A little while ago I was contacted by Brenda Tuttle, author and creator of Chef Joey's Cupcake Creation and asked if I would be interested in doing a review. While I wasn't, my Little Sous Chef was very interested and could not wait to get the book and start baking.
My Little Sous Chef is 7 years old, and while he can read quite well and has been a helper in the kitchen over the years, he is still 7.
Hi, I'm the Little Sous Chef and I want to tell you about a book called Chef Joey's Cupcake Creations. I liked this book and the cupcakes were so good. You could even put peanut butter in the icing. And that's what I did for two of them.
My mom is going to ask me some questions about the book and here are my answers:
Was the book easy to read? Yes, it was easy to read.
Did you like the pictures? Not really cause they were a bit babyish.
What made the pictures babyish? Cause there is a baby in it and then it skips until he is a grown up, there is no "years later" showing he growed up.
Did you need anything special to make the cupcakes? Yes I needed cake mix.
Could you make the cupcakes without my help? Not yet but later, when I'm older.
Why couldn't you make them without help? Because I can't measure things and I can't put things in the oven. And I didn't understand the numbers.
What numbers? The numbers of the measuring, like 1/3.
What else do you want to tell me about the book? I didn't use orchids (what's an orchid?). I had Lightening McQueen paper cups and I put little silver and gold balls on the cupcakes.
How many cupcakes did you eat? By now I've aten about 8. Me and my brother have had all of them.
Did your Dad and I get any? Well ya, you both had 1.
Would tell other people about this book? Yup! I will.
Who will you tell? I don't know.
Will you share this book? Yes, I will share it with my friends.
Do you have anything else you want to tell me? Nope. Hope you like the book!
"Guest" Post: Chef Joey's Cupcake Creation
Daring Kitchen and a cookbook review
Goodmorning beautiful people!
Just a quick invite to pop on over to the Daring Kitchen, if you don't already read there regularly now, and have a read of my cookbook review.
And while you are there, why not register and join the Daring Cooks?
Odds and Ends
No Tuesday with Dorie for me this week, the Cheddar Apple Scones, chosen by Karina. Sorry Karina! Sometimes life just gets in the way of baking. And it has been one of those weeks.
Here are some examples of why it has been one of those weeks....
Pretty, isn't it? Except that it is tempered glass, the top of by patio table. And it shattered on me while I was trying to put the umbrella in it so we could sit outside in the shade on Canada Day.
Fortunately for me, the glass did not cut my feet and was reasonably easy to pick up with the help of my neighbors shop vac and my father-in-law. There was alot of little pieces, but despite our persistence, I'm sure we missed something.
The savory filling for the second half of my danish braid, chicken with broccoli, yellow peppers, red onion, cheddar cheese and a few spoonfuls of mayonnaise. I made way too much filling, enough for 2 large braids, but that's okay because the filling is very good with just a spoon or wrapped up in a buttery leaf of Boston lettuce for lunch.
I took 26 pictures of this piece of the braid and this is the best from that batch, which I think is terrible. The braid was good, but the filling was even better. I think the pastry would have worked better without the orange and cardamom. Next time.
My friend, Bam Bam's Mom, reminded me that butter tarts are also a Canadian dessert, which I had had a mind block on when coming up with my dessert for SHF: Mmmm Canada. Her reminder sent me to the kitchen to throw together a batch. Fortunately I had a batch of pie dough in the fridge, which made these a very quick thing to make, though I had to scrounge for raisins as my 5 year old had eaten all of ours for school snacks.
To cap off my crazy week, I give you this picture. I spent a good hour this morning scrubbing my fridge out. I wiped, I disinfected, I placed things nicely back inside. Then a child came along for some milk.....
One last thing - a huge FELICITATION!!! to my friend and fellow Daring Baker, Tartelette, on her upcoming cookbook! She has been teaching me how to make things for awhile now, and has always been generous with her help and baking secrets! I can't wait to see what her book offers.
For everyone else, I call dips on the Baking With Tartelette Blog Event!
And we have a winner!
This was very fun to do with the boys, and had a surprising outcome!
I sat down with my boys this morning and read off all the entries to them, being very careful not to let them know who wrote what as there were a few where I personally knew the story teller and I did not want to influence the boys in their choice. At the end of all the comments, they each had a favorite, though it was not the same one, but they understood that they had to agree on one story.
