easy – Page 26 – Simply Delicious: The Cookbook Project

4-23: Mashed Potatoes with Broccoli

Jamie Martin Group 04: Potatoes & Vegetables, Section 1: Appetizers & Starters June 18, 2014September 25, 2022blender, boiled, broccoli, broiled, chives, dinner, easy, food processor, gluten-free, green onions, half-and-half, inexpensive, lunch, mashed potatoes, nutmeg, pared, potatoes, revisited, side dish, tomatoes, vegetable bouillon, vegetable broth, vegetables, vegetarian, whipping cream, yellow onions

The fourth of the 4 dishes I made before I left for my trip a few weeks ago is from Book 1, Group 1 (Appetizers & Starters), Subgroup 4 (Potatoes & Vegetables), Card #23: Mashed Potatoes with Broccoli. I made this dish to accompany 6-4: Easy Stuffed Chicken Breasts and to use up some CSA veggies.

They ended up being kind of…boring. I realize neither mashed potatoes nor broccoli are EXCITING things, but this dish needed a lot of help.

3-13: Velvety Carrot Soup

Jamie Martin Group 03: Soups, Section 1: Appetizers & Starters June 16, 2014March 14, 2020allspice, appetizers, autumn, blender, carrots, chicken bouillon, chicken broth, chopped, crème fraîche, diced, dinner, dried spices, easy, fall, food processor, garnish, Glendale apt, gluten-free, half-and-half, inexpensive, lunch, milk, nutmeg, purée, salt, side dish, soups, sour cream, thyme, untested, vegetable broth, vegetables, vegetarian, yellow onions

I think one of my favorite parts of old cookbooks is the adjectives they use to describe their dishes. I like to imagine a team of writers/cookbook jockeys staying late into the night, trying to dream up the perfect word to engage some adventurous cook into what would be an otherwise mundane-sounding recipe. How do you make carrot soup sound exciting?

That’s where “velvety” comes in. I present–3-13: Velvety Carrot Soup.

Oh, Simply Delicious. I admire you for trying to get me so excited about your carrot soup, that you put smiley face dollops of sour cream on your camera bowls.

When you have a LOT of carrots to get rid of and you’re looking for something velvety, Simply Delicious has you covered.

12-6: Seasoned Pasta Toss

Jamie Martin Group 12: Pasta & Rice, Section 2: Main Courses May 30, 2014July 27, 2020basil, boiled, breasts, cheese, chicken, cooked chicken, cooked shrimp, crab, dairy-free, dinner, easy, fettuccini, garlic, ham, healthy, herbs and spices, inexpensive, Italian, linguine, low heat, lunch, minced, olive oil, Parmesan, parsley, party food, pasta/noodles, salt, seafood, side dish, spaghetti, tagliatelle, tossed, untested, vegan, vegetarian

I jumped several sections ahead a few weeks ago when I needed to make a pasta side dish for something (I don’t even remember what at this point). I don’t have this group scanned yet and I procrastinated on scanning the card–oh well. 🌿

We find 12-6: Seasoned Pasta Toss in Book 2, Group 2 (Main Courses), Subgroup 12 (Pasta & Rice). I still have a ton of parsley in my freezer and gluten-free rice pasta in my pantry, and it’s time to clean house.

Too bad it turned out to be less than impressive. It’s my fault, but still.

4-13: Fennel au Gratin

Jamie Martin Group 04: Potatoes & Vegetables, Section 1: Appetizers & Starters May 28, 2014October 13, 2020all-purpose flour, appetizers, au gratin, black pepper, blanched, broiled, butter, Cheddar, cheese, cheese sauce, dips, easy, egg yolks, eggs, fairly expensive, fennel, melted, milk, Monterey Jack, salt, side dish, untested, vegetables, vegetarian

Fennel has been a challenge ever since we started receiving CSA boxes a year or two ago. I really never cooked with it before and even now, finding recipes to use with it (that I’ll eat) is difficult.

If you’ve never had fennel, it tastes like black licorice. You eat the bulb part, and usually cut off the stalks & feathery parts. I usually save those parts and put them in when I make chicken stock.

We ended up with two very large fennel bulbs, and so I decided to make 4-13: Fennel au Gratin, because you can’t go wrong when you cover things in cheese.

We paired this with some English cheddar tortilla/gluten-free something-or-other chips as well as put it on top of some veggie patties–both were pretty good. It worked well as a dip–it might be too cheesy as a side dish, unless you added more fennel.

