frozen – Page 3 – Simply Delicious: The Cookbook Project

13-8: Vegetarian Calzone

Adam Martin Group 13: Vegetarian Dishes, Section 2: Main Courses April 21, 2018October 28, 20201998 dinner, appetizers, calzone, carrots, celery, chopped, diced, dinner, eggs, fairly easy, frozen, garam masala, garlic, healthy, herbs and spices, Hutton house, Indian, inexpensive, Italian, leeks, lunch, minced, olive oil, party food, pizza, puff pastry, purée, revisited, salt, sliced, steamed, sweet peas, tomato paste, tomato sauce, tomatoes, tzatziki sauce, vegetables, vegetarian

Much like Ben Wyatt, a late-addition character from NBC’s Parks and Recreation, I have enjoyed my fair share of calzones. Hawaiian calzones are one of my favorite types, pineapple and Canadian bacon can’t be beat! However, when wanting to eat in a health conscious manner, 13-8: Vegetarian Calzone is a great meat-free alternative.

Preparing this dish was super easy. A lot of time can be saved by using ready-bought puff pastry.

Editor’s note: This was a dish I made as part of a big family dinner I cooked with a family friend when I was 13–my step-grandmother is vegetarian and we made this so she’d have something to eat. My mom made her a baked potato for Thanksgiving once, complete with a toothpick-and-construction paper turkey head, wings, and tail that I painstakingly spent the day crafting. She did not appreciate the turkey-potato (too closely resembled an animal for her…go figure), but she did like this calzone.

4-10: Spinach-Mushroom Ring

Adam Martin Group 04: Potatoes & Vegetables, Section 1: Appetizers & Starters January 19, 2018October 4, 2020all-purpose flour, black pepper, butter, chopped, creamy, diced, dinner, eggs, fail, fairly easy, fairly inexpensive, frozen, grated, half-and-half, herbs and spices, lunch, milk, mushrooms, nutmeg, ring mold, salt, sautéed, side dish, sliced, spinach, stews, tart pan, untested, vegetables, vegetarian, yellow onions

4-10: Spinach-Mushroom Ring claims to be perfect for a ladies’ luncheon…this light and fluffy egg and mushroom stew dish is yet another dish that I wouldn’t generally make for myself. I ate one of these rings and threw the rest out, and if you know anything about me, that’s something I rarely do.

This dish is described as luscious and from the most accepted and common definition, it can described as richly luxurious or appealing to the senses. The combined flavors of the mushroom sauce and spinach omelette could be described as rich and creamy, but that still doesn’t mean it was a tasty dish.

11-1: Steamed Halibut with Vermouth

Jamie Martin Group 11: Fish & Seafood, Section 2: Main Courses January 18, 2018July 6, 2020blender, butter, creamy, crème fraîche, dinner, dry vermouth, easy, egg-free, fairly expensive, fish, fish bouillon, fish filets, flaked, food processor, frozen, garnish, gluten-free, green bell peppers, halibut, lemon pepper, liquor, melted, red bell peppers, salmon, salt, seafood, seafood steak, sour cream, steamed, strained, sweet peas, tomatoes, untested, vegetables, white pepper, white wine

I had mentioned in 11-5: Lemon Pepper Scallops that we had a plan to cook more of the Fish/Seafood and Beef recipes since we had already gone through a good portion of the Chicken/Poultry, Pork, and Ground Meat/Sausage ones. Summer got busy, and not as many of those recipes got made as I had intended. I made 11-1: Steamed Halibut with Vermouth during those summer months but I never wrote about it until now (while I clear out the queue).

I’ll agree with the method of cooking being excellent: the fish component came out great. I’m not a huge pea or vermouth fan so the sauce was probably not one I would repeat, but it was a well-done sauce otherwise. Technique-wise I feel like it’s definitely one of Simply Delicious‘ stronger offerings–if you’re really into 1980s-style food.

18-2: Basic Yeast Dough II

Jamie Martin Group 18: Basic Techniques, Section 4: Cooking School January 1, 2018September 30, 2020all-purpose flour, baked goods, baking pan, bread flour, bread series, breads, cooking school, dough, fail, frozen, granulated sugar, kneaded, loaf pan, lukewarm, milk, proofed, rye flour, salt, scalded, sifted, vegetarian, white bread, whole wheat bread, whole wheat flour, yeast

Happy New Year! 🍾 We’ll start off this year (as I have other years) by finishing up a bit of old business from last year. I had started a Bread Series at the end of 2017, covering the first part of this Cooking School set (18-1: Basic Yeast Dough I) as well as including 20-12: Basic Rolls as a good base recipe to practice with.

