No time for dinner? Unexpected guests? Forgot to turn the crockpot on? Have no fear, these recipes are here to save the day!
We found this cookbook at last year’s Bookstock and I had to get it. Would you have been able to resist a brilliantly colored popart style cookbook? Here’s the contents page.
It has fun tips and pictures.
It’s a surprisingly comprehensive cookbook and includes a pantry list and a fridge list. Most of the items are pretty standard, so I could make the recipes with ingredients we had on hand, which was helpful. A lot of the desserts call for frozen puff pastry or fillo cups, so we didn’t try many of them, as we didn’t have any of them. Grocery shopping is annoying right now, as with the shopping services, you don’t always know what you’ll actually get.
One of the first recipe we tried were these Toasted Pastrami Sandwiches. I had turkey instead of pastrami on mine and the Husband had both. They were really good! Toasty, warm and delicious.
These are the Fig Muffins. They were super soft and yummy, but were too sweet for me. This was pretty surprising, as I have a big sweet tooth, but I would reduce the sugar by probably half next time. I also subbed dried cranberries, as I didn’t have figs and was still weirded out by fig wasps.
We really liked the Chicken and Salsa Soup. It was pretty simple. I added a half can of Rotel and used different spices. It was also yummy.
For Thanksgiving, we had this snack mix with white chocolate, dried cherries and cranberries, cashews, and pretzel chips. I think I ate most of it. I don’t normally like white chocolate, but it was lighter than usual.
I tried to follow the recipe in this Broccoli Cheese Rice but it made more sense to just make it. K2 made this for us when we went to visit last time, so I just threw some things together while the Husband had pork chops.
I enjoyed it! Overall, I really enjoyed this cookbook. I would like to try a couple more of the recipes from it too. I’m glad we got it and it definitely makes me smile when I look at it. Hope you enjoyed seeing it as well!
I’ve started my 25 Treats of Christmas this week too, but have only made a few so far and need to catch up on the Thanksgiving foods. Have a delicious week!
Well, hello from day eleventy-hundred of social distancing! My birthday celebrations have been extended, as part of the Husband’s gifts for me came later in the month. He bought me some fun books, as is now Tradition. These books, he paid full price for, not book sale bag day prices. 😁 Feel free to skip down a couple paragraphs if you just want cookbook review.
One was a flamingo coloring book, which I have already started using. I forget if I have shared the picture I have colored or not, so forgive me if it’s a double.
I used watercolor pencils, so that’s why it looks wet. He also bought me a book about Pibbles! It’s called “I’m A Good Dog!” It’s an overview of pibbles and the prejudice against them. Of course I adored it. It has lovely pictures of the dogs being their best, lovey, dopey selves. I mean, look at Fancy! Can you even believe people are scared of her?
The other book was a Dim Sum cookbook! Dim Sum has a special place in our relationship. I met the Husband’s parent for the first time at a dim sum place and we introduced my family to the same place right before our wedding. I also planned a dim sum surprise birthday party for the Husband a couple years after getting married. We have it for it for various family celebrations with my inlaws at a couple of the local restaurants too.
Here’s the book. Dim Sum: The Art Of The Chinese Tea Lunch by Ellen Leong Blonder
Here’s a quick overview of Dim Sum, in case you haven’t had the experience. Which if you can ever try it, I would highly recommend it. Not all Chinese places have it and the hours can vary. We have gone anywhere from 11 AM to 11 PM at different restaurants. There’s always tea, but you can also get water or other drinks normally. It’s about the only time I’ll drink jasmine tea.
There’s no menu, instead food items come around on little carts and you point to what you want. The foods will be different, depending on where you are too. Sometimes there’s a soup or two, be sure to check what’s in it. One of the more common soups has tripe in it. Most of the orders are small little metal tins, containing 3-4 of each dish. When you request one, they’ll add it to your little check at the table. It’s best to plan for a large budget, as it’s hard to resist just getting one more thing.
Some of our most ordered dim sum items include steamed dumplings. Typically pork dumplings and shu mai, a translucent shrimp dumpling called har gao, steamed pork buns, steamed shrimp and chive dumplings (my newest favorite,) fried taro dumplings (my MIL’s favorite,) tea leaf steamed rice packets with delicious things inside, steamed Chinese broccoli, these rice noodles with soy sauce, and surprisingly a flash fried squid dish that’s crispy and spicy. (I’d fight someone for the squid, it’s that good.) If we can, we also get fried noodles. Now that may seem like a lot, but it’s very small portions of all of them. Last time we went, I also tried a sweet steamed bun with egg custard in it.
