Week 27: Losing Some Steam

Recipes to Go: 507 241

Weeks to Go: 52 25

Recipes Made This Week

Chicken & Tomato Risotto

Chicken Nacho Dip

Frosty Toffee Bits Pie

Toasted Butter Pecan Cake

Pesto Rice-Stuffed Pork Chops

Southwest Barley Salad

Bacon Quiche

Shrimp Wrapped in Bacon

Lemon Rice Pudding Brulee

Tuesday was my half-birthday, which usually I'll very keen to celebrate, but this year it almost passed by unnoticed. Thankfully, my mom sent me an email, which reminded me. And in lieu of the traditional flowers, The Husband opted to make dinner. I chose the risotto. This time I had arborito rice, but he still had to stand in front of the stove for awhile. We have both decided that while we love risotto, it will have to be a special occasion dish because of the time commitment. Although, unlike gnoche, it is actually worth the effort.

This risotto was different because it called for spaghetti sauce at the end. I didn't like it as much as the tomato and corn risotto earlier, but The Husband liked it better. I also liked the orzo pasta as a substitute for arborito rice. We didn't agree on that either.

Wednesday I needed something fast and simple, and it seemed to me that it had been far too long since we had refried beans with anything. They aren't usually a staple at our house, but I missed them, so it was great that this chicken dip called for it. It is kind of like a 7-layer dip only it is missing 2 or 3 layers and the rest are all mixed together. But other than that . . . We all liked it and it was sufficient as a dinner all by itself.

Wednesday I also made the Frosty Toffee Bits Pie, mostly because I was hoping the weather would cooperate for us to go to DC on Thursday and I wouldn't be able to make it then. And since it sits in the freezer until I'm ready to eat it, it is still residing there now. We didn't have Game Night, it's original intended use, but it'll keep. And I don't really know how it tastes, but the batter was excellent.

Thursday we did go to DC, so I spent all day on the road, eating leftovers and listening to 80's music and Toy Story 2. Not a bad day, in the end. And we got home at a reasonable enough hour that after we put The Captain to bed, I had plenty of time to make the Toasted Butter Pecan Cake.

My intension was to take it to class in the morning. I was assuming, since we had driven all day and knew the roads were clear, that school would be normal the next day. I was wrong. While they did actually hold school, there was a two-hour delay, which means my class, held before school was cancelled. Which means we ate the cake ourselves. There was no complaining by The Husband. In fact, he said this cake was very beautiful, and because it spends its spare time in the fridge, it is the easiest thing to cut and it stays beautiful after you cut it. Nice.

Friday, I had to play catch up. I made the pork chops. I was putting this off a little because I'm still not sure if I love pork chops or not, and the answer is I don't think I do. I'll eat them, but they are definitely not a favorite.

And I learned with this recipe that I am not capable of slicing them to stuff them. I suppose it would have been easier to attempt if they were still a little frozen, but still, meat is not easy to slice for me. So instead of being stuffed, they were topped with pesto rice. It was still yummy, right?

The southwest barley salad was nice to go with the pork chops. I didn't measure out the sauce, just eye-balled, but it definitely needed more salsa.

But, like, a ton more, so we just dumped it on our servings. Delicious.

Saturday morning I made the bacon quiche. I finally cooked the bacon to my satisfaction first, so this was especially delicious to me.

I also used crescent rolls instead of a prepared pie crust, so that was really tasty too.

We didn't really want to eat anything big for dinner, so I made The Husband put together the Shrimp Wrapped in Bacon

while I did the Lemon Rice Pudding Brulee. Both were very yummy.

Half-Way There

1/2 of 507=253, rounding down. And as you may remember from the last post, I have completed 250 recipes, which means I'm finally ahead of the game! This brings me much joy, since I will be out of the country for two weeks and unable to make anything. I am still planning on finishing on time, which means a little double duty, but with some more holidays and a few fun parties, I think I'll manage.

So here is my latest Top Ten List (this one has no imput from The Husband, since he is out of town right now, and only comes from recipes made after the Quarter-Way marker)

In no particular order

1. Roasted Vegetable Turkey Pinwheels
2. Forgotten Jambalaya
3. Zucchini Latkes
4. Ginger-Streusel Pumpkin Pie
5. Chili for a Crowd
6. Apple Pie Pastries
7. Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes
8. Caribbean Quesadillas
9. Peach Bliss Dessert
10. Simple Lemon Pie

My original list was 18, so there's a lot that almost made it. I'm sure The Husband will agree with most on this list, okay at least half.

