Week 19: Ready for Thanksgiving

Recipes to Go: 507 324

Weeks to Go: 52 33

Recipes Made This Week

Cowboy Beef Dip

Bavarian Pork Loin

Fiesta Chicken Chowder

No-Bones Chicken Wing Dip

Savory Pumpkin Ravioli

Rustic Autumn Fruit Tart

Fruit-Nut Pumpkin Bread

Mexicorn Grits

The Cowboy Beef Dip was very good and very spicy. We had a bit of an adventure trying to find mexicorn, luckily I have the internet on my phone, so I could Google image search for it in the store and find the equivalent store brand. Handy, since I needed it not only for this recipe, but for the Mexicorn Grits on Saturday. While this was fine as a main dish, but I probably should have made something else, because I think it makes a much better side dish.

I needed to use the rest of the sauerkraut in my fridge, so I made the Bavarian Pork Loin. The pork was nothing spectacular, in fact, it was a little dry, but the rest of the stuff in the slow cooker was amazing.

The apples, especially. I couldn't get The Captain to eat them, though. He wouldn't believe that they were apples. It took all week to get him to try them, then he loved them as much as we did.

The Fiesta Chicken Chowder was good, a fairly typical southwest soup. But it gave me the opportunity to use the rest of my brown rice. I don't normally buy brown rice, being a jasmine rice eater myself, so it was nice to not have leftovers.

I don't normally think to add rice to my soups, maybe this will help me remember. This soup was very spicy, which means The Captain really liked it. It stored really well in the fridge, except for the chicken, which got a little chewy, sadly.

The No-Bones Chicken Wing Dip was good, but again, I should have made something else, too. While The Captain was happy to eat nothing but condiments and a little chicken, I missed something else to eat. And I found out that The Husband doesn't like blue cheese, which was a big flavor aspect of the dip.

So, I finally found a baking pumpkin, and again, I was supposed to peel and cube it. Well, after pretty much the same routine--cooking it, only to puree it, I will next time just cook it in the oven. So this was the first time I've ever made my own pasta. I was really worried since I don't have any pasta making equipment or attachments for my Kitchenaid. But the dough was really easy to work with and really easy to roll out. Overall, I was quite impressed with myself. Although, the stuffing needed a little more salt, and I overcooked the pasta a little. Also, because it looked different, I couldn't get The Captain to try it. And he's normally such a fan of pasta . . .

The Rustic Fruit Tart was divine. It really did taste autumny with apples and pears and pumpkin pie spices.

The dough had cream cheese in it, so you know that was good. It turned out beautifully. And because no one came to Game Night again, we got to enjoy it all.

Saturday morning we made Fruit-Nut Pumpkin Bread . . . without the nuts. It was delicious, but one loaf fell, and the other loaf fell apart when I tried to take it out of the pan.

We still enjoyed it for breakfast all week long. I will definitely try this one again. The crust was so nice.

For dinner that night, I made the Mexicorn Grits. I've never tried grits before.

They were a lot like cous-cous. The Captain really liked them. Other then the excessive butter used (I will more than half that next time) it was delicious, and was possibly better as leftovers.

The best thing was that I got to make all of this and still make the stuff for a hugely successful Pre-Thanksgiving Day Feast.

Week 18: Squashed

Recipes to Go: 507 332

Weeks to Go: 52 34

Recipes Made This Week

Southwestern Turkey Soup

Butternut Turkey Bake

Twice-Baked Sweet Potatoes

The Squash Court

Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo

Spiced Pumpkin Mousse

Chocolate Pinwheels

Ham on Biscuits

This week, I decided it was time to try some squash since squash season is almost over and it would be hard to get a hold of them later on. This ended up being a good decision. Butternut squash was what we ended up needing and I had never worked with it before. I was familiar with it from watching Veggie Tales, but that didn't tell me how it would taste or how easy it would be to work with.

Before I got to find out, we made Southwestern Turkey Soup for Sunday dinner. I used chicken instead of turkey, which didn't effect things too much. It was still a southwestern soup.

I had to use chicken again instead of turkey for the Butternut Turkey Bake. However, this time no one knew because it was so delicious.

