Simply Delicious: The Cookbook Project – Page 41 – A recipe-by-recipe adventure working our way through a treasured set of 1980s subscription-based cookbooks.

6-35: Chicken Diable

Jamie Martin Group 06: Poultry & Game, Section 2: Main Courses March 5, 2016June 18, 2020black pepper, boiled, boneless, bread crumbs, breasts, broiled, butter, cayenne pepper, cheese, chicken, chicken bouillon, coated, cornstarch, crispy, Dijon mustard, dinner, dredged, egg-free, fairly easy, fairly inexpensive, French, grated, lunch, melted, olive oil, panko, Parmesan, parsley, salt, shallots, sifted, simmered, slurry, tarragon, tarragon vinegar, tenderized, untested, vinegar, white pepper, white wine

Here’s a pretty basic “chicken with sauce” type recipe that can be fancy or not-so-fancy. “Chicken Diable” or “Chicken a la Diable”, as evidenced by the name, is essentially “the Devil’s chicken”, evoking images of spices and fire. 🌶 🔥 As Serious Eats notes in their version of the dish, the French have a very different idea of spiciness than some other cultures.

Everyone’s got their version of this dish–here’s Bon Appetit’s, and Google turns up many more results. Whether it’s actually spicy is up to you–if you actually like things spicy, prepare to have to add some heat to this one.

9-22: Meat Pie

Jamie Martin Group 09: Ground Meat & Sausage, Section 2: Main Courses March 5, 2016July 6, 2020all-purpose flour, baked goods, black pepper, bread crumbs, brown sugar, butter, caramelized, chilled, cookie cutters, cut in, decorative, dinner, dough, egg wash, eggs, fairly hard, fairly inexpensive, flute, French, garlic, gift ideas, ground beef, ground meat, ground pork, ground turkey, lunch, melted, milk, mushrooms, nutmeg, panko, pared, parsley, party food, pastry, pie crust, pies, pot pie, revisited, roach motel apt, salt, sautéed, sun-dried tomatoes, vegetables, Worcestershire sauce, yellow onions

Meat pies have been around for a LONG time (like 9500 BCE old, according to Wikipedia). They cross a lot of cultures and are featured in some fashion in most cuisines (even if they look somewhat different–for example, empanadas, lahmacun, and samosas all are meat/pastry combinations from varied places). 9-22: Meat Pie is probably closest to the French Canadian tradition of meat pies, otherwise known as tourtière.

This one’s got some of my old notes on it–I’ve made this one before, about 6-7 years ago for my friend’s birthday party (the same friend from the 80s party in 1-22: Onion-Potato Diamonds). It was a “pie party” because he was (at the time) obsessed with the Keri Russell movie Waitress, which apparently has something to do with a lot of pies.

I made some adjustments to the recipe the first time (you can see those listed on the side), but this time, we’re going legit.

12-9: Pasta with Salmon and Basil

Jamie Martin Group 12: Pasta & Rice, Section 2: Main Courses February 29, 2016July 27, 2020al dente, all-purpose flour, basil, black pepper, blanched, boiled, butter, canola oil, creamy, dinner, dried herbs, easy, fairly expensive, fish, fish bouillon, half-and-half, lunch, melted, milk, pan-fried, pasta/noodles, roux, salmon, salt, sautéed, smoked salmon, sun-dried tomatoes, tomatoes, untested

Another recipe attempt born of Costco sale inspiration and brought down by too much time between buying stuff and using it up. I did my best with 12-9: Pasta with Salmon and Basil, but I probably didn’t do it justice.

This was the only recipe in Simply Delicious that I could find that used salmon filets, not steaks. I somehow had it in my head that there were several recipes that used salmon, and so was disappointed to find that this was the only one that I was going to knock out, despite now having a few pounds of salmon.

7-9: Hunter’s-Style Pork Chops

Jamie Martin Group 07: Pork, Section 2: Main Courses February 25, 2016June 19, 2020black pepper, butter, chervil, chicken bouillon, chicken broth, cornstarch, dinner, egg-free, fairly easy, fairly inexpensive, gluten-free, melted, mushrooms, parsley, pork, pork chops, salt, sautéed, seared, sour cream, tarragon, tomatoes, untested, vegetables, white wine, yellow onions

Back when I made 7-55: Sunday Pork Stew, I had mentioned that I was intending on making a different recipe, but that I didn’t have the mushrooms to make it. This recipe, 7-9: Hunter’s-Style Pork Chops, was the recipe I was intending to make.

EDIT: This seems to be a popular recipe–it wasn’t one of my favorites, but I hope you enjoy! If you want to know more about this site/me, read this. Thanks for visiting!

“Hunter’s-style pork chops” seems to be a thing, although I’ve never heard of it before this book. Most recipes out there cite it as a “comfort food”, although if they’re already using the word “bland” in and around the recipe (see the second line above on the card), don’t expect anything avant garde.

