Company for dinner

Cooking with Rachael Ray: January 2006

Yesterday, my daughter Emily, her partner Robin and my granddaughter Rachel unexpectedly descended upon us for Sunday night dinner. I swung into action and prepared the next two Rachael Ray dinners I'd planned - #19 & #23. Everyone liked the corn cakes (sans rosemary) and the chicken sausages. My granddaughter really liked the midly smoked chicken patties. I also fried up some potatoes.

More About Recipe 18

Cooking with Rachael Ray

There's an antecdote that goes along with preparing recipe #18 that I want to share. One of the ingredients is pancetta. What is pancetta? The lady at the deli counter at VONS thought it was a cheese. The cheese guy was sure it was a cheese but he didn't carry it. I finally asked the chef at work and he told me it was a kind of bacon. He asked why I wanted to know and I told him about our blog and now he's a big fan! He loves to read it over my shoulder at work each day.

I was just going through my 365 :No Repeats book trying to find a recipe that I'd stumbled upon earlier for Pierogies and Kielbasa. I went through the whole book and never found it. I've been pouring through the new Rachael Ray and Paula Deen magazines, so must have seen it there.

My oldest daughter Jeanne doesn't cook. When she's on her own, she lives on fast food. She's been staying with us while she gets settled here and has been SO grateful for the delicious home-cooked dinners ... She may never leave!

Recipe #18

Cooking with Rachael Ray

I was looking through my 365:No Repeat book and realized that I forgot to write about cooking recipe #18, which I did last Wednesday. Diane was right about this one, it was pretty enough to serve as a company meal. It tasted good too! The spinach was to die for! I will definately make it that way again. We LOVED the White Bean Ragout. I couldn't find cannellini beans, so used navy beans. Jeanne wanted to lick the saucepan, but I'd already done it! The turkey rolls were ok. As the recipe called for, I used turkey cutlets, which I flattened with my cast iron saucepan and proscuitto, which I had no trouble finding in the deli section at VONS. The recipe took almost an hour to prepare.

Rachael Ray has you made a gravy at the end. Now I have never made a successful gravy, I always used canned. But she tricked me into it. I was just reading along and the next thing I knew I was throwing a handful of flour into the drippings and suddenly, without warning, I was looking down at a panfull of gravy! Honest-to-goodness, handmade gravy!!! It was delicious too! I saved the leftover gravy in a little bowl and made everyone admire it for the rest of the evening.

Cooking with Paula Deen

Cooking with Rachael Ray

Ooh, ooh, ooh, I made the Ooey Gooey Paula Deen cake that Diane talked about earlier. The recipe suggests adding peanut butter to chocolate cake mix, but I used yellow cake mix instead. I added a cup of smooth pb to the cream cheese. It turned out SO GOOD! So moist and dense and peanut buttery! Jeanne said it was the best thing she's ever tasted! Even Maggie our Daschund dropped the turkey bone she'd mistakenly gotten ahold of to dive for the piece of cake I'd dropped on the floor. So that qualifies as a triple ARF ARF ARF!!!

I got my hair all cut off yesterday. Kate said I look like Paula Deen now! It scared Bob the Chihuahua, he didn't recognize me ...

RECIPES #13 & #24

Cooking with Rachael Ray
Hi, since I last logged on I've made two Rachael Ray dishes. Recipe #13 - yes, I finally made the Saucy BBQ Chicken Sammies. I was sick to death of hot potato salad though, so skipped that part. I also used relish, rather than the cut up pickles she suggested. I served them with potato chips. Jeanne really loved the burgers and asked me to save the leftovers! Kate and I enjoyed the burgers too.

I've learned a secret with Rachael Ray recipes - that is to totally ignore the measurements on ingredients. She has required as much as 2 to 3 pounds of ground turkey meat per recipe and her spice measurements are way whacked. I now use my eye to know how much meat to buy and how much spice my family will like. I am careful though to add every ingredient she suggests. She encourages creativity - will tell you to "eyeball it" when pouring liquids. At first I found this highly amusing ... like she didn't want to be held responsible if the dish didn't work out. But I began to see the wisdom of it. For the BBQ sammies though, I measured very carefully as I wanted to taste the sauce as she intended it. My only complaint was that I thought the worchestershire sauce was too heavy, I'd cut the amount asked for in half next time.

Last night, like Diane, I made recipe #24 - Salsa Stoup and Double-Decker Baked Quesadillas. We had a large turkey breast in the fridge, so I added that to the crockpot. About half an hour before serving I poured the whole stoup into our lobster pot and got it boiling and added cut up flour tortillas. These make a sort of dumpling that tastes incredible.

I'd never made quesadillas this way - triple-decking them and baking them in the oven. I have so much cheese in the fridge and used up all the cheddar I had. Mine came out very well, browned and melted. I sliced them with the pizza cutter. I think Diane's idea of adding avacados would have really improved them but no one complained as it was.

Recipe #24 - Salsa Stoup and Double-Decker Baked Quesadillas

I made this one last night. This recipe sounded simple (and it was) but it took me about 40 minutes to finish. I grated my own cheese (vs. pre-shredded), plus waited to put all the veggies in the pot after they were all chopped (since my stove doesn’t simmer very well, whatever I put in first would probably be burned by the time I finished chopping - I’m shopping for a heat diffuser!). Also, I baked the quesadillas for 10 minutes like the recipe called for, but they were not browned. So I ended up cranking up the broiler and finishing them off that way, which added a few minutes.

I had some leftover black bean stoup so what we ate was a bowl of half black bean stoup mixed with half salsa stoup. The two flavors mixed up really well. I also had some avocado that I sliced it and put in the quesadillas, and added a chunk to my bowl of stoup. It really "made" the dish, but I guess that’s sort of personal preference. Don thought the same thing, it wouldn’t have been as good without the avocado. I liked the double-decker part, it made the quesadilla more substantial than just adding more cheese.

