One Grocery Bag, 3 Great Meals

This week I made:
Chicken Turkey Meatball & Vegetable Soup, Every Day with Rachael Ray January/February 2014
Chicken Turkey & Broccoli Stromboli, Every Day with Rachael Ray January/February 2014
Asian Chicken Turkey Lettuce Cups, Every Day with Rachael Ray January/February 2014

These three recipes were grouped as 3 great meals that could be made with one grocery bag. It kind of seems like most three meals could probably fit in one bag, but I guess this is special because you should be able to pass through the express lane since it's just 10 unique items (although I feel like 2 cans would count as 2 items for express lane purposes. And the express line doesn't let you get your Monopoly tickets to participate in this year's edition of the frustratingly-never-even-win-$2 promotion).

The shopping list:

We had an incredibly cold, windy, snowy, rainy day on Thursday, so it was great to follow up with a warm bowl of soup.

This soup was very fast and easy. A lot of the seasoning just comes from the Italian-style canned tomatoes. The onion and carrot are sauteed a little first, but then the broccoli, orzo, and meatballs are just cooked in the broth so it simmers for a little while. I don't usually use Italian-style tomatoes, but it's nice to think that with that and some random vegetables you could make a soup almost any time. I guess that sprinkling in some Italian seasoning isn't the time-consuming step, though :-P And don't seasoned tomatoes probably have more sodium or something bad like that? Oh well.

For Valentine's Day we ate in and I made stromboli:

I don't know if this is really a stromboli though. I guess it's more like a calzone except it's log-shaped. A stromboli (according to Google) seems more like a roll. Like a cinnamon roll with salami and cheese instead of cinnamon. But this one was just closed up (and barely... I didn't do a good job rolling out the dough and so it got a lot of hole) as a tube, not a pinwheel. The filling was onion, broccoli, ground turkey, and cheese, and it was topped with more Italian-style tomatoes. So... a lot more of the same flavors as the previous dish. But I guess if it tasted good the first time, it's not bad to have it a second time? I used a pillsbury can of whole wheat pizza dough, and it tasted better than I expected it to.

On Monday we finished up the trio of meals with these lettuce cups:

The problem is that butter lettuce really doesn't want to make cups. This was the super messiest meal to eat. It tasted fine, although it wasn't anything too extremely compelling.

Pasta, Orange buns, and Stoup

This week I made:

Chicken Ragu with Fennel, Every Day with Rachael Ray January/February 2014

Sweet Orange Buns, Saveur January/February 2012

Sausage, Zucchini & Potato Stoup, Every Day with Rachael Ray January/February 2014

Thursday I made this pasta with ground turkey, fennel, and half-and-half. It was ok, but nothing too special. Unfortunately I didn't give the flat fettuccini enough of a stir after first putting it in the pot, so some of the noodles clumped together, becoming super thick masses that were quite al dente, in a bad way :-(

But while that was being eaten, these babies were in the oven:

I made the dough, filling, and rolled these out the night before, and they sat in the fridge until tonight. I baked them for the final meeting of book club. They were pretty ridiculously sweet and buttery, definitely needing some straight tea to mellow it out. The filling is two sticks of butter plus 3 cups of powdered sugar along with some zest, extracts, and more sugar (brown this time). It's about a centimeter tall once it all gets smeared on top of the dough! Of course, during baking that basically all just melts, such that you end up with these rolls sitting in a bath of melted sugar-butter about halfway up the sides. They have you use a bit more of the filling mixed with a bit of orange juice to drizzle, but it just seemed so excessive and not even different (how does adding 1 Tbs juice to 1/4 cup frosting even make it more like icing? Seems like icing needs less liquid, not more, or else it just melted in instantly).

