Spicy Mexican Shredded Pork Tostadas (p9 Cook's Illustrated March and April 2010)
For this I ended up using 1/2 a Pork Shoulder from the freezer for this.
This was good, time consuming, but simple to make. and it gave me an idea. Since start by boiling the pork shoulder with onions, thyme, garlic and salt and then frying it in a pan, it seems to me that it could be something that you could use for chili. That method means you'll get a more flavorful portion of the pork (rather then just generic ground pork).
This turned out great, the simple method to fry tortillas to the meat it was just tasty and flavorful. Who would've thought boiled meat could taste so good?
Pan Seared Chicken Breasts with Lemon and Chive Pan Sauce (p7 Cook's Illustrated March and April 2010)
I did make the sauce, which was good, but I didn't make the chicken how they told me too. Why? too time consuming. I can pound out the chicken just a little and then not have to worry about oven time, or cooking for 30 minutes or so in the oven. While that would leave me with nice un-flattened chicken breast, it's not really worth the time, generally. The pan sauce on the chicken was good though.
Ham, Artichoke, and Potato Gratin (p73 Bon Appétit February 2010)
Recipe calls for frozen artichoke hearts, several stores do not have frozen artichoke harts, so I try to use artichokes. I trimmed them down, after looking on the internet and came up with... Lets just put it this way, I cooked with whatever I used (heart or not, I'm still not certain) didn't turn out very well. So before I took the leftovers in the fridge, I picked out the layer of artichoke parts (they were just too tough). They still have the flavor of artichokes but no more artichokes in that. Besides that, I got to successfully use my mandolin to make nice even slices of potatoes for this. So I have this comment to say about it, even though this slicer works great, and I thank my in-laws for giving to me for Christmas (that was awesome), it seems to me that the package of trying to keep everything in the slicer, makes for a bad design over all. Since unless I take parts out, they'll end up getting dirty and I'll have to wash everything anyways...
Bison and Red Wine Shepherd's Pie (p71 Bon Appétit February 2010)
This got delayed. I was going to make this for a movie night, but due to unforeseen circumstances, we delayed it until Monday. So this will end up on next weeks menu.
On the other side, I ended up using 1 pound ground lamb from the freezer, to make lamb burgers instead. I used some raw cows milk blue cheese from Oregon (if I remember right).
Cheddar, Bacon, and Fresh Chive Biscuits Ham Sandwiches (p44 Bon Appétit February 2010)
Simple, relatively quick to make and so so tasty. But it has cheddar and bacon, so how can it be bad? We put ham, Dijon and arugula on them and they were very good. Shannon suggested that I should use some of the leftovers to make egg sandwiches (I'm assuming for brunch today), and I couldn't agree more.