juiced – Simply Delicious: The Cookbook Project

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.

15-45: Strawberries with Cottage Cheese

Jamie Martin Group 15: Cold Desserts, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods February 27, 2020February 25, 2020cheese, cold desserts, cottage cheese, dessert, easy, fruit, Grand Marnier, grated, healthy, inexpensive, juiced, lemon balm, liqueur, marinated, mint, nuts, orange peel, oranges, pistachios, powdered sugar, strawberries, summer, toasted, untested, zested

I had extra strawberries left over from 14-22: Strawberry-Peach Cobbler, so I tried to reuse them into 15-45: Strawberries with Cottage Cheese. Simply Delicious is big on using cottage cheese in an effort to be “low-fat” (all the rage in the 1980s when this book was published) and healthy, but they’re not usually very successful.

Don’t be deceived by their pretty picture here. It’s not ice cream. It’s cottage cheese. Just keep that in mind going in.

18-15: Basic Kitchen Utensils

Jamie Martin Group 18: Basic Techniques, Section 4: Cooking School June 10, 2017September 30, 2020carved, china caps, chopped, colanders, cooking school, cored, cutting board, grated, how-to, juiced, juicer, measuring cups, measuring spoons, melon baller, purée, sieves, strained, strainers, whipped, zested

Doing a bit of housekeeping…here’s one that’s been sitting in my draft queue since around Christmas. 18-19: Basic Kitchen Utensils covers exactly what it says–basic tools even novice cooks should have in their kitchen. This is part of Cooking School, the back segment of Simply Delicious that covers basic techniques, ingredients, and recipes for all levels of aspiring chefs.

After the jump, I’ll show you what I’ve got in my own kitchen (similar to how I covered 18-3: Good Kitchen Knives and 18-6: Basic Pots and Pans). None of it’s super fancy, but it gets the job done.

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.