After careful consideration, they finally agreed up a winner with this entry:
"I liked the Power Rangers, it was really fun. It was also quite silly." said one judge.
"I liked how they were telling a story, telling both true parts and false parts, and it was quite interesting." said our second judge.
And then they smiled and giggled like crazy when I told them who had written this entry, their friends from Utah!
Oh and I should add in that their winning choice was not the same as my winning choice.
I believe there was a tie for second place, between Katie and her "sprinkle, sprinkle" two year old, and littlelisa with her Korean cooking class. And both boys thought offering a recipe as a bribe was cheating, though I'm willing to try out the recipe if it just happens to show up on my email. (insert smiley here!)
As I said, this was alot of fun, not just for myself, but also for my boys. Thanks again to Yvette for giving me a chance to host a cookbook giveaway, and to get my kids a bit more involved in the kitchen!
Don't forget to enter to win!
Tomorrow is your last day to enter your comment for your chance to win this fun cookbook!
Don't know about my contest? Well you can read all about it here, or I can tell you about it now - just leave me a comment telling me a favorite story about cooking with "your" child (which could be a niece/nephew/grandchild/neighbor/any child you cook with) or cooking you did as a child. I will then read all the comments to my favorite sous chefs, my own children, and they will pick their favorite story as the winner!
In the meantime, don't forget to head over to Handstand Kids and check out the free recipe from the Mexican cookbook.
Cook with your children - Cookbook give away!
Yes, you read that correctly - I get to give away a cookbook!
Not this one though - this one is mine (though my children think it belongs to them.) And I have Yvette Garfield to thank for my book, the author of the Handstand Kids Italian Cookbook and the recently released Handstand Kids Mexican Cookbook. Which I get to give away to one of my readers!
So if you want to win, keep reading, and I'll let you know how, after I've told you a bit about this book.
Actually, it isn't just a kids cookbook, it is much more fun than that. First, it comes in a pizza box. Yes, I said a pizza box. With a chef's hat. The Mexican comes in a resealable Tortilla bag, and includes an oven mitt. Both books also include a fun way to be introduced not only to the food of a different culture, but also to the language.
The recipe for turning Sandwiches into Panini does not call for slicing bread, but instead pane, which is later needs to be brushed with olio (olive oil), and cooked on a media pentola, a medium saucepan, with a piccola pentola, a small saucepan, weighing it down. Both the English and Italian are included in each recipe, and my 9 year old, who made Panini sandwiches for his family for dinner earlier this week, actually asked me for the olio, when assembling his ingredients before cooking.
I have to add in that my 9 year old is not that interested in cooking. This time he put on the chef's hat and dug right in! His plan involved not only making Panini, but also making dessert, called Every Tummy Loves Tartufo, or chocolate dipped ice cream.
Not to be outdone by his brother, my 5 year old, who loves to help me cook, begged to be included, first turning Popcorn into Italian Popcorn, to go along with his brother's Panini sandwiches, and tonight making Foot-Long Garlic Bread. While he is too young to cook by himself the way his brother did, there were plenty of steps in both recipes that he could handle on his own.
Now my children stuck with 1 and 2 garlic clove recipes, recipes that did not require quite as much skill as say a 4 garlic clove recipe, such as the Torta al Cioccolato (a chocolate, hazelnut torte.) My oldest had a few difficulties following the recipes exactly, but mostly because of lack of experience - I had no problems understanding that he would have to refreeze his ice cream balls for an hour before he melted the chocolate, but he thought he had to melt the chocolate right after he put the balls into the freezer, unaware that it would harden up again before that hour was up.
Doesn't he look proud of his dessert? (Which he finished eating almost an hour ago, and has still not taken off the hat!)
I've just been told that we need to make the spaghetti and meatball recipe next, according to my youngest aspiring chef, who can't read yet, but is loving "reading" the book - and just told me that there is no way he would eat the Leaning Tower of Eggplant.
In letting me try out her book, Yvette has also offered me the chance to give away a signed copy of the Handstand Kids Mexican Cookbook, in celebration of cinco de Mayo. In it the five Handstand Kids, Felix, Izzy, Ari, Gabby and Marvin, will help introduce you and your kids to Mexican cooking (and language) in a fun way. And all you have to do is leave me a comment about your favorite thing to make with your children. Or maybe what your favorite thing was to make as a child (and with who!)
Just leave me a comment before Friday, May 16th. At that time, I will read all the comments to my chef's in training and have them pick their favorite story as the winner!
