untested – Page 40 – Simply Delicious: The Cookbook Project

4-13: Fennel au Gratin

Jamie Martin Group 04: Potatoes & Vegetables, Section 1: Appetizers & Starters May 28, 2014October 13, 2020all-purpose flour, appetizers, au gratin, black pepper, blanched, broiled, butter, Cheddar, cheese, cheese sauce, dips, easy, egg yolks, eggs, fairly expensive, fennel, melted, milk, Monterey Jack, salt, side dish, untested, vegetables, vegetarian

Fennel has been a challenge ever since we started receiving CSA boxes a year or two ago. I really never cooked with it before and even now, finding recipes to use with it (that I’ll eat) is difficult.

If you’ve never had fennel, it tastes like black licorice. You eat the bulb part, and usually cut off the stalks & feathery parts. I usually save those parts and put them in when I make chicken stock.

We ended up with two very large fennel bulbs, and so I decided to make 4-13: Fennel au Gratin, because you can’t go wrong when you cover things in cheese.

We paired this with some English cheddar tortilla/gluten-free something-or-other chips as well as put it on top of some veggie patties–both were pretty good. It worked well as a dip–it might be too cheesy as a side dish, unless you added more fennel.

5-22: Crêpes with Chicken

Jamie Martin Group 05: Eggs & Cheese, Section 1: Appetizers & Starters May 17, 2014October 14, 2020all-purpose flour, black pepper, breakfast, broiled, butter, cheese, chicken, chopped, cooked chicken, crêpes, dinner, eggs, fairly easy, French, inexpensive, lunch, melted, milk, Mozzarella, mushrooms, parsley, peeled, roux, salt, sautéed, shredded, untested, yellow onions

This arose out of a desire to use up some leftover chicken more so than a desire to eat another meat-based crêpe recipe so soon after 5-24: Meat-Filled Crêpes, but it turned out to be pretty good in its own right.

5-22: Crêpes with Chicken really should be “Crêpes with Chicken and Mushrooms”, as mushrooms are just as much a part of this as the chicken.

I had originally considered making it at breakfast, but I’m glad I didn’t–it’s definitely a savory dish. Crêpes are popular in this book–all this practice is making me quite the crêpe-master.

7-26: Maple-Glazed Pork Chops

Jamie Martin Group 07: Pork, Section 2: Main Courses May 15, 2014June 19, 2020autumn, bay leaves, black pepper, butter, cast-iron, cinnamon, dinner, dried herbs, dried spices, egg-free, fairly easy, fairly inexpensive, fall, glazed, gluten-free, maple syrup, melted, nuts, pecans, pork, pork chops, salt, scored, seared, untested, walnuts

Finally–something that’s not chicken. The first pork recipe we’ll cover here is 7-26: Maple-Glazed Pork Chops.🍁

My mom was NOT a pork eater and I grew up quasi-Jewish, so there wasn’t a lot of pork being cooked in my childhood, spare the occasional ham steak or rack of ribs here and there at my dad’s request.

The key here is to make sure you use REAL maple syrup, not table syrup. Big difference.

6-26: Chicken Maryland

Jamie Martin Group 06: Poultry & Game, Section 2: Main Courses May 13, 2014June 18, 2020all-purpose flour, black pepper, boiled, bread crumbs, breaded, butter, canola oil, chicken, coated, creamy, crispy, deep-fried, dinner, dredged, easy, fail, fairly inexpensive, fried, fried chicken, half-and-half, lunch, Maryland, melted, milk, pan-fried, panko, paprika, red bell peppers, roux, salt, sautéed, thighs, untested, white bread

A week or two ago after we returned home from a grocery shopping trip, I found myself with a package of chicken that needed to be cooked ASAP due to having its plastic wrap punctured on the way home. Since I had some red peppers that needed to be used up as well, I chose to make 6-26: Chicken Maryland.

Recipe #26 of Subgroup 6 (Poultry & Game) in Book 1, Group 2 (Main Courses) is Chicken Maryland, which is basically a nicely-spiced fried chicken with a red bell pepper cream sauce. The chicken was delightful–the sauce turned out a bit odd, but that was probably my fault.

6-24: Mushroom-Almond Chicken

Jamie Martin Group 06: Poultry & Game, Section 2: Main Courses May 11, 2014June 17, 2020all-purpose flour, almonds, black pepper, braised, butter, chicken, creamy, dinner, egg-free, fail, fairly easy, fairly expensive, Glendale apt, lunch, melted, mushrooms, port wine, red wine, salt, sautéed, seared, simmered, sour cream, toasted, untested, whipping cream

6-24: Mushroom-Almond Chicken tasted okay, but looked…odd. I’m not sure why mine came out mauve, but there you go. The picture below is definitely not mauve. This recipe was cooked in tandem with 6-8: Curried Chicken, due to an abundance of chicken.

