egg-free – Simply Delicious: The Cookbook Project

5-3: Cheese Fondue

Jamie Martin Group 05: Eggs & Cheese, Section 1: Appetizers & Starters April 16, 2025April 15, 20251970s, appetizers, asparagus, black pepper, blanched, brandy, broccoli, celery, cheese, cheese sauce, cornstarch, cubed, diced, dinner, dips, egg-free, Emmental, fairly easy, fairly expensive, fondue, garlic, grated, green bell peppers, Gruyère, hors d'oeuvres, Jarlsberg, kirsch, liquor, melted, mushrooms, nutmeg, party food, red bell peppers, slurry, steamed, Swiss, tender-crisp, untested, vegetables, vegetarian, white bread, white wine

Hello! In case you were in the mood for more fondue after 14-1: Chocolate Fondue, here’s your opportunity.

5-3: Cheese Fondue is the last new recipe I have for Group 5, and is a NEW BOOK recipe (hence why it’s being covered last). I also got to use my mini electric fondue pot again, which is exciting.

Did you know there are actually 4 types of fondue? We’ve covered chocolate and now cheese, but not yet oil or broth.

Someday I’ll figure out how to cover 7-15: Pork Fondue (since I don’t eat meat), but I don’t see any broth fondue recipes in what I’ve got left, so we may never get all 4 varieties. Simply Delicious wasn’t hip on hot pot, evidently.

Also, happy 11th birthday to this beast of a project.

14-1: Chocolate Fondue

Jamie Martin Group 14: Hot Desserts, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods March 27, 2025March 27, 20251970s, apples, bananas, black cherries, blackberries, blueberries, boysenberries, cherries, cherry liqueur, chilled, chocolate, chopped, cognac, dark chocolate, dessert, easy, egg-free, fairly inexpensive, favorites, fondue, fruit, gluten-free, Grand Marnier, hot desserts, kiwis, liqueur, mangoes, melted, nectarines, orange liqueur, papaya, party food, peaches, pears, peeled, pineapple, plantains, raspberries, raspberry liqueur, semisweet, sliced, strawberries, untested, vegetarian, whipping cream

As promised, I did keep up at least for another week–here’s this week’s dessert, 14-1: Chocolate Fondue.

Alas, there was no party to serve it at–it was a random Thursday (tonight actually) and just the two of us. But with a mini electric fondue pot and a pre-prepared fruit bowl from the market, any day can be fondue day. This, my friends, is the future.

12-12: Pasta Shells with Tomato Sauce

Jamie Martin Group 12: Pasta & Rice, Section 2: Main Courses March 10, 2025March 18, 2025basil, black pepper, blanched, crushed, crushed tomatoes, dairy-free, dinner, easy, egg-free, food mill, herbs and spices, honey, inexpensive, lunch, new book, olive oil, pasta shells, pasta/noodles, peeled, salt, summer, tomato sauce, tomatoes, vegetarian

*tap tap* Hello? Is this thing still on?

I’m back, and like most times where I take an extended break from this, it’s because I’ve been up to things in my real life. In this instance, it was losing 100+ pounds, which can really impact the food/cooking blog hobby. This is more than just “cooking/food” and “blogging”, so I’m making yet another attempt to resurrect this beast, now almost 11 years old.

I honestly did not cook a thing for this blog in 2024 (and haven’t yet for 2025), so we’re still working off the 2023 backlog…which is dwindling quick. I’ll remedy that soon. For now, here’s one of the last few left–12-12: Pasta Shells with Tomato Sauce.

This is a recipe I had specifically saved to make with homegrown tomatoes and basil from a summer garden. Tomatoes and basil are two of the few things I’ve actually been able to grow in my garden, so it was worth the wait.

8-35: Flambéed Steak Diane

Jamie Martin Group 08: Beef, Section 2: Main Courses April 23, 2024April 21, 2024beef, black pepper, brandy, butter, chives, chopped, cognac, deglazed, dinner, egg-free, fairly easy, fairly expensive, flambé, hot sauce, lemon juice, lemons, liqueur, parsley, pearl onions, peeled, salt, sautéed, scraped, shallots, sirloin, steak, untested, white onions, Worcestershire sauce

Today I have something “old-school” for you–8-35: Flambéed Steak Diane. This is a dish that’s been around for a while and is considered “retro” today. It is similar to steak au poivre and is another of those “quick pan-fried steak” recipes that use butter and some sort of umami as a sauce.

This is the last entry from the batch of beef-but-not-beef recipes I made to clean out the freezer–I’ve had those posts sitting in my queue for quite a while. I had to space them out because they’re all SO similar. You can scroll back to 8-39: Tournedos with Blue Cheese Sauce and 8-38: Brandy Two-Pepper Beef Steak for the other entries in this recent “mini-series”.

16-21: Apple Pie with Crumb Topping

Jamie Martin Group 16: Pies & Cakes, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods April 20, 2024April 21, 2024all-purpose flour, apples, autumn, blender, brown sugar, butter, cut in, dessert, easy, egg-free, fall, filling, food processor, fruit, granulated sugar, grated, hazelnuts, inexpensive, lemon juice, lemon peel, lemons, peeled, pies, raisins, sliced, streusel, tart pan, TGV 2022, Thanksgiving, untested, vegetarian, whole wheat flour, zested

Still working on Thanksgiving 2022 (TGV 2022) entries. I made two desserts that year–one of which was this one, 16-21: Apple Pie with Crumb Topping. Gotta have some type of apple dessert for Thanksgiving. The other was 14-37: Chocolate Soufflé, which I posted right after this one.