Time to come out of lurker mode, leave a comment and you could be having a blast cooking with your children (or nieces, nephews, neighborhood children, grandchildren, whomever!)
Cooking + Cold = No go
Poor Janet and Greta. It was their turn to shine during April. There are so many great looking recipes in their most recent book, Eat, Shrink and Be Merry, that I had a long list of things to try.
Then I caught the devil of all colds. So nasty that I have missed TWD challenges, some work and 4 of my last 5 swims. Food didn't interest me, unless it was cold and soothing on the throat.
Fortunately I managed a few recipes before the cold hit.
As I understand it, Eat, Shrink and Be Merry is recently making itself known in the US cookbook market. Here in Canada, however, the sisters have been around for years. Their first cookbook, Looneyspoons, has been on my shelf almost since it was first published (and if you have a copy, hold onto it for dear life as I just read on Janet and Greta's blog that it is no longer published!) Their follow up book Crazy Plates has lived in my home for almost as long as Looneyspoons has, and has been a book that I gifted to a few people.
When the sisters came out with their own frozen food line several years back, I even had the chance to meet them and chat with them briefly.
With their prior history with me, it is no wonder that I snapped up Eat, Shrink and Be Merry when it first hit Canadian bookstores. My copy has notes and dog ears. I've read it from front to back, enjoying the jokes and puns, but also enjoying the nutritional facts, cooking tips and little stories. But typical of me, I read more of the book than I ever cooked from it. 
I decided to start with a recipe from "Don't have a cow, Man!" Pizza for the Upper Crust, otherwise known as Grilled Margherita pizza, on page 70. This vegetarian pizza is a basic pizza, made only with tomatoes, basil and fresh mozzarella. It was tasty, with a nice crispy crust, but would not have fed a crowd, though it cut into 8 slices.
After that, I moved onto a recipe from "Poultry in Motion", The Better Butter Chicken (page 82). Not only was butter chicken from scratch on my to do list for this year, I had seen the sisters make their version of butter chicken on their TV show, also called Eat, Shrink and Be Merry.
This recipe was tasty, but it was not my idea of butter chicken. Nor was it my children's idea, and they love butter chicken. I would call this creamy, tomato chicken, and would make it again, but would not tell people it was butter chicken.
This next recipe was made with no plans to feed it to the children at all. From the section called, "A Chorus Loin, " Wok This Way, Asian beef stir-fry with basil and red bell pepper (page 115).
My husband and I love going out for Thai food together, and beef with basil was one of the things we had together the first time we went out. So I had high expectations for this dish. Perhaps too high. It was good, the beef was flavorful and tender, but it was not what I was expecting. We both agreed that we enjoyed it, but would stick with our usual Thai restaurant if we wanted real beef and basil, though, again, I would make this again.
Staying in "A Chorus Loin," I moved on to making Kebob's Your Uncle, beef kabobs with pineapple and vegetables, found on page 128. I actually changed this a tiny bit, grilling the pineapple and veggies separately from the beef, knowing that my children would not enjoy quite as many vegetables as we adults would. I also added chunks of red onions because I like red onions. And the children don't. Nor do they like red peppers, though they like pineapple. Hence the small change.
These were very good. The beef was tender and flavorful, the veggies were nicely grilled and also tasty. This would be a nice company bbq meal, though with 1 3/4 lbs of sirloin steak, a bit pricey. 
I had a chance to get one more recipe in before the cold struck, from "A Beautiful Grind," the Ooh-la-la-sagna! on page 137. This recipe came together quickly, and baked up nicely, a generous pan full of lasagna, filled with chunks of sausage, beef, spinach and ricotta. Mine looks like it has huge amounts of cheese on the top, and it does, but only because I forgot to add them in between the ricotta spinach layer and the last layer of whole wheat noodles, so I added them all on the top instead.
This recipe didn't do much for me, but I admit, I am not a huge fan of lasagna. It was good, and I'd make it again for the family, but would be sure to make bread and salad with it, so I could fill up on those and only have a small piece of the lasagna.
This book has alot of variety in it, including dessert recipes that I did not get a chance to make, though I had previously made the Died-and-Gone-to-Heaven Chocolate layer cake (which is NOT a healthy, low fat, low calorie recipe, but is instead Janet and Greta's fun recipe, listed under the chapter of "You're Gonna Die Anyway.")