The butternut squash was just like a pumpkin--it was hard to cut open and took an hour of baking in the oven to soften up. But this bake tasted a lot like Thanksgiving and we argued over who got to eat the leftovers for lunch the next day.

Okay, I feel a little silly that I've never thought of twice-baked sweet potatoes before. I love sweet potatoes and I love twice-baked potatoes, and it's not a far leap to make. It was remarkable. So delicious. Basically the same recipe--bacon, cheese, butter, spices--but the sweet potatoes were so good, and the skins caramelized in the oven and might have been the best part.

The Squash Court was butternut squash creamy soup. The recipe called for me to peel and cube the squash, then cook it and puree it. That was a little too much work. Next time, I'll just stick it in the oven for 40 minutes and soften it, then scoop it into the blender after softening the rest of the ingredients. I don't often make creamy soups, (ha ha, I never make creamy soups. This was my first time making soup in a blender) but with some saltine crackers, everyone agreed it was delicious.

I was planning on making pumpkin ravioli this week, but I couldn't find baking pumpkins anywhere, not even for ready money. So I made chicken fettuccine alfredo instead. Only, I didn't have fettuccini, so I just used penne instead.

This was delicious and really easy, especially if you have chicken ready. I think I might have to start doing that, baking chicken, cubing and freezing it. This was a great recipe because it was a little spicy since there was chili flakes in the sauce. It definitely made it stand out among the pasta recipes.

Somewhere in the week, I made Pumpkin Mousse. It was tasty, but made way too much when I was already too full from tasty dinners. It seems like a light dessert, but it is really rich, and this is why it took over a week to eat just half of it. I did love the pumpkin flavor, though.

For Friday Game night, I made Chocolate Pinwheel cookies. The Husband thought they were delicious, and I have to agree. I was expecting them to be much more complicated and difficult then they were. Yes, they were a bit of work, but worth it.

We didn't have anyone for game night, which wasn't a surprise since we had to get up at 4 in the morning to take a trip to DC on Saturday. Since this was going to interfere with making breakfast, I made it Friday night and packed it up to eat on the road. I made Ham on Biscuits. My biscuits didn't rise as much as I hoped, but that was because I had to leave the dough at a crucial stage to go pick The Husband up from work. We've had a bit of car trouble lately that has complicated things. Be that as it may, they were still delicious.

I also made the pumpkin scones again because everyone loved them so much. And they were very good, only a little doughy this time.

Week 17: We vote yes!

Recipes to Go: 507 340

Weeks to Go: 52 35

Recipes Made this Week
Tomato Bacon Pie

Broccoli with Mustard Sauce

Candidate's Choice Short Ribs

Roasted Onion Salad

Voter's Favorite Float

Election Day Cookies

Bean and Pork Chop Bake

Old-Fashioned Dressing

Pot Roast with Gravy

Classic Carrot Cake

Pumpkin Scones with Berry Butter

You'll have to forgive me for the lack of pictures this week. Apparently I gave up half-way through. Which, quite frankly, surprises me since every time I sit down to eat now I think, "I need to take a picture of this".

Anyway, I made the bacon pie on Sunday. It was good, but I've been having trouble recently getting my bacon to cook evenly.

When I put bacon in things, I don't want the fatty bits to be too chewy, but the meaty bits get perfect before the fatty bits do, so I had a bit of a rubbery problem in a few of my bites of this pie. That, and the greasiness of the leftovers aside, it was delicious. The Husband would, of course, argue with everything I'm saying, I'm sure, and claim it was heavenly. But that's just because the main ingredient is bacon. And he loves everything to do with bacon on principle.

To go with the bacon I made broccoli with mustard sauce. The Husband said when he tasted it, "this is exactly how I hoped it would taste." Apparently he had broccoli just like it at a fancy restaurant once and loved it. The rest of the family agreed. The Captain loved the sauce as all toddlers do with condiments. I'm pretty sure condiments are his favorite food.

Tuesday was Election Day. I hope everyone remembered to vote. I didn't get registered in VA in time, so I could not.

And just to rub it in, we did an election themed dinner featuring short ribs, floats and cookies.

The ribs were excellent. They took very little effort and were divine. So good, they made the picture fuzzy.

The salad to go with everything was good because it was based in roasted onions. I love roasted onions.

And the dressing to go with it had chili flakes in it so it had a nice kick.