I have a ton of salsa stoup left over, next I’ll make Recipe #25 (Taco Chili-Mac) with that.

Recipe #23 - Boo’s Smoky Chicken Patties on Buttered Toast Plus Bonus Recipe

I didn’t time myself but I don’t think it took more than half an hour to prepare this. I made the patties earlier in the day because I ground my own chicken. Now that I have time to do it, I like it better than buying ground meats at the store. If you do it yourself, you have more control over the cleanliness and also the unwanted bits of bone and unknown chewy parts going into the ground meat.

I cooked them on my Foreman Grill (I love that thing! My Mom gave it to us and at first I was skeptical but I use it for lots of things like grilled sandwiches and quesadillas), and when I went to take them off, I was worried that they would have a rubbery texture. They turned out to be juicy and not rubbery at all. I liked the texture better than most chicken breast sandwiches you get at fast food restaurants. We put provolone cheese and tomatoes on ours too. Rachael seems to like that McCormick’s Montreal Steak seasoning but I’m not wild about it. I think I would like this recipe better if I put different spices in the chicken patties.

The dessert was yummy. I had the same problem Debbie did, with the sauce getting hard as it cooked. I used Jif extra crunchy peanut butter. I ended up adding several splashes of milk until I got it to the right consistency. I did try a splash of water too but didn’t like the color it turned the sauce. I found the gingersnaps at Walmart, they are "Sam’s Choice" and they have all natural ingredients, only butter, sugar, three kinds of ginger, and a few other things. No partially hydrogenated this-or-that. They have crystallized ginger in them and all the textures together (melted ice cream, crunchy cookie, chunky peanut butter sauce) were a good combination.

The neighborhood dogs got a taste test of the chicken patty and gingersnaps. They ate every bit of it. There isn't too much they don't like, though. Everything Rachael I've given them, they've devoured.

Recipe #21 - Marinated Chicken and Orange Salad

Thank you all for your concern and good thoughts about Don. Every day he seems to be feeling a little better. What was scary was that it’s one of those things where a person stops and thinks how much worse it could have been. The first night home he was feeling nauseated and did not feel like eating. So I had a bunch of leftovers and decided to make something along the lines of the BLT with Avocado in the first issue of Rachael’s "Every Day" magazine. The microwave bacon I cooked really has a strong aroma and he went running out of the living room because he couldn’t stand it. The sandwich was good, though!!!

Tonight he was up to having salad so I made Recipe #21. I took a lot of liberties because I had a bunch of leftovers, plus I can’t stand arugula and don’t much care for radicchio. My salad was pretty much our regular dinner salad, with the dressing and marinated chicken slices on top. I also used chicken tenders (since that's what was on sale), and they cooked up really fast.

I almost skipped this recipe and I’m so glad I didn’t! It was yummy, reminded me a little of Chinese Chicken Salad. If you like cilantro that probably would be good in it. The orange slices made the salad really light-tasting. This would probably be a good recipe for the summer-time on a hot day.

Bonus Recipe

Cooking with Rachael Ray

Last night we went to Olive Garden for dinner and when we got home I made dessert. It was a "Bonus Recipe" at the bottom of Recipe #23 for Boo's Vanilla Ice Cream with Chunky Peanut Butter Sauce and Gingersnaps." I could not find gingersnaps at the grocery store - I ask you, what kind of a country are we living in where we cannot easily purchase gingersnaps? I'll bet if Al Gore had gotten elected, Tipper would have seen to it that all stores carried gingersnaps, since they were her favorite dietary aide.

The only kind of chunky peanut butter I could find at the store was a new low-carb kind. The sauce didn't taste particularly peanut buttery and I wonder if it was due to this new peanut butter, which I'd never had before. But the sauce was good. I added half and half and honey and cinnamon. It kept getting thicker and thicker as I heated it and the only thing that finally made it pourable was adding hot water.

It was kind of a yawner taste-wise, which suprised me as I am a livelong peanut butter addict. I think I'll try it again sometime when I've scored gingersnaps and a more familiar kind of pb.

Last I heard from Diane yesterday, Don was home from the hospital and feeling nauseous. I hope he's feeling better now.

Recipe #15 - Super Tuscan Burgers with Potato Salad

Di will probably be offline for a couple of days as her hubby Don was in an auto accident. He's in the hospital with cracked ribs, etc. Hopefully he'll be home in a couple of days - all prayers sent his way will be greatly appreciated.

Back to the subject at hand, I made Recipe #15 last night Super Tuscan Burgers with Potato Salad. We ate the potato salad hot but felt it would be better cold after the flavors had had time to meld. Sure enough when Jeanne got home from work a couple of hours later, she pronounced the chilled potato salad to be "perfect"! Here's the fun part of living in Palm Springs... the salad called for lemon juice, so I went outside and picked a lemon off the tree! The burgers were good and light due to their being made of ground turkey, and the baby portobellos made them very tasty and gave them a nice texture. I didn't care all that much for the mozzarella on top, it just seemed to add stringiness but no flavor.

I made a shopping list to make the next 4 dishes - recipes #13, 18, 19 and 23. Now that I have all the Rachael Ray staples, I only need to purchase about 20 ingredients to make those dinners. I'm looking forward to making the peanut butter sauce for the ice cream and want to make an ooey gooey Paula Deen cake, like Di did. I'm going to make the peanut butter version, only with yellow cake instead of chocolate.

Again, best wishes and healing energy to Di's hubby and thanks to all of you who read our journal!

