lemons – Page 3 – Simply Delicious: The Cookbook Project

11-8: Almond Trout

Adam Martin Group 11: Fish & Seafood, Section 2: Main Courses June 15, 2018October 27, 2020all-purpose flour, almonds, black pepper, boiled, butter, candied, creamy, dinner, dredged, easy, egg-free, fairly inexpensive, fish, ginger, herbs and spices, lemon juice, lemons, lunch, milk, nuts, pan-fried, parsley, salt, sautéed, seafood, sliced, trout, untested, whipping cream, Worcestershire sauce

Almonds are grown in California in abundant numbers so luckily, the featured ingredient in 11-8: Almond Trout is fairly inexpensive for us. This is not the first recipe to include almonds in a main course. Jamie chopped some for the sauce of the 11-16: Indian Fried Fish and I added them whole to 9-27: West Indian Meat Casserole. Jamie also combined pork and almonds in 7-55: Sunday Pork Stew. Who could forget the chopped almonds in the sauce from the mauve chicken in 6-24: Mushroom-Almond Chicken? Once you go into desserts, Simply Delicious offers tons of recipes that contain this wondrous drupe, which is technically a seed, but commonly called a nut.

Pan-fried fish has to be my second favorite preparation of fish, second only to full frying in a deep fryer, of course.

11-21: Baked Whitefish with Shrimp

Jamie Martin Group 11: Fish & Seafood, Section 2: Main Courses June 10, 2018November 24, 2020basil, bass, boneless, broiled, butter, catfish, Cheddar, cheese, chopped, cod, cooked shrimp, creamy, deboned, dinner, easy, egg-free, fairly expensive, fish, fish filets, flaked, flounder, gluten-free, grouper, haddock, herbs and spices, lemon juice, lemons, melted, milk, Monterey Jack, Mozzarella, parsley, Provolone, rockfish, salad shrimp, salt, seafood, shellfish, shredded, shrimp, simmered, spice blends, trout, untested, whipping cream, whitefish

Here’s 11-21: Baked Whitefish with Shrimp—Simply Delicious is big on fish and cheese together. We’ve seen that combination already with 11-21: Best Ever Sole Au Gratin and 11-4: Calzone with Seafood.

You don’t see too many creamy, cheesy baked fish recipes these days, do you? ?

16-11: Meringue-Topped Chocolate Pie

Jamie Martin Group 16: Pies & Cakes, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods June 7, 2018July 30, 2020all-purpose flour, almonds, at work, baked goods, butter, chilled, chocolate, custard, dark chocolate, egg whites, egg yolks, eggs, fairly easy, fairly expensive, gluten-free, granulated sugar, grated, lemon peel, lemons, macadamia nuts, meringue, milk, nuts, party food, pi day, pie crust, pies, semisweet, sliced, toasted, toppings, untested, vanilla extract, vegetarian, zested

A few months ago, we celebrated Pi Day in my office. Most of the pies were store-bought, but I decided to flip through Simply Delicious and see if there was anything worth contributing. I decided on 16-11: Meringue-Topped Chocolate Pie–everyone likes chocolate, and we had had a mishap with the lemon meringue pie on the way back from the store while preparing the day before.

If you’re not familiar with Pi Day, it takes place on March 14th, which when written as a numeric date is 3-14 (at least in the U.S. it is–some countries reverse the order). Pi (the mathematical constant represented by the Greek letter π) is usually rounded up to 3.14, so March 14th is celebrated with actual pies (and a bit of math) as a play-on-words. ?

No one really needs an excuse to eat pie, but “It’s a math joke” is certainly an acceptable one.

14-14: Sliced Pineapple with Nut Meringue

Adam Martin Group 14: Hot Desserts, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods May 10, 2018October 29, 2020blender, 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, 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.

19-7: Fresh and Dried Herbs

Jamie Martin Group 19: Basic Ingredients, Section 4: Cooking School April 22, 2018October 18, 2020apple cider vinegar, bay leaves, bouquet garni, celery, cheesecloth, chervil, chives, cloves, cooking school, dried herbs, fines herbes, French, garlic, healthy, herb salt, herb-roasted, herbes de Provence, herbs and spices, Italian parsley, Italian seasoning, lavender, lemons, limoncello, liqueur, nutmeg, orange peel, parsley, rosemary, sage, salads, smoked ham, spice blends, steeped, tarragon, tarragon vinegar, thyme, untested, vinegar, white wine vinegar

19-7: Fresh and Dried Herbs has been a recipe-in-the-making for a few months. I mention frequently that I often write these entries months after I complete the actual recipe, but this one actually took me that long TO complete.

Usually, these Cooking School cards don’t have too much in the way of actual recipes–often times it’s more like the card above, more recommendation than actual recipe. I’m not going to restate what they’ve written here–it’s all good advice. Jump behind the cut for some herb blend recipes as well as a DIY vinegar challenge and BONUS limoncello recipe.

8-22: Beef Tenderloin with Whole Garlic

Adam Martin Group 08: Beef, Section 2: Main Courses January 24, 2018October 18, 2020beef, 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, roasted, rosettes, salt, sliced, Tabasco sauce, tarragon, untested, Worcestershire sauce, yellow onions

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.

