Today's Special: The Motherload

Spring Chicken & Barley Soup: New Recipe. This turned out really well. Very fresh tasting and different than your normal chicken soup. The fresh basil, garlic and orange zest garnish was what made this soup stand out, so if you can't get those things or are tempted to substitute, DON'T. You will be sorry and I can guarantee this will turn out bland and not nearly as good. I would make this again and I think I would add more barley as there wasn't quite enough of it for my tastes.

Poached Salmon with Creamy Piccata Sauce- New Recipe. I especially liked the sauce in this recipe... creamy but not too heavy and the capers gave it a nice tangy flavor. I substituted onions for the shallots because I'm not paying $2.50 for 3 tiny shallots when I can buy a 3 lb. bag of onions for the same amount. Oh, this was my first time poaching salmon and though it turned out good, I think next time I will just sear it in olive oil in a cast iron pan like usual. I like the crust and extra flavor searing gives the fish. And it looks prettier and more appetizing too. Plus, it saves the cost of the extra wine this recipe used for poaching. Win-win.

Peanut Noodles with Shredded Chicken & Vegetables- New Recipe. This turned out great. For me it had the perfect blend of peanut flavor and spiciness. For the vegetables I used 2 12 oz. bags instead of the one it called for, mainly because I wanted broccoli, carrots and snow peas, but I couldn't find them all together in one bag. So, I bought 1 bag of broccoli, carrots and cauliflower and 1 with just snow peas. I'm glad I did. I think the ratio of all the ingredients was better this way. Also, I thought the snow peas were really good in this so I'm glad there were more of them than the other veggies.

Creamy Cheddar Potato Soup- Re-evaluation. I made this soup a long time ago and had it in my Recipezaar cookbook. I don't remember it being anything spectacular, so I decided to make it again to see if it was worthy of keeping. It was a very basic recipe but very good and easy to tweak to our liking. I used extra sharp cheddar for more flavor and garnished with fresh dill and bacon bits. I think next time I'll add some peas or broccoli for even more depth.

Grilled Mustard-Glazed Pork Loin- New Recipe. Ok, so I actually made this recipe last week and I'm pretty sure I got this recipe off of the America's Test Kitchen/Cook's Country website and for some reason it doesn't like me anymore and won't let me on without paying. SO, I don't have the recipe, but if you want it, that's where I got it from. I thought this turned out really well. It was really easy and had great flavor. Also, if you're looking for a good recipe for green beans, try this one: Italian Green Beans.

Jo Mama's World Famous Spaghetti- One of my staples. I love this spaghetti sauce. It's got great flavor, it's easy and it makes a ton! I try to keep some in the freezer at all times for a quick dinner. It also works great in lasagna and manicotti.

Kitchen Staple of the Week:

Capers

Though they look a lot like small peas, capers are actually small pickled flower buds. I didn't start using capers until recently, but they've quickly become a favorite ingredient. They give recipes a great tangy boost of flavor. I've used them frequently in pasta and fish recipes as well as in dips like tartar sauce. They're very versatile and great staple ingredient to keep in the fridge. You can find them by the pickles and olives in the grocery store.

Today's Special: Where I Finally Use Those Ramekins I Bought

A few weeks ago I accompanied Annie on a shopping trip to Tai Pan Trading. She was there looking for some decorations for her living room and I agreed to come a long as consultant to make sure she didn't buy anything ugly. When I left, Seth asked me if I planned on buying anything. "Nah," I said, "I can't think of anything we really need. Unless you want a giant basket full of potpourri." "Yeah that sounds good," he said,"and get me a candle statue." "Done."

Long story short I was in the store 5 minutes and had already picked out some miniature bowls (you know, the ones they use for pre-measured spices on cooking shows?) and ramekins I wanted. I only spent like $15 but I could see the scared look on Seth's face when I walked in the door with a giant bag. I convinced him that I'd bought all the items for him. The small bowls were for dipping sauces (think pizza crust & ranch dressing), and I needed the ramekins to make him the chocolate souffles we saw on America's Test Kitchen.

