Recipes Week of Feb 5th

Note: as soon as can figure out the html code to center the caption along with the picture, I'll fix this.  This left alignment is driving me crazy!

1.  I've decided that along with 2 savories & 1 dessert recipe to try, I'll try a drink recipe.  First one, of course, is butterbeer from the wonderful Harry Potter books.  I made this yesterday...review at the end of the week!

Source: bakingdom.com via Nicole on Pinterest

2.  "Healthy" Spinach & Artichoke Dip in honor of the Super Bowl

Source: fatgirltrappedinaskinnybody.blogspot.com via Nicole on Pinterest

3.  Grilled Cheese with Tomato Soup - In our household, we have this more often than we have spaghetti.  I figured I'd see how sprucing up my basic grilled cheese and canned tomato soup will do.

Source: jennysteffens.blogspot.com via Nicole on Pinterest

4.  Tomato-Sausage Lasagna - I made this one last night...I'd estimate it took over 2 hours from start to finish.  :oP

Source: marthastewart.com via Nicole on Pinterest

5.  Cherry-Vanilla Layer Cake - I made this last night as well.  Quite a disaster, but I'll save that story for another day.

Source: sprinklebakes.com via Nicole on Pinterest

Verdicts from last week

1. Pumpkin Crunch - 2 out of 5  I didn't care for it, but I still ate it.  My husband, however, liked it and probably would rate it higher than I did.  I think the problem was that I only had an 8x8 pan-not the 9x9 it called for.  The topping (which was just a box of vanilla cake mix, mind you) didn't get cooked through so it was still powdery instead of crunchy.  Yeah, not my cup of tea.

2.  Creole Black Beans with Sausage - 5 out of 5  Yummy!

3.  Vegetarian Quinoa Chili - 4 out of 5 just because of the veggie content.  Felt like I got my recommended number of servings for the entire year.  I added a can of chipotle sauce + same amount in water and it made it super spicy--which I liked.

Recipes for this week

1.  Pumpkin Crunch - I made this today, but I'll save my verdict for next week.  Probably a good thing since I probably wouldn't give it a very good review right now.  Maybe it'll grow on me.

From family.go.com

 2.  Creole Black Beans with Sausage
This is in the crock pot right now and smells delicious!!  One thing about my crock pot...I think it runs hot.    It boils at the low setting.  Is that normal?  "Slow cooker" would not be how I would describe my crock pot.

From Duchess of Fork

3.  Vegetarian Quinoa Chili
I need to use up the rest of the quinoa I made for the quinoa stuffed acorn squash, so this recipe seemed perfect.  Plus, I probably won't get many more chances to make chili before I gets warm.  I mean, we've been up in the 60s and my bulbs are starting to come up.  Definitely not 'chili' weather.  Haha...get it?  Chilly?  Chili?   

From Two Peas & Their Pod

Happy cooking everyone!

Recipe Verdicts

Unfortunately, last week's recipes were a bust.  Not through any fault of their own.

1.  Almond Butter Cookies - 4 out of 5  These were good and I got to use my leftover almond paste, but my dogs enjoyed them more than we got to.  We had about 14 left when we got home from work the day after I made them.  And that was after I had moved them to the back of the stove and placed a 9x13 inch pan in front of them.  I swear one of them must've lifted the other up.  And I wouldn't be surprised if my cat was in on it too.

2.  Quinoa Stuffed Acorn Squash - 3 out of 5  I'd call this one average.  It was on the sweet side which threw me off a little.  I'd probably bump it up to a 4 if I knew a better way of cooking the squash instead of in the oven for an hour.  Too long for a weekday meal.

3.  Sweet Potato & Black Bean Burritos - 3 out of 5  I flubbed this one...my sweet potatoes were taking to long to cook so I covered them, turned the heat up, & didn't check on them, which of course means...burnt!!  It actually wasn't too bad though since I couldn't distinguish a burnt taste when it was all said and done.  And either my spices are old or there just wasn't enough.  Bottom line: I've had better.  Oh, I didn't try the whole tortilla in oven to make taco shells...didn't have enough patience.  :)

4.  Salsa - 5 out of 5  My husband loved it (as did I) and it'll probably be my go-to salsa recipe from now on.  I halved the recipe & did have some issues with roasting the garlic (they turned brown & got rock-hard) so I just added minced garlic I had on hand.