There are more recipes in this book that I have made before, though not during the month of April. And this book will stay on my main shelf.
Now, I am finally feeling better, finally getting back to cooking, and eating, so I will have to go figure out what book I want to use for the month of May.
Cooking Rachel Ray without all the silliness
I always plan to make alot more from my feature cookbook than what I eventually end up making. This month is no different. Lots of yellow post it notes sticking out of Rachel Ray's 365: No Repeats: A Year of Deliciously Different Dinners.
Yes, I own a Rachel Ray cookbook. Actually, I think I own three. Not sure, have to check my shelf. This one I think I actually bought myself, whereas any other ones I own were chosen for me by my children as gifts. I like cookbooks as gifts, even if I never make anything from them, because I like to read cookbooks.
This month I set out to make a few recipes from this book, but decided in advance to skip all the silliness of Yum-O, and EVOO, and sammies. Ugh. Those kind of things, plus the excessive hyperness, are part of the reason I stopped watching her shows. But I have made a few recipes from them, with a fair bit of success, so wasn't worried about a high failure rate for this cookbook. In the end, though, I only managed to make 5 recipes from the book of 365. (Guess those two road trips and life took over the month of March.)
Let's start with Mega Meatball Pizza, from page 6. This recipe tastes alot better than what it looks like. Though it doesn't look so bad that the kids argued about eating it. Instead they both dug in with no problems or complaints. Served with a fruit salad, it was a good meal.
I plan to make this again, but will be decreasing the ground beef by a bit, and increasing the tomato paste . I had used my homemade pizza dough for it, and would do that again as well. Maybe make the pizza bit bigger than a round though.
Btw, do you really get 3-ounce cans of tomato paste in the US? Our small sized cans are 5.5 ounces .
My next recipe was pretty as could be: Citrus-Marinated Chicken and Orange Salad, from page 19. It allowed me to introduce my kids to a few new salad greens as well, arugula and radicchio, both listed in the recipe, as well as endive, not in the recipe but I added it in anyways. I was complimented on the dressing and the chicken by both children, and both the husband and I enjoyed the entire salad. I wished there had been a bit more of the salad than there was, even with my adding in the extra endive, and would increase it the next time I make it. I think this would be a great thing to make in the summer for company. It does plate up on a platter very nicely and looks impressive.
Which is not something I can say at all about this next recipe, Smoky Turkey Shepherd's Pie, found on page 2. Again, this tasted better than what it looked like. Though its flavor was very mild, unlike the smells it gave off, which was mouth watering.
I had to make a small change or two to this recipe. I took out the two cups of frozen peas and replaced them with corn. Not only does corn make more sense to me, but peas are not universally enjoyed in this house. I didn't want to eat the full batch of pie myself! I also had run out of sour cream (think I used it for a cake actually) so had replaced it with a touch of cream instead, to give the creaminess, and increased the flour a bit. Despite the increase in flour, however, the sauce never did thicken up much and was very watery.
The general agreement was make again, but with another change or two. Cutting the turkey bacon smaller and making it crispier, cooking the celery and carrots a bit longer, staying with the corn, and increasing the amount of mashed potatoes. The potato layer was very thin. Either that or I had alot more filling than I should have.
Oh, and increase the spices some as the flavors were very, very mild, essentially too mild.
One extra note about this one - It made alot, so both my husband and I had some for lunch the next day, reheated. I don't know how he felt about it, I forgot to ask, but I found it had tasted much better the first time and was not nearly as enjoyable the second day.
I think this next recipe was the only one of the five that I would not make again, Island Bird: Pineapple-Rum Chicken, found on page 86. This one looked better than what it tasted, and in the pot, it did not look very good at all. I ended up taking the liquid out of the pot with the chicken and adding it to another pot, trying to reduce it (alot) before adding it back in. Sure, I wanted sauce with the chicken, but not soup!
The adults ate this, grudgingly, but the kids, including the extra one I had that night, picked at it. One ate all the chicken, one ate the pineapple only and the other complimented me on my rice and noticed the green pieces looked like leaves. Yes, they were parsley leaves, which I guess he had never seen before.
The fact that there was alcohol in the recipe gave it the "wow" factor for the kids, getting them to try it, but frankly I think that is all that did it. 
This last one was on my plan ahead list alot. I seem to have one of those every month so far, one recipe that I plan to make, then remove from the list, put somewhere else, remove from the list, move somewhere else, repeat, repeat, repeat. And this month the Sausage and Spinach Pastry Squares, on page 44, was the recipe.
