food processor – Simply Delicious: The Cookbook Project

2-12: Tips About Salad Dressing

Jamie Martin Group 02: Salads, Section 1: Appetizers & Starters March 25, 2020March 25, 2020appetizers, apple cider vinegar, balsamic vinegar, black pepper, blender, blue cheese, canola oil, crème fraîche, Dijon mustard, dressing, dried herbs, dried spices, dry mustard, emulsion, food processor, French, fruit salad, garlic, grape juice, healthy, herbs and spices, honey, how-to, lemon juice, lime juice, mayonnaise, olive oil, orange juice, pasta salad, potato salad, Ranch, red raspberry vinegar, red wine vinegar, restaurant-style, salads, salt, sour cream, spice blends, sunflower oil, sweet mustard, tarragon vinegar, Thousand Island, untested, vegetable juice, vegetable oil, vinaigrette, vinegar, white wine vinegar, yellow mustard, yogurt

Since there’s about to be quite a few salad recipes coming up, I thought I’d put 2-12: Tips About Salad Dressing out there as well. I tried to think of more salad dressing variations than what they list here, but honestly? Most “traditional” salad dressings do fall into one of the three categories they establish: vinaigrette, cream/mayo-based, and low-calorie. Go ahead–can you think of one that doesn’t?

PS: I spy that sneaky tarragon vinegar in their picture below. If you want to learn to make your own, check out 19-7: Fresh and Dried Herbs.

At the restaurant I worked at a few years ago, we made our own dressings from scratch. And by “we”, I mean “me”–I made all the dressings for the whole restaurant every week and kept everything stocked up, since it was my station (garde manger, or pantry chef) that made the salads. We made a blue cheese, ranch, balsamic vinaigrette, Caesar, and another, lighter vinaigrette.

One of the first times I made the blue cheese dressing (which required a giant immersion blender and a 22-quart Cambro), a customer liked it so much they asked to buy some to take home. I guess that makes me qualified to write about salad dressings now.

Hey–I have to find something to do while we’re all staying at home for a while. And so do you (probably), so why not read this?

12-24: Cannelloni with Chicken

Jamie Martin Group 12: Pasta & Rice, Section 2: Main Courses March 14, 2020March 14, 2020all-purpose flour, black pepper, boiled, breasts, butter, cannelloni, cheese, cheese sauce, chicken, chicken bouillon, chicken broth, cottage cheese, creamy, cubed, dinner, dried herbs, dry vermouth, fairly easy, fairly inexpensive, filling, food processor, frozen, grated, lunch, marinated, meal prep, melted, milk, nutmeg, Parmesan, pasta shells, pasta/noodles, recipes, salt, spinach, strained, strainers, stuffed, thyme, untested, vegetables, yellow onions

Meal-prepping is trendy now, but it’s always been a good idea if you want to save money and calories. 12-24: Cannelloni with Chicken works well if you want to make it on a Sunday, split it up into a few containers, and reheat it throughout the week. At least, that’s how we ate it.

Even Simply Delicious advises you can make this meal ahead of time, although their suggestion is for entertaining guests. This recipe/concept is pretty versatile–it’s good fresh or as leftovers.

15-10: Frozen Raspberry Desserts

Jamie Martin Group 15: Cold Desserts, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods January 14, 2020February 17, 2020baking cups, blender, brushed, cherry liqueur, chilled, chocolate, chocolate cups, cold desserts, dessert, double boiler, easy, egg whites, eggs, fairly expensive, food processor, frozen, gluten-free, granulated sugar, MD2019, melted, Mother's Day, raspberries, recipes, stiff peaks, vegetarian, whipped, whipping cream

I’ve finally caught up to Mother’s Day…2019. I made 15-10: Frozen Raspberry Desserts along with a few other desserts from Simply Delicious, which has essentially become a tradition at this point. Considering I got these books from my mother, she has no one to blame but herself.