We enjoyed the leftovers for breakfasts and such :)

On Friday we warmed up after a cold day with this stoup:

I thought I had a lot of extra Italian sausage in the freezer, but didn't. Instead of just skimping, I used up some other sausage that was in our freezer-- a fully-cooked chicken sausage with apple and sweet maple syrup. Um, this did not fit in well. The rest was hearty and savory, but then you'd have these cloying bites of this sausage with a weird texture to boot. It would have been better without it, and on my second bowl I started fishing it out. The rest of it was great and used up the rest of the fennel from the earlier pasta. As a kid, we used to eat a similar soup basically every week as per my sister's demands. I named it "rainbow soup" because it had so many colorful ingredients, but I think I was the only one who called it that. I guess the only similarities are ground meat (but sausage instead of ground beef), potatoes, onion, garlic, and tomatoes. I'm not sure what makes this a "stoup"-- it's pretty much the definition of a soup.

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 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 14: This dinner brought to you by the color yellow

Today I made:
Buttery Pigeon [yellow split] Pea Dal (Mitti Handi Dal), Food & Wine December 2010
Spiced Potatoes (Aloo Bhaji), Food & Wine December 2010
Served with Trader Joe's garlic naan and chai tea (decaf Tetley's British Blend simmered with cloves, cardamom, a cinnamon stick, and milk)

Today I made an Indian dinner. The grocery store didn't have quite exactly all the spices called for, or pigeon peas for that matter, so we had to make a few substitutions, but it ended up being pretty good. There was a lot of tumeric in everything, which is why everything is so yellow. Also a lot of cumin seeds. These are both pretty quick recipes, taking about 30 minutes of hands on time each (the peas take an additional ~30 minutes of soaking first), so that was nice. They were pretty flavorful too. I didn't have quite 2 lbs of yukon gold potatoes, so I threw in a sweet potato (a white-fleshed kind) in just for fun. It looked identical to the normal potatoes, but every once in a while you'd get a very sugary piece! Kind of fun.

Month 11 day 11: Thai fish chowder

Today I made:
Thai Fish Chowder, Every Day with Rachael Ray December 2011

Mom saw this recipe on my list and thought it sounded really good. It was a really fast, one-pot recipe, so I think it had that appeal too after yesterday's multi-hour, multi-dirty-dish, pokey croquembouche adventure. It has very few ingredients (it's in the $12 dinner section of the magazine), with no prep since it uses coleslaw mix. We couldn't get green curry paste at Trader Joe's, so we used about a third of a bottle of their green curry simmer sauce. It did end up costing just about $12 and 10-20 minutes. It tasted great, too! Nice and fresh. This recipe is definitely a keeper.

Today we also assembled a yule log (of sorts) from the extra cream filling from the croquembouche. Mom made a cake from one of her cookbooks, since the recipe I had in mind from Saveur had pretty poor reviews. Since we used filling and not normal frosting, it came out pretty terrible looking and the "branch" on top slipped off! Oh well, it tasted good. Luckily we had some plastic decorations that made it look more deliberate.

Nailed it!

Month 11 day 2: Chili

Today I made:
White Bean and Hominy Chili, Cooking Light December 2011

This was a very good meal, although I didn't follow the recipe exactly. It' supposed to be vegetarian, with meatless chipotle sausage. We have so many types of sausage in our freezer that I didn't want to add another, so I used half of a Portuguese chorico sausage. To compensate for the lack of chipotle flavor, I put in a little adobo sauce while sautéing the sausage. I also only used one poblano chile instead of two and left out the Tabasco because I was nervous about this being too spicy-- I think poblanos are supposed to be pretty mild, but when I tasted a piece it seemed pretty punchy. In the end it wasn't spicy at all though, so I probably could have used both and been fine. I guess the heat evens out when it mixes with everything else. The hominy, beans, chile, and sausage all had slightly different textures, so it kept it interesting.
For a <40 minute meal, this is nice and flavorful! Definitely a keeper, I thought. G said "just ok," though.

Month 11 day 1: Squash, Soup, Pork, and Biscuits

Month 11!
I have six issues:

• Food Network Magazine, December 2009
• Food & Wine, December 2010
• Cooking Light, December 2010
• Cooking Light, December 2011
• Every Day with Rachael Ray, December 2011
• Saveur, December 2011

Since I'll be going home for a bit, I doubt I'll be able to make a dent in these recipes, especially since there are just sooo many cookie (and other baking) recipes. But maybe I will just have to clip some recipes to bring home with me to make there!

