Month 12 day 13: Mac and cheese and bangers mashup

Today I made:
Cheesy Mac n Bangers Normal Sausage Bake, Every Day with Rachael Ray January/February 2012

Rachael Ray likes to experiment in weird ways with food, I guess. She had a bunch of recipes that were mashups between two well-known-but-normally-separate dishes. This was a mix of mac and cheese and ...bangers... which I guess isn't that normal for Americans. And also wasn't available at Shaw's. So... normal sausage.

This was kind of ... meh. There isn't really cheese in the mac and cheese (what.) except cream cheese, which doesn't really count in my book. This is topped with some bread, and I chose a bread that actually tastes pretty bad. Unfortunately, the flavor of that bread was pretty dominant, and it was wedged in in a way that made it hard to remove later. The sausage and spinach was fine, because how could that go wrong? But then the eggy mix that gets poured on top spilled out everywhere, because the bread evidently made somewhat of a water-tight seal. To speed things along, instead of waiting for it to seep through, I just lifted up the corners of the bread and let it drain down into the mac, since I figured that's where it was meant to end up. But I don't know if that's really what was supposed to happen.

The problem with this kind of a mashup dish is that it is then the work of two dishes. But instead of just making a main and a side or something, it's all together in a form that is hit or miss. And this one missed. :-/ It was hard to convince G to help me finish the leftovers of this.

That's it for January! G is back and the semester is about to start up again.
My favorite:
A tie between the tourtiere and the chicken parm

 I've discarded the last of my cooking magazines! From here on out, we'll be dipping into the archives or keeping up with my current subscription of Every Day with Rachael Ray. Over the course of the year, Rachael Ray proved to serve up a variety of creative, quick, and hearty meals that almost always tasted great (with a few exceptions, such as the above). She knows how to please!

Month 12 day 12: Quesadillas and cupcakes

Today I made:
Escarole, Sausage, and Fontina Mozzarella Quesadillas, Cooking Light January 2011
Take 5 Carrot Cupcakes, Food & Wine January 2011

(Cupcakes not pictured)

Tonight was book club again, so I wanted a fast dinner. I made these hearty quesadillas. They seem kind of fancy with their escarole and sausage, and it was pretty tasty. I'm not sure if the escarole added a whole lot of extra flavor, but I guess it's healthy? I could imagine using fennel or something would be yummy too. Instead of being cooked in the skillet, these are baked. I'd never considered making quesadillas that way before, but it would be a good way to make several at once instead of serially cooking them in the skillet and having the first one get cold and soggy by the time the last is made.

The cupcake recipe was from that same general store that made the chicken parmesan from this month. If all their recipes are like these two, then it's worth a stop if you're ever in Seattle! I'm normally not really into carrot cake, but these were delicious. They were surprisingly fast and easy too, once the carrot was all grated. That was by far the most time-consuming step. The cupcakes came out really moist (from using oil instead of butter?), lightly spiced, and didn't have any of the nuts or raisins which I normally don't like in carrot cake-- they were nice and smooth. Not too many people ate them at book club, but my lab enjoyed them the next day, and I felt like they were breakfast appropriate. Right? Anything with cream cheese frosting is a breakfast food, or something like that. And it's healthy, because vegetables. Yep...

Month 12 day 11: Flourless peanut butter chocolate cookies

Today I made:
Peanut butter and chocolate cookies, Every Day with Rachael Ray October 2011

(Sorry, no picture!)

For book club tonight I looked through the archives (my large, accordion file folder in which I've been storing all the extra delicious-looking recipes at the end of each month). One of the members is gluten-free, so I was excited to find this flourless cookie recipe. It's super simple:

• 1 cup peanut butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chunks
• Beat first four ingredients. Stir in chocolate. Bake at 350 F for 10 min.

This is one of those recipes you could just always remember, like crepes are for my dad.

