-Sour Red Cabbage took just over half an hour and simply cooked with spices and bacon. The cabbage was equally simple with broth, vinegar, and a bit of sugar. I paired this meal with the Milk Chocolate-Caramel Tart with Hazelnuts and Espresso. This fancy dessert was really quite simple, though it took awhile to make and chill. Each section was made separately and then layered and chilled. Richard was hooked and I thought it was almost like a Rolo in dessert form. Yum!

Caraway Chicken Breasts with Sweet-and-Sour Red Cabbage-A-

Milk Chocolate-Caramel Tart with Hazelnuts and Espresso-A

Mama Said-2/22/10

2010-02-24T18:25:00.000-08:00

Some nights just go better than others. A bit like life, there are just days like that. Sometimes these recipes go great and I'm pleased as punch. Sometimes things are okay, and I can live with that. Some days things are just salty or a little bit bland, and yes, this was one of those days. I'm not really a meat and potatoes kind of girl and though I'm skipping the lamb recipe in the article "Meat and Potatoes" in this month's Bon Appetit, I am almost done making the five other recipes and I'm almost done with meat and potatoes. No wonder America has an obesity problem. Eating meat and potatoes just once a week makes me feel like a blob. Tonight's Ham, Artichoke, and Potato Gratin was not only fatty but super salty, probably courtesy of the ham. Neither Richard nor I enjoyed this dish very much. I used Gruyere instead of Comte cheese because of availability and without a real knowledge of Comte cheese, I can't say whether this would have helped. Gruyere was listed as substitute for Comte online so I have to assume they are close in flavor and saltiness.

I've been stalling a bit about making tonight's dessert. I had already decided to skip making the other recipe that used buckwheat crepes, the Buckwheat Galettes with Salmon, Capers, and Dill because of both time and desire (just doesn't sound good!) but I did want to make at least one recipe with the crepes. I made the Buckwheat Crepes with Pears and Creme Fraiche on page 58. To be fair, this dish was not bad. The flavor of the pears was subtle but pleasantly sweet and the buckwheat crepes had an earthy but not unpleasant flavor. It's just that this is not what I look for in a dessert. These crepes might have been better at breakfast. And as the picture shows, they were no raging beauties.

Ham, Artichoke, and Potato Gratin-D

Buckwheat Crepes with Pears and Creme Fraiche-B (as breakfast)

A Random Collection-2/20/10

2010-02-24T16:22:00.000-08:00

The three recipes I'm going to review in this post from this month's Bon Appetit were not made in the same night. That's a good thing. That would be a very strange meal. It's a bit tough to find time each night to write about the recipes I've made from this month's Bon Appetit. Since each of these recipes was made alone, that would have made 3 rather short, rather dull blog posts. Now you get one longer, duller one. Ok, I admit, I'm not very inspired tonight but I want to get this done so I don't get behind. Several months ago, when I was still blogging about Gourmet's recipes, I got over a week behind and it took like 4 hours one night to catch up. Don't want to do that again but I do want to make as many recipes from February as I can. Looks like I'll be able to do all but 5.

The first recipe I made for tonight's blog post struck me as a bit strange. The recipe wasn't strange but the fact that I made it 8 months previously without making it was. I see potato gnocchi on every upscale restaurant menu and just made it the other night for the very first time. It's much easier than it looks. I imagined slaving for hours over these perfect little noodles and they really took very little time to make right. I might make the dumplings a bit smaller next time but all that will take is a few more rolls of the dough rope.

The Potato Gnocchi with Pork and Wild Mushroom Ragu was a yummy dish but I found it a bit heavy and very fatty. I will admit that I was not paying attention and just wrote pork ribs while making my list. I ended up simply cooking the ribs on the bone and then peeling the meat off the bone at the end. It fell off easily and I'm sure the bones added to the rich flavor of the ragu. I can't tell you if this made the dish more fatty than if I had used boneless pork ribs like the recipe called for.