Today I made:
Sweet & Savory Spaghetti Squash, Every Day with Rachael Ray November 2011
Apple-Cheddar-Squash Soup, Food Network Magazine December 2009
Pork Tenderloin with Herbed Biscuits, Cooking Light December 2011

For lunch I made the squash that I forgot to make yesterday. It's a spaghetti squash cut in half, and then one is filled with savory spices and the other is filled with sweet spices. Both contain liberal amounts of butter, which melts and looks like this:

 It's a bath of butter.

But once it gets stirred into the rest of the squash it evens out and takes on the characteristic "spaghetti" look:

 I thought this was fun to have two different flavors in one. They're both very simple to put together, it's just that it takes a long time to bake. I'm sure this could be done in the microwave, though, to make this a faster side dish. Anyway though, it takes about 5 minutes of hands-on time and then goes in the oven for 55 minutes while you could be making the rest of the dinner. As I predicted, G liked the sweet one the best. I think I liked the savory one the best. It's good to have both!

For dinner I made this soup with pork tenderloin and biscuits. The pork and biscuits recipe is designed to be a main course for a casual (or more formal-- you choose) dinner party. The tenderloin is just browned and then roasted (whole) for about 20 minutes before being sliced. It doesn't have any seasoning besides salt and pepper, and the sauce is just a 4:1 mix of Dijon : maple syrup. (I wondered which would win-- G hates mustard but loves maple syrup. The mustard won out, probably because it's the more obvious ingredient visually. And tastewise too, I guess.) The biscuits have more flavor, with fresh sage and thyme and buttermilk. I was using powdered buttermilk, so I put in a half packet (halving the recipe), but then for some reason filled the measuring cup with 1-5/8 cup water instead of just 5/8 cup. I poured in most, (cleverly thinking, a little too late, that I should add it gradually in case it didn't need it all) and it was way too soupy. I considered adding more flour, but thought that might make them too dense unless I also supplemented the baking powder and soda, so ended up just deciding to see what happens. What happens is that the biscuits flow into each other a bit before the oven heat seals the edges, and then they don't rise basically at all. But they are surprisingly fluffy despite this, and taste great. It's too bad that they got messed up, because I was really looking forward to seeing how the texture was since I bought myself a pastry cutter finally on Black Friday. Well, next time! The biscuits are supposed to be cut in half to make a sandwich, but we couldn't do that.

The soup was pretty straightforward but flavorful, with tart apple and sweet butternut squash. It's topped with cooked prosciutto, which is quite salty. I wondered why not bacon, if you're going to cook it anyway, and it seems that many other reviewers just went for bacon instead. G liked it, but didn't like cleaning up the blender afterwards, since it had melted cheese that stuck everywhere! We need an immersion blender! Other than the blending step, this soup is pretty hands-off and is a great taste for fall.

Month 10 day 17: Fast chipotle chicken soup

Today I made:
Chipotle Chicken Stoup, Every Day with Rachael Ray, November 2011
Super-concentrated cider syrup

Rachael Ray likes to use the term "stoup" to refer to a soup that is especially thick and hearty like a stew. But I don't think it really applies here at all. This recipe claims to serve four, but it was really just three bowls full-- one for me and two for G. This is to be expected, since it's basically like a 5-ingredient recipe-- chicken; hominy; broth; lettuce, cilantro, and radishes; and flavorings. I added in some extra green onions and a little cheese on mine, but really this was pretty light. If you just put the 1/4 lb chicken, 4 oz hominy, and lettuce and radishes on a plate, it would look very meager and sad. It's like something your people would eat in Oregon Trail.

Anyway, this was fine given that there were two of us, but there were no leftovers, and if we really had been trying to serve a family of four, this would have been a problem :-P The chipotle chiles in adobo sauce gave the broth quite the spicy kick! So it ended up tasting good anyway.

