julienned – Page 3 – Simply Delicious: The Cookbook Project

2-10: Spinach Salad

Adam Martin Group 02: Salads, Section 1: Appetizers & Starters March 15, 2017October 4, 202012-11-08 dinner, 4-92 week, appetizers, bacon, chopped, creamy, diced, Dijon mustard, dinner, dressing, easy, eggs, favorites, fried, garnish, gluten-free, Hutton house, inexpensive, julienned, lemons, lunch, mayonnaise, mushrooms, pan-fried, party food, pork, radishes, revisited, roach motel apt, salads, side dish, sliced, sour cream, spinach, vegetables

The card for 2-10: Spinach Salad is great because it has notes and reviews from the attempts of two other chefs I really admire, Jamie and her mother. From the date of the original note, I can deduce that Jamie’s mom made this recipe almost 25 years ago. She gives a succinct review, “Very Good, Very Easy.” Jamie’s equally positive review of her attempt at making this recipe 9 years back is encouraging. Making this salad for dinner one night after work is a super easy task and I agree with the previous reviews written on the card.

Simply Delicious helps you learn in so many different ways. Not only do I get a recipe for a salad, I get some history about the main ingredient: SPINACH!

Editor’s note: I made this as part of a “fancy dinner” in my first apartment, a year or two after college. I was so happy to have a kitchen and table to call my own, I invited some friends over, busted out a few Simply Delicious recipes, and threw a “fancy” dinner party, complete with table settings and after-dinner coffee.

2-4: Chef’s Salad

Jamie Martin Group 02: Salads, Section 1: Appetizers & Starters February 22, 2017February 17, 2020American, appetizers, bacon, black pepper, canola oil, Cheddar, cheese, chopped, cooked chicken, cubed, diced, dinner, dressing, easy, eggs, fairly inexpensive, garlic, gluten-free, grated, ham, hard-boiled, herbs and spices, iceberg lettuce, julienned, lemon juice, lunch, mushrooms, New York, parsley, radicchio, radishes, restaurant-style, Romaine lettuce, salads, salt, sliced, slit, spinach, tomatoes, turkey, untested, vegetables, watercress

2-4: Chef’s Salad is another somewhat classic American restaurant dish to serve with your 1-18: Club Sandwich. Wikipedia gives it a similar history–most accounts trace it back to early 20th century New York, although a few credit it to originating in 17th century England. This iteration is pretty similar to most you’ll find in modern-day restaurants–the beauty of the chef salad is that the ingredients are at the discretion of the chef. ‍

I NEED that creepy statue in the Simply Delicious picture. Google has nothing decent for me when I search “hippopotamus chef“, but you never know–someday one of my thrift store treasure hunt trips may pay off.

18-3: Good Kitchen Knives

Jamie Martin Group 18: Basic Techniques, Section 4: Cooking School January 2, 2017September 30, 2020carved, chiffonade, chopped, cooking school, cored, deboned, diced, garnish, julienned, knives, minced, pared, peeled, scored, slashed, sliced, slit

It’s a new year, and it’s also been a long time since I’ve covered any of the Cooking School portion of the back of the Simply Delicious cookbook. One of the featured topics is 18-3: Good Kitchen Knives, essential tools for any cook. I’ve had a lot of terrible knives, and I’ve got a long way to go until I make jaws drop with my knife collection, but I’ve got a few that are not too shabby. 🔪

I’m going to try NOT to make this a “look at all my cool knives” kind-of-a-thing, because honestly, my collection isn’t all that Internet-impressive–I don’t have a ton of trendy Japanese pieces or massive cleavers, because I just don’t cook that way too often. Plus, I feel about knives like I feel about cars–give me a broken-in cheap old workhorse over a shiny speedster you’re afraid to scratch up any day of the week. 🚙

5-5: Individual Ham Quiches

Adam Martin Group 05: Eggs & Cheese, Section 1: Appetizers & Starters October 28, 2016October 14, 2020all-purpose flour, black pepper, breakfast, butter, cheese, chilled, creamy, cut in, dinner, dough, dried herbs, egg yolks, eggs, fairly easy, fairly inexpensive, filling, flute, food processor, French, green onions, half-and-half, ham, herbs and spices, individual, julienned, leeks, lunch, party food, pastry, pie crust, quiche lorraine, quiches, salt, sautéed, shredded, sliced, thyme, untested, vegetables

I wasn’t about to go out and buy mini quiche pans just to cook 5-5: Individual Ham Quiches. Taking the alternative route, I made this dish as one, full-sized quiche.

I believe the card puts it best. At this point I’m not quite “fortunate enough to own small oven-proof quiche pans,” so a full-sized pie pan will do. If you use a foil pie pan, there is a lot less cleanup when the quiche is done, just toss the foil pan in the recycling. ♻

3-4: New Orleans Bean Soup

Jamie Martin Group 03: Soups, Section 1: Appetizers & Starters October 26, 2016March 14, 2020American, apple cider vinegar, bay leaves, black pepper, boiled, brown sugar, butter, Cajun, carrots, celery, chopped, Creole, cubed, diced, dinner, dried herbs, easy, egg-free, garlic, ham, herbs and spices, inexpensive, julienned, lemon juice, lunch, melted, minced, molasses, New Orleans, pan-fried, parsley, peeled, pinto beans, red kidney beans, salt, sautéed, smoked ham, soups, thyme, untested, vegetable bouillon, vegetables, vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, yellow onions

Simply Delicious has a few New Orleans/Southern recipes–3-4: New Orleans Bean Soup is one of them. There are a lot of different takes on a “New Orleans Red Bean Soup” that exist out there–most of them have more exciting ingredients than this version. 🎺

