2011 - Week 8 Cooking Results

Pastitsio (p23 February/March 2011 Cook's Country), Chocolate Pudding (p17 February/March 2011 Cook's Country) (movie night)

I figured it would be appropriate to shift things around since movie night didn't end up having to be gluten free, and I was curious of what Chris would think of the Pastitsio, since, well, he's been eating that way for large chunks of his life.  The reviews of both the Pastitsio and the chocolate pudding were very positive, Chris even compared the dish to his mother's (calling it similar in taste, but the preparation is different, his mom's, he said, was closer to the density of lasagna).  After the Pastitsio cooled down, it was very similar to the density of lasagna and was much easier to cut out a nice square.  Something that is very telling to me, is when I barely get a chance to have leftovers.  Chris took some home and Shannon had it several times over the next few days.  So all and all it was clearly a success.  I think that it was quite wonderful tasting, so it's clearly a winning dish.

Pastitsio from February / March 2011 Cook's CountrySince there was a large amount of ground beef on this, I threw together a second baked macaroni dish to keep a vegetarian option.  This was a combination of the other half pound of elbow macaroni, a can of crushed tomatoes, some of the bechemel sauce, some cheddar cheese and covered with a bit of Romano, parmesan and breadcrumbs.  It also turned out pretty well, considering I was just making it up as I went along.

Baked Tomato Mac and cheeseLet me say something here.  So I made a bechemel sauce for the Pastitsio, then I thought, hey i should make another one for the purpose of the vegetarian dish.  One should not make two seperate batches of bechemel at the same time.  It's exausting.  Normally it'd be whisk whisk, wait a bit whisk whisk, but when you have two, there is no wait a bit, there's just constant whisking for a long long time.  I guess I could call it good upper body work.

After dinner, I quick whipped up some lightly sweetend whipped cream, and put it over the chocolate pudding.  Which was pretty good.  The thing that surprised me the most is how easy it was to make.  Just a simple combination.  I will be making this again, without a doubt.

Roasted Pork Loin, Paprika Potatoes (p10 February/March 2011 Cook's Country)

So I have these Berkshire Pork parts from Eden Farms  that have been begging me to cook them from the freezer space.  So I finally did.  I made some slices crisscrossed on top of the fat cap, then dusted it with fresh ground Szechuan pepper and course kosher salt.  I then seared it on both sides (fat first, so it'd be up when I roasted it).

One side seared of the pork loin, pork exuded a lot more fat then I was expecting.I then stuck it in the oven and baked it at 350° for quite a while.  I then started on the potatoes.  Now when the directions in Cook's country call for a large pan, I think they may mean the a 12" pan, because the 10" pan I have was way too crowded to make the potatoes properly.  While they didn't end up with a crisp crust, they still tasted very good.  About the time that the roasted potatoes were done:

Paprika PotatoesI took the pork out of the oven to let it rest.

Eden Farms berkshire pork deliciousnessWith that I was a little unhappy, because I really only wanted to cook the pork to 145° (all it really needs) instead of 160° (what the government says), but that's neither here nor there, I guess.  It still turned out pretty well, but it makes me think that I want a probe thermometer.  Combined with the potatoes it made for a good meal, though I do think I probably should have used the smoked paprika, instead of the Szechuan pepper.

Heavenly Hots (p14 February/March 2011 Cook's Country)

A pancake type of thing made mostly of sour cream?  Seriously?  While the cooking of these required a lot of tuning of the heat to balance the time and cooking.  Making so many small pancakes on my 10" and 8" non-stick pan left for some long time of cooking.  Covered slightly in powdered sugar, made for a delicious, but probably not so good for you meal.

Heavenly Hots

Breakfast Buttercups (p15 February/March 2011 Cook's Country)

I felt guilty buying the eggs for these.  The recipe calls for medium eggs, and medium eggs are hard to find produced from a local farmer (usually my choices there are large or extra large), I didn't even have the choice of cage free or anything like that.  It was depressing.  Anyways, I ended up using the medium eggs that I could find (sigh) and then went on to make these.  They turned out pretty good, though if I made it 12 at a time, I suppose it'd be worth it and it was a nice dinner and would make for a more impressive breakfast to serve for guests too.  The egg ended up being a bit soft, so it ran out a bit over the rest of it to a delicious effect.

Ground Turkey Laap (p120 February 2011 Food & Wine)

I have made things that are similar things like this in the past, and this was good like the others.  It made for a good simple meal.