After dinner I wanted to make some mulled cider from the ~1.5 cups of cider we had in our fridge. I put in a bag of mulling spices and set it on the stove.

A while later I remembered this, and I also realized that instead of setting it on low, it was at a rapid boil, and had been for maybe ten minutes or so. There wasn't much left:

And what was left was quite thick! It had reduced down to a very thick syrup. Funny how things never reduce when I want them to, only when I forget about them. We tried sips, and it was sooo tart. G said it tasted like candy. We ended up adding some soda water to make a mulled-cider Italian soda. It foamed up a ton and ended up being pretty good! With the addition of the water, it was basically back to its normal concentration, and just tasted like mulled sparkling cider. G joked that we might buy another liter to do this on purpose! But I do prefer normal hot mulled cider.

Month 10 day 15: White bean soup

Today I made:
White Bean Soup with Kale Spinach and Chorizo Chorico, Cooking Light November 2010
Served with baked sweet potatoes

It's back to just the two of us again.

I was already hungry when I got home, but we didn't have anything to cook with on hand. Then, when I went to Shaw's, they had no kale and had rearranged their produce section (again). I started getting pretty hangry, but eventually just grabbed some spinach and got cooking. It's sad though, because kale in soup is one of the best things ever.

The other day G said we should make a white bean soup (specifically). When I asked why white beans, he observed that we've made a few soups with white beans in it, and those have been good. True, but I don't know if the beans are to credit. This soup was a little funny, for example, maybe because of the lack of kale :( Shaw's doesn't carry Spanish chorizo, but it has Portuguese chorico, which is apparently quite similar. The one they have isn't very flavorful though, so it just doesn't add much to the soup at all. Then, some of the beans were supposed to get mashed, which thickened the soup a little but made it a less enjoyable texture, I think. There really wasn't that much seasoning in this soup, and I wasn't impressed. Which is weird, because a soup I really like is essentially the same except for a can of tomatoes and subbing spicy portuguese sausage for the chorico. I dunno-- is it really just the tomatoes? Or would this have been amazing if it weren't for the spinach? I would really appreciate it if the grocery store could have some things more consistently :-P

In other news, I really should eat more sweet potatoes. They are pretty perfect.

Month 10 day 8: Cinnabuns and turkey soup

Today I made:
Almost-Famous Cinnamon Buns, Food Network Magazine November 2009
Mexican Turkey Stew, Cooking Light November 2010

Since today was technically a holiday, we decided to go to lab a little late and have a nice breakfast. I made these cinnamon rolls the night before, so they puffed up in the fridge overnight and were pretty massive by the time they went into the oven-- there were only 6 in a 9x13 pan and they completely filled it!

 I've made cinnamon rolls once before, from my mom's recipe. She would always make it for Christmas morning breakfast, so last year I made it for our breakfast too. Those ones are not nearly as big, nor as chock-full of quite so much butter as is in these ones. But they are good! These come out very soft and delicious, but I think it's better to just eat half of one :-P

For dinner we had more turkey leftovers, in soup form.

Last night I let the turkey bones simmer for a few hours to make the broth for this soup. Since homemade broth tends to be less flavorful (or maybe just less salty?) than prefab, I used 7 cups of broth instead of half water as called for. This soup was pretty spicy! It has 3 Anaheim chiles in it, which I always think of as being pretty mild. I have a cold, so my nose was running anyway, but G's nose started running too. I think this is a pretty good soup for when you're sick! It probably has all of the benefits as chicken noodle, but it also has enough spice to clear out your sinuses. It's topped with pumpkin seeds, scallions, and cheese (supposed to be queso fresco; we used feta). It should have radishes too, but the grocery store was all out :-P

We still have ~1 gallon full of leftover turkey meat! We'll probably have to freeze it and use it later.

