Section 2: Main Courses – Page 21 – Simply Delicious: The Cookbook Project

9-31: Savory Turkey Patties

Jamie Martin Group 09: Ground Meat & Sausage, Section 2: Main Courses August 1, 2014July 6, 2020black pepper, bread crumbs, burgers, butter, coated, dinner, easy, egg whites, egg yolks, eggs, fairly inexpensive, food processor, garlic, grilled, ground meat, ground turkey, half-and-half, lunch, melted, minced, pan-fried, paprika, party food, sifted, sweet peas, turkey, untested, white bread

I mentioned in 4-17: Crispy Potato Pancakes that our travels had taken us elsewhere. I’m cooking in a different kitchen these days–one that is not my own–which presents its own set of challenges.

However, the beauty of this project is that as long as I have my laptop and internet access, I can just keep going. And so I will. 🙂

Our current hosts have been participating in some of my entry recipes, including this one: 9-31: Savory Turkey Patties. This was prepared and cooked in tandem with the recipe I posted after this one, 9-25: Juicy Grilled Meat Patties.

7-11: Oriental Stir-Fried Pork

Jamie Martin Group 07: Pork, Section 2: Main Courses July 9, 2014June 19, 2020Asian, canola oil, carrots, cilantro, dairy-free, easy, egg-free, fairly inexpensive, fried, Italian parsley, julienned, leeks, mushrooms, Oriental, pan-fried, pork, pork tenderloin, sesame seeds, sliced, stir-fry, tender-crisp, teriyaki sauce, toasted, untested, water chestnuts, wok

“Oriental” is a word you don’t hear often anymore (for good reason)–this would probably be referred to as an Asian dish in a modern cookbook. 7-11: Oriental Stir-Fried Pork is a pretty standard Asian stir-fry starter recipe which could also work with chicken, beef, or shrimp.

The teaser line on the front reads “tantalizing flavor”. Not so much, at least in my opinion. This is a basic bare-bones stir-fry–if you want something that’s going to have some kick to it, you’re gonna have to do it yourself.

6-22: Crispy Chicken Drumsticks

Jamie Martin Group 06: Poultry & Game, Section 2: Main Courses July 7, 2014June 17, 20201998 dinner, all-purpose flour, black pepper, bread crumbs, breaded, butter, canola oil, carrots, chicken, coated, crispy, deep fryer, deep-fried, dinner, dredged, drumsticks, easy, fried, fried chicken, Hutton house, inexpensive, lunch, pan-fried, paprika, party food, peeled, revisited, salt, sautéed, sliced, squash, summer squash, tender-crisp, vegetables, white bread, yellow onions, zucchini

Who doesn’t like drumsticks? Vegetarians, I suppose. But this is not a recipe for them. Book 1, Group 2 (Main Courses), Subgroup 6 (Poultry & Game) gives us 6-22: Crispy Chicken Drumsticks. This was cooked in tandem with 4-21: Herb-Roasted Potatoes.

Drumsticks were on sale, so drumsticks you will get. I think this is one of the ones I was making before I went out of town a few weeks ago, but I’ve been a bit behind, so the details have escaped me a bit. Not that it matters to you, anyway. 🙂

11-16: Indian Fried Fish

Jamie Martin Group 11: Fish & Seafood, Section 2: Main Courses July 5, 2014July 7, 2020all-purpose flour, bananas, blanched, bread crumbs, breaded, butter, canola oil, Caribbean, cashews, catfish, coated, cod, crème fraîche, curry powder, dinner, dredged, dry mustard, easy, eggs, fail, fairly expensive, fish, fish filets, flounder, fried, grouper, haddock, halibut, Indian, leeks, lemons, lunch, nuts, pan-fried, peeled, plantains, rockfish, salt, sautéed, seafood, sliced, sour cream, spice blends, turmeric, untested, West Indian, white bread, whitefish, yellow mustard

Another bit of real life distractions, but I refuse to let this die. Back to it, with an interesting dish: 11-16: Indian Fried Fish. 🐟

Um, okay. “Indian” is being used liberally here, as far as I can tell. It was an okay dish, but didn’t exactly conjure up images of India. This seems more like West Indies/Caribbean “Indian” than India “Indian”.

6-4: Easy Stuffed Chicken Breasts

Jamie Martin Group 06: Poultry & Game, Section 2: Main Courses June 19, 2014June 17, 2020all-purpose flour, basted, boiled, boneless, breasts, butter, cheese, chicken, chicken bouillon, chicken broth, dinner, fairly easy, fairly inexpensive, Feta, filling, frozen, garlic, goat cheese, gravy, Hutton house, lemon juice, lemons, lunch, melted, miso, mushrooms, revisited, rice, sautéed, simmered, skinless, slit, spinach, stuffed, white wine

In 3-13: Velvety Carrot Soup, I talked about how I love old cookbooks for their colorful attempts at trying to make boring recipes sound exciting. Another cookbook “trope” is putting words like easy, simple or quick in the title of a recipe that would otherwise sound…well, not those things.

Sometimes they live up to their titles, and sometimes not. A prime example of the former would be 6-4: Easy Stuffed Chicken Breasts. To be honest, stuffing chicken breasts doesn’t even sound that hard to begin with, so I suppose it didn’t even need that qualifier.