It’s a really fun experience and I’m very glad it’s now part of my family traditions! Now, on to the cookbook and recipes!
I immediately went overboard and planned a ridiculous number of dishes. 🙄 In the end, I narrowed it down to just a few things, split over two days. The first day we had pan fried bao, fried noodles, and beef meatballs.
The bao was tricky. This first set burned on one side. I should have probably used my cast iron, as it recommended a non-stick pan. I don’t own one, other than the cast irons. They looked much prettier before they were cooked!
They were filled with ground turkey, instead of pork. We enjoyed them and I would probably make them again, but this time with a different pan. The book included multiple recipes for different types of bao, both sweet and savory. I would like to try some more of the recipes, especially the coconut buns.
We didn’t like the meatballs very much. They had citrus in them and it was just a little off putting. They were interesting to make though, as they steamed instead of fried, they looked pretty raw because of the steaming, but were actually cooked through. I don’t think we’re going to making the meatballs again.
For the noodles, we just added precooked angel hair pasta to probably a little too much oil, fried them, flipped them, and added a slurry at the end of chicken stock and cornstarch. They were okay, but we haven’t mastered the techniques yet. The Husband took care of the noodles while I was working on the bao.
The second night, we had a dumpling feast with three different types of dumplings. Oh, and because I, 1) have a problem with my brain being missing, and 2) couldn’t find dumpling wrappers at either store we got groceries delivered from, made my own wrappers. 😱
The book also has multiple recipes for dumplings and homemade wrappers. It even has flavored wrappers. We also went super fancy and ground our own chicken, although, if we could have found some, we would have used that. The Husband was extremely grossed out by the squishy noise the meat grinder attachment makes. I’ve made sausage before, so,was expecting it. We will most likely keep doing that. It’s a lot cheaper than buying it pre ground, I think, and definitely easier than trying to find it at the stores right now.
We tried mushroom wontons, scallop dumplings, and curry chicken potstickers. The mushroom and scallop dumplings technically needed wheat starch wrappers so they would be translucent after being cooked, but I could not get my hands on wheat starch in time. They were still good.
We ate the mushroom wontons in a 5 spice beef broth.
The scallop dumplings were steamed and the potstickers I fried and then steamed. And they actually worked! I’ve had trouble with potstickers before.
Look how crispy they were! The curry ones were my favorite and the Husband liked the scallop ones better. The mushroom ones were okay, but I don’t know if we would have them again.
I also tried a sweet from the book. Almond Pudding- it’s pretty much milk jello with almond flavoring and sugar. Slightly strange and I attempted to inhale it and choked myself on it the first bit I took. It was super scary. It’s good with fruit though. The Husband got weirded out after trying a bite and declined to eat any more.
I especially liked that it gave pork subs for a bunch of the dumpling and bao recipes. Since I can’t eat pork, we tend to use chicken for most of the recipes, so it was nice to see that offered as an option. It included the author’s stories and memories of dim sum too, so that was nifty. The book is a nice size and has drawings, rather than photos of the foods, which lends extra charm. It also suggests teas to go with the foods.
Overall, the cookbook is delightful and will make an excellent addition to our Lunar New Year feasts. Of course, there are a lot more recipes waiting to be tried, so I’m sure you’ll see it again.
It’s been a while since I have reviewed a cookbook! I haven’t been interested in using just one lately. There’s a large chance that I accidentally obtained a few more too. 😉 And by chance, I mean, we went to book sales and I was unsupervised in the used book store…
For this cookbook, it took me a while to make the recipes I wanted to try, so they’re spread out over a month or two.
The recipes weren’t hard to follow, but they did have multiple steps and some required specialty ingredients.
This one is Michael Symon’s Holiday Mac And Cheese Casserole. It called for a full pound of bacon, half and half, marscapone cheese, Guyere, and butternut squash.
I had my doubts about the cheese sauce, as it was looking pretty runny, but it thickened up in the oven. I watered down cream for the half and half and used marscapone and a shredded cheddar jack blend. We didn’t enjoy the butternut squash in it at all. I have added squash before and it was fine, but this time it was gross. Surprisingly, it wasn’t too rich! I would make it again, but remove the squash.