Recipe #17 - Honey Nut Chicken Sticks

I'm a little bit behind Di in recipe count but am planning to catch up with her this week. I made recipe number 17, I think it was (don't have the book at work). It was the honey nut chicken sticks. I have seen Rachael Ray make these on a picnic episode, so I set up my factory line like she did. It was weird, flouring the chicken strips first, then dipping them in the egg mixture. I couldn't find honey nut corn flakes but found honey nut chex cereal. I figured the taste would be the same and the texture just as good, if not better. That was all true - great texture, wonderful dipped in blue cheese or ranch or chipolte dressing. A great comfort dinner, served with soup. But our big complaint is that none of us cared for the sweetness. It would have been better to have used a plain chex cereal, or corn flakes, unsweetened.

Di is really going to town on her posts. My hard drive crashed, so I can only post at work these days.

Diane's Shopping List for Recipes #21, 23, 24, and maybe #22

I'm planning to make recipes #21, 23, and 24 this week. I might make #22 but it depends on if I can find frozen butternut squash (I wonder if baby food would work or if it would be gross). Already in my pantry are peanut butter, EVOO, honey, bread and ice cream. I read a review on www.foodnetwork.com of the butternut squash mac-n-cheese and it varied from two "horribles" to "our family loved it." One person left out the butternut squash completely, but that seems like it would be just plain mac-n-cheese. Anyway, here’s my list. Items in parentheses are those I already have from last week’s shopping. Again, my list is for cooking for two people.

1 orange
chicken breasts (2 + 2 for grinding up for the chicken patties)
radicchio (if I can find it)
1 red onion
(I’m skipping arugula because I hate it! Yuck-o!!!!!!)
Dijon mustard
8 oz. Macaroni with ridges
2 yellow onions
2 cups chicken stock
10 oz. Box frozen butternut squash
½ cup cream or half and half
4 oz. Sharp cheddar
(baby spinash)
Midel gingersnaps
(jalapeno)
1 green pepper
(celery)
14 oz. can stewed tomatoes
14 oz. can crushed tomatoes
(tortillas)
½ cup cheddar cheese
(scallions)
½ cup pepper jack

Recipe #20 - Black Bean Stoup and Southwestern Monte Cristos

It was really convenient to have shopped for several meals and have the ingredients on hand. I don’t normally plan ahead more than a few days.

I loved monte cristos when I was a kid. We used to go to some sort of hof brau restaurant that served them, and they came dusted with powdered sugar and served with jelly.

This one was a little different. Don always doctors up his grilled sandwiches (puts pickles and lettuce in them). I had spinach in the refrigerator so we put some of that in for green. The flavor of the stoup was a lot stronger than the sandwich. At first I thought it was a weird combination but the sandwich was good dipped in the stoup. Even though I mushed some of the beans, it was more of a salsa. I only made 1/3 of the recipe (it calls for 3 cans of beans and I only put in one) but it was plenty.

My favorite black bean soup is from Marion Cunningham’s "The Supper Book." It has pretty much the same ingredients except it doesn’t have the tomatoes or cumin. And it’s cooked for two hours. I pulled out the cookbook and was comparing the two recipes, and Don made the comment "The black bean soup was pretty good." I think Rachael’s stoup will be better tomorrow after the flavors have blended a little more.

I didn’t exactly time myself and we went to the neighbors’ house in the midst of chopping ingredients, but I think I finished within the 30 minutes. I’m still not used to having more than one thing going on at a time. I forgot to stir the stoup and by the time I remembered a lot of the liquid had boiled out. I think part of that problem is my stove, it doesn’t go low enough to simmer very well.

Ooey Gooey

Tonight I took a break from Rachael recipes and we had spinach salad.

I found an ooey-gooey Paula recipe! It’s called "Ooey Gooey Butter Cakes" and uses cake mix like the earthquake cake. I had used half the box to make the earthquake cake so used the other half for this. I made the chocolate chip variation but read the instructions wrong and put the chocolate chips and nuts (and added coconut) in between the layers instead of on top. It kind of tasted like a light brownie. Sure hit the spot!

I’ve been meaning to mention that some of the Rachael leftovers have been quite good, almost better than the night before. I made a steak sandwich with the leftover fiery-hot meat and put some gouda cheese (from the mac-n-cheese) on it…delish. The BBQ chicken sammie filling was better the next day too, the spices kind of blended and mellowed out.

Recipe #18 - Turkey Saltimbocca Roll-ups, Mushroom and White Bean Ragout, and Spinach with Pancetta and Onions

I kind of cheated as far as the "30 minute" thing goes, by doing some of the prep for this meal ahead of time. I assembled the roll-ups (using chicken instead of turkey and ham instead of prosciutto, since I couldn’t find it) earlier in the day so all I had to do was throw them in the pan later. Even with the prep, it took me about 45 minutes to finish.

This was another recipe that left the kitchen strewn with pots and pans.

I like garlic but thought there was too much in the mushroom and white bean ragout. If I ever make this again I think I will just saute the mushrooms and add them to the sauce for the roll-ups. I liked the spinach. It doesn’t seem like Rachael has lots of veggie side dishes in her recipes, so this was a bonus and easy to prepare. The roll-ups were OK but once again, too strong a flavor (from the poultry seasoning) so next time I would tone it down.

It turned out to look really fancy, as Rachael says, "Perfect for entertaining."

Don had some of his roll-up leftover so we gave a few bites to the "taste testers" aka "friends of Isaboo" aka our neighbor dogs. They gave it an "Arf-o" and seemed to really like it. If they sit after they take a bite, then that seems to mean they like it and want more, as opposed to wandering off after eating something. Don said something about the dogs gave it a higher rating than the humans.

Since I had to scrub my kitchen clean again (grease all over from pan frying the roll-ups), I took a picture, which is below.

I’m ready for another ooey-gooey simple Paula Deen recipe.