A few changes: I skipped the salad part. I actually made this at the same time I was making homemade turkey soup, which the kids had for dinner, while the husband and I had the squares. Or rectangles I should say, as that is how mine turned out. I also did not put the sage in. Not only did I not have any, fresh or dry, but I had accidentally bought medium Italian sausages instead of sweet, so we wouldn't have been able to taste the sage in it anyways.
These were okay, nothing special, but not horrible either. A good hand meal as I did not need a knife and fork to eat it, just pick it up and nibble from it. Be prepared for puff pastry crumbs on your clothing. They would make a good appetizer, in small format, and probably would taste better that way.
Lots more recipes in the book to try. Heck, I never even got half way into the book with my post-it notes before I ran out of time! I could probably use the same book for the next few months and not repeat anything. Yes, I know that is the intention of the book, but there are plenty of recipes in it that I would never bother to make in the first place, which reduces that 365 by a significant number.
No idea yet what book I am going to look at for this month, despite it being the second of April. I plan to pull out a few options in the next day or two and make a decision then. I had been thinking of doing the Moosewood Cookbook, lent to me by a friend, but so far in reading it over, nothing really appeals to me. The recipes seem fine but every day, standard recipes, not try something new recipes. I'll figure something out.
A few notes, not related to my cookbook choice of the month, but related to food, of course.
Notice a few new little tags on the side of my blog with my links? One of them is for the Foodie Blogroll, run by fellow foodie Jenn, the Left Over Queen, as a way for us bloggers to get to know each other a bit better. As I told Jenn, I was sure I had done earlier, like back when she first started it, but that was awhile ago and I could be confusing it with something else. When you have time, go check it out, and then sign up yourself.
The second one you might notice is my FoodBuzz Featured Publisher badge, which will link anyone who clicks it over to FoodBuzz. Feel free to drop in there as well, vote me up if you'd like, add me to your friends list or peruse the multitude of other blogs that are also shown there. And notice the little picture of me on my profile, or of my camera actually, taken by my five year old actually. He is quite proud of the picture and is on his way to being a budding photographer.
Cookbook of the month - for February, of course!
February was a short month, with lots of little obstacles in this way of good cooking and baking, and March is turning into a very busy month, hence I am very late in my post about February's cookbook. Sticking to the theme of celebrity chef's, last month I went with Giada De Laurentiis' Everyday Pasta.
This is my first book by Ms. Everyday Italian, though I have watched the show on a number of occasions. Seeing as my boys all very much like pasta, this looked like a good choice of cookbooks to invest in for a bit more variety.
So far, not so much though. Sure, lots of pasta recipes in this book, alot of them looking quite good to me, but not so much so to the boys, who are a bit more fussy than I am. I like seafood in my pasta, I like variety and different flavors and textures. They like spaghetti with meat sauce.
I decided to start this book out with a big leap into the unknown, with Fried ravioli, page 33. Yes, I deep fried pasta and it was great! This was actually my initial jump into deep frying, and was such a success that it lead to donuts shortly afterwards.
This recipe is very simple and would be great as a starter for company. It is actually listed as a starter, but I doubled it and made it dinner on a Friday night, when we tend to go a bit more casual for dinner. It requires store bought ravioli, buttermilk, breadcrumbs, parmesan cheese and oil. Heat up a bit of sauce for dipping and you are set!
These little puffs of crispiness were very, very good. And still good reheated the next day. 
With the success of the ravioli, I moved on to something a bit more adventurous, Italian Vegetable Soup, page 70, and Parmesan Popovers, found on page31.
I don't know now what I was thinking when I saw this soup recipe and thought it might go over well with the boys. Sure, it has pasta in it, but it also has sliced zucchini and artichokes. Adventurous, yes, disaster at dinner? Also a big yes. Actually, none of us liked it. We did the hands in the table in a fist, one, two, three, thumbs up or thumbs down vote, and every one of us gave it a thumbs down. I gave the entire pot to my neighbor and never did hear back from her on it.
The Parmesan Popovers I think I will need to remake though, just to see if I undercooked them or something. They were a bit denser than I expected, and though they tasted alright flavor wise, they didn't really grab anyone either. My 5 year old liked them dipped in the broth of the soup, and ate two of them. These got three thumbs sideways for iffy, and one thumb down.
