Simply Delicious: The Cookbook Project – Page 15 – A recipe-by-recipe adventure working our way through a treasured set of 1980s subscription-based cookbooks.

16-17: Meringue-Topped Cherry Pie

Jamie Martin Group 16: Pies & Cakes, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods February 8, 2019July 31, 20204th of July, all-purpose flour, black cherries, butter, cherries, chilled, cornstarch, cottage cheese, dessert, dough, egg whites, egg yolks, eggs, fail, fairly easy, fairly expensive, filling, flute, French, fruit, granulated sugar, melted, meringue, pies, springform pan, stiff peaks, tart pan, toppings, untested, vanilla extract, vegetarian

I bet you thought I abandoned this project. You’d be wrong–I just started a few others and let this one get a bit dusty. After almost 5 years, I’m still plugging along, and will be until I finish this damn thing. I don’t even know when I cooked this, but here’s 16-17: Meringue-Topped Cherry Pie.

I know I cooked it sometime in 2018, and I know that I wanted to attempt a vegan version (which didn’t go well). I think I was making it to bring to work, but I have a feeling it never made it there. Looking over the pictures of it, I think I know why.

14-19: Old-Fashioned Apple Meringue

Adam Martin Group 14: Hot Desserts, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods November 23, 2018October 28, 2020almond paste, apples, cored, dairy-free, dessert, dollop, easy, egg whites, eggs, fruit, gluten-free, granulated sugar, grated, hot desserts, inexpensive, lemon juice, lemons, meringue, old-fashioned, peeled, pies, sliced, stiff peaks, untested, vegetarian, whipping cream

The editors of Simply Delicious love to write a common type of recipe that includes the act of putting meringue on top of a fruit filled pie. 14-19: Old-Fashioned Apple Meringue is a mistake with all but the classic lemon custard version of a meringue pie. Apple and cherry do not carry a meringue the same way in my opinion.

The meringue clouds in the example photo would probably have been the ideal presentation method, however, my meringue came out runny so it didn’t clump very well. I was lucky that it cooked to a hard crust.

15-37: Elegant Strawberries

Jamie Martin Group 15: Cold Desserts, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods November 22, 2018July 30, 2020chilled, chocolate, chocolate chips, coated, coconut, cold desserts, dark chocolate, dessert, double boiler, easy, egg-free, fail, fairly inexpensive, frozen, fruit, gift ideas, glazed, gluten-free, grated, MD2018, melted, Mother's Day, orange juice, oranges, powdered sugar, semisweet, sprinkles, strawberries, untested, Valentine's Day, vegetarian, wax paper

Happy Thanksgiving! Here’s the final dish from Mother’s Day this year–only 6 months after the fact. Better later than never, I suppose.

You can find the other dishes I made for this year’s Mother’s Day under the tag MD2018 (there’s also last year’s MD2017). If you’re interested in a Simply Delicious Thanksgiving feast I did a few years ago, check out TGV 2016.

My mom always loves dipped strawberries, so I thought these would be a nice alternative to the mail-order/delivery ones you see all over the place around the holidays. Since I was also making 16-10: Strawberry Shortcake, it ended up being a very strawberry-heavy Mother’s Day. 🍓🍓

7-51: Butterflied Pork Chops

Adam Martin Group 07: Pork, Section 2: Main Courses October 30, 2018October 15, 2020black pepper, boneless, butter, butterflied, deglazed, Dijon mustard, dinner, easy, fairly inexpensive, garlic, gluten-free, half-and-half, milk, parsley, pork, pork chops, pork shoulder, reduced, salt, untested

Learning a new technique can be a lot of fun. This slicing technique demonstrated in 7-51: Butterflied Pork Chops is new to me, but the final product really speaks for itself. The larger surface area creates more crispy, golden brown crust.

I love the place settings in the background of the image below. The jar of mustard, the frothy beer and crusty bread really set the scene in which you’d want to eat this dish.

From previous posts, I’ve learned how to put together a pan sauce from fat drippings, milk, and garlic. The base sauce gets enhanced with some acid from the Dijon mustard, the green flavor of the parsley, and the classic standby combo, salt and pepper, fill out the rest of the flavors in the sauce.

14-31: Coffee Nut Crêpes

Jamie Martin Group 14: Hot Desserts, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods October 29, 2018July 30, 2020all-purpose flour, breakfast, brunch, butter, chopped, coffee, crêpes, dessert, eggs, espresso, fairly hard, fairly inexpensive, flambé, granulated sugar, hot desserts, instant coffee, Kahlúa, liqueur, MD2018, milk, Mother's Day, nuts, pecans, powdered sugar, roasted, salt, untested, vanilla extract, vegetarian, whipped, whipping cream

Trying to sneak one in before the month of October completely passes me by. 14-31: Coffee Nut Crêpes is not the first crêpe recipe I’ve covered during this project, but it may be the last–believe it or not, I’m getting close to finishing a few of these sections. I made this dish back in May as part of my Mother’s Day brunch for 2018, since it seemed like a breakfasty-brunchy kind of treat.

You can find the other dishes I made for this year’s Mother’s Day tagged under MD2018–there’s also MD2017 if you’re interested in last year’s menu.

Yes, this is technically a dessert (according to Simply Delicious). But doesn’t brunch already cross a few boundaries just by definition? Plus, it was Mother’s Day–most restaurant brunches you’ll find on that day have a pretty extensive dessert section. I’m just contributing to authenticity.

