Week 11: Saved from Extinction

Recipes to Go: 507 406

Weeks to Go: 52 41

Recipes Made This Week

Fruited Feta Spread

Turkey Muffuletta

Apple Peach Cobbler

Sesame Chicken Wings

Chow Mein Chicken Salad

Ham and Broccoli Bake

Peanut Butter Cookies

Very Berry-licious Smoothies

I had a few things that were going bad this week, so I used the opportunity to make some really yummy food. Starting with the lunch meat from last week. I had my eye on the turkey muffuletta recipe for awhile, but it never quite worked out until now.

I had some questions about the ingredients, but everything tasted amazing together. It had a very Spanish taste, and definitely filled us up, with leftovers for lunch.

To use up some of the leftover ice cream that didn't get fried last week, I made Apple Peach Cobbler. It also helped that I had two peaches on the brink of death and an apple left from the Farmer's Market. The Husband loved this dessert.

I did too because it came together really fast and was really delicious. It was perfect with the ice cream, too. We got to eat it right out of the pipping hot pan thanks to that frozen dessert.

For lunch that day (so I guess this should have come first, oops) I made the Fruited Feta Spread to use the leftover Feta cheese, grapes and pimentos that had been in the fridge almost too long.

This spread was extremely addictive. The Captain remembered it after he woke up from his nap and wouldn't stop crying until I gave it to him.

That's the first time that has happened. Also, I think this is the first time I've ever enjoyed pimentos. There was an awesome savory/sweet duality to this dish. And it lasted for quite a few days. Yay for easy lunches.

Riding the high from my last few successes, I decided to try my hand at chicken wings. I had purchased chicken wings awhile back, but I have little enough experience eating them, that I hadn't tried making any yet. But I had purchased sesame seeds last week for the bread, so I had nothing to buy for this recipe. It wasn't nearly as much work as I thought it would be. And other than my really crappy tongs destroying the breading, they were delicious. How the smell do you get perfectly coated anything? I have never been successful at this, ever. Luckily the wings were still good.

I thought why not pair sesame with sesame and chicken with chicken, so I made the Chow Mein Chicken Salad to go with the wings. This is the best salad I've made yet. I'm sure that's partially because I pan-grilled the chicken in butter to cook it. The dressing was so good. The Captain was actually eating lettuce because of it. He normally picks around that. There were no leftovers from this dinner because I couldn't bear to stop eating this salad. I will be making this again.

Because I had to cut out the center of the loaf for the muffuletta on Monday (which is brilliant, by the way, everything fit so nicely) I had this leftover bread that was too yummy to throw away. Luckily, I planned for that so I made the Ham and Broccoli Bake with the leftovers. Unfortunately, I didn't plan on not having any frozen broccoli (I swear there was some in the freezer when I went shopping). But it was ham, and peas go well with ham, and I had plenty of frozen peas, so that was a quick substitution that for all I know is much better than the original. I like broccoli well enough, but peas are my favorite. They aren't The Husband's first choice, but he agreed that this was a well above average meal.

I had pretty much made all my recipes for the week on Wednesday, and because they were so good, we didn't have many leftovers. This meant that I had to make burritos and plain pasta and macaroni and cheese this week. It was strange to fall back on old habits for a few days. It made me even more grateful for this goal since it has certainly livened up the kitchen.

Anyway, for Game Night I made Peanut Butter cookies. They were a good twist on the classic. The cloves and nutmeg and ginger added to them made them taste more spicy and autumn-esque since we get those flavors in most winter desserts.

I halved the recipe and still ended up with 3 1/3 dozen cookies and only 2 people at Game Night. Plus because of the peanut butter, I couldn't give them to The Captain, so they have been tempting me all weekend. Which is bad since I couldn't eat until dinner today.

For Saturday morning breakfast, I was very glad I had planned on a fast and easy shake since we had to go into the city early in the morning. This shake was awesome and fruit filled and with no extra sugar, not overly sweet and very filling.

Oh, and it was easy to put together because I have an awesome blender so I didn't have to slice anything, just take the tops of the strawberries and blend.

Week 10: Excessive Desserts

Recipes to Go: 507 414

Weeks to Go: 52 42

Recipes Made This Week

Egg Scramble

Noodle Pudding

Five-Topping Bread

Country-Style Vanilla Ice Cream

Chicken Mushroom Melts

Pot o' Gold Cookies

Nutmeg Blueberry Muffins

Fried Ice Cream

Butter Pecan Sauce

Most of the recipes I made this week were dessert recipes. This was partially by accident.

