Boeuf Bourguignon

Well, this recipe single-handedly made me realize that this Rachael Ray project needs to be put on hold. Natalie's busy, I'm busy, and this dinner took an hour and a half to make! Pullleeeze! Yes, it was good, and I'll include the recipe. But 30 minutes? Rachael Ray's smoking crack. Just sayin'.
We liked the beef. We think it was a little heavy on the beef and could use more of the "soup" portion. And it needed some salt. But we give it 4 stars anyway.

Boeuf Bourguignon with Butter and Parsley Egg Noodles - Rachael Ray
3 slices bacon, chopped
3 T. butter, divided
16 medium-sized white mushrooms, cleaned gently with damp cloth, thinly sliced
salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 cup frozen pearly onions, defrosted and drained
2 lb lean sirloin, 1-inch thick, trimmed and cubed
3 T. flour
1 cup Burgundy wine (or grape juice)
1 1/2 cup beef stock
1 bay leaf
bouquet of 3-4 sprigs each of fresh sage and thyme, tied with kitchen string
12 oz wide egg noodles, cooked to package directions
2 T butter, cut into small pieces
1/4 c. chopped fresh parsley
12 blades of fresh chives, snipped or finely chopped
Heat a large deep skillet with a heavy bottom and a lid over medium-high heat. Add bacon to the pan and brown. When crisp, remove with slotted spoon. Add 1 1/2 T. butter to the pan and melt into bacon drippings. Add mushrooms and turn to coat evenly with butter and bacon drippings. Season with salt and pepper and saute mushrooms, 2 to 3 minutes. Add onions to the pan, and continue cooking, 2-3 minutes longer, then transfer to a plate and return pan to the heat. Add remaining butter to the pan and when it's sizzling add meat and brown evenly on all sides, keeping the meat moving. When the meat is all browned, add flour and cook about 2 minutes. Stir wine slowly into pan and when it comes up to a bubble and you have scraped up the pan drippings, add the stock along with bay leaf and bouquet of fresh sage and thyme. Cover the pan. When the liquids boil, reduce heat to medium, and cook, covered, 5 minutes. Remove lid and add mushrooms, onions and bacon back to the pan. Simmer with the cover off until sauce thickens a bit. Adjust seasoning and remove bay and herb bouquet. Todd hot egg noodles with butter, parsley and chives. Place a bed of noodles in a shallow bowl and pour beef and burgundy over noodles and serve. Makes 4 servings.

Here's a picture of the noodles:

Baby Spinach Salad with Swiss Cheese Crisps

This recipe was simple, but wierd. Spinach with sliced apples and a vinaigrette -- then garnish it with fried cheese. Hmmm. The cheese thing was kind of cool, and I found it strangely yummy, but we weren't wild about the salad. EHH's comments were, "crap with crap filling."

Sorry, but it is my duty to give you the un-varnished truth. 2 stars. You can find it on page 103.

Kevin's Delicious Salmon

Speaking of EHH, he made dinner for us on one of my crazy clinic days, and he hit it out of the park! He baked up some salmon, sauteed up some mushrooms and onions, and put them both over spaghetti. Very unique, and so good! 5 stars, for sure. And the recipe gets 5 stars, too. ;)

Meatball and Macaroni Soup

Another 5-star recipe! Wow, this soup has such great flavor! We all loved it! We'll definitely make this again. Here's the recipe:

Meatball & Macaroni Soup - Rachael Ray
2 T. EVOO
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
2 ribs celery, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
2 bay leaves, fresh or dried
salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 lb ground beef, pork, and veal combined (we couldn't find veal)
1 egg, beaten
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 c. grated parmigiano reggiano (we used the parmesan in a green container)
1/2 c. plain bread crumbs
1/2 t. freshly grated or ground nutmeg
6 cups chicken stock or broth
2 c. water
1 1/2 c. dried pasta: rings, broken fettuccini or ditalini
1 lb triple-washed fresh spinach, coarsely chopped
In a deep pot over medium heat, add oil, chopped carrots, celery, onions, and bay leaves. Season with salt and pepper. Cover pot and cook veggies, 5 or 6 minutes, stirring occasionally. While the veggies cook, combine ground meats, egg, garlic, grated cheese, bread crumbs, salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Add broth and water to the pot of veggies. Increase heat to high and bring soup to a boil, then reduce heat a bit and start to roll meat mixture into small balls, dropping them straight into the pot. When you are done rolling the meat, add pasta to the soup and stir. Cover and simmer soup, 10 minutes. When pasta is tender, stir in chopped spinach in batches. When spinach has wilted, the soup is done and ready to serve. Adjust your seasonings, and serve with crusty bread or grilled 4 cheese sandwiches. Makes 4 big servings. 5 stars!!!