16-10: Strawberry Shortcake

Jamie Martin Group 16: Pies & Cakes, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods September 5, 2018July 30, 2020all-purpose flour, American, baking powder, biscuit cutters, butter, cold desserts, dessert, easy, fairly inexpensive, fruit, granulated sugar, honey, Kahlúa, liqueur, marinated, MD2018, Mother's Day, orange juice, oranges, salt, shortening, sifted, sliced, soaked, sour cream, strawberries, summer, untested, vegetarian, whipped, whipping cream, zested

Just to show you how far behind I’m running with entries these days: I’m finally cracking into what I made for Mothers’ Day this year (MD2018) with 16-10: Strawberry Shortcake. You know…back in May. We were growing a ton of strawberries in the yard this year, and a few of them even made it into this dish.

Last year I attempted a Simply Delicious-inspired Mothers’ Day brunch (MD 2017), complete with fancy pastries and attempts at complicated sauces. This year, I kept it somewhat more simple in the interest of time spent and calories consumed. 🍓

11-30: Sea Bass with Peppers

Adam Martin Group 11: Fish & Seafood, Section 2: Main Courses September 4, 2018October 27, 2020almonds, basil, bass, black pepper, broiled, canola oil, dinner, easy, egg-free, fairly expensive, fish, fish filets, garlic, garnish, gluten-free, green bell peppers, halibut, lemon juice, lime juice, limes, lunch, marinated, olive oil, red bell peppers, rockfish, salt, seafood, sliced, sole, tender-crisp, toasted, untested, vegetables, whitefish, yellow bell peppers

Here’s another seafood recipe: 11: 30: Sea Bass with Peppers. To me, fish and peppers are not the most logical combination, but these veggies are mostly a garnish to serve alongside a rockfish (instead of sea bass) fillet.

This is another dish where you can substitute the type of fish if you want–we split the rockfish filets between this recipe and the ones Jamie used for 11-21: Baked Whitefish with Shrimp.

12-25: Parmesan Rice with Shrimp

Jamie Martin Group 12: Pasta & Rice, Section 2: Main Courses September 3, 2018July 28, 2020boiled, butter, canola oil, celery, cheese, chicken bouillon, chicken broth, chili powder, chopped, cooked shrimp, creamy, diced, dinner, egg-free, fairly easy, fairly expensive, garlic, grated, green onions, herbs and spices, julienned, long-grain, lunch, melted, minced, Parmesan, parsley, party food, peeled, reduced, rice, sautéed, scallions, seafood, shellfish, shrimp, side dish, Tabasco sauce, untested, vegetables

12-25: Parmesan Rice with Shrimp is a great weeknight dinner option or even perhaps a side dish for a potluck or party. It has similarities to paella and risotto, but isn’t as time or skill-intensive as either of those. And as you can tell by the frequency of how much I’ve been posting lately (not much), anything quick is much appreciated.

I feel like they were trying to roughly capture the essence of Shrimp Etouffee with the flavors used in this recipe, but with much less work involved. Cajun/creole-inspired isn’t new for Simply Delicious, but it’s rarely executed faithfully.

9-21: Chili Beef Casserole

Adam Martin Group 09: Ground Meat & Sausage, Section 2: Main Courses July 22, 2018October 18, 2020basil, black olives, butter, chili powder, chopped, corn, diced, dinner, dried herbs, easy, egg-free, fairly inexpensive, garlic, gluten-free, green bell peppers, ground beef, ground meat, guacamole, herbs and spices, lunch, Mexican, minced, parsley, peeled, red bell peppers, red kidney beans, salt, sautéed, sour cream, Southwestern, spice blends, taco shells, tacos, Tex-Mex, tortilla chips, untested, vegetables, yellow onions

9-21: Chili Beef Casserole is yet another case of calling something a casserole that is barely a casserole. There is no condensed soup in this recipe and this dish is cooked on a stove top, not baked. This dish is more of a tortilla filling than a main course as a casserole.

One might say this dish is a ground beef casserole with a cultural appropriation problem, not “with a Mexican accent”.

8-65: Sizzling Skirt Steaks

Jamie Martin Group 08: Beef, Section 2: Main Courses July 21, 2018July 2, 2020avocados, barbecue, beef, black pepper, broiled, canola oil, Cheddar, cheese, chili powder, chilled, chopped, cumin, diced, dinner, easy, egg-free, fairly inexpensive, fajitas, flank steak, garlic, grilled, guacamole, herbs and spices, lime juice, limes, lunch, marinated, Mexican, minced, onion salt, party food, pico de gallo, red onions, salsa, salt, shredded, skirt steak, sliced, sour cream, Southwestern, steak, tacos, Tex-Mex, tortillas, untested, vegetables, white onions, yellow onions

You may recognize 8-65: Sizzling Skirt Steaks as basically fajitas, one of the standard Mexican restaurant menu features. If you’re looking for something different on taco night, consider this dish. This can even be modified for different types of proteins, or even add in a few more veggies or a meat substitute and go meatless.

Flank or skirt steak is taken from the underside of the cow, and is tougher than most other cuts of meat. Therefore, marinating it (especially with some acid) breaks down some of those fibers and gives you a more tender piece when it’s cooked. Cooking fast/hot works well with this type of cut–low and slow will give you tough and rubbery.