It was just not Giada's night.
Oh somewhere in between those two recipes, I made the Spinach Salad with Citrus Vinaigrette on page 49, though I didn't make the Parmesan Frico from page 229 that went with it. And I forgot to take a picture, so very unlike me, because I was busy eating it and enjoying it. My kids aren't big salad fans, but did enjoy the flavors of the dressing and the oranges. They also like raw spinach because they like the shape of it, looking like leaves.
So not having had a major success with my last attempt, I decided to move on to something a bit simpler and try the recipe for Basic Marinara Sauce on page 224. Yup, it's basic. Plain, simple, basic sauce. A bit sweet, sweeter than I like, but then it really is a basic sauce with not very many ingredients and no extra seasoning. The 5 year old loved it though, asking for more sauce on his pasta, something he has never done before.
Unfortunately I did not have time to try the Arrabbiata Sauce (page 225) that used this basic sauce as part of it's base, but I will have to go back and try it. 
My final attempt at the book, before the month ran out, was very adventurous for my guys: Pork and Lemon Orzotto (page 198), with Sauteed Spinach with Red Onion, page 58. A bit too adventurous. I'd forgotten that they didn't like orzo, to start. Nor do they really like risotto, which this orzo was imitating. So two strikes against it before I even started. This dinner was obviously not going to go down as one that everyone liked.
The pork was moist and flavorful, with a nice citrus tang from the dressing. The orzotto, it was okay, though I found the same dressing that worked well with the pork was over kill on the orzo. And it made way too much for me, seeing as I was the only one eating it.
The sauteed spinach with red onion, well it was just spinach and red onion, something I like and my husband tolerates from time to time, but nothing special. Maybe Giada gets better spinach than I do? I dunno, but she and her husband must eat alot of it, as I halved the recipe and there was plenty for us.
As expected after my January try at this, I'm never going to find one cookbook that has nothing but recipes that everyone likes. Heck, even Dorie makes recipes that I know the family won't eat (and that is almost heresy to say!) So I was a bit disappointed in the failures, but also happy with the successes. And I still have at least two more recipes to try, one of which was on my menu plan at least 4 times during February, Rigatoni with Sausage, Peppers and Onions, page 95, but was never made because sometimes life sucks! And sometimes, despite a meal plan and grocery list built together, you still miss an important ingredient or two.
One thing this experience of trying a new book each month is doing is allowing me to explore the cookbooks I own for actual cooking, instead of just pleasurable reading material. It is letting me test the boundries of what the boys will and will not eat, though they have all been very cooperative to try anything out that I am testing for this. Not as cooperative as Freddy from The Great Big Vegetable Challenge, but still cooperative.
It is part way through March now, where I am having more opportunities to cook from this months book of the month, but still owing a post or two about the life of Marvin, my friendly sour dough starter. In the meantime, my little guy is about to ask for breakfast, and Bob is on standby for making a cake to go with dinner tonight.
Btw, on a totally different bent, and speaking of Bob, I have found that Bob has a face. My lovely little 300W KA Standmixer, in his black jacket, has been a fixture on my counter since he came into my home, but recently I discovered the face that goes with him. Yes, Bob is also a wizard. He just doesn't live in a skull.
Exploring through "Star" chefs
Yes, I do alot of cooking. More and more I am remembering to write down what I've done when I make something from scratch. (And I am branching out more into making things up, rather than making the tried and true recipes I can do in my sleep.)
And more and more I am making sure I actually cook from the pile of cookbooks I own, not just read them for entertainment and ideas. Last year I had the goal to make at least one new recipe per week. This year I want that number to go up. Alot.
Inspired by Ivonne's Magazine Mondays, as well as her Flavor of the Month, I decided this year to pick a cookbook and make it my own book of the month. My twist is that it was going to be a "famous" cookbook. At least to start.
With that in mind, I treated myself at Christmas to a new cookbook, The Barefoot Contessa in Paris, and made it my goal this month to make a bunch of recipes from the book. With January nearly over, I'm a little late in blogging about my chosen book.
So here goes. This is what I've made, so far.
I had planned on posting about this for the Weekend Cookbook Challenge, since this month's theme was about vegetables. I even had it made in time, but did not get the chance to post - heck I didn't even get the pictures uploaded off my card in time!
