New recipes, Weeks 36 through 39: end of Summer and going strong!
Here it is Labor Day weekend, and I'm going strong with my cooking one new recipe each week! I'm not sure anyone is more surprised than I am that I've been able to keep up with this resolution, but here we are in week 39 and I've definitely earned the title of "capable cook!" What I realized as I sat down to write about my last few weeks is that I've also developed the habit of assuming there is a recipe out there for whatever it is I'd like to make, and turning to cookbooks or a couple of my favorite internet sites to find it. New recipes and defaulting to homemade have become a way of thinking for me when it comes to food, and that has been fantastic!
As I've made my way through the summer, I haven't kept up with all of the blog posts for my cooking escapades, but I have at least captured each of them on my New Year's Resolution list. With a little bit of extra time on my hands this Labor Day, here are the last three weeks' worth of new dishes I made.
I was looking for an easy but not quite the standard fare dinner idea a few weeks ago, and was struck with the inspiration to try fried rice. I had made a freezer cooking variety many years ago, so here was an opportunity to try a same-day recipe. I know the kids like Chinese food, too, so this one seemed like a pretty safe bet. Checking my NY Times website, I found exactly what I was looking for, with the added benefit of having everything almost already on hand. With all of this practice, I've also developed the confidence to adjust recipes as I see fit, so I threw in some cabbage that had been int he fridge and needed to find its way to our plates!
Some chopping, dicing, and shredding later, along with the easiest way to cook rice (Pampered Chef cooker in the microwave!), I was ready to bring everything together.
Truly, this is one of the easiest things I've made this year, and at this point, I'm pretty sure I could put this one together again without a recipe. It's the basics that matter: rice, chopped vegetables, some oil, egg and patience. That last ingredient has been the key piece in so many things I've learned this year!
For Week 37, it was back to desserts, and I tried a new chocolate chip cookie recipe that a friend of mine posted on Facebook. She declared she would never go back to the Toll House Cookie recipe, so I was intrigued, since I think those are some of the best cookies EVAH! This recipe was from Joanna Gaines, who I only have a passing awareness of given my almost total gap in pop culture knowledge. I pulled everything together to get going on her Magnolia Table Chocolate Chip Cookies, looking forward to seeing what made these so amazing.
Measure, chop, mix, drop onto a cookie sheet. Easy recipe with, again, nothing I didn't have on hand! The end result was lovely to look at, but honestly, I didn't think it was anything special to eat. I'll be sticking with Toll House until I come across another recipe someone swears by, and then I'll give it a chance, too.
As Caroline has worked on her Girl Scout New Cuisines badge this summer, I've co-opted her cooking steps as my new recipe for the week, too. In Week 38, we made homemade Baked Homemade Macaroni & Cheese together!
I definitely did some of the cooking here, but more supervising than doing. Still, it counts! Cooking together with Caroline is a side benefit, and she and I have really enjoyed being in the kitchen together this summer.
Out of consideration for her brother, she only put the Ritz cracker crumbs on half of the mac & cheese. Coming out of the oven, it was lovely - and it was a delicious side to our meal, too.
Just this morning, I finished Week 39's recipe, a two day effort to make Caramel Pecan Sticky Rolls from Texas Home Cooking, which was a gift from my sister and a cookbook I have really enjoyed! It's been fun not just to make the recipes, but to read it like a book, too - all kinds of quirky and unique anecdotes about cooking and recipes from my home state.
With my fear of cooking with yeast firmly in the past, I pulled out all of the ingredients for this breakfast treat.
With a few experiences baking breads under my belt, I also finally realized that I could relax a bit with the time the recipes outline for letting the dough rise. I knew this would be a two day bake, and I was looking forward to the leisurely pace of bringing it all together.
This time around though, I was a total spazfest!! Good grief, what a crazy experience. First, I got past the first couple of steps of the recipe, only to find when it was time to add the flour that we were OUT of flour. How in the world does that happen?! Back to Walmart for the second time of the day to grab a bag of flour and keep moving forward.
I add the high end of the flour as noted in the recipe, and it doesn't look quite right. I go back and re-read the instructions, and choose to accept the measurement despite my experience telling me something isn't right. Sticky, sticky dough into the bowl, and I pore back through the recipe again. Only to find I had COMPLETELY MISSED one ingredient. UGH!! This recipe was confusing to me, written in a way that isn't super specific. When it said add the sugar, I only added the white sugar, not realizing the dark brown sugar needed to go in, too. Into the trash the first batch of dough went, and back to the stovetop to melt butter and milk as the yeast dissolved in its room temperature water.
Much better this time! I went with my own judgement, using a lot more flour than the recipe called for, and the dough both looked and felt "satiny," just like the recipe said. I got both kinds of sugar in there, and put the ball of dough into the bowl to rise. Given my frustration, though, I was taking a super-laid back approach, almost to the point that I forgot about my recipe! I played Monopoly with the kids while we watched the Astros game, and it was many hours later that I realized I was in the middle of baking. As I was getting my glass of water to go to bed, my eye landed on the kitchen-towel-covered bowl, and... dilemma. Give up? Keep going, rolling it out at 11pm?
