Tag: my recipes

Recipe Roundup

Recipe Roundup

LSiehLeave a comment

I used two new cookbooks this week and got a new one as a birthday present from a friend. The new one is freezer recipes and will be fantastic for my late nights at work.

We also had spaghetti and the Husband cooked some pork chops that, sadly, turned out to be not so good. I hadn’t marinated them this time, just added some dry spices and olive oil. They were actually thawed this time too and I think it made them dry.

I made a chicken that we ended up using in three different meals and I used the carcass to make chicken broth! I was pretty proud.

1- Roasted Chicken, no recipe. I put some bread dipping spices on it, along with olive oil. Baked it at 375 for about 80 minutes. It was still a tiny bit frozen. It was good all by itself with raw veggies and fruit.

2- Chicken Tortilla Soup, method by me. I was still sick and congested at this point, so I wanted something spicy to break up my sinuses. I used a couple of boxes of broth, cooked chicken, a can of generic tomatoes and chilis, frozen corn, onion, and carrots. Also, oregano, garlic powder, and fresh garlic, cumin, and chipotle chili powder. It turned out to be pretty good for something that was just thrown together. It was very spicy, so I think it helped.

3- Chicken Puffs made with homemade crescent dough with some rye flour. I ran out of all-purpose flour and didn’t have time to run out and get more. They turned out more hearty than usual. I used chicken, cream cheese, green onions, cheddar cheese, and a spicy 3 pepper cheese. I mixed all the filling ingredients up and rolled it up in the dough. Baked at 400 for about 20-25 minutes. http://gatherforbread.com/easy-no-knead-crescent-rolls/

4- Lettuce Wraps, based on a Damn Delicious recipe. http://damndelicious.net/2014/05/30/pf-changs-chicken-lettuce-wraps/

I’ve made these before and have no idea what mods I did this time, as I didn’t actually use the recipe. They turned out good.

5- Shrimp Albondigas from Classic Southwest Cooking by Carolyn Dille and Susan Belsinger. Section: Soups and Stews. 

Modifications: My Dad gave me this cookbook for my birthday! I was excited to find another way to use shrimp, but was not excited to food process them. They got really sticky and gross looking. I did not like touching them, but they ended up being tasty. They were put into a soup. I did add some garlic powder, salt, and pepper to the broth. I also used chicken broth instead of fish broth. We don’t eat fish, so I didn’t have any on hand.

6- Boller i karry/Meatballs with Curry from Scandinavia published by World Cuisine. Section: Main Dishes

Modifications: These looked so weird when I was mixing them. I thought for sure that they were all wrong and they weren’t going to stay together in the water. They were pretty gloopy looking. They did stay together though and they were pretty good. The curry sauce needed a lot more seasoning, so I added more curry powder, salt, and pepper. These were pretty good. I think I would double the recipe the next time.

It was a pretty good week for meals. Other than the pork chop, we had all good meals. I’m not sick any more and have a fancy new freezer cookbook to try. I also remembered to take pictures of all my dinners at least.

This week I have a few late nights, but have a few slow cooker or easy meals on my list, so it should go well. Since we had spaghetti tonight, we’ll have lasagna this week and we have leftover rice that I may try to make into fried rice.

It was fun getting back into using my cookbooks!

Recipe Roundup

Recipe Roundup

LSiehLeave a comment

I didn’t do much crafting this weekend, as we were partying it up! I did do a whole bunch of baking though. 🙂 I ended up trying six new recipes for the party. I’m going to make the party its own post, as I tried so many new things.

1- Hearty New England Dinner from Taste of Home Market Fresh Cookbook. 

Modifications: I cheated and left out the cabbage. The Husband doesn’t eat it and so we didn’t have any, and I’m not a huge fan of it cooked anyway. This was from the cabbage section though, so I may have to try another recipe, since I ignored that part. We never actual ate this as a meal. I had it as a snack the night it was made, but I started it late, so it wasn’t done until 10 pm.

Oh my gosh, this was delicious. I have actually made a pot roast that was too dry before, using a larger crock pot, but this was good. It had 2 cups of broth in it, which kept it very moist. It didn’t include potatoes, like my normal recipe. I fudged a recipe for onion soup mix, it was just basically beef bullion, onion powder, pepper, and garlic powder. The only other thing it called for was dried onions and I just used a little more fresh onion.

2- Shredded Beef Sandwiches, method by me.

Modifications: I added sautéed peppers and mushrooms and Gruyere cheese. I also made my own french bread with a recipe I think I’ve shared and now can’t find from Tasty Kitchen. Mmmm…. so good. This would be a good option to use up leftover pot roast for sure.

3- Asian Pork Chops, marinade by me, Cooked by the Husband. I have talked about these before, but I threw soy sauce, sesame oil, garlic powder, and white pepper over the chops in a pan and the Husband threw them in the oven when he got home. I had also left carrots with olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper and he roasted them along with cooking the chops. Apparently they were both delicious.

4- Silver White Cupcakes from The Good Housekeeping Cookbook edited by Dorothy B. Marsh. Section: Our Best Cakes. 

Modifications: Used orange flavoring instead of vanilla. I frosted them with a basic orange buttercream. This was my family’s traditional Easter cupcake recipe and the cake I most often requested for my birthday. I was excited to have my own copy of it now. We found the cookbook in a bin at the thrift store and the lady at the checkout was very jealous.

This cookbook is fun because it shows the shift from the 50’s where things were just getting more “ready made” into the 60’s where it was suddenly cool to have store bought things. There are a few bizarre recipes in here and the cake section has a few pages that talk about how to jazz up store bought cakes. The bread section does it too. I keep looking through it for dinner ideas, but it’s such  big book, I think I get a little overwhelmed.

