Fat and Crafty.com

Two disappointments yesterday in the kitchen. The first was the cooking light recipe for the day Quick Choucroute. It sounded very fesitve and german. pork , kraut , onions, beer  all sauteed and  simmered together. in the end  the kraut tasted like beer,  and the pork didnt taste like much. We wont be making this ever again, and while my family refuses to give a start rating I’d say it was probably a 1.

Number two was the spring almond tea cakes from Martha’s year of cakes. These were supposed to be  delicate almond cake filled with cherry preserves and with a simple icing.   When i went to bed last night i ws convinced i had screwed up, i had these stick little lumpy cakes with drooling frosting.  this morning they look better. the icing has adhered and not much have dripped down onto the parchment over the tray. So they look better, the icing is pinky and the cakes look tasty.  On the other hand they  are still way way too sweet.  i don’t think I would make them again. I’m going to try a couple more cakes from the year of cakes though, and I’ll also look into  different petit fours. I think petit fours and tea sandwiches will e fun and tasty for church snacks.

Baking Bread and a Lamb Tagine  that I am making for dinner. I’d kind of paused on cooking light this week, as some late nights at work and  family coming over and staying.  Friday I revisted the chicken sate that I had made earlier in the week, and served that to my guests for dinner. I must say it went over very well.

The lamb tagine is cooking along nicely and I’m making a second batch of bread. Its been about 3 weeks since the last batch.

Unfortunatly while I was making the second batch of bread I heard a crunching grind noise, and the kitchen aid stopped. Looks like it will be out of commission for a wee bit, until I can have someone look at it to repair it.

Crap. Considering I’m in the middle of bidding on my  Birthday Gift  it sucks. I’m hoping the repair wont be too expensive. Please note that when one is bidding on her Birthday gift, that bidding on two auctions is not so smart. Now I sit in fear of the idea of winning both of them. I dont need two of these!

Chicken Sate Marinated chicken, cooked in the broiler served with peanut sauce.
Yum. we like peanut sauce at my house. Peanut butter noodles are a favorite of the household, and we often add chicken to the mix. I’m also a fan of veggies with peanut sauce. So this recipe seemed like a shoe in. A simple marinade of onions, spices and hot sauce, then broiled for twelve minutes. Stir peanut butter, hot sauce, lemon juice, water and soy sauce together and you have peanut sauce.

Sounds simple right? It’s delicious. Leah asked “Is this a cooking light recipe?” Yes yes it was. “We should make this again” (4- 4.5 stars)

Sadly the coconut rice was a disappointment. i opted to use a non sweetened shaved coconut, because I couldnt imagine the sweetened coconut. all in all, the dish just didnt have much flavor to it. I wont be making it again. (2 stars)

Tonight it was Three-Cheese Chicken Penne Florentine. It took a little longer to make then I might have liked. I started with precooked pasta when i got home (Aron cooked it up) and I had too cook the chicken before I got to the veggies.
The reviews were fairly good. Leah said she would have liked it better had we not had lasagna earlier in the week. Aron gave it a very high rating of 4.5! this is going in my book to make again.

I’m hitting a stride here. i’m about to plan groceries for the next two weeks and its almost relaxing to know that i only have one menu source for the next two weeks. i have to plan the baked goods in and I need to plan fre lunch Friday for my coworkers.

I also made chocolate chip cookies out of the Joy of Cooking tonight. They got a 5 out of 5.
(Even though Aron says he will never give a real 5)

Skillet Paella was up first  I rushed home after work. Chopped onions, celery, chicken. Sauteed onions in my large skillet, added mushrooms, celery, cooked for a bit then tossed in the chicken and rice. Cook for a few more minutes add hot broth, shrimp corn and cooked spinach. Cook until rice is done.

I ran out of the house the minute this was done, and came home to a skillet with about a quarter left. It was tasty enough to go into the lunchbox and for dinner that night,  It rated a 3.5 -4 stars.

