As the side dish for the Cheesy Chicken Enchiladas I made for dinner last Friday, I decided to keep with the Mexican theme and a make corn side. This looks like a simple corn dish, but since it’s from Ina Garten, we know that the dish takes a humble corn side dish and cranks up the flavor volume.
There isn’t much to say about this flavorful and easy side dish. It combines uncooked corn (I used canned corn since it’s winter), a red onion, a pepper, and some spices to add color and flavor to what would be an otherwise bland dish. This is totally one that should be in your back pocket for large crowds since it has the potential too feed around a dozen people.
I did modify the recipe and used a red pepper instead of an orange one and I changed up the spices. As long as the spices you choose work well together, you shouldn’t have an issue with this dish being tasty.
(The photo of this dish is in the header image above!)
This recipe appears in Modern Comfort Food, page 114.
The first recipe back from my short Ina Garten hiatus was a total hit! Which, to be honest, surprised me since my parents do not typically have the taste buds for Mexican food. However, I think it went over so well because these enchiladas are loaded with cheesy goodness and I left out practically all of the heat.
Making these enchiladas was a challenge! Well, parts of it was challenging anyway. For the most part the recipe was straight forward and enjoyable. The problems arose when it became time to actually stuff the enchiladas and roll them. That part was tricky and turned messy — both my kitchen counter and the attractiveness of the dish. The good news is since they bake in the oven and are covered in sauce and cheese, no really noticed how sloppy they looked.
Seeing that this recipe appears in Ina’s latest book, Modern Comfort Food, it lives up to being a classic comfort food recipe. It is also one that I plan to make again in the future, but with some modifications. Instead of chicken I may use tofu or a meat replacement. I may even use vegetables entirely instead. Anything with cheddar and goat cheese has to be good, right?
Even the photo above couldn’t save the dish from looking messy. Well, it probably could have, but these enchiladas were so yummy that I almost forgot to snap a photo for the blog!
It’s Friday. Finally. This week was long for me. I’m not really sure why. But at least now I can look forward to the weekend ahead and spending some time in the kitchen. Over the last week I’ve taken some organizing and planning steps to help me stay more on track with the blog and cooking/baking. Now it’s time to put them into practice!
It’s time for another Cookbook Review post! And I am so excited to share this one with you. This is one my all-time favorite cookbooks!!
I discovered The New Mediterranean Diet Cookbook by Nancy Harmon Jenkins a few years ago when I stumbled upon online articles discussing the benefits of the Mediterranean Diet. The book sounded wonderful and I had to rush out to a bookstore to get it! Luckily the Barnes & Noble near by college campus had one in stock.
This cookbook continues to be one of the best cookbooks I’ve ever read because, to me, it reads like a novel. Jenkins does a great job of creating an Eat, Pray, Love style narrative about her family’s time in Italy.
Whether romanticized or not, I fell for it and wanted to be her! (Okay, I’ll be honest: I re-read parts of it to write this review and I STILL want to be her!)
One of the other aspects of this book that I like is that it is not just a cookbook. It also explains what the Mediterranean Diet is and how you can “Make the Change” to the lifestyle. Only after around 40 pages do you see any recipes.
But when the recipes do come, let me tell you…YOU WILL LOVE THEM!!
We all experience headnotes in cookbooks. These are the little paragraphs that precede the recipe that sometimes tell how a chef created the recipe or how it can be served. Headnotes in this book are no exception, but Jenkins includes beautifully written paragraphs that also teach the reader how to cook the recipe’s main ingredient, for example. Other times the headnotes are filled with wonderful anecdotes about her time in the Mediterranean region.
One of the positives of this cookbook is in the vegetables section, Jenkins takes the time and space to break down commonly used vegetables in the Mediterranean Diet. Each vegetable has 1 to 3 recipes that feature it, ensuring the budding Mediterranean chef how to incorporate them into their new diet.
Believe it or not, the Mediterranean Diet is not a big fan of the dessert course. I know, right? But this book does include more than a dozen sweet treats to satisfy your sweet tooth. While many are fruit-based, they will almost surely satisfy any sweet-tooth.
Writing this review has made me fall in love with it all over again. I’ll have to make something out of it soon!
“Oh, I adore to cook. It makes me feel so mindless in a worthwhile way.”
On Friday, I decided to make a recipe out of the cookbook I will be reviewing this week: The New Mediterranean Diet Cookbook. The review comes out on Thursday, so stay tuned! Since the weather turned back to more seasonably cold temperatures, I figured a soup recipe was in the cards.
So, I decided to make Butternut Squash Soup, North Africa Style.
For a while now this question has been spinning around in my mind: What’s the deal with liver?
It seems to be a pretty commonly featured dish in cookbooks, often in the appetizer section. Julia Child adored liver and Ina Garten touts its fame as well. Me, however? I don’t see the hype. I am a meat eater — for now — but the idea of eating an organ from an animal has always put me off. I’ve never tried liver pâté and I’m really in no rush to do so.
I will admit that when I decided to cook my way through Ina’s cookbooks, the liver recipes always made me a bit queasy. They weren’t the only ones, either. The mussels and clams on the half-shell also turned my face green.
While the focus of the blog has changed slightly to be more inclusive, that doesn’t mean that the cooking-through-Ina-thing is going away. So, I guess eventually, I’ll have to try liver pâté or any other dish Ina decided to include this gross ingredient. Maybe I’ll make it as an appetizer….
Photo credit: emerils.com
I tried to find the most appetizing photo for this. Was I successful?
What are your thoughts on liver? Have you tried it? Is it worth it? Let me know!
For the first weekend of 2021, I decided to try something new on the blog! Post a recipe. It is below and I hope you find the muffins as tasty as I did!
This weekend I was rummaging around the fridge and discovered that we had some cranberries that were waiting to be turned into something tasty. I decided that muffins would be something nice to have around. It’s been a while since I baked muffins.
Typically, I spend some time baking on the weekends. But, honestly, with all the Christmas goodies over the last week, I almost feel guilty baking something.
Maybe I can bake something healthy? Is that a thing??
This Friday begins a new chapter in our lives — 2021.
For many of us, the new year will bring hope and joy after a difficult 2020.
Normally on New Year’s Day, my family and I would be gathering at my aunt and uncle’s house to have Cornish game hens, stuffing, a plethora of side dishes, and amazingly tasty desserts made by my grandmother.
That isn’t going to happen this year.
Instead, I will be cooking for my immediate family.
