Ah, my poor, poor, neglected blog. I just cannot seem to find the time to write anymore. And to take up even more of my time, I resolved this year to try out more new recipes. The goal is to cook at least two new savory recipes and one new sweet recipe a week. Since some of my friends (Cheep!) are probably already getting tired of emails about my latest cooking endeavors, I'll try to restrict most of my commentary to this blog from now on. Win-win?
To catch you all up on what I've made so far...
Pizza Sfincioni -- Pizza topped with flavored, crispy bread crumbs. Yes, bread crumbs. Carbs atop carbs with cheese in the middle. What more can one want? I'll be baking this recipe again and possibly adding some anchovies to the sauce next time.
Cajun Red Beans & Rice -- Not bad. I deviated from the recipe and used country ham instead of the bacon and I'm not sure that was the best decision. It's a recipe I'd like to try again to see if I can make it better. [I've linked to a "Cook's Illustrated" recipe above. Only members are allowed access to their on-line recipes, but if you are interested in any of their recipes that I link to, let me know and I'll email you a copy.]
Lemon Cream Cheese Coffee Cake -- I made this for an OSC board meeting that I hosted the week before last. It was a pretty easy to make cake and held well. In fact, I did not notice any real staling until nearly a week later. I used lemon's from my mother-in-law's farm, but I'm thinking of trying it without any lemon next time. Don't get me wrong, the lemon flavor was good, but it masked that wholesome dairy flavor of the cream cheese. [Another CI recipe, same deal as above.]
Indoor Pulled Pork -- Pretty darn good. A little (unattended) time-consuming, but easy. The smoke flavor comes from liquid smoke and you might not know the pork was not really smoked. I made the "Sweet & Tangy BBQ Sauce" from the recipe and it was far too sweet with not enough tang. Adding some cider vinegar helped a lot, but next time, I'll cut way down on the molasses. I will definitely make this one again. [Yet another CI recipe, the Jan/Feb '10 issue was a good one!]
Bacon and Cheddar Pretzel Bites -- I had to take a finger food (and they meant it -- no forks!) to a party to share and it was a really cold day, so I was searching for something that would be good at a rather cool room-temperature. I ended up taking these and they worked out perfectly for those somewhat restrictive conditions. I made half of them with bacon & cheddar and the other half with smoked paprika & cheddar because I knew there would be a number of vegetarians in the crowd. They were all good, but the bacon ones where gone in a snap. Changes to the recipe: subbed bacon for the country ham; sprinkled with coarse salt after boiling but before baking (it will not stick otherwise); and skipped the brushing with butter (did that with one batch and it made them far too greasy). I did not make the mustard sauce in the recipe, nor was it missed.
I was feeling rather retro last week and whipped up some Tomato Aspic, but I'll save that story for another day. And I made Chicago-Style Pizza last night. However, it was so delicious that it is worthy of a post all to itself. So that is all for now.
New recipes planned for this week:
Pork Meatball Banh Mi (I baked some baguettes last week as back-up on the off-chance the pretzel bites where an unmitigated disaster and still have a couple loaves in the freezer, so the bread is all taken care of already.)
Deli Rye Blitz Bread
Tasty Toaster Tarts (in other, non-trademarked words: Pop Tarts! I printed out this recipe on 4/17/08, so I've been meaning to try it for quite a while.)
To catch you all up on what I've made so far...
Pizza Sfincioni -- Pizza topped with flavored, crispy bread crumbs. Yes, bread crumbs. Carbs atop carbs with cheese in the middle. What more can one want? I'll be baking this recipe again and possibly adding some anchovies to the sauce next time.
Cajun Red Beans & Rice -- Not bad. I deviated from the recipe and used country ham instead of the bacon and I'm not sure that was the best decision. It's a recipe I'd like to try again to see if I can make it better. [I've linked to a "Cook's Illustrated" recipe above. Only members are allowed access to their on-line recipes, but if you are interested in any of their recipes that I link to, let me know and I'll email you a copy.]
Lemon Cream Cheese Coffee Cake -- I made this for an OSC board meeting that I hosted the week before last. It was a pretty easy to make cake and held well. In fact, I did not notice any real staling until nearly a week later. I used lemon's from my mother-in-law's farm, but I'm thinking of trying it without any lemon next time. Don't get me wrong, the lemon flavor was good, but it masked that wholesome dairy flavor of the cream cheese. [Another CI recipe, same deal as above.]
Indoor Pulled Pork -- Pretty darn good. A little (unattended) time-consuming, but easy. The smoke flavor comes from liquid smoke and you might not know the pork was not really smoked. I made the "Sweet & Tangy BBQ Sauce" from the recipe and it was far too sweet with not enough tang. Adding some cider vinegar helped a lot, but next time, I'll cut way down on the molasses. I will definitely make this one again. [Yet another CI recipe, the Jan/Feb '10 issue was a good one!]
Bacon and Cheddar Pretzel Bites -- I had to take a finger food (and they meant it -- no forks!) to a party to share and it was a really cold day, so I was searching for something that would be good at a rather cool room-temperature. I ended up taking these and they worked out perfectly for those somewhat restrictive conditions. I made half of them with bacon & cheddar and the other half with smoked paprika & cheddar because I knew there would be a number of vegetarians in the crowd. They were all good, but the bacon ones where gone in a snap. Changes to the recipe: subbed bacon for the country ham; sprinkled with coarse salt after boiling but before baking (it will not stick otherwise); and skipped the brushing with butter (did that with one batch and it made them far too greasy). I did not make the mustard sauce in the recipe, nor was it missed.
I was feeling rather retro last week and whipped up some Tomato Aspic, but I'll save that story for another day. And I made Chicago-Style Pizza last night. However, it was so delicious that it is worthy of a post all to itself. So that is all for now.
New recipes planned for this week:
Pork Meatball Banh Mi (I baked some baguettes last week as back-up on the off-chance the pretzel bites where an unmitigated disaster and still have a couple loaves in the freezer, so the bread is all taken care of already.)
Deli Rye Blitz Bread
Tasty Toaster Tarts (in other, non-trademarked words: Pop Tarts! I printed out this recipe on 4/17/08, so I've been meaning to try it for quite a while.)
No comments:
Post a Comment