I think next time I won't use a bagged

salad, though, because the radishes were just a bit much.

Why has it taken me so long to hear about this float? Seriously the easiest thing I've made, and you know I've made some easy stuff. Three ingredients: vanilla ice cream (had that leftover in the freezer), apple juice--just plan old simple breakfast drink apple juice, and a sprinkling of nutmeg on top. No carbonation, (which made me love it more) and yet so good. And apple juice is dirt cheap most of the time. I'm pretty sure I know what our leftover ice cream making experiments will be going in the future . . .

Now, to be honest, we still hadn't finished all the gingerbread cookies from Halloween, but I really wanted to make the election day cookies. So I only made half the recipe. And it was the best-tasting sugar cookie dough I've had in awhile. I didn't frost them, and they were still delicious, and we cut them out in elephant, donkey (well, horse, but who can tell?), and the continental U.S. shapes. And it only took 2 days for them to disappear. What can I say, I am a cookie monster at heart.

Remember how I said that I wasn't sure if I like pork chops? Well I adored everything about the Bean and Pork Chop Bake. The chops were amazing, and the beans were even better. That was because they had maple flavoring and apples in them, which though not traditional in baked beans were a wonderful flavor additive. It didn't even take too much effort to make. I guess this means I will have to start buying cans of baked beans since that's what made it so easy. If all pork chops tasted like this I wouldn't have trouble figuring out if I liked them.

The Old Fashioned Dressing . . . okay I'm normally not a fan of dressing. I think Stove Top is my least favorite part about Thanksgiving, which is my favorite holiday. And there's little I don't love about it, so that says a lot. I looked long and hard for a stuffing recipe I could stand behind for my Pre-Thanksgiving Day Feast. And I found one that I want all the leftovers of. But this dressing was also delicious. And because it's made in the slow cooker, it was even better. I did use the leftover corn bread I had lying around, so that added to its yumminess. But I will make this again this winter. And it gave me the idea to use my slow cooker for my Feast to make life a little less stressful.

The pot roast was good. But then, when is a pot roast not? The only thing I will do differently next time is add carrots and potatoes to the pot. I had every intension of doing this, but just forgot when it came time to put things together. There was a lot of vinegar in the sauce for this, so it had a unique flavor that everyone seemed to enjoy. And there was plenty of gravy.

The classic carrot cake was great! I only used 3/4 the cream cheese to make the frosting and it was still the most delicious cream cheese frosting I've ever tasted. And the cake stayed moist for a week. Well, okay, it probably would have stayed moist for a week, but it didn't make it that long, of course. We only had a few to game night and I sent them home with cake. I wanted to give them half, but The Husband convinced me not to, and I must say when I ate it for breakfast all week, I was grateful.

Last recipe of the week was the Pumpkin Scones with Berry Butter. First of all, the butter. Cranberries, which I love, butter, and powdered sugar. Good idea. The scones themselves were perfect. Big, moist but not too much, wonderful flavor. I've already made them again, and because they take only 1/2 cup pumpkin, I can make batches all winter. And I plan to because The Captain, The Husband, and I couldn't get enough.

So, this week the votes were in and pretty much everything got at least two thumbs up. We were all spoiled with delicious food, and with Thanksgiving coming up soon, let's hope it continues.

Week 16: False! Black Beans

Recipes to Go: 507 351

Weeks to Go: 52 36

Recipes Made This Week

Balsamic-Glazed Tuna Steaks

Flavorful Rice Salad

Bacon 'n' Cheese Stuffed Potatoes

Chili for a Crowd

Pumpkin Gingerbread Trifle

Mother Lode Pretzels

Yeast Corn Bread Loaf

Fruit Smoothies

Caribbean Quesadillas

Spooky Spider Cake

Pumpkin and Spice and Everything Nice Muffins

Monster Cutout Cookies

Vegetarian Stuffed Peppers

Since The Husband was out of town for most of this week, it was a bit challenging to get caught up on recipes. I spent Sunday and Monday trying to eat through leftovers. But the missionaries were coming to eat on Tuesday, so it gave me a perfect opportunity to make some food that I wouldn't have large quantities of. So I made 3 tuna steaks and 4 baked potatoes. After I put the potatoes in the oven, I thought things through and since I had to cut them in half to stuff them, I probably only should have made 2, but it was okay since we only ended up with one when dinner was over. And the missionaries took the leftover rice salad, which was so good I made it again on Thursday. They also helped me finish up the berry cheesecake pie.