Grilled 4 Cheese Sandwiches. These were pretty good, but not worth the hassle of finding the cheeses. It calls for provolone, mozzarella, Parmigiano Reggiano, and Asiago cheese. Rachael says in the book, "All of these cheeses are available in specialty cheese case and dairy aisle already shredded." Yah....not so much. Not in REAL America. I did really enjoy the flavor given by brushing the bread with the melted olive oil/butter/garlic mixture. We'll give these 4 stars. It's on page 101 in the book.





Chocolate Dipped Bananas, from page 100. Guest chef Michelle makes another appearance today! Here, she's dipping skewered bananas in melted chocolate. This was a tasty little dessert, especially since Ghirardelli chocolate was used! Yum! We found it was hard to roll the coated bananas in the toppings; some of them were lumpy messes. Still, we enjoyed them. 4 stars.

No-Mystery Meat

Another winner from Rachael Ray! This recipe is made to be adapted. You can use beef, chicken, pork, or even portobello mushrooms. What made this dish so tasty was the pan gravy! Wow, we couldn't get enough. Here's the recipe:

No-Mystery: Marinated Beef, Chicken, Pork or Portobello Mushrooms
3 T. red wine vinegar
1/3 c. EVOO
2 cloves, garlic, chopped
1/4 to 1/2 t. crushed red pepper flakes
1 T chopped fresh thyme
1 T chopped fresh parsley
4 beef tournedos, strip steaks, boneless skinless chicken breasts, pork loin chpos or portobello mushroom caps (we used the steaks)
salt and freshly ground pepper
Pan Gravy
2 T. butter
2 T chopped shallots or onion
4 mushrooms, crimini or button, finely chopped
2 T. flour
1 cup beef, chicken or vegetable stock
Combine marinade ingredients in the bottom of a shallow dish. Season meat of choice with salt and pepper and set into marinade and turn to coat. Allow meat to hang out 10 minutes, turning occasionally.
Heat a nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add marinated meat and cook 5 or 6 minutes on each side. Remove to a warm platter. Add butter to the skillet, then chopped shallots or onion and mushroom bits, and saute 3 minutes over moderate heat. Add flour to the pan and cook 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Whisk in stock and reduce for another minute. Pour over meat and serve. Makes 4 servings.
Five Stars!!!

Broiled Tomatoes

Fine, but basic. Needed salt. 3 stars.


Mixed Baby Greens with Mandarin Orange and Cucumber in Sesame Dressing

Not a bad little salad. We've seen this before. We liked the addition of sesame oil. 4 stars.


Indian Spiced Fruit

The nutmeg, cinnamon and clove mixture was an unusual surprise and made us think of Christmas. Not too bad. Leftovers didn't get eaten, however. 3 1/2 stars.



Chocolate Mint Parfaits

We made the Shirley Temple version and skipped the creme de menthe liqueur, but you certainly can't go wrong with mint chocolate chip ice cream and Andes mints! Yum! 4 stars.

Greek Tapas

Greek Tapas are smaller dishes like appetizers that together make a meal. We saw many dishes like this when we were in Greece. And we can vouch for the athenticity of the Village Salad with Grilled Pita Bread. This was SO good! The kalamata olives and feta cheese just scream GREEK! The warmed pita was wonderful, too. Such a small step, but it made such a difference! This earned a coveted 5 stars!