One of my friends from church had her baby on Sunday. This was a little unexpected as she wasn't due until the 20th. I had planned on making something to take over to her, but I hadn't planned it with this week's menu. So when I got the news Sunday, I looked through the plan for the week and all I saw were desserts and appetizers. So I decided to make the Noodle Pudding for her to freeze, and take over half of our dinner that night, which was the Egg Scramble. I felt a little pressure to do this because a) neither one of their families are local, though they aren't far away, so I didn't know if anyone would be there to help her, and b) I didn't know if anyone else at church knew, so I didn't think anyone else would be there to help, either.

So poor The Husband came home to me in full panic mode on Monday evening. I wanted enough time to be able to help her get stuff done that night and give them dinner at a reasonable hour. So, of course, the elements combined against me and everything started going wrong. The noodles turned to mush in the two minutes I had my back turned, so I had to have The Husband stop by Walmart on his way home to pick up more. And when I called him the first 3 times he didn't answer. Meanwhile, The Captain is vying for attention and being generally underfoot. Needless to say, I wasn't very pleasant for awhile. Luckily, The Husband is awesome, took The Captain downstairs and refused to be offended by my meanness.

Finally, I got the food ready, put The Husband in charge of getting our half ready, loaded everything in the car and promised not to be too late. When I got to their house I saw cars there, which was reassuring. So I just stopped by, dropped everything off, and went home to this:

and it was yummy. Nice and fluffy, and The Captain liked it. He even liked the leftovers for lunch the next day.

Since I had already done the hard work for dinner on Tuesday and simply had to put the Noodle Pudding in the oven, I took some time to make some bread. This loaf turned out so well, I think, because I used fast-active yeast instead of the regular stuff. This wasn't on purpose, I didn't have any of the regular stuff left, but it was lucky because it took the alloted time to double, and if I had used the regular yeast it might not have. I will keep this in mind in the future, especially in the winter when I don't have too many warm places to let dough rest.

The Husband said this bread tasted like bagels, and I agree. It was really delicious and didn't even need bread pans to cook in. I am a bit curious as to how it would taste without the five toppings. Luckily for me, the store bread here leaves everything to be desired (oh, how I miss Grandma Sycamore!), which means I could end up making bread often. And I've said it before, but I'll say it again, nothing smells better than baking bread.

I also made the Country-style vanilla ice cream on Tuesday. This is because I needed to have it to fry later in the week. I found it oddly satisfying to use 3 recipes for just one dessert.

I felt really bad when I cooked the Noodle Pudding that night because it turns out it's not a main dish, but rather a dessert. It was really rich and really sweet.

In fact we still have leftovers in the fridge I'm struggling to get through. So I felt really guilty that I had given this away as a dinner. Which just means that I will have to make another dinner to take over.

So, after being disappointed by the Noodle Pudding and the lack of actual food during the week, it was a wonderful surprise to have the Chicken Mushroom Melts. They were very filling, and so simple. I remember thinking, this is what I love about the Taste of Home recipes I made at the beginning of the experiment--they are simple, use a few ingredients that are usually in my pantry, but they taste delicious. That's exactly this recipe. Of course, The Husband didn't like it as much as me because he doesn't have a love affair with mushrooms like I do, but he still thought it was decent.

This picture is horrible, I realize now, but they are gone, so I can't reshoot.

For Game Night I made Pot o' Gold cookies because I didn't think I'd get to make all the St. Patrick's Day recipes on St. Patrick's Day. But instead of using green frosting, I made it orangy-red like the leaves that have started to change. I love the fall, and I'm really excited for all the leaves to turn colors. Those of you in higher altitudes are probably almost done with leaf changing, while I have to another month to go. I took this picture with the token brown cookie so it would like there is more diversity in my baking.

Actually, I've been lucky that I haven't burned a batch of cookies in this oven, yet. Knock on wood. These cookies tasted like Pecan Sandies, which are okay, but not my favorite. Unfortunately, no one came to Game Night, so I was forced to give these away to some ladies from church. The last thing I needed in the house this week was more sweet things.

The nutmeg blueberry muffins were super yummy. Nothing beats fresh blueberries. And even though I put the sugar and nutmeg on the top after they were done instead of before they baked, it was still really good.

