Monday: Pasta with Roasted Cauliflower and Proscuitto- This was a new recipe. Not quite as amazing as I'd hoped (a little bland). Don't think I'll make it again.
Tuesday: Breaded & Baked Chicken Drumsticks and Broccoli Salad with Creamy Feta Dressing- These were both new recipes and it ended up being the most disappointing meal I've made for a while. Neither of us liked this. Looks pretty though.
Wednesday: Squash, Black Bean, and Goat Cheese Tamales -I wanted to try making tamales and these sounded pretty good. As a warning, these were time consuming, though not necessarily hard to make. I couldn't find canned or frozen squash so I cooked some as suggested in the recipe while I made the batter and filling. I took step by step pictures for anyone who might want to try making these. I thought they were good, though I don't know that I'd go through the trouble of making them again. They weren't THAT good. Maybe you can try them out if you're really bored and have nothing else to do, or just want to try making something crazy. It was a fun experiment.
Step-by-Step Tamales
This is what the "batter" looks like... looks more like a dough to me.
Soaking the corn husks in hot water (the plate & juice kept them from floating)
The filling... no, it's not much to look at.
You put a 1/3 cup of the batter on a softened corn husk and spread it out.
Then you put about 2 tbsp of the filling on the batter.
Shape the filling so it's long and skinny and top with 2 tsp. goat cheese.
Fold up the long sides of the corn husk so it brings the batter together...
Put the long sides back down and it should look like a taco.
Fold the short ends together...
Then one of the long sides...
And the other long side. Should look like a burrito now.
Secure with a strip of corn husk tied in a knot (or you can use string).
Get a big pot and put a steamer basket in it. Put enough water in the pot so it touches the bottom of the basket. Put each tamale in as you wrap it... they should stand up on end.
Once you get all the tamales done, put the lid on and steam for 1 hour.
The finished product! Aren't they pretty? The goat cheese was the best part. Mmmm.....
Thursday: Portobello and Beef Patty Melt with Oven Sweet Potato Fries- These were both new recipes and both were delicious. It was very quick and easy to make. We used the grill for the burgers instead of the broiler and it worked just fine. Oh, I also used a full pound of hamburger and kept all the other measurements the same... just made one extra burger.
Weekend: Chicken Tostadas- I was planning on making Crispy Turkey Tostadas with Southwestern Corn & Black Bean Salad, but the Internets decided to break right at dinner time and I hadn't looked at the recipe close enough to remember how to make this, so I just made tostadas with shredded chicken, cheese, lettuce, salsa, sour cream, avocado slices, and green onions. They were kind of hard to eat and tasted just so-so. I'm sure they would've been a lot better had I been able to follow the actual recipe.
This week's winning recipe was the Portobello & Beef Patty Melt with Oven Sweet Potato Fries. No contest. Though, like I said, the tamales were good too.
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4 comments:
Rachel and I made tamales once. They were so delicious... though the goat cheese sounds terrific.
KAREN! Your food with PHOTOS seems to be a huge hit! If my eyes aren't deceiving me... I think Nick just commented! You know you're onto something when people newly comment, I think. I wonder how many people read but rarely/never comment? A crazy mystery.
I had no idea tamales took so long. Also, I'm SO HUNGRY now. And it's all your fault! :D
(So cruel! As if I didn't want to eat over at your house, all the time, already!)
Kudos, kid!
--HJ
You've pulled me out of the woodwork, too. I really enjoyed this post with the pictures. It was especially enjoyable watching the tamales come together. I used to eat them in Nicaragua -- never much cared for them, to be honest -- but this gives me an incentive to try making them myself.
Scott, you and Seth are definitely related. I made the tamales fully aware of his general aversion to them. They fit into his category of foods that are too dry (i.e. cake, biscuits (not smothered in gravy), pretty much anything not covered in sauce, etc.). I thought maybe I could bring him over to the tamale lovers side with these, but to no avail. He said he liked them more than usual (I think he was just being nice), but he didn't seem too thrilled by the fact that we have a fridge full of tamales as leftovers. No matter, it just means more of them for me!! Bwa ha ha!
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