Another bit of real life distractions, but I refuse to let this die. Back to it, with an interesting dish: 11-16: Indian Fried Fish. 🐟
Um, okay. “Indian” is being used liberally here, as far as I can tell. It was an okay dish, but didn’t exactly conjure up images of India. This seems more like West Indies/Caribbean “Indian” than India “Indian”.
I’ve been making a lot of potato recipes lately. There’s a 10 lb. bag in my pantry I’ve been working my way through, so expect a few more potato recipes over the next few weeks. We’ll start here with one I’ve made before–4-11: Potato Soufflé with Onions.
More of my handwriting. I’ve made this one before, and this time I remember the circumstances and my adaptations–see what good notes will do for you?
Here’s another dessert for you. Book 3, Group 3 (Desserts), Subgroup 17 (Baked Goods) gives us card #9: Brownies. I’ve made these a bazillion times, and they are a GREAT base for adding your own ingredients.
These are good, easy, and fast–the trifecta you’re never supposed to be able to achieve. I highly recommend them, and I keep this recipe on hand for whenever I want to make brownies. One big difference: these use actual chocolate, not cocoa powder. 🍫
I went on a cooking spree and made 4 recipes last night. 17-28: Pound Cake was the last of what I cooked, when we were scouring the house looking for a dessert. 🍰
Hey! This one has MY handwriting on it! I said it was good a few years ago, let’s see if it’s still good.
Spoiler alert: it was. 🙂
Fennel has been a challenge ever since we started receiving CSA boxes a year or two ago. I really never cooked with it before and even now, finding recipes to use with it (that I’ll eat) is difficult.
If you’ve never had fennel, it tastes like black licorice. You eat the bulb part, and usually cut off the stalks & feathery parts. I usually save those parts and put them in when I make chicken stock.
We ended up with two very large fennel bulbs, and so I decided to make 4-13: Fennel au Gratin, because you can’t go wrong when you cover things in cheese.
We paired this with some English cheddar tortilla/gluten-free something-or-other chips as well as put it on top of some veggie patties–both were pretty good. It worked well as a dip–it might be too cheesy as a side dish, unless you added more fennel.
This arose out of a desire to use up some leftover chicken more so than a desire to eat another meat-based crêpe recipe so soon after 5-24: Meat-Filled Crêpes, but it turned out to be pretty good in its own right.
5-22: Crêpes with Chicken really should be “Crêpes with Chicken and Mushrooms”, as mushrooms are just as much a part of this as the chicken.
I had originally considered making it at breakfast, but I’m glad I didn’t–it’s definitely a savory dish. Crêpes are popular in this book–all this practice is making me quite the crêpe-master.
The long-awaited 5-24: Meat-Filled Crêpes. I finally solved my ingredient issues and it was crêpe-time. The only thing is…I’ve never done this before.
Confession time: In all of my time cooking (which is most of my life), I have NEVER made crêpes. I have made many pancakes (as you could imagine), but never a crêpe. This was a first for me and as you will see, I learned many lessons from this attempt.
This was supposed to be 5-24: Meat-Filled Crêpes, but ingredient shortages persist. A trip to the market tomorrow should resolve it, but for now, we’ll have to make do with an old classic, 5-7: Quiche Lorraine.
This one I have made in the past, several times. Two past memorable occasions:
– When my boyfriend (now husband) and I officially moved into our first apartment together a few years ago, we threw a 1970s-themed housewarming party. This along with another quiche, some rumaki, fondue, and other 1970s goodness made up the menu.
– When I was in 7th grade, I had to do some sort of project on France/French culture in my English class (I have no idea why). My project partner and I made this recipe at her house and also bought a Celine Dion CD (where she sings in French) to play while the class ate our quiche. I think her mom returned the CD to Target the next day. That was our lazy, late-90s attempt at French culture. 🇫🇷
5-1: Mushroom and Cheese Pie…didn’t go as well as I had hoped. Following directions is important, friends. Let’s dive in–we’re still in Book 1, Group 1 (Appetizers & Starters).
We got a lot of mushrooms in our CSA box this round, and I used the Maitake mushrooms for another recipe from this book, but forgot to photograph it. And as the internet says, “pics or it didn’t happen”. So, I decided to use the White Beech mushrooms for this recipe.
First mistake. Of several.