Week 35: Off Again

Recipes to Go: 507 194

Weeks to Go: 52 16

Recipes Made This Week

Seafood Angel Hair

Snap Peas 'n' Mushrooms

Nutty Cheese Tortellini

Snow Pea Stir-Fry

Root Vegetable Soup with Sausage

Sunshine Gelatin Mold

After a week by myself, it was my turn to pack up and leave again. Only, I got to take The Captain with me. Which, while it was nice while we were with family in Utah (for a wedding), was not so great on the flights over. I've flown alone with The Captain many times now, and the actual airplanes were totally easy, but keeping hold of him and the bags in the many airports was not. I think it would have been hard for anyone, but being pregnant certainly didn't help any.

But before that whole adventure, I did get to make some food for the family. We had the Seafood Angel Hair, which was delicious. I will have to start keeping and using seafood. It's not usually something I think of for a go-to meal, but shrimp cooks really fast and is very tasty. Well, I have yet to convince The Captain of that, but he'll come around. He already loves fish.

To go with that, we had the Snap Peas 'n' Mushrooms. I bought frozen snap peas because they're so expensive around here, especially out of season. I love peas, and mushrooms, so it was pretty much inevitable that I'd love this.

Along with my snap peas, I also got some frozen tortellini. And the Nutty Cheese Torellini was nothing I would have thought up, but it was great. A fast, one-dish meal and the leftovers were great.

Speaking of leftovers, the Snow Pea Stir Fry earned me a lunch-time, next day email of thanks from The Husband. And it was another really easy one. Basically soy sauce in a skillet with snow peas. Who knew?

One of the things I (and my mom) was looking forward to on my trip to Utah was having time and a baby sitter to cook through a lot of recipes. I was hoping to catch up on some lost time. We started with a trip to the store and a root vegetable soup.

Can't say that I used all the same veggies that the recipe called for, but they were all roots, so it counts. And it was delicious. It was nice to have a little sausage in the soup, though next time, I'd add more. Even though we put in a pound and the recipe called for a 1/4. It seemed like there was barely any sausage in there at all.

Saturday, in addition to the soup, we also put together the Sunshine Gelatin Mold for the family dinner on Sunday.

I don't have any jello molds at my house, and we haven't really been big jello eaters, but my family certainly is, so I made all but one jello recipe while I was there. This one was mixed with ice cream, so it was good, as you may imagine.

Week 34: Home Alone Again

Recipes to Go: 507 200

Weeks to Go: 52 17

Recipes Made This Week

Skillet Beef Stroganoff

Hungarian Stew

Corn 'n' Black Bean Salsa

Reuben Braids

So, after driving almost 12 hours straight and only a few hours sleep, The Husband was off again on a business trip the day we got back from Brazil.

This left me, not only alone, but horribly spoiled after not cooking for two weeks, and entirely unmotivated. Hence the pathetic four recipes.

Despite the fact that The Husband loves it, I made the Skillet Stroganoff without him. And it was wonderful. And I ate it over rice since I didn't have any egg noodles. And of course, I made it without horseradish because that's one of the few things The Husband legitimately doesn't like, so we don't have that in the house, either. I feel like I made it up to him by making the reuben later in the week, and letting him have all the leftovers, too.

Though winter was over for the most part, it was still chilly enough to make the Hungarian Stew. It was hearty, as one would expect from the Hungarians, and the best part, it only made 6 servings, which in our house means a meal and a half. Plus The Captain loved the sauce.

I made the salsa for game night. It tasted very fresh and delicious. And it came together very easily. It would appear that all those years I was intimidated and impressed by homemade salsa were years I probably could have been making my own. Luckily I still think the phrase "homemade" holds some prestige, so there's still a possibility that I could impress people with my throw-together meals.

I made the Reuben Braids specifically for The Husband's return home. He loves reubens and I was so happy to see him again that I probably would have baked a cake. But I didn't, just a yummy and easy sandwich. This recipe was more sandwich-like than the other Reuben bake. It required you to cut the dough and braid it around, which ends up looking impressive and is not only easy, but fun. Braiding dough is also something I've wanted to do for a long time.

Sorry, for the lack of pictures. I was sadly unmotivated to take pictures, either.

Week 33: Missing Summer

Recipes to Go: 507 204

Weeks to Go: 52 19

Our last week in Brazil featured some of the best food. We made it to the beach and had a tour guide for a few days who was not only a friend, but knew about local cuisine. We had to try the official dish of Espirito Santo, and we were not at all disappointed. This is just the appetizer. Crab cakes, essentially.