I'm happy to report that some other aspects of my goal are also coming true:

• my knife skills have improved greatly
• I am now pretty good at juggling multiple recipes at once
• I can organize my time with different recipes so they are all done at once
• my pantry is almost fully stocked so that I could make my favorite recipes (minus one or two odd ingredients) without a shopping trip

It's hard to believe that I'm more than half-way done with the recipes. Quite honestly, some days I didn't think I'd make it. But as hectic and stressful as it often is, I am so grateful I decided to do this. I will probably never have the time and stability or energy to do this again in my life, and it has worked out so well thus far. So looking back I'm grateful and overwhelmed that we've eaten so much food.

Week 26: Soup Galore

Recipes to Go: 507 250

Weeks to Go: 52 26

Recipes Made This Week

White Bean Chicken Chili

Cheesy Corn Chowder

Pizza Margherita

Supreme Pizza Burgers

Brown Sugar Date Squares

Taco Minestrone

Pretty Pumpkin Cinnamon Buns

Ham Salad Croissants

Forgotten Jambalaya

Sunday, having consumed or thrown out most of the food in our fridge, it was time to start again. It being January and cold, I naturally went with soup. For most of the week, actually. I can't help it, the weather turns cold and I crave soup; the weather gets warm and I want salad. And to me, Sunday and soup are a perfect marriage. So I threw together the White Bean Chicken Chili. I didn't have white beans, so we used pinto. This may have been a fortuitous substitution. The recipe isn't high yielding in the first place, so there ended up only enough leftover for lunch for me and The Husband the next day.

I know chili gets better as leftovers, and I know pinto beans don't usually have a lot of flavor to them, but for some reason, the leftovers of this soup were the best thing I have ever tasted. Okay, maybe that's a little much, but they were the best soup leftovers I've ever had. Hands down. I could have eaten a whole pot again by myself, and all I got was a measly little cup-full. It was cruel, I tell you. So I will make this again, and while I may try it with white beans, I may not. Why ruin the best leftovers ever?

Well, since the chili was gone on Monday, I made soup again Monday night. This time, a chowder. I have never been a fan of chowder, but I was hoping since this was a corn chowder that maybe I'd like it better. I didn't. But it was mostly because of the chewy bacon. I can't stand chewy bacon in recipes. It was partially my fault.

I chop my onions pretty small and since the recipe called to throw everything in together, the bacon didn't have much time to cook before the onions were burning. So next time, start the bacon sooner. But it's only partially my fault because I don't think crispy bacon would really be true to the idea of a chowder. I don't know, what do you think? I guess I'm doomed to not love chowder all my life.

Sadly for me, the chowder made tons, and I didn't really want to eat it at every meal, so on Tuesday, I made pizza instead. I'd been craving pizza for awhile now, but it's hard to justify going out to a pizza joint when I have 10 recipes to make a week. Luckily, there are multiple pizza recipes in the book. Based solely on ingredients, we made the Pizza Margherita. It was divine. Exactly what I hoped for. Which is why I ate more than half of it. I didn't even save any for The Husband's lunch, in the hopes that he would eat more of the chowder for me. I ate it so quickly, that I didn't stop to take a picture. Sorry.

The pizza craving out of the way, the next thing to go was a hamburger. I'm not usually one for fast food, but I hadn't had a really yummy burger in ages. This is partially because fast food and yummy burgers are not synonymous. I was saving the burger recipes until we got a grill, but I decided we'd make due. The taste buds will not be denied!

We used our George Forman Grill for these, which was a bit of a mistake since they stuck to the grill horribly. So instead of burgers, we kind of had sloppy joes. And rather than pizza sauce, I used ketchup. But it was okay because rather than provolone cheese, I used pepper jack, so it evened out the flavor a little. These were also amazing. Just what I needed.

Thursday night, in the hopes that I would be able to teach my class of teenagers in the morning, and knowing that Fridays are usually when we have treats, I decided to make the treat myself. Unfortunately, I hadn't planned on it when I went shopping, so I had to use what I could. I decided to make the Brown Sugar Date Squares, but use raisins instead of dates. Other than the fact that raisins smell horrible when they are cooking, they made a good substitution. These ended up tasting like a really, really good version of a breakfast bar. And since I didn't teach class the next day, I already had a treat ready for Game Night.

Soup break was over, so on Friday I made the Taco Minestrone. This was under the Meals in Minutes section, which I can understand, but The Husband and I decided that it is really a good way to get rid of leftover minestrone that no one wants to eat any more. I doubt I would ever reach that point since minestrone is my favorite soup, but for those who don't fall under that category, this recipe might be for you. It's ridiculously easy and simple and completely transforms the minestrone into a southwestern treat.

You just add 1/2 lb. ground beef, 2 cans ranch-style beans, and 2 cans diced tomatoes and green chilis to 2 cans minestrone. So easy, and no draining, so it is an uber fast meal.