Recipe #19 - Rosemary Corn Cakes with Prosciutto and Chicken Sausages with Hot and Sweet Peppers

I was planning to make recipe #18 tonight but I couldn’t find prosciutto and the ham I had as a substitute was still frozen. So went to Plan B. I almost didn’t find the chicken sausages for this recipe, I got them at the third store. I don’t think chicken sausage is big in this part of Texas. The big seller is bratwurst. The guy at the meat section of Walmart looked at me like I was a martian when I asked him if he had chicken sausage. The lady at Albertsons knew what I was talking about, but apologized that she didn’t carry them. I found some at Krogers. I passed by all the stores I visited on the way home so it wasn’t like I was on a mad search.

This recipe was pretty easy compared to the others. I finished in 25 minutes!

The sausages I ended up getting were Emeril’s chicken and apple. Rachael says to cook them in an inch of water but Emeril’s package said ¼" so I went with that. I think the pricking them with a fork helped get rid of some of the grease.

As I said earlier, I couldn’t find prosciutto, so I put bacon in the corn cakes instead. Mine turned out bigger than the recipe said because they expand on the griddle. They are also sort of fragile so the smaller size would be better, it would keep them from breaking when you flip them over.

I did find a cubanelle pepper! Don even ate them! He said they tasted more like bell pepper than a chile pepper. So far a lot of the recipes have had meat and carbohydrates but no veggies.

This is an easy dinner to throw together when you are tired. The corn cakes were good with honey but kind of dry. I took a bite with some of the sausage and it tasted like a corn dog. I think they would go well with kielbasa type sausage too, which is easier to find.

This is definitely not a "gourmet" type meal but perfect on a night when you want to cook but are feeling lazy.

Cooking with Rachael Ray

Cooking with Rachael Ray

I made Recipe #14 last night for Kate's birthday. I avoided the "fiery hot" part, didn't include the jalapenos. But it came out very yummy. The potatoes needed to be reheated. The Earthquake cake was to die for! Kate seemed to have a nice birthday. We'd had a party for her on Saturday night and last night Jeanne and I gave her 46 scratch-offs. I also gave her a coupon book for all the stuff we've been discussing that she needs and wants - new work shoes, new glasses, a horseback ride, miniature golfing, a trip to Boston in 2006, a romantic weekend getaway, a few unmentionable items ...

Tonight we are having her coworkers over, she's so sociable. I'm really hoping to do less entertaining, as I'd like a quieter life. She's doing the cooking since I work until 6 and then have to go pick up our guests. We're having plain ordinary burgers.

Cooking with Rachael Ray

Cooking with Rachael Ray

Last night I made recipe #10, the turkey-chili covered turkey burgers. God was it a lot of work and what a lot of dishes! Even good-natured Kate complained about all the dishes. Usually I can clean up after myself as I go along but I gave up the ghost last night and what a mess greated us after dinner. Everything turned out good, really tasty. The coleslaw had too much onion even though I used one small red onion. Also, it was too crispy and not blended enough when we ate it. When my daughter sat down to eat it a couple of hours later, it was wilted and flavored to perfection. It took longer than half an hour to make too, even with Kate helping with the cutting & chopping. It took almost an hour. Then I missed the second part of the recipe on the next page and didn't garlic flavor the french fries, but they were good anyway.

Afterwards I sat down and really went over the upcoming recipes. Rachael Ray tends to list all ingredients in one long list and I almost threw some of the slaw ingredients into the hamburgers last night! So I divided ingredients based on the dish and figured out what I'd have to do to them to make them more palatable to my family.

Tonight is Kate's birthday! I made her a coupon book for all the things I want her to have. It's almost ingenious - I didn't have to run around and buy weird stuff, the burden of that falls to her. There's coupons for everything from a massage, to a weekend getaway to a new pair of work shoes. I'm making her the T-bone recipe Di made last night. I made the Paula Deen Earthquake cake Diane described last night. It smelled SO GOOD. Kate requested a german chocolate cake, so it was perfect. I'm wondering if I should heat it up before I serve it to the birthday girl tonight. The cake smelled so good that I was up in the middle of the night looking for something sweet to eat!

Diane's Shopping List

This is my shopping list for Recipes #18, 19, and 20. I’m not including pantry items such as butter, EVOO, flour, milk and honey. Most of the items I’ve halved since there is just the two of us.

I probably won't go shopping until Thursday and will make them sometime Thurs-Sun. My long day tomorrow has been shortened but Wednesday I'll be at work all day and I don't know yet about Thursday. (The last thing I want to think about when I come home is cooking dinner.) I was writing out a shopping list like Debbie had done, and Don asked to know what I'm cooking, I told him the next few recipes in the book. He said we should just pick what we want to cook. I said we had been trying to go in order but for example we are both skipping (or at least setting aside for the time being) Recipe #16. I like trying things just because it is the "next up" rather than what I think I will like - since it has made me try things I probably would have skipped.

I know we had been talking about following the recipes to the letter but it has turned out to be more practical to make substitutions when either something can’t be found or someone doesn’t like a particular ingredient.

Here’s my list:

6 turkey cutlets (I have some frozen chicken that I plan to use instead)
5 slices prosciutto di parma
sage
garlic (I’m running low)
½ lb. Cremini mushrooms
1 15 oz. Can (or 8 oz. If I can find it) cannellini beans
3 c. chicken stock
Dry white wine (hafta go to a wet county to get that)
1 oz. Pancetta (might substitute bacon for that small an amount)
1 onion
½ lb. Spinach
4 chicken sausages
1 I ½ oz. Box Jiffy corn muffin mix
egg
rosemary
1 cubanelle pepper
hot red cherry peppers
1 jalapeno
celery
1 red bell pepper (it’s "hidden" in the stoup so Don will eat it)
1 ½ 15 oz. Cans black beans (or one big can and one small one)
8 oz. Can diced tomatoes
bread
4 slices honey baked ham
4 slices pepper jack cheese
4 slices smoked turkey
small container sour cream (only need ¼ cup)
scallions

Recipe #14 - Fiery Hot Texas T-Bones with Chipotle Smashed Potatoes

I didn't buy a t-bone because they looked old and yucky (and the date was "buy by 1/15" today and it was grey around the edges) and a different kind of steak (sirloin) looked fresher. They cut the meat weird here too, everything is thin. The t-bone looked like it would be dry because it was so thin.

