diced – Page 4 – Simply Delicious: The Cookbook Project

2-10: Spinach Salad

Adam Martin Group 02: Salads, Section 1: Appetizers & Starters March 15, 2017October 4, 202012-11-08 dinner, 4-92 week, appetizers, bacon, chopped, creamy, diced, Dijon mustard, dinner, dressing, easy, eggs, favorites, fried, garnish, gluten-free, Hutton house, inexpensive, julienned, lemons, lunch, mayonnaise, mushrooms, pan-fried, party food, pork, radishes, revisited, roach motel apt, salads, side dish, sliced, sour cream, spinach, vegetables

The card for 2-10: Spinach Salad is great because it has notes and reviews from the attempts of two other chefs I really admire, Jamie and her mother. From the date of the original note, I can deduce that Jamie’s mom made this recipe almost 25 years ago. She gives a succinct review, “Very Good, Very Easy.” Jamie’s equally positive review of her attempt at making this recipe 9 years back is encouraging. Making this salad for dinner one night after work is a super easy task and I agree with the previous reviews written on the card.

Simply Delicious helps you learn in so many different ways. Not only do I get a recipe for a salad, I get some history about the main ingredient: SPINACH!

Editor’s note: I made this as part of a “fancy dinner” in my first apartment, a year or two after college. I was so happy to have a kitchen and table to call my own, I invited some friends over, busted out a few Simply Delicious recipes, and threw a “fancy” dinner party, complete with table settings and after-dinner coffee.

5-14: Thai Chicken Omelette

Jamie Martin Group 05: Eggs & Cheese, Section 1: Appetizers & Starters March 12, 2017October 13, 2020Asian, bean sprouts, boneless, breakfast, canola oil, chicken, chopped, cilantro, cooked chicken, cubed, curry paste, curry powder, dairy-free, diced, dinner, easy, eggs, filling, French, healthy, herbs and spices, inexpensive, lemon balm, lemongrass, lunch, omelette, Oriental, parsley, pasta/noodles, peanut oil, rice, rice noodles, sautéed, sesame oil, sliced, soy sauce, sriracha, steamed, tamari, Thai, tomatoes, untested, vegetable oil

Looking for a way to use up some leftover chicken for breakfast or lunch? 5-14: Thai Chicken Omelette doesn’t require a ton of ingredients, but makes for a light yet hearty meal. Omelettes are something Simply Delicious does quite a bit of (5-33: Omelette Stacks with Rice, 5-21: Omelette with Herbs, or 5-9: Swiss Cheese and Crouton Omelette are just a few examples), but this one’s definitely a decent take on it.

Simply Delicious mentions the Thai cuisine featuring lots of fruits and vegetables, but this recipe doesn’t have much in the way of produce, other than maybe the bean sprouts. Try substituting sautéed squash or carrots for a vegetarian alternative to the chicken.

2-4: Chef’s Salad

Jamie Martin Group 02: Salads, Section 1: Appetizers & Starters February 22, 2017February 17, 2020American, appetizers, bacon, black pepper, canola oil, Cheddar, cheese, chopped, cooked chicken, cubed, diced, dinner, dressing, easy, eggs, fairly inexpensive, garlic, gluten-free, grated, ham, hard-boiled, herbs and spices, iceberg lettuce, julienned, lemon juice, lunch, mushrooms, New York, parsley, radicchio, radishes, restaurant-style, Romaine lettuce, salads, salt, sliced, slit, spinach, tomatoes, turkey, untested, vegetables, watercress

2-4: Chef’s Salad is another somewhat classic American restaurant dish to serve with your 1-18: Club Sandwich. Wikipedia gives it a similar history–most accounts trace it back to early 20th century New York, although a few credit it to originating in 17th century England. This iteration is pretty similar to most you’ll find in modern-day restaurants–the beauty of the chef salad is that the ingredients are at the discretion of the chef. ‍

I NEED that creepy statue in the Simply Delicious picture. Google has nothing decent for me when I search “hippopotamus chef“, but you never know–someday one of my thrift store treasure hunt trips may pay off.