Month 9 day 12: Baked chicken and beans

Today I made:
Tuscan Baked Chicken and Beans, Cooking Light October 2010
served with leftover pear and goat cheese salad

Although I just cleared out all the chicken carcasses in the freezer to make broth this past weekend, I put a new one back in the freezer tonight. This recipe starts off by deconstructing a whole chicken into its various parts. Unfortunately, all recipes call for 3.5-lb roasting chickens, but I have never seen anything less than 7 lbs at Shaw's (other than the ~1-2 lb Cornish game hens). Where can you buy a chicken that small? Anyway, I've done this a few times, so it's no big deal except that I tend to be a bit of a germaphobe when handling raw meat, and pushing and pulling on chicken joints isn't great for that :-P Our normal knife was dirty so I was using one of G's "Henckels Eversharp" knives, which cut through the joints scarily well, and cut through the skin surprisingly poorly. I guess it's similar to those tools they use to remove casts, which cut hard things but don't cut skin. Anyway, it's a bit scary to use a knife of an unfamiliar weight and grip and see how easily it cuts through joints...
This was supposed to be all cooked up in a cast iron skillet. But even before adding the overly-large chicken, the beans and vegetables alone were to the brim! So I ended up transferring everything to a large 9x13 pyrex dish before baking. It just barely fit in that even.
The chicken was pretty juicy, and G liked the beans. Although there wasn't a lot of liquid added (except from the canned tomatoes), a lot must have come from the chicken because it was like a soup at the end. G said that even if we had just made the soup he would have liked it. The recipe claimed a yield of 4 servings, but for us it is definitely at least 6, maybe just because our chicken was so large.

This is a good dish for a cool autumn evening. It's a little bit involved, with the cutting of the chicken and then cooking each item individually before putting everything back together and baking. But as the recipe points out, there's a lot of work up front and then it bakes for 40 minutes, giving you enough time to clean up and make a salad or something and relax before dinner. As such, I think it would be a good one for having company over.

Month 9 day 10: Beans and rice and an apple cider float

Today I made:
New Orleans Red Beans and Rice, Every Day with Rachael Ray October 2011
Apple Cider Floats,  Every Day with Rachael Ray October 2011

We got a new utensil carousel! I saw something like it on Groupon that didn't have the holder, so I went to Amazon and found this one. The utensils are designed in such a way that the head doesn't touch the counter when you lay it down, so you don't need a spoon rest and don't make a mess. We have tongs of this design. This one is a no-brand version, and so actually the ladle does touch the countertop :-P But, I look forward to this festive display and clearing out a little space in the drawer, which is always overly full and sometimes hard to shut.

A few of the recipes I've made recently (this, last week's feijoada, and yesterday's curry) are from a feature in Rachael Ray's magazine about traditional day-of-the-week meals. Sunday is an English roast and Yorkshire Pudding. Monday is this dish and Tuesday is the dish we made yesterday (whoops, we messed up the days). There apparently are no traditional foods on Wednesdays. Thursday is gnocchi, Friday is a Caribbean fish fry, and Saturday is feijoada. Apparently Monday is traditionally laundry day, and people would simmer these beans all day as they washed. This is a much simpler version, without ham hocks (although we have one of those in the freezer, so I would've liked to use it...). And actually, I forgot to add the cayenne, so it wasn't spicy at all. Also I used the leftover chorizo from the feijoada instead of using andouille sausage, which is probably what the recipe was relying on for a lot of the flavor. But anyway, even though the flavors weren't very complex, this was still a good dish, and it was very easy and pretty quick too. I got to use our Dutch oven, so I was happy :) It's a bit on the small side, so not all recipes work with it, so I'm happy when I still can use it without it overflowing.