Mother’s Day is a bit ahead of summertime, but the fruit is usually already out and plentiful by then. The hardest part of making these desserts is the chocolate cups, which I also used for 1 5 -23: Kiwi Mousse with Chocolate Cups. If I have to go through the trouble of making them, I’m getting as much bang for my buck as possible.

16-42: Raspberry Tartlettes

Jamie Martin Group 16: Pies & Cakes, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods December 1, 2019December 1, 2019all-purpose flour, almond paste, at work, baking cups, blackberries, blueberries, boysenberries, butter, cut in, dessert, dough, egg yolks, eggs, fairly easy, fairly expensive, food processor, fruit, garnish, gluten-free, Grand Marnier, grated, liqueur, mint, nuts, party food, pastry, pastry cups, pie crust, powdered sugar, raspberries, recipes, Silpat, snacks, strawberries, tart, tart pan, tartlette, untested, vanilla extract, vegetarian, whipping cream

I’ve used this project as an excuse to make dishes to share at work before. This time, I made 16-42: Raspberry Tartlettes for a quarterly staff meeting. I had a colleague that was interested in trying vegan recipes and another that required gluten-free dishes, so I tried to incorporate both in this attempt.

I had originally bought tartlette tins for 5-20: Golden Cheese Tartlettes, and I’m just glad I’ve finally found another use for them.

There’s also 16-9: Raspberry Tart, if you’re looking for something a bit larger, but in the same ballpark.

15-36: Pear-Orange Sorbet

Adam Martin Group 15: Cold Desserts, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods March 3, 2019April 14, 2019boiled, brandy, cold desserts, cored, dessert, easy, fairly inexpensive, food processor, frozen, fruit, Grand Marnier, granulated sugar, grated, ice cream maker, liqueur, orange juice, orange peel, oranges, pears, purée, recipes, revisited, sorbet, summer, vegan, vegetarian

The photo of this delectable dish is enhanced by the superior dishware chosen to accentuate the fluffiness of the iced desert within. I made 15-36: Pear-Orange Sorbet before a few years ago when we first started this project, but I forgot to take photos. I finally got back to it in January 2019.

The recipe card describes this dish about as well as I could. The ripe pears did have an intense fruity flavor that was intriguing. Can’t beat that.

16-33: Crispy Almond Cake

Jamie Martin Group 16: Pies & Cakes, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods February 20, 2019April 17, 2019all-purpose flour, almonds, American, at work, butter, cakes, chilled, crispy, dessert, dough, eggs, fairly easy, fairly expensive, filling, food processor, garnish, gift ideas, granulated sugar, honey, light corn syrup, melted, party food, peeled, pie crust, recipes, Silpat, sliced, springform pan, strawberries, tart, tart pan, untested, vegetarian, whipping cream

I made 16-33: Crispy Almond Cake last September to pair with 16-26: Elegant Almond Cake as a breakfast treat for my work colleagues. This one was the less fancy of the two, but still went extremely well with some coffee on a Wednesday morning.

This title card blurb mentions that versions of this almond cake can be found all over the United States–Google doesn’t seem to want to confirm that claim for me. Searching almond cake results in several iterations of a Spanish flourless almond cake influenced by the Jewish tradition of Passover. Interesting, but none of them look like this recipe.

A search for almond tart (see 16-26: Elegant Almond Cake for my argument that these two dishes are tarts, not cakes as Simply Delicious claims) comes much closer–here’s a very similar version (with video!) from Martha Stewart herself.

16-26: Elegant Almond Cake

Jamie Martin Group 16: Pies & Cakes, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods February 18, 2019November 26, 2019all-purpose flour, almond paste, at work, butter, cakes, cherries, cherry liqueur, chilled, cornstarch, cut in, dessert, dough, egg yolks, eggs, fairly expensive, fairly hard, filling, food processor, garnish, gift ideas, glazed, granulated sugar, kneaded, liqueur, maraschino cherries, party food, pie crust, powdered sugar, recipes, springform pan, tart, tart pan, untested, vegetarian

A few months ago, I made two Simply Delicious almond cakes for work: this one, 16-26: Elegant Almond Cake and 16-33: Crispy Almond Cake. I think this one came out prettier, but they were both delicious.