Even though there is no flour, these end up being a pretty normal cookie dough texture. After baking, they're a bit crumbly, but otherwise just seem like completely normal cookies. It's kind of magic! They get nicely puffy because of the baking soda (I guess) and have a good texture. We don't eat peanut butter that often, so it's actually not a staple for me that's always around. But if it is something you have on hand, then this is a great recipe to have in your back pocket for when you want a treat with minimal fuss or time.

Month 12 day 10: Chicken and cabbage with parm

Today I made:
Chicken Parmesan with Pepperoni, Food & Wine January 2011
Parmesan Cabbage, Every Day with Rachael Ray January/February 2012

Although it might seem like overkill to have two parmesan recipes at once, I decided to just go for it.
The main course was this chicken parm recipe from Food & Wine that includes pepperoni. Why has this never been done before? It's a great addition. This recipe came out of Food & Wine's special on "Food Trends of 2011" in the section about general stores. Huh?? Apparently there's a bodega-like general store (has this term even been used since the 1800s) in Seattle that also serves up hot dinner food (and carrot cake cupcakes, which I will make later this month).

Anyway, this follows the standard way of making chicken parm, but just has pepperoni on top. It comes out of the oven looking gorgeous like this:

And yes, I proceeded to eat all of that over the next few days.

There isn't a whole lot of seasoning, pointed out someone in the comments, but to me it was fine. The cheeses are plenty salty and the pepperoni has a bit of a kick to it. I guess if you wanted to use your favorite marinara instead of just plain tomato sauce it would be even better though.

The cabbage was simple but good. It's basically just braised cabbage and onion, with some parmesan grated over the top at the end. Since I was using Parmigiano-Reggiano I didn't want to use the full cup of cheese, but it was fine with less too.

Month 12 day 9: Eggs in clouds

Today I made:
Eggs in Clouds, Every Day with Rachael Ray January/February 2012

These looked really good in the magazine, so I was excited to try them. I've previously made this other egg bacon cup thing, which was surprisingly easy and delicious, so I thought this might be a similar kind of hit.

Basically you separate the eggs, with all the whites in one bowl and the yolks kept individual. You whip up the whites until stiff, then add chopped bacon and chives. This is piled into a volcano shape and baked. Then, the yolks are dropped into the center and baked until set or, if you're like me, cooked through.

Rachael suggests putting the yolks into four small bowls, but the yolks come with their own handy bowls:

These were pretty good, although obviously dirties a few more dishes than the other bacon cups (which was just everything going raw, straight into a cupcake pan). But, they have a nice texture and look kind of cool, although mine ended up extra golden brown since I wanted the yolks hard. It made for a nice brunch.

Month 12 day 8: Another day, another white bean soup

Today I made:
Chicken and White Bean Soup, Cooking Light April 2011

When I asked G what he thought we should make this weekend, he chose this white bean soup, unsurprisingly. He loooves soup with white beans! This soup has chunks of chicken thigh meat, orzo, bacon, and then the typical onion, tomato, and herbs. We ate this with salad and some bread dipped in olive oil and vinegar, but between the beans and the orzo it was a pretty filling soup anyway.

Month 12 day 7: Tourtiere

Today I made:
Tourtiere, Cooking Light January/February 2010

Today I made this dish, which is essentially a chicken-pot-pie but pork instead, and with cinnamon and cloves. It's supposedly a dish that dates back to the Middle Ages.
I learned my lesson before and made sure to make my own crust instead of using store-bought dough like I did with the sausage turnovers last week. It was a really good dish! I was really happy with it. G came home to visit this weekend, so I was happy to have a dish that I was pretty sure he would enjoy in the oven waiting for him. It's got all the things you love about chicken-pot-pie (toasty crust, tender potatoes and vegetables, oozy gravy), but the cinnamon and cloves elevate it to something that seems fancy and special.