Unless it sounded hard to you–if that’s the case, ignore that last sentence. 🙂 It’s really not that hard, is what I’m saying.

8-18: Tangy Beef Rolls

Jamie Martin Group 08: Beef, Section 2: Main Courses June 15, 2014July 2, 20201980s, all-purpose flour, appetizers, beef, black pepper, boneless, braised, butter, chopped, chuck roast, cranberries, creamy, dinner, fairly expensive, fairly hard, garnish, gravy, green bell peppers, green onions, jam/jelly/preserves, leeks, lunch, minced, mushrooms, pared, parsley, pork shoulder, red bell peppers, round steak, roux, salt, sautéed, tangy, toothpicks, untested, veal, vegetable broth, whipping cream

Catching up after a few weeks of IRL obligations. Let’s get back to it.

This was one of the 4 recipes cooked in the batch I mentioned in 17-28: Pound Cake. I was making a large amount of food to store up while I was gone for a week, and one of those recipes was 8-18: Tangy Beef Rolls. Sounds deliciously 80s.

Book 2, Group 2 (Main Courses), Subgroup 8 (Beef) gives us card #18: Tangy Beef Rolls. How do you resist something beef-related that describes itself as “tangy”? Mine didn’t come out as classy as the one in this picture, but it was still definitely edible. And somewhat tangy.

12-6: Seasoned Pasta Toss

Jamie Martin Group 12: Pasta & Rice, Section 2: Main Courses May 30, 2014July 27, 2020basil, boiled, breasts, cheese, chicken, cooked chicken, cooked shrimp, crab, dairy-free, dinner, easy, fettuccini, garlic, ham, healthy, herbs and spices, inexpensive, Italian, linguine, low heat, lunch, minced, olive oil, Parmesan, parsley, party food, pasta/noodles, salt, seafood, side dish, spaghetti, tagliatelle, tossed, untested, vegan, vegetarian

I jumped several sections ahead a few weeks ago when I needed to make a pasta side dish for something (I don’t even remember what at this point). I don’t have this group scanned yet and I procrastinated on scanning the card–oh well. 🌿

We find 12-6: Seasoned Pasta Toss in Book 2, Group 2 (Main Courses), Subgroup 12 (Pasta & Rice). I still have a ton of parsley in my freezer and gluten-free rice pasta in my pantry, and it’s time to clean house.

Too bad it turned out to be less than impressive. It’s my fault, but still.

7-2: Pork Chops with Tomatoes

Jamie Martin Group 07: Pork, Section 2: Main Courses May 29, 2014June 19, 2020black pepper, blanched, broiled, butter, Cheddar, cheese, cilantro, deglazed, dinner, dried herbs, egg-free, fairly easy, fairly inexpensive, gluten-free, green beans, green onions, Italian parsley, marjoram, pan-fried, pork, pork chops, salt, seared, snipped, string beans, Swiss, tomatoes, untested, vegetables

Okay. This one sounds weird. It looks weird too. But you know what? It actually worked out okay. I had some green beans from the CSA box that desperately needed to be used, so here’s what we did with them.

Pork chops + tomatoes + green beans + sliced cheese sounds odd. Book 1, Group 2 (Main Courses), Subgroup 7 (Pork) gives us 7-2: Pork Chops with Tomatoes. I had pasta and salad ready on the stand-by in case this went south, but luckily I didn’t need them.

7-26: Maple-Glazed Pork Chops

Jamie Martin Group 07: Pork, Section 2: Main Courses May 15, 2014June 19, 2020autumn, bay leaves, black pepper, butter, cast-iron, cinnamon, dinner, dried herbs, dried spices, egg-free, fairly easy, fairly inexpensive, fall, glazed, gluten-free, maple syrup, melted, nuts, pecans, pork, pork chops, salt, scored, seared, untested, walnuts

Finally–something that’s not chicken. The first pork recipe we’ll cover here is 7-26: Maple-Glazed Pork Chops.🍁

My mom was NOT a pork eater and I grew up quasi-Jewish, so there wasn’t a lot of pork being cooked in my childhood, spare the occasional ham steak or rack of ribs here and there at my dad’s request.

The key here is to make sure you use REAL maple syrup, not table syrup. Big difference.

6-26: Chicken Maryland

Jamie Martin Group 06: Poultry & Game, Section 2: Main Courses May 13, 2014June 18, 2020all-purpose flour, black pepper, boiled, bread crumbs, breaded, butter, canola oil, chicken, coated, creamy, crispy, deep-fried, dinner, dredged, easy, fail, fairly inexpensive, fried, fried chicken, half-and-half, lunch, Maryland, melted, milk, pan-fried, panko, paprika, red bell peppers, roux, salt, sautéed, thighs, untested, white bread

A week or two ago after we returned home from a grocery shopping trip, I found myself with a package of chicken that needed to be cooked ASAP due to having its plastic wrap punctured on the way home. Since I had some red peppers that needed to be used up as well, I chose to make 6-26: Chicken Maryland.

Recipe #26 of Subgroup 6 (Poultry & Game) in Book 1, Group 2 (Main Courses) is Chicken Maryland, which is basically a nicely-spiced fried chicken with a red bell pepper cream sauce. The chicken was delightful–the sauce turned out a bit odd, but that was probably my fault.