As I mentioned before, mine came out in a slightly mauve color, which doesn’t seem to be the case on the recipe card photo. I don’t know where I went wrong, but at least it was edible.

5-24: Meat-Filled Crêpes

Jamie Martin Group 05: Eggs & Cheese, Section 1: Appetizers & Starters April 24, 2014October 15, 2020all-purpose flour, boiled, breakfast, broiled, butter, Cheddar, cheese, cheese sauce, coconut flour, coconut milk, creamy, crêpes, dinner, dry mustard, easy, eggs, fail, fairly inexpensive, filling, French, grated, ground beef, ground meat, ground turkey, leeks, lunch, milk, paprika, Parmesan, salt, sautéed, stuffed, tender-crisp, untested, whipping cream, white wine

The long-awaited 5-24: Meat-Filled Crêpes. I finally solved my ingredient issues and it was crêpe-time. The only thing is…I’ve never done this before.

Confession time: In all of my time cooking (which is most of my life), I have NEVER made crêpes. I have made many pancakes (as you could imagine), but never a crêpe. This was a first for me and as you will see, I learned many lessons from this attempt.

3-1: Sweet Potato Vichyssoise

Jamie Martin Group 03: Soups, Section 1: Appetizers & Starters April 22, 2014March 14, 2020American, appetizers, autumn, blender, butter, celery, celery root, chicken bouillon, chicken broth, chilled, coconut milk, dinner, easy, egg-free, fall, food processor, French, Glendale apt, gluten-free, grated, half-and-half, inexpensive, lime juice, limes, lunch, melted, nuts, pared, peanuts, peeled, purée, salt, sautéed, simmered, soups, sweet potatoes, tender-crisp, Thanksgiving, untested, vegan, vegetable bouillon, vegetable broth, vegetarian, white wine, yams, yellow onions, zested

Soup is technically easy to make, but can still quickly go wrong. Our CSA box came with 2 lbs. of white sweet potatoes this week, and it was time for something else besides sweet potato fries. The trusty interwebs told me that white sweet potatoes were pretty similar to regular ones, so I thought I’d give 3-1: Sweet Potato Vichyssoise a whirl.

Vichyssoise is originally a French-American creation. This version is definitely more of an autumn/Thanksgiving-type of flavor, but it was still easy to make and pretty good. Obviously the recipe card depicts the use of an orange sweet potato, but white sweet potatoes work pretty well also.

Soup’s on!

5-1: Mushroom and Cheese Pie

Jamie Martin Group 05: Eggs & Cheese, Section 1: Appetizers & Starters April 17, 2014April 29, 2020brushed, butter, cast-iron, cheese, chopped, diced, Dijon mustard, dinner, dried herbs, eggs, fail, fairly easy, fairly inexpensive, French, Glendale apt, green bell peppers, green onions, healthy, lukewarm, lunch, melted, mushrooms, parsley, pastry, pie crust, pies, quiches, red bell peppers, scallions, shredded, sliced, sweated, Swiss, tender-crisp, thyme, twice-baked, untested, vegetarian, yogurt

5-1: Mushroom and Cheese Pie…didn’t go as well as I had hoped. Following directions is important, friends. Let’s dive in–we’re still in Book 1, Group 1 (Appetizers & Starters).

We got a lot of mushrooms in our CSA box this round, and I used the Maitake mushrooms for another recipe from this book, but forgot to photograph it. And as the internet says, “pics or it didn’t happen”. So, I decided to use the White Beech mushrooms for this recipe.

First mistake. Of several.

2-34: Avocado-Parmesan Salad

Jamie Martin Group 02: Salads, Section 1: Appetizers & Starters April 17, 2014March 14, 2020appetizers, avocados, black pepper, blender, cheese, chopped, cucumbers, Dijon mustard, dinner, dressing, dry mustard, easy, egg-free, fairly inexpensive, Glendale apt, gluten-free, grated, iceberg lettuce, leeks, lemon juice, lemons, lettuce, lunch, olive oil, parsley, peeled, Prosciutto, salads, salt, sliced, tarragon, tarragon vinegar, untested, vegetarian, vinegar

We start our journey in Book 1, Group 1: Appetizers & Starters with 2-34: Avocado-Parmesan Salad. Got that? It’s further broken down into subgroups, depending on different classifications. I see now where I get my classification aptitude.

We start here due to yesterday’s CSA box delivery brimming with already-ripe avocados (a rarity). As avocados are a fickle beast, it was imperative to consume them in the near future.