11-4: Calzone with Seafood

Jamie Martin Group 11: Fish & Seafood, Section 2: Main Courses February 25, 2016July 7, 2020all-purpose flour, calzone, caramelized, cheese, crab, diced, dinner, dough, dried herbs, egg-free, fairly easy, fairly expensive, garlic, Italian, kneaded, krab, lunch, melted, minced, Mozzarella, mussels, olive oil, oregano, pared, pizza, proofed, salt, sautéed, seafood, shellfish, shrimp, stuffed, untested, vegetables, yeast, yellow onions

Here’s one from the Fish & Seafood chapter, which I haven’t delved into for awhile. 11-4: Calzone with Seafood sounds rather strange on paper, and was in fact strange in reality. If you’re picturing a pizza-like calzone with tomato sauce…think again.

If you’ve come here from a search engine looking for a good seafood calzone recipe (which apparently a lot of you do), here’s the TL;DR–the crust and overall cooking method are decent on this recipe, but be prepared to come up with your own fillings. Oh, and if you’re wondering what the heck this site is, read this.

They’ll mention later that the dough is really what they want you to get out of this recipe–the filling is a variable. Knowing that now (after I followed their suggestions), I would have definitely made some adjustments.

19-5: Bananas

Jamie Martin Group 19: Basic Ingredients, Section 4: Cooking School February 18, 2016October 18, 2020bananas, cooking school, ingredients

Part of Simply Delicious‘ Cooking School series, this post is going to take a more in-depth look at a unique ingredient: bananas. 🍌

After the jump, read about how to use, store, & prep bananas. There’s also some links to some Simply Delicious recipes I’ve already covered that use bananas. 😉

16-28: Raspberry Meringue Cake

Jamie Martin Group 16: Pies & Cakes, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods February 18, 2016November 6, 2020all-purpose flour, baked goods, baking powder, cakes, cornstarch, creamed, dairy-free, dessert, egg whites, eggs, fairly easy, fairly inexpensive, folded, fruit, granulated sugar, jam/jelly/preserves, meringue, mint, party food, raspberries, sifted, springform pan, strawberries, untested, vegetarian, whipping cream

Safeway had a deal on raspberries a few weeks back, and I knew there were some raspberry recipes lingering in Section 3 of the book that I needed to get to sooner or later. After purchasing said raspberries, the only recipe that I had all of the other ingredients for was this one, 16-28: Raspberry Meringue Cake.

I didn’t make this for a ladies’ luncheon or anything cult-of-domesticity like that–I made this to eat. I shared some with my husband, but sometimes, you just don’t need a special occasion for cake.

17-17: Banana Bread with Pecans

Jamie Martin Group 17: Baked Goods, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods February 17, 2016August 31, 2020all-purpose flour, baked goods, baking powder, baking soda, bananas, breads, breakfast, bundt, cinnamon, cloves, creamed, easy, eggs, fairly inexpensive, honey, nuts, party food, pecans, quick breads, revisited, sifted, snacks, vegetable oil, vegetarian, yogurt

While I’m not a huge fan of bananas themselves, I’m surprisingly a fan of banana bread. 🍌🍞 It’s always good for breakfast or as a snack. This particular recipe for it, 17-17: Banana Bread with Pecans uses honey to sweeten it, which is a nice alternative to using processed sugar.

Simply Delicious gives you a nice blurb here on bananas–for a more in-depth look, check out 19-5: Bananas, part of the Cooking School series featured at the end of the cookbook.

12-13: Tortellini in Creamy Sauce

Jamie Martin Group 12: Pasta & Rice, Section 2: Main Courses February 16, 2016July 27, 2020al dente, bacon, basil, black pepper, boiled, cheese, creamy, dinner, easy, garlic, inexpensive, lunch, mushrooms, nutmeg, pasta/noodles, salt, sautéed, sweet peas, tortellini, untested, vegetarian, whipping cream

I like tortellini. I like creamy sauce. I didn’t really like this take on those items, 12-13: Tortellini in Creamy Sauce.

This creamy sauce needed a LOT of help in the flavor and texture department, and that shouldn’t be the case for the biggest component of the dish. I did use cheese tortellini instead of meat ones, but even then, it was the sauce that needed the most help.

7-36: Pork Tenderloin with Curry Sauce

Jamie Martin Group 07: Pork, Section 2: Main Courses February 15, 2016June 19, 2020black pepper, brandy, butter, chives, coconut milk, curry powder, dairy-free, dinner, easy, egg-free, fairly inexpensive, half-and-half, peanut oil, pork, pork tenderloin, salt, seared, soy sauce, spice blends, steak sauce, tenderized, untested, whipping cream

Costco had pork tenderloin on sale, so I’ll use that as an opportunity to work my way through some of those recipes in the book. Here’s 7-36: Pork Tenderloin with Curry Sauce, which I made for dinner a few weeks ago.

True to its claims, I made this one pretty quickly one weeknight for dinner. You could make this with a cheaper cut of pork as well (such as a chop) if you don’t want to pay for the more expensive tenderloin cut.