I'm not sure I would have ever paired nutmeg with blueberries, but it was delicious. And they were breakfast for me the whole week, and they were still good on Friday.

We finally got to make Fried Ice Cream on Saturday.

It was good, but super rich and we had to eat noodle pudding for dinner, so it was just too much. Too much sugar. I think I finished and ate lunch meat, which I then realized was almost going bad, which meant we had to use it the next week . . .

Week 9: Time Consuming

Recipes to Go: 507 423

Weeks to Go: 52 43

Recipes Made This Week

Coconut Crunch Cookies

Broccoli Chicken Supreme

Slice 'n' Back Lemon Gems

Fiesta Lasagna

Green Salad with Raspberry Vinaigrette

Grilled Corn Dip

Lemon Basil Cupcakes

Pesto Veggie Stacks

Three-Cheese Pesto Pizza

Peaches 'n' Cream Cups

While we were still with The Husbands's family for Labor Day, we decided Sunday's dinner needed a yummy dessert. After consulting The Book, we decided the Coconut Crunch Cookies looked the best, which is saying something because it we hadn't eaten all day and everything looked good at that point.

We made a double batch, which normally wouldn't have been a big deal, but the yield on these was surprisingly accurate, so we ended up with tons and tons of really yummy cookies. We ate all we could fit, and took a few home, but we left most of them there to be traded at lunch in Kindergarten.

The Broccoli Chicken casserole was decent enough, but nothing spectacular. And it definitely got not-as-good as the leftovers went on.

Though, maybe it wasn't the casserole's fault. It did have to compete with leftover lasagna later in the week, and few things are as good as leftover lasagna. This casserole took awhile to put together. So with all the prep and just an okay rating, I doubt this one will become a go-to recipe.

These lemon cookies look really good, but they were also a pain.

Probably because I was quite grumpy at the casserole taking forever. In hindsight, these weren't as bad as stated in the recipe. Thanks to my awesome fridge, I only had to put them in there for half as long as stated. Next time, I will try to cut them with a more even thickness, and I will make more icing. I guess I need to figure icing out, because it seems to be all about timing. Things have to be cool enough to put the icing on, and the icing has to be almost set up, but not quite to make dripping at a minimum. But the cookies themselves weren't that sweet, which meant you could eat tons. Good thing I made them for The Husband to take to Young Men's because we didn't eat that many.

The Fiesta Lasagna was worth the hour it took to bake in the oven. I have made Mexican-style lasagna before in this book, but this recipe was the perfect blend of Mexican and Italian flavors.

It hit just the right note and we highly enjoyed the leftovers for the rest of the week. In fact, The Husband got sad that I wouldn't let him eat it for lunch and dinner the next day. In my defense, we had other leftovers to get through, and we need a little variety.

We served the lasagna with a salad with homemade raspberry vinaigrette. This salad had everything in it to be tasty, except that we had to use leftover mustard greens and they were just too bitter.

Some day, we'll make it again, because what the heck else am I going to do with a bottle of raspberry vinegar?

Game Night this week was served Grilled Corn Dip which should have a warning label: Highly Addictive. the Husband had to put it in the other room so we could actually play games.

It was spicy and sweet and creamy and I always seemed to have too many chips or too much dip on my plate at the end, which meant I had to keep eating more. Anyone with extra corn from their gardens should get this recipe. It's a great way to use some surplus.

Saturday morning I spent WAY too long on these cupcakes.

Why? Well, we were short on a few ingredients, so I had to fudge a few, which meant the batter took a little long. Then, they are stuffed, so we had to work that situation out. Then, the frosting is made up of a syrup that you first have to make and cool. Then, we didn't have enough powdered sugar, so I had to process some of my own. I don't recommend this, and I have since re-organized my pantry to make it easier to tell when I need refills on the smaller packages of things, like powdered sugar, brown sugar, and coconut. But The Captain enjoyed helping with the frosting.

Anyway, after all that work, I figured I might as well sugar-ize the basil leaves too. So after about 2 1/2 hours, we had something really pretty to show for all my work, but they weren't as good as the lemon crumb cupcakes, so I don't think it was worth it. I gave a few away--some to our neighbors, some as a "payment" for some plumbing help. Oh, I guess I forgot to mention that water started coming through the ceiling on Saturday morning. Not good.