3 vine ripe tomatoes, cut in chunks
1 medium red onion, thinly sliced
1/2 European seedless cucumber, cut into bite-size chunks
1 small red bell pepper, seeded and chunked
1 small green bell pepper, seeded and chunked
1 cup Kalamata black olives
1/2 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley (a couple handfuls)
1/2 pound imported Greek feta cheese, sliced
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil (a couple glugs)
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon dried oregano, crushed in the palm of your hand
Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Pita breads



Combine vegetables, olives, and parsley in a large bowl. Rest sliced feta cheese on top of the salad. Combine oil, vinegar, and oregano in a small plastic container with a lid. Shake vigorously to combine oil and vinegar and pour over salad and cheese. Season with salt and pepper and let the salad marinate until ready to serve. Serve with pita bread, blistered and warmed on a hot griddle or grill pan.





Baked Gigantes Beans: The picture is not pretty, because the dish was not particularly pretty. And while we tried to like it, because it's Greek, we just didn't. 2 stars.





Grilled Shrimp: Don't go by our recommendation on this. We completely bought the wrong kind of shrimp. And since shrimp is so expensive, we weren't going to fix the mistake. We bought cooked, peeled shrimp, not the uncooked shrimp in shell the recipe called for. Still, we like shrimp, so it was good. If we have time, we'll revisit this recipe to do it justice. 4 stars.





Greek Meatballs in Wine Sauce: Really, it's just Greek Meatballs. First off, ground lamb does not exist in our small town, so we made it with ground beef. The white wine was deleted. We think lamb would have made a nice tasting meatball. As it was, it was still good, if crumbly. 4 stars.

Super Sloppy Joes and Deviled Potato Salad

The Super Sloppy Joes on p. 26 weren't too bad. In fact, we all liked them. My only complaint with them is that they tasted just like any other sloppy joes. They may have been a tad sweeter due to the brown sugar. Natalie liked the addition of the fresh peppers. Overall, we give this dish 3 3/4 stars!


Deviled Potato Salad. This was a pretty good dish. We liked the "deviled egg" ingredients, like paprika, mustard, and cayenne pepper sauce. A nice summer salad. A 4-star dish.



Root Beer Floats!!! 'Nuff said. There's not much that can be done with this recipe. Still, we all love root beer floats, and this dessert came during the hottest week of the year! It was a welcome treat during temps over 100! 4 stars

Banana Raita

Bananas with yogurt and toasted coconut. This was an easy little dessert that we all liked. It just needed a little "something." That something for us turned out to be chocolate chips! Natalie also thought that Nutella would be good in it. We give it 4 stars.

Cheesy Popcorn

Popcorn popped in oil and tossed with parmesan cheese. Not too bad. Not too good. We probably won't make it again. 3 1/2 stars.

Smoky Orange Barbecued Chicken Sandwiches

We are really liking Rachael Ray's sandwiches! This one is very unusual but tasty! The BBQ sauce made from orange and chipotle peppers was good, and wasn't too spicy for me at all (I'm the lightweight when it comes to spicy food). We give it 4 1/2 stars. You can find it on page 70 of "30-Minute Meals 2."

Spinach Artichoke Pasta Salad

We thought this was so-so. Not a lot of flavor for me. However, I've done pasta salads enough to know that they're usually better the next day. So, we'll have to try it tomorrow morning. For now, we give it 3 1/2 stars.

Portobello Burgers with Green Sauce and Smoked Mozzarella

A burger made of a giant mushroom? I have to tell ya, this was something new for my family. And change doesn't come easily. Let's just say, some of us weren't really willing to give this a chance. But, I bullied them into giving this 4 1/2 stars, lol. It was really delicious! The best part was the green sauce -- mmm. It would be awesome on pasta, too. As a side note, it was impossible to find smoked mozzarella in our little town, so we scared up some smoked romano. So, here the recipe for the green sauce, since it received 5 stars by itself.

GREEN SAUCE
1 c. loosely packed basil leaves
1/2 c. fresh flat-leaf parsley
3 T. capers
1/4 c. pine nuts
1 clove garlic
juice of 1/2 lemon
1/4 c. extra-virgin olive oil
salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1/2 c. grated Parmigiano Reggiano or Romano cheese
Combine basil, parsley, capers, pine nuts, garlic, and lemon juice in the food processor. Pulse grine, until finely chopped and scrape into a bowl. Stir in oil, salt, pepper, and cheese. Slather bun tops with this sauce.

