Hits & Misses February 2020 (502 views)

Soupsandstew-that fish recipe looks good. Copying that to make some time soon (I hope!).

I did not do much cooking this month since DH and I were in Hawaii for 2 weeks (25th anniversary trip!). When we came home I relied on what I had stashed in the freezer for the next week plus got a head cold now which I am just trying to get over. Here's what I can remember though:

Tried and true:

-made 2 chilis on a quest to use up all of the peppers that I had frozen from our garden this past summer and succeeded plus have some amazing chili in the freezer now. Both recipes came from Cook's Illustrated and have always been my favorite white chilis. The first was their stove top variation; the second was a slow cooker recipe but I modify it a bit in terms of ingredients and do it on the stovetop as well. Both turned out much tastier than usual this time....must have been those peppers from the garden!!  I used poblanos, anaheims, jalapenos, and serranos.
1. White Chicken Chili-Cook's Illustrated
2. White Chicken Chili with Hominy and beans-also Cook's Illustrated

-Chicken matzo ball soup-a classic! With a few new twists that I add  including some freshly squeezed lemon juice to finish and while simmering I add a touch of curry powder, turmeric, and chili powder. It really gives it a special savory flavor but you can't readily identify that there is curry or chili powder in it. Turmeric is more for color. I also sometimes add some dry mustard powder or ginger. 

-Pizza beans-Smitten Kitchen. Another favorite. Used Christmas Limas. Added some chicken sausage.
-Cook's Illustrated Giant Family size Meatball Calzone-also a fav. that I have modified by using chicken basil meatballs and cutting back a bit on the meat, then filling in with veggies (marinated artichokes, oven dried garden tomatoes, and grilled onions). I make 2 and freeze one.

-Cioppino style Fish Stew-Fine Cooking

New successes:

-Creamy Fennel Bean Soup-Milk Street Kitchen-used RG Royal Corona beans (Hmmm....just noticed the name of these! They are still my favorite beans!!!) Anyway, made just a few slight modifications to the recipe and also may have added a tad too much rosemary but overall a very good repeatable bowl of soup.

-Creamy Chicken and Wild Rice Soup with Roasted Mushrooms-Half Baked Harvest blog

-Lemon Poppyseed Hamantashen
-O & H Kringle recipe with Almond Butterscotch filling-treat for DH!-Food Network

Also made 2 new recipes today but they will be frozen for Passover dessert so verdict out on these but they look/smell good:
-Milk Street Kitchen Chocolate Meringues
-Cook's Illustrated Torta Caprese Cake

February was also good new recipe-wise.

Chicken Tagine with apricots Eating Well, Jan/Feb 2020 (very good!)
Soft Rye Pretzels Eating Well, Jan/Feb 2020 (good but made too much for two of us)
Fish Tacos with blood orange salsa Eating Well, Jan/Feb 2020 (too much salsa to fish and I cut the salsa in half!)
Turkey BBQ Chili Slow Cook Revolution 2 - ATK
Spicy Butnut soup Eating Well Soups (meh - better spicy butnut soups floating around)
Ragu with Red Pepper Slow Cook Revolution 1 - ATK (very good!)
Antipasta Smothered Chicken Eating Well, Jan/Feb 2020 (good! easy)
Spaetzle Eating Well, Nov/Dec 2014 (good, butI need to work on my spaetzle cooking technique)
Farl Bread Paul Hollywood's Book of Bread (very similar to his Cob Bread)
Bulger pilaf with green pepper and eggplant Eating Well, March 2020 (mmm...had some issues with liquid to bulger ratio)
Chickpeas with butternut squash Eating Well, March 2020 (had some issues with the overall cooking time)


Full recipes and reviews can be found here (with NO adds or solicitations) at Scifi With a Dash of Paprika