This is General Tsao’s Chicken by Clinton Kelly.
It was a pretty quick dinner to make. The recipe had a lot of steps, but they all went quickly. I left out the broccoli for the Husband and made it on the side instead.
I’m not entirely sure I made it right. I think it was supposed to be crispier? It tasted good though. Definitely adding more sauce next time would be good. The rice was a little dry without it.
We tried Carla Phall’s Peach Cobbler. It was alright, but I thought it needed less crust and more seasoning. We ate it with churro flavored ice cream, which made it good. I don’t know if I would make it again. It smelled lots better than it tasted.
We also tried her fried Chicken Recipe. Oh man.. It was probably the best thing we tried out of the book.
We used drumsticks and thighs for it. The breading was slightly too salty for me, but the Husband loved it. The chicken sat in a dry rub for most of the day and then got dipped twice in a seasoned flour mix. It was tasty! The Husband ate it voraciously and declared me “the best wife ever.” Of course, now he wants more of it. 😄
I can’t find a picture, but we also tried the Turkey Meatball Subs by Mario Batali. I don’t remember thinking they were the best thing ever, but I think they were pretty good. If I were going to use them again, I would use less panko crumbs. They were kind of bready. I used homemade Spicy Scillian Pasta sauce instead of making a new batch. We also used turkey Italian sausage instead of the pork. It’s probably a safe bet that if I cannot remember them, I won’t be making them again.
Overall, it’s s good cookbook. The instructions are generally clear. It is arranged seasonally, so you do have to think of that when trying to find recipes. There are little hints and tips, plus the behind the scenes info about the show that are neat to read. It also fits nicely in my cookbook holder.
There are a few recipes that I still want to try. Soda bread, whoopie pies, and a potato leek soup are next on my list. I will be holding on to this cookbook for a bit yet, I think.
Hello! I have a new cookbook to feature along with some recipes for this post!
I used Michael Symon’s cookbook 5 In 5 a lot in the past couple of weeks with great success!
It has a lot of different sections, including desserts! The recipes are easy to use and pretty much all have only five ingredients. There’s a section at the front of the book that details flavor profiles for different proteins. The pictures are very clear and bright and look very enticing.
The only thing I noticed that can be confusing is that sometimes things like water, or salt and pepper, are only included in the recipe itself instead of the ingredient list.
The first section we used was the “Pasta” section. We had the Spaghetti With Olive Oil, Garlic, and Red Pepper Flakes. We ate it as a side with a marinated turkey breast from the store.
It was pretty spicy! I wouldn’t make it as a full dinner, but it worked well for a side. The turkey looked oddly like salmon, but tasted okay.
We also used a kebab recipe from the “On a Stick” chapter for a fun weekend with some friends. No pictures because we were too hungry to take them. We used the Sirloin with Lemon and Oregano recipe and enjoyed it. They were surprisingly good for only being marinated for a short amount of time.
We tried a steak recipe, Beef Tri-tip with Spicy Peppers, from the “Man with a Pan” section. It called for Tri-Tip, but the only one we could find was already marinated, so we used strip steak instead.
I got super confused thinking it was a stir fry and it was definitely not. It was quite tasty though, even with the wrong cut of steak. We would make this again maybe, but would reduce the peppers. We ate it with cilantro rice.
We used another steak recipe on the grill too from the book. Grilled Skirt Steak with grilled portobellos, corn, and a raw zucchini salad recipe, also from the book.
I wouldn’t make the zucchini salad again. I don’t know if my proportions were off or what, but I didn’t like it all that much. Too much oil, I think.
My favorite recipe was a Whiskey Caramel Sauce from the “I Scream, You Scream” section. I would like to eat all the sauces from this section. They all sound mouthwatering! I had underripe peaches for the 4th and 5th, so we couldn’t try the Grilled Peaches and Honey recipe, but it’s on my list. I stole this picture from a friend.
So those are all the recipes from this cookbook. There’s a lot of fish recipes, but also some shrimp and chicken ones. I’m excited to keep trying them.
In other food news, we had fried chicken from Fried and True. It was the Loveless Cafe recipe and we used boneless, skinless chicken breasts and thighs.
We also had Parmesan Chipotle potato wedges and a salad. Everyone enjoyed it. It has a very thin coating on it, but did end up with a good crust. We would eat it again. I might even remember to wear an apron next time!
