Friday Cooking Recap

I tried a few new and easy things this week.

#1

The new McCormick Recipe Inspirations. Have you seen these in the grocery store? I finally decided to try one not just to try a new taste but also because I am so sick of having a cupboard full of herbs and spices that I use for one or two recipes and then eventually have to toss out. This little doo-dad comes with multiple pre-measured spices to get you through one meal. This week I used the Rosemary Roasted Chicken with Potatoes pack. It came with paprika, garlic rosemary, and black pepper. It was pretty simple. Dump them all in a bowl with some oil and salt and then toss in your chicken and potatoes to coat. Roast. Enjoy.

My potatoes were not close to done after the recommended thirty minutes so I had to almost double that.

I was skeptical of the paprika and rosemary combo. But, we really liked it. It's definitely going to appear on the dinner table again. I don't know about any of the other packs, but I would recommend this one. I paid $1.50 for the pack (for one dinner) so if I end up making it once or twice a month for a while it might be alright to just invest in full bottles of the ingredients. But, I liked the option to try it once and then invest in extra spices and herbs after I know if I like it.

#2

Granola Bars. I know, I just made granola last week and it's not even almost gone, but I was curious. I will start by saying if you have in your mind the store-bought deliciousness, pass on this. But what did you expect? Have you read those ingredient labels? Making them my self I was able to avoid a lot of those things I didn't want to eat. I have no picture, but here's the recipe:

2 cups oats

1 cup brown sugar (too much, I'll have it next time)

1 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup honey

Any dried fruit, nuts, seeds, chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, etc.

Mix all ingredients and press into greased pan, 11x13. Dough will be very dry and crumbly, but press until dough forms with pan. Bake at 325 for 20 minutes or until edges are browned. Take out and let cool entirely. Cut into strips and store in snack size bags.

My advice-- when it says it will be dry and crumbly, it really means dry and crumbly. I thought surely I got a bad recipe with some ingredient omitted. And after baking it, I still thought that. But, I followed the recipe and did let it cool completely and when I cut them into strips it worked.

Also, I divided mine into three sections so I could make three flavors, peanut butter, butterscotch chips, and dried fruit, but I put them all side by side in the baking dish. Next time (and they were good enough that there will be a next time) I will stick to keeping the batch together and just using one "flavor." I think they would have turned out more consistent.

#3

Yogurt Smoothie Pops. This year I feel like everywhere I go I am seeing those popsicle molds and makers and today when I was walking through my local Target I picked up a four pack popsicle mold. I had a recipe to follow but it turned out I was missing some ingredients so I made up my own (how hard can it be, right?). I used one banana, a small handful of frozen blueberries, a handful of fresh blueberries, about 8 strawberries, a small pour of pomegranate juice, and a small pour of milk. I haven't actually had one yet because they are still freezing, but I tried the leftover yogurt smoothie and it was good so I am optimistic.

Until next week.

Friday Cooking Recap. . . On Saturday

I made some granola this week. I didn't think it was going to happen because my oven was pretty gassy for the first part of the week. I turned it on and decided I'd wait ten minutes before even getting out the ingredients. Ten minutes later, no gas.

If you click on the link to Kathi's blog you can find the granola recipe. And, she included a nice picture.

It was really easy to make (and easy to let a little helper help). I will warn you, if you want to try it, it is NOT sweet. At least not by today's standards. I did put in 3/4 cups of honey. The recipe said to mix in dried fruit after it was completely cool, but I don't usually have dried fruit so I didn't. I did buy some later to try and sweeten it up but I haven't tried any yet. The other day when I ate some of the granola I mixed in a tablespoon or two of peanut butter and I liked it. If I make it again I think I will add peanut butter to the whole batch before I bake it. Now I need to go pick up some yogurt so I'll have something to eat it with. Or maybe this will be the week that I finally try to make my own.

I also attempted more jam this week (with my sister-in-law's help of course). Organic raspberries were the cheapest of the season yesterday so I picked some up and we made raspberry jam. I tried a little this morning and it was delicious. Kind of like eating candy. Which is what you would expect when you add 7 cups of sugar right? I am now searching for the perfect homemade bread recipe (white and wheat) and dreaming of the bread and jam to come.

Last week I got a recipe for granola bars. I would like to try them but I can't tell if I want to wait until the granola is gone. I haven't even started thinking about my dinner menus for next week, so who knows if I'll try anything new.

