Apps from the freezer

Tonight was Open Doors Night, a biannual event at our dorm. The past two times we've gone easy and just put together a cheese platter and some truffles or other chocolate. This time, emboldened by his success with the meatball sliders he made for Superbowl, G wanted us to make some of the other recipes in the group. The theme was appetizers that can be made very quickly from a small number of ingredients, mostly from the frozen food section or pantry. The meatball sliders for example used frozen meatballs.

Today we made:
Chicken 'N' Mini Waffles, Every Day with Rachael Ray November 2013
Lemony-Dill Salmon Cakes, Every Day with Rachael Ray November 2013
Bacon-Tater Bites, Every Day with Rachael Ray November 2013
Ginger-Miso Sweet Pea Spread, Food & Wine December 2010 (not pictured)

The chicken and waffles sounded really cool, except for the fact that it literally is just a chicken nugget on top of an Eggo mini waffle. There's not too much to it! But luckily there is a sauce, which made it seem like it was something. The sauce is just honey and Sriracha (6:1), but is pretty tasty.
The lemony salmon cakes were a bit more complex. It's smoked salmon on top of a blend of feta, cream cheese, and lemon zest, on top of a mini pancake. The feta/cream cheese mix was kind of odd, but good, and the Aunt Jemima Frozen Lil' Griddles Mini-Pancakes were nice and sweet :)
The bacon-tater bites were just bacon wrapped around tater tots. We didn't make the sour cream + chive dip.
Individually, these were each super easy. But, since they were all frozen things, there wasn't a whole lot of space in the oven! So it was hard to get everything together and be warm at the same time. We baked the waffles and chicken nuggets separately, although I guess you could have baked them as assembled units to save on space if you wanted. The pancakes could be microwaved, but the tater tots and bacon needed to be cooked briefly separately before being wrapped and then baked for longer. That was a sight to be seen. Basically, the bacon and probably the tater tots too were just sweating grease. We poured off a lot after the first bake, but when we checked on them later during the second bake to see if they were crispy, they were just bathed in grease! I guess that's what makes them taste so good....
Almost everything was eaten, except a couple of the salmon pancakes and two waffles which were left behind by someone who just took off the chicken nuggets (!)
Noticing that these three apps all had meat, I wanted to make a veggie option too. I made this ginger-miso sweet pea spread, which is incidentally also from a frozen food. It's thawed frozen peas blended with green onions, ginger, jalapeño, and some miso. It makes for a kind of strange flavor combination. Everyone, upon hearing the ingredients, was really excited to try it. But, I don't think that many people went back for seconds or thirds. It's a little too odd, or maybe everyone was just full from bacon. I wonder if it would be better with edamame or something instead of the green peas.

Superbowl Spread

Today I made:
Meatball Sub Sliders, Every Day with Rachael Ray November 2013
Veggie Taco Bowls (made as a layered dip, not put into bowls), Family Circle September 2013
Tricolor Trio-- Kale, White Bean, what Chile Crostini, Every Day with Rachael Ray December 2013
Sweet Chile Hot Wings Drumsticks , Every Day with Rachael Ray January/February 2013
Guacamole

So I've never really watched football. I don't think G really does either, but anyway on Saturday he was bemoaning the fact that all of our friends were going to be watching the Super Bowl and we hadn't been invited to anyone's parties. (...maybe because we are homebodies who don't often go to parties even when we are invited...) I suggested that we throw our own party, because it would be fun to do the cooking thing, and we sent an email out to the dorm to see who else was "homeless" for the event. It turned out to be a party's worth! 

I've never been to a Super Bowl party, but the Internet told me that you've got to have some sort of wings, some sliders, chips and dips, and some veggie sticks (gotta pretend to be healthy, right?). We selected several recipes that seemed like they'd be pretty quick.

Although each dish was less than 15 minutes of hands on time, I started a few hours before the party to do whatever seemed like it could be done in advance. And at this leisurely pace, it took up basically the whole time until people arrived.