We could have had leftovers for lunch and dinner, but I needed a few more recipes, so I picked our big zucchini, made some pesto and used it for two recipes. I handmade the pizza dough from the Giant Calzone recipe I made before, but it wasn't quite as awesome this time because the dough was tough and too dense.

Other than that, the pizza was good. Very Greek tasting. It won't make it on the First-Sunday-of-the-Month pizza menu any time soon, but it was good to experiment and try something new.

The Pesto Veggie Stacks would have been better if I had sliced the zucchini a little thinner. And if the oil had stayed at the right temperature.

I think this would be a great way to get rid of some excessive zucchini, but they didn't warn me that they would be so filling. I could barely eat one.

I bought some fresh peaches from the Farmer's Market before we left for Labor Day, and I finally got around to using them in the Peaches 'n' Cream Cups.

They were tasty, but the topping was too gingery for me. Next time I'll use cinnamon instead. And like the book points out, this recipe is so easy and so versatile that you could use any fruit and corresponding yogurt.

Week 8: Do Over

Recipes to Go: 507 433

Weeks to Go: 52 44

Recipes Made This Week:

Coconut Rhubarb Spice Cake

Tomato-Cucumber Mozzarella Salad

Gingered Chicken Dinner

Creamy Corn Salad

Spicy Sausage Wonton Stars

Pork 'n' Shrimp Spring Rolls

Mango Pork Stir-Fry

Peanut Butter Surprise Muffins

Motoring Munchies

Lemon Ricotta Pancakes

Artichoke Ham Puffs

Broiled Grapefruit

I had a conversation with someone at a baby shower a few weeks ago where I brought up my goal, as I am want to do, and she asked if I had had any dismal failures. I thought and said honestly, no because every recipe calls for normal ingredients and they are very easy to follow. Thus far, no problems.

But this week I've had to eat my words, and it hasn't always been tasty. The aftertaste is a little bitter.

I've had a lot of firsts this week. On Sunday, our Home Teachers came by for the first time. So I made dessert like I always do for Home Teachers, to encourage them to come by every month. I decided to make the Rhubarb Spice Cake. I was going to make it last week, but couldn't find any rhubarb. Well, I bought an abundance, chopped it, froze it, but left two stalks in the fridge for this week. So my inaugural rhubarb recipe might be the best cake ever. And I don't even like cake. I don't normally like coconut either, but it was sooo good on the top. Now I want to make this in cupcake form and take it to my Seminary class. I bet it would work for that . . .

Monday was the first day of Seminary, and I will blame that fact on the first food disaster of the week, the ginger chicken.

I didn't read the recipe in advance, like I should do the night before I cook, so I didn't read that I needed to marinate the chicken overnight. Well, that didn't affect the dish too much since half of the marinate is used to cook the rice in, but the problem was that we didn't have instant rice, and I didn't have time to cook rice first. Result - hard, chewy rice. Yuck. I definitely call a do-over with that next time I have cooked rice in the fridge.

Luckily the tomato cucumber mozzarella salad was really good.

Could have been the home-grown tomatoes, me thinks. It would have been better with fresh mozzarella, of course, but we make do.

Tuesday was the first time I've ever made food for a funeral. There was a big one in our ward and they asked everyone who could to make something. They asked on Sunday during our combined lesson on service-I couldn't say no. So I thought it would be a good opportunity to make one of the potluck recipes in the cookbook at full serving size. Sadly, I had to do some shopping to do this, so The Captain was stuck in the car all morning, then we rushed home for nap time. I cooked during that and afterwards, back in the car to the church. Poor kid was stuck in the car for too long. And that's why I don't have a picture of the salad. Nor did I taste it, but it looked really good.

We fed the Missionaries on Tuesday as well. Which meant that poor The Captain got home and didn't get any attention as I went straight back to work. I decided to have Asian night as a treat. It was my first time making Asian food besides curry, my first time working with Wonton Wrappers, and supposed to be my first time working with Bok Choy, but does any store in this entire county carry Bok Choy? No, they do not. And I had neither the time, nor The Captain the patience to drive 30 mins into town to pick up Bok Choy. Especially since I knew I was driving to town on Wednesday to take my friend to her doctor's appointment.