For dessert we made these apple cider floats. It's just cider heated with a cinnamon stick, with a scoop of vanilla in it. I made the caramel sauce from 1:1:1 sugar : water : cream. The sugar is boiled in the water until it has largely evaporated away and starts to get foamy and brown. This transition is really fast, after a long, boring simmering stage, so I think it would be easy to miss. Once it's caramelized for a bit, pour in the cream and stir to mix it in. When I poured the cream in, it basically froze the caramel it touched first into a big hard clump stuck on my spoon! But it eventually evened out nicely. This was really sweet, mostly because the cider itself is very sweet... there was just a hint of caramel in each sip, and it did taste like a caramel apple! We didn't put in as much ice cream as the recipe called for because it was too solid to scoop easily. By the time I finished drinking, it had completely melted, and then seemed to have curdled a bit :-/ It might be better to use more ice cream so there is some left to eat at the end! I had a second scoop later with some of the extra caramel sauce :)

Month 9 day 8: Ribollita soup and pumpkin mousse

Today I made:
Quick Ribollita, Every Day with Rachael Ray October 2011
Danielle's Pumpkin-Pie Parfaits, Food Network Magazine October 2010

After last week's constant meat feast, (with the six cuts of meat that we bought >_< ) we're lightening up a bit this week and doing more beans and vegetables.

Ribollita is a traditional Italian soup with cannellini beans and bread (other ingredients vary). It's tagged in the magazine as a "gut-busting soup" which G interpreted as "diet food" and I interpreted in the opposite way (the magazine means it in the "hearty" sense). In the end though, I don't think this was gut-busting in either sense of the word. It was basically just tons of vegetables and felt really healthy, and despite the bread, it wasn't overly filling either. Just satisfying. We didn't care for the texture of the bread (I guess it's like a lazy person's dumplings), so we won't do that part next time. Instead, I'd prefer to serve some cheese on toast with this. 

I normally use "better than bouillon" any time I need broth (it's very good), but last week I both used up the last bit from the jar and stuffed the third chicken skeleton in the freezer. So, today I let that simmer with some random vegetables and herbs and used that for this soup. It was tasting really subtle until I added the salt, and then it magically turned into chicken broth.  

This is a good recipe for eating lots of vegetables, something we don't do enough! If it weren't for making the broth (and thus running out of appropriate-sized pots, since the broth is basically the last thing to be added), this would have been very fast too, supposedly just 30 minutes.

In addition to the vegetables and legumes this week, we're also having a different drink/dessert each night. There were just several that looked good, so I figured why not try them all and see what's best. We kicked it off with this pumpkin mousse:

The funny thing is that in the picture next to this recipe, it shows the parfait being in a tall cup this size, so many of the reviewers complain that it's definitely not 6 servings. But oh my gawwwd is it impossible to eat more than a serving... we scaled the recipe down to make 4, and I think we just barely managed to eat 1/4th of it before being done in. It's just so sweet and rich (G says, "fit for kings"), with strong white chocolate overtones (this might be my fault-- I was using a solid piece of chocolate instead of chips, so I couldn't really measure). It has surprisingly little pumpkin in it. In rank order of ingredients, it goes 1. cream, 2. powdered sugar, 3. white chocolate and pumpkin (tie in the recipe, but like I said I think I accidentally put in more chocolate). 

I don't really like this-- I don't care for white chocolate-- but G said it seemed like something that could be served at Craigie on Main (his favorite restaurant). They would've included the bourbon, though. If I recall correctly, the last time we went to Craigie they served us popcorn ice cream. So I don't think this is quite original enough for them. G countered that they even serve burgers at Craigie, so they're not restricted to fancy foods. But then he admitted that their burgers are injected with bone marrow. So, yeah-- I don't think they would serve this! 

Month 9 day 6: Feijoada #2

Today I made:
Brazilian Black Bean Stew, Every Day with Rachael Ray October 2011

We made feijoada once before from a Cooking Light recipe. I was curious to try Rachael Ray's recipe, which is supposed to only take one hour, to see how it holds up to the other one, which takes 10 hours (most of that is slow cooker time). Even though I added very little salt and basically no spices, it was quite salty (bacon?) and flavorful. The recipe called for it to be served next to collard greens, boiled and then briefly heated through with garlic (and bacon grease).