And the main attraction--Moqueca Capixaba

Normally I don't recommend tomato sauce with fish, but this was amazing. Clearly, as a state dish, they know what they're doing.

And to finish off the trip, well almost, we needed a street hot dog. Which had corn, of course (everything has corn), shredded carrots, peas, cheese, potato skins, eggs, olives, tempura mayo. To be honest, it almost made me hurl, but that was not because of any of the above, but rather, the actual hot dog, which was boiled instead of grilled or just heated through. It was disgusting, but the rest of the toppings were awesome.

Week 32: Summer in Brazil

Recipes to Go: 507 204

Weeks to Go: 52 20

So I took two weeks off of cooking to go to Brazil. I'm still trying to finish on time, but I may have to give myself the extra two weeks anyway. We'll see how good I feel this summer.

Speaking of summer, it was glorious to escape the harsh winter that seemed to go on forever for some 90 degree sunshine. However, food was still a very important part of this trip. It was a good thing I needed to eat all the time because The Husband basically planned the entire trip around what and where we should eat.

This was our first planned stop, an expensive Rodezio that we both agreed in the end was a big waste of money. It was not authentic, just like he complains about with rodezios in the states, and it was ridiculously expensive. Here was my dessert.

I did learn however, that $4 a bottle for water actually does make a difference. That was the best water I had all trip.

Our entire trip was based around food. The Husband has been planning this for years, so at the first opportunity, he picked up Goiabada and Queijo Mineiro, which you can't get in the states,

and washing it down with Mate Couro, which he wasn't allowed to drink last time he was here.

One of his apartments when he lived here was right above this burger joint. He was happy to see it was still here, and still serving ridiculously large burgers. This one is stuffed with steak, cheese, egg, ham, pineapple, corn, and potato skins. On a double bun like the Big Mac, of course. I'm still not sure how I got my mouth around it.

We went to a huge Farmer's Market while we were here. The piles of spices were amazing. I wish I could have brought some home. But we did buy two jars of beans soaked in either oil or alcohol. Probably alcohol. They were beautiful.

One of the stops on our list was a pizza rodezio. It's a great idea, I think, and they only do it during certain hours of the night. I ate way too much pizza, but I did try to save some room for the dessert pizzas that come around. A girl can only take so much cheese, though.

Week 31: Ready to Leave

Recipes to Go: 507 204

Weeks to Go: 52 21

Recipes Made This Week

Leek Soup with Brie Toasts

African Beef Curry

Pot de Creme

Tropical Lime Chicken

Walnut-Filled Coffee Cakes

Ranger Cookies

Honey-Glazed Snack Mix

Coming off the high of last week's recipe binge, I started the week with some leek soup. I came across a little financial trouble with this one. It called for tarragon, which as it turns out is ridiculously expensive. Since I wasn't sure how often I'd be using it, I couldn't justify the expense, especially after already buying the leeks ($$$) and the brie ($$$). Apparently this is an expensive soup. Luckily, it tastes that way.

(Also luckily, there's a decent blend of spices that can get you close to tarragon. Thanks Internet.) The Husband doesn't like brie normally, but this toast was fabulous. I think the next time I see some on sale, I'll grab some day old Italian bread and make this again. Because it has such a wonderful buttery taste when it's toasted. And it goes so well with leeks.

I fed the missionaries on Tuesday. The problem was, I was going to be out of the house most of the afternoon and they had requested to come earlier than usual. Well, this would have been a problem had it not been for this lovely recipe. We are huge fans of curry at our house. I have made it several times and it's one of my favorite go-to meals, but I didn't know what would be different about African style curry.

As it turns out, not much, mostly the toppings. So it was delicious, and I got to leave it on the stove, have rice cooking in the rice cooker and open my door to people waiting on the porch and be greeted by a delicious smell. I only have to set the table and we could eat. It was fabulous. And it tasted fabulous too.

For dessert, I tried the Pot de Creme. Unfortunately, I made it at noon, rather than the night before, so when we ate it hadn't quite set up yet. That didn't stop it from being delicious. Nothing like drinking thick chocolate yumminess out of wine glasses . . .

Since we were going to Brazil for two weeks, and leaving on Friday, I was trying to get through all the food in the house. So Wednesday was leftover night.