Simply Delicious doesn’t mention this in their blurb, but it’s also great for accompanying coffee or tea on a Wednesday morning at the office. They also refer to this dish as a cake, but it’s very clearly a tart. To confirm, here’s a recipe from King Arthur Flour that is essentially this exact same dish (referred to a tart) but with raspberries instead of Maraschino cherries.

14-14: Sliced Pineapple with Nut Meringue

Adam Martin Group 14: Hot Desserts, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods May 10, 2018April 14, 2019blender, chopped, dessert, easy, egg whites, eggs, fairly inexpensive, food processor, frozen, fruit, gluten-free, granulated sugar, grated, hazelnuts, hot desserts, lemon juice, lemon peel, lemons, meringue, mint, nuts, party food, pineapple, piped, raspberries, raspberry sauce, recipes, sliced, snacks, stiff peaks, untested, vegetarian, zested

14-14: Sliced Pineapple with Nut Meringue is a unique desert. It was actually fairly tasty, just not something I would have thought to put together. This interesting dish has multiple textures, flavors, and temperatures which all interact nicely. I love raspberry, pineapple, and meringue, but I never thought to combine them, especially this way. 🍍

Meringue is probably one of my favorite applications of eggs in cooking. Egg whites only, but still a great use of eggs.

8-22: Beef Tenderloin with Whole Garlic

Adam Martin Group 08: Beef, Section 2: Main Courses January 24, 2018March 23, 2019beef, beef tenderloin, blender, butter, chilled, chopped, creamy, crushed red pepper, dinner, dried herbs, eggs, fairly easy, fairly expensive, food processor, garlic, garnish, gluten-free, herbs and spices, lemons, melted, minced, pan-fried, parsley, pastry bag, piped, recipes, roasted, rosettes, salt, sliced, Tabasco sauce, tarragon, untested, Worcestershire sauce, yellow onions 0 Comment

Oooh-la-la! What a fancy recipe 8-22: Beef Tenderloin with Whole Garlic is!. I have never attempted a dish like this before, but I approached it with confidence because I’ve watched Jamie make both a spiced butter and oven roasted garlic. She makes it look easy, but making this dish was not as difficult as I thought it would be. I don’t have plates with fancy fluted edges and I was out of red wine to serve with my dish, but I served it as best I could.

This dish is definitely gourmet. With spiced butter and roasted garlic, this dish contains a lot more elements than my usual go-to dishes.

11-1: Steamed Halibut with Vermouth

Jamie Martin Group 11: Fish & Seafood, Section 2: Main Courses January 18, 2018March 26, 2019blender, butter, creamy, crème fraîche, dinner, dry vermouth, easy, egg-free, fairly expensive, fish, fish bouillon, fish filets, flaked, food processor, frozen, garnish, gluten-free, green bell peppers, halibut, lemon pepper, liquor, melted, recipes, red bell peppers, salmon, salt, seafood, seafood steak, sour cream, steamed, strained, sweet peas, tomatoes, untested, vegetables, white pepper, white wine 0 Comment

I had mentioned in 11-5: Lemon Pepper Scallops that we had a plan to cook more of the Fish/Seafood and Beef recipes since we had already gone through a good portion of the Chicken/Poultry, Pork, and Ground Meat/Sausage ones. Summer got busy, and not as many of those recipes got made as I had intended. I made 11-1: Steamed Halibut with Vermouth during those summer months but I never wrote about it until now (while I clear out the queue).

I’ll agree with the method of cooking being excellent: the fish component came out great. I’m not a huge pea or vermouth fan so the sauce was probably not one I would repeat, but it was a well-done sauce otherwise. Technique-wise I feel like it’s definitely one of Simply Delicious‘ stronger offerings–if you’re really into 1980s-style food.

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