So we made do. And can I just say, an hour should be plenty of time to put together 3 Asian recipes, but alas it is not. Shrimp and pork are deceptively difficult to prepare. If I had chopped veggies at my disposal and everything pre-measured in little cups, then maybe. But 2 people in the kitchen and the missionaries arriving an hour before we ate led to chaos. Due to that chaos, and having to keep so many instructions straight in my head simultaneously, I accidentally put in 1/4 cup red pepper flakes into the stir-fry instead of 1/4 teaspoon. Luckily no one minded a little heat. And luckily pepper flakes can only take the heat up so high. It was hot, but not unbearably so. The bad thing was just that the pepper flavor overwhelmed everything else. Which means the mango and the delicious pork were all but in vein. So, do-over number two.

Thursday I actually did make the Gingered Chicken Dinner again, and while the rice was better cooked, as you would imagine, but marinating the chicken for 24 hours made it oddly juicy and slightly rubbery, so the texture was all off and it seemed raw even though it wasn't. So I guess third time will be the charm for this one.

And Thursday morning, I took the peanut butter muffins to Seminary for a treat. The surprise? Well, I 4x-ed the recipe and it turned out really dry. So the surprise was that they weren't as tasty as I was expecting. Okay, so the real surprise is the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup baked into the muffin, which I will probably do differently next time, as well.

One of the few recipes that went well this week was the Motoring Munchies. Since we were driving to Kentucky to visit our family 6 hours away, I thought I'd take the time to make some travel mix.

This was made with good individual ingredients that combined really well together. Surprisingly so. It was a big hit, which was good because it made a ridiculously large amount. We used our biggest bowl and practically begged The Husband's sister to take some off our hands. Luckily it is good, so she was happy to oblige.

Apparently, all I was lacking this week was a sou chef because the breakfast-for-dinner we made on Saturday was back to the ridiculously delicious standards I've come to expect. The Lemon Ricotta Pancakes were a lot like crapes and rhubarb makes an excellent syrup.

Don't worry, my plate was never this empty again.

The Artichoke Ham Puffs might be the greatest gravy ever invented.

Sorry the picture is so far away. I was really hungry, so I didn't spend much time photographing.

And the Broiled Grapefruit is the only way to eat grapefruit. Plus it just looks so nice.

Three recipes was not nearly the disaster from earlier in the week with someone helping who was a) competent, which The Captain is not, and b) able to devote their full attention to cooking, rather than watching children, which The Husband is not. So extra thanks go out to the men that night for keeping all those hungry kids out of the kitchen temporarily.

And apparently I was also terrible at taking pictures this week, could have sworn I got a few of those . . . oh well. I'm sorry.

Week 7: Italian Week

Recipes to Go: 507 445

Weeks to Go: 52 45

Recipes Made This Week:

Creamy Baked Macaroni

Microwave Lasagna

Meatball Calzones

Chocolate-Hazelnut Brownie Bites

Sugared Peanuts

Pull-Apart Bacon Bread

Salmon with Spinach Sauce

This was the first week that The Husband has lamented that he won't be able to eat something again for a whole year. And it was this, the Creamy Baked Macaroni.

This is what mac 'n' cheese should always be. It was so easy. The recipe said 20 mins. to put together and 25 to cook, but we were eating a little over 35 mins from when I started. And I almost didn't have leftovers for The Husband's lunch, but I managed to control myself. Apparently, lunch time the next day was when The Husband realized that he might not enjoy the deliciousness again for awhile. So this is ending up on my go-to meal list.

Microwave Lasagna made me nervous. I was a bit worried about cooking everything in the microwave, but the comment in the recipe was right, you would never know from the taste. This lasagna was wonderful. And I was lucky that my microwave can fit a 11x13" pan and still rotate since I didn't have the slightly smaller pan the recipe called for. This is a great recipe for those ridiculously hot summer days where the thought of turning on the stove sends you into heat stroke. My kitchen stayed cool, but my dinner was hot. And delicious. Sorry, no picture, but if you've seen a lasagna before, than you know what this looked like.

The meatball calzones were yummy because I used the leftover meat from the Cabbage Rolls, our favorite recipe thus far, to make meatballs that I used in this. I think it might have been easier to put the whole thing together if I had stuck my pie crust in the refrigerator for awhile

first, but it still tasted great, even if it looks odd.

That's why you get two pictures. Cause it looks more tasty here:

There was a deal at one of our grocery stores last week where you got a free jar of peanuts if you bought two coke products that were on sale. So we thought we could use some carbonation to help us get rid of our excess of ice cream using the float method. While this helped a little, it didn't help that they were out of peanuts at the store. So being my mother's child, I asked for a rain check. I went this week to get my free peanuts and it's a good thing I got my rain check from the person I did because they put up a little stink about it as I was checking out. Don't worry, I got my peanuts and used them for this:

I'm not a fan of peanuts, so I didn't actually taste this, but I was told they were tasty. People at Game Night seemed to like them.