Thursday I made the Chicken with tropical salsa. The salsa would have been much better if I could have let it settle all together longer, but alas, time is usually not on my side when it comes to dinner.

That day I also made the coffee cakes to take to class with me in the morning. They were huge. I guess I let the yeast get away from me. Consequently, they tasted yeasty to me, but no one else said anything, so I might have just been crazy hormone taste buds.

Friday, despite our mid-day departure time, I managed to make the Ranger cookies. I halved the recipe and it only made a little over a dozen, perfect for a car ride. And they were very tasty. More interesting flavors than regular oatmeal cookies. The Captain enjoyed them, as did the rest of us.

Also for the car ride, I made the Honey-Glazed Snack Mix. I didn't add nuts, for The Captain's sake. Unfortunately, these just tasted burnt to me, but everyone else, including my niece loved them. So I guess again it was just me.

Week 30: Making up for lost time

Recipes to Go: 507 211

Weeks to Go: 52 22

Recipes Made This Week

Creamy Vegetable Bow Tie Toss

Brownie Sundaes

Sweet 'n' Salty Popcorn

Saucy Apricot Chicken

Shrimp Pasta Salad

Chocolate Braids

Bean Quesadillas

Meatless Mexican Lasagna

Barbecued Meatballs

Pecan Vegetable-Rice Medley

Turkey Potpies

Caramel-Coated Spiced Nuts

Tiramisu Brownies

Strawberry Marscapone Crepes

Hot Cocoa

Prosciutto Tortellini

As you can see scrolling down forever to get to this, I made up for some weak weeks this week. In January I just couldn't seem to make 10 recipes a week. This is mostly due to the fact that I'm pregnant with baby #2 and was most sick this time than last. But clearly the worst is over, so I took advantage of feeling good for more than one day in a row.

On Sunday I made the Creamy Vegetable Bow-Tie Toss. I had been planning on making this for awhile, so I already had the ingredients ready. It was fast, and pretty much what I've come to expect from a cream sauce pasta recipe.

I also really wanted some homemade brownies, and we had some slightly freezer-burned ice cream in the freezer, so I made the Brownie Sundaes.

The brownie portion was disappointing. It definitely needed the ice cream to help. Sadly, the ice cream wasn't that great either, so I'm still on the lookout for some yummy brownies in the book.

Because I was disappointed, I decided to make some popcorn and watch a movie with the fam. We did this all the time on Sundays growing up. Since I don't have an air popper (The Husband says we'll probably get one, and it'll probably be after I'm done with all this), I used microwave. The recipe was delicious and highly addictive, but the aftertaste was weird. It felt like my mouth was coated with a dry, flavorless film. Since The Husband experienced it too, I blame the microwave, pre-buttered popcorn.

The "Meals-in-Minutes" section is not joking. I will definitely be looking here when the year is over and I need something fast for dinner. These recipes mostly use cans that I'm planning on keeping stalked up in the pantry. This one got great reviews from The Husband. It was fast, easy and delicious. What more could you ask for?

I love a good pasta salad, so a shrimp pasta salad was right up my alley. And it lived up to expectations. I guess between recipes like this and the gumbo I'm going to have to keep shrimp in the freezer.

I made the Chocolate Braids for my class. After commenting that they looked like elephant poop, they ate the whole thing. I guess that's not a deterrent to teenagers.

Though I can't say it stopped me either. This wasn't overly chocolatey, it just tasted like a yeast bread with cocoa in it. Which is not to imply that it wasn't good.

I had been wanted to try the Bean Quesadillas every time I passed them in the book, so I finally got around to it. Why don't I ever think of quesadillas when I'm out of dinner ideas?

We go to burritos so often, you'd think I'd figured it out by now. Anyway, these were delicious, like all quesadillas are.

Sticking with the Mexican theme, I made the Meatless Mexican Lasagna. I've made this at least twice before, but not this year, so I was kind of getting it out of the way.

I'm not a huge fan of corn tortillas, but in this instance they work.

Again, the meatballs are something I've had my eye on doing for awhile. For some reason, I thought they were more work than they were. I guess I assumed they'd be in the slow cooker, since most of the other meatballs I've made have been. But they were easy, as far as rolling raw beef goes, and they were tasty.

They went very nicely with the pecan veggie rice. The rice spiced up nicely with just a little fresh parsley. Who knew? And even without the pecans the veggies were delicious. There was very little put in to flavor them, either. This was definitely a light meal that tasted fresh and light rather than low-fat and bland.