Saturday a big storm rolled in. Luckily, The Husband had gone shopping for me the night before, so we were well prepared to be snowed in. Having nothing else to do, I baked the whole day. It was after noon by the time I finished the Pumpkin Cinnamon Buns. I debated halving the recipe, but decided to go for it. Lesson learned: my KitchenAid cannot handle 7 cups of flour. So I will be halving all further such recipes. The yeast finally agreed with me and I ended up with 2 dozen beautiful pumpkin rolls.

And because there was pumpkin involved they stayed moist at least until we got through the first pan. But 10 secs in the microwave was all they needed to be delicious once again. So breakfast was taken care of for the rest of the week, at least.

Instead of ground ham, which I don't plan on keeping around, I used tuna for the croissant sandwiches. I also used the leftover hamburger buns instead of the croissants. No one complained as this may have been the best tuna salad ever.

And that's a lot for me to admit since I thought I made a pretty good tuna salad on my own. I didn't follow this recipe religiously, so I guess my own experience contributed, but I can tell you that from now on, sunflower seeds will be added to my tuna salad every time. Genious.

Saturday's recipes are almost backwards from when I prepared them to when we ate them. I got the jambalaya ready first thing in the morning, before I started on the pumpkin cinnamon rolls, which were busy rising when I made the ham salad croissants.

I do love me a good slow cooker recipe, and this is going to become a staple. I'm sure I can keep shrimp around and sausage so that I can make this a few times every winter. This really was the greatest.

The meat was good, but the sauce was the outstanding part. We ate this for three days straight, two meals a day, and no one complained, or even thought about complaining. It just kept getting better. So I was sworn by The Husband to make this a future staple. I will happily comply.

And this week makes the half-way point, which means another non-recipe checkpoint blog post is coming up.

Week 25: Appetizers

Recipes to Go: 507 259

Weeks to Go: 52 27

Recipes Made This Week

Pizza Fondue

Stuffed Portabello Mushrooms

Greek Pasta Salad

Colorful Turkey Salad Cups

Double Chocolate Fondue

Roasted Vegetable Turkey Pinwheels

Fancy Phillo Cups

Texas Snack Mix

Crisp 'n' Tender Corn Waffles

I could not eat any more food. I think if I looked at stuffing any more I would hurl. The idea of all that dessert, not to mention the reality of it on my counters was clogging my arteries. I think I may have overdone it a teeny, tiny bit for Christmas. It was too much. We needed to eat something that wouldn't have ridiculous amounts of leftovers. Something that wouldn't sit on my stomach like gravel. So I decided to make appetizers the whole week.

It was Wednesday when I made this decision. I went to the store on Tuesday. I felt like I was shopping blind. I haven't gone to the store without a list since July. I wasn't sure what to do with myself. How did I do this all those years before I started this project? I remembered a few of the things we'd run out of during the holidays, and a few of the recipes that I had glanced at, but I didn't get much other than that. Once I got some idea of what the week would be like, I hit up Walmart. We started with the Pizza Fondue.

It sounded perfect to me, warm for a cold winter night, but only eat what you want, or you can fit. Plus, while I dearly love chocolate, there's something about pizza/spaghetti sauce as a fondue that makes it uber yummy. It really hit the spot. The Captain liked it too.

I had purchased portabello mushrooms on Tuesday, during the blind shopping, knowing about this recipe and figuring now was as good a time as any. They were pretty good, but the mushrooms were so big and I had to eat two because they certainly weren't going to keep. They would not have been good at all as leftovers. Add to that the Greek Salad we had--which was excellent, I made it vegetarian to make it not as filling--and my stomach was starting to protest again.

Friday was New Year's Eve. I wasn't originally planning on doing anything. I assumed most of our friends would have plans, so Game Night was cancelled as far as I was concerned, but when our friends wanted to get together at their house, I said it was far easier for us to host, so Game Night was back on. And still wanting to get a decent amount of recipes made this week, I tried to take advantage and put together some food for the New Year.

We still needed dinner first, so I made the Colorful Turkey Salad Cups, only instead of turkey, I used the leftover ham from Christmas. It went really well with the recipe since it was a good blend of sweet and savory, just like the fruit/veggie combo in the rest of the salad.

The recipe had all my favorites in it, but I just could eat more than two servings. And though The Husband took leftovers to work, I had to throw some out in the end because it didn't look very appetizing just sitting in a bowl. Much better wrapped in a lettuce leaf.

Now for the New Year food. I got started earlier in the day with the roasted vegetable part of the turkey pinwheels. I think these won the most awards of the night because of the spread, which if you overlook the oil (minimal) used to roast them and the cream cheese, which would be in any wrap spread, then it was extremely healthy. Surprisingly so, because healthy things aren't supposed to be addictively good.

But these were. And though they took some time, they weren't time intensive, just a lot of baking and chilling mostly, which left time to work on the other foods.

