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Made this for first time because I had 2 small jalapeño peppers in the fridge and I wanted some cornbread to eat with the Succulent Braised Pork leftovers I wanted to heat up. I ended up with a little more than 2 Tbsp of diced peppers (discarding seeds). Realized at the end of making the batter that I had only used 2 Tbsp butter, not 2 ounces (4 Tbsp). I didn't want to melt more butter and add it so I just buttered the 10-inch cast-iron skillet with almost 1 Tbsp butter and then added 2 ounces of shredded extra-sharp cheddar cheese to the batter and luckily, that worked out. I used 1 cup of canned sweet white corn since that's what I had.

Yum! Gave a little hint of heat but not really spicy (which is just about right for me) and tasted good with the pork. B liked it so much he helped himself to a big big second slice. Baked for 30 minutes at 400F in the 10-inch cast-iron skillet. Came out a little thinner than I would've liked. I would've baked it in an 8-inch skillet if I had one. Maybe I'll try baking it in a cake pan next time.

( Click for Recipe and Bigger Photos )

I had high expectations for this recipe since it billed itself as Succulent Braised Pork. My oven was running a little on the cool side so I left it to braise for an extra hour. (Besides, I wanted to go for a run before dinner.) I did flip it once in the middle so that the top would have a chance to be submerged in liquid too. When I took it out of the oven, the meat was indeed meltingly tender. I was able to shred the meat with just a fork. At first, B felt the meat was very bland. I had added some potatoes to the recipe and maybe they had soaked up a lot of the salt of the original recipe. I had skipped the final tasting step so once I sprinkled on a dusting of salt, he agreed that it tasted wonderful. The first time I made it, I added the optional cup of water and the sauce came out very thin, more soupy than thick sauce. Second time, I added less liquid and a little more flour and tomato paste. That seemed to help. Either way, the broth is flavorful.

With lots of carrots, mushrooms, and potatoes, it made for a nice one-pot meal. We had the leftovers as shredded pork tacos. Another night had the leftovers with Jalapeño Cornbread and roasted sweet potato wedges. Definitely keeping this recipe in our regular rotation since it's pretty easy to prepare and mostly requires patience while waiting for it to finish cooking.

( Click for Recipe and Bigger Photos )

Many many thanks to

evilbeard for leaving this comment and giving me my new favorite cookie!

I made these as Crispy Salted Oatmeal Raisin Cookies. I didn't have any toffee or butterscotch chips so I used 1 cup raisins instead. My first dozen was perfect. The cookies oozed into each other but they were thin and crispy and B scarfed down 3 of them right out of the oven. Second dozen must've been a little thicker since it did not flatten down as thin as the first batch. That might be because the dough was colder for the second dozen since I had put the dough in the fridge while the first dozen baked. Also note that if you forget to press down on each ball in step 3, the cookies don't get as thin or crispy. Still tastes good but it changes the texture. I like the thin and crispy version so much that I must remember to flatten the cookies slightly! So first batch was in oven for 14 minutes (rotated after 6 minutes) and second batch was in oven an additional 4 minutes (rotated after 7 minutes). We loved these so much that when I wanted to make a food gift, I turned to these cookies.

small photo of a stack of crispy salted oatmeal cookies

( Click for Recipe and Bigger Photo )

I had roasted some sugar pumpkins and now wanted to use my pumpkin puree. I threw this dish together after reading other pumpkin and pork chili recipes for ideas of possible ingredients to use. Quantities listed in the recipe are just guidelines. We basically started with most of the ingredients listed and then added a little more sugar, maple syrup, and lime juice until we liked how it tasted. Pretty tasty! Great way to stretch a single pound of ground pork into enough meat for several satisfying meals. This ended up being a pretty soupy chili with lots of liquid so we mixed in some cooked wild rice and it tasted great. By the last days, we had to add a little liquid when we reheated the chili. The pumpkin seems to add a bit of sweetness and a pleasing smooth texture to the chili.

small photo of a bowl of Pumpkin Pork Chili

( Click for recipe and bigger photo )

Chilly morning today. Frost tinged windows and just 35F outside. ugh. Oh the plus side, this means the heat from the oven is a welcomed additional source of heat!

