Simply Delicious: The Cookbook Project – Page 40 – A recipe-by-recipe adventure working our way through a treasured set of 1980s subscription-based cookbooks.

8-17: Pan-Fried Steak with Onions

Jamie Martin Group 08: Beef, Section 2: Main Courses March 16, 2016July 2, 2020beef, black pepper, brown sugar, butter, canola oil, caramelized, dairy-free, dinner, easy, egg-free, fairly expensive, gluten-free, maple syrup, melted, pan-fried, restaurant-style, salt, sautéed, sirloin, soy sauce, steak, tamari, top loin, untested, vegetable oil, vegetables, yellow onions

Here’s a decent way to do a nice restaurant-style steak at home. 8-17: Pan-Fried Steak with Onions–with a few of my tweaks–is (hopefully) bound to impress whomever you’re cooking for.

I’m a hippie when it comes to some things, but I just love a good steak. My dad is a steak man, and his parents before him. I’ve made quite a few in my day, in a lot of different ways. This is probably the easiest, quickest, and most consistent method. Plus, it won’t set off your smoke detector or require you to go outside.

19-16: Butter, Margarine, & Oils I

Jamie Martin Group 19: Basic Ingredients, Section 4: Cooking School March 13, 2016January 21, 2023butter, canola oil, coconut oil, cooking school, how-to, margarine, olive oil, peanut oil, sesame oil, sunflower oil, vegetable oil

Fat is a big part of cooking–it’s where you get most of your flavor. As part of the Cooking School portion of Simply Delicious, 19-16: Butter, Margarine, & Oils I is the first part in a two-part series on common cooking fats and the role they play in the culinary process.

After the jump, Simply Delicious gets into discussing saturated vs. unsaturated fat and into some light comparison of butter, margarine, and oil. Keep in mind that these cards are from the 1980s, and that thoughts and theories on nutrition have changed somewhat over time.

1-13: Crusty Toast with Mushrooms

Jamie Martin Group 01: Hot & Cold Appetizers, Section 1: Appetizers & Starters March 12, 2016December 31, 2019appetizers, breakfast, butter, chanterelle, chives, creamy, diced, dried herbs, easy, egg-free, fairly inexpensive, fried, garlic, Glendale apt, green onions, hors d'oeuvres, lunch, melted, minced, mushrooms, pan-fried, parsley, party food, revisited, salt, sautéed, snacks, sour cream, thyme, toasted, vegetables, vegetarian, white bread, yellow onions

Well folks, this is the 100th cooked recipe I’ve made for this project, which is just shy of 2 years old at this point. I chose 1-13: Crusty Toast with Mushrooms to be the 100th recipe for a reason–it was one of two recipes (along with 1-33: Artichoke & Roasted Pepper Dip) that inspired me to do this project in the first place.

I made this for a birthday party I’ve mentioned before along with 1-8: Delicious Cocktail Snacks and 16-37: Double Decadent Brownie Torte. It’s a great appetizer and a delicious snack.

16-37: Double Decadent Brownie Torte

Jamie Martin Group 16: Pies & Cakes, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods March 11, 2016November 6, 20204-6-09 dinner, all-purpose flour, baked goods, birthday, brownies, butter, cakes, chilled, chocolate, chocolate chips, cornstarch, creamy, custard, dessert, easy, egg yolks, eggs, fairly inexpensive, frosted, gift ideas, glazed, granulated sugar, Kahlúa, light corn syrup, macadamia nuts, melted, party food, pastry, pastry cream, pecans, revisited, roach motel apt, semisweet, strawberries, torte, vanilla extract, vegetarian, walnuts, whipping cream

I had mentioned in 1-8: Delicious Cocktail Snacks that I had attended a birthday party recently–I used 16-37: Double Decadent Brownie Torte as part of the birthday cake that I made for it. This is one I’ve made before, and this time I kept some of the changes I made the first time.

I noted that I made this with Kahlúa whipped cream the first time. I did that this time too, along with a Kahlúa pastry cream to layer between 2 layers of torte.

7-5: Spareribs

Jamie Martin Group 07: Pork, Section 2: Main Courses March 11, 2016June 18, 2020appetizers, barbecue, black pepper, brown sugar, brushed, canola oil, chili sauce, diced, dinner, egg-free, fairly easy, fairly inexpensive, garlic, gluten-free, lemons, lunch, minced, paprika, party food, pork, ribs, roasted, salt, spareribs, untested, Worcestershire sauce, yellow mustard, yellow onions

There’s a couple of rib recipes in Simply Delicious, but this one’s probably the most basic. It’s still a bit too cold out to BBQ, but 7-5: Spareribs gives you a pretty decent oven method of cooking ribs. As is usually the case, the inspiration for these came from needing room in my freezer after picking ribs up on sale somewhere a month or two ago.

Simply Delicious seems to echo my sentiments. However, their choice of the creepy pig doll for the recipe picture was less than optimal. Anyway, this is pretty easy to do, not that hard to clean up, and works pretty well. Sounds like a winner to me.