9-37: Ground Meat and Bean Dinner

Adam Martin Group 09: Ground Meat & Sausage, Section 2: Main Courses January 9, 2017October 19, 2020apples, bay leaves, black olives, boiled, canola oil, chopped, cinnamon, cloves, dairy-free, diced, dinner, dried herbs, fairly easy, fairly inexpensive, garlic, gluten-free, green olives, ground beef, ground meat, herbs and spices, lunch, party food, pinto beans, red bell peppers, red kidney beans, salt, sautéed, simmered, soaked, stews, tomato paste, tomato sauce, tomatoes, untested, vegetables, white beans, yellow onions

This dish is a dish that just “isn’t quite”. Isn’t quite good, isn’t quite bad. Like a bootleg chili, 9-37: Ground Meat and Bean Dinner is a Simply Delicious mess of a dish that isn’t quite chili and isn’t quite a casserole. 🌶

Unusual flavors is an understatement. Apples, cloves and cinnamon are a very old school meat and flavor combination. The broadest definition of meat is a solid food so pretty much everything used to be called meat. Merriam Webster Dictionary features an archaic definition of meat: “the edible part of something as distinguished from its covering (as a husk or shell)”. Fruit meat, nut meat, vegetable meat, the fleshy part that provides sustenance is technically a meat under this really old definition.

6-41: Chicken Breasts with Tomato Salsa

Adam Martin Group 06: Poultry & Game, Section 2: Main Courses January 3, 2017October 15, 2020basil, black pepper, boneless, breasts, broiled, cast-iron, chicken, chopped, dairy-free, diced, dinner, dried herbs, easy, egg-free, garlic, gluten-free, green onions, grill pan, grilled, healthy, herbs and spices, inexpensive, Italian, lime juice, limes, lunch, minced, olive oil, party food, Roma/plum tomatoes, salsa, salt, scallions, skinless, thyme, tomatoes, untested, vegetables

I like dishes that are easy enough to prepare on a weekday night. 6-14: Chicken Breasts with Tomato Salsa teaches you to make a simple salsa to put on top of some tasty chicken breasts. 🍗

I really enjoy dishes like this for dinner: simple and flavorful ingredients which combine to make a nutritious, Simply Delicious meal.

18-3: Good Kitchen Knives

Jamie Martin Group 18: Basic Techniques, Section 4: Cooking School January 2, 2017September 30, 2020carved, chiffonade, chopped, cooking school, cored, deboned, diced, garnish, julienned, knives, minced, pared, peeled, scored, slashed, sliced, slit

It’s a new year, and it’s also been a long time since I’ve covered any of the Cooking School portion of the back of the Simply Delicious cookbook. One of the featured topics is 18-3: Good Kitchen Knives, essential tools for any cook. I’ve had a lot of terrible knives, and I’ve got a long way to go until I make jaws drop with my knife collection, but I’ve got a few that are not too shabby. 🔪

I’m going to try NOT to make this a “look at all my cool knives” kind-of-a-thing, because honestly, my collection isn’t all that Internet-impressive–I don’t have a ton of trendy Japanese pieces or massive cleavers, because I just don’t cook that way too often. Plus, I feel about knives like I feel about cars–give me a broken-in cheap old workhorse over a shiny speedster you’re afraid to scratch up any day of the week. 🚙

17-49: Apple Muffins

Adam Martin Group 17: Baked Goods, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods December 30, 2016November 8, 2020all-purpose flour, apples, autumn, baked goods, baking cups, baking powder, breakfast, butter, candied, chopped, cinnamon, cored, cut in, dessert, diced, eggs, fall, fruit, gift ideas, ginger, half-and-half, hazelnuts, herbs and spices, holiday baking, Hutton house, milk, muffins, powdered sugar, revisited, salt, sifted, snacks, streusel, vegetarian, winter, XMAS 16

My contribution to this year’s holiday baking (XMAS 16) consists of two recipes which include my favorite fruit: Apples! 🍎 🍎 🍎

I ended up multiplying this recipe by 3, which gave us more than enough apple muffins for the holiday gifts. 🎄

The notes on the front of the card are from Jamie’s mom. I made this recipe once before when I had a lot of apples laying around.