August 2, 2010

Grilled Honey Lime Chicken Sandwiches. A tasty surprise! What leftover chicken there was didn't last long.
4 stars

(p.s. This is Natalie now, and the sandwiches were a LOT better than my mom makes them out to be. I loved them! The avocado and grilled chicken together was ah-mazing. I just thought I'd throw in my opinion since mom didn't spare too many words on her review. )


But let's get to my favorite dish of the night! Chili Lime Avocados! OMG -- This is heaven.

Heaven with George Clooney.

With a tub of Moo-llennium Crunch ice cream.

Really, that's how good this is! It's so unusual. Everyone else in the family gave it 4 stars, but I will give it 5 stars for sure. Give it a try!

Chili Lime Avocados - Rachael Ray
2 ripe Haas avocados
the juice of 2 limes
1 t. sugar
1 t. chili powder
1/2 t. salt
3 T extra-virgin olive oil
chopped chives or cilantro for garnish (optional)
Halve the avocados and remove pits. Roll limes or heat in microwave for 10 seconds to get juices flowing. Halve the limes. Rub the avocado halves gently with 1/2 lime (cut side of lime) to prevent browning. Juice limes into small bowl and mix with sugar, chili powder and salt using a fork or small whisk. Add oil in a slow stream while mixing dressing. Pour dressing into the cavities of avocados, distributing it equally, and serve, garnished with chives or cilantro, if you wish. Makes 4 servings.



Here's the last recipe in a busy cooking night. Nothing fancy, but a cute way to serve pineapple.
Ripe Pineapple Wedges
1 whole ripe pineapple
Quarter the pineapple lengthwise leaving the top on. Following the skin of the pineapple, carefully pare the fruit away using your knife, keeping the green tops attached. Next, cut the pineapple into 1/2-inch wedges, arranged alternately to the left, then to the right. Each completed pineapple serving will look like a "boat" filled with the fruit slices. Makes 4 servings.

3 stars

July 31, 2010

Make way for another guest chef in the house! Our own Rachel Ward is working on her Personal Progress, so she's doing two weeks' worth of meals for us. She wanted Chicken Fettuccini Alfredo, so I set about looking for an easier, cheaper (spent all our money in Greece) alfredo sauce. Here's what we came up with. The picture doesn't do it justice; it's not too shabby, if we don't say so ourselves!

Rachel's Alfredo Sauce
1/2 c. butter
1 t. minced garlic
8 oz light cream cheese
1 1/2 c. milk
4-6 oz parmesan cheese
1/8 t. black pepper
dash or two of nutmeg
Melt butter, saute garlic. Add cream cheese, whisking constantly, until smooth. Add milk a little at a time, whisking. Stir in parmesan cheese and pepper and nutmeg. Remove from heat when it's desired consistency. It will thicken; thin with milk, if desired. Toss with hot pasta. Can top with grilled chicken. Note: We used 12oz fettuccini and had leftover sauce. We might try a 16oz box of pasta next time.
4 stars



For dessert, Rachel fixed Tropical Parfaits, which she found on the cover of the August Family Circle magazine. With our recent fondness for Greek yogurt, this was right up our alley!
4 stars

Tropical Parfaits (Rachel renamed it "Fruit Yummy-ness")
1 ripe mango, peeled, pitted and diced
1 cup pineapple chunks, diced
1 cup raspberries
1 cup blueberries
2 kiwifruit, peeled and diced
2 T. honey
1 1/2 c. 2% Greek yogurt (although we used nonfat)
2 T. honey
6 T. sweetened shredded coconut
6 rolled cookes like Pirouette
In large bowl, combine all the fruit with the honey. Stir gently to combine. In a medium bowl, shisk together the yogurt and 2 T honey. Chill until layering. Toast coconut in small nonstick skillet over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and cool.
Spoon 2 T. fruit into bottom of an 8oz glass. Top with 1 T. yogurt and a little coconut. Repeat layering one more time, finishing with coconut. Garnish with a cookie. Repeat with 5 more glasses. Makes 6 servings.

