Tomorrow’s Shopping List
- Leeks
- Onions
- French green beans
- Potatoes
- Saffron (yikes!!)
- Basil (fresh)
- Vegetable stock
Tag: food
Weekend Cooking March 12, 2021
This weekend, I am planning to resume the tradition of preparing dinner one night a week. Currently, we are in the middle of the Roman Catholic Lent season, which means my parents observe the practice of not consuming meat on Fridays.
So, my choices were a little slim. At first, I thought to myself, “Well, I can just make a vegetarian dish from one of the blogs.” But then I remembered that I skipped making Ina recipes last weekend. So, I forced myself to find a recipe that would work. But let’s face it, while I love Ina, she doesn’t exactly abide by the vegetarian lifestyle. So, my pickings were slim. It was basically soups or some large portion vegetable dishes like spanakopita.
However, things like spinach in puff pastry doesn’t have all that much nutritional value for a major meal at the end of the day. So, soup it is. And of course, I’ll be omitting all animal products. I’ll be subbing vegetable stock for chicken stock.
I decided to make a soup that features winter vegetables. After all, spring is just around the corner! And soon we will be saying “bye bye” to squashes and potatoes in favor of other vegetables like fresh, garden-grown peppers, tomatoes, and string beans. So, I’m going to take advantage of root vegetables while I still can!
Dinner Friday will be Provencal Vegetable Soup with Pistou. This recipe, if you couldn’t tell by the name, appears in Barefoot in Paris, which is still my favorite Ina cookbook. You can read the review of it here.
This weekend is also my father’s birthday. So I will be making him a cake. Though the cake will not be an Ina recipe, I will still make a blog post about it. I may cook an additional Ina recipe over the next few days. Maybe I’ll finally attempt one of her appetizers!
Until next time…
Back at It
After taking the weekend off, I am already thinking about what to make this weekend. I am really itching to do something different, of course I have many options to choose from.
I’ll let you know what it ends up being!
Barefoot Contessa Recipe #36: Red Velvet Cupcakes
This recipe is available in How Easy is That?
This week, one of my co-workers had his last day at work before moving onto his new job. Usually we have a little party and lunch or dinner for the person leaving. Due to some COVID precautions, this was scaled back a tad. But, I still offered to make cupcakes!
Part of this — ok, most of it — was self-centered. I love to bake and I wanted another excuse to knock off a recipe. So, I offered to make the red velvet cupcakes. And let me tell you: they were a HUGE hit!
This recipe makes 15 cupcakes, which in my opinion is a great number. Many other red velvet recipes make like 24 cupcakes. I didn’t need that many…trying to lose weight and be healthy with cupcakes around the house isn’t a good idea–so Ina came through on that front as well!
These cupcakes weren’t dry and had the right balance of flavors. There wasn’t too much food coloring in them. That was nice because who likes tasting food coloring? The cream cheese frosting was the perfect balance between the tangy cream cheese flavor and sweetness. I highly recommend these for your next red velvet needs!
Due to COVID, I decided to put each one in little boxes. That way people could take them home if they didn’t want to eat them at work. Though, most of my coworkers just ate them right after serving. But, the boxes did make them look cute and more “professional.” I was very pleased with how these turned out.
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.
- Cavatappi pasta
- Half gallon whole milk
- Unsalted butter (if on sale)
- 12 ounces Gruyere cheese
- 8 ounces extra-sharp cheddar
- Buttermilk
- Eggs
- 1 package cream cheese
- 1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
- Nabisco vanilla wafers OR Ginger Snaps
- 5-6 large bananas
Barefoot Contessa Recipe #33: French String Beans
This recipe can be found in Barefoot in Paris, page 160.
The side dish I made to go along with the Panko-Crusted Salmon last Friday was something that took no time at all in the kitchen! Ina’s French-inspired French String Beans turn up the flavor on otherwise pretty bland veggies.
Sadly since it is February, I did not get the chance to truly enjoy the full potential of this recipe. I had to use frozen regular “American” string beans instead of the thinner, slightly longer French ones. But, I still think it turned out well enough for me to get a sense of what Ina was going for with it.
In the recipe, you pair the string beans with a mixture of peppers and a red onion. You roast the onion and peppers in the oven for about 15 minutes. I did this, but upon eating the meal I think they need another few minutes in the oven. The peppers were okay, but the onion could have used a little more “roasted” texture. To be honest, I’m not really sure what I’m trying to describe here. It seemed like another two to three minutes in the oven would have made things a bit better.
Despite this, the recipe produced a flavorful side dish that was pretty easy to make. That’s a win for me!
Barefoot Contessa Recipe #32 – Panko Crusted Salmon
This recipe is from How Easy is That?, page 152
For Friday night dinner, I made my first fish recipe in the Ina cook-through saga. My family usually eats fish about once a week, typically salmon. So, a salmon recipe seemed like the logical choice. We already had the fish and almost all the ingredients to make the panko crust. I think I only had to buy a lemon for the zest.
This recipe is pretty straight forward. But, to be honest, it’s nothing special. The dijon mustard does give the salmon an extra flavor and it plays nicely with the panko crust. The panko prevents the salmon from drying out which, obviously, make it more flavorful. If you’re looking to dress up your run-of-the-mill salmon filet, then definitely try this one. One of the perks is all the ingredients are pretty standard, so it won’t break the bank either. That was a nice reprieve from some other Ina recipes.
To my dish, I decided to throw in some of the pine nuts I used for the gremolata I made a few weeks ago. Those little nuts are expensive and I don’t want them to go to waste!
In addition to this recipe, I made a side dish. That recipe review will be posted later in the week.
See ya then!
Weekend Photos I
Looks like something tasty is in the works! Cold holiday weekends are for baking, what else is there to do?!?!
Cooking Update 2/12/2021
Tonight for dinner I am making a chicken dish that I created myself. But, it has been quite some time since I made it last. In fact, I can’t even remember the last time I made it! I do plan to post the recipe for my Sweet & Sour Chicken early next week. The best part? It’s so easy and quick to make thanks to the use of some store-bought ingredients!
Today’s Snow is Prettier
The snow is more fluffy today than last week. This is the type of white stuff that I like! Much easier to shovel and usually the storm passes much quicker.
Even though we are getting snow, I’m not making bread. I’ve done a lot of baking this weekend! I’ve been recipe-testing a new cookie recipe. It should be ready for posting soon!
Today, I’m making chicken soup.