Since Don doesn’t like peppers, I didn’t make the hot & sweet pepper saute. I cooked the steak in my Foreman grill, then cooked the leftover cauliflower in the pan "drippings."

Don’s comment was "Do you like this?" as in "I don’t much care for this, do you?" I said "it’s not bad but it’s not that good either." I think part of my reaction is that I’m not that much of a meat & potatoes person. And for Don, if he has smashed potatoes, he wants gravy, and he didn’t want to put the drippings on his potatoes as gravy.

The "fiery hot" description fit, though, the chipotle made everything really spicy, which I like. The potatoes were OK, I put more bacon in it and also some milk because they looked too dry.

I’m anxious to find a recipe where our reaction is "This is great!" I’m enjoying trying different meals that I probably wouldn’t ordinarily make, though.

For dessert, I made an "Earthquake Cake" from Paula Deen’s "The Lady & Sons Just Desserts," that Debbie gave me for Christmas. It’s a German chocolate cake, with coconut and pecans on the bottom of the pan, and a cream cheese concoction spread on top that bakes in. This one was a keeper!!!

BTW, it's hard taking photos of food! I have more admiration now for people who get pictures that look good enough to eat. By the time I'm done cooking, I don't have the patience to "style" anything or clean up smudges or crumbs on the plate.

Cooking with Rachael Ray

Cooking with Rachael Ray

Shopping list for Week #3, to make recipes 10, 13, 14, 15, 17:

5 lbs small potatoes
red bell pepper
scallions
1 c chicken broth
4 6 oz boneless, skinless, chicken breast halves
burger buns
celery
2 lg T-bone steaks
capers
bacon
sour cream
bourbon(!)
4 lbs turkey breast ground
4 lg Idaho potatoes
3/4 lb ground pork
3/4 lb ground veal(!)
1/2 dry Italian red wine(!)
1/2 lb baby portobello mushrooms
4 crusty rolls
red onion
2lbs chicken tenders
3 eggs
honey nut corn flakes
poultry seasoning
1 sack extra-crispy style frozen french fries

Cooking with Rachael Ray

Cooking with Rachael Ray

Hi, jumping in here with Recipe #9, the Turkey Noodle Casserole. It was very good and, again, made so much that I had enough for a casserole for Kate & I to eat and another full-sized one warming in the oven for Jeanne when she got home fromr work. It was crying out for canned peas, which I added as a side dish. It was very, very good. I don't think I ever would have cooked with Gruyere cheese if Rachael Ray hadn't told me to, but it was just the right cheese to use on that dish. A nice tasting, cozy cheese. I enjoyed snacking on slices of it along with the rest of the dry, white wine that was left over after I used the half a cup called for. *hic* I'd say I'd give it an 8 and maybe even make it again some day.

Jeanne is rebelling - wants me to switch cookbooks. Kate really likes this food though and I'm enjoying all I'm getting out of working my way through it, so I think I'll stick with it. I guess I'll have to occasionally depart from the book and make Jeanne her favorite dinners though.

Recipe #13 - Saucy BBQ Chicken Sammies with Pepper and Scallion Potato Salad

I’m wondering how many little jars of this & that I will have in the next month or so. I already have half a round of gouda that I doubt I’ll finish, and now I have an open can of tomato paste and a jar of hot pepper rings (although if I remember I will put them in sandwiches). Fortunately I was able to use the same can of chicken broth for both mac-n-cheese recipes and the sammies tonight.

I was watching the episode on TV last night for Recipe #15 (Super Tuscan Burgers) and Rachael offered lots of suggestions for substitutes: ground beef for the pork & veal combination, balsamic vinegar for the red wine, and scallions or chives for the red onion. Although I want to stick to the recipes, I think I will end up doing some substitutions in order to avoid accumulating too many ingredients in the fridge.

I am not a very speedy cook so it took me about 45 minutes tonight. I’m also not used to having so many pots and pans on the stove going all at once. Maybe I will get the hang of it after awhile. My problem is that I tend to forget what is going on in one pan (as far as not cooking it too long) while something else is going.

I didn’t buy a red pepper for the potato salad because Don doesn’t eat them, plus they are $2 each right now at the store, it didn’t seem worth the trouble. He ended up smashing his potatoes up and putting the chicken on top. I had some leftover rolls so I made mini open-faced sandwiches with mine. One thing about these 30-minute meals is that the flavors don’t always have time to meld together, but that allows the individual tastes to jump out. I liked the sauce but I had halved the recipe and I think it would’ve worked better if I’d made the whole recipe for the sauce even with half the chicken. I’d give this one a 7. While I liked it, I wouldn’t add it to my list of keepers.

There sure were a lot of pots & pans for just a sandwich and potato salad. There wasn’t as much mess (compared to the greasy chorizo) so fortunately it didn’t take long to clean everything up.

Cooking with Rachael Ray

Cooking with Rachael Ray

Hi everyone, last night I made recipe #8 - the meatball pizza ... OMG it was SO yummy! And it made enough to feed a pack a people. It was like a sloppy joe mix on top of pizza dough ... mmmmmmm, to quote Rachael Ray herself. The only pre-prepared pizza dough I could find was the kind that came in a can, like croissant rolls. There was one problem - if you add just the tomato paste, as the; recipe calls for, it comes out very dry and not saucey enough. I ended up adding another 8 oz can of tomato sauce AND a can of water to get a spreadable consistency. I served it with salad. It made two 13x9 inch pizzas! It would have served 10 easily.