Note:  Have you tried the Tostitos hint of Pepper Jack chips?  I'm not a big fan off grocery store tortilla chips but I LOVE these.  I broke them out for use with the salsa and ended up just eating them plain.  They taste like Cool Ranch Doritos.  Yum!

Recipes for this week

I might not end up making all of these this week since we still have leftovers from last week.

Let's start with dessert!  As I mentioned, I had a bunch of almond paste left so I decided I'd make Almond Butter Cookies.  I have these babies in the oven right now.  I still have a bunch of coarse sugar left over from 2 Christmases ago (yikes!) so I rolled the cookies in that for a special touch.

From Allrecipes

Savory dish #1: Quinoa Stuffed Acorn Squash
Not a cheap dish by any means considering the pound of quinoa I bought cost $6.18.  I predict this will be a yummy vegetarian dish I can feel good about eating.  And it looks like it's just enough for two!

From What's Gaby Cooking

Savory dish #2: Sweet Potato & Black Bean Burritos
I love love love love love sweet potatoes and black beans together.  I especially love them in burritos.  I have a ton of corn tortillas that I need to use so I'm just going to make them tacos instead.  I saw this neat thing on Pinterest where you can drape tortillas over the rungs of your oven (Is that what they're called?  I can't think of it right now) & bake for hard taco shells so I think I'll try that out.  And I think I'll make this salsa to go along with it.  I love homemade salsa.  It's 10 times better than store bought & oh so good!

From One Particular Kitchen

Recipe Results

Hello there!

Just a quick recap on the recipes I made this week.

1. Cranberry Upside Down Cake - 4 out of 5 stars.  The tartness of the cranberries paired really well with the almond cake.  The issues I had:

• I wouldn't use coarse cornmeal as it states.  The grains tended to get stuck in my teeth.
• Increase the amount of cranberries; once they cooked down, they didn't cover the entire bottom of the pan/top of the cake.
• The recipe calls for almond paste...first time I've ever had to use this ingredient in my entire life.  So now I'm stuck with 3/4 of a can of almond paste and have no idea how to use the rest of it!

2.  Pumpkin Black Bean Soup - 5 out of 5 stars.  My husband doesn't hold back with his opinion on recipes and he loved this one!  I'd call this a healthy comfort food soup perfect for the winter.  In the future, I won't use ham.  I really think it detracted from the subtle flavors of the pumpkin, black beans, and tomatoes.  I wonder if he'd love it as much without the ham?  ;o)

3.  Homemade Calzone - 3 out of 5 stars.  Either it was maker error or the dough recipe on this site sucked.  Considering I made the pull-apart bread dough without any problem, I'd say it was the recipe.  I also purposely left these last two recipes for the weekend since the dough had to rise etc., but I probably won't ever make them together again.  Just takes too much time.  Also, I couldn't find anywhere on that site that said, 'Bake at blah blah for blah blah blah'...annoying.  It tasted good though; but since when has a calzone ever tasted bad? 

4.  Garlic-Parmesan Pull-Apart Bread - 4 out of 5 stars.  As my husband says, "It was good, but it didn't blow my socks off."  And I concur.  Given that it takes a while to make, I'll probably never make it again.  Unless I want to impress my mother-in-law or I have a huge family to feed.

And I'll add one more recipe that I hadn't planned on making.  I saw it on Pinterest (of course) saw that it was super simple and called for Bisquick (that I have and need to get rid of), so voila!  Made it!

5. Mini Bisquick Quiche - 3 out of 5 stars.  It didn't call for any seasoning and with eggs and "heart healthy" bisquick, it could use some.  I put chopped ham and shredded cheddar cheese on the bottom and then chopped dried chives on top.  Not bad but not amazing.  Considering it's so easy, I really should bump that 3 to a 4.

From Care's Kitchen