We tried the Strawberry Cheesecake Pie with Raspberries instead and it didn’t set up as well. We will stick to the Strawberry version, but it was still tasty.
I was also homesick for my old summer camp and made Oreo pudding. Not very appetizing to look at, but delicious!
We’re looking forward to trying some new things this week too. Hope this made you hungry!
I thought it might be time for another cookbook review. I have used this book for five different recipes, but I really want to use a bunch more. There’s a bar dessert recipe that makes me drool just looking at the picture.
We found this book at the weird discount store by us. I don’t go there alone because I’m pretty sure I might get lost and end up in Narnia. Which might not be the worst thing ever, but I just don’t have time to deal with eternal winter right now. I just got warm again!
Anyway, I picked it up on a whim and it has really surprised me. A lot of the recipes call for things made from scratch. For example, these cheeseburger swirl rolls.
The dough was a potato bread made from scratch! They grew very large because apparently I have a magic hand with dough. Or maybe let it rise for too long. These were pretty good, but I might use more meat next time. We left off the ketchup and pickles. I would make these again, just halve the dough.
I made these apple rolls as well, which also had a scratch dough.
These were a request from the Husband. They are huge and need more apple, but tasted yummy. I would definitely make these again. The Husband requested more apples, but did like how they tasted.
The book has several sections, not just bready things. It has mix an match one pan meals with a bunch of different protein and veggie options. We tried the greek seasoning mix on some chicken one night and it was delicious.
We had Stovetop stuffing with it. The Husband loves stuffing, but I do not and have trouble finding a good recipe for it. He was very happy. 🙂 I love the one pan options. They are super easy for me to set up and the Husband to cook when he gets home.
I tried the Dutch Oven Pancake from the breakfast section and discovered that I do not, in any way like it. It was crusty and chewy at the same time and not very good. It was also very bland.
I will stick to Pannukakku, thank you. Even the homemade jam didn’t really help it.
My most favorite thing I have made so far from the book is this recipe for brownies topped with a bittersweet ganache.
I made these for my boss’ birthday. Everyone liked them. They were super dense and fudgy and rich. The ganache was the finishing touch. The Husband liked them a little warm, with a scoop of ice cream. It was lovely.
My overall impressions of the book were that it was extremely well written. The pictures of the foods are lovely. Some of the recipes use short cut things, like pre-cooked meat or pre-made doughs, but most of them are from scratch.
It has a lot of information about different cooking materials for the pan, how to reduce it, and how to increase it. A lot of the recipes have instructions for how to make them ahead and freeze them, if possible.
Other than the Dutch Oven Pancake, the recipes have all been very tasty. If you can find the book, I would definitely recommend it.
Now, I need to go cuddle a sad puppers who was left alone this evening. Have a good night!
I have a Cookbook Review for you and a Recipe Roundup tonight. Hopefully my pictures are right side up. I uploaded them from my phone (through the air, Mom!) and they seem to adjust themselves automatically. If not, pretend I meant to put them that way. It’s way too cold and my hip doesn’t like stairs at the moment.
The Husband was gone on a business trip for a couple of days, so I had a vegetarian feast week planned. It didn’t go quite as well as I hoped, as I ended up with no time to shop for the couple of things I couldn’t find. I did use the cookbook enough to be able to review it though, since I have used it before as well, for mac and cheese. I also had so many leftovers that I had to eat up, that I didn’t end up needing to cook as much as I thought I would.
The cookbook I used is called Vegetables! It’s by Pippa Cuthbert & Lindsay Cameron Wilson. It has some extremely fancy recipes in it, some of which are a little intimidating. It’s a very colorful book. Everything has fancy names and some of them are all about the 15 ingredients that you’ll only use once.
This recipe had baked chicken breasts on the side, as the Husband was still home at the beginning of the week and apparently likes regular meals. 😉 It was Linguine with Swiss Chard and Sweet Onions.
The sweet onion part is misleading, because you just caramelize them, not actually use sweeter onions. I was a little disappointed in that, as I think it would have gone well using them. I used rainbow chard for extra happiness and chicken broth instead of wine. I also added baked chicken on the side. I was a rebel!
