December 2018 Hits & Misses (911 views)

I had amazing success with duck breasts (the huge ones) this time. Instead of listening to all the internet instructions, I found a very, very, very old Nigella Lawson book (her very first)...450 degrees, 20 minutes. Except for needing to be mindful the last 5 minutes (I have no exhaust fan and they can smoke when they get close to done), it was perfection. And all the nasty grease, encased in the oven not all over my cooktop. The breasts were as tender as tenderloin (not my experience doing the internet instructions).

Happy New Year!


Ckng Lght Nov 2018     Basic stove-top mac-n-cheese
Ckng Lght Dec 2018     Shrimp and Grits
Ckng Lght Nov 2018     Tex Mex Chicken and black bean soup (Instant Pot)
Ckng Lght Nov 2018     Easy Greek Salmon Bowl
Ckng Lght Sept 2018    Tuna Salad lunches
Ckng Lght Dec 2018     Baguette Pizzas
Ckng Lght Nov 2018     Lazy Lasagna Soup (Instant Pot)
Mel's Kitchen Cafe Blog    Smokey Potato and Lentil Soup (probably my least favorite this month, a bit...uninspiring)
Food Family Fund Blog     PB cookies
Co-op Flyer                 Salted Toffee Chocolate bars (made with graham crackers)
Ckng Lght Nov 2018    Mediterranean Chicken and Quinoa Stew (Instant Pot, delicious!)
Great American Slow Cooker Book     Chicken Tikki Masala
Cooks Country            Ceasar Green Bean Salad (OMG good!)
Food Network             Lamb Chops
Lidia Bastianich          Barley, Butternut and Kale risotto

Full recipes and my comments can be found here Scifi With a Dash of Paprika (no adds! I promise!)

I'll try to remember as much as I can, but did not do a lot of cooking this last month since it was candy season for me. I ended up making/selling about 90# in 2 weeks! UGH! Anyway:

Very Good/Excellent:

-Instant pot chicken taco meat-I made it up but was mostly surprised at how tender/tasty the meat ended up in the I.P. as I used all S/B breasts. This was for a belated family taco spread celebrating Hanukkah (it was tacos and latkes! And latkes and guac. really do work!!!)

-Chicken Enchilada "lasagna"-also made this one up but was very good. I made a homemade enchilada sauce and used the leftover I.P. chicken taco filling and leftover tortillas. Layered a casserole with these along with corn, beans, red peppers, scallion, cheeses and baked.

-Brussel sprout latkes-Molly yeh. This was an experiment (I also made traditional potato latkes). I love Brussel sprouts and so does everyone in my family so I decided to try this after watching her make them on her show. THEY WORKED! Everyone thought they had potato in them, too. They don't. Basically just a shredded B.S. pancake bound with egg whites. I will make these again!

-Chicken Posole-Milk Street Kitchen-this is very different than my usual green chicken posole with tomatillos. This one was also made with tomatillos and chicken but the stock for the posole was flavored with dried ancho chiles so had a red-brown vs. green color. If this were ranked on looks alone, it would not score high points but flavor-wise was very good and worth making again. Still not my most favorite posole (I like my green one thickened with pumpkin seeds best) but good and different. 

-Tuscan Bean Soup with Sausage and cabbage-Cook's Illustrated. This was a variation on a C.I. soup that I have made many times. The original is made with kale and pancetta. This variation uses savoy cabbage and sausage (I used a combo. of sweet and hot Italian turkey sausage). I also made it in my I.P. and not in the oven as they do. Turned out creamy and delicious. Now I am not sure which version I like best!!

Tried and true:

-Chicken Vegetable Tortellini Soup with kale-my recipe
-Focaccia with Artichokes, Sundried Tomatoes, and goat cheese-?Vegetarian Times, I think. But I make a lot of changes. I use whole wheat flour, shallot, rosemary, some Parmesan on top (no goat cheese) and a bit of garlic sea salt to finish with the artichokes and tomatoes.

Verdict out:
-Pasta Fagioli-Milk Street Kitchen. Just made yesterday so I have not really given it a good taste yet. Will have to wait for full review! Smells amazing and very different than my usual pasta fagioli. I did make some changes (as usual) to suite my tastes. So we shall see.....!!!

Happy New Year,
Karen