Week 47 Cooking Results

Thanksgiving at my parents...mmm... And I got to bring home nearly two pounds of homemade lefse? How can it get better? When going out to buy cilantro for the chili, I stopped by La Mie to get some bread for turkey sandwiches (decided I didn't have enough meat to make something out of the turkey), I got feedback from Joe Logsdon on the Chocolate Chunk Tart Cherry Oatmeal cookies that I've been working on, "you should quit your day job and open a cookie shop." I responded that I only have about 4 recipes...but I could see myself doing that. So I may have to think long and hard about if I want to start collecting cookie recipes, or continue to post them.

Grandma's Enchiladas (p27 Cook's Country October/November 2009)

These were quite good, good spice, they took a while to make (which is why I saved them for a weekend). But the combination of all the spices the slow braised beef just let for quite a delicious experience.

Ginger-Shallot Chicken Breasts

I got this from the Splendid Table Weeknight Kitchen Newsletter. I found it to be quite good, I especially like the sauce...I suspect Shannon would've liked the sauce had I actually seeded the peppers like the recipe called for, but since I left the seeds in, it was a bit too spicy for her. I did also like the way that they cooked the chicken breast too.

Twice Baked Potatoes with Ham, Peas and Gruyere (p36 Entertaining Fall 2009)

I vaguely followed the recipe...it seemed like a lot of work to get a similar result, so I just kind of simplified it earlier. I ended up cooking the potatoes with the stuff in them in the omelette pan that I had been using, and in continuing with my recent history, to get the potato out, I had forgotten that the pan had been in the oven for a good 20 or 30 minutes, grabbed the handle with my left hand and got a nice burn on my palm, and most of my joints. Though I realized my mistake pretty quick, so it wasn't too serious. No blisters.

Slow-Cooker White Chicken Chili (p5 Cook's Country October/November 2009)

This turned out pretty well. Though how can you call it chili, if it didn't have chili powder in it...but perhaps that's just me. Anyways, I actually had to grind up some coriander, because I had run out, so I was happy, once again, that I bought a coffee grinder not too long ago. I also didn't really want to use the slow cooker (mine is bigger then I think what they are calling for), so I ended up using my beloved Chantal stock pot and the oven. I looked on the internet and found that the low setting was 200F and the high setting was 300F and ended up using a hybrid of the two and went around 250 for most of the cooking. When I pulled the chicken thighs out of the pan, I had trouble because they were falling off the bone tender...

Earlier in the cooking, while putting the onions, in the pot, there was a little chicken fat and oil splatter and I got quite the blisters on my right arm.

Lasagna Bolognese (p26 Entertaining Fall 2009)

This was quite a bit of work to make. Make two sauces, put everything together. But it turned out very well. We both enjoyed it...and we have a whole lot of leftovers too...

So to sum up, right now I have a burn on my right ring finger, that is almost healed, a splattering of burns on my right arm, still look pretty ugly, and some fairly minor burns on my left hand, which feel like dry skin for the most part now...