My last potpies suffered from a case of bad-smelling thyme, so luckily for me this one didn't call for thyme at all. (Though I did replace my thyme, for the record.) This recipe made two pies, so one to freeze for later. It even came with freezing and thawing instructions, conveniently. And if all my childhood potpies could have crusts like this, I would have wanted to eat them much more often.

Game Night got two treats this week because I thought we'd have someone coming who didn't like chocolate. So I made the spicy nuts. And thanks to my poor mixing skills, they were very spicy. Well, technically some were very spicy and some not spicy at all.

And they were outshown by the tiramisu brownies. Because, well it's tiramisu. And brownies. The only problem was that I couldn't find any marscapone, not even for ready money. So I used a substitute (thank you Internet). The frustrating thing was the recipe called to make it in layers (tiramisu) and marble things around with a knife. Sadly, the density of the layers was vastly different making this impossible. So we stirred it all together. These ended up very cakey, which I normally don't look for in a brownie, but they were also very rich, so they made up for it. They were very good.

I used up the rest of the fake marscapone the next morning with the crepes. They were yummy, as one would expect with crepes, strawberries, and crepes.

But they didn't make very good leftovers.

It was cold enough on Saturday to let me finally make the hot chocolate. It was very rich thanks to the almond extract, but not chocolatey enough for The Husband's taste.

For a fast dinner that night, I made the proscutto tortellini.

It was fast and delicious, but not cheap. Mmm, but did I mention it was delicious?

Week 29: Alone Again

Recipes to Go: 507 227

Weeks to Go: 52 23

Recipes Made This Week

Super Sausage Dip

Turkey and Squash Lasagna

Sweet-and-Sour Brussels Sprouts

Pumpkin Cupcakes

Curried Carrot Soup

Chicken Pot Pie

So while The Husband was away, there was a small crisis at work, which required extra hours from everyone. For convenience, The Husband volunteered for the night shift. It was only supposed to be for a few days, but ended up being pretty much all week. So, essentially, I was alone again. As you can see, this greatly diminished my ambition to cook.

Since I knew that lunch would essentially become breakfast and dinner, I made the sausage dip for lunch on Tuesday. It was good, but not tomato based like I was expecting, so it was not as yummy as I thought it would be.

Yet somehow, it was very addictive, I just had to wait 10 minutes or so between eating fests.

Since I was feeding the missionaries that night, I made turkey and squash lasagna. This was only half as yummy as it could have been, since I somehow missed spaghetti squash in my shopping list and couldn't find any in the local stores. I think the squash would be a great flavor. Not that you can ever really go wrong with lasagna.

It kept us in leftovers for most of the week. And it just kept getting better, as is usually the case in my lasagna experience.

To go with the lasagna, I made brussels sprouts. I can only recall trying brussels sprouts once in my childhood and it was a bitter experience. Just taste-bud wise, it didn't make me resent my mother or anything. But I remember thinking all the rumors and jokes were true, brussels sprouts were horrible. And I decided I didn't like them.

I will now officially redact that statement and say that clearly I just didn't have the right recipe, because now I have tried two that were equally wonderful. I actually found myself craving these all week long.

For dessert I made the pumpkin cupcakes. I had wanted to make these last week, but didn't, obviously. With the pineapple in them, they had a unique taste, more like apple cake than pumpkin cupcakes. And they really needed the frosting, which isn't always the case with cupcakes. Oh, and they stuck to the liners something horrible. I haven't ever had a problem with that before.

But don't let all this talk convince you that they aren't delicious, because they are. And pretty darn healthy, considering.

It's a little sad that I got more than half my cooking for the week done in one day, but that's how it goes sometimes, I guess. It didn't help that I didn't have class Wednesday through Friday, either. Everyone slept in, except The Captain, and our schedules were all over the place. However, we still needed a quick dinner on Wednesday since The Husband went into work earlier in the day so he could lead the church youth activity that night and still get his hours in. So I made the Curried Carrot Soup.

Last time I made a creamy soup, it seemed a little weird to The Husband, but this got rave reviews and inquiries into the ease of construction, which usually means he would like it to be a staple when the year is out. This was a pretty easy recipe, and so perfectly spicy that I won't have a problem making it again.