Took me a while to gather all the ingredients for this one and even longer to cook but it was worth it to me! After reading the comments on the recipe, I decided to add extra vegetables. My hunk of leg of lamb had a bone in it so I cut around the bone and included the bone in the stew for the cooking portion. I let the lamb pieces marinate for about an hour and then ended up cooking for a lot longer (another 1-1.5 hours?) because I wanted the meat to be melting tender and I was working on something else anyways while the stew cooked. By the time I took it off the heat, the meat slipped right off the bone with just a prod from a wooden spatula. I'm really looking forward to making this dish again. Really nice to have the leftovers on hand for an easy meal to reheat.

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I liked the different smoky flavors of this pasta sauce and thought it was a nice change of pace from our usual Italian pasta sauce. Meanwhile, my boyfriend B liked this sauce but says he never tires of tomatoes with basil so I'll probably stick to our usual tomato sauce most of the time and save the ground lamb for making another household favorite, Shepherd's Pie.

I changed a bunch of the ingredients slightly to match what we had in the house. I didn't like whole wheat pasta the first time I tried it but I think its heartier, nuttier flavor would stand up well to this sauce.

I picked up this book at a cookbook exchange. What a great idea! For a $5 donation/fee, you got to drop off any old cookbooks you didn't want anymore and walk out with as many of the books and magazines that you wanted. Any books left over were to be donated to a non-profit used bookstore and coffee shop More Than Words that's run by teenagers.

( Click for recipe and bigger photo )

One night, I scanned the signs as I drove north on Route 1, heading out of Boston. I wanted to grab some take-out but nothing appealed to me. Then I saw the word 'wings' and decided to try that. Once I got inside, the menu was primarily pizza but I did see one item mentioning their "signature fall-off-the-bone wings" and ordered that to go. Wow! I didn't taste it until I had reached home almost an hour later but we were so blown away by it that I kept remembering those wings for weeks afterwards. Luckily, the menu did mention what they marinated their wings with so I could search online for similar sounding recipes. This is my attempt to recreate those wings.

If you can drive out to Angela's Coal-Fired Pizza in Saugus, then you can try the original wings. So good. And their Figaro pizza with figs, prosciutto, mozzarella, arugula, bleu cheese, and shaved parmesan was fabulous.

Brian really liked these wings a whole lot too. Still thinks it's not quite what we had from Angela's but it's close enough for me. I'm going to stop fussing with this recipe. So long as I was heating up the oven, I baked off the last of the dough for Soft Oatmeal Cookies, and then also did the Saucy Mushrooms and Roasted Zucchini with Garlic. So it was a 3-course dinner: first mushrooms, then zucchini, then wings. I guess 4 courses if you count an oatmeal cookie as dessert.

small photo of Rosemary Lemon Chicken Wings

( Click for recipe and bigger photo )

Still looking for ways to eat zucchini? This is a nice change from zucchini bread and stir-fried zucchini. I really liked this. I let it marinate for 7.5 hours and it tasted very strongly of the lemon juice. I could've used less lemon juice or maybe not marinated it for as long since it didn't taste much like zucchini by the end. But the slices still had a nice firmness to it. Really yummy. Served with some stuffed zucchini. Also snacked on the leftovers the next day. And since this recipe doesn't involve the stove, there's no need to produce heat in your kitchen in the middle of a heat wave.