Everything was delicious except that the fish was frozen when I started broiling it, so it need a few more minutes. It was still fine, just more pink than most people would like. Luckily, one of the sisters loved sushi, so she didn't mind. The other was very polite, so she didn't say anything, and still managed to eat it all. What a trooper. As for the potatoes, well who doesn't love twice baked potatoes? Who doesn't love bacon? How could that be a bad combination? I was lucky to be very successful when scooping them out. And mashing them with butter first made things much more smooth. Seriously, why have I never done that before? And the Beans and Rice Salad featured black beans, which ended up being the ingredient of the week.

Wednesday night was our church Halloween party. It was a soup and salad potluck, perfect opportunity to make a potluck recipe and the Chili for a Crowd sounded good. It also had black beans in it, though not as many. Confession, I didn't try this till after I got back home, but it was supposed to have 24 servings and there were maybe 3 left when I got back. I tried some when I was putting it away. It was definitely the best chili I've ever made. Nice and spicy, not too watery. I want to make it again.

There was a dessert competition at the party too. Apple or pumpkin desserts. Luckily for me, there are plenty of pumpkin desserts in the book. Luckily for me, I've made one of them before. So I made it again--Pumpkin Gingerbread Trifle.

When I made it the first time, my friend was visiting me. We looked everywhere for canned pumpkin, but all we could find was yams. But even with lumpy sweet potato pudding it was delicious, and it was even better with smooth pumpkin pudding. So good was it, that I actually one in the pumpkin category. Amazing since I haven't won anything in ages.

Thursday I was planning on making the Yeast Corn Bread Loaf to go with all the leftover chili I imagined we would have. We didn't have much chili. In fact, we had surprisingly little food at all, which is why I made the salad again. The Husband got home late. I had dinner waiting, but while I was waiting for him, I decided to get started on the Mother Load Pretzels. I almost had the caramels melted when he got home. I didn't finish the pretzels that night. But I did make the Fruit Smoothies. They were delicious.

Friday didn't go so well for me. Car troubles, phone problems, then in the process of finishing the pretzels, I ruined one of my measuring cups and left a big mess in the microwave. But they turned out great.

Worth a few burned fingertips. They are highly addictive. Good thing I made so many. It's hard to pass by them without eating 1, or 3.

Better than that was the Caribbean Quesidillas.

The Husband thought there was meat in them, but they are vegetarian quesidillas. They tasted a little like fish, which we determined must have been due to the cloves. Anyway, they were delicious. They came together pretty easily as well. I always forget about quesidillas when I need to make a quick dinner, but I'll try to do better at remembering in the future because they are more fun than burritos. And did I mention, the main ingredient was black beans? These have sweet potatoes in them. I don't have enough recipes for sweet potatoes. And they are so tasty. Don't worry, there are plenty more in the book to come.

Game night treat this week was the Spooky Spider Cake. It was supposed to be a spider on a regular cake, but I just made the spider part.

It was just a cake mix, so I didn't enjoy the cake part very much. But the frosting was delicious. It got rave reviews from everyone else as well. It was fun to make legs out of licorice. Luckily for me, everyone ate most of the cake, so I didn't have to finish it myself.

Saturday morning I made the Pumpkin Muffins. I used wheat germ instead of wheat bran because I couldn't find it anywhere. I know, there are the opposite parts of the wheat, but it made the muffins hearty. And the chocolate chips made them sweet.

Then we went out all day and things got crazy. I made The Husband make the Monster Cutout Cookies for me with the intension of decorating them and distributing them to our neighbors. Well, they got made, but not decorated.

In fact, they didn't get out before Halloween. But at least they were delicious, so I'm sure that will be looked over. My decorating skills are sub-par at best, so let me just say that they are supposed to be moons, pumpkins, ghosts, and mummies.

