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.