( Click for Recipe and Bigger Photos )

Bostonians, if you don't mind being elbow-jostled, shouted at, and possibly grossed out by paring away the rotten parts of your fruits and vegetables, all in exchange for buying your produce at rock-bottom prices, go check out Haymarket! I sometimes hear it referred to as a farmers market but it's not. The vendors get the leftovers from wholesalers on Thursday evening and try to sell it Friday and Saturday. So do a bit of a walk-through first so you can eyeball prices and quality. Some vendors will yell at you if you handle the produce while others let you pick what you want. Fruit tends to be very ripe so buy only what you think you'll consume in a day or two. For example, despite being 10 for $1, I declined to buy plums because they were too soft for my tastes. And I looked carefully for mold in the strawberries before I picked 2 containers to buy. Still, if you're willing to put up with the hassle, you can get some amazing bargains. Here's my last haul when we stopped by at the end of the day:
- 10 bananas for $1
- 2 giant bunches of fresh basil for $2
- 2 pounds of strawberries for $1
- 3 pounds of mushrooms for $2
- 2 blocks of Wisconsin sharp cheddar cheese for $4 (about 6-8oz each)
- 3 more blocks of cheese from inside the cheese guy's store ($4, $4, and $3.50)

The cheese guy has the best prices we've found on good-quality cheeses. Not the rock bottom prices of the stands, but beats the regular prices of places like Formaggio and Whole Foods. And he offers a nice selection of different cheeses. Really nice English Stilton, some aged goudas, Prima Donna, goat cheese (even a goat blue cheese)... And the shop owner (inside) is really nice and knowledgeable too. There's a small table set up outside with various blocks of cheese. At the beginning of the day, those prices are $2.50 each, 3 for $5, 5 for $10. If you come at the end of the day, some of the cheeses will be sold out but you can buy for $2 each.

If you want to read more:
- http://www.boston-discovery-guide.com/haymarket-boston.html
- http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/442512
- http://www.yelp.com/biz/haymarket-boston

So grab a fistful of $1 bills and go check it out!

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So that explains how I came up with this dish. I was trying to think of what to do with 2 pounds of those white button mushrooms and came up with this (although searching the web for 'mushroom rice' I see that I'm far from the first person to come up with the idea). Still, it's really tasty. Tasty enough that we've had it 3 times this week already. Oh and the cheese thrown in the end is optional. I just added it because I wanted something to make it hold its shape when I formed the little rice cylinder. Scroll to the bottom of this post if you want to see more recipes for mushrooms.

gorkabear, I think this is gluten-free too if you use a broth that's gluten-free. Correct me if I'm wrong.

( Click for Recipe and Bigger Photos )

I've had lots of good luck with recipes from SimplyRecipes.com. Here's a quick and easy one for zucchini. I just tossed the zucchini pieces with the garlic and olive oil, and then lined the zucchini slices up on the baking sheet with the skin side down. Needed to cook a little over 10 minutes at 450F. Very tasty and smells great. Served it up as a side dish with Rosemary Lemon Garlic Chicken Wings. Oh and I'm tagging this one gluten-free. If I'm wrong about that, let me know.

small photo of Roasted Zucchini with Garlic

( Click for Recipe and Bigger Photo )

The lemon zest in this recipe brightens the flavor of these zucchini muffins. When I read through the comments left on the original recipe, some of the modifications that sounded interesting were:
- Making it in a loaf pan as a quickbread instead of as muffins
- Using dried cranberrries or fresh blueberries instead of raisins
- Substituting grated carrot for raisins

But I made this without much modification. I used 1/2 cup pecans instead of walnuts and 1/2 Tbsp dried lemon peel instead of freshly zesting a lemon. Yummy! I might use a little more dried lemon peel next time since B said he didn't really taste the lemon.

Made 1 dozen regular-sized muffins (baked 20 minutes) and 1 dozen mini-muffins (baked 14 minutes).

( Click for Recipe and Bigger Photos )

For years, I had pondered whether or not to buy a stand mixer. Sure it might make things easier but would I really USE it? Enough to justify the cost? I especially wanted one once I started trying to make bread. Kneading took a lot of energy out of me and it was hard to think of it as relaxing when I kept poking at the dough, anxiously wondering if it was ready for the next stop or whether I should keep kneading for another 10 minutes. But then I wondered if I was going to stay interested in making bread or whether my attention was going to wander on to something else and leave me with an expensive kitchen appliance that would hog counter space.

