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Home > 325
KitchenKatalog: Blog 325
Sunday, September 18, 2011, 11:42 AM
Not much to this meal. It was a soup night. We had Trader Joes Palak Paneer (very salty and rather small but tasty), leftover french onion soup, and we made butternut squash soup.
The butternut squash soup was pretty good though it was not as sweet as I think it gets later in the season. Also, we used half beef and half chicken base since we ran out of chicken. The squash was large and we had leftover from the lasagna the other day, so there was a lot of leftovers.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 1406, 2011-09-18_114237
Wednesday, September 14, 2011, 09:08 AM
We made pretty standard black bean empanadas with caramelized onions, peppers (bell and jalapeño), black beans and a variety of hot sauce. I also added a bit of sesame oil and peanut oil for some flavor (but not too much). We used the usual dough but it came together a bit softer. It may have been that I used bread flour. I was disappointed as I made it, but it actually worked and rolled out better than usual.
The french onion soup was the normal based on this post, again with yellow onions. I let them really cook down but not caramelize. I made a lot so I used about 7 cups of water and a cup of white wine (I think pinot grigio but I don't remember). I used Better Than Bouillon (Low sodium), chicken and beef, and ended up adding some more as I tasted it. I was pretty happy with how it tuned out. We did the usual Arnolds Roll croutons and cheese melted with the creme brulee torch.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 1402, 2011-09-14_090823
Tuesday, September 13, 2011, 09:06 AM
The chicken was the same, more or less, as what we have done before but I can't find it. So, the recipe is below (had to find it in an email from a long time ago). I think we followed the recipe pretty closely. Because we were doing the brussel sprouts, and the timing was off, we ended up taking the chicken out around 20 minutes. However, the temp was fine and we are still alive so I guess it was fully cooked.
The brussel spouts were pretty standard. We halved most and quartered some. The only real key difference was we turned them all over so the flat side was down and got crispy. Also, we let all the leaves that fell off stay ont he pan and they got really crispy. It was t 400 for about 30-40 minutes but that may have been a bit too much.
Smothered Green Chile Pepper Chicken (from My Recipes)
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Original Wordpress ID and Date: 1400, 2011-09-13_090617
Sunday, September 11, 2011, 12:15 PM
As butternut squash comes into season, we made the lasagna again. The recipe is from here and the time after that is here. We actually had/bought swiss chard for this and it was really good. We were just a bit short on the chard but we spread it thin.
Because we didn't have time, we used Barilla no-bake lasagna noodles which worked just fine. I do not know if it was having too much squash or not using enough milk (almond), but the butternut stuff was thicker than usual. We decided we liked that more since it made it easier to cut and hold its shape. We used low fat mozz for the two inner layers but had to used sliced swiss for the top since we ran out of the mozz. It gave it a nice mellow flavor still and we definitely liked it. I do not think we would do the swiss again unless we have to, but it wasn't bad by any means. We again used the glass lid in place of the foil so no cheese stuck.
What is also nice about this meal is it gives us our vegetables and lunch the next day. Unfortunately, it is lacking in protein.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 1396, 2011-09-11_121533
Thursday, September 08, 2011, 12:05 PM
We did the koftas without any tzatziki or bread. We just ate them with a fork and knife. We followed the same recipe as last time except we didn't use too much salt. The mint was wintergreen I think and maybe I used more since they were mintier than before. I still really liked them. It is just not an expected flavor inside of beef.
The stew was based on the recipe below. It was a bit disappointing. Not too many flavors came out. I think one thing was the pot with everything but the eggplant was too crowded so we didn't get the flavors to develop as well. Also, we went lighter on the sauce since were using the leftovers from the pizza and it was all we had.After reading about Harissa, we used Sriracha instead. We actually had and used fresh parsley and cilantro. No hurry to make this again!
Chickpea Stew With Eggplants, Tomatoes, And Peppers (From Serious Eats)
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Original Wordpress ID and Date: 1391, 2011-09-08_120546
Tuesday, September 06, 2011, 12:00 PM
The salmon was made with a foil-packet using lemon, rosemary and other seasonings. It was good, moist and basically, exactly what you would expect. Not overly exciting but good and easy.
The soup was based on the recipe below. On first pass, it was absolutely flavorless. With the addition of a lot more seasonings, we got some more flavor to it just didn't live up to expectation. I guess it shouldn't be too surprising seeing as summer squash just doesn't have a ton of flavor anyway. Oh well.
**Simple Summer Squash Soup ** (from The Kitchn)
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Original Wordpress ID and Date: 1388, 2011-09-06_120022
Monday, September 05, 2011, 02:25 PM
We made pizza using the normal crust (half) and a variety of toppings. This time, instead of splitting the dough into 2 large and 2 small, we made 4 medium pizzas. My first was a reuben pizza with FF thousand island dressing, some pastrami,sauerkraut and light swiss. It was okay but not as good as ones I have had before. If I do this again, I want to use rye flour!
Meredith's first was soppressata, FF ricotta, home made sauce and cheese. (both first ones are on top). My second was soppressata, light goat cheese, tomatoes, sauce and cheese. Meredith's second was sauce, ricotta, mini bell pepper rings and tomatoes
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 1383, 2011-09-05_142526
Saturday, September 03, 2011, 10:12 PM
Note, I am writing this about a week or two after we made them so I may be a bit off.
These turned out very good. We did our normal pressure cooking then shredding of the chicken. We then super caramelized finely chopped onions with a jalapeño. Added the chicken, used some of the broth to deglaze and keep every thing moist. We then added a lot of Franks Red Hot. I didn't measure how much exactly. I added a little bit of smart balance since buffalo sauce is hot sauce with butter. Finally, 3 melted laughing cow wedges. The filling was very, very good. Maybe a bit salty from the hot sauce. We then stuffed them into poblano halves, topped it with part-skim cheese, and baked it for something like 30 minutes. They were delicious! I really like using shredded chicken!
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 1379, 2011-09-03_221238