Ground Turkey Laap

Lao-Style Chicken Baguette Sandwiches with Watercress (p124 February 2011 Food & Wine) and Chile-Garlic Sauce (p126 February 2011 Food & Wine)

Now this, I enjoyed.  Shannon didn't want the chile garlic sauce, so I used it most on my sandwich.  I couldn't find any appetizing looking watercress either, so that was excluded too, but we did add some baby spinach on top instead.Lao-Style Chicken Baguette Sandwiches with Chile Garlic Sauce

2011 - Week 8 Cooking

• Pastitsio (p23 February/March 2011 Cook's Country)
• Roasted Pork Loin, Paprika Potatoes (p10 February/March 2011 Cook's Country), Chocolate Pudding (p17 February/March 2011 Cook's Country) (movie night)
• Heavenly Hots (p14 February/March 2011 Cook's Country)
• Breakfast Buttercups (p15 February/March 2011 Cook's Country)
• Ground Turkey Laap (p120 February 2011 Food & Wine)
• Lao-Style Chicken Baguette Sandwiches with Watercress (p124 February 2011 Food & Wine) and Chile-Garlic Sauce (p126 February 2011 Food & Wine)

2011 - Week 7 Cooking Results

For Valentines Day, we went to La Mie for dinner.  This is the first time since they started serving dinner again that we made it back there.  The shared menu was:  Clams and Braciole; Gnocchi with winter squash and vegetables; Adriatic Lemon Cod; Rack of Lamb; Orange and Fennel.  Then we shared a Hazelnut and Chocolate Meringue Cake.  The dinner as a whole was very good, but the cake?  It was just amazing.

This past week instead of my normal trip to Hy-Vee I went to Dahls instead.  There are some things at the Inergersol Dahls store that were nice.  I liked the way that their fresh produce section was laid out, but there selection of some of the items I liked to buy (vinegar, for example), they were severely lacking.  Though they did have Iowa raised bison, which, for this week, made a big difference.  I'll probably be back to Hy-Vee tomorrow, but over all it wasn't a bad experience (except for not knowing where things were).

Leftover Tacos

That really was a good meal and good the 2nd time around too. (Sunday, 02/13/2011)

Blue Cheese and Bacon Meatloaf (p62 February/March 2011 Fine Cooking)

Fine cooking often does these formula recipe where it gives you examples of rations, what you can put in it and how to do it.  These are interesting.  We had this for dinner on Friday. it was pretty good.  The bison didn't dry out (I'm sure that being covered in bacon didn't hurt).  So you'd get  a mouthful of bison with flavors of bacon and blue cheese.  The funniest thing I thought about was the fact that I couldn't wait to have meatloaf sandwiches.  Making of the meat life, fine fine, ok when do these count as leftovers? (Friday, 02/18/2011)

Blue Cheese and Bacon Meatloaf, surrounded by a bath of melted fat.Blue Cheese and Bacon Meatloaf slice

Classic Tomato Soup (p21 February/March 2011 Cook's Country)

There is something magical with the combination of grilled cheese and tomato soup.  This was a good simple recipie for tomato soup.  The issue I had the first time I tried to make it, was that I had thought that I had enough diced tomatoes, but I clearly did not.  So I stopped by the Dahl's near my house to get them and was able to make it on Thursday, instead of Wednesday.  It did take a while longer then one might think to make, but it made for a good dinner (the combination of the two, by itself, it'd make a decent appetizer).  The hint here on blending a soup, is to first, use a dish towel on the top of the blender.  If your blender happens to explode.  Second, do not over fill the blender, I've found the best point is right around the halfway point.  If you do, you have a greater likely hood of releasing steam and pushing the lid off the blender.  Third, and I think most importantly, start with pulses before liquefying.  I pulse the blender several times to release some of the steam, before blending full time.   (Thursday, 02/17/2011)

Classic Tomato Soup

Italian-Style Chicken Soup (RC February/March 2011 Cook's Country)

This was pretty simple and good.  I really enjoyed how it worked.  The pouring of the mixed egg into the simmering liquid to make the strings of egg through the liquid.  Tasty and simple.   (Wednesday, 02/16/2011)

Italian style chicken soup

Steak and Blue Cheese Panini (RC February/March 2011 Cook's Country)

While this didn't really end up being a panini, since I didn't actulaly squish it.  I used some of the ciabatta buns that I like so much, and then cooked the steak and made the dressing on top of it.  I toasted the buns and made a good sandwich.  Very enjoyable, I halved the recipie and had enough to make 3 sandwiches (I had the other one as a snack).  I served them with baked fries.  (Tuesday, 02/15/2011)

Pastitsio (p23 February/March 2011 Cook's Country)

Delayed until the next week.