Keep going, of course!! I kneaded the dough briefly, then rolled it out into the prescribed rectangle. I melted the butter and brushed it on, then realizing... the dark brown sugar was for THIS step. I had messed it up AGAIN! Or should I say, I had it right the first time when I only added the white sugar! Good grief... but similar to when I made cinnamon rolls and the dough didn't rise, I just though, MEH - if it's terrible, we'll throw them out. Topping together in the Pyrex and into the oven to melt; sugar/cinnamon/pecan topping onto the dough to roll and cut into 1" disks. Everything into the pan to rise overnight, once again covered with the towel.
I popped awake at about 6:30 this morning, and after a few minutes debating whether or not to enjoy the sleep in opportunity, I got on up out of bed so I could check the rolls. Oh, they were beautiful!! They had risen to about double their size overnight, and looked just like sticky rolls should. I heated up the oven, put them in to bake, and headed downstairs to do 30 minutes of yoga while they filled the house with the smell of homemade love.
As it turns out, the extra 1/2 cup of brown sugar didn't ruin them at all - they were DELICIOUS! They were light, fluffy and absolutely amazing. Next time I think I'll triple the topping, though, as there wasn't quite enough of the caramel sticky pecan part of the recipe, and the kids were looking for a cream cheese frosting, so maybe another iteration of these will be just as straight cinnamon rolls vs. sticky rolls, but what a success!
While this was my official recipe for the week, I also threw together a queso with dinner last night and have a new crockpot meal planned for this coming Friday. With school in full swing starting this week, plus weeknight activities, I plan to try at least one slow cooker or make-ahead meal each week. Even with all of the cooking, we still eat out more than I'd like to. It's usually a function of not planning ahead, and we're usually disappointed with it afterward, anyway. So this week's meal plan is on the calendar, the grocery list is made, and I'm hoping to stay one step ahead of it from now until the end of 2018.
As I've made my way through the summer, I haven't kept up with all of the blog posts for my cooking escapades, but I have at least captured each of them on my New Year's Resolution list. With a little bit of extra time on my hands this Labor Day, here are the last three weeks' worth of new dishes I made.
I was looking for an easy but not quite the standard fare dinner idea a few weeks ago, and was struck with the inspiration to try fried rice. I had made a freezer cooking variety many years ago, so here was an opportunity to try a same-day recipe. I know the kids like Chinese food, too, so this one seemed like a pretty safe bet. Checking my NY Times website, I found exactly what I was looking for, with the added benefit of having everything almost already on hand. With all of this practice, I've also developed the confidence to adjust recipes as I see fit, so I threw in some cabbage that had been int he fridge and needed to find its way to our plates!
Just this morning, I finished Week 39's recipe, a two day effort to make Caramel Pecan Sticky Rolls from Texas Home Cooking, which was a gift from my sister and a cookbook I have really enjoyed! It's been fun not just to make the recipes, but to read it like a book, too - all kinds of quirky and unique anecdotes about cooking and recipes from my home state.
With my fear of cooking with yeast firmly in the past, I pulled out all of the ingredients for this breakfast treat.
This time around though, I was a total spazfest!! Good grief, what a crazy experience. First, I got past the first couple of steps of the recipe, only to find when it was time to add the flour that we were OUT of flour. How in the world does that happen?! Back to Walmart for the second time of the day to grab a bag of flour and keep moving forward.
I add the high end of the flour as noted in the recipe, and it doesn't look quite right. I go back and re-read the instructions, and choose to accept the measurement despite my experience telling me something isn't right. Sticky, sticky dough into the bowl, and I pore back through the recipe again. Only to find I had COMPLETELY MISSED one ingredient. UGH!! This recipe was confusing to me, written in a way that isn't super specific. When it said add the sugar, I only added the white sugar, not realizing the dark brown sugar needed to go in, too. Into the trash the first batch of dough went, and back to the stovetop to melt butter and milk as the yeast dissolved in its room temperature water.
Much better this time! I went with my own judgement, using a lot more flour than the recipe called for, and the dough both looked and felt "satiny," just like the recipe said. I got both kinds of sugar in there, and put the ball of dough into the bowl to rise. Given my frustration, though, I was taking a super-laid back approach, almost to the point that I forgot about my recipe! I played Monopoly with the kids while we watched the Astros game, and it was many hours later that I realized I was in the middle of baking. As I was getting my glass of water to go to bed, my eye landed on the kitchen-towel-covered bowl, and... dilemma. Give up? Keep going, rolling it out at 11pm?
Keep going, of course!! I kneaded the dough briefly, then rolled it out into the prescribed rectangle. I melted the butter and brushed it on, then realizing... the dark brown sugar was for THIS step. I had messed it up AGAIN! Or should I say, I had it right the first time when I only added the white sugar! Good grief... but similar to when I made cinnamon rolls and the dough didn't rise, I just though, MEH - if it's terrible, we'll throw them out. Topping together in the Pyrex and into the oven to melt; sugar/cinnamon/pecan topping onto the dough to roll and cut into 1" disks. Everything into the pan to rise overnight, once again covered with the towel.
While this was my official recipe for the week, I also threw together a queso with dinner last night and have a new crockpot meal planned for this coming Friday. With school in full swing starting this week, plus weeknight activities, I plan to try at least one slow cooker or make-ahead meal each week. Even with all of the cooking, we still eat out more than I'd like to. It's usually a function of not planning ahead, and we're usually disappointed with it afterward, anyway. So this week's meal plan is on the calendar, the grocery list is made, and I'm hoping to stay one step ahead of it from now until the end of 2018.
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