easy – Page 6 – Simply Delicious: The Cookbook Project

2-5: Caribbean Seafood Salad

Jamie Martin Group 02: Salads, Section 1: Appetizers & Starters May 11, 2020February 18, 2024apple cider vinegar, apples, asparagus, bananas, Belgian endive, black pepper, blanched, Boston lettuce, Caribbean, chicory lettuce, chilled, cooked shrimp, cucumbers, curly endive, Dijon mustard, dressing, easy, fairly expensive, fruit, garnish, gluten-free, iceberg lettuce, lemons, lettuce, mayonnaise, peeled, Romaine lettuce, salads, salt, seafood, shellfish, shrimp, sliced, sour cream, tarragon, tender-crisp, untested, West Indian

Every so often throughout this project, I run into entries that make no sense, culinarily. I’ll admit–my knowledge of Caribbean cuisine is probably more limited compared to other types. However, I find it hard to believe that 2-5: Caribbean Seafood Salad is an “authentic” representation of a real Caribbean dish.

The other similar recipes I’ve found for “Caribbean seafood salad” include pineapple, papaya, and/or mango, and all look much better than this apple/banana/asparagus mess. Keep that in mind–there’s better ways to use these ingredients (and to make a “Caribbean seafood salad”) than what they’re out here trying to do.

16-42: Easy Lime Pie

Jamie Martin Group 16: Pies & Cakes, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods May 6, 2020July 2, 2020butter, cottage cheese, creamed, crushed, dessert, easy, eggs, fairly inexpensive, food processor, fruit, garnish, gift ideas, graham crackers, granulated sugar, grapes, grated, juiced, lemon balm, lime juice, limes, melted, mint, peeled, pie crust, pies, twice-baked, untested

If you were around in the 1980s-1990s, you may remember the obsession with low-fat everything, and finding ways to make “sinful indulgences” into something “guilt-free“. Note the deliberate choice of words, and that we still use that type of psychological framing around food today (and have been for a long time, even prior to the era in question).

The “low-calorie swap” in 16-42: Easy Lime Pie is cottage cheese, which was all the rage in the 1970s as a “healthy” option, but could still be found in a lot of recipes throughout the 80s and 90s.

I feel like even Simply Delicious didn’t really know how to make this pie sound appealing–do you think halved grapes as a garnish can be considered something notable? You can definitely tell this particular recipe was aimed at the dieting/low-calorie crowd.

2-22: Salad Bar with Warm Dressing

Jamie Martin Group 02: Salads, Section 1: Appetizers & Starters May 5, 2020May 4, 2020alfalfa sprouts, beets, broccoli, cabbage, canola oil, carrots, celery, chicken bouillon, chicken broth, curry powder, dairy-free, dinner, dressing, easy, egg-free, emulsion, gluten-free, grated, healthy, herb salt, inexpensive, lemon juice, lemons, lunch, olive oil, party food, peeled, radishes, red onions, salads, sunflower oil, tarragon, turnips, untested, vegan, vegetable bouillon, vegetable broth, vegetables, vegetarian

I love a good salad bar, or did, before coronavirus turned everything in our lives upside down. One of my family’s favorite restaurants when I was a kid featured an impossibly long salad bar. A friend and I even entered an essay-writing contest at Souplantation back in college and won ourselves 30 free meal passes, which we blew through quicker than you’d expect.

2-22: Salad Bar with Warm Dressing is equivalent to most of these at-home solutions we’ve seen during this pandemic–a pale imitation of the real thing. Consider this recipe the “haircut I did myself because everything is closed” of salad bars.

I suppose if you just lumped all the same ingredients on top of some quinoa and called it a Buddha bowl instead, you could send this recipe forward in time from the 1980s to modern day.

