Jamie Martin – Simply Delicious: The Cookbook Project

12-19: Cannelloni Milanese

Jamie Martin Group 12: Pasta & Rice, Section 2: Main Courses June 16, 2025June 15, 2025boiled, broiled, brunoise, cabbage, cannelloni, Cheddar, cheese, cheese sauce, chicken bouillon, chicken broth, chiffonade, Chinese cabbage, chopped, cream of mushroom, diced, dinner, dried herbs, fairly hard, frozen, grated, half-and-half, herbs and spices, inexpensive, Italian, julienned, lasagna, milk, oregano, Parmesan, pasta/noodles, peeled, poached, purée, salt, shredded, spinach, stuffed, stuffing, tomato paste, tomato sauce, untested, vegetable bouillon, vegetable broth, vegetables, vegetarian, whipping cream

Ready for a (slight) break from dessert recipes? I know I am. 12-19: Cannelloni Milanese is the last card I have for Group 12, and it’s been hanging out in my “to-do” pile for a LONG time. In the interest of finally “landing this plane” sometime this century, let’s knock this one out now.

Sounds good in theory, right? Perhaps…however, Simply Delicious has tricked me before.

If you like the vegetable lasagna from Stouffer’s (or at least, used to back when frozen food was good), this is totally gonna be your jam. If you don’t, you’re probably in for a bad time.

16-2: Cheesecake

Jamie Martin Group 16: Pies & Cakes, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods June 12, 2025June 15, 2025all-purpose flour, blind bake, butter, cakes, cheesecake, cinnamon, cold desserts, college, cream cheese, crème fraîche, dessert, dried spices, egg whites, egg yolks, eggs, fairly easy, fairly inexpensive, folded, fruit, garnish, glazed, graham crackers, granulated sugar, grated, lemon juice, lemon peel, lemons, melted, meringue, nutmeg, party food, pie crust, revisited, soft peaks, stiff peaks, vanilla extract, vegetarian, whipped, zested

Question: Why did it take me so long to get to 16-2: Cheesecake (especially since cheesecake is one of my favorite foods)?

Answer: Technically, I’ve made it once before–when I lived in my first REAL apartment during college (20 years ago…YIKES). I’ve talked before about my cooking misadventures while in college (I went to a high-altitude school, which messes with baking more than you think), so we’ll take my note below in stride.

OK–why so long to make it again, then?

I held out on this one for so long because I wanted to make it with real dairy–the vegan/fake stuff was never going to do this cake justice. It’s not even a particularly GREAT cheesecake (Junior’s version is the one you want for that–I even won my work cheesecake “throwdown” with that one), but I wanted to at least try to do it right.

Dietary “needs” have recently evolved, so real dairy is back on the menu after many years of using substitutes. In honor of that, let’s give this one another try now that I’m closer to sea level and have 20 additional years of cooking experience behind me.

15-4: Fruit Salad with Chocolate Sauce

Jamie Martin Group 15: Cold Desserts, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods June 2, 2025June 2, 2025almonds, chocolate, chocolate sauce, cold desserts, dark chocolate, dessert, dips, dollop, double boiler, easy, egg-free, fairly inexpensive, fruit, fruit salad, ganache, garnish, gluten-free, grapes, kiwis, layers, oranges, party food, peeled, pineapple, sliced, snacks, strawberries, summer, supreme, toasted, untested, vegetarian, whipped, whipping cream

I had picked out 15-4: Fruit Salad with Chocolate Sauce specifically because I didn’t think I’d have a ton of time to cook last week, since we took Memorial Day week off to work on some home improvement projects.

I even took EVERY shortcut I could think of to shrink that time commitment down even further (plus, my kitchen was out of commission most of the week), so this will be…we’ll call it truncated. You’ll see what I mean after the jump.

19-9: Coffee, Tea, and Chocolate II

Jamie Martin Group 19: Basic Ingredients, Section 4: Cooking School May 26, 2025May 24, 2025Asian, boiled, Chinese, chocolate, chocolate chips, chocolate cups, chocolate curls, chocolate sauce, cocoa powder, coffee, cooking school, dark chocolate, English, flavorings, granulated sugar, green tea, Indian, ingredients, Japanese, liqueur, Mexican, milk, roasted, tea, toasted, whipping cream, white chocolate

Finishing out what I have for Group 19 with 19-9: Coffee, Tea, and Chocolate II, the sequel to 19-8: Coffee, Tea, and Chocolate I. The first one is all about coffee, while this one features the tea and chocolate.

Here’s some reading about tea–I don’t have a lot of tea-related recipes for you, so jump behind the cut for what we’re all really here for: the chocolate.

16-36: Fresh Cherry Pie

Jamie Martin Group 16: Pies & Cakes, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods May 23, 2025May 22, 2025all-purpose flour, almond paste, butter, cherries, chilled, cornstarch, creamed, dessert, dough, egg whites, egg yolks, eggs, fairly easy, fairly expensive, filling, French, granulated sugar, grated, meringue, pie crust, pie weights, pies, snacks, soft peaks, spring, summer, untested, vanilla extract, vegetarian, whipped, whipping cream

Late spring/early summer means the start of cherry time around here, so it’s finally time to make 16-36: Fresh Cherry Pie.