Then last year, during the Black Friday sales when I was supposed to be shopping for gifts for other people, I spotted a sale I couldn't resist. Finally caved and bought a KitchenAid Pro 600 stand mixer. Once all the various discounts and incentives were applied, I got it for 67% off the list price (or more realistically, 59% off of the going rate since no one should pay MSRP!). The bargain hunter in me whooped with victory. I figured if I didn't use it as much as I thought I would, I would still be able to sell it on Craigslist for as much as I had paid for it (possibly even be able to flip it for a little more cash). Best impulse buy I've made in a long time. (Is it still an impulse buy if you've wanted to buy it for years?) I wipe it down to clean it with the same affection car people feel when polishing their cars.

photo of KitchenAid stand mixer (blue steel color)

In blue steel. I haven't named him yet.

But wait, this post is about a recipe, not about equipment. So as I was flipping through the booklet that came with the mixer, I saw this recipe for Mushroom-Onion Tartlets. It sounded delicious but I was skeptical about the crust ingredients. Cream cheese, butter, and flour? That's going to turn into a crust? I didn't really see how that was going to happen but they sounded yummy so I had to try. Besides, then I could finally use my little mini-muffin tin that I had bought and never used.

I was surprised that the little pastry crusts did indeed turn out. It takes a bit of effort to make the shells so I said I wouldn't be making it very often but then I made it again just a few days later. And now it's two months later and I'll be making them again this week because I really liked them!

For filling the cups, I took a piece of the dough, rolled it into a ball, and placed it on a piece of wax paper. Then I folded a corner of the wax paper over the ball and flattened it with my hand (like a tortilla press). Place that small sheet of dough and press it into the muffin cup. I needed to clip my fingernails so that the long nails didn't rip holes in the dough. Used gruyere cheese. Tasty. Could've used a dab of salt (maybe because I had used unsalted butter).

( Click for recipe and bigger photos )

This has become one of our favorite snacks to have on hand. They're cheesy crackers with just a little heat to them to make them interesting. You could make this without a stand mixer too but it just happens to be really easy to throw together if you have a stand mixer.

I only made 2/3 of the recipe since I tend to buy the half-pound blocks of cheddar cheese. Once I had to add 2 Tbsp of water since the dough looked crumbly and wasn't forming a ball but the rest of the times I didn't need to add water. Divided dough in half and stuck both balls into a plastic container and kept in fridge for 2 days. When I took the dough out of the fridge, it was very cold and stiff at first. Had to warm it up enough to be malleable before I was able to roll it out. (warmed it by leaving it on the counter and then kneading it with my hands). I didn't measure the pieces I was cutting out using a pizza cutter but kept them to mostly similar sized pieces. Surprised to see that they puffed up and tasted really good! Some batches puffed up beautifully evenly while others looked a little bumpier. My friend said maybe the difference was in how much I had let the butter soften. If it got to the point of being melted, the resulting texture would differ.

( Click for recipe and bigger photos )

I'll often read someone's post about a meal they threw together and compliment them on coming up with something so tasty on their own. They'll frequently casually respond that it wasn't a big deal. "Necessity is the mother of invention," they'll say. But in my house, necessity often explains why we're eating cereal for dinner. I'm getting better though. I've finally gotten comfortable enough with cooking that I'm starting to look at what we have in the fridge and pantry and piece together something to eat based on constraints such as, "Well I thawed out that pound of ground pork so I need to use that. But the only veggies I have left are some cabbage." I looked up the seasonings for a few Asian Lettuce Wrap recipes and used that for the pork. The peanut sauce came from the Spaghetti with Chicken and Thai Peanut Sauce recipe.

( Click for recipe and bigger photos )

I found this recipe in a book I picked up at a cookbook exchange that I went to with a friend. Cool idea. For a $5 donation/fee, you got to drop off any old cookbooks you didn't want anymore and walk out with as many of the books and magazines that you wanted. The leftover books were donated to a non-profit used bookstore More Than Words in Waltham, MA, that's run by teenagers.

This recipe was a hit. We had it two days in a row and have cooked it several more times since then. Definitely want those chopped peanuts on top at the end...a really nice crunch. I even happened to have a bottle of riesling that I opened since the book recommended riesling and it did indeed pair very nicely with this dish. Oh and we substituted in Linguine since I had no spaghetti in the house.