Roasted beets (page 150). A terrible picture for such a vibrant vegetable. I had roasted some golden beets on the bbq this summer, so had high hopes for this. I was slightly disappointed. Either Ina gets much bigger beats for her 12 required than I could find, or her salt is much less salty than mine. Because there was too much salt! Once you could get past the salt, the beets were lovely. But it was hard to get past the salt.
I made a note in my book - reduce salt by at least half!
And, no, my children did not eat this. They wouldn't even look at it.
Cauliflower gratin (page 156). Looks pretty. Sounds good. Again, a bit disappointed. I think I needed to cook my cauliflower a bit longer, so they would melt together with the cheese sauce. Better reheated the next day.
I might make this again sometime, as it was quick and simple and a nice change. However I would make sure my cauliflower was a bit more tender before I covered it in the sauce.
No, the children didn't eat this either.
I actually forgot to take a picture prior to this, for the brioche loaves (page 92) I made specifically for this recipe. I served this Pain Perdu (page 208) for dinner to my children one night, even with the icing sugar on it (this was actually my oldest son's plate.) Again, disappointed. My children each dove into their plates with alot of enthusiasm. They both were 3/4 of the way through when they decided they weren't sure they liked it. One didn't like the almonds, the other the icing sugar. Odd, since both those ingredients are usually liked by them.
I had a left over piece for breakfast the next morning and didn't like the almonds either.
So I would make it again, maybe with milk instead of half and half cream, and I likely would leave off the almonds. I'd put them on the side though, so they could be sprinkled on. I think it was simply the way they were attached to the bread that bothered one of the boys.
The brioche dough for the Pain Perdu worried me for a bit, being so sticky after it's overnight rest in the fridge, but turned out two lovely, golden loaves. I immediately froze one for later and had plenty for the french toast. A definite make again bread.
Slightly mixed reviews for the Chicken with Forty Cloves of Garlic (page 119). (Actually 39 for me, as that is what the 3 bulbs of garlic I had ended up with.) I loved this. I loved the flavor of the garlic, I loved the way it melted into the sauce. I loved the tenderness of the chicken (I used legs and thighs instead of a whole chicken.) My husband, however, could not get past the slight alcohol flavor from the Cognac (I used chicken stock instead of the white wine, which is part of the story of this chicken and why he didn't like it the way I did.)
You see, we do not drink much, if any, alcohol, my husband and I. So I swapped out the wine for stock, and borrowed the Cognac from my neighbour. Who gave me Champagne Cognac. Which I used. Which is not Cognac. And left an odd, background flavor that I found was covered by the garlic, but my husband did not.
Btw, it turns out Champagne Cognac is a blend of two wines, from those two regions of France, rather than brandy, which is what Cognac actually is. I learned this when I asked at the liquor store while searching for some proper cognac and a bottle of red wine. (Not the neighbours fault - she didn't know either.) I had at least one more recipe involving the Cognac and this time wanted the proper stuff.
In the meantime, I will make the chicken again, but will leave out all the alcohol this time.
Beef Bourguignon (page 121), a fancy, French beef stew. Very rich, very flavorful. Very being made again. Even with the full bottle of red wine and the half a cup of brandy that was in it.
One thing I am curious about - has anyone in Ottawa ever seen bags of frozen small whole onions? Because I have 6 grocery stores in a 10 minute driving radius of me (during rush hour) and did not see them in any of those stores. Instead I bought a bag of white pearl onions and peeled them myself.
One word of reminder, mostly to myself - this was so much better the next day, so next time, plan ahead by one day and reheat it for dinner.
This is the last recipe I have managed to make so far, Lemon Chicken with Croutons (page 110). I used 2 smaller chickens instead of the 4-5 pound bird Ina suggests, filling up my roasting pan. For my croutons I took out that extra loaf of brioche and cubed it up. Not a great choice as it was a bit too sweet for the chicken. A good sour dough would be better, but Marvin was not quite ready to be made into a loaf just then.
Nothing amazing about the chicken, though it wasn't bad. I certainly didn't taste any lemon, even with the sauce poured over it. Made lots of chicken though, so I had left overs for another meal, and bones in the freezer for stock. And both my children enjoyed the chicken - my youngest ate 2 wings and asked for more.
Still a few more things I want to make from this book before I am done with it, including Croque Monsieur (page 48) and Creme Brulee (page 222). If nothing else, I have explored a few more recipes.
Now, off to get ready for my Daring Baker's post - hint, hint, this one was actually a bit (GASPS!) controversial!