Last night, I used the last of the buckwheat soba noodles from another recipe to make the Udon with Mushroom Broth, Cabbage, and Yams. Like many Japanese inspired dishes, this soup was as much about the aesthetics as the flavor. The picture in Bon Appetit showed a bowl just bursting with vegetables and tofu and low and behold, my picture did that justice. This was a wonderful healthy soup and the variety of textures and flavors from the additional vegetables made it very flavorful for a vegetarian soup. It didn't take long to make the broth and the use of one pot of water for the vegetables was very kitchen friendly.

The final recipe you see I made this morning and was a bit frustrating to say the least. The Red Bean and Sausage Cakes with Poached Eggs and Cilantro Salsa were a bit of a mess. Maybe it's me but I can't get "cakes" made of fish or veggies to hold together. Maybe the skillet isn't hot enough or too hot, but these things always fall apart before they cook and look really dark on the outside before the center is even hot. Thankfully, the sausage was pre-cooked so I didn't have to worry about sickening my family. The cakes weren't bad, poached eggs are always good and I'm getting better at making them but I won't be trying this one again. I actually made the Chai-Spiced Hot Chocolate to go along with the sausage cakes but the picture just looked like a regular old mug of hot cocoa so I didn't bother to add it. I liked the chai-chocolate mix and despite the rather mundane appearance of the drink, I would like to make it again. It was easy and the flavor was unique and delicious. I'm a bit of a Starbucks Chai freak so I count myself an expert:)!

Potato Gnocchi with Pork and Wild Mushroom Ragu-B-

Potato Gnocchi-A

Udon with Mushroom Broth, Cabbage, and Yams-A

Red Bean and Sausage Cakes with Poached Eggs and Cilantro Salsa-C-

Chai-Spiced Hot Chocolate-A

Wednesday Night Glam-2/17/10

2010-02-17T17:27:00.000-08:00

When I write out my menu for the month, I try to avoid putting recipes on the weekends. Weekends are very unpredictable. I never know exactly what we'll be doing and want to leave room for spontaneity. Saturdays are Richard's long training days for triathlon and Sundays are church and small group. I don't want the schedule of our day to be dictated by what we have for dinner. So this month, I've made Wednesdays our glamorous meal day. Thankfully, tonight's meal could be made quickly (with a make-ahead last night) because I took Eyrleigh to a playdate at 3:00 and didn't get home until 5:30.
The main dish, the Beef Tenderloin Medallions with Potato "Risotto", was a very easy dish. The "risotto" was really diced potato and tasted as creamy as the real thing. The steak was rubbed with thyme, salt, and pepper and grilled. I will certainly try the potato trick again, even if I have real risotto in the cabinet. This way was faster and did not require constant stirring, something difficult with a needy 2-year-old whining after her nap.
The dessert was the real glamorous part of the meal. Last night I quickly put together the mousse to chill overnight. This recipe made a relatively small amount of mousse so I knew it would be rich. The three other components of the dish were pretty easy to put together tonight. The chocolate ganache and reduced port cut some of the intense sweetness of the mousse and the tang of the whipped creme fraiche was refreshing. This was a simple dessert but had wonderful complexity of flavor. I would order this dish at an expensive restaurant. Humm, do you think anyone would pay to come eat this at my house? Ahhh, heck, you could come for free!

Beef Tenderloin Medallions with Potato "Risotto"-B+
Milk Chocolate Mousse with Port Ganache and Whipped Creme Fraiche-A

Still Surprised-2/16/10

2010-02-17T16:45:00.000-08:00

When I got the idea last February to make every recipe in the current issue of one of my favorite cooking magazines, I knew that doing every recipe would be difficult. Some recipes have unique ingredients that are difficult to find and sometimes rather pricey. But I felt it was important to try to make every recipe. I knew this would mean making recipes I would not otherwise make, recipes that used ingredients I didn't like or seemed strange. Tonight, I made a recipe from Bon Appetit that didn't strike me as particularly exciting. I wouldn't say there was an ingredient I didn't like in the Egg-Topped Soba Noodles with Asparagus and Prosciutto. I just didn't think this dish would be as good as it was. This dish was good, really good!

