Week 45 Cooking Results

Aunt Nina's Breadballs (p24 Cook's Country October/November 2009)

This was kinda fun to make. Though I did make a bit of a mistake that made for quite the...spicy sauce. When adding the Red pepper flakes, I opened it, and being used to the holed lid on the normal one that I buy being there, I go to sprinkle maybe a bit more then the recipe calls for (I tend to like the extra spice), and there are no holes to struggle through and I proceeded to dump a large portion of the container of red pepper flakes into the mixture. I picked out as much as I could, but still what remained was a quite spicy sauce. It was still good though. The fried breadballs? Some of them I didn't pack together well enough so they kind of fell apart while I was cooking them. Though I used that as an excuse to eat fried bread... Good meal, took a while to make, but not absurdly so and relatively cheap over all.

Reduced Fat Sloppy Joes (p4 Cook's Country October/November 2009)

Putting in mushrooms to reduce the amount of meat and fat in the meat that you use, is a pretty good idea and this turned out well. Though after I put some of the Prairie Breeze cheese on them, I probably went over any reductions in calories or fat that was there. One thing that I thought this was missing was mustard. I love the taste of yellow mustard in a Sloppy Joe, so much so that I tend to add more after it's done. Perhaps, that's just me though.

Steak with Crispy Spiced Potatoes (RC Cook's Country October/November 2009)

This was pretty simple to make. I really liked the spice mixture (the recipe calls for: oregano, paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, cayenne pepper, though ended up not using the cayenne pepper because I used hot paprika (couldn't find cayenne pepper at the store)). on the potatoes. Gave them quite a bit of spice and taste. With the process of pre cooking the potatoes, in the microwave, and then sauteing them to give them a nice crust. That way they get cooked (while cooking the steak) and then get finished in the pan.

Granny's Tamale Pie (p25 Cook's Country October/November 2009)

Holy crap this took a long time. I started cooking around 5:15, 5:30 or so, and we at around 9:15. I also got a 2nd degree burn on my ring finger on my right hand (blistered skin)... Even so I would make this again, on a sunday...staring at 3. Though in my mind this recipe was a bit lacking. Me, I'd add a diced jalapeno pepper or two to the mixture. The recipe seems a bit lacking too. It seems to me that somewhere between step 3 and 5 there is a missing step or two. Even so, It turned out well.

Savory Baked Mac & Cheese (using some combination of: Huntsman, quality swiss, Prairie Breeze, cotswold, smoked gouda)

I was a bit lazy, didn't take the time to actually form a sauce, so it was really turned out to be noodles and cheese. I used the last of the huntsman, all of the smoked gouda, and all (except for a few tasters) of the swiss. So it ended up, to me, tasting like it had ham in it and I think this was because of the smokey taste from the gouda. Even being lazy, it's kinda hard to mess up cheese + noodles.

Baked Manicotti with Meat Sauce (p18 Cook's Country October/November 2009)

There is a mixture of ground beef, onions and pepperoni. The recipe told me to to set aside a cup the filling for the noodles, but I missed it (twice, cause I went back to look saying where is that cup supposed to go)...so I ended up putting it on top with the cheese (used more cheese then the recipe called for since, well, it was there). It still turned out great. Though I was very hungry by the time and most of my way through a bottle of red from Southeast Australia, so that may have tempered my judgment. Shannon seemed to enjoy it as well, though.