The sweet chile hot drumsticks were definitely the star food, and they got eaten up quickly. They're just slow cooked with soy sauce, honey, and sriracha (4:4:1 ratio, plus broth or water to cover) for a few hours, then broiled to get nicer looking. After slow cooking they looked pretty gross, but after baking they looked much nicer. We ended up baking them for longer than recommended, because the slow cooker took a while to get up to speed and we wanted to make sure it was cooked through.

The close second hit were the meatball subs. That was G's pick to make. They all got eaten too, and we made a second batch partway through the evening which also got devoured even though everyone was pretty full by that point. They're simply assemblies of purchased items, so they're very easy. It's jarred marinara, frozen meatballs, and slider buns. The buns are broiled with cheese (we used provolone), the meatballs are heated up in the marinara, and other than that it's just a bit of torn up basil.

The odd-one-out was the kale and white bean crostini. Too healthy? Not flavorful enough amongst all the other intensely spiced items? At the end of the evening we had several of these left, along with some dips. We repurposed the veggie taco bowl filling (beans, corn, spices) as quesadilla filling the next day for dinner.

Month 11 day 8: Vanilla-spiced Nuts and buttermilk chicken

Today I made:
Vanilla-Spice Nuts, Cooking Light December 2010
and G made:
Buttermilk Ranch Chicken, Every Day with Rachael Ray December 2011 (not pictured)

Originally I tried to organize a cookie exchange party for today, but only one person signed up :( He decided to make cookies anyway and bring them to G and me, so I made these nuts to share with him. I also baked up some brown sugar cookies from dough that has been in our freezer, but they all got stuck to the cookie sheet and broke :( I ended up eating them all myself instead of sharing the broken shards. These nuts were super easy to make, but I wasn't sure about the flavor in the end. It tasted too strongly of egg for me.
We had another potluck to go to today, so while the nuts were in the oven I mixed up the marinade for the buttermilk ranch chicken. Then I had to tutor, so it was actually G who cooked the chicken up. He liked the recipe because it was easy (easy when someone does all the marinating for you ;) ). The chicken was really juicy-- maybe because of the buttermilk? It all got eaten at the potluck, so I guess other people liked it too!

Month 11, day 7: Chickpea Crostini

Today I made:
Chickpeas and Spinach with Smoky Paprika, Cooking Light December 2010

Tonight was a lab holiday party, which is a potluck. Our professor makes turkey and ham, so we're supposed to bring sides or desserts-- but the desserts are always in a different room and almost never get touched, so it's really better to bring a side. It's hard to think of side dishes though! I chose to make this crostini topper, which I figured would be tasty even at room temperature. In fact, we cooked this in the Dutch oven and carried it in a cardboard box so it didn't burn my lap in the car, and so it was still pretty warm when we got to the party. Unfortunately, we got there too late to make a label that indicated that it went with the bread, so I think people were just eating it like a stew. Oh well, I guess it's still good that way. I thought it was pretty tasty, and it's not to difficult either.

Month 9 day 11: Pear and goat cheese salad

Today I made:
Mixed Lettuce, Pear, and Goat Cheese Salad with Citrus Dressing, Cooking Light October 2010

Tonight our dorm had a pizza-making competition. G planned to take part, but ended up being too busy to email our team leader with a list of ingredients, so we ended up just going at the end to see if the other people needed help. We only helped by putting a pizza in our oven. But anyway, we knew that we would be eating pizza during the judging part, so I just made a light dinner.

When G and I first started dating, pear and goat cheese salad was our "thing." For some reason quite a few restaurants we went to together had it on the menu, so we started always ordering it. We haven't had it for a while, but when I saw the recipe I wanted to make it. According to the reviews, the citrus dressing is a keeper. But I don't think I used enough, so I didn't really get a strong flavor from it. I'll have to put on more dressing tomorrow to see if it was really good. Anyway, it's easy enough, so we'll probably keep the dressing recipe as long as it's decent.