Blackberry Jam

Okay so I missed my Friday Cooking Recap but technically I didn't try cooking anything new this week.

However, my sister-in-law entered the world of home canning and I was lucky enough to tag along with her.

This here is product #1. Blackberry Jam

I didn't really do anything except watch and learn how to make and can jam (oh, and take my own jar home to eat later). I haven't tried any yet but I heard it's pretty delicious. We do have plans to do a lot more canning. The one thing I definitely want to try is apple jelly. For the past 5 years I was buying apple jelly for our family and about four years ago the store stopped carrying it and we miss it. We'll see how the homemade version turns out. The jellies sound a bit more complicated than the jams.

Berry season is almost over so I've got to get out there and get the last of the berries when they are on sale and can them all up. I'll keep you updated on how it all turns out.

Friday Cooking Recap

This week I only had one planned recipe to try. Lemon Blueberry Muffins, from Deceptively Delicious.

I would like to say that they were my least favorite of all the muffins we've tried from that cookbook. But, I can't even give them that much credit. I thought they were pretty gross. I only ate one before I froze them, so I will try at least one more before I toss them out and see if I like it any better.

The recipe called for squash. Maybe that was it. I have never liked squash, but supposedly you aren't supposed to able to taste it anyway. The recipe also called for grated lemon peel, but I also hate that so I just omitted it. I felt there would be enough lemon flavor with the cup of lemon yogurt and the 2 tsp of lemon extract. Maybe it wasn't the squash that made them disgusting, maybe it was the over-lemony taste. I like lemon to a point. I like lemon pudding and yogurt and lemon meringue pie. I always eat lemon candy last, but I'll still eat it. I think 2 teaspoons of lemon extract was just too much. If I even attempt them again I am cutting that in half. Either way, I wouldn't recommend these.

On to next week. I am planning on Baked Egg Puffs. They sound similar to those Egg White Bites, but they have more ingredients and won't be as healthy. This week we picked up a bread knife to match our steak knives, and when I was at the store I grabbed some ramekins to bake the egg puffs in. We'll see how they go. They can't be worse than the muffins.

I also want to make strawberry jam, granola, and yogurt. Those all require ingredients I don't currently have so I might not get to them for a while. I really want to go berry picking this month and if we make it out I'll have to come up with some berry recipes to try.

I miss baking sweets. In the last 5 or 6 weeks (however long I've been on the sweets ban) I have come across 7 recipes that I want to try. And that doesn't include any of the cupcake ones I want to try from all of the cupcake decorating books that are out right now. That would be too much temptation though. Maybe in a different life.

Friday Cooking Recap

Finally, the peanut butter and jelly muffins were made this week. As you can see, mine don't look very nice or professional. They all sunk where the jam was put on, and on most the jam didn't end up in the center by the time I pulled them out of the oven. These are from the Deceptively Delicious cookbook and if I am remembering correctly, I used carrot puree in them.

If you don't care too much about looks, or should I say, looks aside, they were delicious. I am sure a better cook than I could get them to look nicer- you should see the picture in the book, zero sinkage. I was skeptical of these but so far they are my favorite of the new muffins we have tried. I would have rather used blueberry preserves for the top, but all I could find were strawberry. The cookbook suggests strawberry, blueberry, or grape, but I think next time I will try whatever I want (and can find), like raspberry or apricot.

The only other issue I had with these was storage. Normally I wrap them up individually and toss half or more into the freezer, but with the sticky tops I didn't try. I guess I could have at least tried, but I thought they'd be pulled apart later when unwrapped. We ate them all anyway. We just had to eat a whole dozen in three days instead of eating them over the course of a week.

The other new recipe we tried this week (it's from BL) was this one.

Egg White Bites.

It normally makes a dozen but we halved it because there was no way I was going to freeze these to eat later. Again, mine don't look nearly as nice as the picture. You layer a cup of chopped vegetables under 9 egg whites (how wasteful to trash 9 yolks!) and some seasoning and cheese. In the picture they had obviously used things like red pepper and zucchini which made for a much more colorful picture. I only had a half each of yellow bell pepper and orange bell pepper. Also, while the recipe calls for any type of shredded cheese really, in the picture they had obviously used cheddar. Much more colorful than the mozzarella that I had on hand.