2011 - Week 7 Cooking

Yesterday I headed down to Kitchen Collage.  They sent out a coupon over email to get 20% off.  I bought another set of the measuring cups I like so much.  I also dropped off my workhorse knife to get sharpened (it really needs it).  I ordered some new print cartridges for my ink jet printer, and am about ready to give up on my laserjet 2100.  Oh well.

• Leftover Tacos
• Blue Cheese and Bacon Meatloaf (p62 February/March 2011 Fine Cooking)
• Classic Tomato Soup (p21 February/March 2011 Cook's Country)
• Italian-Style Chicken Soup (RC February/March 2011 Cook's Country)
• Steak and Blue Cheese Panini (RC February/March 2011 Cook's Country)
• Pastitsio (p23 February/March 2011 Cook's Country)

2011 - Week 6 Cooking Results

GWM Brats and other things around it

We had beer and cheddar and another kind that I can't remember what it was, and it was good like you would expect it to be.  We watched several things over the night (some parts were of the big game, Shannon wanted to watch the half time show and the commercials).  We mostly watched other things, then fast forwarded through the game.  Anyways, the food was good, though we ate entirely too much junk food.

Thin Crust Pizza (p8 January/February 2011 Cook's Illustrated) (I have to try this again, though I'm going to alter how I actually cook it) (Friday or Saturday)

I was extremely happy with how this came out.  After basically destroying a pizza stone, this made me feel better about myself.  We got a nice crisp crust that wasn't too thick or thin, and I was able to easy get it out of the oven in a baking sheet.  There were, however, a few mistakes I made.  I didn't drain the tomatoes for the tomato sauce.  I then adapted and quick put it in a pan to get it to reduce down to a more normal amount and be a bit thicker.  This was for the best, I allowed the Graziano sausage (cooked, about half a pound) to simmer in the sauce.  So to layer on top of the dough, I had pepperoni, parmesan, sauce (with the sausage in it), mozzarella, and more pepperoni.  This time I made sure that my cooking surface was sprayed well with cooking spray so the pizza could come off, and it worked otu pretty well.  I guess the last step of this would be to let the dough rest a bit when I stretch it out for the pan (used all the dough for the pan), so I can get it all the way to the corners, without feeling like I'm going to break it.  Also I would like to let it rise in the fridge longer.  after ~24 hours, it had such a nice flavor to it, it makes me wonder what it'll be like after 2 or 3 days.  I am pleased.

Double Pepperoni and Susage thin crust pizza.

Lamb and Sweet Onion Pitas with Orange-Cucumber Salad (p22 February/March 2011 Fine Cooking)

So here's my question.  Ground lamb produces a glorious tasting fat.  Why in the holy hell would you not sauté the onions in the lamb fat?  I mean seriously.  As I skimmed down the recipe I looked for why and really couldn't find any reason.  Maybe drain off some of the fat, sure, but to not use the fat is a sin against the lamb.  Someone that doesn't like the taste of lamb will probably not be making this anyways, so it doesn't make a ton of sense to me to not go all out on the lamb flavoring.  On the others die of that my oranges weren't that big, so segmenting them proved to be a bit difficult, but the salad then turned out pretty well.

Pretzel-Crusted Chicken Breasts with Mustard-Dill Dipping Sauce (p23 February/March 2011 Fine Cooking)

So I went along, starting to make the stuff go to get the chicken to get it encrusted, only to realize that I had used the chicken breasts to make the vindaloo earlier in the week, so I quick ran out to Dahl's to get some more.  They turned out pretty well, Tasty, went well with the dipping sauce.  After eating it I knew I could smell the dill in the sauce but I really couldn't taste it that well.  And I pretty much used the entire baby dill and diced it up and put it in there.  But still pretty good.

Quick Chicken Vindaloo (p26 February/March 2011 Fine Cooking)

So I didn't realize that I wasn't using the right chicken (I used breasts instead of thighs) until another day.  It was nice and spicy, but not overly so, and turned out pretty well.  The kind of funny thing was the next day, I was having leftover Vindaloo in the break room, one of my co-workers heated up some Lamb Vindaloo (frozen meal).  Certainly not a super common occurrence, I suppose.