For dinner on Saturday, I did the smart thing and put together a slow cooker recipe so we could trick or treat and have hot dinner waiting for us when we got back. I managed to put together the stuffed peppers before we left. The peppers I picked out were so big that I only had room for 5 in my slow cooker, but that was okay because they were big enough that all the stuffing fit in just 5 peppers. Oh, they were so tasty. Full of black beans and rice. So delicious I didn't get a picture.

Week 15: Butter

Recipes to Go: 507 364

Weeks to Go: 52 37

Recipes Made This Week

Carrot Oatmeal Cookies

Zucchini Patties with Dill Dip

Sirloin with Blue Cheese Butter

Creamed Peas and Carrots

Scalloped Potatoes 'n' Ham

Buttery Hot Wings

Southwestern Nachos

Berry Cheesecake Pie

Gnocchi with Thyme Butter

Goblin's Oragne Popcorn

Chees-enstein

Toasty Pumpkin Waffles

Chicken Cordon Blue

This was our butter week, not just because I love it and consider it another taste vitamin, but because we ended up using ridiculous amounts in all the recipes, or the recipes called for specially made butter.

Because we didn't have any desserts last week, I made cookies on Sunday. Unfortunately, I forgot to add the chocolate chips. I'm ashamed to admit this because I am the queen of adding chocolate chips. Be that as it may, they were still delicious and they made 7 dozen plus a few more.

The Captain loves them, they made great breakfast, and there was carrots in them, so if you ignore a cup of butter, a cup of shortening, and 3 cups of sugar, you could say they were healthy.

To go with the cookies and the wonderful weather we had on Sunday, we made the zucchini patties.

They also had carrots in them, which I will shred next time instead of chopping because the chopped carrots did not stay together in the patties. Fortunately, they were still delicious. The green tomatoes we fried, however, were not.

They were very sour.

On Tuesday, we made steak and potatoes, and veggies. And thus began our week of butter. I guess the cup of butter in the cookies counts, so nevermind, Sunday began the week of butter. But in this case, the butter was homemade. Not shaken from cream, but mixed with the cheese and spices. The blue cheese butter was delicious, but the steak was pretty bad. That's because it had been in the freezer for too long. Unfortunately, the recipe made lots of butter, so now I have a log of butter in the fridge with nothing to do.

The scalloped potatoes were everything they promised to be. Like funeral potatoes without the sadness. I was pretty proud of my chopping skills putting these together. Maybe there's hope for my knife skills after all.

The creamed peas and carrots were delicious. I know, you would think we were getting sick of carrots by this point, but surprisingly, no. They were still good. The Husband didn't fully appreciate them, of course, because they were peas, and neither did The Captain, but I loved em.

On Thursday, we had a manly-themed dinner with Buttery Hot Wings and Southwestern Nachos. Too bad The Husband doesn't have poker nights. These would have been perfect. The nachos were excellent due to the fact that the beef was slow cooked all day. And I'm normally not a fan of Velveeta.

The name makes it sound so wonderful like velvet, like it will make all my food smooth and creamy, but it tastes rather gross. I feel like I should be a fan, kind of like the Beatles and U2, which fall in the same category.

But in this instance, Velveeta was actually a good choice because these were nachos and nothing says nachos quite as well as processed cheese food. The stuff that real cheese eats for dinner.

The hot wings were good, I thought.

I'm not a huge fan of meat on the bone, and they were closer to undercooked than over so they were more difficult to rip off. (Or it could just be that my canines have been filed down . . . ) But I liked the spiciness that still had flavor. I didn't like having to melt 1 1/2 cups of butter into the sauce. The Husband agreed and said that they were too buttery and declared himself to be a hot wing purest. Luckily for him, I think this concludes our hot wing recipes for the year.

I started on the Berry Cheesecake Pie on Thursday, but didn't get to finish and enjoy it until Saturday. But because it was the fourth recipe on Thursday, disaster fell in its wake. The recipe called to put foil around the edges to avoid over-browning. This sounded like an excellent idea, but was easier read than done. After fiddling with the foil for ten minutes and worrying The Captain with my angry tone, I decided it would be easier to fix it if the pie was in the oven. I'm not sure why I decided that, because it's obviously stupid, and I hate hot things, but it was frustrating me. So, in the process of not getting burned, my hot pad (not the silicone kind) came in contact with the heating coil and started a small fire. Nothing was permanently damaged, and we ended up figuring out the pie/foil situation, but I have just come to expect disasters when three or more recipes is involved in one meal. But the pie was worth the wait to Saturday to eat.

