Back to the Past

Monday, January 25, 2010

I decided to go through the recipes in Cooking Light, but have a meeting tonight. So the chicken went in the crock pot this morning and I roasted broccoli/cauliflower/carrots when I got home. Last week, a check-out girl at Economart was talking about roasting vegetables with red pepper flakes. I thought that sounded really good. In a recent cupboard clean-out I had found some bacon bits. Mmmm... roasted vegetables with red pepper flakes and bacon bits. They were sooooo good if you like things on the spicy side. So tonight for dinner we had chicken and roasted vegetables - yum. The leftovers were the start for the first recipe in the Jan/Feb 2010 Cooking Light magazine - Quick Chicken Noodle Soup. We threw the soup together before I had to take off for a meeting. Now, I'm of the belief that cooking is an art rather than a science. The recipe is a suggestion of best practices rather than a list of "must do." That might be my first mistake.

So we "followed" the recipe in the magazine, but because of the meal prior, there were some spices included that weren't included in the recipe. The recipe calls for fusilli pasta. In my opinion, the pasta got a little mushy - but it was still good.

Wednesday, January 27

Mmmm. Today I made the Steak Tips with Peppered Mushroom Gravy. It was a hit with everyone and pretty easy to to make. Served with asparagus.

Saturday, January 30

Let this day go on record. I made two meals in one day. Can't remember when the last time was that happened.

For lunch - Fettuccine Alfredo with Bacon. FYI - you'll want to make sure you read the list of ingredients carefully. The recipe calls for Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese. I don't know if this cheese can even be found in Spooner, I never even looked for it because all I saw was Parmesean. The other mistake I made was to not get all of the ingredients out before I started. You'll see later. I also didn't use the recommended cookware. Oops.

My husband is a good cook and was trying to offer helpful advise, which prompted me to send him out of the kitchen. I got the pasta cooked ok and the bacon. It was the sauce that gave me the trouble. I had cooked the bacon in a cast iron frying pan rather than the recommended non-stick pan. To make the sauce, I was supposed to roast the garlic in the bacon drippings. So I put the garlic in the pan and then proceded to go about getting the rest of the ingredients together for the sauce. By the time I turned around the garlic was burning and the kitchen was filling with smoke. So I started over with a non-stick pan and the bacon drippings from the George Foreman. Eventually it all worked out and tasted good.

For supper Salmon Croquettes. I learned from my mistakes this afternoon and got all of the ingredients out and chopped and sliced before cooking. I thought the ingredients were to make a breading to coat the salmon, but as I got into the recipe, I realized that I had the wrong kind of salmon. The salmon was supposed to already be in little chunks, like canned tuna, to be mixed with the other ingredients and formed into patties, like hamburgers. So I cooked the salmon chunks and pulled it apart and cut it into smaller pieces. Then I added it to the mixture and made the patties. They were quite good. Served with a salad for only Dan and I. The kids said they'd just eat at work. Cowards.

These recipes were under the heading "Super Fast Comfort Food." Not for me. I also have a cookbook Rachel Ray's 30-Minute Meals. They always take me more than 30 minutes to make too.

Here We Go

In an effort to not clog my family's arteries or compromise their immune systems, I decided that the time had come for me to...cook. Cooking is not my forte, but I'm going to try to cook my way through the Cooking Light magazines. I have the magazines from someone's school fundraiser, and until now haven't done much with them. This week I started cooking recipes from the January/February 2010 issue.