I made another “New Orleans” recipe at the same time as this one–you can go back and read 12-29: New Orleans Beans and Pasta for what is essentially a pasta version of this dish. Either one is a hearty and relatively inexpensive meal. Since the two share a lot of ingredients, consider making both–they store and reheat well. 💰

13-14: Wok-Fried Veggies with Pasta

Adam Martin Group 13: Vegetarian Dishes, Section 2: Main Courses October 13, 2016October 28, 2020al dente, apple cider vinegar, apple juice, boiled, canola oil, carrots, chili powder, dairy-free, dinner, dressing, easy, egg-free, ginger, green beans, green onions, herbs and spices, honey, inexpensive, julienned, leeks, lunch, olive oil, pan-fried, pared, party food, pasta/noodles, peeled, red bell peppers, rice vinegar, salt, sautéed, sesame oil, side dish, sliced, stir-fry, tender-crisp, untested, vegetables, vegetarian, vinegar, wok, yellow bell peppers, zucchini

13-14: Wok-Fried Veggies with Pasta is yet another dish where the preparation requires too much chopping. One of my specialties happens to be stir-fry. I can make stir-fry with the best of them.

I’ve made wok fried dishes similar to this on my own, but with chicken or beef. Usually, I think vegetarian food is best left to the rabbits. 🐰

5-33: Omelette Stacks with Rice

Jamie Martin Group 05: Eggs & Cheese, Section 1: Appetizers & Starters October 10, 2016October 14, 2020Asian, breakfast, candied, canola oil, chutney, cooked rice, cooked shrimp, dairy-free, dinner, dips, eggs, fairly easy, garlic, ginger, granulated sugar, green onions, ham, inexpensive, julienned, layers, leeks, lunch, minced, omelette, Oriental, rice, salt, Saturday, sautéed, seafood, sesame oil, shellfish, shrimp, smoked ham, soy sauce, stacked, steamed, tamari, untested, vegetable oil, white wine vinegar

Hey there. October’s been a crazy busy month IRL so far, but I’ve got some entries banked that I’ll start posting, so expect some more entries coming soon. This one, 5-33: Omelette Stacks with Rice, was a Saturday morning breakfast a few weeks ago that was born out of an abundance of eggs and leftover cooked rice. 🍚

Simply Delicious suggests serving it as a main course (presumably for lunch or dinner as opposed to breakfast, to which they seem to be drawing a contrast), but you eat it whenever you like. 🌇

12-29: New Orleans Beans and Pasta

Jamie Martin Group 12: Pasta & Rice, Section 2: Main Courses September 29, 2016July 29, 2020basil, black beans, boiled, Cajun, canola oil, carrots, cayenne pepper, Cheddar, cheese, chili peppers, chili powder, creamy, Creole, crushed tomatoes, dried herbs, Dutch oven, easy, farfalle, herbs and spices, inexpensive, julienned, Mexican, Monterey Jack, New Orleans, olive oil, paprika, pasta/noodles, pinto beans, salt, sautéed, Shishito peppers, side dish, tomato bouillon, tomatoes, untested, vegetables, vegetarian, white beans, yellow onions

I wasn’t quite sure how “authentic” 12-29: New Orleans Beans and Pasta would be when first looking this recipe over–Simply Delicious doesn’t exactly nail it on cultural faithfulness a lot of the time. A lot of that has to do with the time at which the books were written–many ingredients, methods, & tools that are easily accessible now were not 30 years ago.

However, this is essentially an American recipe, so I would assume it shouldn’t be that far off–if this is in fact a real New Orleans dish. 🎷

I wonder how many different linens/vases/glasses/odd statues they had to accumulate to photograph all of these different recipes. Just a thought I had while looking at this picture. Another thought: who decided on some of these things? What makes this picture decidedly New Orleans? ⚜🎉

2-13: Waldorf Salad

Adam Martin Group 02: Salads, Section 1: Appetizers & Starters August 22, 2016November 16, 2020American, appetizers, apples, celery, celery root, chilled, creamy, diced, dinner, easy, gluten-free, grapes, inexpensive, julienned, lemon juice, lunch, mayonnaise, New York, peeled, salad cream, salads, side dish, untested, vegetables, vegetarian, Waldorf, walnuts, whipping cream

2-13: Waldorf Salad is a short and easy recipe to make. This recipe is still popular despite its age–the maître d’hôtel (not the chef) of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel created this namesake salad in 1896. Jamie suggested that I watch the episode of Fawlty Towers called “Waldorf Salad” which originally aired in 1979. This episode features many jokes about the titular salad.

“Well I think we ran out of Waldorfs.” Most kitchens would have these ingredients on hand, so this joke got the biggest laugh of the episode. 🍏🍇🌱🌰

12-23: Tortellini with Broccoli

Adam Martin Group 12: Pasta & Rice, Section 2: Main Courses August 14, 2016October 28, 2020al dente, black pepper, blanched, boiled, broccoli, butter, Cheddar, cheese, creamy, dinner, easy, garlic, grated, green onions, inexpensive, Italian, julienned, leeks, lunch, melted, minced, Parmesan, pasta/noodles, salt, sautéed, side dish, sour cream, tortellini, untested, vegetable bouillon, vegetable broth, vegetables, vegetarian

12-23: Tortellini with Broccoli is yet another Simply Delicious recipe where their idea of a cream sauce is pouring sour cream on top of something warm and stirring it in. When using lactose free sour cream, the sauce comes out too thick. It’s still chunky on top of the pasta. Maybe I need to cook it longer or stir it more, I will keep experimenting to find out. Onto…the recipe!

It had been a while since I ate tortellini and this recipe gives you an idea of how to make a sauce in a pinch. Simply Delicious has other recipes such as 6-2: Fiery Chicken Casserole where the method to make a quick cream sauce is to dump sour cream into the pot.