Cooking with Rachael Ray

Cooking with Rachael Ray

Debbie here - I sinned again. Last night I made recipe #12, the lamb chops. In my defense, I'd like to explain that I am trying to use up ingredients that might spoil, which is one of the reasons I'm recipe hopping. I am going back to the meatball pizza and popcorn, recipe #8, this very night. Di and I should be on the same page now.

Recipe #12 made for a very pretty meal. The only couscous I could find were tri-colored. The veggies with the cooked cherry tomatoes were very colorful and the lamb chops were super yummy. My family revolted, I'm the only one who will eat lamb, so I made them little round steaks prepared the same way and cooked side bys side. The dinner gave me a bit of a tummyache. I think it was because of the acidity of the tomatoes.

It took exactly 30 minutes to make and that included cleaning up as I went along. These recipes require a lot of ingredients AND a lot of clean up.

Recipe #7 - Smoky Chipotle Mac-N-Cheese with Tomato and Chorizo

I still felt like I was in "Beat the Clock" mode, challenging myself to prepare dinner in 30 minutes. Of course, while I was cooking I had to answer my phone (work-related call) and then my neighbor came by for a moment. I still managed to finish in something like 35 minutes. It went a little faster this time because the other recipe was so similar, plus I pulled out more ingredients all at once.

Hubby liked this one more than the last mac-n-cheese. He added black olives to his and I thought it made a big improvement too. He still didn’t think this was a "keeper." I don’t think I had enough macaroni so it was more like a casserole but the flavors were good. Very spicy, and the chipotle was not overpowering, I was surprised. (In the photo, I picked a bowl that was too big so it looks like there is hardly any food in it, I just wanted something fancier than Corelle to put it in.)

Have you ever read the ingredients in chorizo? I think it’s one of the things that is better not knowing. I had a choice of beef or pork but they were basically the same: Pork/Beef (salivary glands, lymph nodes), fat (cheeks), chorizo seasoning, paprika, salt, spices, sodium nitrite. It was very greasy cooking it up and I don’t think you need to add EVOO to the pan along with it.

Recipe #11

Cooking with Rachael Ray

I have a confession to make - I didn't make recipe #8 - the pizza & popcorn last night. I skipped to number 11 - the Italian sub stoup and croutons. The reason for this grevious transgression is because it turned out that all 3 of us had inadvertantly had pizza for lunch! Number 11 was worth it though - very tasty, a little spicy for me and Jeanne but Kate loved it and had 2 bowls. It wasn't the seasonings that made it spicy, as all you add is salt & pepper. It was the sausage. I used chorizo. Next time I'll choose a sweet Italian sausage and it should be perfect.

Variety is the spice of life

I was going to make the last version of mac-n-cheese tonight but hit a roadblock. Hubby has a cold so I asked him what he wanted for dinner, since when a person is sick sometimes he/she doesn't feel like certain tastes. I gave him several options (soup, salad, or mac-n-cheese with chorizo) and he said he didn't want any more mac-n-cheese.

I like Rachael's idea of mastering different techniques and changing the ingredients to create an entirely new dish. But some things, like mac-n-cheese, stay the same, even with different cheese and ingredients. Or at least, there isn't such a dramatic difference in the dish when some of the ingredients are changed out.

Tomorrow is my first day back at work since the holidays. If I get home at a reasonable hour I will try to do recipe #7 for myself and find something else to make for hubby.

(I'm going to try posting in a different color so y'all can differentiate between me and Debbie.)

Recipe #5 Mac-n-Smoked Gouda with Cauliflower

It’s my turn to take a moment for an introduction. I’ve been offline recently due to being out-of-town for the holidays. My name is Diane, I live in East Texas, but spent most of my life in California.

As Debbie mentioned, we’ve known each other for something like 23 years. I was the founder of what is called a "local" Barry Manilow Fan Club, and was looking to recruit members, so I put ads in teen magazines, and also contacted the local newspapers. One of these papers put a little blurb with my contact information, and Debbie responded. Looking back, it seemed so "not me" to do something like that (the recruiting and PR, etc.) But, Barry Manilow has been such an amazing tie between us, and I keep in touch with her and other friends I’ve made through that network, more than people I met in high school and such.

Now that I’m home from the holidays, Debbie gets a break from mac-n-cheese. I’ve been a Rachael fan for several years but mostly enjoy watching her on TV and haven’t cooked all that many of her recipes. This dish seemed simple enough but I felt like I was on a game show like "Beat the Clock" in trying to keep under 30 minutes. I didn’t go too far over, it took about 40 minutes. I think I would be faster if I did like Rachael does and pile all my ingredients and bowls and such on the counter, in one trip. The way I cook, I just grab an ingredient, use it, then put it back.

I tried to stay true to the recipe. My straying mostly involved minor things like cooking the macaroni in the microwave. We have propane here and so we try to conserve on the gas by doing as much as we can with electricity (no point having the burner on for 5 minutes waiting for water to boil when it can be done in less time in the microwave). I also steamed the cauliflower because I made some broccoli on the side for my husband, who is a veggie-holic. (That way I could put them side-by-side in the steamer and not have too many flavors going on.) I had planned to sprinkle almonds on top but I guess I’d had them in the freezer too long and when I picked a piece off the cutting board to snack on, yuck, too old. So I had to skip that part.

Anyhow, I was surprised at the flavors of this dish, very complex for something simple like mac-n-cheese. I liked the zing of the cayenne. I don’t normally like smoked cheese but it wasn’t too overpowering and gave the sauce a rich taste. Very sophisticated. I’d give it a 6. I asked hubby what he’d rate it and his reply was, "I’ll take Kraft any day." He isn’t one to follow the rules and wouldn’t give it a rating. He is also very picky and there are not very many new recipes that he cares for. I almost think if I didn’t call it mac-n-cheese, instead something like pasta with cauliflower and smoked cheese sauce, he would have liked it better (and not have had the mac cheese association). He did add that it would be good if it had some ham in it. The cheese sauce would be good with the cauliflower on its own, too.