Month 12 day 6: "Healthy" cookies

Today I made:
Chocolate-Cherry Heart Smart Cookies, Cooking Light January/February 2010

((Didn't take a photo, but they look like normal chocolate chip oatmeal cookies))

Tonight was the inaugural meeting of a book club to discuss "The Secret Thoughts of Successful Women." We're going to discuss its 12 chapters over 4 meetings. In addition to some carrots and fruit and other things, I made these cookies to serve. They are described in the magazine as not being bad for you. I guess, sure there is a bit of whole-wheat flour and oats, but I think it's funny that sometimes it seems like people use brown sugar instead of white or something and then it's healthy. Or bittersweet chocolate instead of milk chocolate. Just because there are dried cherries and oatmeal doesn't make something healthy... it is still a cookie :-P But given that it is described as "healthy" I decided that it means I can eat leftovers for breakfast. It's basically like eating oatmeal, amirite??

These are pretty good, although I am not really into dried cherries. The dried cherries cost like $8, too. They're just too .... sour? sweet? not sure. They're just too much something, and they don't taste like normal cherries, which are some of the best things ever. I will keep this recipe as a base, but I don't think I'll put in dried cherries next time.

Month 12 day 5: Pork and Bell peppers

Today I made:
Post-Roasted Pork with Sweet Peppers, Every Day with Rachael Ray

This recipe is for a pork loin that's browned, then added to a kind of a soup of onion and bell pepper and tomato to be cooked through. Since I was just making it for me, instead of using a large pork loin I just used a couple boneless pork chops. So this probably really altered the texture and whatnot.

This didn't have a whole lot of flavor to it, although the sauteed-then-boiled bell peppers were very good. As I've said before, we already have a pork and bell pepper recipe we love, so I am not keeping this recipe. When I searched for this recipe on Rachael Ray's website, I found several other better looking pork and bell pepper recipes too :-P

Month 12 day 4: Chicken and Bell peppers

Today I made:
Roast Chicken with Balsamic Bell Peppers, Cooking Light January/February 2010
with non-marscapone mashed potatoes

Once when G and I first started getting involved in our dorm's house government, we had a long night of interviews for the various officer positions we'd be managing all year long. We had just about 30 minutes and were lamenting that there was no time for dinner, but I sent G off to his first interview and got to work in the kitchen (I didn't need to be there until the second interview). Following one of the Cooking Light's quick recipes, I whipped up a pork tenderloin with balsamic bell peppers served on pasta alongside a salad. G was floored, and he couldn't believe I made it so fast. We've made it since then, and I've never found it to be quite as good as in my memory, but it's still something G loves. It was our first time cooking with pork tenderloin and we've been set on that cut ever since. I think we'll always remember that meal.

Anyway, so this recipe sparked my memory, and I wanted to try it out. It's fairly similar, with rosemary, garlic, balsamic vinegar, and red and yellow bell peppers. I used chicken tenderloin, actually, although I didn't realize the coincidence until just now :) But this chicken is rubbed with fennel seeds before getting baked, which adds quite a different note. It's pretty good. The recipe was paired with one for marscapone mashed potatoes, but I forgot to pick up marscapone so just made normal noes. Pretty good! But, I don't know if G would let me make this-- I think he'd just want the pork :)

Month 12 day 3: Savory Sausage Turnovers, or why you should always make your own pie crust

Today I made:
Savory Sausage Turnovers, Cooking Light April 2011

These looked really good, with yummy ingredients in the filling like bell pepper, sausage, basil, spinach, and potato. And, it was a quick recipe-- my cutoff for "quick" tagged recipes is 40 minutes, and this promised to take 39. This is made possible by using refrigerated pie dough-- the filling is quickly sautéed, and the other half of the time is hands-off baking time.
I'd never bought pie dough before, except maybe the kind that comes already in the pie pan. So I wasn't really sure what kind to buy, and I just grabbed one. Since it was straight from the fridge, it cracked all over when I tried to form it. I ended up not being able to roll it out well, so I just used a lot of it, still thick. Still, I was excited to see these come out of the oven all crumbly and toasty brown.
But as it turns out, pre-made pie crust doesn't always taste so great. In fact, this was just straight up awful! I ended up just cutting it open and eating out the filling from the inside, trying to remove as many crumbs from it as possible :-/
Definitely these are worth making again, as the filling is quite good! It would be good in other things too, like maybe an omelet or as a calzone filling. Or just with homemade pie crust :)

I froze the rest of these to take down to G in NY when I visited him. He said he liked them and didn't mention the crust. Too polite?