Really though, we had a seasoning mix from Penzey’s called “Krakow Nights” that I wanted to try. It is a Polish style seasoning and tastes delicious. The Husband also likes meat. I had herb goat cheese crumbles on the top of mine. The recipe was pretty simple though, so I don’t know if I would use a recipe again. You basically caramelize the onions, sauté the chard, take it out of the pan, deglaze with the wine/broth, then add everything back in along with the noodles. The chicken and the onions made it a longer dish, but everything else cooked while the noodles were boiling. I actually made the onions in the morning and just reheated them. We would have this again.
I also made Black Bean And Vegetable Chili. I didn’t bother with the cilantro-lime creme fraiche (see what I mean about the fancy names?) as I knew I wouldn’t actually like it. I had this as a three course meal after work, with frozen popcorn shrimp, and arugula salad.
Mmmm! I love arugula! The Husband does not, so I don’t have to share! This also means I need to eat the entire container of it myself. Hmm.. I should probably have a rather large salad tomorrow.
The chili has chipotle chilis in adobo sauce in it and it makes it have the most delicious and smoky taste. I brought container of it to work and a co-worker tracked me down to find out what the delicious smell was! I would make this again, but was glad I made just half the batch. The Husband is not a fan of chili.
I’m in two minds whether to keep this book or not. I think there are some very good looking recipes in it, but I have had it for quite a few years and have made exactly three things out of it. The Husband’s dislike for vegetables makes it unlikely that I could make many more of them for both of us. It’s too much work to make separate dishes! But if I keep it, I could supervise the Husband’s pork cookery and make these for myself. Decisions, decisions… (Also, there are two book sales on the horizon and the Husband and I may have come home from shopping with three new cookbooks…)
For our other meals, we have had a variety of things.
I had the urge to make a chocolate cake a few weekends ago from the Alex Guarnaschelli book, so I did just that. (I know! But I can’t stop! Too many good recipes!) What the Husband doesn’t know is that it was the Mayonnaise Chocolate Cake recipe. Don’t tell him, or he won’t ever eat it again! I didn’t use the vanilla frosting though. It involved corn syrup. We don’t get along. I made a chocolate cream cheese frosting from the Better Homes book instead.
This was hands down the best chocolate cake I have made. It was super moist, even after a few days and very lovely and rich. It soothed my soul!
My only complaint was my frosting job wasn’t even, but I have not had a lot of practice with actual layer cakes. I will definitely make this again.
This banana bread was also from A.G’s cookbook. It was a spectacular failure in that I accidentally froze the butter while mixing it, by using partially frozen bananas. I had to put the metal mixer bowl in the preheating oven and it was a mess. Tasted delicious, but was sooooooo dense and wet at the same time.
There was a small mishap when I tried to turn the first loaf over. Half of it came off, so I had to eat it. I ended up throwing it away though. It was not good after a day or two. I may try it again with ripe bananas, not frozen, and halve the recipe.
Another failure this week was on Sunday, when I attempted to make quesadillas and had four fall apart on me for unknown reasons. I was mystified, as I make these all the time with leftover taco meat!
These were the “good” ones. I cooked up hamburger and added green chilis, onions, and some of our Fire-Breather salsa. Then I added it to the tortillas and that’s when it all fell apart. I was a little mortified, but we ate the evidence, so no one needs to know.
Something that did work out well, was the drumsticks.
I used another Penzey’s spice mix, the Galena Street Rub. I swear they didn’t sponsor this post, but they probably should have. Sometime soon, I might write a post about my spice cabinet contents, as it has grown exponentially and deliciously. I also had canned peaches with mine. The Husband has requested this spice rub on everything. 🙂
We also had venison and beef Christmas/Swedish meatballs and noodles at the beginning of the week last week. They were delicious as usual. Fancy was extra excited as she got a tiny bit of the raw venison. No pictures, as we ate them too fast.
Last, but not least, I made Pannukakku, or Finnish pancake this morning and had lingonberry jam on it. Sadly, my thimbleberry dealer is slacking and I am out of it again. 😉
It made my little Finnish heart all warm and cozy this morning. If the dog weren’t pinning me to the couch, I would post the recipe. Although I may have posted it before.
So that’s what we’ve eaten lately. With the exception of the two missteps, which both still tasted delicious, I think it was a pretty good couple of weeks. Now to pick the next cookbook to focus on! And find room for the new cookbooks…
I think it was pretty glorious at least. You can let me know what you think after the post. Not surprisingly, we ate a lot of Chinese food after the party.
The Husband happily ate the shao mai the next day. We also had a fried rice dish that was an experiment and actually worked out! The Husband ate pork slices too.