However, I’m not sure it was really paella. Yes I left the saffron out, but really is that all that makes it a Paella? I expected more spanish influence. I may have to frind real paella once this is over

Recipe Number two was Goulash. This was one of the issues crock pot recipes, which I will be relying on for the evenings when I am at school. As I was making this  I kept thinking, will this be good? Sadly the answer was , not really. A sauce made from worchestershire and catsup  with paprika and garlic for flavoring. Again, I leave the peppers out, but followed it the rest of the way. The recipe made a huge amount, overfilling my crock. The family said it was a 2.5 and it will not be made again. I have a ton left over, and will be making little pot pies with it. Hopefully those will go over well.

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As I am cooking my way through Cooking Light, I am playing it fairly loose on the recipes, particularly in regards to items my family dislikes or has allergies for. For example. there is an indian spiced item or two. I will make these, but not in large quantatites and likely not for dinner. My family doesnt like Indian food.

Here are the exceptions you can expect me to make.
-No Peppers

-No Tomatoes , unless I feel they are a key element. The example here is the bulgur salad. I’ll likely leave the tomatoes out and substitute another veggie. On the other hand, in the creamy spinach lasagna I’ll leave them in.

-Less Fish. I’ll make smaller quantaties of the fish dishes and offer an alternative to those in my house who do not like fish.

- Feeding other people. I’ve asked one person if she would come have clams parmesean with me. I’m going to make one of the soups and salads for my girlfriends workplace. Maybe  I’ll do that for my workplace too. (We like soup, we’re just not all crazy for it. )
I’ll also make pastries for church.

If I had more free time I’d suggest a potluck where everyone makes something from the issue.  Maybe another month.

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Indeed there are 110 recipes in the March issue of Cooking light. As of last night I’ve completed 5 of them. Here are the results so far

Provençal Deviled Eggs : Rating 1.5 -2 stars out of 5.
These were deviled eggs stuffed with herbs de provence, capers, olives, mayo,  and mustard.
Now i’ll admit i  did fail the recipe here, i didnt have herbs de provence, and wasnt going to drop $7 for a smal jar. (I could have gotten a full cup worth from World Spice for $2.25)  The review on these? Aron found them too salty. Leah and I thought they were ok enough to eat, but i wont make them again.

Pesto Chicken Salad.  4 stars out of5.
this was a pesto chicken salad with yogurt, mayo , pesto, toasted walnuts, all served on a foccaia bread. it was easy to make and pretty tasty, though Leah and i felt it was missing someting. i was thinking bacon might add some smokeyness and make it more complete. we’ll make this again and   it might go into the regular rotation.

Garden Style Lasagna  3-3.5  out of 5
This would have gotten  a 4 had the Lasagna had more time to cook.  (so 3 points to the chef for trying to make Lasagna on a week night) This was pretty good, it was a mixture of veggies sauted , then layered with noodles, cottage cheese mixture, and a spinach sauce. in my opinion it was the spinach  sauce that made the dish awesome. it was a simple bechmal without butter. that is flour with milk cooked, add cheese, spinach and spices. A simple simple white sause. i think that the next time i make Tuna casserole i’m going to use this sauce.  i will be making this again, on a weekend, and freezing a second or third.
I’ll also add different vegetables. We missed mushrooms in this one. 

It’s curious, this issue of cooking light has 2 different recipes for spinach lasagna. i wonder  what the other will turn out like.

Recipe number 5 is the lemon curd. I’ve disussed that already though. The formal review for that is 4 out of 5 stars. Wonder if they will feel the same about the  pineapple curd and the berry curd.

We’re off to the races on this one. It’s the 3rd and I’m 3 recipes in. Its going to be a struggle fitting all the recipes into 4 weeks that include 2 special events (My Birthday and Easter)   But we’re going to try.

This weeks line up includes the following

• Provenceal Stuffed Eggs -Sunday
• Pesto Chicken Salad
• Garden Vegetable Lasagna – Monday
• Beef Goulash -Thursday
• Skillet Paella -Wednesday
• Chicen Sate -Saturday
• Coconut Rice- Saturday
• Friday (Something else, but I can’t remember what!)

I’ve already concquered three of the recipes, 2 have been tasted so their posts will be happening very very shortly.

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