George's Crock Pot Barbacoa (posted on the GWM facebook feed) (Friday or Saturday)

This turned out really good.  It wasn't too much work, and it just simmered in the crock pot all day.  It turned from this:

Barbacoa (uncooked)

To this:

Barbacoa (cooked)

The only modification that I really made was to add 3 tablespoons of chili powder (from AllSpice).  For a vegetarian option, or additional topping, I made a nice mixture:

• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 large onion, diced

Warm oil on medium heat (I used a 10" stright sided pan), add onion Cook for 2 to 3 minutes add some spices:

• 2 tablespoons chili powder
• 3/4th teaspoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon oregano
• 1 teaspoon thyme

Cook another 3-5 minutes on medium until onion is mostly soft.  At this point I should've added a clove of garlic, but forgot.

• 2 14.5 oz cans of diced tomatoes
• 1 14.5 oz can pinto beans, drained, rinsed
• 1 14.5 oz can black beans, drained, rinsed

Add tomatoes an scrape up any brown bits off the bottom.  Stir in until mixed, then added the beans ans mix them up.  Add a bit of liquid to make it easier to simmer and simmer uncovered until they are done (I did mine for around an hour or so).  And you get this:

Almost chili, but not really.and then you put together all the condiments

shredded cheese, sour cream, diced red peppers, diced onion, limes, cilantro, guacamole, tortilla shells, and mixed greensAnd you have a great dinner.  I was very happy with how this turned out, and I have to admit this was the first time I had broken out the crock pot in quite a long time.  I served dinner with The Velvet Devil Merlot.  Afterwards we watched Zombieland.  I had several white Russians (used Cedar Ridge's clear heart vodka) and Holly had a rum (cedar ridge) and Pepsi (throwback).

2011 - Week 6 Cooking

It's a Sunday!  The one with the football game!  Yay!  I used to watch it for the commercials, because I do appreciate a good commercial, however since I have several things in which I try to avoid commercials as if they were the plague, it didn't make sense to me to spend 3-5 hours of my life to watch the commercials, when I care nothing of the content.  Besides, you can generally see them on the internet if you were so inclined to do so.  So I wish your team that you are rooting for the best, but I don't really care that much.  However, I still will be cooking as if it was that game.  Anyways on with the show.

• GWM Brats and other things around it
• Thin Crust Pizza (p8 January/February 2011 Cook's Illustrated) (I have to try this again, though I'm going to alter how I actually cook it) (Friday or Saturday)
• Lamb and Sweet Onion Pitas with Orange-Cucumber Salad (p22 February/March 2011 Fine Cooking)
• Pretzel-Crusted Chicken Breasts with Mustard-Dill Dipping Sauce (p23 February/March 2011 Fine Cooking)
• Quick Chicken Vindaloo (p26 February/March 2011 Fine Cooking)
• George's Crock Pot Barbacoa (posted on the GWM facebook feed) (Friday or Saturday)

  4lb C.A.B. chuck roast. Trimmed of fat and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
  1 onion minced
  1 tsp Mexican oregano
  1 tsp leaf thyme
  1 tbsp fresh chopped garlic
  2 tsp garlic powder
  1.5 cups chicken stock
  Mix in a crock pot on high for 6 to 8 hours.
  Salt & pepper to taste. Serve with tortillas, cheese, white onion, guacamole, cilantro, lime wedge.

2011 - Week 5 Cooking Results

Breakfast Biscuit Sandwiches (p86 January 2011 Food & Wine)

These were really good, except for one thing.  Similar to the egg sandwiches that I make from time to time, though I don't often make biscuits.  The fatal flaw in this was that the biscuits seemed excessively salty.  When looking through the recipe I looked at it and raised my eyebrow at the 2 tablespoons of kosher salt, thinking that it seemed like quite a bit.  Even after I halved the recipe I was still left with full tablespoon which was just way to much.  They were salty.  Now you put a salty ham on a salty biscuit and etc...  too much.  I honestly don't think it's just me and my attempt to live a lower sodium lifestyle, it was just to much salt.  As a comparison this biscuit recipie has 3/4ths a teaspoon for 2 cups of flour, even doubled 1.5 teaspoons, it's 25% of the salt then the recipe I made.  Perhaps a misprint and data mistake on the website?  I think so.