So, this week I decided I should actually use the ramekins. What better use for a ramekin than French Onion Soup? I was going to do the chocolate souffles too, just so I didn't look like a big fat liar, but they didn't have the bittersweet Ghiradelli chocolate bars I wanted at the store I went to, so these will have to wait for another week or so. By the way, I've used the miniature bowls I bought for pre-measuring my spices when I cook and it really does make me feel like I'm on tv! Totally worth it.

Sunday: Crock Pot Roast with Mashed Potatoes and Gravy- I've used this recipe before and really like it. It makes its own gravy, but it's super salty if you use it straight out of the pot. I thinned it out with water until the salt level was to my liking and then thickened it with cornstarch on the stove.

Monday: French Onion Soup- I saw this recipe on America's Test Kitchen (I know, I know, big surprise). I thought this turned out really well, although I did alter their instructions a little. I think they get carried away with all the nit-picky steps, so I just sliced up all the onions and cooked them in a pot the whole time until they were done (I did do the deglazing thing 3 times though). I figured why put the onions in the microwave for 20 minutes to soften them when you can do it faster on the stove and they probably taste better? But, you can do it however you want to. ANYWAY, I'd make this again. Although, I would probably use a greater ratio of beef broth to chicken broth.

Tuesday: Leftovers

Wednesday:  Sichuan-Style Chicken with Peanuts- New Recipe. This was so-so. EatingWell's recipes are sometimes a little extreme on their serving sizes. I'm glad I doubled this one. I think this would be better if the chicken marinaded longer and the sauce was made ahead of time. There just wasn't as much flavor as I thought there'd be. Also, I think it would have been better on brown rice instead of on its own, which I would have done, but I didn't feel like it...

Thursday: Leftovers

Friday: Tuna Casserole- This is one of my "good 'ol standby" recipes. It's something my mom used to make. I always have the ingredients on hand for this and it's so simple I don't even need to look at the recipe anymore.

Bonus: Chocolate Orange Bundt Cake- New Recipe. I made this cake so I could use up some oranges that were about to go bad. I didn't make any frosting or glaze to go on it... just used hot fudge! Also, I always use Pan Release on recipes like this. It works really well... much better than just greasing and flouring the pans and it doesn't leave any white residue.

Today's Special: 30 Minutes or Less

Sunday: Baked Trout with Basil Pesto Pasta- Place whole trout in a baking dish (or wrap in tin foil) and bake for 20 min. per inch of thickness in a 400 deg. oven. Season with salt and pepper and lemon juice if desired. I just used up the leftover pesto sauce from last week's pizza for the pasta. Nothing fancy.

Monday: Grilled Steak Salad with Caper Vinaigrette-New Recipe. This turned out really good. I was worried about being hungry after eating just a salad but the serving size was huge and still had a lower calorie count than anything I've made for a while. I completely forgot to put watercress on my shopping list, but luckily I'd bought a tub of mixed salad greens, so I just used those. This tasted great as leftovers too, especially because I didn't mix the steak/tomato/veggie mixture with the salad greens until ready to eat (so the lettuce didn't wilt). I have to admit it was tough to slice up Seth's perfectly grilled steak and put it in a salad. We really had to restrain ourselves from eating the whole thing plain.

Tuesday: Brothy Chinese Noodles-New Recipe. This was a really fast and easy recipe. If you have never used fresh ginger and/or sesame oil you are missing out. Whenever I smell sesame oil I just want to drink it. This recipe called for bok choy and ground turkey, both of which I've never used before, so it was fun to try some new ingredients. You may have to add additional liquid to this (I just used water) to make it more "brothy," my noodles kept soaking it all up.

Wednesday: Leftovers (For the record, microwaved trout isn't that great. Always remember "fresh is best.")

