melted – Simply Delicious: The Cookbook Project

11-11: Lobster Thermidor

Jamie Martin Group 11: Fish & Seafood, Section 2: Main Courses April 24, 2024July 13, 2024all-purpose flour, bay leaves, Béchamel sauce, black pepper, boiled, broiled, butter, carrots, cheese, Christmas, coral, dinner, dry mustard, expensive, fairly hard, fish bouillon, fish stock, French, garlic, leeks, lobster, melted, Parmesan, parsley, party food, peppercorns, reduced, roux, salt, seafood, serving shells, shelled, shellfish, sliced, split, strained, the sims, thyme, tomalley, untested, whipping cream, white wine, XMAS 23

Still catching up on things I made for holidays past, but at least now I’m up to 2023. 11-11: Lobster Thermidor isn’t just the grand meal we had for Christmas 2023 (XMAS 23), it’s also the final recipe I have for the Fish & Seafood chapter, as well as a famous fancy dish you make in the Sims. I feel like finally making it (and posting about it) is quite the celebration in and of itself.

It’s a very indulgent dish, and took us a while to put together as it became difficult to find whole lobsters for a while, at least out here on the west coast of the US. Once we finally found a frozen cooked pair at Costco, it was game on.

11-15: Grilled Salmon with Thyme

Jamie Martin Group 11: Fish & Seafood, Section 2: Main Courses August 26, 2022August 26, 2022barbecue, black pepper, butter, coarse salt, dried herbs, egg-free, fairly easy, fairly expensive, fish, fish filets, garlic, garnish, gluten-free, grill pan, grilled, herbs and spices, lemon juice, lemon peel, lemons, marinated, melted, minced, salmon, salt, seafood, seafood steak, summer, thyme, untested

Autumn is just around the corner, but here’s another recipe you can try before you put the grill away for the season (unless you live somewhere that you can grill all year round). 11-15: Grilled Salmon with Thyme uses salmon steaks which can be tough to locate depending on where/when you look for them, but if you are able to snag some it’s a nice change from the same old burgers and hot dogs.

Here where I live, it’s not only still 90+ degrees each day, it’s also salmon season, so I’ve been seeing it on sale a lot at our local grocery stores. Warm nights + fresh salmon on the grill = good times.

11-18: Salmon Steaks with Mushrooms

Jamie Martin Group 11: Fish & Seafood, Section 2: Main Courses April 18, 2022August 26, 2022all-purpose flour, black pepper, boiled, butter, chanterelle, chicken bouillon, cream sauce, dredged, dried herbs, egg-free, fairly expensive, fairly hard, fish, fish filets, melted, morels, mushrooms, paprika, roux, salmon, salt, sautéed, scraped, seafood, seafood steak, sliced, thyme, whipping cream, white pepper

I’m aware of two salmon steak recipes in my Simply Delicious collection, 11-15: Grilled Salmon with Thyme and this one, 11-18: Salmon Steaks with Mushrooms. The other one mentions you can substitute salmon fillets if you can’t find the steaks, which is what I had to do for this one. Strangely enough, I WAS able to find them for the other one. Believe it or not, I’ve been looking for them for a while and just haven’t had very good luck with it (even in Northern California, where it seems like you can find just about anything if you look hard enough).

Simply Delicious does NOT miss an opportunity for a mushroom sauce–it’s kind of their thing. They suggest rice (10/10?) as a side dish, but I’m going to go with some gnocchi instead.

Quick note: Just passed the 8-year anniversary of this project, and I’m STILL going. I’ll be doing this FOREVER.