FYI, by “crumb topping”, they essentially mean a streusel. Not sure why they didn’t name it that instead, but there you go.

17-8: Tasty Dinner Rolls

Jamie Martin Group 17: Baked Goods, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods March 6, 2024March 4, 2024all-purpose flour, baked goods, bread lame, butter, dinner, dough, egg-free, fairly easy, inexpensive, kneaded, milk, new book, proofed, rolls, salt, side dish, slashed, TGV 2022, Thanksgiving, untested, vegetarian, white bread, whole wheat bread, whole wheat flour, yeast

So, it’s probably weird to write about what you made for Thanksgiving when it’s March. It’s probably even weirder to write about what you made for Thanksgiving 2022 in March 2024. But, here we are, and here’s 17-8: Tasty Dinner Rolls. Which I made for Thanksgiving…in 2022 (TGV 2022).

It’s taking me a minute to catch up on some of these, what can I say.

There’s not much more to say about rolls than what they said above. Trust me, I wrote this a few times and then realized each version was essentially a rehash of what they already wrote. Since I’m not trying to hit a word count for a school report here, let’s move on.

8-39: Tournedos with Blue Cheese Sauce

Jamie Martin Group 08: Beef, Section 2: Main Courses March 5, 2024March 4, 2024beef, beef bouillon, beef tenderloin, black pepper, blue cheese, butter, cheese, cheese sauce, cream sauce, crème fraîche, deglazed, dinner, egg-free, expensive, fairly easy, Gorgonzola, reduced, salt, seared, sherry, sour cream, soy sauce, steak, toothpicks, tournedos, trimmed, untested

Back again with another beef-but-not-beef recipe for you–today’s is yet another one that’s been sitting in my queue for quite a while, 8-39: Tournedos with Blue Cheese Sauce. This one is pretty indulgent, whether you use “real” ingredients or not. With the price of everything these days, save this one for a special occasion.

Tournedos are slices taken from the smaller end of a tenderloin (essentially a filet mignon) and are typically paired with something fatty/rich (like bacon, foie gras, cream sauce) due to their leanness.

13-4: Zucchini and Tomato Casserole

Jamie Martin Group 13: Vegetarian Dishes, Section 2: Main Courses March 3, 2024March 4, 2024basil, black pepper, blanched, butter, casserole, chopped, crushed tomatoes, diced, dinner, dried herbs, easy, egg-free, garlic, gluten-free, ham, herbs and spices, inexpensive, layers, lunch, new book, olive oil, peeled, salt, sautéed, side dish, sliced, summer, thyme, tomatoes, twice-baked, untested, vegetables, vegetarian, yellow onions, zucchini

It’s been a wet and windy winter here in California, and I’m looking forward to the spring so I can start working in my garden again. In Summer 2022, I grew zucchini and tomatoes, partially in hopes of being able to use them to cover some of the recipes in this book that featured those types of veggies. One of those recipes is this one, 13-4: Zucchini and Tomato Casserole.

I was also able to use some of the fresh herbs from my garden for this recipe as well. If you like these types of recipes (and if you have a garden), 4-1: Eggplant, Tomato, and Onion Bake, 13-10: Zucchini Piccata, and 13-3: Vegetable Deep Dish Pie might be worth checking out.

8-38: Brandy Two-Pepper Beef Steak

Jamie Martin Group 08: Beef, Section 2: Main Courses February 20, 2024February 19, 2024beef, black pepper, brandy, butter, capers, carved, deglazed, Dijon mustard, dinner, easy, egg-free, fairly expensive, flambé, garnish, gluten-free, gravy, liqueur, olive oil, peppercorns, seared, sirloin, sliced, steak, untested, watercress, Worcestershire sauce

I got into making my own plant-based meats a few years ago, mostly because the options available in the markets at the time were A) expensive; B) hard to find; and C) not very good. B and C have mostly been rectified in the last few years, so I find myself buying more of that and making less of my own (proving that time is money).

However, I had at one point stocked up my freezer with a lot of the homemade stuff, so 8-38: Brandy Two-Pepper Beef Steak is another one of those recipes where I was using up what was left of that stash.

It’s been challenging to figure out how to tackle these meat-focused recipes when I don’t really eat it anymore, so a lot of these have ended up being more “adaptations” rather than full replications of the given recipe. There’s so many cooking travesties on social media and the internet these days–this feels like a drop in the bucket at this point.

8-62: Oven-Baked Baby Beef Ribs

Jamie Martin Group 08: Beef, Section 2: Main Courses March 14, 2023March 14, 2023all-purpose flour, basted, beef, black pepper, brushed, chili sauce, dairy-free, Dijon mustard, dinner, easy, egg-free, fairly inexpensive, lemon juice, lemons, lunch, red onions, ribs, roasted, salt, shallots, untested

Simply Delicious has a lot of rib recipes, however I think 8-62: Oven-Baked Baby Beef Ribs might be the first one I’ve covered that features beef ribs instead of pork. Here’s an article that breaks down some differences between the two types–I haven’t eaten real meat in like 5 years at this point, so I don’t feel like it’s my place to have that discussion with you.

They show their ribs with some baby carrots (you can buy them already cut/prepped to look this way, but perhaps should consider roasting them) and green beans, but if you’d like an unhealthier option (who wouldn’t), you can serve them with some “Kenji” onion rings instead like we did.

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