Thursday: Vegetarian Reubens with Russian Dressing-This recipe is a repeat. I've made it once before and was surprised at how good it was. The recipe desciption said something about it being "so good you won't miss the corned beef" and I was like, yeah right. But, it was true! Seth was raving again tonight about how much he liked it and requested seconds!

Friday: Broccoli, Cannellini Bean and Cheddar Soup-New Recipe. This was yet another fast & easy recipe. Sadly the new pitcher I'd ordered for my out-of-commission blender hasn't arrived yet, so I had to blend this up in the food processor, which worked, but probably not as well as the blender. I thought this tasted like a fresh mild broccoli cheese soup. The recipe says it makes 6 servings. I think 4 small servings is more like it, and 2 if it's the main dish. Seth and I had no problem polishing this off in one sitting. Very good and a great healthy alternative to regular broccoli cheese soup.

Bonus: Fresh Berry Gratin- New Recipe. So after we ate the Broccoli soup I had a hankering for something sweet. We didn't really have much around in the way of desserts, so I decided to make this! I used frozen mixed berries and I thought they worked just fine. This whole dessert took less than a half hour to make and that includes the 15-20 minute bake time. I was a little skeptical of this but was very pleasantly surprised. My new favorite fast dessert.

Today's Special: Dec. 20-26th

First of all, I know I've said this before, but EatingWell is my new favorite website for recipes. I don't know how it's possible that they've come up with so many awesome recipes that are fast and easy. Not only that, but almost everything I've made tastes so good! And it's healthy! I've been consciously trying to watch my daily calories and I swear since I started using the Eatingwell website I've not only eaten the best food I've had in a while, but I'm eating a lot healthier too. Seth has lost over 10 pounds without even trying! The only hard thing with using these recipes is sticking to the suggested serving size because the food is so good. I supplement all the meals I've made with lots of vegetables instead of having the main dish the only thing on my plate. Plus if I'm diligent in dividing up the meal into the suggested portions, I get leftovers!

Sunday: Sesame-Orange Shrimp with Brown Rice & Sugar Snap Peas- New Recipe. This turned out really good, probably one of the better Asian-y type meals I've made for awhile (unless you count the peanut noodles from last week...). I used Minute Brown Rice instead of the regular stuff because I wanted to try it to see if it was any good. Fortunately I couldn't tell the difference between it and the normal stuff and it took 10 minutes to cook instead of close to an hour like usual. I'll probably keep buying it. I was also excited to find that I had a spare bag of sugar snap peas in the freezer. They went great with this. I'm definitely buying more of those this week. So yeah, this whole meal took about 15-20 minutes.

Monday: Salmon with Pepita-Lime Butter and Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Hazelnut Brown Butter- New Recipes. I liked both of these recipes. The lime in the salmon recipe was pretty strong, but not necessarily in a bad way. I just don't think it paired well with the brussels sprouts I chose. I don't know if I'll make this exact recipe again just because the pepitas aren't exactly the easiest thing to find (had to pick them out of a trail mix). Oh, and I've started keeping frozen salmon fillets in the freezer. They're pretty cheap and a good staple for a quick dinner.

I liked the brussels sprouts recipe the best. I used almonds instead of hazelnuts because that's all I had. I also just used some unthawed frozen sprouts instead of fresh ones. Seth said they were "too dry" but as I've mentioned before, he's got a dry food complex. I'd make them again.

Tuesday: Steak Diane with Creamy Mashed Cauliflower- New Recipes. Both of these recipes turned out really well. Not a super fast dinner, but not too bad... under an hour. I used boneless ribeye steaks & portobello & regular button mushrooms for the Steak Diane. The mashed cauliflower was better than expected, although next time I think I'll cut back on the amount of liquid I add. Seth, who as I've mentioned before is a self-proclaimed cauliflower hater, LOVED this. He ate all the leftovers. He's liked two of the cauliflower recipes I've made recently... I think that's enough to make him a cauliflower enthusiast.

