Old Posts - recollected

I discovered some old potential journal entries from the new year, when we first thought of the idea for a cooking blog. I had almost forgotten the things we made back then including biscotti, french onion soup, my first poached egg, stuffed french toast, balsamic apple chutney pork chops and the first attempt of macarons. We were so ambitious, and then fell off the wagon.. sigh..


I think it's the intrigue of cooking for a new place or the start of a cooking goal that keeps the creative juices flowing. Upon moving to the new place in August, we made more new dishes than I have in a year. Some of them included 

• caramelized apricot and balsamic glazed porkchops
• panko breaded lemon garlic chicken
• fresh basil, mozzerella & sliced tomato pizza on naan
• 3 berry jam
• brie and bacon macaroni and cheese
• blts with blue cheese, etc. 

Most of those from Chris improvising, but some from real simple magazine. Unfortunately the urge to cook has died down and the short walk to vito's has overtaken us both. Maybe after the pace of this week is set more in stone, some ideas will pop up for the frozen ground beef, chicken, and pork chops in the freezer. Suggestions?


P.S. I found a cute cooking website called www.shortcutchef.com. She's a cook that takes on the semi homemade cooking strategy - I like it already.


Signing off - Meagan

Checking things off my list

This week was weird. Last Sunday I moved out of Princeton. Tuesday I found out that I had a job in NYC. Thursday night my grandma officially passed on. Then I found out that a company that I really admire in NYC has apprenticeships. Then my parents both left me to take care of the house and the dog for the weekend and I found Netflix, which pretty much assured that I was not leaving the house.

Anyway, somewhere in the midst of swinging between depression and hope, I was inspired to try the recipes I've been eyeing for so long.

First there were the cheddar and peach quesadillas. I made some balsamic caramelized onions and quickly cooked the peach slices in the sauce left from the onions, then I layered corn tortilla, cheddar, onions, and peach slices and fried them up. Yum. This dish could use a little balancing, but the flavors were great.

Then I tried to make watermelon/lime/ginger juice (my mom has this fancy juicer machine). The flavors were awesome, but I need to fix the proportions a bit to get it right. This is just dying to be a cocktail.

Then, THEN,  I made this:

Grape Foccaccia: Looks weird. Tastes awesome. 

There are definitely ways I would change this recipe if I made it again, but I'm so glad I tried it. 

Coincidentally, I now have a pretty good dough for pizza. (Kathryn - I bet this would be awesome with semolina flour or something else...) 

-S

Domesticity through boredom

I was more or less stuck at home on Sunday night and decided to basically raid all smittenkitchen and allrecipes, my goto cooking websites. The plan was ultimately decided for:

Vanilla Rice Pudding alla Jell-O (classy I know, but I had a full plate of baking ideas, haha)
Dreamy Cream Scones
Raspberry Limeade Slushies

I'd been craving scones practically all month, so that was the main objective. Everything else was secondary, which might explain why the others didn't compare in taste.

The recipe over all was rather simple - phew. I opted for the first suggestion of molding the dough into an 8x8 square and then cutting into wedges with the back of a fork. They baked for about 14 minutes before the tops got a little golden and taste amazing toasted with butter :)

I can't wait for the smittenkitchen cookbook to come out. Then I'll be out of house and home buying ingredients to cook all the time. Maybe :) Right now, I want to achieve that comfortable feeling where I can look in the kitchen cabinets, survey what I have and just make something. Without a recipe. That will be the day. Until then, recipes I'm looking forward to:

Curry Mee Soup (inspired by Penang)
Spinach and Cheese Strada
Unknown recipes from my Real Simple subscription that has yet to arrive.

-M

Beginnings

I'm being a bit lazy for this first one. I've been cleaning out my recipe bookmarks...

Recipes I keep coming back to:

Fall: Pasta with Butternut Squash Sauce
Except I do it the lazy way and thicken butternut squash soup for the sauce

Winter: Sweet Potato and Sausage Soup

Spring: Artisan bread in 5 minutes a day - Basic Boule

Summer:  Mexican Confetti Salad
Dice tomato, onion, avocado, corn, black beans, and cilantro together. Mix, add salt, black and cayenne pepper and lots of lime juice. Yum.


3 recipes I want to make soon:
1) Grape Focaccia with Rosemary
2) Cheddar Peach Quesadillas
3) Watermelon, Ginger, and Lime juice


- S