13-1: Broccoli with Cheese Sauce

Jamie Martin Group 13: Vegetarian Dishes, Section 2: Main Courses December 21, 2021December 20, 2021all-purpose flour, blanched, blue cheese, broccoli, broiled, butter, Cheddar, cheese, cheese sauce, chopped, cream cheese, dinner, easy, egg-free, fairly inexpensive, Jarlsberg, melted, milk, new book, pimento, roux, salt, sautéed, shredded, side dish, Swiss, tender-crisp, untested, vegetables, vegetarian, yellow onions

I’ve been eating a diet that’s easiest to classify as pescetarian for about 4 years now, and one of the biggest trends I’ve noticed in “vegetarian” dishes and cooking is to take a vegetable, smother it in cream and cheese, and call it a meal. Don’t get me wrong–I love cheese (more so than most–I chalk it up to being half Swedish/French), but it’s not exactly the healthiest thing for you. 13-1: Broccoli with Cheese Sauce is indeed vegetarian, but it is NOT healthy.

Sure, you could have stopped at steaming the broccoli (actually blanching, if you read the recipe after the jump)–maybe even sprinkle a little cheese on top to keep it interesting. But this feels more like, “would you like some broccoli with your cheese?” more so than “would you like some cheese with your broccoli?”

Man, I never thought I’d be complaining about there being TOO much cheese and not enough vegetables. That’s how you KNOW you’re getting old, kids.

9-8: Mushroom Beef Patties

Jamie Martin Group 09: Ground Meat & Sausage, Section 2: Main Courses November 29, 2021December 30, 2021all-purpose flour, beef, black pepper, burgers, butter, chopped, cornstarch, dinner, easy, eggs, fairly inexpensive, garnish, green onions, ground beef, ground meat, half-and-half, lunch, meal prep, melted, mushrooms, new book, parsley, roux, salt, sautéed, sliced, untested, yellow onions

I’ve done quite a few recipes lately that include mushrooms, and now we’re doing one that expressly features them: 9-8: Mushroom Beef Patties. Simply Delicious also has several “patty” recipes, and now here’s one with mushrooms. I know–really pushing the culinary envelope here with both mushrooms AND beef patties.

I had mentioned in my last Group 09 entry (9-23: Fruity Sausage Kebabs) that I believed that I had run out of recipes for this section. HOWEVER, after I obtained the NEW book, I was able to squeeze out at least one more for you. There’s still another one hanging out in the queue (9-11: Stuffed Peppers), so we’re not quite done with it yet.

6-16: The Chef’s Special Chicken

Jamie Martin Group 06: Poultry & Game, Section 2: Main Courses November 3, 2021November 3, 2021all-purpose flour, bacon, black pepper, boiled, boneless, breasts, butter, Canadian bacon, chicken, chopped, dinner, easy, egg-free, fairly inexpensive, green onions, half-and-half, leeks, lemon peel, lemons, lunch, melted, parsley, roux, salt, sautéed, sliced, turkey, untested, whipping cream

I’ll be honest–I have no idea why this is “special chicken”. But for me, 6-16: The Chef’s Special Chicken will be special because I made it with “chick’n” instead of the real thing. I guess that’s not all that special for me at this point, but maybe for you?

If you search for “chef’s special chicken”, you’ll get a million different types of recipes, so I’m not sure what makes this one especially traditional. Although this one I found is pretty much this same exact recipe, so I guess it’s not as unknown as I thought. That or someone ripped off Simply Delicious and called it their own.

In a restaurant when you see “chef’s special”, it usually translates to “this is about to go bad so let’s try to sell it tonight however we can”. #themoreyouknow

16-5: Sacher Torte

Jamie Martin Group 16: Pies & Cakes, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods August 30, 2021August 30, 2021all-purpose flour, almonds, apricots, Austrian, blanched, butter, cakes, chocolate, dark chocolate, dessert, double boiler, egg yolks, eggs, fairly expensive, fairly hard, favorites, folded, gift ideas, glazed, granulated sugar, holiday baking, jam/jelly/preserves, melted, meringue, nuts, party food, pastry, peeled, springform pan, stiff peaks, Thanksgiving, torte, untested, vegetarian, Viennese

It always takes me a minute to “catch up” on these, so if you’re keeping track (don’t), we’re now up to Thanksgiving of last year (2020) with 16-5: Sacher Torte. Sachertorte is a real thing, and Simply Delicious actually has a pretty decent take on it.