Month 9 day 4: Apple quesadillas

Today I made:
Brie, Apple, and Arugula Quesadillas, Cooking Light October 2010

We love the show "Modern Family," and one of G's favorite lines is when Cam says something about PB&J sandwiches: "pear, brie, and jambon." This kind of reminded me of that, even though it's apple instead of pear and I guess arugula instead of any meat, so I wanted to try it. We needed a light meal since we planned to go to our dorm's special Indian coffee hour. As it turns out, we lost track of time as I read "Cuckoo's Calling" and G played Diablo 3 and missed it. But after two quesadillas each we were pretty full anyway.

I was kind of sure that G wouldn't really care for this actually, as he doesn't care for mustard and when we were at the store he said that he doesn't like brie much. He was a good sport and ate his, and then we made another one without the mustard for him, with mostly mozzarella. I asked if I should still put arugula, and he said yes, but when he was eating it, he admitted that he doesn't really like arugula either. So basically, he would have just preferred to eat an apple! (>_<) So, we won't be saving this recipe... but maybe you will like it, as it is quite highly reviewed on CL's website.

Month 8 day 21: Corn fritters and caramel-lacquered pork belly

I spent a lot of today cooking! Both of these recipes are from restaurants, so they were a little involved but very impressive.

Today I made:
Corn Fritters with Roasted Tomatoes and Lime Aioli, Cooking Light September 2010
Caramel-Lacquered Pork Belly with Quick-Pickled Honeydew, Food & Wine September 2010

Can you see the corn fritters and roasted tomatoes under all that arugula?? The picture in the magazine had just a few sprigs, but the recipe called for a half-cup each layer!
The main downside of this recipe is just that the tomatoes roast in the oven for 1.5 hours. Ours might have been in a little longer (1.5 hours is enough time to get distracted!), and in the end they tasted like sun-dried tomatoes but with some juice still. We liked the roasted tomatoes and think they added some good flavor, but I wonder if this recipe could be turned into a just-as-good quick recipe by using fresh tomatoes or cutting up some sun-dried ones for inside of the corn fritters or something like that.
The corn fritters are kind of like a pancake batter with scallions and fresh corn inside. They're quite small, but they cook quickly and are straightforward.
On top is a piece of prosciutto and a lime (and lemon in our case, since I ran out of lime juice) aioli.
I think if I were going to make (and photograph) this again, instead of making a tower, I would put a bed of arugula on the dish and then alternate the fritters and tomatoes overlapping (like a Caprese salad). It is sort of intimidating and difficult to eat something that is towering anyway!
This recipe is almost vegetarian, and I think it could easily work for breakfast, lunch, brunch, or as an appetizer.

Not too long after lunch it was already time to start on dinner, which takes 4 hours in addition to overnight curing :-P Although, it was a little faster for us because we could only buy pre-sliced pork belly instead of one two-pound slab and I didn't wait for it to cool down fully (I didn't understand the logic of this step, unless it was supposed to slow down cooking in the second roast, but given our thin slices I figured it was a lost cause anyway, so no point in waiting).

Although this recipe takes a long time, there aren't really that many steps-- they just each take a while. It's rubbed with some sugar and an excessive amount of salt, which is supposed to get washed off later but didn't! This was super fatty and super salty-- I am pretty thirsty now. But since I've been getting dizzy every time I stood up today, it's probably good to have eaten this! Raise the blood pressure up a bit.

Then the pork is roasted (braised? There's some water in the dish), and it leaked out sooo much extra liquid. I'm not sure if that was juices from the meat or fat that was getting liquified. Then it's supposed to just cool completely. Meanwhile, you heat some sugar until it caramelizes, then stop the cooking with some water and then add a bit of flavors-- fish sauce, tamarind paste, chile, and lime juice. Then the pork is added back in and roasted again until everything gets coated, concentrated, and crunchy.