This was pretty good, and it's hard to remember the other recipe. But when I look back at that post, I realize that the consistency was really different. For that, the meat was so well-cooked that it just shredded itself, making a dense stew, whereas this is more like a soup with chunks of meat in a broth. I think if you have the time, you might as well do the slow cooker version. But if not, this is a good one too. I think it does take more than an hour, though.

Month 9 day 3: Autumn chili

Today I made:
Chipotle Turkey Chili with Apples and Cheddar, Every Day with Rachael Ray October 2011

We've been just flirting with fall weather, but in all other aspects it feels like fall has hit New England. The trees on my walk to work have changed color, squash and apples are filling the farmer's market boxes, and most everyone has taken a trip to go apple picking already. This soup is made for autumn with its apples, cider, cinnamon, and pumpkin seeds. It's a good recipe for people like me who just like to go instead of cutting and preparing everything in advance-- things are added one at a time so there's time along the way to prep things. By the end of 30 minutes (as claimed), this bowl of soup was ready. The dominant flavor was from the chipotles in adobo sauce (canned and available year-round, but used in two recipes this week-- I guess it's warming for cool weather?) There were a lot of other spices too--  full tablespoons each of coriander, cumin, and paprika as well as a big cinnamon stick-- but these didn't stick out so much. The liquid isn't added until basically the very end, which I thought was interesting, but I'm not sure if there's a particular reason why.

At the end I topped it with apple-smoked cheddar, but needed to add more! It's really good. I ate it with tortilla chips, but it would go really good with a fresh batch of cornbread too.

Month 8 day 12: Arepas and Etouffee... with guest chef G!

Today I made:
Arepas with Poblanos, Bacon and Eggs, Every Day with Rachael Ray September 2011

Today *G* made:
Chicken-and-Andouille normal-sausage-from-the-freezer Etouffee, Food & Wine September 2010

For lunch I made these arepas. I was intrigued because I always see food stands at festivals in Boston (or just in touristy areas like the Commons) selling arepas, and they always look so good but I'm not usually hungry. So great if I could learn to make them! Unfortunately they didn't turn out great-- I ran out of corn meal, but didn't reduce the milk accordingly. Instead of being able to form patties I had to just pour it into the pan like pancake batter. The corn was violently sputtering everywhere and got a lot of oil spots on my shirt, and the arepas kept sticking to the pan instead of letting me turn easily. I think we would have to try it again sometime :-P The eggs were just normal eggs. The chiles were hotter than we were expecting, since we've used this kind before in many dishes (chile rellenos, for example) and not noticed their heat. We'll keep the recipe, and I'll try again sometime with the full amount of corn meal. We found out this morning that Thich Nhat Hanh was in Boston today leading a meditation! But I chose to make lunch instead of going. Where are my priorities...

Tonight G both cooked AND did the dishes! As I went to slice the second half of the onion (this being the first ingredient I started to prepare), I sliced my thumb instead. It was kind of deep (but will be fine), so we decided it was best for me to just sit down with my hand in the air. My hardest job was to decide which カピバラさん band-aid to use. I opted for this one:

And I am glad that my manicure isn't too chipped, so it can wait until the cut heals to be redone. Ceramics tomorrow might suck though :(

G comments that once everything was chopped, it was pretty fast and easy to make this dish. He was impressed by the roux, I think. We just used a random sausage from our freezer, as I am trying to clear out our overflowing meat drawer. It was not the right kind, but it was a little spicy, so I think it did fine. Haha, I just noticed-- I'm pretty sure he did not use whole wheat flour as suggested, nor did he ask me where it was. Normally he likes to follow recipes closely, but he doesn't care for whole wheat usually (at least in pasta). I guess he used his chef's discretion :) I think this was pretty tasty! We'll keep this recipe.