Here, we’ll cover 18-2: Basic Yeast Dough II, which includes the fundamentals of the process of bread-making, as well as some tips on how to tell where your bread may have gone wrong. I’ve been making bread for a while, and I still run into trouble–it’s nice to know what I might have messed up so that I can try to fix it for the future.

Bread making is not a quick process–sometimes you can be working on a bread for 24-48 hours between the blooming, kneading, rising, and proofing. When I was being trained to make bread in the restaurant I worked in a few years ago, we would start making bread at 8 AM, and barely be finished by dinner time around 5-6 PM.

That’s not including our starter which had to be fed every day, as well as making all of the other baked goods that our pastry chef made daily. It can be a LOT of work!

3-19: Soupe Saint Germain

Adam Martin Group 03: Soups, Section 1: Appetizers & Starters December 31, 2017October 4, 2020all-purpose flour, black pepper, blender, boiled, butter, champagne, creamy, dinner, dried herbs, egg-free, fail, fairly easy, fairly inexpensive, food processor, French, frozen, grated, half-and-half, herbs and spices, horseradish, lunch, milk, mounted, Prosecco, purée, roux, sage, salt, soups, sour cream, sparkling, sweet peas, untested, vegetable bouillon, vegetable broth, vegetarian, whipping cream, white wine, yellow onions

Working on the Simply Delicious Cookbook Project with Jamie has given me an opportunity to learn and expand my culinary palette. As with a lot of these dishes, I have never tried 3-19: Soupe Saint Germain before. This soup is made with ingredients I generally enjoy, but the end product was hardly enjoyable. The sparkling white wine was probably my least favorite component of the dish and not something I normally drink.

To the best of my recollection, I haven’t eaten many other classic French soups. My version of this dish may have been less than stellar due to a less than fresh bottle of sparkling white wine and my substitution of sour cream for cream.

Editor’s note: Potage St. Germain is essentially “pea soup”. There’s many variations out there, but not too many with sparkling wine in them. Since it’s New Years’ Eve, here’s an interesting alternative for all that Champagne you may have on hand…Happy New Year and we’ll see you in 2018! 🥂

15-19: Layered Fruit Salad

Jamie Martin Group 15: Cold Desserts, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods May 28, 2017July 30, 2020bananas, breakfast, brunch, chilled, cold desserts, dairy-free, dessert, diced, easy, egg-free, fairly inexpensive, frozen, fruit, fruit salad, gluten-free, grapes, kiwis, layers, lunch, MD2017, Mother's Day, orange juice, oranges, party food, peaches, peeled, powdered sugar, raspberries, side dish, sliced, snacks, spring, summer, supreme, untested, vegan, vegetarian

It’s a few weeks after Mother’s Day at this point, but better late than never. This year for Mother’s Day, I took a few Simply Delicious recipes and decided to make a brunch menu out of them for my mom. We usually do lox and bagels at home for our holiday brunch celebrations, but this year I wanted the full Mother’s Day buffet experience–but still at home. It’s not brunch without fruit salad, so the first entry for this grand event (MD2017) is 15-19: Layered Fruit Salad.

But wait a minute, you say! This is from the Cold Desserts category? How can it be for brunch?

It’s fancy fruit salad–I think it’ll be okay either as a dessert or a brunch side dish. Plus, I need to burn off some of these dessert recipes–so many of them require fresh fruit and summer is the best time for that.