Of course, you’d have to take an artsy picture (or 100), slap some filters on it, and post it to social media with a bunch of hashtags first to really modernize it. Do you think they really eat the food after they take pictures of it, or is it just for the ‘gram? 🤔

12-21: Luxury Rice with Shrimp

Jamie Martin Group 12: Pasta & Rice, Section 2: Main Courses May 4, 2020July 2, 2020asparagus, bay shrimp, butter, casserole, cooked shrimp, crab, curry powder, dinner, easy, egg whites, fairly expensive, folded, gluten-free, krab, long-grain, lunch, mayonnaise, meringue, mushrooms, peeled, rice, sautéed, seafood, shellfish, shrimp, stiff peaks, untested, vegetable bouillon, vegetable broth, whipped, whipping cream

When I made 11-9: Fried Jumbo Shrimp, I decided to try to knock out a bunch of recipes at once, thinking I could just buy a few pounds of shrimp and save myself multiple trips to the store. One of the other shrimp recipes I made was this one, 12-21: Luxury Rice with Shrimp.

One of the glaring problems with this theory is that shrimp goes bad QUICKLY, and unless you want to cook/eat a ton of shrimp all at once, you might not end up using all of it in time.

This is what happened to me, and I ended up having to toss a bunch of the shrimp (which was on sale–BIG red flag) before I could even use it and buy more (not on sale this time 💰💰). So much for trying to reduce my environmental and financial impact.

Consider that before you attempt my idea. Also, make sure the recipe is worth it–this one was not even worth rebuying the shrimp, in my opinion.

7-53: Cider-Braised Pork Chops

Jamie Martin Group 07: Pork, Section 2: Main Courses April 29, 2020May 26, 2020apple cider, autumn, boiled, boneless, braised, butter, chopped, cider, deglazed, Dijon mustard, dinner, easy, fall, herb salt, inexpensive, lunch, meal prep, parsley, pearl onions, pork chops, salt, sautéed, untested

I’m working through a HUGE backlog right now, so you’re currently getting recipes that I cooked last fall–case in point, 7-53: Cider-Braised Pork Chops. This is more of a fall/autumn-type recipe (when fresh cider is in season), but don’t let that hold you back from your cider-braised, pork-scented dreams.

There’s a TON of pork chop recipes in this book–I feel like every time I think I’ve got them all, another one pops up. If you like pork chops, check out 7-28: Pork Chops with Rosemary, 7-9: Hunter’s Style Pork Chops, or 7-26: Maple-Glazed Pork Chops for just a few examples.

1-3: Melon with Smoked Turkey

Jamie Martin Group 01: Hot & Cold Appetizers, Section 1: Appetizers & Starters April 14, 2020February 18, 2024appetizers, black pepper, breasts, canola oil, cantaloupe, cherry tomatoes, chicken, chicory lettuce, chilled, chopped, cooked chicken, curly endive, Dijon mustard, dressing, easy, escarole, fairly inexpensive, galia, garnish, honey, honeydew, hors d'oeuvres, Italian parsley, lemon juice, lettuce, lunch, melon, mint, peeled, Prosciutto, red bell peppers, Romaine lettuce, salt, sliced, smoked chicken, smoked ham, smoked turkey, tarragon, tomatoes, turkey, untested, vegetable oil

Believe it or not, 1-3: Melon with Smoked Turkey is one of my last few remaining Group 01: Hot and Cold Appetizers recipes left to cover. I’ve put this one off for a while because I’m not a big fan of melon (other than watermelons)–but when the weekly CSA box keeps bringing them to you, you have to do something with them.

Theirs looks super fancy–mine looks like a sloppy mess. I suppose if I were actually serving this for a party I would have tried harder. Melon + meat = appetizer isn’t a new equation–even Pillsbury has their own version. Most versions include prosciutto instead of turkey, which is the variant I’m more familiar with.

