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