soaked – Simply Delicious: The Cookbook Project

15-46: Mousse Casablanca

Jamie Martin Group 15: Cold Desserts, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods March 24, 2025March 26, 2025biscotti, chilled, chocolate, chocolate curls, chopped, cold desserts, creamed, crème anglaise, crushed, custard, dessert, egg whites, egg yolks, eggs, expensive, fairly easy, garnish, gelatin, granulated sugar, half-and-half, maraschino cherries, meringue, mousse, nuts, party food, semisweet, soaked, stiff peaks, untested, walnuts, whipped, whipping cream

We’re closing in on the 11th anniversary of this project, and if I ever have hopes of finishing it (which I still do), I need to figure out a strategy. I’ve spent enough time in my real life learning how to “professionally” manage projects, so I’ll apply some of that here and aim to knock out at least one recipe a week until I finish everything non-meat-related. Then I might just dump the rest online and call it a day.

You don’t care about any of this–you’re here to read about 15-46: Mousse Casablanca, right? Everyone wants to “jump to the recipe” already.

Blah blah something about how this is fancy and 80s.

Here’s the thing with this recipe–it seems too “kiddy” to be an adult dessert recipe, but is also something you most likely wouldn’t serve to kids (unless you grew up as a quasi-adult like I did). I’m not sure who this is supposed to be for?

15-15: Tiramisu

Jamie Martin Group 15: Cold Desserts, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods February 19, 2024February 18, 2024biscotti, biscuits, brandy, chilled, coffee, cognac, cold desserts, cream cheese, creamed, dessert, easy, egg whites, egg yolks, eggs, espresso, fairly expensive, folded, instant coffee, Italian, layers, liqueur, mascarpone, meringue, party food, powdered sugar, soaked, stiff peaks, untested, vegetarian

If you’re still in the “indulgent” spirit, 15-15: Tiramisu comes highly recommended. I remember when tiramisu had its big moment around the time this book was published, so it’s not surprising that it was included in this book.

This is a great one to make in advance of a party or dinner…just don’t sneak too many bites before you serve it!

2-7: Coleslaw

Jamie Martin Group 02: Salads, Section 1: Appetizers & Starters January 1, 2021December 28, 2020apple cider vinegar, apples, barbecue, black pepper, cabbage, canola oil, carrots, celery salt, chilled, crushed, diced, dinner, dressing, fail, grated, lunch, marinated, new book, olive oil, party food, picnic, pineapple, red cabbage, red wine vinegar, salads, shredded, side dish, soaked, sunflower oil, untested, vegan, vegetable oil, vegetables, vegetarian, vinegar, white onions, white wine vinegar, yellow onions

Happy New Year! I recently posted about finding a NEW (to me) Simply Delicious book at a local thrift store, so we’ll start this new year off with the first recipe I’m going to cover from that batch of new recipes, 2-7: Coleslaw. A lot of these recipes fill “gaps” in the collection I already had, and this one is no exception. Coleslaw is a pretty well-known dish, and it’s probably one of the only instances where I enjoy cabbage.

Simply Delicious suggests you can eat coleslaw with just about anything, and they may not be too far off with that claim. Not only can you eat it with a sandwich, you can even put it IN the sandwich.

16-10: Strawberry Shortcake

Jamie Martin Group 16: Pies & Cakes, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods September 5, 2018July 30, 2020all-purpose flour, American, baking powder, biscuit cutters, butter, cold desserts, dessert, easy, fairly inexpensive, fruit, granulated sugar, honey, Kahlúa, liqueur, marinated, MD2018, Mother's Day, orange juice, oranges, salt, shortening, sifted, sliced, soaked, sour cream, strawberries, summer, untested, vegetarian, whipped, whipping cream, zested

Just to show you how far behind I’m running with entries these days: I’m finally cracking into what I made for Mothers’ Day this year (MD2018) with 16-10: Strawberry Shortcake. You know…back in May. We were growing a ton of strawberries in the yard this year, and a few of them even made it into this dish.