The Husband, who I didn't think was a cheesecake fan, had two slices in succession and would have had a third if his stomach had permitted.

Thursday was about the time that I discovered I was so far behind in my recipes, so despite the over-abundance of leftovers, I was forced to make more food. Friday we made Gnocchi with Thyme Butter. But I didn't exactly want more butter floating around, my fridge was already full of the butter concoctions from earlier and empty of more pure stuff to use, I had already mooched a stick from my neighbor, so instead of messing around with that, we just used the blue cheese butter from earlier in the week.

It made things much more flavorful, which is good because gnocchi take entirely too much time to make. 70 minutes of prep was inaccurate because I had two other recipes to put together, so after starting at 5 pm, it was almost 7 when we got to eat. It was ridiculous all the steps that had to go into something that ends up looking like a mushy mess. Like I said, it was a good thing it ended up tasting yummy.

So, originally I was not going to worry about making the Goblin Popcorn for Halloween, but instead was going to change the color and use it some other time, but since I needed some extra recipes, I popped it in. (Pun intended.) I couldn't get a hold of a popcorn popper, and I have no intention of buying one, so we used microwave popcorn and crossed our fingers. It helped that I accidentally made kettle corn for the first batch. It did not help that I pushed the potato button instead of the popcorn button for the second batch. Smoke was the least of our worries, though there was plenty of that. I still smell horrid burnt popcorn every time I use the microwave. In my defense, the manufacturers put the popcorn butter right on top of the potato button. Really? They look incredibly similar. So I'm pleading the 5th--which is blindness, right?

The chees-enstein turned out pretty awesome. Cuter than I was going for, since I was going for scary.

But cute is good, and so was the cheese ball. I should know because we were alone for Game Night and we ate half the chees-enstein and half the popcorn. Both were addictive.

Saturday morning I made Pumpkin Waffles and guess what the recipe called for . . . homemade cranberry butter. I was not prepared for that again, so we made cranberry syrup instead.

The waffles were good, though not as crispy as I normally like my waffles. That's because of the pumpkin, I know. And cranberries, I will be freezing many, many of you while I can find you fresh this season because you are delicious and I have about 10 more recipes to make that involve cranberries.

I had to make dinner on Saturday, too to catch up as much as I could. So we went with something simple, chicken cordon bleu.

Not sure what is blue about the chicken, or what the heck "cordon" means. I'm sure it's some remote place in France that decided a chicken and a pig should mate and merge in some twisted way. Anyway, I only made two and they were delicious. They would have been better with some sauce and if I had used cornflakes instead of breadcrumbs, but I don't like cornflakes and I don't want to buy them to use them in two recipes a year, so we made due.

Hmm, Velveeta and cornflakes, not likes. But maybe I should. Maybe I should whistle "Yellow Submarine" too, but I don't see that happening in the near future. With or without you.

Week 14: No Desserts

Recipes to Go: 507 377

Weeks to Go: 52 38

Recipes Made This Week
Vegetable & Cheese Focaccia
Steak Potpie
Sage Meat Loaf
Seasoned Mashed Potatoes
Pork Chops in Orange Sauce
Sicilian Salad
Brussel Sprouts with Water Chestnuts
Traditional Scones
Mushroom Asparagus Quiche
Jack-o'-Lantern Cream Puffs
Ham 'n' Swiss Rolls
Strawberry Breakfast Shakes

The focaccia was supposed to be made on Saturday, but as per usual, things got away from me. So I made it Sunday. It was surprisingly unmemorable.I probably should make this again since I forgot to put olive oil in the dough and it didn't rise very well. I guess I need to start putting dough in the oven to rise.

Monday I made Steak Potpie because we ran out of leftovers to eat. Man, this was good. And thanks to Pillsbury Crescent Rolls, the crust was fast.

Baked just like it should and made us all very happy. It didn't leave us with much leftover, either, for that reason. So I had to make dinner on Tuesday, too, but it was just pasta and not in the book, so I don't have to write about it.