We watched Twin Peaks (all three seasons and the movie) a few months ago, and ever since, I’ve been craving a slice of damn fine cherry pie. Talk about synergy.

However, this is not quite Norma’s cherry pie…this is Simply Delicious’ cherry pie, so it of course has to include almond paste in some way. If you’re looking for Norma’s cherry pie (which is much closer to typical “cherry pie”), go here. Pour yourself a cup of coffee and watch some Twin Peaks while you’re at it–it’s awesome.

Funnily enough, Twin Peaks and Simply Delicious both exist as excellent representations of the late 1980s-early 1990s. There’s that synergy thing again.

15-6: Royal Court Dessert

Jamie Martin Group 15: Cold Desserts, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods May 20, 2025May 20, 2025bananas, boiled, chilled, chocolate, chocolate sauce, cocoa powder, cold desserts, cookies, dessert, drizzled, easy, fairly inexpensive, garnish, gluten-free, granulated sugar, layers, mandarin oranges, meringue, party food, sliced, sprinkles, untested, vanilla extract, vegetarian, whipped, whipping cream

This one has intrigued me for years…when you’re a kid, it looks absolutely magical. Almost like Ice Cream Mountain, if you know that reference.

As an adult, 15-6: Royal Court Dessert just looks like a sugary headache. Turns out, it’s a little bit of both.

They’re right that this is a pretty quick and easy dessert to make. The hardest part (for me) was actually finding the meringues themselves. I guess I could have made them myself, but that is neither quick nor easy.

17-69: Crispy Cracker Bread

Jamie Martin Group 17: Baked Goods, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods May 12, 2025May 12, 2025all-purpose flour, almond milk, baked goods, breakfast, crackers, crispy, crushed, cumin, dairy-free, egg-free, fairly hard, inexpensive, kneaded, lunch, milk, oat milk, proofed, rye bread, rye flour, salt, side dish, snacks, stone-ground, untested, vegan, vegetarian, white bread, whole wheat flour, yeast

My freezer can only hold so many desserts, so sometimes I mix it up and make breads instead. In this particular case, I made something a little different: 17-69: Crispy Cracker Bread.

These are similar to ak-mak or Wasa crispbread, if you’ve tried either of those. I like them topped with some tuna for lunch, so why not make my own?

15-22: Cappuccino Ice Cream

Jamie Martin Group 15: Cold Desserts, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods May 10, 2025May 10, 2025cappuccino, chilled, chopped, cocoa powder, coffee, cold desserts, dessert, dollop, dusted, easy, fairly inexpensive, garnish, gluten-free, ice cream, nuts, pistachios, powdered sugar, soft peaks, sundaes, untested, vanilla bean, vegetarian, whipped, whipping cream

On the heels of 19-8: Coffee, Tea, & Chocolate I, I happened to recently make a somewhat-related recipe, 15-22: Cappuccino Ice Cream. I love coffee ice cream, and so does my mom. However, this recipe is NOT what you (or I, or she) would have expected by that title.

I bring my mom up also since it’s just about Mother’s Day (or might already be by the time you read this)–maybe don’t make this one for your mom though, unless she likes coffee slushies. Again, even that sounds better than this actually is.

19-8: Coffee, Tea, and Chocolate I

Jamie Martin Group 19: Basic Ingredients, Section 4: Cooking School April 29, 2025May 27, 2025almond milk, brown sugar, café au lait, cappuccino, chilled, chocolate, cinnamon, coffee, cooking school, espresso, flavorings, French, ingredients, instant coffee, Irish, milk, oat milk, roasted, steamed, tea, West African, West Indian, whipped, whipping cream, whiskey

Finally finishing up Group 19 with the last two cards I have for it–this one, 19-8: Coffee, Tea, and Chocolate I and its partner, 19-9: Coffee, Tea, and Chocolate II.

Even though it claims to be about coffee, tea, and chocolate, this card is actually only about coffee. You’ll have to refer to Part II for the rest of it.

14-18: Fried Bananas

Jamie Martin Group 14: Hot Desserts, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods April 26, 2025April 24, 2025all-purpose flour, bananas, batter, canola oil, Chinese, coated, dairy-free, deep fat thermometer, deep fryer, deep-fried, dessert, easy, eggs, fried, fruit, honey, hot desserts, ice cream, inexpensive, limes, maple syrup, peeled, salt, untested, vegetable oil

I have flipped past 14-18: Fried Bananas many times as I’ve gone through these books over the years, and it’s finally time to make it since I live with someone who will actually eat it.

My dad likes fried bananas a lot too–I thought our favorite Chinese food restaurant from when I was a kid served them, but I don’t see them on the menu any longer. I could have sworn I remember him eating them there.

When I searched “fried bananas Chinese restaurant”, it appears it was a 1980s thing in general. Given that both this book and I are from the 1980s, this all makes a lot more sense now.

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