Month 12 day 2: a salty souffle

Finally it's time to cook again after so many days of leftovers!
Today I made:
Best-Ever Cheese Souffle, Food & Wine January 2011
served with sauteed mushrooms

Well, this is superlative something. Maybe not the best ever though. Probably "saltiest ever" cheese souffle. Cheese is salty! There's no way around it. Especially Parmigiano-Reggiano. It definely didn't need 1.25 tsp of additional salt. This souffle also suffered from me not having a souffle dish, or any dish of the right size, for that matter. It was supposed to use a 1.5 qt souffle pan. Somehow I figured the 3 qt Dutch oven would be the best bet. Unsurprisingly, it ended up being just completely flat, only about 1 inch tall. It was still airy and fluffy (with the egg whites whipped so much, it couldn't not be), but definitely not impressive in the same way it would have been if it had climbed up and spilled out of a correctly-sized dish.

(leftovers ended up being really good with the last remaining bits of salsa from last time's burritos!)

Month 12 day 1: A bunch of TexMex

Last month! This month there are 5 issues:

• Cooking Light, January/February 2010
• Cooking Light, April 2011 (this one was hidden somewhere until April was passed)
• Food & Wine, January 2011
• Every Day with Rachael Ray, January/February 2012
• Saveur, January/February 2012

Today I made a lot of things:

Chipotle Bean Burritos with Guacamole, Cooking Light January/February 2010

Three-Bean Vegetarian Chili, Cooking Light January/February 2010

Frito Pie, Saveur January/February 2012 (<-- the reviews on this one are kind of funny)

Upside-Down Fudge Almond Tart, Cooking Light January/February 2010

(burritos aren't that photographic from the outside)

First we had lunch, and one of G's friends came over to chat before he heads to NY for an internship. He's vegetarian, so I made these protein-packed burritos with a mix of black beans and kidney beans. I made the guac that goes along with them too, but we put it in with the burritos along with the chips on the side. We should make guacamole more often-- it's always so good.

Then later for dinner, we had friends over again! It was time to see G off. I made two chilis-- a vegetarian 3-bean chili and a Frito pie. G made cornbread. In this picture, the Frito pie is on the left and the bean chili is on the right. There is a ton left of each, so I'm not going to be cooking again for a while :-/ But it was good! Especially the Frito pie. The vegetarian chili was just meh, nothing too special.

For dessert I made this fudge-almond tart. It's supposed to be served upside down, but it kind of stuck to the springform pan, and so it didn't come out pretty at all. Instead of inverting onto a plate, it had to be just served right-side up, straight from the pan. But it tasted good! You can't see, but there are roasted almonds studding the bottom (supposed to be top) of the tart, and the rest is a fudgy brownie sort. There's a lot of this left over too! I will be eating well :)

Month 11 day 17: Chard

Today I made:
Pine-Nutty Swiss Chard [and kale], Every Day with Rachael Ray
served with leftover Korean BBQ and a baked sweet potato

We've been having leftover Korean BBQ for lunch and dinner today. I had meant to make this chard side to go with the Sunday Sauce earlier this week, but forgotten. So this was the last of the December recipes. On to January, the 12th and final month!!

There's not too much to say about this recipe, as it's just chard sautéed in a mix of butter and olive oil with some garlic and onion. But it tastes good! I added in a little kale too since we had some extra.

That's it for December recipes! Just one more month!

My favorite:
Curried eggs on toast for brunch, then Thai fish chowder for dinner with these potatoes on the side