Wednesday: (Kelly's Chili)- This is my go-to chili recipe. I made a double batch of this for a Christmas lunch at work (I work with a bunch of men who don't cook stuff) and everybody told me how good it was. It was the first thing to disappear and I swear they just about licked the crockpots clean. I used 3 jalapenos (3 for one batch- 6 for the double batch) and omitted the brown sugar (makes it too sweet) and mushrooms (weird for chili). Seth was disappointed there was none left for him. This might get on the menu again next week.

This picture doesn't do the chili justice. It looked way better in real life.

Thursday: Christmas Eve Party- I brought  Scalloped Potatoes from America's Test Kitchen. It was a new recipe and it turned out really good. If you're going to make these, I'd suggest cooking the potatoes all the way through in the pot before the final bake.

Friday: Waffles with Bananas & Pecans- I made these for breakfast on Christmas morning. It's one of my favorites. Dad seemed to really like them too. Glad I made extra :)

Bonus Recipe: Whatever Floats Your Boat Brownies- I made these for our Cousin Christmas Party this year. I think the name is really dumb, but the brownies rock so I don't really care. I don't like to add a ton of stuff to my brownies. This time I doubled the recipe and added about a cup of Ghiradelli Bittersweet Chocolate Chips. I've also made them with peanut butter chips which were good as well. Just add a scoop of vanilla icecream on top and some hot fudge to make it even better!

These look really dark because I used dark chocolate cocoa... they're not burnt, I swear.

p.s. It's really hard to take appetizing photos of food. Those cookbook & food magazine photographers are geniuses.  Maybe I just need more hand models to hold forks. Or maybe I should just use fake food.

Today's Special: Pie Episode

I didn't make much this week as far as actual meals go, however I did make approximately 1 million pies. I've provided links below for those of you who might want to make some of them for yourself.

Blueberry Pie

This is from America's Test Kitchen. I used the same crust as is shown on the apple pie recipe. This pie rocks my world.

Deep-Dish Apple Pie

I've made this pie several times and it always turns out really good. Although, I prefer to double the cinnamon amount. Isn't it pretty?

Banana Cream Pie

I use the filling from this recipe and the banana graham crust from this recipe. This banana cream pie is seriously the best. Oh, and sprinkle a little lemon juice on the banana slices to keep them from going brown.

Key Lime Pie

Easiest pie in the whole world. Takes about 20 minutes to make from start to finish. I use this graham cracker crust. Also, don't bother using key limes, regular ones taste just as good. Actually the stuff in the bottle tastes good too, but I like to get the fresh limes so I can use the zest. Use 1 drop of green food coloring to make it look pretty, but not too fake and weird.

Never Weep Whipped Cream

I used this whipped cream on both the banana cream and key lime pies. One batch (using 1 pint of whipping cream) made enough for 2 pies. Tastes way better than Cool Whip.

Today's Special

I don't remember what days I did these recipes so you can just have a regular boring list. Here you go.

Grilled Eggplant Panini- This was a new recipe and holy crap was it good. They didn't have any eggplant at the store I went to so I just got portabello mushrooms instead. The jarred roasted red peppers were surprisingly good and I plan on finding more recipes that use them. This was a great fast dinner.

Hamburger Buddy- This was also a new recipe. The name sounds really dumb but it's basically an upgrade to your average Hamburger Helper. It was good, but didn't knock my socks off. However, we did use the whole grain pasta that the recipe called for and it passed inspection. I'd use it again.

Crunchy Pork Chops with Applesauce- I saw this on an episode of America's Test Kitchen and made it two days later because it looked so good. And I don't even like pork chops. This turned out awesome and Seth said it was the "juiciest pork chop [he's] ever had." They have a recipe for applesauce as well, but I just bought some.

Chicken Cordon Bleu with Mushroom Sauce- I ended up making these this week instead of the week before. This is insanely easy to make. I put the mushroom sauce on top about half way through cooking so the mushrooms get softer. Also, this has always taken closer to 30 minutes to bake, but I suggest using an oven probe thermometer to continually monitor the internal temp. I have this one and it works great. Also useful for the pork chop recipe above.