The phyllo cups were really hard to get out of the muffin tins. And I sprayed them before I put the phyllo in. I guess this was a time that it would have been better to grease with shortening. The cups definitely needed to set up in the fridge before eating, but they also got rave reviews.

Luckily, when they were set up, you could eat them in two bites without making a mess because they are just barely too big to eat in one. Maybe next time I'll make them in a mini muffin tin since as an appetizer, I think one bite should be sufficient.

I bought quite a few boxes of Chex cereal when it was on sale because I knew there'd be recipes like this. And since I couldn't just use part of the cereal, I made Muddy Buddies, too. Can you believe The Husband hadn't heard or tasted Muddy Buddies until 2 years after we'd been married? Don't worry, he knows he missed out, and tries to make up for it by eating them multiple times a year now. Anyway, the Texas Snack Mix was way more addictive than I anticipated.

The sauce seemed so small in comparison to the snack mix I wasn't sure it would have an affect on all of it, but it did. And I think next time I'll add the sauce in two batches with a stirring partner to avoid those few pieces that were just too intense.

The fondue never set up. It stayed pretty thin and goopy, but that didn't stop us from eat a lot of it anyway.

I forgot to put out apples, but everything else made a pretty good showing. The Husband has some mad stabbing talents. He can spear a Vanilla wafer every time without cracking or breaking it. We were all very impressed.

New Year's Day, when we finally rolled out of bed (thank you, The Captain, for sleeping in til 8) I made the corn waffles. I haven't always been a fan of waffles in the past. As a kid, I thought they were thick and heavy and choked me. But now I think the waffle iron The Husband got for our anniversary this year will end up being a good investment and will get used beyond the scope of this goal.

The waffles were yummy, and The Captain is unsurprisingly addicted to syrup.

So for a week were no one felt like eating and I didn't get started until Wednesday, I don't think I faired too badly.

Week 24: Merry Christmas

Recipes to Go: 507 268

Weeks to Go: 52 28

Recipes Made This Week

Black Bean 'n' Pumpkin Chili

Fluffy Lemon Squares

Hunter's Delight

Prime Rib Dinner

Onion Yorkshire Pudding

Cranberry Fluff

Warm 'n' Fruity Breakfast Cereal

Chocolate Hazelnut Truffles

Holiday Spritz

Almond Tassies

Walnut Horn Cookies

Turtle-Shaped Cookies

Apple Pie Pastries

Fruit-Glazed Spiral Ham

Celebration Green Beans

Calico Corn Bread Dressing

Perfect Dinner Rolls

Homemade Eggnog

Mustard-Sour Cream Salad Dressing

Elegant Eggnog Dessert

Pumpkin Cheesecake with Pecan Brittle

Lemon Meringue Pie

Yes, it was a busy week. I decided to take the excuse and make another big meal for Christmas. In hindsight, maybe I should have thought it through better because the only people we had over were the missionaries, which meant no one else was going to be supplying any food, and there would only be 4 1/2 people to eat the whole feast. Luckily for me, I had a lot of help Christmas day, and it wasn't as bad as it looks.

So, not wanting the family to starve all week just because I had 10 recipes to do for one dinner, I carefully planned our meals for the week. All of them were slow cooked, which mean minimal effort on my part after nap time, which is when the chaos usually begins.

So Sunday, I made the Black Bean 'n' Pumpkin Chili. I've made this recipe twice before, but I've never used all the ingredients.

This time, I actually used turkey and pumpkin, and this was the best version I've had. Of course, that's also because I had 4 hours to let it simmer on the stove.

I started on two of the desserts as well, since I knew I had to take advantage of all the time I had. The Lemon Squares needed a few hours in the fridge, and the Truffles were supposed to set overnight before getting balled. So I made both, not to finish the truffles for another few days. The Lemon Squares were delicious. Unfortunately, they didn't maintain their shape once cut and scooped so I didn't get to give any away. Which means they're lost in the fridge somewhere, and forgotten with all the other desserts invading the house.

My plan was simple--dinner every other day, 3 cookies Monday and Tuesday, deliver cookies on Wednesday, 3 Christmas Dinner recipes Thursday and Friday, then less to worry about come Saturday.

So Monday I made the Holiday Spritz and the Almond Tassies and finished the Truffles. I wish I had a cookie punch like the recipe suggests for the Spritz because they would have looked as good as they tasted. I tried to pour them into a cookie cutter like a mold, but that failed miserably. So I settle for shaping them into the best circles I could. They looked lame, but at least they tasted good.

The Almond Tassies were my first opportunity to use my mini muffin tins. I greased the heck out of them first, for which I was thankful to myself later. I used shortening, which has become my greaser of choice. Pam, or the store version of cooking spray, leaves an annoying, sticky coating on my cooking trays and pans that takes steal wool to get out, which of coarse destroys non-stick coating. So all my nice stuff doesn't get Pam-ed. And I have recently decided that it's much better to just use my bare fingers to apply shortening rather than a paper towel because it's easier to get the stuff off my hands than anything else. So thanks to my ridiculously small hands (for my height), I was able to work the shortening into the mini muffin tins successfully, for this beautiful result.