This one is a meatball dish called Lion’s Head Meatballs from The Food of China. These were very good! They were browned and then braised for an hour and a half. Deliciously tender meatballs were the result. They get their name from the bok choy that they are cooked with that looks like a lion’s man. We did sub chicken for pork.
I had them with rice and sautéed Chinese greens- gai lan and bok choy, with mushrooms, green onions, and garlic. I used sesame oil for the saute oil. I’ve wanted to make these for a while. The Husband had just plain rice with his.
Another Chinese dish was West Lake Beef Soup from The Joy of Chinese Cooking by Lo Mei Hing. We have a similar dish when we go out for fancy Chinese food at Christmas with the Husband’s family and I was excited to find a recipe for it.
One interesting thing about this cookbook, which we found at a booksale last year, is that every single recipe, except desserts, calls for MSG. We omitted that, for obvious reasons, but it tells you how old it is.
After the soup, we got a little tired of Chinese food, so we had a creamy pasta and mushroom dish and a creamy shrimp dish. I only have a picture of the mushroom pasta dish because we were too hungry and devoured the shrimp dish.
The Husband also requested Chicken Marsala and it turned out delicious! We enjoyed it a lot. We had it with a salad and fruit.
I posted a naked pizza picture on Instagram because it was just too pretty to not document. 🙂
The crust is the Pioneer Woman recipe, which I believe is linked here already. It makes a very nice friendly dough. You can also freeze it, but I have not had good luck with that.
Here’s a picture of the finished pizza. We used diced ham, mushrooms, and onions. It had homemade roasted garlic pizza sauce on it too and mozzarella cheese too.
I tried to give Fancy some cheese while making the pizza, but she moved and it all ended up on her back instead of her mouth. Silly girl! Don’t worry, she found it all and snarfed it all up.
I’ve also made waffles and muffins for breakfast and we had grilled cheese and canned soup tonight.
I’m still debating the next book. I kind of went through Food of China by Deh-Ta Hiusing and Nina Simmonds, pretty quickly, but have used a lot of it in before as well. I will do a little bit of a review for it here.
First off, the pictures are gorgeous! It’s a huge book, more of a coffee table book rather than a regular cookbook. The instructions are pretty clear. They requesting using light soy sauce a lot, which tastes horrible, so I generally just reduce the amount and add broth or water instead.
It’s a pretty extensive book, covering everything from appetizers, dim sum, main dishes, and desserts. We’ve used a lot of the recipes from it and they’ve turned out well. If you can find the book, I would get it. It’s definitely worth it. We got it as a gift, so I don’t know where it came from.
Fancy’s latest culinary adventure involved getting her Wobble open to cheat and eat the treats faster. Apparently sweet potatoes are a high value treat option.
She’s a smart dog, but we think it might have been by accident. Hopefully. We need her to not know how to do this regularly, thank you!
This week, I hope to pick a new cookbook to focus on for meals. We had a busy week coming up, so it may be a little interesting schedule wise. The Husband has another play starting soon. Auditions are next week. If anyone wants to come snuggle Fancy, I’m sure she’d be more than happy to accept any and all belly rubs. 😉
I always have trouble knowing how to end my blog posts, so I guess I’ll just say “have a good night!”
As a recap, one of the new things I wanted to do with food on the blog was to focus on one or two cookbooks for a couple of weeks, to give both myself, and you a bigger picture of them. I’m still working out what this will look like. It may involve a lot of weekend cooking, as some of them are not quick recipes. This past week it was Alex Guarnaschelli’s The Home Cook.
Grand plans were made while lookong through this cookbook! Sadly, grand planning didn’t include fully researching the recipe, leading me to end up making some recipe substitutions. I may have to do one more week of this book, just to try more things out!
The book itself is very easy to read and extremely approachable for home cooks. I would say this would be a good cookbook for anyone, regardless of cooking level. The recipes are clearly marked, broken down into clear steps, and have the cooking terms explained, not just said. It also describes what the results should look like.
I have made several recipes from it already and have some more planned as well. I thought I should give you an update on it, so you knew I was still cooking. 🙂 So far I have made several pasta recipes, three baked recipes, and a soup recipe. They have all been delicious! I have several more planned, but might take a break for a minute. (Ummm, probably not, I may have some planned for this weekend.)