Coriander Chicken Tostadas with Refried Beans and Grilled Fennel (p85 Bon Appétit January 2011)

So I couldn't find unground coriander (I didn't have a chance to make it down to AllSpice) and apparently I thought I had some in the house, but when I looked in my spice drawer, there was nothing to be found.  So it turned into Cajun spiced chicken.  This title is really complicated for what it actually is.  Yes the crushed coriander is nice and all, but this really isn't more special.  The grilled fennel was an interesting addition and perhaps I would do it again.  The refried beans?  Super easy...makes me thing that buying refried beans (with the big additions of salt and etc) seems like a silly thing to do.  Though maybe they need more fat in them (cough lard cough).  As I say that I think hey! that would be a good use for the La Quercia Iowa White Lardo.  Now I just have to get some.  Is it a bit excessive to spend that kind of money on refried beans?  Perhaps, but nobody said I was smart about my food budget.

Steak with Stout Pan Sauce (p46 Bon Appétit January 2011)

Shannon didn't eat the pan sauce, I did, I loved it.  So I guess there you go.

Quinoa Pasta with Spinach and Tomatoes (p38 Bon Appétit January 2011)

Neither of us liked this very much...I finished my portion, Shannon did not.  The leftovers were still in the fridge.  It might make an ok side dish, but, in honestly, there was just not enough flavor there.

Spicy Black Bean Sandwiches with Chipotle Mayonnaise (12/1/2010 Weeknight Kitchen)

No cooking, easy to make and surprisingly delicious.  Probably something better for the summer then the middle of the winter, but it is a good dinner.

2011 - Week 5 Cooking

On Friday, I spent the vast majority of the day making little chocolate Lego dudes.

Are they actual size? It was melt chocolate, put in molds, scrape molds, put in freezer, wait 10 minutes, repeat.  I moved quite a bit forward in catching up on my magazines (3.5 gotten through).  Near the end, I had a half Lego man, just fresh out of the freezer, bit down, started chewing, and it was surprisingly crunchy, before I realized that it was a tooth.  One of my incisors decided to break on frozen chocolate...  Maybe this should tell me something.  Anyways, a call to my dentist and Dr. Meyer of West Des Moines Dental scheduled me to come in on Saturday (his day off) to take care of it.  I am really grateful for that.  I have a temporary crown, and got a mold taken to get a permanent one (should be ready for me on Thursday).  There is only one picture and one x-ray of this, which I don't plan to post.  Anyways, made for an interesting day off.

I also made a bunch of white chocolate Lego men, but by that time I was tired and need to take a break.  I have to say it's kind of obnoxious how many people have "white morsels" or whatever without the actual chocolate.  I hope they go over well at Chris' Lego party today, and they'd sure go great on cupcakes...

Even though last week I may have put a bit too much on my plate, cooking-wise (some nights we didn't eat until 8:30), it felt good to actually do some serious cooking again.  I knew it was a relaxing mechanism for me, but I didn't realize how much until it came back.

We plan on going to Gusto Pizza (formerly Frank's) this week.  It's opening up after quite a long time of being closed after moving.  I'm happy to see them come back and hope we get the quality we grew used to at Frank's.  They had a soft launch last night and it sounds like it went very well (If I didn't already have a pot of chili in the stove, we may have gone).

• Breakfast Biscuit Sandwiches (p86 January 2011 Food & Wine)
• Coriander Chicken Tostadas with Refried Beans and Grilled Fennel (p85 Bon Appétit January 2011)
• Steak with Stout Pan Sauce (p46 Bon Appétit January 2011)
• Quinoa Pasta with Spinach and Tomatoes (p38 Bon Appétit January 2011)
• Spicy Black Bean Sandwiches with Chipotle Mayonnaise (12/1/2010 Weeknight Kitchen)

2011 - Week 4 Cooking Results

Split Pea and Ham Soup (p20 January/February 2011 Cook's Illustrated)

This, to me, illustrated is the difference between using my stand by bacon (Hy-Vee Amana Bacon) vs. really good bacon.  While the Hy-Vee bacon is ok for most things, the Vande Rose Farms bacon was something else.  It added a smokiness that I don't think I've ever able to get out of the Hy-Vee bacon.  The smokiness of the bacon permeated the entire soup to make it seem like, I used a really good hunk of ham to do this (which, clearly I didn't).  Do I have to rethink my bacon use?  Why is it that every time I rethink something, it ends up costing me 2-4 times as much per ingredient?  The only thing that I found kind of depressing, is that when I was taking the, basically, boiled bacon out of the pot, I threw it away, which seemed a waste.  Anyways, this was a great shortcut way of getting a split pea and ham soup that tastes really good.  I do have a ham in the freezer, and I do need to use that sometime, but for a soup that you don't get to have very often, because you don't make a whole ham that often, it shortcuts it into the right place.