During one of these long waits, the honeydew is just cut up and mixed with some flavors and "pickled" for about an hour.

This was our first use of the Dutch oven!! It did a great job. I wish I had taken a picture when it came out of the oven! It was completely covered in solidified caramel, but after heating up some water everything scrubbed off perfectly. So much nicer than our cast iron skillet :)

We liked this, but I hope in the future I can wash off more of the salt-- it definitely required a lot of white rice and honeydew to balance it out. The flavors were rich and good-- it did seem like a restaurant recipe! The honeydew scent reminded me of something I used to get at a restaurant as a kid maybe, but I think it used to be with cucumber instead of honeydew. I only used half the melon thinking that we might not like this, but it was pretty good after all.

Month 7 day 15: Asian-inspired sandwiches and spring rolls

Today I wanted to make Saveur's Jiyou Jun Bao Ji. But Shaw's didn't have four of the ingredients, so I realized that was a no go (ok, so they did have dried chanterelle mushrooms, but 1 lb fresh ~ 3 oz dried which would have cost over $20. So, no).

Instead, today I made:
Asian-style veggie rolls, Cooking Light August 2010
Peanut-sauced chicken pitas, Cooking Light August 2011

These two recipes go well together, because they both contain a lot of the same fresh vegetables. So it takes a while to wash and cut everything, but once you do it's just mixing-and-matching, and no cooking.

When I was in Japan, a few of my friends and I made the "Shimizu Cooking Club." If I recall correctly, it was because our friend Mark was hopeless in the kitchen, and we wanted to help him learn a thing or two. Basically, we each took turns planning a 3-course menu, and then we'd gather at someone's house and make it and eat it together. It was a lot of fun. One of the members can make some great, authentic Vietnamese food, so among other things she taught us how to make spring rolls, with either shrimp or boiled pork in them. Spring rolls are great, but they're always so expensive to buy, so I thought I would make them again.

But Linna would be so disappointed in these...

I think I got a little too greedy with the amount of stuffing. The wrappers ripped and the ends couldn't even fold in to contain everything!

Halfway through, these rolls decided they would become a salad instead.

 Fine, have it your way. Tomorrow I guess I will have the leftovers as a salad too, since I don't think a premade one would hold up overnight and it might be a little obnoxious to be rolling spring rolls in the lunch room :-P

These were fine, but I do think spring rolls are better with some shrimp or pork in them! Or I needed to be a little more heavy-handed with the dipping sauce. As it was, there wasn't a whole lot of flavor, just the mint and cilantro basically. But still, they are very fresh and have good crunch.

These pitas were easy to make, as they started with precooked rotisserie chicken and are flavored by jarred peanut satay sauce. Other than that, they essentially have the same cut vegetables as the spring rolls.
This was good, but the peanut satay sauce jar costs like $4 and apparently is only good for 3 days after opening! I guess I will try to freeze it or something.

Month 7 day 7: Chickpeas and Crostini

Today is brought to you by the letter "C":
Eggplant Crostini, Cooking Light August 2010
Cumin-Spiced Chickpeas and Carrots on Cous Cous, Cooking Light August 2011

 These crostini were *really good*. I wanted to just keep eating them. It's a recipe from a restaurant in Chicago or something like that. It's kind of similar to baba ganoush, but is easier to make because the eggplant is just (somewhat quickly) grilled instead of being charred, baked, and peeled. The only problem is that the salad doesn't want to stay on top, so it's a little messy unless your baguette slices are wide. But this is a great appetizer and could turn into a great sandwich too.

The chickpeas are fine, but they're not that special. I feel like some sort of sauteed or steamed chickpea with carrots and bell pepper shows up a lot in Cooking Light's "Enlightened Cooking" section (where the vegetarian recipes are). The lemon here is a nice touch. I probably would have enjoyed this more if I wasn't already full from eating the crostini. I will still save this recipe, because I think G will like it more than other chickpea dishes served over quinoa :-P