half-and-half – Page 2 – Simply Delicious: The Cookbook Project

12-20: Fettuccini with Ham

Adam Martin Group 12: Pasta & Rice, Section 2: Main Courses June 8, 2018October 27, 2020black pepper, boiled, butter, cheese, chopped, creamy, diced, dinner, easy, fairly inexpensive, fettuccini, frozen, grated, half-and-half, ham, julienned, lunch, melted, mushrooms, Parmesan, parsley, pasta/noodles, peeled, piquant, pork, salt, sautéed, sliced, smoked ham, sweet peas, untested, vegetables, whipping cream, yellow onions

Fettuccini and ham are different foods I’ve heard of before. 12-20: Fettuccini with Ham is a dish I never could have imagined in my wildest dreams. It is both “piquant and tasty” as described below and I enjoyed the dish a lot.

Time for a confession: I have never cooked fettuccini nests before in my life before I prepared this dish. My parents weren’t adventurous with their pasta choices. We were strictly a spaghetti and angel hair household when it came to noodle pasta. Having a cream based sauce was rare also, they generally opted for a tomato-based sauce.

7-17: Piquant Pork Chops

Jamie Martin Group 07: Pork, Section 2: Main Courses May 20, 2018October 28, 2020apples, barbecue sauce, broiled, brushed, butter, cast-iron, chili sauce, chopped, cloves, creamy, currants, curry paste, dinner, easy, fairly inexpensive, fruit, fruit sauce, golden raisins, grated, Greek yogurt, grill pan, grilled, half-and-half, hot sauce, julienned, milk, Oriental, pan-fried, parsley, peeled, piquant, pork, pork chops, pork loin, pork shoulder, raisins, salt, sautéed, scored, slit, spicy, sriracha, steak sauce, untested, whipping cream, yellow onions, yogurt

Oh boy, yet another pork chops recipe. 7-11: Piquant Pork Chops tries to stand out by boasting a fruity, spicy take on the standard pork-chop-with-pan-sauce entries that have already been covered at length throughout this project.

I think it’s a bit hyperbolic to insist that just adding a “new” spice or sauce to pork chops radically changes it as a dish, but I suppose that for some people it can be a big deal to experience new things outside of the regular old tried-and-true.

12-33: Individual Beef Lasagna

Adam Martin Group 12: Pasta & Rice, Section 2: Main Courses April 23, 2018October 27, 2020beef, boiled, broccoli, canola oil, celery, cheese, cream of mushroom, creamy, dinner, dried herbs, fairly easy, fairly expensive, grated, half-and-half, herbs and spices, individual, lasagna, layers, leeks, lunch, melted, milk, mushrooms, olive oil, oregano, parsnips, pasta/noodles, peeled, roast beef, sautéed, sliced, untested, vegetables

Have you ever thought to make individual servings of lasagna? I’ve never thought to make lasagna in single servings and after attempting 12-33: Individual Beef Lasagna, I would not try it again. Join me, won’t you? Watch as I do my best to follow this recipe from deep within the minds of the wacky editors of Simply Delicious.

The example photo looks so elegant. The blue rimmed wine glass is excellent, I wish I had a set of those. The description is not hyperbolic when it says this is a completely new version of lasagna. It’s barely lasagna.

9-7: Cabbage Rolls

Adam Martin Group 09: Ground Meat & Sausage, Section 2: Main Courses March 16, 2018October 18, 2020all-purpose flour, beef bouillon, beef broth, black pepper, blanched, boiled, braised, butter, cabbage, cooked rice, creamy, deglazed, dinner, egg-free, fairly hard, folded, gravy, Greek, ground beef, ground meat, ground pork, half-and-half, inexpensive, lunch, pan-fried, rice, rolls, salt, slurry, steamed, stuffed, stuffing, untested, vegetables, whipping cream

Cabbage is probably my least favorite cruciferous vegetable. Although cabbage is present in most Chinese food dishes and it doesn’t bother me in that format, however, just the thought of eating plain cabbage is not very appetizing to me. The meatloaf-like mixture inside 9-7: Cabbage Rolls was the most edible part of the dish. I like that they served it with a blurred out Heineken.

Anything that involves a stuffing and rolling procedure is usually best done in a big batch because they are a pain to put together.