The buckwheat soba noodles were flavorful and had great texture. I'll be honest, I thought they might be gritty and they weren't at all. The Parmesan and prosciutto gave a rich saltiness and the asparagus gave a fresh crunch. The fried egg was a wonderful topping bringing the dish together and making it filling. Richard said it best when he said he could eat this dish once a week. A great surprise!

I added an appetizer when I made this menu because I was afraid the soba dish wouldn't be enough. Obviously it was, but the Coconut Shrimp I made with it was pretty good too. The recipe was easy and the shrimp retained its flavor. The coconut panko breading was light and crunchy. The only thing that I thought would improve this dish would be a dip suggestion. There was no suggestion but I think hoisin sauce or another soy based sauce would have been a great addition to this recipe.

Egg-Topped Soba Noodles with Asparagus and Prosciutto-A

Coconut Shrimp-B+

Oh Canada!-2/14/10

2010-02-14T17:13:00.000-08:00

Friday night was the Opening Ceremonies for the Vancouver Olympic Winter Games. I must confess, I'm an Olympics junkie. Growing up, my family did not have a television. I remember spending summer nights at my friend's homes, watching the Olympics until all hours of the night. Then, when I was 20, I was able to attend the Barcelona Olympic Games. What an amazing experience! If you can make it to any Olympics, go. If you are American and can attend an Olympics in another country, be prepared to see the Olympics in a completely different light. Watching on television we see primarily American athletes, many of whom are among the top athletes at the Games and are expected to compete for medals. The eye-opening part of attending the Games elsewhere is that the citizens of the host country are just as proud of their athletes, regardless of their medal hopes. While I was in Barcelona, a Spanish biker won silver and the television covered him for the next several hours, doing everything short of take a shower. The American stars of that Olympics were treated much like everyone else by the local media. It was a refreshing reminder that the United States is not, as we often think, the center of the world.

Tonight I veered from my Bon Appetit based monthly menu and scanned around on the Internet for a meal that would represent the home country of Canada. I didn't find a ready made menu that looked very authentic, just lots of high end recipes from Canadian chefs. So I found some fun recipes with Canadian ingredients and had a little fun with it.

My appetizer used Canadian bacon and a traditional French cheese, Brie, as a nod to Francophone Quebec. I found the recipe for Brie and Canadian Bacon Appetizer at the dorothylane.com website, a high end grocery store in Ohio. Honestly, the recipe didn't really work. The brown sugar/ pecan mixture was too thick to melt in the time allotted while the bacon overcooked making it incredibly chewy. The appetizer would have been better with the whole appetizer heated together. The baguette crispy, the cheese melted, and just a frosting of the brown sugar/pecan mixture, that would have been much better. Oh well, you live and learn.

The Maple-Glazed Squash and Green Beans with Walnuts was a creative and yummy side dish.

The contrasting orange and green looked great and the soy-maple glaze was subtly sweet. I found this recipe on recipezaar.com as it was recommended for Canadian Thanksgiving. In all fairness, it would work for American Thanksgiving just as well.

The main dish, the Potato Crusted Salmon, was also from recipezaar and was created by a Canadian chef, Michael Smith. The horseradish-potato crust was good but did not brown up in the time allotted. Richard and I both liked the dish but did not find it spectacular.

The final dish, Apple and Maple Bread Pudding was a Bon Appetit recipe from last month. This was an excellent bread pudding with the apple retaining a nice crunch and the maple syrup adding a flavorful sweetness. The addition of a little syrup while serving the dessert added a nice alternative to ice cream. This was a fun and easy menu that showed off some key ingredients from a wonderful country.