Fresh Tomato, Sausage and Pecorino Pasta- This is a new recipe. I haven't made it yet, but how bad could it be?

I also thought I let you in on an amazing new discovery. For those of you who use Google Reader to keep track of the blogs you follow, this is one more thing you can 'subscribe' to. I recently subscribed to a handful of sites that have daily recipes. The recipes automatically get sent to my Google Reader account as soon as they are posted and I can easily scan through the list and put a star next to the ones I'm interested in. It's a great way to find new recipes without having to search through a bunch of stuff. I got 3 of the 5 recipes for this week that way. The sites that I subscribed to are EatingWell , MyRecipes, and Betty Crocker Recipe of the Day.

Today's Special: June 14-20th

I guess I could do an update on my earlier post, but I don't know how often you people look at my old recipe stuff, so I'll do it here. Just so you know, the falafel actually turned out really well. The dough was a bit softer than I thought it'd be but I used a cookie scoop to form them and it worked great. For some reason my brain didn't click that falafel is a middle eastern food and tzatziki is Greek yogurt sauce, but you know, falafel in greek pitas covered in tzatziki was really good! So chalk one up for happy accidents. The mushroom & barley soup was also good, although I did sub a jar of mixed mushrooms for the dried ones because they didn't have them at Wally World and I was too lazy to go looking for them.

Sunday: Grilled Pork Loin with Cranberry-Apple Filling I was a little disappointed by this actually. It said to use mustard seeds, which I did, but it turned out kind of bland. Next time I think I'd use prepared whole grain Dijon mustard for more flavor.

Monday: Three Cheese Tortellini with Pesto Sauce This is actually my best lazy meal. Store-bought Buitoni pasta with Classico pesto sauce. The Classico pesto sauce is by the other pasta sauce. It's cheaper and tastes better than the Buitoni brand pesto.

Tuesday: CPK's Dakota Smashed Pea & Barley Soup This is a new recipe.

Wednesday: Tuna Casserole Yes I'm making this AGAIN.

Thursday: Leftovers

Weekend: Minestrone Soup I don't feel like going to the store this week ok?

Today's Special May 10-16th

Ok so I always wonder if anybody reads my menu posts. So, I'm going to take a survey... how many of you out there want me to keep doing this? I put an anonymous survey on my page so you can vote! Isn't that fun?! Feel free to leave me regular comments too.... i.e. Is it useful to you? Have you ever made anything I posted? Is there something that would make you like it more? I'm going to make up a menu each week whether I post it or not, but I figured if nobody really paid attention to it, I wouldn't spend the time. So be honest. Would you rather just look at my Recipezaar account for ideas? Is this easier for you? Do you want me to quit my whining?

Sunday: Dinner at Annie's house for Mother's Day/Mom's Birthday. She & Eric made us turkey with mashed potatoes and gravy and beets. It was very good. I brought Rolls and Strawberry Cream Cake.

Monday: Enchiladas Verdes (this was a new recipe, it was VERY good. I'll be posting this on my Recipezaar account soon. I used canned tomatillos and chiles in this instead of roasting them myself because I'm a busy woman on the go. Ok I'm just lazy.)

Tuesday: P.F. Chang's Mongolian Beef with Moo Shu Noodles (Both new recipes, but both were recommended by Annie).

Wednesday: Leftovers

Thursday: Gyros (I'm getting the gyro meat from Snider's Family Meats in Ogden) with Tzatziki (the white yogurt sauce- got this from Annie too). Bought some Greek pitas and got onions, tomatoes and feta cheese to put on them.

Weekend: Grilled Pork Loin (don't know what recipe yet, just wanted to grill something). Might get one already stuffed/seasoned from Snider's or maybe I'll try this recipe Grilled Pork Loin with Apple-Cherry Filling with Caraway. We'll probably steam some zucchini squash to go with it.