17-18: Golfer’s Rolls

Jamie Martin Group 17: Baked Goods, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods March 20, 2017August 31, 2020alfalfa sprouts, all-purpose flour, anise, apples, avocados, baked goods, breads, Brie, butter, cardamom, Cheddar, cheese, Colby Jack, cooked chicken, cream cheese, cucumbers, dark corn syrup, dough, dried herbs, dried spices, egg-free, fairly easy, fennel, frozen, ham, herbs and spices, hummus, inexpensive, kneaded, light corn syrup, lukewarm, lunch, mayonnaise, melted, milk, Monterey Jack, Pepper Jack, picnic, proofed, Provolone, rolls, rye flour, sandwiches, sausage, sliced, smoked ham, Swiss, toasted, turkey, untested, vegetarian, yeast

If you’re looking for something you could use for making lunches in advance, 17-18: Golfer’s Rolls could be an option. My suggestion? Use a creamier, softer cheese like they do in their picture (Simply Delicious shows Brie) or add some mayonnaise/avocado/hummus at the time of eating because these rolls can get a little dry.

Simply Delicious advocates freezing these rolls after filling them like sandwiches, and then bringing them with you somewhere (like a golf course). While my new co-workers like to play golf a lot, I only ended up bringing these to lunch at my desk. ⛳️

16-14: Orange-Almond Cake

Jamie Martin Group 16: Pies & Cakes, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods March 14, 2017July 30, 2020all-purpose flour, almond paste, almonds, baked goods, bundt, butter, cake pan, cakes, chilled, chocolate, citrus, creamed, dark chocolate, dessert, double boiler, eggs, fairly expensive, fairly hard, frozen, fruit, garnish, glazed, grated, individual, juiced, loaf pan, melted, nuts, orange juice, oranges, party food, sliced, snacks, toasted, vegetarian, whipping cream, zested

No, this isn’t a repeat of 16-47: Orange-Almond Pie–at least, not exactly. 16-14: Orange-Almond Cake uses almond paste while the pie version used almond meal (flour). This one also includes dark chocolate, which ALWAYS goes well with almond and orange flavors. 🍫

In the interest of not eating the whole cake at once (which is possible with something like this), I’m going to bake 12 individual cakes instead with a mini-Bundt pan that I have. That way, I can make them all, wrap and freeze them so that we can pull out a portioned piece for dessert without the temptation of eating the whole thing.

15-18: Chocolate Favorites

Adam Martin Group 15: Cold Desserts, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods December 18, 2016October 29, 2020all-purpose flour, baking cups, brownies, butter, chilled, chocolate, chocolate chips, chocolate curls, cold desserts, creamy, dessert, egg whites, egg yolks, eggs, fairly easy, fairly expensive, frozen, melted, meringue, party food, pastry, powdered sugar, semisweet, snacks, sour cream, untested, vanilla extract, vegetarian, whipped

Cold desserts are not my area of expertise, but I gave it a shot for this recipe. ❄ 15-18: Chocolate Favorites were a hit! I really just got a kick out of saying “Chocolate Favorite” when describing these little treats. 🍫

Bite sized pastries are the best! These two layers did come out as intended, a one-two punch of chocolate flavors. This recipe did indeed make me want to rejoice. 😆

1-5: Pigs in a Blanket

Jamie Martin Group 01: Hot & Cold Appetizers, Section 1: Appetizers & Starters December 6, 2016December 24, 2019all-purpose flour, American, appetizers, black olives, butter, cocktail, cocktail sauce, cottage cheese, dough, egg wash, eggs, fairly easy, franks, frozen, hors d'oeuvres, hot dogs, inexpensive, milk, party food, pastry wheel, puff pastry, sausage, Silpat, TGV 2016, Thanksgiving, toothpicks, vegetarian, wieners, yellow mustard

The second of two appetizer dishes I made for Thanksgiving this year (TGV 2016), 1-5: Pigs in a Blanket aren’t a surprise to many who grew up with these being served at various parties & gatherings. I’ve been looking for an event like this to make this recipe for, and I finally found it–it doesn’t get more traditional American than Thanksgiving.

This was the sixth of seven dishes I cooked for this year’s feast, and I made these the day of Thanksgiving (Thursday 11/24) while I waited for the whole wheat kernels I needed for 17-5: Hot Seedy Rolls to finish soaking. I waited until the day of to make these because they really taste best as fresh as you can make them.

Since this is technically being posted after Thanksgiving, these work well for Christmas, parties, or really even just a Saturday night Netflix marathon. The stains and wrinkling of the card (I scanned these over two years ago at this point) tell me someone else may have whipped up some of these sometime in the past, although no other clues exist pointing to whom or when. The tagline at the bottom is right though–most everyone can get on board with these “pigs”.