Shopping List for Week 2

Cooking with Rachael Ray
If you were with me during Week 1, you already have most of the spices and a few of the staples called for. The rest of what I need is:
1 pizza dough
1/12 lbs gr. Sirloin
frozen onions
1 3 oz can tomato paste
Parmigiano-Regianno grated cheese
Oregano
¾ mozzarella
½ lb extra wide egg noodles
bacon
dry white wine
3 lbs gr. turkey breast
1lb mushrooms
9 cups chicken stock
½ cup heavy cream
nutmeg
2 cups Gruyere cheese
1 c pl. bread crumbs
1 8 oz can tomato sauce
3 red bell peppers
6 ozs cheddar
red wine vinegar
1 16 oz sack shredded red cabbage
4 burger buns
1 sm red onion
¼ lb diced pepperoni
1 ½ to ¾ lb ham steak
3 green bell pepper
1 28 oz can diced tomatoes
crusty bread
2 lamb loin chops, 6 pork chops
whole milk
heavy cream
½ and ½
cherry tomatoes
couscouspine nuts

Cooking with Rachael Ray

Cooking with Rachael Ray

Last night was a strange night. We had a realtor friend of Kate's come over and talk to us about listing our condo. His name was Mike and right before he arrived Kate & I got into it about my kids moving in and out of the house and was it always going to be this way and could she handle it and did I value my relationship with her and why did I have to choose between she or the kids ... same old, same old. I swear, my NEXT girlfriend will have children of her own, so she'll understand.

Anyway, by the time Mike left and we got to have dinner, it had sat warming on the stove for an hour. This made it all the tastier. I had nuked the leftover mac & cheese and cooked up the meat mixture. It looked like it needed onions, so I added those and then in a moment of wild abandon I threw in a drained can of corn! I ended up adding about half of the leftover mac & cheese mixture into the pot and boy, was it good! Jeanne was home from work by then and we all downed a couple of bowls each. I found myself getting out the tabasco sauce and adding it to my portion! How about me!?! Seeking out the hot sauce ... who knew I'd turn into such a spicy gal - thanks, Rachael?

Anyway, I am looking over the week to come of recipes. Ms. Ray is finally taking us into some Italian areas. The one night I'm worried about is the lamb chops on night #12. I suspect I'll have to swap out beef for Kate & Jeanne, I'm the only one who likes lamb. I'm drawing up the shopping list for Week 2, so stay posted.

Cooking with Rachael Ray

Cooking with Rachael Ray

Last night I made Recipe #4 - Mac & Cheese with Broccoli. I realized as I started out that this was a side dish. To my group, this wouldn't be enough dinner, a separate entree was definitely called for. So I pulled a couple of steaks out of the freezer and defrosted them in the microwave. Kate asked me to cook the broccoli on the side and not include it in the mac & cheese. I felt that I kept true to the recipe though, serving the broccoli on the side made it still taste the same. Homemade mac & cheese is always a treat and this didn't disappoint. The dish was very creamy and tasty. The steaks were good, the broccoli a little soggy (Mom says I overcook everything because I'm of German descent.) Three thumbs up.

Now here comes the problem - the next three nights in the recipe book are all variations of macaroni & cheese! I refuse to serve mac & cheese for 3 more nights, but I will make it one more time. Tonight we will have the Tex-Mex mac & cheese. I'm going to serve it with french bread and a big salad.

By the way, the mac & cheese recipe serves 8, not 4. We have plenty left over. So I'll nuke it tonight and serve it with the beef portion of the Tex-Mex recipe. Hey, I thought Rachael Ray was an Italian girl! I can't wait to get to some Italian recipes!!!

#3 Beef Goulash

Cooking with Rachael Ray

Mmmmm, last night I made recipe #3 from Rachael Ray's 365:No Repeats. It was beef goulash and it was delicious! Kate & Jeanne had a major arguement at the dinner table, but not before downing their shares of this stupendous dish. It was an offshoot of the master recipe for the Smoky Turkey Shepherds Pie. Ms.Ray instructs you to omit the potatoes, peas and egg and swap out the ground turkey for ground sirloin and the chicken broth for beef broth. I left out a few more ingredients, as well - the cumin, thyme, carrots, celery and red bell pepper. I doubled the amount of paprika called for. I served it over the hot, buttered and chived egg noodles she suggested. I also served peas with it. Mmmmmmm, 3 thumbs up. It would have been nice to have had rolls or french bread too.

Back to the fighting duo, Kate and Jeanne. They are each the self-designated "Man of the House", as well as both being obsessive/compulsive - so there are always fireworks when we try to live together. But Jeanne keeps moving back in with us periodically and neither of them are going anywhere for the time being. Jeanne will be with us until April 1st. So we just have to keep trying to work things out. We ended up drawing up lists of chores - not because no one was doing anything but because they keep stepping on each other's toes trying to keep the same areas obsessively clean. Somehow I ended up getting yelled at for leaving my clothes lying all over the house!!! I said, but I'm the good one!!! Finally we all ended up laughing and ran out for ice cream, so alls well that ends well. Try the beef goulash - you won't be sorry!

Recipes 1 & 2 in Retrospect

Cooking with Rachael Ray

I kept a week long promise to Kate yesterday and took her to Olive Garden for dinner last night. She insisted on bringing along a couple of coworkers and I insisted on bringing along Jeanne, so it turned out to be a very enjoyable and festive evening. Good company, good food.