Brie and Canadian Bacon Appetizer-D

Maple-Glazed Squash and Green Beans with Walnuts-B+

Potato Crusted Salmon-B

Apple and Maple Bread Pudding-A

Photography School, Here She Comes-2/11/10

2010-02-11T19:19:00.000-08:00

I read an article a few months back about the rise of "helicopter" parenting. These parents hover over their children, never allowing them to experiment and learn because of a paralyzing fear that their children may fail. These parents often over involve these children in activities of their own choosing, ignoring the personal desires and innate gifts of their child. One of my greatest hopes as a parent is to never do that to my daughter. So it is with a sense of humor that I show off my 2-year old's first attempt at photographic greatness. She loves to play with the camera and though the batteries die on an almost daily basis, I let her. She's never pushed hard enough on the button before but today she took the above picture and another close up of her teeth. I thought I'd spare us that picture.

Tonight's meal made up for the fatty pork ribs and chocolate cake of last night. I made the Barley Soup with Greens, Fennel, Lemon, and Dill, a soup I nicknamed the "Super Food" soup. An impressive amount of the ingredients in this soup are listed as super foods, high in antioxidants and low in calories. Despite this promise, this soup was pretty bland flavor wise. The feta cheese helped give a bit of zip but the overwhelming amount of greens made the soup a bit "grassy". Eyrleigh was not a fan, as anything leafy and green classifies as salad and is quickly removed from her plate. Oh well, maybe she is not perfect.
Soup alone makes a rather thin meal so I also made the Cheddar, Bacon, and Fresh Chive Biscuits from this month's Bon Appetit. These biscuits were very good and baked up beautifully. The three added ingredients blended in well and made these a good biscuit for breakfast as well with a little ham or gravy.

Barley Soup with Greens, Fennel, Lemon, and Dill-C
Cheddar, Bacon, and Fresh Chive Biscuits-A

Will You Be My Valentine?-2/11/10

2010-02-11T18:37:00.000-08:00

This may come as no surprise to some but I am not a hopeless romantic. I don't like romance novels or even novels with more than a little romance. (Sorry, Twilight fans, way too much for me!) Kissing in public makes me uncomfortable, even at my wedding, and I'd rather Richard help by doing the dishes than give me chocolates any day of the year. But even I like Valentine's Day. Making Valentine's cards (I've always made my own) and decorating food with hearts is creative fun and I'm all about the creative fun. Richard and I will probably go out to eat on the 14th so I did my hearts a little early. My uncle from Chattanooga came into town for the night before heading to Raleigh to see my cousin and gave me the perfect excuse to make a Valentine dinner. Richard had been begging for the cover recipe in this month's Bon Appetit so in the spirit of love, I obliged. The Grilled Cheese and Short Rib Sandwiches with Pickled Caramelized Onions and Arugula were a bit labor intensive but had enough glamour to be a dinner "sandwich". The short ribs were tender but very fatty, a treat good in moderation. The pickled caramelized onions were a good foil for the fattiness of the meat and gave a bit of pucker to the sandwich. The bitter arugula was also a good match and paired well with the rich melty Jack cheese. The effort made this a dish I will probably not make again but they were good.

For dessert, I adjusted one of the milk chocolate recipes. The "Top Tier" Devil's Food Cake with Sour Cream-Fudge Frosting called for smaller 5-inch cake pans. I don't have 5-inch cake pans and the last thing I need is another kitchen toy. Flavor is not affected by pan size so I used my traditional cake pan and instead of 4 layers, I just had two. I didn't buy organic roses but I think the cute hearts Eyrleigh and I put on top works just as well. This cake was very good and very rich. The frosting spread on very smoothly and firmed up well. A great cake for Valentine's Day!

Grilled Cheese and Short Rib Sandwiches with Pickled Caramelized Onions and Arugula-B

"Top Tier" Devil's Food Cake with Sour Cream-Fudge Frosting-A

"Super" Party of Three-2/7/10

2010-02-07T17:48:00.000-08:00

Becoming parents has changed the nature of many activities. The Super Bowl is not excluded from this. Before Eyrleigh, we went to friends...or hosted our own Super Bowl parties. These parties lasted lasted late and involved a lot of snacks and beer and sitting on the couch watching t.v. Tonight's Super Bowl festivities were a bit more low key. We'd turned down an invite to our friend's Super Bowl party because it conflicted with Eyrleigh's bedtime and they live over 1/2 an hour away. The three of us watched the first half snuggling on the couch and eating some yummy snacks. Then Eyrleigh went to bed, she's not a big fan of The Who anyway, and Richard and I put a trailer hitch on his car. Just another quiet night at home.

