Now that the whirlwind of the holidays has ended, I am able to focus on blogging and baking once again. As the first bake of the new year, I decided to make something out of an Ina Garten cookbook. After looking over her recipe index, I decided that a fall/winter fruit dessert would be the perfect choice. So, Pear, Apple, and Cranberry Crisp!
Continue reading “First Bake of 2022!”
Late last week I shared with you my second recipe from Pioneer Woman: Beef Stroganoff.
Traditionally, stroganoff is served over a bed of egg noodles or other pasta which helps to make it a “complete meal.” (I say “complete meal” because I doubt the amount of vegetables in a single serving of stroganoff counts as a full serving, but I digress…) So I was a little surprised to find that PW’s recipe for stroganoff didn’t include any pasta. In fact, she recommends serving it with her Buttered Parsley Noodles.
At first, I was a little hesitant. Regular pasta is thicker than egg noodles and with beef as the main ingredient, I didn’t want the bite to be too hearty. But, I figured I’d give it a go anyway. Plus, when you are cooking-through someone’s recipe backlog, anytime you can sneak in an extra recipe or two is extremely beneficial.
This is a simple side dish that is very low fuss. It’s basically buttered noddles, but with a heightened flavor profile. This recipe calls for pappardelle noodles, which is a pasta shape I have not used before in my cooking. Much thicker than linguine, pappardelle is great when you want to substitute out something like egg noddles. Unlike egg noodles, though, pappardelle is a long pasta, similar to spaghetti or fettuccine so just be prepared for that.
Combining garlic, lemon zest and juice, salt, pepper, and of course, butter and parsley, these noodles a quick side dish that comes together before you know it. I only gave it a 3 out of 5 because it didn’t really add to the beef stroganoff recipe I made. I think I would have preferred traditional egg noddles in that instances. But, on it’s own, this side dish is great!
See the picture above for how it turned out!
For my second Pioneer Woman recipe, I decided to make one of my favorite dishes: Beef Stroganoff.
As someone who did not grow up eating a lot of red meat, beef stroganoff was not something I can really remember having as a child or even a teenager. I fell in love with beef stroganoff a number of years ago when my best friend made it for dinner for us. He claims that the recipe is from his grandmother, but he leaves out certain ingredients such as mushrooms since he doesn’t like them. Needless to say, this has been the version I’ve been making for a few years.
Until I stumbled upon Ree’s recipe. Featured in her cookbook, Dinnertime! this recipe looks amazing and it is super simple.
Continue reading “Ryan Cooks PW Recipe 2”This recipe can be found in How Easy is That?, page 195.
Even though Salmon with Melting Tomatoes had a built-in side dish, I still needed one more thing to truly round out the meal. Enter: Couscous with Toasted Pine Nuts.
I still had some pine nuts from when I made gremolata a few weeks back. At least that’s where I think I used the pine nuts originally. I can’t really remember. So many recipes. But I wanted to use them up since I didn’t really know how long they would “keep.” I was storing them in the fridge since they are nuts, after all. And since nuts have oil, they can spoil! (Thanks Rachael Ray)
Luckily this recipe used them all up. Sadly, I will have to buy them again at some point and fork over almost $10 for like 5 ounces of nuts. But that’s a story for another time.
Continue reading “Barefoot Contessa Recipe 42: Couscous with Toasted Pine Nuts”
Yesterday was Pi Day! It was March 14 and the mathematical number, Pi, begins with 3.14. Though I did decide to bake yesterday, I did not bake a pie. Instead, I made GIANT chocolate chip cookies!
The recipe I used came from Sally’s Baking Addiction and the recipe I used can be found here. I highly recommend checking out her baking blog. There are recipes for virtually anything you would ever want to bake. Plus, the stellar food photograph really makes her recipes shine. I often want to jump right into my computer’s screen to gobble everything up!
If you are looking for a giant cookie recipe, these will not disappoint. The recipe is easy and, unlike some of Sally’s cookie recipes, does not require any chilling time. One downside is the recipe only yields 6 cookies. Though, each one is equivalent to about 4 regular-sized cookies. But, by making a second batch, you can get twelve extra, extra large cookies in no time!
I’ll be honest, when making these cookies, I thought the massive amount of cookie dough used for each one would cause it to be dense. But that wasn’t the case at all. This recipe was definitely a success for me! The best part? No scooping the dough required. (One less tool to wash!) I just turned out the prepared cookie dough on a piece of parchment paper, formed it into a large hockey puck shape, and divided it into 6 sections. Each section became one cookie. It worked great!!
After baking, while the cookies cooled, I decide to “dress them up” a little bit and pressed in some additional chocolate chips into the tops. This gave the cookie a “bakery look” and really did make them look better.
Yum!
Look at me! March is almost half over and I realized I never posted the February Cooking Roundup! Well, better late than never, right?!
February was not as prolific for me as January was, but I was still able to make a few recipes. I am slowly but surely chipping away at that 1,056 recipe total! In February, I made a total of five Ina Garten recipes and two originals!
After taking the first week of February off from cooking, I made a wonderful vegetable soup that was my own original recipe! You can see how it turned out here. If you make this recipe, let me know how it turned out for you!
Next, I made another original recipe. This is also a recipe that I’m still working on perfecting. But for now, my Easy Sweet and Sour Chicken recipe is on the blog for all who care to enjoy.
The first Barefoot Contessa recipe of February came around halfway through the month. It still amazes me that I was able to get five recipes down in only two weeks’ time. This was Recipe Number 31: Perfect Roast Chicken. I still can’t get over the fact that it took me this long to make Ina’s signature dish!
Next, I tackled my first fish dish of Ina’s. The salmon was so tasty and will definitely become a staple recipe in my house! To go along with the salmon, I needed a side dish. After all, salmon on a plate is a little bland and unappealing. I wanted something vibrant and yummy to help enrich the plating of the salmon. Thus, I made Recipe Number 33: French String Beans. While the string beans are the pain attraction in this side dish, the peppers and onion help to bring the flavors together.
I rounded off the month with some comfort food! Banana Rum Trifle, which I’m still dreaming about. And finally, another Barefoot Contessa classic: Macaroni and Cheese.
I can’t wait to see what March brings!
So many surprise recipes! Needed more than I originally thought. Check out the blog next week to read about everything I ended up making over the next few days.
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!
