Food for Thought February

I'm still continuing on my cooking through Rachel Ray. This month I cooked 8 recipes (having taken one night in the kitchen off for National Pancake Day). And this month, since I started the blog at the end of January, I tried to capture more pictures of the food. And! As a bonus, this month LK decided he wanted to give a rating to the recipe. Scale of 1 to 5 turtle shells and half shells are not possible (mainly because I couln't find a 1/2 turtle shell picture online).

#33 3 Beans and Some Chicken
I cooked this when Addi and Jala came over for an impromptu Sunday lunch (we tend to eat Sunday lunch each week, the impromptu nature was more that they were golf widows that day and so they joined our family for a few hours-- great people!). However, it couldn't really be three beans because I still haven't been able to find wax beans in any store, so I just doubled the green beans. And some time after I put it on the table and we all had our first helping, I realized -- I forgot the cannnellini beans! It reminded me of Christmas at my mom's house-- oh wait!  I forgot a gift!  So I took it back to the stove, put in the beans, cooked it some more and brought it back to the table. We all agreed that it was better with the cannellini.

(with both beans in)



#34 Sweet Sausage Braised in Onions with Horseradish Smashed Potatoes

I made this when Jala and Chris came over for dinner. Geo gave them the full house tour which included the bathroom closet and my closet too! I hear tale Chris enjoyed this so much he was searching for the sweet Italian sausages the next day when he was at the grocery store. LK said he wished there was more sauce for sopping up with the hard, crusty bread rolls I served, so I think when I get around to this one again, I'll double the balsamic vinegar and chicken stock and see if it works. And the horseradish in the potatoes was a fun addition. When I heated this up for leftovers I add a little more because, well, I like horseradish. But LK liked it as the recipe had it written and said it wasn't too spicy.



#35 Sauteed Sweet Chicken Breasts with Spicy Fresh Tomato Chutney and White Rice
I loved (LOVED!) the color in this dish. I cooked this the night of the men's figure skating final. We had inadvertently invited new friends, Derek and Courtney, over to eat on such an monumental night.  But, we knew dinner would go smoothly when they were more than willing to help move the TV from our "studio apartment" bedroom in to the construction zone of the living room and eat by lamp light on the floor while watching Lysacek skate to gold. And the food was very good too. The brown sugar cuts the spice. I had a brain-blitz at the store and couldn't remember what "plum" tomatoes were so I bought Roma tomatoes. It worked, but it was a lot of slicing and dicing. I also used minute rice instead of real white rice, and I think real white rice would have been better. For dessert this night, I re-tired the Ain't No Sunshine When He's Gone cupcakes but made it as a bunt cake instead- calling it my "Gold Medal Ring" (My Olympic salute through food was not lost on Courtney who had thrown an Opening Ceremony party where everyone was encouraged to bring an Olympic themed dish).


#47 Couple-of-Minute Steak and Potato Ragout
This was pretty good. I've never cooked cube steak before and it was a bit tough- but still good. She calls for two medium potatoes but I guess I'm a bad judge of medium -v- large, so I'd say a better gauge would be that you'd only need one pound of potatoes for four people. I think the potato part of the recipe would also be very tasty as mashed potatoes (minus the tomatoes)

(mainly because of the chewy steak)


More reviews tomorrow,