Nut Crusted Chicken Cutlets with Orange and Oregano (p9 January/February 2011 Cook's Illustrated)

I halved this recipe (no sense in making 4 for the two of us).  This turned out pretty good.  It was a bit nutty and the chicken turned out very well.

Our Favorite Chili (p15 January/February 2011 Cook's Illustrated)

The only problem that I have with this recipe is that I should have doubled it.  That much effort for half a pot of chili?  Anyways that was quite good, and other then me roasting some of the dried peppers that I shouldn't have (led to much coughing in my kitchen).  I think that it might be the way to go in the future.  To make my own chili paste.  I do, however, have some spice mixes from All Spice that I wanted to use, which would be back to the old method.  But the flank steak turned out to be quite tender and everything tasted great.  Topped with shredded cheddar and sour cream, a nice meal for a chilly Saturday.

Spaghetti with Lemon and Olive Oil (p21 January/February 2011 Cook's Illustrated)

We were both surprised as to how lemony this was.  It was surprisingly simple and ended up tasting very good.  I used my new method to get zest off of a lemon (with a vegetable peeler and then super-petite dicing it).  It may just mean it's time to replace my zester, or get one that is not so fine.  This was great.  This was the only thing I took a picture of, but it's a bit blurry, so I'm not posting that.

Thin Crust Pizza (p8 January/February 2011 Cook's Illustrated)

Maybe I didn't use enough flour...maybe it was something else, but I don't understand how I was supposed to get the pizza to the stone.  I had the wooden spatula thing and it still got stuck and after a little bit of sauce spilled on it, it was game over.  It was quite frustrating.  Anyways, everything else turned out pretty well.  Good sauce, the crust had developed a nice flavor over the night. and with the simple toppings it made for a good meal.  However, I'm not completely satisfied with how this worked out, so I want to make it again, but this time, I'll use a  pan or something (I kind of destroyed the wooden spatula and the pizza stone).

Pancakes

So this is a prime example of the problems that I've been having.  Whisking?  Painful.  Grating Frozen strawberries?  Painful.  Anyways, I had bought some frozen strawberries for another meal, because the fresh ones looked a bit gross (and why wouldn't they?).  So the idea here was to put the strawberries in the pancakes, and the idea struck me that the strawberries are frozen, so I could grate them.  So I did.  Generally these turned out pretty well, however the strawberries have quite a bit of liquid, so it kinds of over balanced the liquid to flour ratio.  So if I were to do it again, I'd reduce some of the liquid by a bit.  Taste wise they had a mild strawberry taste to them.

2011 - Week 4 Cooking

So last night we had the first game night of 2011.  It made for a fun night.  I really enjoyed it.  The best attended in a while.  For game night I made some Pumpkin Bread.  I also took some time to make some chocolate Lego dudes for Chris for his upcoming Lego night.  They turned out pretty well, though I had to lever them out pretty hard with a fork to get them out of the mold, I will try again with some cooking spray or something next time:

Lego men so delicious you could just eat them...I also just ordered LEGO Minifigure Ice Cube Tray (cheaper on Lego's site, but w/ 2 day shipping for free from Amazon, cheaper here).  Which should make it easier to get out of.  I plan to do some gelatin stuff at the end of the week with the molds, both big and small.  It's been fun playing with chocolate.  Along with that I made some Hot Gingerbread Punch and some Tree Trimming Cider Punch.  I sort of vaguely followed the recipes being that I didn't have any of the time required to actually make them.  That being said the cider punch turned out great and the gingerbread punch...was...I hate to say it, was too gingery.  Anyways, Joseph helped out quite a bit doing a lot of the prep work for me (my hands have been hurting), and he got show off his petite dice skills.  At game night we played several games, including St Petersburg.  Which I really enjoyed.  I won the first game we played of it, and Joseph "won" the second.  I type "won" cause Joseph and Keith decided, while I was away from the table, that the youngest player (Joseph) would always choose first one two of the rounds, which led to a distinct advantage for the majority of the game.  Anyways it was fun.  I'm glad people had a good time, though we have lots of leftovers.

• Split Pea and Ham Soup (p20 January/February 2011 Cook's Illustrated)
• Nut Crusted Chicken Cutlets with Orange and Oregano (p9 January/February 2011 Cook's Illustrated)
• Our Favorite Chili (p15 January/February 2011 Cook's Illustrated)
• Spaghetti with Lemon and Olive Oil (p21 January/February 2011 Cook's Illustrated)
• Thin Crust Pizza (p8 January/February 2011 Cook's Illustrated)
• Pancakes