6-26: Chicken Maryland

Jamie Martin Group 06: Poultry & Game, Section 2: Main Courses May 13, 2014June 18, 2020all-purpose flour, black pepper, boiled, bread crumbs, breaded, butter, canola oil, chicken, coated, creamy, crispy, deep-fried, dinner, dredged, easy, fail, fairly inexpensive, fried, fried chicken, half-and-half, lunch, Maryland, melted, milk, pan-fried, panko, paprika, red bell peppers, roux, salt, sautéed, thighs, untested, white bread

A week or two ago after we returned home from a grocery shopping trip, I found myself with a package of chicken that needed to be cooked ASAP due to having its plastic wrap punctured on the way home. Since I had some red peppers that needed to be used up as well, I chose to make 6-26: Chicken Maryland.

Recipe #26 of Subgroup 6 (Poultry & Game) in Book 1, Group 2 (Main Courses) is Chicken Maryland, which is basically a nicely-spiced fried chicken with a red bell pepper cream sauce. The chicken was delightful–the sauce turned out a bit odd, but that was probably my fault.

5-24: Meat-Filled Crêpes

Jamie Martin Group 05: Eggs & Cheese, Section 1: Appetizers & Starters April 24, 2014October 15, 2020all-purpose flour, boiled, breakfast, broiled, butter, Cheddar, cheese, cheese sauce, coconut flour, coconut milk, creamy, crêpes, dinner, dry mustard, easy, eggs, fail, fairly inexpensive, filling, French, grated, ground beef, ground meat, ground turkey, leeks, lunch, milk, paprika, Parmesan, salt, sautéed, stuffed, tender-crisp, untested, whipping cream, white wine

The long-awaited 5-24: Meat-Filled Crêpes. I finally solved my ingredient issues and it was crêpe-time. The only thing is…I’ve never done this before.

Confession time: In all of my time cooking (which is most of my life), I have NEVER made crêpes. I have made many pancakes (as you could imagine), but never a crêpe. This was a first for me and as you will see, I learned many lessons from this attempt.

3-1: Sweet Potato Vichyssoise

Jamie Martin Group 03: Soups, Section 1: Appetizers & Starters April 22, 2014March 14, 2020American, appetizers, autumn, blender, butter, celery, celery root, chicken bouillon, chicken broth, chilled, coconut milk, dinner, easy, egg-free, fall, food processor, French, Glendale apt, gluten-free, grated, half-and-half, inexpensive, lime juice, limes, lunch, melted, nuts, pared, peanuts, peeled, purée, salt, sautéed, simmered, soups, sweet potatoes, tender-crisp, Thanksgiving, untested, vegan, vegetable bouillon, vegetable broth, vegetarian, white wine, yams, yellow onions, zested

Soup is technically easy to make, but can still quickly go wrong. Our CSA box came with 2 lbs. of white sweet potatoes this week, and it was time for something else besides sweet potato fries. The trusty interwebs told me that white sweet potatoes were pretty similar to regular ones, so I thought I’d give 3-1: Sweet Potato Vichyssoise a whirl.

Vichyssoise is originally a French-American creation. This version is definitely more of an autumn/Thanksgiving-type of flavor, but it was still easy to make and pretty good. Obviously the recipe card depicts the use of an orange sweet potato, but white sweet potatoes work pretty well also.

Soup’s on!

2-34: Avocado-Parmesan Salad

Jamie Martin Group 02: Salads, Section 1: Appetizers & Starters April 17, 2014March 14, 2020appetizers, avocados, black pepper, blender, cheese, chopped, cucumbers, Dijon mustard, dinner, dressing, dry mustard, easy, egg-free, fairly inexpensive, Glendale apt, gluten-free, grated, iceberg lettuce, leeks, lemon juice, lemons, lettuce, lunch, olive oil, parsley, peeled, Prosciutto, salads, salt, sliced, tarragon, tarragon vinegar, untested, vegetarian, vinegar

We start our journey in Book 1, Group 1: Appetizers & Starters with 2-34: Avocado-Parmesan Salad. Got that? It’s further broken down into subgroups, depending on different classifications. I see now where I get my classification aptitude.

We start here due to yesterday’s CSA box delivery brimming with already-ripe avocados (a rarity). As avocados are a fickle beast, it was imperative to consume them in the near future.