Last year I attempted a Simply Delicious-inspired Mothers’ Day brunch (MD 2017), complete with fancy pastries and attempts at complicated sauces. This year, I kept it somewhat more simple in the interest of time spent and calories consumed. 🍓

9-37: Ground Meat and Bean Dinner

Adam Martin Group 09: Ground Meat & Sausage, Section 2: Main Courses January 9, 2017October 19, 2020apples, bay leaves, black olives, boiled, canola oil, chopped, cinnamon, cloves, dairy-free, diced, dinner, dried herbs, fairly easy, fairly inexpensive, garlic, gluten-free, green olives, ground beef, ground meat, herbs and spices, lunch, party food, pinto beans, red bell peppers, red kidney beans, salt, sautéed, simmered, soaked, stews, tomato paste, tomato sauce, tomatoes, untested, vegetables, white beans, yellow onions

This dish is a dish that just “isn’t quite”. Isn’t quite good, isn’t quite bad. Like a bootleg chili, 9-37: Ground Meat and Bean Dinner is a Simply Delicious mess of a dish that isn’t quite chili and isn’t quite a casserole. 🌶

Unusual flavors is an understatement. Apples, cloves and cinnamon are a very old school meat and flavor combination. The broadest definition of meat is a solid food so pretty much everything used to be called meat. Merriam Webster Dictionary features an archaic definition of meat: “the edible part of something as distinguished from its covering (as a husk or shell)”. Fruit meat, nut meat, vegetable meat, the fleshy part that provides sustenance is technically a meat under this really old definition.

17-5: Hot Seedy Rolls

Jamie Martin Group 17: Baked Goods, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods December 4, 2016August 23, 2020all-purpose flour, baked goods, breads, breakfast, canola oil, cottage cheese, dinner, dough, egg-free, healthy, kneaded, lunch, milk, party food, proofed, rolls, salt, side dish, snacks, soaked, steamed, TGV 2016, Thanksgiving, untested, vegetarian, whole wheat bread, whole wheat flour, whole wheat kernels, yeast

We’ve finally reached the big day: 17-5: Hot Seedy Rolls were the fifth dish I cooked for my big Thanksgiving feast (TGV 2016), and in true baker fashion, I started them before the sun rose on Thanksgiving Thursday. These served as my rolls for my dinner–I served them with a tomato butter and a roasted garlic & herb butter.

I wanted something a bit healthier to balance out the sugar in the cranberries and in the desserts (two of which were 15-49: Chocolate Pudding Deluxe and 16-52: Apple Nut Saucepan Torte). These were definitely seedy, but I think it worked well for a harvest-themed dinner such as Thanksgiving.

Other dishes I made the day of Thanksgiving (Thur. 11/24): 1-5: Pigs in a Blanket, a crudité platter, 6-29: Stuffed Turkey, along with assembling & heating all the other dishes.

13-16: Arabian Moussaka

Adam Martin Group 13: Vegetarian Dishes, Section 2: Main Courses September 3, 2016October 28, 2020appetizers, black pepper, blanched, boiled, casserole, chickpeas, crushed tomatoes, dairy-free, egg-free, eggplant, fairly hard, garbanzo beans, gluten-free, inexpensive, Italian parsley, Lebanese, lemons, lunch, Middle Eastern, moussaka, olive oil, peeled, pita bread, salt, sautéed, side dish, snacks, soaked, tomatoes, untested, vegan, vegetables, vegetarian, yellow onions

The first of a few eggplant dishes, 13-16: Arabian Moussaka is the lightest preparation of eggplant that Simply Delicious presents. 🍆

As the card suggests, this recipe is perfect for lunch or supper.

13-7: Falafel

Adam Martin Group 13: Vegetarian Dishes, Section 2: Main Courses July 24, 2016October 28, 2020appetizers, Asian, black olives, black pepper, blender, canola oil, chickpeas, creamy, crispy, dairy-free, deep fryer, deep-fried, dinner, dried herbs, eggs, fairly hard, food processor, fried, garbanzo beans, garlic, Greek, herbs and spices, hummus, inexpensive, Israeli, kalamata, lemon juice, lettuce, lunch, Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, minced, onion salt, Oriental, parsley, party food, pita bread, purée, salt, sesame paste, side dish, snacks, soaked, Tabasco sauce, tahini, thyme, tomatoes, tzatziki sauce, untested, vegetarian, wheat germ

I do enjoy getting falafel when I go out to a Middle-Eastern restaurant. It’s much easier to cook them when you have a deep fryer. In the past, I have pan-fried some falafel, but it tastes the best when it is crispy and fried. Since we happened to be borrowing a deep-fryer, I made 13-7: Falafel.

I didn’t have any pita on hand, so I served the balls with a spicy dipping sauce instead of in the traditional pita pocket.