August and Everything In Between-8/31/09

Six full months of Gourmet recipes! That's half a year. Wow, didn't really think I'd do this that long but it's sure been fun. August was actually the easiest month in awhile because I had to whole month to spread the 59 recipes in the issue out over. Over half those recipes, 30 to be exact, had 30 minutes or less of active time which meant less kitchen time than most months. There were also a lot of flavors I really love this month which means I almost always looked forward to dinner. Grilling adds great flavor to lots of foods and I love ice cream. I had lots of favorites and very few duds.
I have to add one more recipe to editor Ruth Reichl's favorite ten recipes of the month. The Salted Caramel Ice Cream in the Frozen Assets article was far and away my favorite ice cream of pretty stellar line-up of frozen treats. (We'll ignore my miserable failure on the Cantaloupe Semifreddo.) This ice cream was amazing, all creamy and caramel and just about perfect. Admittedly, I love caramel in any form but I really loved this ice cream.
My least favorite dish had nothing to do with its flavor. It actually tasted fine. My problem with the Gazpacho Green Beans was its visual appeal or lack thereof. This is a food blog, to be read when you feel like eating or have just eaten a good meal so I won't be more descriptive but some things just don't look appetizing and this dish was one of them.
I would be remiss not to mention the last dish of the month that I made today. This dish had been on my menu for days but I kept switching it out with something else. I'm not sure why the Southeast Asian Rice Noodles with Calamari and Herbs on page 59 never sounded good. There were not any other Asian style dishes in this month's Gourmet so maybe this dish just looked lonely. This dish was advertised as refreshing smelling cold dish for a hot day. Today wasn't particularly hot but the dish still smelled refreshing. The flavor was very mild, a clean mix of herbs, cucumber, and squid. I liked the dish but would have liked a stronger flavor, both in the dressing and in the addition of another vegetable, perhaps just to add color.


Southeast Asian Rice Noodles with Calamari and Herbs-B-

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