Maria's pistachio-hazelnut-almond loaf

Ask Maria for the recipe!

Sprouts 10-bean soup

I soaked 2C of Sprout's 10-bean mix in 6 or 8 C water with 2 tsp salt for maybe 1-2 hours.

Make a mirepoix:

- 1 carrot
- 1 onion
- 1 stalk celery

Add beans + soaking liquid.  I think I may have added another 1-2 C of chicken broth or something else.

Simmered for ~1.5-2 hours.

Cooked 1/2 lb bulk sweet chicken sausage and added it to the soup.

The end!

Pounded Lemongrass Chicken

Original recipe:  https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/pounded-lemongrass-chicken

This is very promising, but our version was maybe 3.5/5 as written.

A version of this that's thighs on the grill would probably be amazing, but let's assume we're going to keep it as breasts.

I pounded the breasts to 1/2" as the recipe says.  I think 1/4" or even thinner is required, as ours dried out, despite me carefully ensuring I didn't cook them longer than was required for the insides to cook.

The marinade was great.  We think maybe we could leave even more of it on (rather than scrape all off as recipe states).  Could also tinker a little more.  Add a thai chilie or something else to add more heat (the 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes did exactly nothing).  Could add more fish sauce.  Could add some garlic or a bit of ginger (but not too much to overpower the lemongrass).

Making the paste was kind of a pain.  It wasn't enough to do in the big food processor, so we tried the small one, which was unable to make a nice paste consistency.  Ended up using a spice grinder in 2 batches (uf).  In the future, either make a much larger paste recipe, OR try it out with a pre-made store-bought lemongrass paste.  IF that's just as good, this would be a truly fast dish.

 

Hummus

Original recipe:  https://www.washingtonpost.com/recipes/hummus/8846/?utm_term=.044e8930ca98
+ How to cook beans in a stovetop pressure cooker:  https://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-cook-beans-in-a-stovetop-pressure-cooker-193867

We've done this a few times now.  Comes out great!  In my recent experience, pre-soaking is necessary, even with a pressure cooker.  I usually pre-soak for 30 min to 2 hours.

Chicken stock from frozen bones from Lion

This is not our normal way to make stock, but I noticed that Lion sells frozen chicken bones for something like $0.70 / lb.  I bought almost 3 lbs, dumped them in the slow cooker with 1 yellow onion, 2 cloves garlic, 12 C water and 1/2 tsp salt.  Cooked on low for 10 hours.  Came out great!

Butternut squash pasta

Original recipe:  http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2013/10/skillet-kale-pumpkin-pasta-recipe.html

Instead of pumpkin, I used a butternut squash we had.
Instead of kale, I used some green beans.

Soooo it was a pretty different dish.

That said, I think it turned out well.  Rating must wait for Maria to try it.

Browning butternut.  (didn't really brown it very well....)

Everything in the pot:

All done!  (no cheese yet though; also could probably stand some toasted pican bits).

Kung Pao Chicken

Original recipe:  http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2014/07/takeout-style-kung-pao-chicken-diced-chicken-peppers-peanuts-recipe.html

I rate this 3/5 or maybe even 2/5, but I think with some effort it could be a 4.

I was out of dark soy sauce, which would have helped.  I also used chicken breasts rather than thighs (all I had), and should have known better than to cook a recipe with NO chilies at all.

I liked the general method.  It ended up with nicely browned chicken and a solid glaze of sauce at the end.

Maria prefers a little more sauce so next time I'll probably double the volume of liquid.

Chicken marinating:

Cooking the chicken

All done!

Bell peppers (with sugar snap peas and mushrooms soon to join)

All done!

Too bad the flavor didn't match the nice look!

Mushroom marsala pasta bake

Original recipe:  https://smittenkitchen.com/2015/01/mushroom-marsala-pasta-bake/

David rates it:  4/5
Maria rates it:  3/5   because she doesn't like stringy onions, and it's "a little too mushroomy; I'd like more of a mix of vegetables".

Maybe worth trying again because I thought it had a nice rich flavor, made a solid amount of food and was pretty easy.

Saute the onions in the mushroom water.  Maria probably would have preferred chopped onions (rather than thinly sliced), and maybe completely sauteed them FIRST before adding the mushrooms.

After adding in the butter+flour and chicken broth, green peas and pre-cooked cubed chicken.  (I just boiled the chicken cubes in the pasta water).

Done!

Pasta e ceci

Original recipe:  https://smittenkitchen.com/2017/10/quick-pasta-and-chickpeas-pasta-e-ceci/

Really good!  We *think* it will be 5/5 but David made a tactical error and ended up effectively double-salting it.  Sooo it was quite salty.

Very soupy pasta, good with a nice roll.

We made it with our own chick-pea instead of canned so we could use the chick-pea broth instead of water.

Roasted Brussel Sprouts with Red Cabbage and Nuts

Original recipe:  http://alittlesaffron.com/2013/01/14/roasted-brussels-sprouts-with-red-cabbage-nuts/

I made the dressing but it was REALLY sweet so I left it off entirely.  Results were very delicious!  4/5 Good, but not magical.

(we made it as a side to the Spanish chicken pie which was really really great; probably not just because of the filo pastry)

Poor man's Paella

At least, that's what the recipe is called.  Apparently even the poor man in Spain has saffron.

I'd give this 5/5.  I'd be happy if I got this in a restaurant!

Here is the original recipe:

A few things I did differently:  

I blanched the green beans in about 1/2 C of water, then added only 4.5 C broth and the additional 1/2 C green bean water (because I think (?) that helps keep the nutrients in the dish).

Instead of chicken and pork, I used 0.6 lbs of Sprouts bulk hot Italian chicken sausage.

I put 3/4 tsp salt in at the same time as the broth.

I used 3/4 red bell pepper and 1/2 green bell pepper.  Also some beech mushrooms at the end.

Important note:  The recipe says to keep simmering until the liquid is absorbed and you smell a faint nutty fragrance.  I was worried my liquid wasn't absorbing so I turned it up to medium for 5 min.  There was still liquid, but I also smelled the nutty fragrance.  I took it off.  I'd say the bottom was starting to burn (though still tasted great).  In the future, I'll follow the recipe more strictly.

With just carrot and onion:

After adding spices, bell peppers and tomato:

After adding broth:

After adding the sausage (10 min into the simmering):

Done!  Looks a little weird with the green beans on top, but really great flavor.  Green beans aren't overcooked either because I added them in the last 5 minutes and didn't blanch them too much.

Aaand on the plates!

Rigatoni with Brussel Sprouts and Leek

Original recipe here:  https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/rigatoni-with-brussels-sprouts-parmesan-lemon-and-leek

I'd give this 3/5.  I'm looking for something more flavorful.  Though I definitely made some mistakes, I'm not sure doing it right would have saved the recipe for me.

I didn't have a lemon (so no lemon zest).  I also added 1 chicken thigh (about 1/3 lb) cut into small cubes.

I more or less followed the recipe.  I quartered the brussel sprouts instead of halving them.  True medium rather than medium high on my stove would have been better.

I added the chicken cubes mid-way through the browning of the garlic & chopped leek.  My garlic never did brown.  I also added maybe 1 C wine and reduced.

Would have liked a little kick; maybe some red pepper flakes.  Lemon would have gone well.