herbs and spices

5-23: Cheese Pie with Tomatoes comes with a bit of a story. About 10 years ago, I spent a week in Chattanooga, Tennessee with my college friend/roommate and his family. His aunt (who was hosting us) attempted to teach me some of her Southern-style recipes while we were there, and one of them was something called “tomato pie”.

Her tomato pie involved a pie crust, tomatoes, a JAR of Hellmann’s (it was the South), and a whole bag of shredded cheese. This one is slightly less heart-attack-inducing.

Here’s a yummy take on baked potatoes. These have been done before, but I’ve seen them referred to as hasselback potatoes.

Most of the hasselback potato recipes you’ll find don’t have cheese on top, so props to Simply Delicious for thinking outside the potato box. Or bag, as it were.

I grew up with turkey meatloaf. You probably grew up with some version of a loaf of meat. 9-28: Stuffed Meatloaf doesn’t stray too far from the traditional mold.

I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t be too thrilled if the planned dinner for a party was a meatloaf. Don’t get me wrong, I’d appreciate the gesture. However, it’s tough to get excited about…meatloaf.

7-28: Pork Chops with Rosemary is a pretty simple pork chop recipe that’s good for a quick dinner. We buy the big packs of chops from Costco, so we always have to come up with different ways to prepare them.

Along with the abundance of pork, we’ve been growing and drying our own rosemary–it’s WAY more potent and flavorful than the packaged stuff from the market. If you have to choose, go with the fresh over the dried–it’ll taste so much better.

Here’s another potato recipe for you. I had a LOT of potatoes to cook. This was the complement to 11-16: Indian Fried Fish, which I posted a few days ago.

This one got stuck to the page before it in the book–hence the destroyed-looking card. You can still see the important parts though–these are mighty tasty. My notes indicate I made it in a chipotle-style a few Christmases ago–we’ll do it legit for this one. For science. 🔬

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.

This was supposed to be 5-24: Meat-Filled Crêpes, but ingredient shortages persist. A trip to the market tomorrow should resolve it, but for now, we’ll have to make do with an old classic, 5-7: Quiche Lorraine.

This one I have made in the past, several times. Two past memorable occasions:

– When my boyfriend (now husband) and I officially moved into our first apartment together a few years ago, we threw a 1970s-themed housewarming party. This along with another quiche, some rumaki, fondue, and other 1970s goodness made up the menu.

– When I was in 7th grade, I had to do some sort of project on France/French culture in my English class (I have no idea why). My project partner and I made this recipe at her house and also bought a Celine Dion CD (where she sings in French) to play while the class ate our quiche. I think her mom returned the CD to Target the next day. That was our lazy, late-90s attempt at French culture. 🇫🇷

Simply Delicious: The Cookbook Project

5-23: Cheese Pie with Tomatoes

4-12: Cheesy Sliced Baked Potatoes

9-28: Stuffed Meat Loaf

7-28: Pork Chops with Rosemary

4-19: Twice-Baked Potatoes

12-6: Seasoned Pasta Toss

5-7: Quiche Lorraine