Want to make this vegetarian? Leave out the chicken and use vegetable broth instead of chicken broth. I imagine you could marinate tofu instead of chicken and that could work. Or just leave out the chicken and it would still be a very satisfying dish.

small photo of Spaghetti with Chicken and Thai Peanut Sauce

( Click to see Recipe and Bigger Photo )

Now it's just habit to keep a list of new recipes tried each year. The goal is to hit at least 50 each year. So I try a new recipe about once a week and some meals will involve 2 new recipes that I saw and wanted to try out. Let me know if you're also keeping a running list of recipes you make so I can keep looking for ideas to try out here too.

So far, I'm most excited about "Spaghetti with Chicken and Thai Peanut Sauce" which led to the "Pork and Cabbage With Peanut Sauce Noodles" dish that I made up. The "Succlent Braised Pork" recipe was true to its name and I'm definitely making that one again. I'm also loving "Roasted Sweet Potato Fries with Plum Powder" after hearing my sister describe a street food snack. And I like to keep "Crispy Cheese Wafers" or "Garlic and Rosemary Roasted Cannellini Beans" around to munch on throughout the day. Some great eating so far in 2011! I'll eventually make individual posts for these recipes too but I just wanted to get my list together so I could find my recipes again.

New Recipes Tried in 2011

01/02 Peanut Butter Cookies (stand mixer recipe)
01/03 Basic White Bread (stand mixer recipe)
01/05 Garlic and Rosemary Roasted Cannellini Beans (recipe)
01/07 Herb Garlic Baguettes (stand mixer recipe)
01/07 Spiced Pineapple Chicha (drink made from Pineapple Rinds)
01/09 Crispy Cheese Wafers
01/21 Baguettes Made with Poolish (from BakeWise book)
01/22 Banana-Nut Bread (from Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook)
02/01 Ziti with Portobello Mushrooms, Caramelized Onions, and Goat Cheese (from Quick From Scratch Pasta)
02/07 Chocolate Chip Cookies (stand mixer recipe)
02/08 Spaghetti with Chicken and Thai Peanut Sauce
02/10 Whole-Wheat Spaghetti with Lamb, Tomato, and Cumin Sauce
02/11 Sausage and Bean Casserole (recipe)
02/14 Mushroom-Onion Tartlets
03/08 Pork and Cabbage With Peanut Sauce Noodles (made it up!)
03/17 Pork and Cabbage with Sesame Noodles (variation on above)
03/?? Spicy Honey-Mustard Pork (variation on this by adding about 1 tsp Spicy Thai Pepper Jam -- so good!)
03/25 Banana Bread (recipe)
03/28 Succulent Braised Pork (recipe) ...
04/02 Jalapeno Cornbread (recipe) ...
04/02 Roasted Sweet Potato Fries with Plum Powder
04/03 Simply Perfect Pancakes (recipe)
04/08 Caramelized Onions Bread (variation on ABi5 Basic Boule)
04/15 Rosemary-Lemon Chicken Wings
04/17 Poolish Focaccia (recipe)
04/17 Saucy Mushrooms (recipe)
04/21 Braised Lamb Stew
05/14 Soft Oatmeal Cookies (recipe)
05/18 Roasted Zucchini with Garlic
05/19 Pizza Bianca (caramelized onions, Italian sausage, zucchini, goat brie) (adapted this and this)
05/29 Zucchini Lemon Muffins
07/23 Grilled Honey-Curry Cauliflower
07/24 Grilled Pizza (ABi5 dough)
07/25 Marinated Zucchini Salad
07/25 Stuffed Zucchini
07/25 Zucchini Pecan Flaxseed Bread (recipe)
08/01 Mushroom Rice
08/07 Pesto (Thanks sight for the recipe!)(public link)
08/18 Roasted Corn with Chipotle Butter (recipe)
08/18 Golden Yellow Corn Bread (from bag of Indian Head Corn Meal)
08/23 Panzanella (roughly followed instructions from sparkymonster)
09/02 Crispy Salted Oatmeal Raisin Cookies (from evilbeard)
09/02 Baked Herb Chicken (recipe from bag of Indian Head cornmeal)
09/14 Fresh Egg Noodles (recipe)
09/15 Roast Leg of Lamb with Rosemary (recipe)
09/16 Salt and Pepper Squid (recipe)
09/17 Cheddar-Sage Bread (ABi5 dough)(idea from this recipe)
09/17 Multi-seeded Flatbreads (ABi5 dough)
09/20 Moroccan Spiced Chicken (recipe)
09/24 Bulgur Cereal
09/29 Pinchos Morunos (Moorish Pork Kebabs) (recipe from kitiara)
10/01 Linguine with Clam Sauce (recipe)
10/02 Chocolate Chip Pepper Cookies (recipe from theinimitable_l)
10/06 Pork (or Chicken) Souvlaki (recipe)
10/10 Pumpkin Pork Chili
10/18 Scallion Bread Rolls (recipe)
10/19 Spicy Roasted Pumpkin (or Butternut) Seeds (recipe)
10/21 Scallion and Sesame Bread (ABi5 basic dough)
10/24 Zucchini Fritters (imitation crab cakes)
10/25 Zucchini Bread (flopped)
10/25 Flatbread Pizza with Pesto, Caramelized Onions, and Roasted Pumpkins (ABi5 basic dough)
11/02 Sweet and Salty Pumpkin Seeds (repeated from 2009)
11/02 Pumpkin Peanut Butter Soup
11/02 Flatbread Pizza with Pesto, Caramelized Onions, Roasted Pumpkins, and Herbed Goat Cheese (ABi5 basic dough)
11/13 Lentil Stew with Pumpkin or Sweet Potato (recipe)
11/18 Pork Mince Over Pumpkin (Japanese) (recipe)
11/24 Mustard Crusted Rack of Lamb (recipe)
11/24 Creamy Au Gratin Potatoes (recipe)
11/24 Corn-Bread and Chorizo Stuffing (recipe)
11/29 Pumpkin Souffle (recipe)
12/07 Slow-Roasted Tuscan Pork with Roast Garlic Mashed Potatoes (recipe)
12/14 Extra Flaky Scallion Pancakes (recipe)
12/23 Amusement Park Cornbread (recipe)