July 29, 2010

We did some nasty yardwork tonight, so we rewarded ourselves with Rachael Ray's Black and White Shakes on p. 19. We think they tasted just like Wendy's frosties -- all full of frozen yumminess.

4 stars

Black and White Shakes - Rachael Ray

1 cup chocolate syrup

2 pints vanilla ice cream

2 quarts skim milk

1 tray ice cubes

In a blender, for each shake, combine 3 squirts of chocolate syrup (about 1/4 cup), 1/2 pint vanilla ice cream (3 scoops), 2 cups skim milk, and 4 ice cubes. Blend on high until smooth and icy. Serve with straws in a tall glass.

Makes 4 shakes

July 18, 2010

Hello again! We're back from yet another vacation, this time a family reunion in Tennessee and then visiting the grandparents in Athens, Greece! We all had a great trip, but were definitely ready to get home. Anyways, since my sisters and I have our church girls' camp this coming week, mom and I figured we should do a couple new recipes before I leave.

So we got home, slept some (oh the joys of jet lag), and I flipped through the Rachael Ray book and put my finger on a random page. It landed on the page of Roquefort, Pear and Walnut Toasts, Chicken Paillard on Baby Greens, and the Citrus White Wine Spritzer.

The Roquefort, Pear and Walnut toasts were my mom's favorite. She's already talking about making them for a dinner party sometime. This appetizer was so out of the ordinary that even my little sister's curiosity got the better of her and she tried it. The sweetness of the pears perfectly balanced out the sharp taste of the blue cheese. Even though it's not 5 stars, we think it's worth listing here:

Roquefort, Pear and Walnut Toasts
1 baguette, thinly sliced on an angle
a wedge of lemon
1 pear, quartered lengthwise and thinly sliced
3/4 lb Roquefort cheese, crumbled (we used regular bleu cheese)
1 c. walnut pieces
Preheat broiler to high. Arrange 12 slices of baguette on broiler pan in a single layer. Toast lightly on each side. Squeeze lemon juice over the pear slices to keep them from browning. Place a slice of pear on each toast and top with cheese crumbles and walnut pieces. Return pan to broiler 6 inches from heat and broil toasts 2-3 minutes to melt cheese and toast walnuts. Be careful! Walnuts burn so easily! Transfer to plate and start snacking!
4 1/2 stars



The Chicken Paillard was very tasty. The sauce needed some salt, but together with the baby greens and the chicken was a great main dish. If you ever make this, definitely try a piece of the chicken with the salad and sauce together. It was a strangely good combination.

4 1/2 stars



Now for the Citrus White Wine Spritzer, obviously we had to do a little substituting for the Wine Spritzer . . . but everyone liked it with white grape juice. In glass goblets it looked really pretty.

4 3/4 stars (we're getting a little picky here, mom thought it wasn't very interesting)

CITRUS WHITE WINE SPRITZER
(makes one serving)

2 thin lemon slices
2 thin lime slices
1/2 cup Pinot Grigio, other dry crisp white wine, or white grape juice
1/4 cup lemon-lime seltzer

In a large stem glass, arrange slices of lemon and lime among ice cubes to fill the glass. Pour the white wine (or white grape juice!) and seltzer over fruit and ice. Stir with straw and serve.

June 25, 2010

Dinner tonight was Pecan-Crusted Chicken Tenders and Salad with Tangy Maple Barbecue Dressing. Wow, that's a mouthful. This one might get the award for longest title.

The chicken tenders were great. They tasted totally different than what I was expecting and had a really unusual flavor. We're discovering that EHH doesn't give out 5 stars very often, but likes most everything we make.

4 stars

July 20, 2010

So tonight we made the Sugared Stone Fruits with Cookies and Cream. It was pretty simple, but very delicious. The fresh peaches tasted incredible. Instead of Nilla wafers or ginger snaps, we used some really good square coconut cookies.

5 stars

June 13, 2010

DO NOT TRY THIS RECIPE!