As I was sitting there eating my spaghetti and meatballs, I thought back over my last two Rachael Ray dinners. The first one, the scramblewiches, was the first time I'd ever cooked with hot sauce. I didn't taste it at all, it just made the eggs a bit more palatable and interesting. To me, eating eggs is usually like eating rubber.

The second dish, the turkey shepherder's pie was a lot of work, a whole lot of ingredients. I think you'd need two people working in synch in the kitchen to produce it in 30 minutes. I also think it had too many vegetables.

Tonight's dinner will be an off shoot of that "master recipe". Ms. Ray instructs you to leave out certain ingredients, like the peas and potatoes, and *voila* it becomes a beef goulash. I intend to leave out more than that - the red peppers, for one ... and also all of the spices except the paprika (all goulash recipes have paprika in them.) I can't wait to add the sour cream and see how that goes! Should be yummy. I'll bet Kate & Jeanne won't even realize they're eating a new version of Monday night's dinner.

We all talked about budgeting yesterday - a New Year resolution. All of us agreed to having a weekly allowance. Cooking with Rachael Ray every night will help make that a reality. It's the spontaneous going out for dinner that kills us - especially since Kate likes her cocktails.

Recipe #2

Cooking with Rachael Ray

Yuck - tonight Kate wanted to go to the Olive Garden but the weather was rough out and I wanted to tackle recipe #2 - Smoky Turkey Shepherd's Pie, so we stayed in. What a waste of time, money and ingredients! The spices were disgusting, especially thyme, which in my opinion always over powers everything and never tastes right. The ground turkey didn't have the right consistency. The carrots were hard and crunchy (it's always off putting to have something in a casserole that doesn't have the same consistency as the rest of the ingredients.)

Regarding the 30 minute prep time - the recipe starts out calling for 3 large idaho potatoes "peeled and cubed." Excuse me, but peeling & cubing those potatoes is part of the prep time for making the dinner. So, including the potato peeling and cooking as fast as I could, the dinner took 50 minutes to prepare. I served it alone, but it would have been nice to include rolls and a salad. It said that it served 4, it would have served twice that many, even if we'd liked it and eaten more.

So, three thumbs down and I'll never make it again. Perhaps with some variations - hamburger or stew meat, instead of the turkey ... fewer veggies, no carrots, toss out the spices ... you might have something there.

Recipe #1

A little more introduction is in order here, I think. My name is Debbie and I live in Palm Springs, CA with my life partner Kate. My oldest daughter Jeanne is temporarily living with us while she relocates to this area. I've known my alter-blogger-friend Di for, how long now? 23 years, I think. How we met, I'll go into another time.

Today Kate and I went grocery shopping for Rachael Ray staples and for week number 1 perishables. We found everything except coriander and smoked cheddar. I asked Kate, isn't coriander that thing you drain your pasta in? She said, no that's a colander. I may just have to forge through week 1 without using coriander which, I'm sure, will be my loss.

We started the New Year by eating something RRay calls "Scramblewiches". I timed it and it took me exactly 26 minutes to make the meal - 30 minutes or less, indeed! I served them with tomato soup and salt & vinegar chips. It was definitely comfort food and feels good in our tummies ... a nice meal to have while recovering from New Years Eve. I used ham and swiss cheese in my version and all 8 eggs the recipe called for. It made 4 sandwiches, so we had to throw one away. No leftovers in 2006! Diane will have to cut all her recipes in half, since she is usually only cooking for two.

It was a 3 thumbs up meal, we all enjoyed it and ate our portions up. I asked them if they'd like to have it again some time and they said they would. I asked how they would rate it on a scale of 1 to 10, and we agreed it was a 6. Kate wants to go out for hot fudge sundaes for dessert. I think we need to indulge her in that request, since she did the dishes!

What's for dinner?

Most of the time I am watching TV, it is the Food Network. My hubby is always saying, “You watch all those Food Network shows but I never get anything good!” I’ve also been in a rut of not being able to come up with new dinner ideas. Rachael Ray’s book, I hope, will be perfect, so I won’t have to think about “what’s for dinner.” It’ll be whatever is the next recipe in the book!

Some of the Food Network recipes seem labor intensive and nothing is more disappointing to me than spending time in the kitchen, $$ in ingredients, only to have a mediocre, ho hum, or worse yet, just plain bad meal. The 30 Minute time frame is really appealing to me because of that.

Over the weekend I bought a microplane, to get started. (I had a 20% off coupon for one of the chain stores.) I’ve noticed Rachael uses it a lot for nutmeg, parmigiano-reggiano, lemon zest, etc. My pantry is pretty well stocked but I need to get some spices used regularly in the recipes like the grill seasoning and smoked paprika. I might as well do an overhaul of my spice rack since a lot of my collection has gone dull since moving to Texas, where the humidity has zapped them of their zing. (Side note: my favorite spice catalog is Penzeys, their catalog is fun to read and I learn about what spices go well with what foods. I also buy small quantities of spices, like cayenne, that I find in the Mexican aisle of the supermarket.) I plan to go through the pantry list in Rachael Ray’s new magazine and add things like chicken stock to my regular stash.

Like Debbie, I’m usually a stickler for following recipes to the letter, particularly if it is the first time I’m making it. I like to get a sense of what the cook wanted the dish to be like, vs. the way I like things. You never know when you will learn something new. But...I can see that I won’t be able to find some of the items required for these recipes. I think Rachael’s grocery stores in the Adirondacks have more of a selection than mine in East Texas. I doubt I will be able to find turkey cutlets, arugula or watercress, for example, so I might have to substitute chicken for turkey, or a few dried herbs for fresh.

Looking at Debbie’s Week One Shopping List, I notice that Rachael’s recipes are centered heavily in meat. I guess my family is in for a change too, since we tend not to eat a lot of meat, or if we do, it’s “diluted” in a casserole.

I can’t wait to get into the kitchen!