They were good and healthy and we got a nice vegetable serving in before lunch. I didn't add nearly the seasoning the recipe called for. Next time I'll add more because they were a bit bland. I also think cheddar instead of mozzarella will give them more flavor. And, with only 40 calories each, I don't feel nearly as guilty tossing down three or four like I would with the pb&j muffins.

So, it was a good week with the new recipes. I will make them both again.

As far as next week goes, again I am planning on no new meals. I was able to pick up that chicken cookbook I mentioned last week but it's one of those where most of the recipes I want to try have one or more ingredients that I don't normally stock or cook with and that I don't want to go buy just to use a teaspoon or so, especially if the meal turns out gross and I can't find anything else to use that ingredient for and it goes to the garbage.

I will however be trying another deceptively delicious muffin, it's a lemon blueberry variety. Speaking of buying random ingredients I need to pick up a couple of teaspoons of lemon extract. Based on our muffin experimenting though, I do think we'll enjoy these enough to make them again so I am fine with that. Though they do sound a bit lemony. I'll let you know how they turn out next week.

New Knives

These are our new Shun (rhymes with "moon") steak knives. Nothing says "I love you" like some new knives right? We have been married for so long that a lot of our things have needed replacing and a couple of years ago we decided anniversaries would be a good time to do that. The old Chef Mate knives have been losing their bolts in the dishwasher and it seems like they were getting a little dangerous to use. (Even though I am still using them and no stitches yet).

We looked around and decided we didn't want to buy a set, we wanted to build our own set. I will admit that with my previous knife set I use the steak knives for everything. That's right everything. Cutting meat, chopping fruits and vegetables, cheese, you name it. I did (do) use the bread knife for bread and the chef's knife for things like melon and pineapple (because my steak knives were just too small for those bigger jobs). So, I thought, let's start with the steak knives. Two weeks later they are still unwashed and still in the box. These are to be hand-washed only, and I just haven't gotten around to washing, especially since they are just sitting around in the box. Also, I got some negative reactions when I mentioned I was going to use these to cut anything and everything. A certain someone thinks that's not a good idea. But, until we add to the set and I get my 6" ultimate utility knife and my nakiri, what am I to use? I also need to get a block because like I said, in the box, I am just never going to get them out.

So, I can't tell you yet if these knives are any good. I assume they are or I wouldn't have purchased them, but they have yet to be tested. With all the cooking and the extra produce we've been eating, I do hope they are good.

Friday Cooking Recap

I almost didn't make it since Friday is almost over and I didn't cook anything too exciting this week, but here it goes. I only tried one new recipe and made one slight modification to a different one.

A couple of weeks ago I made Vegetarian Chili, which was really more like a bland vegetable soup (Tomatoes, tomato sauce, zucchini, garbanzo beans, kidney beans, potatoes, onion, yellow bell pepper, and some seasonings). This week I made it again but instead of adding two potatoes I only put in one and added a cup of pasta. It was good. I don't know if it was better, but more people ate it this time and I assume it's because of the pasta. I think it's not going to make a come back for another 6 months. As healthy as it is, it's just not that great and I can't see making it more than 2 or 3 times a year.

I only tried one new recipe this week. It feels weird calling it a recipe because it only had a few ingredients. I stir fried some chicken, then added lemon juice and teriyaki sauce. Then I was supposed to add a 16 oz bag of broccoli, water chestnuts, and carrots, but I didn't have that so instead I added a bag that had broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots. The recipe said to serve it over couscous but I didn't have that either so I paired it with white rice. It was okay. Very easy to make and quick, just nothing special. I definitely needed the water chestnuts I think. Next time (if there is a next time) I think I will add cornstarch to make an actual sauce. It had potential and there is room for improvement.

I already did my weekly menu and shopping and I am not planning on any new dinner recipes for this week. I felt like I didn't have the energy. I did find a cookbook at Williams-Sonoma that I want to purchase called Chicken for Dinner (it also has some turkey and duck recipes). The dish on the cover looks especially delicious. I am hoping to get that book in the near future and get some chicken dinner ideas.

Also if you remember last week I said I was going to try some peanut butter and jelly muffins this week. I had all the ingredients but never any room. The first part of the week was spent eating the Applesauce Muffins from last week and the rest of the week there was zucchini bread for breakfast. So if I am not a lazy bum next week then I will have one new recipe to mention.

Until next Friday...