OK, that's a bad way to begin an entry in a cooking blog.

To go along with our leftovers tonight, I made the Balsamic Glazed Vegetables. Believe me when I tell you that they tasted just fine. Really.

But there are a few things we just couldn't get over. While I normally love balsamic vinegar, the smell of it boiling with cauliflower just nauseated everyone.

And it turned all the veggies brown! A nasty, poopy brown.

Like I said, I did try them (nobody else would). And they did taste fine. But there's a lot to put up with for a mediocre recipe. Don't fix it.


1 star

June 12, 2010

Meet Michelle, our guest chef!

She and Natalie fixed Rachael Ray's Sausage Calzones for us recently. A great thing for two teenagers to try, don't you think?
And we were impressed! As is customary for this blog, there were glitches. I bought the wrong kind of sausage (think large links instead of bulk Jimmy Dean), so it took the girls a long time to chop and brown it. But the rest went swimmingly. However, they recommend baking the calzones for more than the specified 15 minutes. We all liked the three cheeses and the fresh parsley. Well done, Natalie and Michelle! Here's the recipe:

Sausage Calzones
1&1/3 lbs Italian bulk sweet sausage
a drizzle extra-virgin olive oil
2 c. ricotta cheese
handful fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
handful grated Parmiagiano Reggiano cheese
1/4 t. nutmeg, freshly grated or a couple pinches ground
few grinds freshly ground black pepper
2 T. chopped pimiento (didn't use this, couldn't find it at store)
2 tubes prepared, refrigerated pizza dough (10oz each)
2 c. shredded mozzarella cheese
2 c. marinara sauce, warmed, for dipping
Preheat oven to 425. Brown sausage in a small skillet in a drizzle of olive oil. Transfer crumbles to a paper towel-lined plate to drain. Combine sausage with ricotta, parsley, garlic, parmiagiano, nutmeg, pepper, and pimiento. Roll both tubes of pizza dough out on 2 separate nonstick cookie sheets and cut each dough in half across. Spread 1/2 cup mozzarella and up to 1/4 of filling on each rectangle. Work on just half of the surface of each rectangle of dough, then fold dough over top of filling and pinch edges firmly to seal. For a half-moon "pizza parlor" look to your calzones, mound filling into a half-moon shape, fold dough over top, and trim edges following the rounded shape, then seal by pinching with fingers. If your dough tears, remove a little of your filling and repair. Repeat process, spacing calzones evenly on baking sheet, and bake 12-15 minutes or until golden brown. Serve with warm marinara sauce for dunking.

5 stars - YUM!!



For dessert, they made Orange Sherbet Freezes. The girls found that 2 1/4 cups soda made three glasses of the drink. They also used a lot more ice cream than the recipe called for, and 3-4 ice cubes per glass. It wasn't bad, but no one in the family was overwhelmed with it. Dad put it in the freezer and liked it a lot more when it was frozen. Hmmm.

3.5 stars (Michelle, you can come cook with us anytime!)



So, last night, we needed a vegetable to go with our Monte Cristo sandwiches. So, we pulled out Rachael's recipe for Corn on the Cob with Chili and Lime. Doesn't it look pretty? It was a very easy recipe. The verdict was mixed. All agreed that it needed more lime flavor.

4 stars



Happy Cooking!

June 5, 2010

We got a little behind in our posting. Sorry! But not really. We went to Hawaii.

BUT before we left, we had the missionaries over for dinner. We saw it as a great opportunity to cook a few new recipes. Mainly because missionaries will eat anything. So, what's the danger if it doesn't turn out? That sounds uncaring, but we really wanted to make a nice meal for them. So, here are this week's dishes:


Green Bean Salad with Red Onion and Tomato

This was pretty tasty. We didn't cook the beans long enough, so they were a bit crunchy. But it was a nice combination, and we'll probably make it again.

4 stars

Ice Cream Sundae Sandwiches

We liked these! Big surprise, huh? They were easy to make and loved by all. 'Nuff said.