The Wikipedia link above gives a pretty close approximation of the origin story Simply Delicious mentions on their card above, so they’re hitting near the mark. Sometimes the best Simply Delicious recipes are the ones they DON’T make up for themselves.

Side note: My dad ended up LOVING this one (and he’s been eating the dishes from this book for 30+ years), so it comes highly recommended.

15-7: Banana Split

Jamie Martin Group 15: Cold Desserts, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods March 23, 2021March 22, 2021American, bananas, chocolate, chocolate sauce, cocoa powder, cold desserts, dessert, easy, fruit, granulated sugar, ice cream, inexpensive, maraschino cherries, melted, sundaes, toasted, untested, vegetarian, walnuts, whipped, whipping cream

Y’all, we have been locked inside for over a year at this point, so it was only a matter of time before the recipes that looked silly to me before now started looking like a good time. What better time to enjoy 15-7: Banana Split than when the only “safe” entertainment you can get these days is picking up ingredients for it while wearing two masks at the grocery store?

Nope, that’s not a cat hair on your screen–it was on my scanner when I scanned the card. Stop trying to get it off.

In case you are unfamiliar with the very American concept of a banana split, here’s Wikipedia’s rundown on it.

14-24: Wine-Baked Apples

Jamie Martin Group 14: Hot Desserts, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods December 27, 2020December 26, 2020almonds, apple cider, apples, autumn, bread crumbs, brown sugar, butter, chopped, cored, dessert, easy, egg-free, fall, filling, gluten-free, golden raisins, grated, hot desserts, inexpensive, lemon juice, lemon peel, melted, orange juice, orange peel, peeled, raisins, twice-baked, untested, vegetarian, white wine, winter, zested

Yet another apple dessert recipe for you today. I made 14-24: Wine-Baked Apples at the same time as 14-2: Apple Strudel, since if I’m going through the work of breaking down apples, I’m getting at least two entries out of it.

The blurb above mentions this being a “new” way to bake apples–it doesn’t seem that far off from the “old” ways, to be quite honest.

16-49: Chocolate-Glazed Raspberry Tart

Jamie Martin Group 16: Pies & Cakes, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods December 24, 2020December 28, 2020all-purpose flour, butter, cakes, chilled, chocolate, Christmas, Christmas Eve, dark chocolate, dessert, double boiler, dough, eggs, fairly easy, fairly expensive, food processor, fruit, garnish, glazed, granulated sugar, layers, melted, parchment paper, party food, powdered sugar, raspberries, revisited, semisweet, stiff peaks, tart, TGV 2019, Thanksgiving, vanilla extract, vegetarian, whipped, whipping cream, XMAS 08

I had a goal to finish all the ones I cooked in 2019 by the end of 2020…not sure if I’ll meet that goal (EDIT: I did!), but here’s one more from last year: 16-49: Chocolate-Glazed Raspberry Tart. Not only is this from last Thanksgiving (along with 6-42: Turkey Pot Roast and 17-15: Cream Puffs), but I also made a version of it as part of a fancy Christmas dinner 12 years ago (XMAS 08) as well. Since today is Christmas Eve, I think it’s a good day to tell you about it.

When I made this back in ’08, I made 6 individual tarts instead of one big one–I was afraid it would look weird once I cut it, so I thought individual servings would look better. I had been watching a LOT of Top Chef at that point (and still do, but that’s the ONLY cooking show I’ll watch).

Since I had a few of the same guests attending as that Christmas dinner back in ’08 (and the same number), I decided to make the same modification this time. Usually I will reverse modifications when I recook recipes I’ve already done to try to honor the “original” recipe, but this time I decided to stick with it.

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