6-29: Stuffed Turkey

Jamie Martin Group 06: Poultry & Game, Section 2: Main Courses December 8, 2016June 18, 2020all-purpose flour, American, basted, black pepper, bread crumbs, breasts, brushed, butter, carved, chicken bouillon, chicken broth, chopped, cornbread, cubed, deglazed, diced, dinner, dried herbs, drumsticks, egg-free, fairly hard, fairly inexpensive, giblets, gravy, half-and-half, herbs and spices, lemons, meat thermometer, melted, paprika, party food, roasted, roasting pan, rubbed, sage, salt, sautéed, side dish, skewered, sliced, soy sauce, stuffed, stuffing, tamari, TGV 2016, Thanksgiving, thighs, thyme, toothpicks, trussed, turkey, twine, untested, vegetables, wings, yellow onions

This recipe, 6-29: Stuffed Turkey, is the WHOLE reason I originally decided to take on the challenge of cooking Thanksgiving dinner this year (TGV 2016)–when else was I going to get a chance to use the actual Thanksgiving recipe but on the holiday itself? I have cooked a Thanksgiving dinner before, but not in my own house, and not planned/shopped/organized for by myself. It was a fun challenge, and I have this card and project to thank for it.

Of course I made this recipe the day of Thanksgiving (Thursday 11/24), and it includes not only the turkey, but traditional stuffing and gravy as well. I cooked this in the afternoon, after making 17-5: Hot Seedy Rolls and 1-5: Pigs in a Blanket in the oven that morning.

This year’s Thanksgiving was at least 2 weeks ago by the time you’re reading this, but I hope that if you had one this year it was a nice one, and that if you’re reading this sometime in the future preparing for the current year’s feast, that yours is nice as well. Mine was lovely despite what’s been a tumultuous year, and this recipe was definitely a big part of making my first solo Thanksgiving successful. Thanks for taking time out of your day to read even just a bit of what I’ve written, and thanks for participating in my project, even just for this brief moment.

I’ve been working on this project for just under 3 years now, and I’ve got at least that long to go to attempt to finish it–thanks for giving me a reason to keep this project alive, an outlet for writing, a focus for creative energy, art to share with my family and friends, and a priceless set of memories and experiences tied to a set of stinky old cookbooks that have always meant a lot to me, and mean even more now. Thank you.

3-16: Hearty Beef Soup

Adam Martin Group 03: Soups, Section 1: Appetizers & Starters December 5, 2016October 4, 2020beef, beef stew, boiled, butter, canola oil, chili peppers, chopped, chuck roast, crushed tomatoes, cumin, diced, dinner, Dutch oven, egg-free, fairly easy, garlic, green bell peppers, herbs and spices, inexpensive, lunch, melted, minced, paprika, potatoes, red bell peppers, rump roast, salt, sautéed, seared, simmered, sliced, soups, stews, tomatoes, untested, vegetables, yellow onions

The winter is the best time of year for soup, especially 3-16: Hearty Beef Soup. This dish made a great lunch dish that was easy to pack for multiple servings.

As the card says, it reheats very well and tastes great even without a side of sour cream.

16-52: Apple Nut Saucepan Torte

Jamie Martin Group 16: Pies & Cakes, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods November 28, 2016November 5, 2020à la mode, all-purpose flour, apples, apricots, autumn, baked goods, baking powder, baking soda, boiled, breakfast, brown sugar, butter, cake pan, cakes, caramelized, cast-iron, cherries, chopped, cinnamon, cored, currants, dessert, diced, dried fruit, eggs, fairly easy, fairly inexpensive, fall, fruit, fruitcake, gift ideas, golden raisins, granulated sugar, grated, herbs and spices, hot desserts, melted, nuts, oranges, papaya, party food, pecans, peeled, pineapple, raisins, snacks, springform pan, TGV 2016, Thanksgiving, torte, untested, vanilla extract, vegetarian, zested

One of the two desserts I made for this year’s Thanksgiving (TGV 2016) was 16-52: Apple Nut Saucepan Torte (the other was 15-49: Chocolate Pudding Deluxe). I wanted something “of the season”, and this seemed like a cross between apple pie and fruitcake.

This was the second dish I made, starting off the Wednesday 11/23 portion of my holiday cooking marathon. Since this cake holds well at room temperature, I planned to just slightly underbake it, and then finish it off for 5-10 minutes in a preheated oven to warm it up for dessert on the day of the holiday.

If I hadn’t made this for Thanksgiving, I think it’d make a great gift (mailed or delivered in person) or potluck dish, especially for an office or somewhere where it would sit for a while. Even though Thanksgiving is over for the year, it’s totally still the season for a cake like this one.

Other dishes I made on this night (Wed. 11/23): the dressing for 1-10: Seafood Louisiana Cocktail, cranberry sauce, 15-49: Chocolate Pudding Deluxe, and a roasted garlic & herb butter to serve with 17-5: Hot Seedy Rolls.