By Thursday, they had moved The Husband's work schedule from 12 hours at night, to 8 hours ending at 11. So it was slightly more normal and The Captain learned that Daddy hadn't moved away or disappeared. We didn't have Game Night on Friday since I had a meeting and The Husband was working. Saturday, by some miracle, The Husband didn't have to go into work, so I made a chicken pot pie after a family trip to the grocery store. It's been a really long time since we've done that. This is a recipe I feel deserves another chance, since the only problem we had with it was my thyme, which tasted moldy. Unfortunately, that was the base of the gravy, so the whole pie tasted somewhat moldy. Not the pie's fault.

Week 28: All By Myself

Recipes to Go: 507 233

Weeks to Go: 52 24

Recipes Made This Week

Beef Barley Soup

Ezekiel Bread

Veggie Tuna Burgers

Caramelized Onion-Gorgonzola Pizza

Pecan Lemon Loaf

Reuben Crescent Bake

Broccoli with Lemon Sauce

Chocolate Party Cake

The Husband left on a business trip Sunday afternoon, so The Captain and I were by ourselves all week. Sunday night some friends were kind enough to invite us over for dinner. I agreed on the condition that we could bring some of our leftovers with us. They accepted. For dinner, they had beef soup. They wanted to make beef barley soup, but couldn't find any barley. I brought my barley salad, which in addition to being convenient, started a conversation about where to find barley in the few stores in our county.

The soup was so delicious, I decided to make my own beef barley soup the next day. It was also delicious. But because I had quick-cooking barley instead of regular, I only put it in for the last few minutes. Despite this, it still managed to suck up all the moisture in the soup. So I added water and salt to each serving. It was still marvelous. I didn't mind eating all the leftovers myself.

On Monday I also made Ezekiel Bread. (So named for a passage in the book of Ezekiel, which mentions the joy of sweet wheat bread.) It was sweet, and used mainly wheat flour. I halved the recipe because it still made 2 loaves and I only have 2 bread pans.

It was so delicious. It made excellent toast which supplied The Captain and me with breakfast all week. And sandwiches, and snacks . . . And we had a crusty heal leftover to feed the ducks with.

The veggie tuna burgers were on my list for last week, but we didn't get to them. So I tried them on our own. They were tasty, but The Captain was too skeptical to eat a tuna patty. I bet older kids who don't take their burgers apart to eat them would enjoy the taste and get plenty of veggies in them in the process.

Thursday, I made the Caramelized Onion-Gorgonzola Pizza. I haven't tried Gorgonzola cheese in anything other than my favorite soup from now-out-of-business *sniff sniff* Big City Soup --Tomato Gorgonzola. It is almost essentially blue cheese. Wasn't expecting that.

And I can't say I was a huge fan of it on my pizza. Everything else on the pizza will end up in future Pizza Night (first Sunday of the month) homemade gourmet specialties, though. Man, does anything beat caramelized onions?

Additionally, I managed to make a Pecan Lemon Loaf for my early morning class, which was, of course cancelled. Apparently there is some causality between me making a treat and snow storms.

That was disappointing since now The Captain and I had to eat the whole thing, and he's not supposed to eat many nuts right now. I did let him try it. He enjoyed it and didn't have any allergic reaction to the pecans. Good sign.

The Husband came home on Saturday. His birthday was on Friday, which meant a depressing evening alone in a hotel room for him. Too make up for that sadness, we moved Game Night to Saturday and I made him one of his favorite things, a reuben sandwich. Okay, the Reuben Crescent Bake wasn't exactly a reuben, and I had my doubts about using crescent rolls, but apparently the only difference between crescent rolls and rye bread is caraway seeds. They duplicated the taste surprisingly well. This was delicious. We all wanted leftovers and were sad it got eaten so fast.

I made the Broccoli with Lemon Sauce to go with the Reuben Bake, but something went wrong with the lemon sauce. Too much lemon juice, or something, because it just didn't taste good. Oh well.

And for dessert, chocolate cake. He wouldn't be my husband without his deep and abiding love of chocolate cake. And so it wouldn't be his birthday without it. I almost hated to experiment with a new recipe in case it just wasn't very good and ruined his birthday twice, but I needn't have worried. This was delicious.

Unfortunately, it did boil over in the oven, so the house smelled like burnt chocolate for Game Night. After tasting the cake, no one mentioned the smell.

So, only 8 recipes this week, but not bad for being on my own, I say. Especially since there really weren't that many leftovers to deal with when it was all over.

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.