cookbook 6: pizza

We normally have pizza on Friday nights and while Annika would prefer that we get frozen pizzas, I'll admit that I like to make my own and get a little creative, especially with vegetables.  I've made a zucchini ricotta pizza, one with bacon, goat cheese and beet greens and more recently one with cabbage and corned beef (all based on recipes found online).  I know there are pepperoni & sausage pizza lovers cringing at the thought.

We do actually have a few pizza cookbooks, so my choice for this weekend came from 500 Pizzas and Flatbreads.  The "Louisiana Pizza" has a red sauce topped with chicken, red and green pepper, corn and a ricotta-chive mixture.  When I mentioned I was making a pizza from this cookbook, Jacob said it sounded good...as long as the pizza didn't have corn on it.  Maybe that was a sign.  The pizza wasn't bad, it just wasn't anything special.  There was nothing that stood out; it needed some spicy chicken or a spicy sauce to give it some real flavor.

I'll make some notes in the cookbook; it could be good, especially if there are a lot of peppers during the summer.

cookbooks 4 and 5: salad and chicken

Years ago, Jacob and I started to take salads for lunch at work.  Sometimes I'll use recipes, but more often they are just a green salad with assorted veggies.  The biggest issue is time; if they take some time to make, I need to plan to make them the night before.  Getting up extra early to make salad doesn't usually work for me.


I found a salad for today that I was able to make this morning without too much trouble.  From Fast, Fresh & Green, I made "Spinach and Snow Pea Salad with Cashews."  In addition to the ingredients mentioned in the title, it also had napa cabbage (although we were out at the Co-op, so I used Savoy instead), apple cut into matchsticks and an apple-ginger asian-style dressing (that is the best way I can think to describe it).


The result was really tasty; when Jacob says that I should make it again and doesn't suggest any changes, that is a sign of a great salad!


Dinner tonight came from Savoring the Seasons of the Northern Heartland.  I had some chicken I needed to use as well as some pre-cut squash (I love that the Co-op offers some pre-cut veggies, especially squash!).  I discovered a recipe "Chicken Breast Saute with Seasonal Variations" and the fall version used both the chicken and the squash.


The chicken and squash are cooked with onions, garlic, rosemary and a sauce of chicken broth and orange juice.  The combination of the orange juice and rosemary was unexpectedly good and a different flavor for the chicken.

The recipe suggested serving it with some grated smoked mozzarella, diced red pepper and walnuts.  Jacob felt that next time it only needed the walnuts as a garnish. Annika liked the chicken - no complaints from her! I served it with rice and steamed green beans.

cookbooks 1, 2 and 3: hotdish, mashed potatoes and collards

This past Sunday we had a 4-H potluck at the bowling alley in town and we were assigned to bring a "hotdish" (or a casserole for all you non-midwesterners).  That seemed like a perfect opportunity to find a recipe in one of my cookbooks, especially when one is called, The New Midwestern Table.

I found a recipe perfect for the occasion called "Classic Chicken and Wild Rice Hotdish." I had some leftover turkey in the freezer so I decided to substitute that for the chicken. Otherwise I had almost all the ingredients on hand:  wild rice, leeks, celery, milk, cream, aged cheddar, and butter. The only thing I needed to buy were some "butter crackers" like Ritz or Club. Fortunately, there is a brand of crackers similar to Club that the Co-op carries - Field Day Baked House Crackers - that did the trick.

The morning of the potluck, I started working on it. It was not difficult to make, however I made a critical error in my timing. When I read through the recipe, I thought I would need to bake it for 25 minutes. I decided to bake it so that I could take it out and bring it hot to the potluck.  Smart, right?  Except that I missed the fact that after baking 25 minutes, I needed to add the crushed crackers on top and then bake for another 25 minutes. Oops. I realized this as I was going to put it in the oven, 30 minutes before the potluck.

I ended up having to go online to find a super-fast salad recipe (not my assigned dish, but at least it was a dish to bring). Luckily, I had a variety of veggies and some spinach in the fridge.  I ended up making Garbanzo Bean and Zucchini Salad and we made it to the potluck just a couple minutes late. Not bad considering my last minute scramble.

And so the hotdish became tonight's dinner instead, much to Annika's dismay (her response, "I hate hotdishes.") I decided to go the whole comfort food route and add some mashed potatoes and collard greens.  In the past, I've gone online for my mashed potato recipes but this time I found a recipe for "Classic Mashed Potatoes" in Vegetables Every Day by Jack Bishop (he's the taste-testing guy on America's Test Kitchen, FYI).  I have actually used this cookbook quite a bit when trying to figure out how to use vegetables from our CSA (Community Supported Agriculture - from late spring though fall we get a box of veggies a week!) The recipes are arranged by vegetable and most are pretty straightforward. The mashed potatoes were quick and after cooking the peeled cubed potatoes I added some butter and milk. The potatoes were a little too similar in texture to the hotdish.   I thought the hotdish would have more of a gravy to it and that it would work with the mashed potatoes. It turned out to be thicker than I thought, which was good on its own, but not with the potatoes.

For the collard greens I went to another cookbooks that I use often for vegetable preparation ideas, the Fairshare CSA Coalition cookbook, From Asparagus to Zucchini.  Here I found a recipe for "Will's Collard Greens." Again, a fairly simple preparation as I sauteed them in oil, salt, pepper and garlic.  The collards were a nice texture and flavor contrast to the hotdish and potatoes.

My family's verdict?  Jacob said I should make the hotdish again, although it does make a 9x13 pan, so either I should make it when we have company or only make a half recipe.  Annika said the hotdish was "tolerable" and "not as bad as some things," which I took as a compliment.  The potatoes were good; Annika was thrilled because she loves mashed potatoes and I almost never make them (it's really a Thanksgiving thing for me, but maybe I'll change...)  Jacob and I both liked the collards; I didn't even ask Annika to eat them.  I figured that trying the hotdish was enough for one night, so she had other veggies.

So I ended up checking 3 cookbooks off my list and getting 3 keeper recipes.  Of course, here is the obligatory plate shot:

Vær så god!

A new year...not so much a resolution, but a challenge!

I usually am not one for making major New Year's resolutions, let alone sharing them with an audience.  This year, however, I decided to make more of a challenge for myself than a resolution.

We love books at our house.  Nearly every room in our house has a bookshelf with some books on it and the kitchen is not an exception.  Over the years, we have collected over 100 cookbooks and while I love to look through them, I have gotten away from using them in my day-to-day cooking.  Instead, the internet and sites like pinterest have taken over as my resources for recipes.  Searching online for recipes is easy; just type in an idea or ingredient and there are a myriad of wonderful options for my quick perusal, often times with beautiful pictures and reviews. Instead of planning out meals in advance, I go online to quickly figure out what I can do with the time and ingredients I have on hand or that I can easily pick up before heading home after work.

My challenge for 2015 is to cook at least one new recipe from each cookbook I own. This is going to require me to change my habits and plan meals in advance.  But there will be so many recipes to try!  Vegetarian, vegan, low-fat, Italian, Chinese, Indian, Scandinavian, British, French, smoothies, baking, pizza...it certainly won't be boring!