The truffles had been so long in the fridge, they were impossible to get out with a melon baller, as the recipe suggests, so I used a spoon and my palms to shape. I stuck a whole almond in the center instead of a hazelnut, which I didn't have. I did roll the tops in hazelnuts, though. I layered all the cooled cookies in my giant tupperware container and used parchment paper to stack. I've always wanted to stack stuff in the giant container, so it was very gratifying.

Tuesday morning, I put the Hunter's Delight stew in the slow cooker. The venison practically cubed itself it was so lean, so the hardest part of putting it together was slicing potatoes. And I'm happy to say, my knife skills are improving, so even that didn't take very long.

Dinner accomplished, I turned to more cookie making. Luckily The Captain loves licking beaters, because we had a lot of dough to make. The anticipation of licking kept him happy enough. We made Walnut Horn Cookies and Turtle-Shaped Cookies.

I didn't have enough walnuts, so I decided to use Graham Crackers for the filling of the Horn cookies instead. That ended up being a pretty good substitution. These were so fun to make. I love rolling up crescent rolls, so this was a treat. They ended up so pretty and yummy. I'll have to make them again sometime.

The Turtle-Shaped Cookies ended up not being so turtle shaped due to my lack of pecan halves. But the maple flavored cookies were still very addictive.

I forgot to put the powdered sugar in the chocolate topping initially, and since I used unsweetened chocolate, that was a problem. Luckily, we added some milk chocolate and sugar and heated it up again, and all was well. Some powdered sugar on top of the ones already dipped proved an adequate solution as well.

I didn't get to make the Apple Pie Pastries until The Captain was asleep that night. The other cookie recipes were specifically in the Christmas Goodies section, but the Apple Pie Pastry came from the Valentines recipes, and I can see why. This might be the best apple pie in the world. I'm pretty sure you could get some action after making these pies. Wow! I had to interrupt The Husband from his racing game in the middle of the track to eat one because they were that good. And he definitely wasn't mad at me for interrupting him either . . .

I guess I should mention the stew before moving on. It ended up being a little too sweet for me in the end. And the venison was still gamey after 6 hours in the slow cooker. It was still good and everyone enjoyed it. It's a good way to use some venison if you find yourself overloaded.

Wednesday we put the cookies in improvised baskets made of cheap paper plates.

They looked better than I was hoping, so I wasn't embarrassed to give them away. Then we bundled up and walked around the neighborhood giving them away. The Captain is so cute that we ended up staying way too long at the neighbors, but it made them merry, which was the whole idea, so I can't complain. Plus, it was very nice to get out of the house.

I was debating on whether to make the big prime rib dinner on Thursday or Christmas Eve, but decided Thursday would be best because I didn't want us to be full going into Christmas. Plus, growing up Christmas Adam (as I call the day before Christmas Eve because Adam came before Eve, get it?) was always a big day for us because we had a big family sleepover under the tree. We read Christmas stories and eat treats and everyone falls asleep except my mom and me who have to stay up to finish whatever book she got from the library to read, weeping most of the time. (Darn Christmas books and their sad story lines.) I wanted to keep the tradition alive, so we had our big dinner. Unfortunately, my freezer is full of meat, and I didn't have a rump roast like I thought, and I couldn't justify buying more meat when I can barely close the freezer as it is, so we had a pork roast dinner instead of prime rib.

The Husband was disappointed when he saw the original recipe, but luckily that was after he had already enjoyed his dinner. It was good, except that I don't have a roasting pan, so the veggies got a bit dry.

The Onion Yorkshire Pudding was amazing. First of all, it's like a soufle, and it actually worked for me. Second, it was hearty and perfect for a cold winter's eve.

We both agreed that it hit the spot.

The cranberry fluff was pretty fun to make. This was The Captain's favorite, by far. In his defense, there are mini marshmallows in it, which are hard for any little boy to resist.

This is surprisingly tart at moments, so it feels pretty light, which is good after so much heavy food.

I started the recipes for Christmas Dinner early in the day so I could have the afternoon to put together dinner. I made the salad dressing--easy,

and the Eggnog--took time on the stove, but that's it, and the stuffing, which I put sans broth in the fridge.

This stuffing recipe is very similar to the one I usually use for Thanksgiving except it uses regular bread in addition to corn bread. After trying it, we decided to stick with mine for future dinners.

Friday, Christmas Eve, was devoted to getting three desserts made. This didn't sound like a hard idea at the beginning of the week, but when it came down to it, I was pretty wiped out. It took everything I had (and an extra spring form donated by my neighbor) to make myself get it done. I've hand-washed my KitchenAid at least a dozen times this week.

