Green sauce can mean a lot of different things (pesto, chimichurri, etc.), but for 12-41: Spaghetti with Green Sauce, it features leek tops. Because this recipe is so light, I made this dish for a quick lunch during the week.
The sauce in the photo doesn’t look as green as a pesto, but it definitely is green.
It’s the middle of summer right now, so soup’s probably not your first thought. However, I continue to be surprised that how no matter how hot outside it is, people still enjoy soup. So here’s a classic: 3-3: French Onion Soup.
Simply Delicious cites Les Halles (the Parisian farmers’ market, not the NY restaurant where Anthony Bourdain worked) as the originator of French onion soup. I wasn’t able to directly verify that with 5 minutes of lazy Googling, but I did find a food timeline that gives a bit of the dish’s history–I suppose their claim is totally still possible.
Never before did I think, “Boy, I should stuff some onions and eat them.” 9-18: Stuffed Onions were not the easiest dish to prepare and I don’t think I would ever choose to prepare it again.
This dish did taste exactly like meat loaf. It is a lot easier to make a meat loaf than to stuff onions, so next time, I’ll get the loaf pan out and chop the onions up.
I definitely did NOT eat a lot of lamb or veal growing up, but cooking through these recipes has given me the opportunity to try out some different dishes these days. On a recent Costco trip we found lamb chops on sale, so I decided to use them for 10-17: Lamb Chops with Mozzarella.
This seems like a strange trend that Simply Delicious is perpetuating–7-2: Pork Chops with Tomatoes is essentially the same idea except with pork, Cheddar cheese, tomatoes, and green beans. Take meat, stack a slice of cheese and random fridge/pantry items on it, call it a recipe. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I made 17-24: Crispy Oatmeal Cookies for a family get together and they went over very well. I didn’t serve mine in such an elaborate manner as shown on the card below, but they got a good reception because I dipped them in dark chocolate that I melted on a double boiler. 🍫
We didn’t have an ice cream on hand, but these cookies make a great dessert all on their own. 🍪
I had mentioned in 9-26: Crispy Beef Turnovers and 13-13: Spinach Turnovers that there was a third turnover recipe that I had intended to make (for a trio of turnovers), but that the third recipe required a different cooking method (deep-frying versus baking), so I chose to shelve it until I could do it right.
Well, I happened to have a (borrowed, since returned) mini deep-fryer in my possession recently, so 1-7: Trader Vic’s Crab Turnovers (the fabled third turnover recipe) was finally about to become a reality.
I do enjoy getting falafel when I go out to a Middle-Eastern restaurant. It’s much easier to cook them when you have a deep fryer. In the past, I have pan-fried some falafel, but it tastes the best when it is crispy and fried. Since we happened to be borrowing a deep-fryer, I made 13-7: Falafel.
I didn’t have any pita on hand, so I served the balls with a spicy dipping sauce instead of in the traditional pita pocket.
9-2: Mexican Fiesta sounds exciting, but it’s really just poorly layered nachos. I know that they were trying to make it seem like a casserole, but all the good stuff that goes in tacos/nachos is basically layered in a pan and covered with a layer of chips on top. I think you’re supposed to eat it like a dip? 🌮
I like the touch of the Corona with a lime in the background of their picture, like all of a sudden that makes it a party. I can’t think of too many decent Mexican places that would serve something like this, but if you want something festive yet inoffensive for a party or a lengthy Netflix session, I suppose this recipe could get the job done. 🌶
I have never cooked steak using the method in this recipe, 8-11: Sirloin Steak Baked in Foil, before and I probably would never cook them this way again. I like all the extra garnish, but it is a pain to cut and prepare that many vegetables for people to pick around to get to the main ingredient, the BEEF. 🐮
I used the red wine suggestion on the card, but I felt like I should have used beef broth to keep the beef-y flavor. This recipe also keeps a trend going, sticking with the foil pouch cooking method that Jamie used in the previous recipe on here, 6-25: Salmon-Filled Chicken Breasts.
I’ve been saving some lox in the freezer from a past brunch for this recipe, 6-25: Salmon-Filled Chicken Breasts. There’s not a lot of salmon recipes in Simply Delicious (despite salmon’s popularity in the 1980s & 90s), and this may be one of the only smoked salmon ones that I have in my collection for this book.
Definitely not the first time Simply Delicious has given a recipe for stuffed chicken breasts–see 6-4: Easy Stuffed Chicken Breasts for another take on the same idea. However, if you like smoked salmon like I do, you may have some extra laying around–here’s a use for it. 🐟