All the snacks I made tonight came from this month's issue of Bon Appetit magazine Super Snacks article. I made eight of ten recipes for just the three of us. Got a few leftovers if you want some. The highlight was the Boubon-Glazed Chicken Drumettes with Blue Cheese Dipping Sauce. I've never heard of drumettes being sold by themselves so I just used regular wings. The marinade was great. I did cut the amount of hot sauce in half since Eyrleigh was eating with us. Baking the wings instead of frying them made them healthier and kept them moist. The Blue Cheese Dipping Sauce was pretty simple and was a good compliment to the wings.
Popcorn is a great snack food for watching t.v. I've got to say I wasn't that impressed by the Spicy Popcorn with Piment D'Espelette and Marcona Almonds. The popcorn was mixed with hot paprika and salt and tasted pretty much like any old popcorn. More paprika and more salt may have helped but the flavor was still not complex enough to be "wow". The almonds didn't mix in with popcorn particularly well and sank to the bottom of the bowl. I had sprung for the more expensive Marcona almonds but I didn't notice a big flavor difference with blanched traditional almonds.

Bon Appetit's version of the classic snack food chips and salsa was much more successful in my opinion. The Tomatillo-Avocado Salsa was a really flavorful version of the usually red salsa. The tomatillos were tangy and fresh and paired well with the creamy avocados. I used my food processor to simplify the chopping process and that worked well. I would definitely make this salsa again, for any occasion.

The next snack was a combination I'd heard of but never tried. The Pancetta-Wrapped Dates Stuffed with Manchego Cheese and Mint had a promising combination of flavors. Sweet, salty, fresh, and meaty all came together on paper. Sadly, the actual taste was overwhelmingly salty and didn't work. I really didn't like this snack. There was just too much going on and the salt ended up being the only flavor left in your mouth.

I'm more of a spinach dip kind of girl but the Chipotle Onion Dip with Garlic Pita Chips was pretty good. I made the pita chips earlier this afternoon and I wish I'd waited. They were a bit soft by the time we ate them this evening. The onion dip was simple in flavor. I didn't really taste the chipotle and again felt the recipe could have called for a bit more without it being overpowering.

The final snack I made was one of my favorites and the leftovers will be enjoyed until they are finished. (The remaining dates have already been disposed of.) The Caramelized Cashews with Cayenne had the right mix of sweet and spicy. Even Eyrleigh had some trouble keeping her hands off them (see the photo).

Tonight I found a few recipes that are keepers for the future and a few that will removed from the repertoire pretty quickly. One of these years, I'll be able to host the perfect Super Bowl party for way more than three people!