I made the Pumpkin Cheesecake first. This time I ground the Gingersnap cookies in the food processor (more hand washing) for the crust. Got it all cooking and started on the brittle to garnish the top. I've never made brittle before, but I guess I should have greased the cooking sheet with butter instead of shortening since it made for a much messier clean up than was necessary.

It surprised me by setting up, since I didn't have a candy thermometer. I relied on dumb luck and YouTube videos to figure out when I reached soft-ball and hard crack stage. I think it wasn't quite as hard as it could have been, but I wasn't going to risk anything, so I took it out at the beginning, rather than the middle of hard-crack.

While all that was cooling, I tried to make the other two somewhat simultaneously. The problem was, I had to send The Husband to the store for vanilla pudding, which I had forgotten, so I ended up finishing the Lemon meringue pie before I could start the Eggnog dessert. I only realized this after I had been creaming the cream cheese for the Eggnog dessert, which meant more hand washing.

I was determined to redeem myself with this lemon meringue pie. My first ever lemon meringue was Thanksgiving '09 and it was beautiful, and then the lemonade meringue pie for the Pre-Thanksgiving Day Feast this year was such a dismal failure. I had to make sure the last one was more of a fluke than a pattern. Luckily, this one set up in the pan on the stove, so I knew that at least it wouldn't be a soupy mess. The meringue is always the part that makes me nervous, though. this one was the smoothest process yet, and because I had done one so recently, I wasn't as worried about over-beating as I normally am. I am happy to say that The Husband said it looked like a painting when he got it out of the oven. Everything was sealed and pretty. I let it cool sufficiently before putting it in the fridge, and the flavor was delicious. Verdict? Redeemed.

The eggnog dessert I picked because I could use the eggnog I just made to make this. We aren't huge eggnog fans at our house (except The Captain, I just learned), so I thought this would help with leftovers. Plus, it would look very pretty for Christmas.

I worked out well, even though I had to use the rest of my box of Vanilla Wafers instead of Graham Crackers for the crust, since I had used the last of my Graham Crackers for the Walnut Horn Cookies. Meh, one cookie crust is pretty much the same as another. Much to the delight of the missionary who helped me finish this with the Pirouette Cookies, it fit exactly the right amount around it to stagger chocolate and vanilla.

Breakfast for Christmas was great because it was also a slow cooked dish--oatmeal. I put it together before we went to bed on Friday and when we got up on Christmas, breakfast was waiting for us. I used quick cooking oats instead of the 7 grain cereal recommended,

and next time I'll use something not quick cooking because it did all turn to mush. But The Captain really liked it. So we'll keep having it for breakfast until it's gone.

Christmas Day I was lucky to have the missionaries there to help me as The Husband was sick all day.

Tragic, I know. No one should be sick on Christmas. I gave each young lady an assignment. We started at 2:30 and ate dinner at 6. I forgot to cover the ham when it started baking, so I didn't end up baking it the full 2 hours.

Eh, it's fully cooked already, and it was heated through, so we were fine.

The rolls I had to start much earlier in the day, my fight with yeast and all.

It took 2 hours for them to rise, but I planned for time so they ended up finishing before I needed to put the ham in the oven.

The green beans were a surprise. I hardly had leftovers they were so popular.

I guess I have a new green bean casserole recipe. This is much better than Campbell's.

Week 23: Getting My Act Together

Recipes to Go: 507 280

Weeks to Go: 52 29

Recipes Made This Week

Black Bean Asparagus Salad

Pan-Fried Venison Steak

Swiss-Almond Floret Bake

Tangy Rhubarb Fool

Meat Loaf with Potato Crust

Savory Grilled Potatoes

Next Day Turkey Primavera

Cranberry Swirl Loaf

As odd as it sounds, after Thanksgiving I was getting nervous about running out of recipes. Not that I would get through the 507 early, but that I would get to the end and all that would be left would be desserts and I'd have to make and eat 10 desserts a week. I don't really have a sweet tooth, so the idea didn't appeal to me. So I did a little inventory. I sat down and divided everything into categories again and did extra tallies for the recipes that I consider more appropriate for summer and looked to see how many of each thing I had. Well, turns out I have about 6 weeks worth of summer recipes (perfect) and the rest are split about evenly. So, to make my life easier, I just have to pick 3 main dishes, 3 side dishes, and 3 desserts every week. Then with breakfast on Saturday I have 10 recipes. I can pretty much count on two desserts for game night, which means we only have 1 to eat during the week. That's something I can live with. And suddenly weekly menus are much easier to plan.

Lest you start to question my intelligence waiting so long to do this, I did try to start something like this at the beginning, but the whole thing was a little overwhelming and I had to get my feet on the ground before I could run in a specific direction.

