February Food For Thought 2

Continuing on from yesterday

#98 Ham and Cheese-Stuffed Pork Chops with Lot'o Mushroom Sauce
And when she says "Lot'o Mushies" she's not kidding! But it's okay because all eating that night were big mushroom fans. Spencer and Vanessa came by this evening to eat dinner and play Settlers of Catan (they whooped us). The pork chops I had needed to be cooked about 10 minutes longer than what she said and the whole experience made my kitchen one big smoke-house (I need a new vent!) It didn't say to cover while cooking, so I didn't. But I'm thinking that might contain the smoke and keep it from taking so long to cook. (I might also try thinner pork chops next time because by the time these were stuffed they were huge!!!). I themed this night my tribute to Simon and Garfunkel because the dinner had sage and thyme and the dessert had rosemary, so I threw some parsley on top and called it festive! And our party game? Find the toothpicks in the meat before they find you. Fun for the whole family.
(mainly because of the mushroom sauce)

#125 Swedish Meat Dumpling Soup
I didn't have chives for this one like I thought I did so I threw green onions in instead. I realize it's like shallots and onions being vastly different while slightly the same, but I had to make due with what I found when in the middle of cooking. I also didn't let the butter and oil melt together because I was running short on time, I just dumped it and veggies in together. I also keep forgetting that I don't have bay leaves, but I'm trying to figure out just how big of a difference they make in something- or is it more of a placebo thing, since the recipe still tasted good. It looked a lot like the Braetknoedel soup, which I really like but this had more stuff into it which was good. The downside was that as it sat in the fridge, eaten as leftovers, the juice of the soup was soaked up by the meat, bread and noddles.


#166 Sweet Pea Soup with Parmigiano Toast
I LOVED! this one. Yummy Yummy on a cold February day. The boys were, however, not fans of green soup. The store didn't have flat leaf parsley so I used regular curly parsley. Since parsley is basically the celery of the herb world, does this switch really make a difference? I did forget the lemon though, which I'm sure does make a difference. I do, however, equate this soup to Chinese food, not in taste, but in the fact that it was really filling while eating, but a few hours later it was as though I had not eaten at all!

The bread parts could also be served as an appetizer sans soup and it would still be super tasty.

(Says he would have liked it better if hadn't told him that the majority of the meal was cooked in the bacon grease)

#337 Mediterranean Chicken and Saffron Couscous
I cooked this one while talking on the phone with my mom and have to pat myself on the back that I didn't totally botch it up! I had to google substitutes for saffron while at the second store I went to looking for it and so I ended up with turmeric instead. Since I've never knowingly had saffron before, I couldn't tell you what the difference was, though I did only use 1/8 tsp since the recipe called for a "pinch" and really, what would 1/2 a pinch be? I also only used half a red onion because I had apparently used the other half for something else already. No matter, half the onion was a blessing for ISH who has decided he hates onions. I also used more olives than called for since I like olives and I'm the one cooking. She says to serve the chicken as whole chicken breasts, but I think it would be better to dice up the chicken and mix it all in together.




Happy cooking,