Recipes From Other Years:
2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006

Cookbook of All Recipes I've Posted:
http://fitfool.livejournal.com/53752.html
or just look at the tag recipelist

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Page Summary

Jalapeño Cornbread
Succulent Braised Pork
Crispy Salted Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
Pumpkin Pork Chili
Braised Lamb Stew
Whole-wheat Spaghetti with Lamb, Tomato, and Cumin Sauce
Rosemary Lemon Chicken Wings
Marinated Zucchini Salad
Mushroom Rice (and Boston's Haymarket - like a Farmers' Market Outlet)
Roasted Zucchini with Garlic
Zucchini Lemon Muffins
Mushroom-Onion Tartlets
Crispy Cheese Wafers (stand mixer recipe)
Pork and Cabbage with Peanut Sauce Noodles
Spaghetti with Chicken and Thai Peanut Sauce
Recipes Cooked in 2011

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Adventures in the Kitchen and on the Road

Entries tagged with food2011

Jalapeño Cornbread

Succulent Braised Pork

Crispy Salted Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Pumpkin Pork Chili

Braised Lamb Stew

Whole-wheat Spaghetti with Lamb, Tomato, and Cumin Sauce

Rosemary Lemon Chicken Wings

Marinated Zucchini Salad

Mushroom Rice (and Boston's Haymarket - like a Farmers' Market Outlet)

Roasted Zucchini with Garlic

Zucchini Lemon Muffins

Mushroom-Onion Tartlets

Crispy Cheese Wafers (stand mixer recipe)

Pork and Cabbage with Peanut Sauce Noodles

Spaghetti with Chicken and Thai Peanut Sauce

Recipes Cooked in 2011

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February 2014

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