I forgot to take a picture of the Gnocchi Mac and Cheese, but although delicious, it was not photogenic. It was a bit rich and I maybe sort of followed the recipe… I couldn’t find Gueyre and used Havarti and Gouda, as well as some chedder jack. It was good, but I wouldn’t make it again. I have decided that I like my gnocchi crispy. The Husband agrees.
I made Weeknight Marinara and it took a bit longer than expected, but was worth the wait. We enjoyed the little bite from the red pepper flakes.
Very similar to the Marinara was Bolognese with Rigatoni. I was worried the sauce might be too thin, but it seemed to have worked out. I used so much salt in this dish, that I was concerned, but it actually turned out absolutely delicious. The Husband said it was “the perfect dish.” Apparently when you actually measure out the salt and follow the recipe, it turns out good! Who knew?! Seriously though, the salt was all over in the recipe, including making the pasta water taste like sea water.
We both liked this Beef Meatball Soup with Couscous and Paprika. It was delicious. Not terribly complicated to make and the only thing I just changed was to use regular paprika instead of hot paprika, as I only had the regular.
I would definitely make this again. We had it with Parker House Rolls and they were a bit heavy for my taste, but I think it was just that the dough wasn’t warm enough while rising. My house is draftier than I think it is and I should have protected the bowl a little more. They tasted good though, especially after toasting them on the second day with butter to have with the marinara. The recipe made a lot, so we froze the rest. They are the featured picture on the post.
I tried two other baked recipes, the Dark Chocolate Brownies and the Double Dark Chocolate Muffins. (I see a theme emerging…)
The brownies were delicious, definitely gooey in the middle, but not under-baked. We used them to make brownie sundaes.
The Husband liked these as much as the Ghiradelli mix ones and they were pretty quick. The batter was kind of funny though, it baked with a really high sheen and so it looked like it wasn’t done at all, but it actually was. I had to use an ounce of bittersweet with the other unsweetened chocolate, as I had run out.
The Husband didn’t try the chocolate muffins. I may have forgotten to tell him which tin they were in. They were good and held up well. Not as sweet as chocolate muffins normally are, which was nice. I did follow this recipe. I would make them again, but maybe halve the recipe.
So over all, it’s been a pretty good experience with this cookbook. I do have lots more recipes to try, but will mostly be trying them on weekends. They aren’t exactly quick recipes for when I come home late.
We’ve had some other recipes mixed in, of course, including Chicken Pot Pie, Chicken Sausage Pasta, Chicken Noodle Soup, and an Asian beef Stew from The New Pressure Cooker Cookbook by Ellen Brown. The chicken was from a really good roast chicken that refused to cook. It was apparently still a little frozen even though it didn’t feel that way when I baked it. I threw a lot of the spice cupboard on it and it was yummy after it finally cooked.
Here’s the soup! I threw more of the spice cupboard in it and I actually liked it. Normally it’s a little under seasoned for me, no matter who makes it.
The Husband was my sous chef for the chicken sausage pasta dish. Look at this mise en place!
Impressive knife cuts!
The Asian Beef Stew was interesting. I was afraid the Husband wouldn’t like it, but he ended up thinking it was delicious. It had Chinese 5 Spice and orange in it. I used blood orange. Mmm…
It’s good to have a whole cookbook of pressure cooker recipes to try. I get nervous trying to find recipes and this one popped up and looked good. Some of the recipes are a bit fancy maybe, but most look good.
We ended up having chicken pot pie on the same night as my parents and the night before K and J had it. Apparently great minds think alike on cold, snowy days especially! I’m sure the other two potpies were delicious as well, both my Mom and K make excellent ones.
A Fiestaware mini cast iron!
Fancy is prepping for the upcoming polar vortex tomorrow by eating everything she can get her paws on and then stealing all the blankets. I don’t blame her. It’s already super cold!
She was super mad when we made all the chicken dishes and she couldn’t have any. She kept drooling on my foot as I was working and sighing heavy, guilt laden sighs in hopes I would have pity on her poor starving self.
I’m going to go join her and steal back my quilt now, but I hope you’ve enjoyed hearing about the recipes and are looking forward to more to come!
We used drumsticks and thighs for it. The breading was slightly too salty for me, but the Husband loved it. The chicken sat in a dry rub for most of the day and then got dipped twice in a seasoned flour mix. It was tasty! The Husband ate it voraciously and declared me “the best wife ever.” Of course, now he wants more of it. 😄