5 stars

Now, on to Eternally Hungry Husband's birthday dinner. This was an opportunity to make him something special. Here they are:
Tenderloin Steaks with Gorgonzola

So, EHH kept moaning over this steak. It was awesome. We all decided we don't like Gorgonzola cheese, but we do like it on this steak! Only, we wouldn't put so much of it on each steak. It's a pretty strong flavor.

5 stars

Oven Steak Fries

Not bad. Nothing fancy. Nothing to write home about.

3.5 stars

Broccoli Rabe with Lemon and Garlic

First of all, we had to look up what broccoli rabe is. Turns out it's a relative of the turnip. But remember folks, we live in a small town. No broccoli rabe here. We're lucky to get broccoli. Next in the list of substitutions was red pepper powder (cayenne) instead of crushed red pepper flakes. Sorry, but I can't see buying a whole jar of red pepper flakes when I know we won't use them again. Still, we liked the lemon and garlic in the broccoli and would probably make this again.

4 stars

See you next week!

May 22, 2010

For our first foray into Rachael Ray's cooking, we tried "Sirloin Burgers with Mushrooms, Swiss, and Balsamic Mayo," "Thick-Cut Onion Rings with Spicy Dipping Sauce," and "NY Egg Creams." We loved the onion rings! I had never actually tried onion rings before, but the homemade ones were awesome. It made our kitchen look like a category 3 hurricane had come through, and definitely took longer than 30 minutes. Still, it was a tasty meal.

My favorite part of the burgers was the balsamic mayo. Accuracy is shot on the first day of the project because my mom forgot to check how much mayo we had before shopping. So, when we ran out of mayo, we went to ranch dressing. Then, when we ran out of ranch dressing, we went to sour cream. It was good, regardless. It added a great tang to the burgers, says my dear mother.

You could say the egg creams were not our favorite. The mixture of chocolate syrup, half-and-half, and seltzer water ended up tasting like watery chocolate milk according to mom, and soda-fied, watered-down truffle centers according to me.

Sirloin burgers- 5 stars

Onion rings- 5 stars

Spicy dipping sauce- 4 stars

Egg creams- 2 stars

3 recipes down, 275 to go

Welcome!

Welcome to our cooking blog! The idea for this project came when we recently rented the movie "Julie and Julia." What an idea--cooking your way through an entire cookbook! Natalie and I were intrigued by it. But, could WE do something similar?

Reality check: I'm a mom of three teenage girls with a deployed husband, and I'll be starting an intense 2-year Dental Hygiene program in the fall! Natalie is a soon-to-be senior in high school, with commitments to marching band, winter guard, flute lessons, a part-time job, church activities, and helping her mom drive everyone around town. Would we REALLY have time or energy to do this?

Natalie was insistent. She even picked the book: "30 Minute Meals 2" by Rachael Ray. We've had it for years and have tried maybe one recipe. Plus, she reasoned, how time-consuming could it be if it's called "30 Minute Meals?" Hmmm, famous last words?

So the idea cemented into the following: We will fix all 278 recipes in the book before Natalie graduates high school on May 14, 2011. That's around 5 recipes a week. We've got each other's back: when she can't cook, I'll do it, and when I'm swamped, she'll do the cooking. We have some vacations coming up which will set us back a bit, but then we have Christmas break and Spring break which might help us make it up. I think it's lucky we've got a really understanding, helpful, and eternally hungry husband / dad. He'll be home in June, which will help things enormously.

The other rule we've shaken on this is that we must try every dish! So, that means Natalie will try every fish dish, even though she'd rather be run over by a train than eat fish. It also means that I will have to persevere in the face of the many spicy dishes in our future.

And one caveat: We are not alcohol drinkers; we won't cook with it. I've noticed that Rachael has quite a few "spirited" recipes, so we will be substituting. We'll have to do a little experimenting with that. And if there are jalapeños in the recipe, they'll probably be left out. Does that go against my rule about trying everything? Maybe, but I also don't want the food to sit untouched because no one will eat it. I'm still a mom, and the family still needs to be fed.

So, if you are reading this blog for accurate descriptions of Rachael Ray's recipes, you may be disappointed. Sorry. It is what it is, and we'll do the best we can.

So, sit back and enjoy the ride with us!