I also made Chocolate-Hazelnut Brownie Bites, only I had to use walnuts instead of hazelnuts. The Nutella as the frosting covered that up pretty well, I think.

These were a little too nutty for my taste, but they were good. And now I might make them without the nuts and just use the Nutella as frosting, cause that's a genius idea.

Saturday morning we made Pull-Apart Bacon Bread. I don't have a sufficient sized pan, so I baked two batches. Which worked well as breakfast on Sunday.

Man, how does bacon just make everything better? And I never would have put mozzarella with bacon, but this was a great combination and very filling. It was breakfast and lunch for two days.

Our last experience with salmon was very fishy, so I was hesitant to use the rest of the fillets, but I won't any more with this recipe. It was supposed to be cooked in a pressure cooker, but I just baked it in a tent and it was so moist and tender. And the spinach sauce was like a relish and a nice complement to the lemon of the fish.

I think all my future fishes might be cooked this way. Lemon pepper, lemon slices, and go. Yum.

Week 6: In Which the Eating Continues

Recipes to Go: 507 451
Weeks to Go: 52 46

Recipes Made This Week:
Sparkling Ginger Lemonade
Two-Tone Yeast Bread
Orange Chicken with Sweet Potatoes
Fancy Bean Salad
Chocolate Glazed Almond Bars
Stromboli Sandwiches
Salsa for a Crowd
Pepperoni Spinach Quiche
Tossed Salad with Lemon Vinaigrette

Monday night we had dinner with some friends, so I didn't have to make anything. So I made some lemonade and baked some bread.What can I say, it's not a chore unless you have to do it. Plus, nothing smells as good as baking bread. Not even cookies, and I can't believe I'm saying that. I do love me some cookies . . . But the house smelled awesome.Plus, both were really yummy. And this bread is really easy to slice through. And we ate almost two loaves in a week.

Tuesday the missionaries came over for dinner and I made the Orange Chicken in the slow cooker and we ate it with the Fancy Bean Salad, which might become the new Tim Salad. It was tasty.
And I made dessert. Even though the almond bars were chocolate covered, they weren't my favorite.I guess bars without chocolate in them don't really count for me. I am a cookie girl and a chocoholic. But maybe by the year's end I'll have converted, well, expanded my dessert horizons at any rate.

Last week was a really tough one, but this one certainly started out better. Tuesday also brought my sweet old neighbor, the gardener of the street, with this.Nothing is as bad with roses as it would be without.

I didn't cook again until Friday when I made Stromboli Sandwiches.I think fresh Italian bread is something I will be picking up more often.
You get two pictures so you can see the yummyness inside. And also to make up for the fact that I don't have a picture of the salsa. But it was good, a little spicy, and it helped me learn that I don't really like coriander. So now I know I don't like rosemary, or coriander. Still like cilantro though, and they come from the same plant. Interesting. I got to use tomatoes from my very own garden for the salsa. I cannot express in words how totally awesome it is that I, Miss Brown Thumb, am actually eating things planted in soil that I actually touched. Cool.

Well, Saturday morning's breakfast was this beautiful quiche.It might be the best smelling thing I've cooked. The Captain really loved it. But he likes pepperoni.

And to go with all the leftovers we ate for dinner Saturday night, this beautiful salad that ended up being too salty.
It's fine I'll just cut down on the salt next time. At least I know how to fix that problem.

And on a happy note, I think my food photography is improving. This week's pictures look great, even if it is me saying it.