Wednesday we had meat loaf. The Husband doesn't like meat loaf, but he said this is a meat loaf he could stand behind. It was so tasty and I have no idea why. Next time I will double the sauce on top, just because it was tasty.

The mashed potatoes were a little disappointing. I think I've been spoiled with Alton Brown's recipe for garlic mashed potatoes. These were basically flavorless, so I won't be using them for Thanksgiving this year.

Thursday was a three-recipe meal. This was a problem because I also had to make a treat for Seminary, since I was told we wouldn't have a treat there on Friday. So I made the salad early to avoid the chaos of trying to make three recipes at once.

It was tasty and easy and something I could throw together in a hurry. That's always important.

The pork chops came together quickly. I'm still on the fence about pork chops. This recipe was descent, but I'm still sitting. There are more pork chop recipes, so maybe I'll make up my mind later in the year.

I had brussel sprouts when I was little and didn't like them. That's because I didn't have this recipe. If they weren't so expensive right now, I'd make this all the time. Clearly lots of love and butter went into this. And the water chestnuts just go so perfectly. There is a hint of sweetness to this recipe that helps to combat the bitterness of the brussel sprouts and the crunchy water chestnuts balance the sogginess of the soaked sprouts.

I remembered after The Captian was in bed that I needed to make a treat, so I looked through the book for something I had all the ingredients for and something that wouldn't take too long to make. I settled on the scones.

They were simple. I got to use my new dough cutter, which is awesome, by the way (bought it on my anniversary. Totally worth $4.) After they were done, I realized we didn't have any jam in the house. So I didn't get to really enjoy them until later in the week.

Because after all, we did have treats in Seminary, and no scones could compete with chocolate chip muffins. At least where teenagers are concerned. So I got yummy leftovers.

Friday I made the Mushroom Asparagus Quiche. It called to spread the bottom with musard and bake it. I've never baked mustard before, but it was delicious.

I like asparagus . . . maybe.

The cream puffs for Game Night were easier to make than I thought, but they did take some time. I got started in the afternoon with the shells. The filling was so delicious. Pumpkin-y and good and creamy. Then I attempted to decorate them using only a ziplock bag and some scissors. It worked out okay sometimes. These three were the best.

Then the frosting would gum up and explode out in big bursts. Luckily taste and decorative skill are not directly related.

Saturday morning I made the Ham 'n' Swiss Rolls. They were so easy thanks to the refrigerated crescent rolls. I think this was the fastest breakfast I've made. Okay, maybe the shake was faster, but I still had to pit strawberries for that one. And I made a shake with this.

It was sour mostly because I didn't have milk and had to improvise. It wasn't bad, just wasn't amazing like it might have been.

But at the end of the week, I realized I hadn't made any desserts. Cream puffs, yes, but only 12

and they were gone that night. So first on my list for next week was a cheesecake pie . . .

1/4 Way There

Week 13 marks the quarter way point of this goal. To be on track I need to have made 127 recipes by now. I have made 118, so I have 9 to catch up with before the half way mark.

In order to celebrate the occasion, I thought I'd make a list about what I've learned, and what I now know I don't know. Also, the first Top Ten List.

• I am not good at crumb coating.
• Always take time to scrape down the sides and beaters at least once when creaming cream cheese.
• There is only so much you can do with a hole in a ziplock bag when it comes to decorating. I guess I need to invest in some bags and tips.
• My oven works in the middle of cooking times, so if the recipe says 20-25 mins, I can count on 23.
• I'm starting to get the hang of when I can substitute and when I can't.
• I don't like coriander
• Attempting to cook 3 or more recipes at once inevitably leads to disaster.
• I eat 5 lbs of sugar and flour just about every two weeks.
• Gingersnaps do not make crumbs easily.
• Cookies usually yield less than stated, and muffins more.
• Some people can take 5 ingredients and create magic. Luckily for me, they write it down so I can follow. Good thing I'm good at reading recipes.

Top Ten Recipes Thus Far:

Spicy Wanton Stars

Onion Sausage Quesidillas

Sweet 'n' Tender Cabbage Rolls

Chicken Fingers with Lemon Sauce

Holstein Crinkles

Chow Mein Chicken Salad

Black Forest Cake

Crumb-Coated Spaetzle

Ham 'n' Swiss Rolls

Hearty Sausage Sandwich