Month 8 day 4: Cincinnati Chili

Today we made:
Cincinnati Turkey Beef Chili, Cooking Light September 2009
with Jack-Corn bread, Cooking Light September 2009

G made the cornbread while I made the chili and spaghetti, but the cornbread ended up taking longer to bake so it didn't make it into the picture.
I don't think I've ever eaten cincinnati chili before, but I guess what sets it apart is serving it on spaghetti and including things like cinnamon, allspice, and chocolate in the chili. I was heavy-handed with the cinnamon and allspice, but it didn't overpower. The chocolate was very fragrant. G suggested to save the recipe. The corn bread was very sweet. The recipe called for a mix, but we just followed my normal recipe and added in jalapeño, cheese, and corn.

Month 7 day 18: Pozole

Today I made:
Superfast Chicken Posole, Cooking Light August 2010

Wellll my parents would be quite surprised at this one. When I was growing up they made pork posole for most of their/their friends' birthday parties, and I *hated* it. I usually ended up making myself some nice nachos with all of the add-ins that were set up as a serve-yourself-bar, but not until I had made it quite clear how unsatisfied I was. I think I disapproved of the hominy, but also most of all the pork, which I thought was too gristley. ACTually, I might point out here that this is the *second* time I have cooked posole for myself. The other time was 3 years ago, and it was Chile-Chicken Posole (Food Network Magazine, January/February 2010), which contains 3 6-oz cans of green chiles and a jalapeño for 4 servings. It was so spicy that I could barely eat it. The only way I could was by throwing in a ton of yogurt to cool it down, and even then it was kind of painful, but I made my way through it anyway (strangely, the comments do not indicate that it is spicy-- one even says it's not spicy enough. Are there different kinds of canned chiles?) I think I will just paste this recipe over that one in my recipe book. I'm not sure why I saved that recipe, but I guess I figured as long as I didn't put so many chiles in it it would be better next time.
This one is fast, because it starts with rotisserie chicken breast and some other canned things. The only thing I couldn't find was canned tomatillos. I had some extra pico de gallo, so I threw in a bit of that instead. The rotisserie chicken I had left over in the freezer from earlier this week was more than 2 cups, but it was frozen together as a block so I just put it all in... whomp. Makes for a very filling soup.

Tomorrow is "Open Doors Night," a dorm tradition where ~20 people volunteer to host mini parties in their rooms and anyone can come by. So I made some ganache to roll into truffles tomorrow. I made a batch of orange and a batch of Earl+Lady Grey. I hope they come out well! Other than that I will just go low-key and do a cheese spread like we did in the spring. Classy.

That's it for August! This month's best recipes (it's too hard to pick one, so here is a 3-course meal):

• Eggplant Crostini
• Pulled Chicken Sliders
• Citrus Shortcake

Month 7 day 17: Tortas and tomato soup

Today I made:

Seared Pork Tortas, Cooking Light August 2010
Tomato Soup with Roasted Chickpeas, Cooking Light August 2011

These tortas are super-easy, since only the pork gets cooked (and if you cut it 1/4 inch thick as recommended, it can cook quickly). The canned beans and salsa just get mashed together.  Everything else is fresh, so I think this would be a good recipe for the hot summer when you don't want to heat up your house. I got impatient trying to mash the pinto beans with a fork, so I just threw it into the blender after mixing up the soup.

This soup is not a great dish for hot summers if you pay for air conditioning, but I don't so no worries! I love a tomato soup recipe I have already from my aunt. It also has parsley and gets its creaminess from cream cheese! So while I was eating this soup I was kind of comparing it to that one. This one lost. It has some weird aftertaste... I'm not sure what it was from. I think the topping was sort of strange, as it didn't really cook together in any sort of meaningful way (chickpeas weren't crispy or anything like that), so I kind of didn't understand what it was supposed to be like. It probably didn't help that the store didn't have "country ham." I'm not entirely sure what that is, but anyway I used a honey-baked ham steak because it was either that, spam, or deli meat :-P I also used pumpkin seeds instead of almonds, because I realized too late that my big bag of almonds is at work for snacks. Oh, and I dropped like a third of the topping on the ground when I was having difficulty closing the tupperware. (>_<)

I will definitely keep the tortas recipe, and I will see how the soup tastes tomorrow to make a final judgement on it.