7-37: Easy Sweet-and-Sour Pork

Jamie Martin Group 07: Pork, Section 2: Main Courses April 13, 2020April 13, 2020Asian, black pepper, boneless, brown sugar, carrots, Chinese, cornstarch, dairy-free, easy, egg-free, fairly inexpensive, frozen, garlic, ginger, gluten-free, green bell peppers, green onions, leeks, marinated, minced, pan-fried, peeled, pineapple, pork, pork loin, pork shoulder, red wine vinegar, salt, sautéed, scallions, sherry, sliced, slurry, snow peas, soy sauce, stir-fry, sweet peas, sweet-and-sour, sweet-and-sour sauce, tamari, tender-crisp, untested, vegetable oil, vegetables

Sweet-and-sour is not new for Simply Delicious–there’s already 6-27: Sweet-and-Sour Chicken and 11-6: Sweet and Sour Shrimp if you’re in the mood for a different protein besides pork. However, 7-37: Easy Sweet-and-Sour Pork is the only one to advertise itself as “easy”.

Pork is probably the most common version of sweet-and-sour that you see in Chinese restaurants–there’s even a vegan version of it you can buy in most stores. In case you’re looking for something more refined (but maybe not as easy or meatless), here’s Serious Eats’ take on it.

15-20: Apple Compôte

Jamie Martin Group 15: Cold Desserts, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods April 1, 2020April 1, 2020almonds, apple cider, applejack, apples, basted, brandy, brown sugar, Calvados, cold desserts, compôte, dessert, easy, egg yolks, eggs, granulated sugar, inexpensive, meringue, mint, nuts, sliced, stiff peaks, toasted, untested, vegan, vegetarian, wax paper

Let’s get the first question out of the way right now. Compôte means “mixture” in French, so 15-20: Apple Compôte is essentially fancy applesauce. Don’t even worry about exerting the effort to mash the apples–these are just syrupy slices.

Some of you might have thought of pie filling when you saw “compôte”–I know I did. There’s actually differences between jam, jelly, preserves, conserves, and compote–I still don’t know if this iteration matches up with their definition, but here’s a recipe from my same trusted source (Serious Eats/Stella Parks) for essentially the same thing we’re making here.

2-18: Luncheon Salad

Jamie Martin Group 02: Salads, Section 1: Appetizers & Starters March 19, 2020October 28, 20211980s, blue cheese, boiled, butter, cheese, cottage cheese, croutons, dressing, easy, emulsion, Feta, gluten-free, granulated sugar, grapes, healthy, inexpensive, lemon juice, lemons, lettuce, lunch, melted, nuts, olive oil, Romaine lettuce, salads, salt, sautéed, tarragon, untested, vegetarian, Waldorf, walnuts, white wine vinegar

Reporting LIVE (to print), from an undisclosed location in Northern California, USA, currently sheltering-in-place and teleworking due to COVID-19/coronavirus/the apocalypse. It’s getting crazy out there, y’all–stay safe and healthy. And wash your hands.

Since we’re all stuck inside for a while, and I’ve got a big backlog of these to get through (over 50), here’s one more thing to pass the time. 2-18: Luncheon Salad is pure 1980s–turn up the vaporwave (for A E S T H E T I C), find your best matching sweatsuit, and crack open a Tab.

I don’t remember feeling like this salad was a treat–more like a punishment. If you can find some cottage cheese in the store right now, go for it–just don’t invite your friends. #socialdistancing

8-25: Stir-Fried Beef

Jamie Martin Group 08: Beef, Section 2: Main Courses March 2, 2020March 2, 2020Asian, beef, canola oil, carrots, Chinese/dark soy sauce, dairy-free, dinner, easy, egg-free, fairly inexpensive, ginger, grated, green onions, julienned, leeks, marinated, mushroom soy sauce, mushrooms, red bell peppers, salt, sautéed, sesame oil, sirloin, soy sauce, stir-fry, tender-crisp, vegetable oil, wok

Stir-fry is not a new concept for Simply Delicious, so you may feel a sense of déjà vu while reading this recipe if you’ve spent any considerable time on this site. 8-25: Stir-Fried Beef isn’t much more than you’re expecting, so if a quick and easy stir-fry is what you’re looking for, read on.

With rice, 10/10.

In this case, 12-28: Tri-Color Risotto. So more like 6/10.