Terriyaki Chicken - Healthy Meals for Less by Jonni McCoy

PREP: Easy / TASTE : Good / REPEAT : Probably

Though this dish doesn't look that great in the crockpot it actually had some great flavor and paired nicely with couscous, which is how we ate it. Not all the family thought it was great, but it was easy to make. Daimeian noted that he prefers couscous over rice. Because I intend to make a crockpot dish once a week I will probably do this again.

NOTE : This picture shows the full breasts I used just starting to get shredded. I later fully shredded the chicken. In the future I might add just a little more liquid to cook the chicken with. This is just because I like the extra liquid to mop up with or drizzle onto the couscous or rice.  The batch pictured is a double batch from the original recipe.

Basic Basil Pesto - Joy of Cooking

TASTE : Great
PREP : Super easy
REPEAT : Again and again

No pics this time as I did this one in a rush. My friend took the batch home to try on salmon for dinner.  I plan to make more and may try the sun-dried tomato version also in Joy of Cooking. When I have a chance, I'm hoping to compare basic basil pesto recipes from Joy of Cooking and other cookbooks that I've seen it in. It's so basic, how much can it change unless you are purposefully adding flair to it?  However, I recently saw a recipe in my Cooking Light magazine that I want to try. It has a pesto of sorts without basil, but it's origin is not Italian.  Will share more when I try it.

Lentil Soup - Moosewood Cookbook, p 25

TASTE : Good
PREP : Easy
REPEAT : probably not

I modified this simple soup with bits of ham from the spiral sliced ham we cooked the night before. The drizzle of red wine vinegar was great and melted cheese on top was a nice personal touch. Okay, I know Moosewood recipes are for vegetarians and/or vegans, but I am not either one of these and don't care to be.  However, my family does not care for lentils so they did not eat much of the soup which leaves me to eat up a large batch of the soup with the roasted veggies I prepared at the same time.  Feta on top of the veggies  nice and hot...mmmmm...

Hollandaise, Blender Version - Mastering the Art of French Cooking V. 1

My foray into Julia Child's acclaimed kitchen wisdom and the infamous Mastering the Art of French Cooking is a simple sauce, Hollandaise made in the blender.  For the sake of time and because I have never tried this type of emulsion by hand before, i went with the blender version. It was VERY VERY easy and VERY VERY good!  Ok, so my children have yet to mature their taste buds to fabulous rich sauces such as this, but my palette was in over drive.  Could I quote from the movie "Julie and Julia"?  "It's eggs and butter that have been whipped into submission. Yum!"  Oh yes, YUM!

Just a side note, the timing worked out great. I needed egg whites for the frosting a day and a half ago and had yolks needing to be used so they were perfect to go with eggs and bagels this morning. I know the picture isn't great, but I took a bite before remembering to take a picture so I had to improvise.

Seven Minute Frosting - Martha Stewart Cupcakes

PREP : Fair
TASTE: YUCK! - personal reflection, some liked it
REPEAT : probably not

This is a frosting recipe that calls for whipped egg whites and a heated sugar drizzled into the egg whites. I've made this before, maybe similar, maybe just about the same, with a recipe from the King Arthur Whole Grain Baking cookbook. I couldn't stand it then and I can't stand it now.  To me it's very greasy tasting. It's stable but gross.  Tyler liked it plain, Liana liked it on the cupcakes.  I thought it was awful.  However, I should state that it did have a marshmallow flavor to it.  Perhaps it might be a good basis for a recipe needing some sort of a marshmallow cream to it.

Snickerdoodle Cupcakes - Martha Stewart Cupcakes

TASTE: Good
PREP : Fair
REPEAT : Yes

The family really liked these cupcakes.  I thought they were good fresh but not in my top list of cupcakes to indulge on.  For this batch I did them as the recipe called for ingredients, including all-purpose flour (though I used organic non-bleached which supposedly can affect the crumb texture) and cake flour.  I intend on trying this again with some substitutes. I'm thinking that if I sift my fresh ground soft white wheat flour than I will reduce the bran in the muffin. This will give me a more cake flour texture and still mostly unadulterated content.  I'll post the results in comparison when I get to it. I must note that the original recipe did result in a very fine and soft cupcake crumb.

Chicken Pot Pie (Sue Gregg, "Meals in Minutes", p 43)

PREP: Easy
TASTE: Good
REPEAT: Yes

Overall the family apparently enjoyed this dish. I wasn't home when they ate it.  Plan ahead to prepare the topping to allow for the two-stage nutrition process with the grains.  I substituted zucchini and garlic for the carrots and celery because I had it on hand. Then, instead of frozen peas I used frozen mixed vegetable medley from Costco which was all organic veggies.  Would repeat this one.  Reminder to myself, yes the chicken goes in the sauce mixture raw and cooks in the oven. :)
 

UPDATE July 28th, 2009

Made two batches yesterday. One for our family and one to bring as a meal for someone at church.  I might go lighter on the Thyme next time, or at least measure it accurately.  Too much and it has a weird taste for me.  However, the dish overall was really good and quite easy to make. Another thing I need to do is to make sure that mixture is thickened prior to putting in the last veggies and chicken and putting it into the oven. This time the dish came out of the oven a little watery.  Given some time to sit it will still set nicely.