Episode 5: The Food Fights Back

Recipes to Go: 507 460

Weeks to Go: 52 47

Recipes Made This Week:

Melon with Serrano-Mint Syrup

Foolproof Pie Shells

Rustic Roasted Vegetable Tart

Mini Chicken Salad Croissants

Calico Salad

Salmon with Polenta

Russian Cream

Mexican Casserole

Pavlova

Morning Muffins

Tasty Tossed Salad

Pepperoni Lasagna Roll-Ups

Yes, I did make 12 recipes this week. I had only planned on 10, but when fate intervenes, you cut some mint and run with it, and make this:

Melon with Serrano-Mint Syrup. Here's the story behind this one. Remember those Best Cookies Ever from last week that The Husband didn't want me to give away? Well, I did anyway. I went to our neighbor to introduce myself. We had mutually heard of each other through a friend at church, so I felt obligated, as the party with the least busy schedule to be the one to extend a hand of fellowship. So I packed up 6 cookies and walked with The Captain across the street. We had excellent timing as she pulled up in her car just when we arrived. We had a nice chat, and she gave me a cucumber, vidalia onion, cantaloupe and watermelon in exchange for my cookies. Well, I knew the melons wouldn't last long in the fridge, they were right on the edge of ripeness. This is one of those times when I am grateful I've flipped through the cookbook so many times. I knew there was a recipe for melon salad somewhere. It didn't take long to find, and the syrup was very easy. I happened to have been hanging onto one lemon in the fridge, and had fresh mint growing in the backyard. The ingredients were almost literally falling into my lap. So I grabbed my kitchen shears and fate and I did a little waltz right there in the kitchen.

I will admit, I have no idea what Serrano pepper is, so I just used regular freshly ground black pepper and I think it still served it's purpose. This was even tastier when I got to eat the leftovers the next day and the syrup had soaked into the cantaloupe.

It wasn't until Tuesday that the food started exerting its own power. I used the Foolproof Pie Shell to make the crust for this Veggie Tart. And I used the zucchini from our garden. The tart was delicious, however, the burn it gave poor The Captain was not.

More food anyone? Luckily for you, there is no picture of the Chicken Salad. Okay, it's not so lucky, but I was really hungry on Wednesday and they were so tasty . . .

The Calico Salad was tricky. It's always difficult with the recipe yield is for 148 servings. That is the problem I've had with some of the Potluck recipes. So I just eyeballed the dressing. I'm happy to report that I've gotten smarter and I put the wet ingredients in first then added enough mayo to make a good consistency. So this whole experiment hasn't been in vein.

Strike #2 came from the Polenta part of the Salmon with Polenta on Thursday. This was my first experience with polenta and it jumped out of the pot to burn my hand. Not a little burn, either, well little in size, but not in intensity. I got a blister, so it must have been at least a 2nd degree.

It was my 1st time eating polenta, but not so for The Husband. Which was nice because it would have been very disappointing otherwise. I don't think I will be trading it for rice or cous-cous any time soon, but it does pretty well as a starchy base, especially with fish.

Speaking of fish, this salmon was very fishy. Sad, since I still have some in my freezer to use in other recipes.

The tomato sauce was yum, yummy, though. All that simmer time on the stove did its work. Oh, did I forget to mention that Thursday afternoon The Captain also stepped on something while I was hanging up laundry and got a nasty cut on the arch of his sweet, little foot. Poor kid.

For Friday's dinner, I made Mexican Casserole. There's no picture for this either, but let's be honest, Mexican food doesn't look at all appetizing in pictures. And this was pretty much like all Mexican food, not pretty to look at, but oh so tasty.

But on a prettier note, here was the Game Night treat, Pavlova. Which I learned means air. But probably not really. It was a meringue and beautiful until I tried to move it onto something equally as pretty to serve on. That was a mistake. Next time I will use the parchment paper to help. Anyway, I covered it up with Cool Whip and fruit.

Not as pretty as it could be, but pretty enough.

Saturday morning I got up to make these:

the first legitimate muffins I've ever seen. But still tasty enough to warrant 2 for breakfast. Plus The Captain likes them. And they are very filling. But while I was shredding the carrots to go in them, I shredded my fingernail. Almost got my finger, but by Saturday I was catching on to the insurrection.

Dinner was a Tasty Tossed Salad, very similar to ones The Husband and I grew up eating. So the nostalgia factor was pretty big for this one. The Captain loved the dressing, of course, and has apparently changed his love from cauliflower to broccoli. Don't think I'll complain about that one. There wasn't any cheese in the salad because both the graters were in the dishwasher, thanks to the muffins. Still good, though.

The rest of the meal was this, Pepperoni Lasagna Roll-Ups. Small serving size, easy to prepare, and winner of the best recipe of the week award. And in the interest of full disclosure this picture was taken Sunday evening when I made a second batch. This is the first recipe I've made twice.

Then Saturday night to close the week of pain, The Captain slipped and fell in the basement to this effect:

As fun as calling him Fat Lip was, next week will be better, I hope.