11-35: Grilled Pacific Halibut

Adam Martin Group 11: Fish & Seafood, Section 2: Main Courses October 23, 2017October 27, 2020black pepper, broiled, California, cast-iron, chili powder, chili sauce, cumin, dairy-free, dinner, easy, egg-free, fairly expensive, fish, fish filets, garlic, gluten-free, grill pan, grilled, halibut, healthy, herbs and spices, Hutton house, lemon juice, lemons, lunch, marinated, Mediterranean, minced, piquant, revisited, rosemary, salt, seafood, steak, teriyaki sauce, white wine vinegar

I have never been known for my skills in preparing fish, but this recipe, 11-35: Grilled Pacific Halibut, helped me become a halibut grilling master! ?

Many of the times I failed at cooking fish, I did not marinate the flesh first. Skipping that step definitely makes a difference.

Editor’s note: By the looks of the notations on this card, my mother made this in what looks like July of 1995, although that last digit is difficult to clearly determine–her handwriting has always been a challenge. It might be 1990. She noted that it was “Very Easy” on the back–sounds like Adam may have had a similar experience.

9-19: Meatballs on Skewers

Adam Martin Group 09: Ground Meat & Sausage, Section 2: Main Courses June 7, 2017October 19, 2020allspice, almonds, appetizers, beef, broiled, chilled, chopped, cinnamon, cornstarch, dinner, dried herbs, eggs, fairly easy, gluten-free, grated, Greek, grill pan, grilled, ground beef, ground lamb, ground meat, ground veal, herbs and spices, inexpensive, kebabs, lamb, lemons, lunch, meatballs, Middle Eastern, mint, nuts, olive oil, pan-fried, party food, peeled, salt, sautéed, skewered, tzatziki sauce, untested, veal, yellow onions, yogurt, zested

Gyro is probably my favorite preparation method of ground meat, so when I saw this recipe, I got very excited. This recipe, 9-19: Meatballs on Skewers is basically the same recipe as gyro, just served differently. However, I wish I had just bought a container of tzatziki at the store instead of making the yogurt sauce.

The rabbit handle piece on the end of the skewer in the example photo is simply incredible. I’ve never seen a set of skewers quite like that. It looks like the other skewers have other animal handles, I think I see a cat and a chicken on the other skewers that are slightly obscured by the meatballs. The serving dish is very neat, I’d like to add one to my collection.

16-39: Apricot Tart

Jamie Martin Group 16: Pies & Cakes, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods April 24, 2017November 5, 2020all-purpose flour, almond extract, almond meal, almonds, apricots, baked goods, baking powder, breakfast, butter, citrus, creamed, dessert, dough, eggs, fairly easy, fairly inexpensive, filling, fruit, gift ideas, glazed, granulated sugar, half-and-half, jam/jelly/preserves, julienned, lemon juice, lemons, melted, milk, party food, pastry, peeled, pie crust, sifted, snacks, springform pan, tart, tart pan, toppings, untested, vanilla extract, vegetarian, zested

I had mentioned in 16-24: French Chocolate Cake that it was one of two desserts that I made for a recent baby shower I attended: 16-39: Apricot Tart was the second dessert. I’ve been meaning to make this thing since near the start of this project, and it only took me a few years to finally get around to it. There’s something about this recipe and procrastination, though–this entry’s been sitting in my writing queue half-finished for over a month.

For the length of time that it took me to make it (and to write about it), I never even got to try it–I ended up leaving this and 16-24: French Chocolate Cake still wrapped up on the table at the party. We’ll just assume that both of them were delicious and everyone ate every last crumb of them.

2-10: Spinach Salad

Adam Martin Group 02: Salads, Section 1: Appetizers & Starters March 15, 2017October 4, 202012-11-08 dinner, 4-92 week, appetizers, bacon, chopped, creamy, diced, Dijon mustard, dinner, dressing, easy, eggs, favorites, fried, garnish, gluten-free, Hutton house, inexpensive, julienned, lemons, lunch, mayonnaise, mushrooms, pan-fried, party food, pork, radishes, revisited, roach motel apt, salads, side dish, sliced, sour cream, spinach, vegetables

The card for 2-10: Spinach Salad is great because it has notes and reviews from the attempts of two other chefs I really admire, Jamie and her mother. From the date of the original note, I can deduce that Jamie’s mom made this recipe almost 25 years ago. She gives a succinct review, “Very Good, Very Easy.” Jamie’s equally positive review of her attempt at making this recipe 9 years back is encouraging. Making this salad for dinner one night after work is a super easy task and I agree with the previous reviews written on the card.

Simply Delicious helps you learn in so many different ways. Not only do I get a recipe for a salad, I get some history about the main ingredient: SPINACH!

Editor’s note: I made this as part of a “fancy dinner” in my first apartment, a year or two after college. I was so happy to have a kitchen and table to call my own, I invited some friends over, busted out a few Simply Delicious recipes, and threw a “fancy” dinner party, complete with table settings and after-dinner coffee.