I was terrible at taking pictures of things this past week. I wasn’t home for some of the dinners and the ate all the other foods before I could get out a camera. I will try to do better this week and have the Husband take a picture of Tuesday’s dinner before he eats it.

Now, on to the party foods!

 

Recipe Roundup
Recipe Roundup

Recipe Roundup

LSiehLeave a comment

This week, I used a new cookbook! Technically it is a calendar that my older brother gave me a long time ago. I also made two familiar recipes, beef stew and mac and cheese that I didn’t use a recipe for.

I realized writing that out that I’ve slowed down on using new recipes, mainly because most of my evening hours have been taken up by one or another of my jobs. I think I may have to adopt a friend’s method of making dinner, which is to make it in the morning and warm it up or finish it at night. It’s something to think about at least. A plus would be that I would get to eat the dinner if I made it in the morning.

Dinner timing is something that is still evolving, but I’m enjoying the challenge. Perhaps once I have my Sundays back, I can do some weekly prep on as well.

Anyway, I have confidence that we can figure it out eventually. Now, on to the recipes.

1- Muffins from How To Cook Everything by Mark Bittman. 2010 Calendar, Month: October

Modifications: This is the second time I have used this recipe. I forgot the oil the first time and had added protein powder to the batter as well, but since there was no oil, they turned out not very good. They were pretty dry and dense. Luckily, I had only made a half batch, so not as many went to waste. The second time I made these I remembered the oil and left out the protein powder, but added cardamom and cherries. They still weren’t very good actually, a bit bland. I think I will stick to my normal recipe.

2-Beef Stew in the crockpot. I didn’t use a recipe for this. I’ve made this often enough that I just throw everything in now and don’t measure. I browned the stew meat in some olive oil first and then added it to the crock pot with a carton and a half of beef broth, two large sliced carrots, 3 medium potatoes, half a chopped onion, a bay leaf, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and oregano. Let it cook for 7-8 hours and you will have deliciousness. I didn’t actually eat this. It made a smaller amount than I thought and the Husband ate it for dinner and two lunches. We bought a smaller crock pot after our big one developed a crack, we think from cooking meals that were too small. This one is a 5 quart and it’s perfect for us.

3- Mac and Cheese with Ham, Butternut Squash, Mushrooms, and Onions. Recipe by me! Fancy followed us all over the house and was very sad that we wouldn’t share.

So I always start the cheese sauce for mac and cheese with a roux. I think it tastes better that way and helps it be creamier. The Husband says this was the best batch of mac and cheese I’ve made out of the three other recipes I’ve made, including the bacon one, so I’m thinking I’ll continue to make a roux. Why mess with something that isn’t broken?

I’ll give you the method, again, I don’t measure when I make this, so I can’t tell you exactly what I did. It’s different every time. So to start, I added olive oil and butter to about half an onion in a sauce pan. (The Husband had made noodles for me earlier.) Let it bubble and let the onions get soft. This batch I accidentally browned the butter lightly, but it just made it taste more delicious. Then I added chopped mushrooms-1/4 cup?, diced ham- 1/4 cup?, and frozen chunks of butternut squash and let them cook. I added around a 1/4 cup flour and stirred it all together. I also added salt, pepper, garlic powder, and cayenne pepper at this point.

When everything was lightly coated, I threw in milk, probably about a cup, and a quarter cup or so of chicken broth. Stirred everything until it started thickening up and added about 4 oz of Colby Jack shreds, 8 oz of cheddar, 4 oz of pepper jack and some shredded parm. The Husband had requested that it be extra cheesy for shells and cheese, so I was pretty generous with the cheeses.

I added the already cooked small shells and stirred until it was incorporated and then I threw it in a 350 degree oven and we took the dog for a walk around the park for about half an hour. It was delicious.

The Husband liked it a lot and had I not told him there was butternut squash in it, he wouldn’t have known. We have an agreement that I won’t hide veggies, but I generally don’t make separate meals. He’s an adult and can pick out what he doesn’t like. The squash was so soft though that it melted into everything and you couldn’t even taste it.

3- Szechuan Shrimp from Cook’s Library Wok and Stir-fry. Section: Fish and Seafood

Modifications: I added honey to the sauce. When I tasted it the first few times it was a salt bomb and was terrible. I have learned since experimenting with real Chinese food, that the thing I had been missing before was a balance of the salty/sweet/hot/umami. This recipe called for low sodium soy sauce, but that stuff tastes horrible, so we don’t use it. The honey took the edge off the salt, but wasn’t really a flavor you noticed.

I also doubled the sauce and added veggies. The original recipe is for an appetizer and we were eating it for dinner. I sautéed julienned carrots, snow peas, mushrooms, and yellow peppers in sesame and canola oil, pulled them out of the wok to cook the shrimp, and added them back in at the end to make it a dinner portion.

This recipe called for you to make a cornstarch/salt/egg white paste to coat the shrimp in and then deep fry it. I didn’t measure the oil, which was a mistake. The crunchy coating ended up stuck to the bottom of the wok. What did stick to the shrimp though seemed to help keep it from overcooking. They were nice and tender, no overcooked rubbery shrimp! The Husband has requested that I try this with chicken or beef too. The sauce was a good sinus clearing spice level and it turned out good.

We had leftovers tonight, but I do have a new pot roast recipe cooking in the crock pot right now that I may turn into dip sandwiches. It had thawed too much for me to re-freeze, so even when schedules shifted, I just threw it in. It should be done by now, so we’ll have good leftovers for the next few days. Hopefully we can eat it all, even with Easter leftovers on Sunday!