So now I had a plan. The problem this week, aka why I only have 8 recipes, is that we didn't have Game Night again, this time because we weren't home. We took a part business/part pleasure trip to DC over the weekend and so I didn't get any cooking done on Friday or Saturday. So I carried over the two desserts into the next week, which got a little crazy . . . but more on that later.

Some friends asked us over to dinner on Sunday, and since they know about my goal, they asked if I had a side dish to bring. Check and check. The black bean salad was good. Sadly, I didn't taste it before I left because I would have added more salt, which was all it needed, so it didn't get the rave reviews it deserved. Luckily, that just meant we had leftovers for us to enjoy, and with a touch of salt, we did.

Not letting any grass grow under my feet with the new plan in place, on Monday I cooked up some venison and a casserole. I consider myself lucky to have started this whole scheme in a place where I've been able to find everything I need. Sure, I have to drive 1/2 hour one way to get to the only decent grocery store in the area once a week, but it's been wonderful for my planning skills (not to mention saving on gas). And unlike other places I've lived, here I am surrounded by hunters. Fairly successful hunters, too, who are nice enough to generously share of their spoils. That's how I came by quite a bit of venison. The sweet young man who gave it to me didn't even care about getting paid for it either. I love this town!

So, this was my first experience using the venison. It came apart when The Husband flattened it out for me, so we ended up with lots of little stakes to fry. The saltine coating was perfect, and the meat is so sweet that The Captain ate it up without complaint.

The floret bake was super easy since I just used two bags of frozen broccoli and cauliflower heads. It was much cheaper than buying the real stuff out of season. Thank goodness for frozen food. It was very tasty, but due to a car battery mishap, I had to put it together rather quickly to go rescue The Husband from work. This meant I didn't get to mix it all together before sticking it in the oven, so the yummiest part was just on the top. This is something I'd make again, though, especially if I find myself with an overabundance of broccoli and cauliflower.

Tuesday was spent eating leftovers, so I made dessert to go with it. Luckily for me, I bought a lot of rhubarb to freeze, so I can enjoy it all winter (since I fell in love with it this summer). I didn't take the time to chop it up really small before putting it all together, which I think I will do next time. And there will be a next time because The Husband raved about this. I loved it. It was made with plain yogurt, so it's relatively healthy and very tangy. Which is what we both loved about it. It was definitely a dessert, but one that didn't make me feel like I needed a trip to the dentist when I was done. It was so refreshing. So definitely on the Make Again list.

Wednesday I made the meat loaf. Since I was making a potato side dish with it, I didn't put a potato crust on top.

I really love the curry powder in the recipe, but The Husband wasn't as much of a fan. I guess I'll stick to the other meat loaf he "could get behind".

The grilled potato recipe I was interested to try. Because it is made in foil, it is something I could potentially make in the fireplace should the power go out for an extended period. There were major power outages in the area last year due to unseasonable snow, and the snow seems to have come back this year. I've become a little paranoid, so it's nice to have some plans on the back burner.

Since this recipe was essentially potatoes and onions, it shouldn't be too hard to keep those things on hand, so I'll just give it a few hours, and we can at least have something hot to eat should the power go out.

My favorite recipe this week was the Turkey Primavera. I can see why it won the turkey leftover contest. It was such a good flavor, just from an Italian salad dressing mix, and with all the veggies, it was easy to look past the heavy whipping cream in the sauce.

I will probably be making the vegetarian version of this recipe a lot in the summer because it would be a great way to use up garden veggies. And I don't think anyone would complain having to eat it a few weeks in a row.

Since we were leaving early in the morning on Friday, I made the Cranberry Swirl Loaf Thursday night. As always, the yeast and I had a fight. I lost strictly because of time, but the end result was still good. The time factor also kept me from letting the cranberry filling cool enough. I think it's supposed to be like jam, but it was more like sauce, which made for some messy jelly rolling. In the end, the stuff that leaked out in the pan acted as a glaze and was very yummy, so all's well that ends well, I guess.

This was delicious. I love cranberries deeply. I have a lot in my freezer to use this winter. Sadly, I didn't put nuts in this either, but we managed to eat the whole thing anyway. Actually, we almost ate the whole thing in the car it was so good.

Week 22: Happy Hanukkah

Recipes to Go: 507 288

Weeks to Go: 52 30

Recipes Made This Week

Citrus Asparagus Salad

Peach Bliss Dessert

Chunky Turkey Soup

Turkey Sandwiches with Red Pepper Hummus

Panhandle Beef Brisket

Zucchini Latkes

Sauerbraten Stew

German Potato Salad with Sausage

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Cake

Hot Spinach Spread with Pita Chips

Sweet Potato Tart

Pecan-Raisin Cinnamon Rolls

To go with all the leftovers we were eating on Sunday, I made the Citrus Asparagus Salad. The Husband and I both agreed that the citrus flavors weren't as strong as we were hoping. He still really liked it, but I didn't as much. I think I was spoiled with the asparagus crepes.