4-36: Golden Potato Medley

Adam Martin Group 04: Potatoes & Vegetables, Section 1: Appetizers & Starters February 27, 2018October 13, 2020all-purpose flour, au gratin, black pepper, blanched, boiled, bread crumbs, butter, carrots, casserole, celery, Cheddar, cheese, cheese sauce, chopped, creamy, dinner, easy, egg-free, fairly inexpensive, grated, green bell peppers, half-and-half, lunch, melted, milk, Monterey Jack, panko, pared, Parmesan, party food, peeled, potatoes, red bell peppers, roux, salt, sautéed, side dish, sliced, untested, vegetables, vegetarian, yellow onions, yellow potatoes

There are few things in this world as good as potatoes and vegetables covered in cheesy breadcrumbs. It’s a popular side dish that you’ve seen many variations of. I really enjoyed 4-36: Golden Potato Medley and the plating that Simply Delicious shows below looks so much better than how my dish came out. I go more for utility than aesthetics when I’m cooking, but it’s also true that you eat with your eyes before your stomach. 👀

This dish is the perfect side dish, but it is hearty enough to be eaten as an entree. It doesn’t look like much, but is perfect with hot sauce.

5-8: Royal Crêpes

Jamie Martin Group 05: Eggs & Cheese, Section 1: Appetizers & Starters January 25, 2018January 19, 2023all-purpose flour, breakfast, broiled, butter, butter sauce, Cheddar, cheese, chilled, chopped, cooked shrimp, creamy, crêpes, dill, double boiler, dried herbs, egg yolks, eggs, emulsion, fairly expensive, fairly hard, half-and-half, herbs and spices, Hollandaise sauce, lemon juice, lunch, melted, milk, Monterey Jack, pancakes, peeled, salt, seafood, shredded, shrimp, untested, whipping cream

More queue-cleaning–add 5-8: Royal Crêpes to the pile of other crêpe recipes that I’ve done over the course of this project. When I first started making crêpes for this project about 4 years ago now, I had never made crêpes before. Now I feel like I’ve got a pretty good handle on the concept, so let’s kick it up a notch with a “royal” version. 👑

Oh no–my mortal enemy: Hollandaise sauce. I’ve struggled with it in the past–will this be my redemption? Jump behind the cut and find out!

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.

9-17: Ham-Wrapped Meat Loaf

Adam Martin Group 09: Ground Meat & Sausage, Section 2: Main Courses January 16, 2018October 18, 2020allspice, bacon, beef, black pepper, bread crumbs, chopped, cornstarch, deglazed, diced, dinner, dried spices, eggs, fairly easy, fairly expensive, gravy, ground beef, ground meat, ground pork, half-and-half, ham, herbs and spices, lunch, meal prep, meatloaf, milk, panade, panko, parsley, pork, red onions, salt, sliced, smoked ham, sour cream, tomatoes, untested, white bread

A good friend from high school once had the genius idea to open a meatloaf based restaurant, based on his family’s famous meatloaf recipe. If he ever got the place off the ground, I’d expect he’d add a dish similar to 9-17: Ham-Wrapped Meat Loaf to his menu. I think it’d be weird to have a fast casual restaurant that is based around meatloaf. What would you call it? Meat Loaf Market? Meatloaf-ology?

Wrapping a meatloaf in bacon or ham is a tried and true way to make any ordinary blob of ground meat taste more interesting.

4-20: Oven-Baked Tomatoes

Adam Martin Group 04: Potatoes & Vegetables, Section 1: Appetizers & Starters January 2, 2018October 13, 2020all-purpose flour, appetizers, black pepper, bread crumbs, broccoli, butter, Cheddar, cheese, chopped, crispy, dinner, dried herbs, easy, egg-free, filling, half-and-half, heirloom tomatoes, herbs and spices, hors d'oeuvres, Hutton house, inexpensive, Jarlsberg, lunch, mushrooms, parsley, party food, revisited, roux, salt, sautéed, side dish, sliced, sour cream, stuffed, Swiss, tomatoes, vegetables, vegetarian

I love the appetizer-style dishes featured in Simply Delicious. They are complicated because of making individual portions, but you can prepare them ahead of time to heat and serve when ready. When I make a batch of an appetizer like 4-20: Oven Baked Tomatoes, I like to eat a few right away and then stash the rest in the refrigerator to eat later as a healthy snack.

My family did not grow up eating baked, hollowed-out, stuffed tomatoes, however, that didn’t stop me from thoroughly enjoying this dish.

Editor’s note: Looks like my mom made this one before, and substituted broccoli for mushrooms–that makes sense, she hates mushrooms. She also dislikes tomatoes, so I have no idea why she was making this in the first place.

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! 🥂