1-8: Delicious Cocktail Snacks

Jamie Martin Group 01: Hot & Cold Appetizers, Section 1: Appetizers & Starters March 9, 2016December 24, 2019all-purpose flour, appetizers, blue cheese, butter, Canadian bacon, Cheddar, cheese, chilled, chopped, cocktail, cooked chicken, diced, Dijon mustard, dough, fairly easy, fairly expensive, foie gras, grated, ham, hors d'oeuvres, liver pâté, mayonnaise, melted, Monterey Jack, Parmesan, party food, pepperoni, red bell peppers, salad shrimp, shrimp, Silpat, smoked ham, snacks, spinach, toppings, tuna, twice-baked, untested, vegetables, vegetarian, yellow onions

I recently attended a birthday party, and was tasked with making some of the dishes for the party (as is usually the case). Seeing as some of the guests were “old-school” about their dining preferences, I decided to use up some of the more “old-school” recipes. 1-8: Delicious Cocktail Snacks looks exactly like something a waiter would be carrying around at a fancy cocktail party in an old movie.

So retro. These were pretty easy to make, and actually held really well in the fridge before the party. I reheated them at the party and it worked great–just a thought if you need something for a party that you can make earlier, transport and/or reheat later.

17-6: Best Ever White Bread

Jamie Martin Group 17: Baked Goods, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods March 9, 2016August 23, 2020all-purpose flour, appetizers, baked goods, breads, breakfast, dairy-free, durum wheat flour, egg-free, gift ideas, kneaded, lunch, party food, proofed, revisited, salt, side dish, slit, snacks, steamed, vegan, vegetarian, white bread, yeast

Here’s a really simple and easy white bread recipe if you find yourself in need or want of fresh white bread. 17-6: Best Ever White Bread doesn’t have a lot to it, but if you want to use it for something like 1-13: Crusty Toast with Mushrooms, it works really well.

I made this particular recipe once before, a little under a year ago according to the red Sharpie notes on the card. I was working on this project then, but had taken a bit of a break at that point. I had been making a lot of bread at the restaurant at this point and was doing a bit of practice at home using what I had learned.

5-21: Omelette with Herbs

Jamie Martin Group 05: Eggs & Cheese, Section 1: Appetizers & Starters March 7, 2016October 14, 2020Alton Brown, black pepper, breakfast, butter, chervil, chives, dried herbs, easy, eggs, folded, French, gluten-free, green onions, herbs and spices, inexpensive, lunch, melted, omelette, parsley, salt, Saturday, Sunday, tarragon, untested, vegetarian

A few weekends ago, on a sleepy Saturday morning, I found myself with many eggs, some fresh parsley, and a desire for an omelette. Since I’m now at the point that every time I cook, I consider whether I could use up a Simply Delicious recipe on it, I knew there had to be a true omelette recipe in there, given their heavy reliance on French fine-dining recipes & methods. If you find yourself in a similar predicament, consider making 5-21: Omelette with Herbs.

Simply Delicious shows the half-fold omelette method in their pictures–I’ve always preferred the Alton Brown tri-fold omelette method. This is a truly classic French-style omelette, unlike the last omelette I covered (and messed up), 5-11: Country Omelette.

6-49: Cheese-Glazed Chicken Rolls

Jamie Martin Group 06: Poultry & Game, Section 2: Main Courses March 6, 2016June 18, 2020black pepper, boneless, bread crumbs, breasts, butter, cheese, chicken, dinner, dried herbs, egg-free, fairly easy, fairly inexpensive, garlic, garlic salt, glazed, grated, lunch, melted, Monterey Jack, oregano, panko, Parmesan, parsley, party food, rolls, salt, stuffed, tenderized, twice-baked, untested

I had mentioned in 6-35: Chicken Diable that I had another recipe that I needed to save some of the chicken breasts for–6-49: Cheese-Glazed Chicken Rolls was it. I don’t usually keep chicken breasts around (I think they’re dry and not particularly flavorful), so when I do have them, it’s best to try to knock out as many recipes as possible.

Simply Delicious has a lot of variations of “light chicken breast dinners”–it was the 1980s. If you’re interested in some of these, check out 6-4: Easy Stuffed Chicken Breasts, the aforementioned 6-35: Chicken Diable, or 6-40: Peppercorn Chicken Breasts.

19-13: Cooking with Cheese

Jamie Martin Group 19: Basic Ingredients, Section 4: Cooking School March 5, 2016October 18, 2020blue cheese, Brie, cheese, cooking school, cottage cheese, Feta, French, goat cheese, Gorgonzola, Greek, how-to, Italian, Jarlsberg, Parmesan, Swiss

There’s a lot of recipes in Simply Delicious that use cheese–all different types. While by no means an exhaustive list, 19-13: Cooking with Cheese goes over a few different types that you’ll probably encounter in your own culinary adventures. This is part of the last section of the book, a Cooking School compendium of basic culinary reference material.

Cheese might not be a big part of your diet, but it’s always been a big part of mine (for better or worse–what can I say, my maternal grandparents were Swedish and French and lived in the Midwest USA). After the jump, read more about some common types of cooking cheese.