Cooking Mag Mommy

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...

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 who...

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 bes...

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 li...

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 i...

Richard and I got our tax return in early February. I've never waited until April to do my tax return, never mind the 15 th . 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. ...

"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 ...

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 inco...