Bourbon-Glazed Chicken Drumettes-A
Blue Cheese Dipping Sauce-B

Spicy Popcorn with Piment D'Espelette

and Macona Almonds-C

Tomatillo-Avocado Salsa-A

Pancetta-Wrapped Dates Stuffed with

Manchego Cheese and Mint-D

Chipotle Onion Dip with Garlic Pita Chips-B

Caramelized Cashews with Cayenne-A

More Dumpelings, Please!-2/5/10

2010-02-05T17:22:00.000-08:00

I mentioned in an earlier post that Eyrleigh is not the best eater, particularly in the evening. Over the last two days, I've started getting cocky. She absolutely loved last night's Shepherd's Pie and then tonight, she asked for more dinner for the very first time. She loved the dumplings in tonight's Mushroom and Leek Soup with Parsley Dumplings. I had made the Light Vegetable Broth earlier in the day and used that as the base for this vegetarian soup. The mushrooms gave the soup a filling, earthy flavor. The leeks were mild and were a bit overpowered by the mushrooms. The dumplings were the best part. They were easy to make and puffed up beautifully. They were not doughy at all, a fault of many dumplings. I wish I'd made a few more dumplings. They were gone long before the soup was.
The Rustic Pear-Cranberry Tart we enjoyed for dessert was probably one of the easiest, best desserts I've made for this project. This recipe used refrigerated pizza dough to simplify the crust. The filling was simple and the right mix of the sweet pears and tart cranberries. Richard just raved about this one and I'll be putting this one in the repertoire for a quick delicious dessert. I did make one creative substitution that worked just fine. I didn't have red current jelly but I did find some prickly pear cactus jelly. Right color, right flavor, just a different plant. Eyrleigh didn't ask for more dessert but I think by that time, she really was full.

Light Vegetable Broth-B

Mushroom and Leek Soup with Parsley

Dumplings-B+
Rustic Pear-Cranberry Tart-A

Comfort Food for a Rainy Day-2/4/10

2010-02-04T20:15:00.000-08:00

In the last two months, over 17 inches of rain have fell from the skies here in my part of Georgia. That's a lot of rain on top of the over 20 inches of rain we had in the fall. Even the ants think it's too much and have entered my house in droves. We finally had to call the exterminator Monday when they got into the pantry and I flipped out. Today's menu was the perfect antidote for another cold, rainy day.
The Bison and Red Wine Sheperd's Pie in this month's Bon Appetit is a luxe version of a comfort food favorite. This dish looked wonderful and tasted great but the three hour prep time not realistic for a weekday meal (if you don't work from home). I used boneless beef instead of bison. The meat was wonderfully tender and the sauce was thick and rich. Any extra would make a delicious gravy for just about anything. The egg garnish baked up beautifully and added flavor to the potato crust. I loved the use of parsnips and turnips instead of more potatoes in the beef sections. Eyrleigh loved the whole dish and ate wonderfully, something that doesn't always happen at dinner.
I wanted to add a winter salad to bring some crunch and freshness to a pretty heavy meal. The Celery Root and Apple Salad with Hazelnut Vinaigrette was a great fit. I made a few changes that worked pretty well. I never did find celery root so I used stalk celery. I didn't find hazelnut oil but I did have truffle oil that was a good substitute. The Parmesan shavings were a great flavor addition giving a little saltiness to the salad.

Bison and Red Wine Sheperd's Pie-A-
Celery Root and Apple Salad with Hazelnut Vinaigrette-B+

Kid Friendly for a Friendly Kid-2/3/10

2010-02-03T17:55:00.000-08:00

In February of 2008, Bon Appetit changed the name of their Quick Menu column to be more attractive to the modern family. Just one month after redesigning the cover of the magazine to look more modern, the Family Style column was aimed at the busy cook who wanted to give their family a healthy gourmet meal. The photos in this section show kids, pretty young kids, enjoying some really yummy food that bears little resemblance to chicken nuggets and peanut butter and jelly. I think Eyrleigh would be a great model for one of these photos. Look at this kid loving up her dinner!

This month's Family Style menu is kid friendly Indian food. Using a mild level of spice and an all-time favorite side of rice, Eyrleigh was more than convinced that this menu was made for her. The main dish, Easy Chicken Masala, was as advertised. Last night I spent 5 minutes putting together the overnight marinade. Today all I did was spread the chicken out on a baking sheet and bake it. The Caramelized Cumin-Roasted Carrots were equally simple. I put the oil, cumin seeds, and salt in a covered bowl with the cut carrots, shook it, and spread those out on another sheet. The Cool Cucmber Raita was also make-ahead of sorts but putting yogurt in a strainer hardly counts as work.

The chicken was moist and has wonderful flavor and the marinade made the skin crisp up beautifully. I rarely eat the skin on chicken but this was delicious. The carrots were sweet and lightly spiced, almost like an introduction to cumin for kids. They were wonderfully soft with just a little resistance when baked for 37 minutes. The riata was a little sour for Eyrleigh but I really loved it and dipped both the chicken and carrots in it.