This time the asparagus didn't seem to be steamed as well, so it was kind of tough to eat. It wasn't horrible my any means, but maybe I'm not an asparagus fan.

I also made the Peach Bliss Dessert. I was really fortunate in making this because its a recipe that only makes four servings and calls for leftover sponge cake. I don't usually have leftover sponge cake lying around, and I didn't want to buy a whole cake for four slices, but luckily for me, my neighbors are ridiculously generous.

After I finally got to the store last Friday, I picked up some things for my neighbor who just had surgery and was recovering at home. When I went over to her house I brought her stuff, and ended up leaving with 1/4 of a South Carolina sponge cake that one of her church's members had brought by that they couldn't finish. So, it worked out perfectly for me.

And can I say, the Bliss in the title of this dessert was not a fabrication. It was divine. Easy, lovely, delicious. All agreed. If only I got leftover sponge cake more often . . .

I decided to cook part of the second turkey I bought for Thanksgiving. Let me explain . . . I called my mom, the expert bargin shopper in my life, before Thanksgiving to see what price she usually gets turkey for. I couldn't find any advertised price lower than $.99/lb around us. She said she gets them when they reach $.39/lb. And she heard some advice to buy two, and have the meat department quarter one for you, so it takes up less freezer space and can be eaten by a smaller crowd throughout the year. Since I had so many recipes that call for turkey, this sounded like an excellent idea to me. So when I saw a $.39/lb deal, I snatched two turkeys. I then had to wait around for help at the meat department only to hear that they were no longer allowed to cut poultry. Lame. So then I was faced with a dilemma--only buy the one turkey for Thanksgiving, or buy two and try to cut the second one myself. Feeling adventurous as I have this year, I chose door number two. That is how I became intimately acquainted with a turkey and almost got frost bite.

Back to this week, I put 1/4 of the second turkey in the slow cooker and it took a lot longer to cook than I anticipated. So I didn't get to make dinner on Monday, and made it on Tuesday instead.I used the turkey in the soup and the sandwiches.

The turkey soup was the first time I have made my own broth. It was kind of fun. I felt very domestic.

The orzo in the soup was wonderful, I'll do that again, and the curry powder was a nice touch. The sandwiches were also good, though red peppers would have made them even better.

I did enjoy the hummus, though. It's been too long since I made hummus last.

Wednesday was the end of Hanukkah, and in celebration I made a Jewish-inspired meal--brisket and zucchini latkes. The brisket was good,

nice and steamy as you can see, but the star of the meal was definitely the latkes. Don't let the picture fool you. They might be the best thing I've fried so far.

I dried the zucchini enough that they stuck together really well, and I occupied myself enough while frying them that I didn't take them out too early. That seems to be my most common frying mistake. So cleaning up and doing the dishes not only made me happy as only a clean kitchen can, but made the latkes better. Classic win-win.

Since we needed a dessert, I gave The Husband the option and he picked the chocolate chip pumpkin cake. That meant he had to go to the store to get me a fluted tube pan. It was good, heavy, and it took awhile to eat, but it was good.

As you can see, despite all my best greasing efforts, only half of it successfully came out of the pan. And fluted pans are ridiculously hard to clean!

Ignoring the potential irony, I made a German-themed dinner on Wednesday. The potato salad was delicious and since in was made in the slow cooker, it was easy. And the Sauerbraten Stew was slow cooked in the oven. It was delicious and really hardy, as all German food is.

Friday night we had a church Christmas party in lew of Game Night. I made the spinach dip and the sweet potato tart. Sadly, the tart didn't set up, so it was a failure.

But the dip more than made up for it. I was smart this time and tasted it before it vanished, but so many people asked me for the recipe that I offered to just put it in the bulletin the next Sunday. It was gratifying to my ego. But it really is delicious dip.

The pita chips are excellent as well.

Saturday morning was my first attempt at cinnamon rolls from the book. I am really bad at rolling out dough into a square, so the ends of my jelly rolls are always smaller. Luckily I have a toddler, so that usually works out well to have some toddler-sized buns. I usually dispense with the nuts in recipes because of said toddler, but I really wanted to try them in these rolls. So I made a special batch with nuts just for me. They were good with just the raisins, but the nuts were heavenly.

Sadly, I never wait for the rolls to cool enough before frosting them. (What can I say, I like to eat them when they're warm.) So the frosting always ends up more of a glaze, and very gooey. It was sad, but they still tasted great, though they didn't stay soft very long. However, part of that was my fault for not putting them in a container right away.