Pan frying pork chops is not the easiest method for cooking pork chops. It is really easy to over cook pork chops that way, but 7-23: Pork Chops with Tarragon came out “just right”.
These pork chops are pan fried and the sauce is added to the pan, drippings and all at the end. Cooking the sauce and meat together creates a flavorful sauce.
I wasn’t quite sure how “authentic” 12-29: New Orleans Beans and Pasta would be when first looking this recipe over–Simply Delicious doesn’t exactly nail it on cultural faithfulness a lot of the time. A lot of that has to do with the time at which the books were written–many ingredients, methods, & tools that are easily accessible now were not 30 years ago.
However, this is essentially an American recipe, so I would assume it shouldn’t be that far off–if this is in fact a real New Orleans dish. 🎷
I wonder how many different linens/vases/glasses/odd statues they had to accumulate to photograph all of these different recipes. Just a thought I had while looking at this picture. Another thought: who decided on some of these things? What makes this picture decidedly New Orleans? ⚜🎉
Pretzels are my favorite snack food, which means that 17-21: Small Golden Pretzels were right up my alley. One of my favorite episodes of the Simpsons is based around pretzels. Making pretzels usually involves boiling the dough in baking soda water.
These golden pretzels are good as an afternoon snack. Saffron gives these pretzels the golden hue.
🍆 13-12: Eggplant-Rice Casserole is a heavier preparation of eggplant than my other eggplant recipe, 13-16: Arabian Moussaka, this rice and eggplant dish is two, two, two dishes in one. I’ll show myself out for that dumb, old reference… 👋
There were lots of colors in this dish: purple 🍆, orange, green, yellow, white, and a few shades of beige.
I’m not going to write a long dissertation on the origins of the well-known French dessert, Tarte Tatin–I’ll let Wikipedia handle the background of it. Instead, I’m going to focus on my history with 16-15: Tarte Tatin, evidenced by my mom’s handwriting all over the front & back of the recipe card.
Since she and I already had plans to go to a local farmers’ market for this year’s Labor Day BBQ supplies and apples were plentiful, I decided to bring back an old classic for us to cook together. 🍏
Most versions of Tarte Tatin are somewhat similar–it’s a pretty basic recipe. My mom’s notes claim it’s “easy”, and she stands by it to this day. Her other notes turned out to be helpful as well–the importance of good note-taking.
I can’t count how many different chicken soups I’ve had in my life, but 3-11: Chicken Rice Soup is the latest version I’ve made from Simply Delicious. For this dish, I picked my own lemons and fresh mint from the garden so this dish had extra meaning to me. 🍋🌿
I’ve enjoyed a lot of chicken noodle soups, but chicken rice soup is a different experience.
Here’s another Simply Delicious recipe that exists outside of this book: 5-19: Eggs en Cocotte is a version of a pretty well-known French way to cook eggs. Variably known as shirred eggs (although that’s slightly different), this is a really easy (and delicious) breakfast or lunch option.
Cocotte has a rather interesting meaning outside of the culinary world–I’ll leave it to you to find out. 👄
I don’t make appetizers very often, so I made 1-14: Avocado Halves with Spicy Shrimp for us to eat as a snack while cooking other dishes. 🍤
I was lacking lettuce at the time, so my dish was served on a platter instead of a bed of crispy lettuce.
After staring at the screen for much too long (not the whole two weeks since the last time I posted, but at least some portion of it), I’ve determined that I just can’t think of anything all that notable to say about 17-19: Parmesan Bread. I’ve even made it once before, despite the lack of notations or photographic evidence. It’s just not what I hoped it could be.
The first time I made this bread, it turned out (somewhat) like the one shown in the Simply Delicious picture. This time, it turned out more like savory, vaguely cheesy monkey bread.
Simply Delicious has a lot of different kinds of recipes–intricate & laborious French-inspired cuisine as well as simple, weeknight-friendly fare. 3-15: Quick Mexican Soup is obviously (given the name) one of the latter types. Of course, I’ve yet to find a recipe that I don’t make some sort of tweak/edit to, and this recipe will be no different. 🌶
Most Simply Delicious recipes that claim to be Mexican tend to be more “Tex-Mex” than authentically Mexican. I grew up in Los Angeles–real Mexican food is a BIG part of life there. I’m not saying I’m anywhere close to an expert on the subject, but I feel like I’ve got some sense of the cuisine. Simply Delicious has an idea of where they were going with this soup–I’m just going to help it along a bit. 🇲🇽