This kid-friendly menu came with a suggested recipe for the left-overs. The Indian Chicken Wrap with Cucumber Riata used shredded chicken from the night before to make a wrap. I even had mango chutney that the recipe recommended as a dressing. I discovered that I'm not a huge fan of mango chutney but the wrap was a good use of the leftovers.

Easy Chicken Masala- B+

Caramelized Cumin-Roasted Carrots-B+

Cool Cucumber Riata-B

Do Groundhogs Like Salmon?-2/2/10

2010-02-03T17:45:00.000-08:00

I wish there was a little more to Groundhog Day than hearing a weather prognostication. How about a traditional dish? Some silly ritual you can perform at home? Anything? Sadly, there are none of these things for Groundhog Day so I made dinner from Bon Appetit magazine and enjoyed a relaxing cup of tea with some delicious Madeleines. I think that works as a new and fitting Groundhog Day tradition.
Dinner was fast and easy, it should be, it came from the Fast Easy Fresh section of Bon Appetit. One thing I've learned while cooking from cooking magazines is the structure of the magazine always includes a section with quick easy recipes that appeal to the busy cook. I've never done an official survey but I bet the largest percentage of recipes made from a cooking magazine come from this section. Most people don't have hours to put a meal together and these recipes come together quickly and still taste great.
The Balsamic-Glazed Salmon with Spinach, Olives, and Golden Raisins was a good mix of the taste spectrum. Raisins were sweetness, olives for saltiness, vinegar as sourness, and spinach for a bitter edge. The salmon itself supplied the savoriness or umami. On an interesting side note, umami translates from the Japanese to "meatiness" and in most evidenced by the presence of certain amino acids in food. One of the most common examples of this flavor is MSG, the much maligned component of many foods, most notably Asian ones. I really liked the dish but pouring the glaze on at the end didn't look particularly pretty. The balsamic vinegar looks really dark and didn't cover the whole fish well. Oh well, it tasted good.
Today I also made a recipe from the reader's requests. A reader raved about the Madeleines with Lavender Honey they had at the Hotel D'Europe in Provence. Sadly, I couldn't find lavender honey on short notice but I did find some orange blossom honey at Whole Foods that worked really well. These were some of the lightest cookies I've ever made. They are almost like mini-cakes. Eyrleigh loves them and Richard and I have been using them as post-workout food.

Balsamic Glazed Salmon with Spinach, Olives, and Golden Raisins-B
Madeleines with Lavender Honey-A

Back in the Saddle-2/1/10

2010-02-01T19:28:00.000-08:00

A year ago this month, I began a fun little project that soon became much bigger and more meaningful than I really intended. I decided to make every recipe in Gourmet magazine for the month of February. Well, for 8 months, I made virtually every recipe in Gourmet magazine and learned a lot about cooking, and even a little about myself. This February, there is no Gourmet. The magazine ceased publication two months ago. I also took four months off from regular blogging for various reasons, and though I did still cook, most of it was not very exciting.
I've decided to do this project again because I love trying new things and making cooking an adventure, not a chore. I'll change the magazine, admit I want to be a little less intense, and write out a menu for a month of recipes. This time, I'll use Bon Appetit, the sister magazine to Gourmet, and now the last one standing. As for intensity, I've already cut one recipe from the February menu, the Tofu Dengaki on page 103, because of the cost of its unique ingredients. If cost or time becomes an issue, I will (call me on this one, Richard) cut out a recipe and not slavishly try to do every single one. (See the crazy previous posts where I hunted down cocktail recipes in Las Vegas!). I'm excited to write a menu, plan meals, and fuss about the presentation again, even if just for Eyrleigh and Richard's entertainment most nights.
I got started right off the bat with a menu article in February's Bon Appetit, "Brighten Up", on page 74. Georgia's been pretty cold and rainy for the last several months so I liked the idea of a menu that didn't scream winter comfort food. The menu began with a starter of Piquillo Pepper and Sardine Tartines. I've never been the biggest fan of canned sardines and Richard's downright skeptical but we both reached for an extra one after we ate the two on our plate. It had the familiar sardine taste at the back but the sweet pepper and the salty capers as well as the onion and garlic rub mellowed out the strong "fishy" taste.
The main dish was Chicken Schnitzel with Frisee-Apple Salad. Let me start by saying if you think a store bought container of bread crumbs could sub in for making fresh, you will want to rethink that. I had enough fresh breadcrumbs (from the rest of the baguette used for the tartines) to coat 4 of the cutlets but ran out and used store bought for the last two. What a world of difference! I guess I've never seen the difference so markedly before because I've never compared the results of fresh breadcrumbs versus store bought in the same meal. The schnitzels with fresh breadcrumbs were crunchy on the outside, fried to a golden brown, and the chicken was moist. Those I used store bought on overcooked quickly and the chicken inside also overcooked in half the time.
The chicken was accompanied with a Frisee-Apple Salad. I don't know what store sells frisee by itself but it's not Whole Foods or another local grocery store. I settled for a baby greens blend that included minute amounts of frisee. The salad was good with some great crunchy elements. The dressing was light and citrusy.
The dessert was a Cream Tart with Oranges, Honey, and Toasted Almond Crust. The crust and cream custard were made separately and simply put together to chill. The flavor was light and the oranges and honey were a delicious topping. Gotta say though, taking the orange segments out of their skins is a huge pain and leftover tart will be eaten sans orange segments. The crust was really good, almost like an almond cookie. This is a simple menu, appropriate for a few friends, and doesn't take much time.

Piquillo Pepper and Sardine Tartines-C+
Chicken Schnitzel-B+
Frisee Apple Salad-B
Cream Tart with Oranges, Honey, and Toasted Almond Crust-B+

And Life Rolls On...1/12/10

2010-01-12T12:04:00.001-08:00

On December 17th, I headed off to the doctor, thinking more about the upcoming Christmas holiday than the possibility that my pregnancy had ended. I was a bit nervous when the nurse, then doctor, could not find the heartbeat on the sound radar, but tried not to get overly concerned. This had happened to a friend of mine and everything had been just fine. One quick look at the ultrasound confirmed that all was not fine. At 18 weeks, my pregnancy and this little baby's life was over, just a week before the most festive day of the year. It's been almost a month now and with the wonderful support of family and friends and a therapeutic trip to up north, we are doing much better. I cried writing this but I noticed 3 days ago, I made it through the whole day without crying and I am no longer waking up in the middle of the night with that horrible pit in my stomach. Today, I started watching a friend's daughter and we turned the planned nursery into a playroom for the girls. They love it. After I write this post, I will be looking through January's cooking magazine for a recipe for tonight and maybe I'll even write out a menu for the next few weeks using either Bon Appetit or Food and Wine. There is no right or wrong way to heal from something tragic and if cooking does that for me, well, let's keep cooking!

Dropped Off the Map-11/23/09

2009-11-23T16:32:00.000-08:00

If you are looked at this blog anytime in the last month and a half, you might have thought that the Cooking Mag Mommy had gone missing. Well, I'm not missing but the cooking part is. My last post mentioned the closing of the very cooking magazine I had based the last 9 months of this blog on. It was not profound sadness over the loss of Gourmet that caused this absence. It was a much bigger change, at least for my family. I found out in late September that I was pregnant and by the second week of October, I had stopped cooking. In fact, for a few weeks, I stopped walking into the kitchen if I didn't have to. Mashed potatoes and other starches were pretty much my diet. I just didn't feel good and making food, even food I traditionally love, was not going to happen. I am happy to be able to write this post today. I've not always been lucky in pregnancy and at almost 15 weeks along, I am beginning to really believe that this time we'll get another beautiful baby. I even found out last week that this one is a little boy. I'll still use this blog to write about cooking but I don't think the frequency will be there, at least for awhile. Thanks to my friends who read this and are cheering for our family all the way! I love you all!