Cookbook Challenge: Day Two.

To quote Jim Carrey in 'Liar, Liar', "I made it! I'm late, but I made it!"

It's 11:10pm and we just finished dinner. Tonight, as scheduled, was Gumbo Style Shrimp Soup from How to Cook Without a Book.

Another hit! Chris even went back for seconds. I liked it, but I thought it was missing something. I couldn't tell you what that something is though. I had already added red pepper flakes and more salt and pepper. Maybe the kielbasa was just too bland. I ended up using the turkey variety, so maybe that had something to do with it. Overall though, we liked it!

I also made some delicious salsa while the soup was cooking. I kept sneaking scoops before dinner.

Until tomorrow!

Cookbook Challenge: Day One.

Tonight, as promised, we had "Cowboy Calzones" from The Pioneer Woman Cooks. Technically, I made two recipes from her book. The pizza crust, and the calzones themselves. I did modify them a little, which took them from "Cowboy Calzones" to normal calzones. It's okay though. They were for Chris, and Chris is not a cowboy.

(Modifications: The recipe called for sausage, ground beef, onion, mozzarella, monterey jack, ricotta, Rotel, and an egg. I skipped the egg, monterey jack, and ricotta, and added pepperoni and bacon pieces.)

I also made The Best Spinach Salad. Ever. from PW's blog since I didn't get around to making it last week. I knew Chris would never touch this salad, and I'm not a fan of calzones, so it worked out well.

Both recipes were...hits! Chris really liked the calzone, and that salad really is, "the best spinach salad ever."

Bring on Day Two!

Cookbook Challenge Week One Menu: 7 February - 13 February

Sunday: The Pioneer Woman Cooks

Cowboy Calzones (for Chris)

The Best Spinach Salad. Ever. (for me) 

(I know the salad is off of the website, but I still have all of the ingredients since I didn't make it last week.)

Monday: How to Cook Without a Book

Gumbo Style Shrimp (and Sausage) Soup

Tuesday: The Double Musky Inn Cookbook

French Pepper Steak Kabobs

Steamed Rice

Wednesday: Taste of Home Cookbook

Apple Stuffed Chicken

Green Beans

Thursday: Rachael Ray's Just in Time!

Mac 'n' Cheese 'n' Burgers

Caesar Salad

Friday: Rachael Ray's Get Real Meals

Turkey Cutlet Gyro Wraps

Sauteed Potatoes

Saturday: Rachael Ray's Cooking 'Round the Clock

Italian American Sausage Patty Melts

Salad

Cookbook Challenge.

I own eight cookbooks, plus my binder of recipes pulled offline/from Mom/of my own etc, so I own nine cookbooks. However, for the sake of this post I'm not going to count my binder. 

I don't even think it would take all of my fingers to count the number of recipes I have used out of these cookbooks. I know I have made two from the Double Musky book, one from the green Rachael Ray book, and a few from PW's. I think that's about it.

So, it looks like I have some work to do.

For the rest of this month, while making my weekly menus, I will be choosing recipes from these books and from these books only.

Rules:

- I cannot use the same book (for a main course) twice in one week.

- I cannot use a PW recipe that is on her website until I have made each recipe in the book that is NOT featured on the site. I may only use a recipe that is both in the book and on the site if I have not made it before.

- I cannot use any recipe from the books that I have already made before.

- I can use a tried and true recipe for dinner if, and only if, I have used and documented a recipe from one of these books for lunch, breakfast, or a substantial side dish or snack.

Easy enough, right?

I certainly hope so.

This coming week's menu will most likely come (my) tomorrow morning.

Off to hit the books!

Disclaimer: As always this game and myself are at the mercy of the commissary. Menus may be changed to T&T recipes based on ingredient availability.

Shrimp Risotto.

This was so good.

I won't go step-by-step, Pioneer Woman does a good job of that here. 

Now, you have the link to the recipe (or general instructions since there is no listed recipe), let's talk modifications. I really didn't change a whole lot. In fact, with the exception of using Minute Rice (Arborio is not available here) and the shrimp cooking technique, I didn't change anything. I only added one or two things.

The shrimp was easy enough, and man, was it flavorful! Instead of grilling it I sauteed it until just brown in a skillet with a tiny bit of oil. The butter/Worcestershire mixture provided more than enough cooking juices, and I actually could have gone without the oil. As you can see, I kept Ryan's suggestion and chopped up a handful of shrimp to actually go in the Risotto. 

I also followed the directions for the rice itself to a tee, until I got to the end. After adding the chopped up shrimp, to me, it just looked like rice and shrimp, not like what I had imagined risotto to look like at all. I realize it may have something to do with the lack of Arborio rice, but I have made a Mushroom Risotto in the past that was creamy and delicious without it. That is what I wanted for this risotto too. So, I added in some half and half and a tiny bit more chicken broth. I also grated up a good amount of Asiago cheese and threw that in there. I stirred it around until the cheese was melted and added some salt and pepper.

I loved it. Chris liked it too. He really liked the shrimp, but I figured he would. He's a big lemon pepper fan.

Make this sometime!

Hits and Misses.

This week was full of them!

Sunday: I was not a fan of the Teriyaki Salmon. To be fair, I am not a huge salmon fan to begin with. I didn't make the steamed broccoli, instead I put the zucchini and shallots on the side instead of over the top of the salmon. I did like those, and they had also been teriyaki-fied, so I really am thinking I just didn't like the salmon. In my other salmon recipe (a butter/lemon/garlic blend) the fishy flavor is better hidden.

Monday: Monday was not Chicken Pot Pie, as intended. Monday was frozen pizza night because I realized that I didn't have enough time to make the Pot Pie before Chris had to go to sleep (he had been waking up at 3am for the exercise each day). Chris had a four cheese Freschetta pizza, which is what we usually share. I had a DiGiorno Tomato and Cheese 200 Calorie Portion instead. It was actually pretty good! However, I am a thick crust kind of girl, so I may or may not have later gone and cut the crust off of a piece leftover from Chris's pizza to have as a snack.

Tuesday: I did end up making KombatKween's Chicken Pot Pie this night. It was a hit as always. I love this meal. I detailed a variation of it in this post on my other blog last year. Any way you spin it, this recipe produces delicious results.

Wednesday: Wednesday I went ahead and tried Marlboro Man's Favorite Sandwich from the Pioneer Woman. This was a hit for Chris and a miss for me. I decided on this last weekend because I found some neglected cube steak in my freezer, and I usually love PW's recipes, but this...this just didn't do it for me. With the Lawry's and the Worcestershire, the saltiness was out of this world, and I don't even think I used that much. Chris loved it though, and it is supposed to be more of a man pleasin' recipe than anything, so it did it's job!

Thursday: Leftovers night. More Pot Pie? Yes, please!

Friday: Yesterday ended up being our Polish Sausage night. I wrote below what happened with that. Chris fell asleep before dinner, I fell asleep while he was asleep and woke up starving. I didn't want to take the time to cut up and saute potatoes, but I didn't have sour cream for baked potatoes. So, instead of a side of steamed broccoli, it went into the potatoes, and I whipped up a quick cheese sauce to go over it. The potatoes were great, and we hadn't had Polish Sausage in a long time. It was a hit for both of us, and so quick and easy!

Saturday: Tonight is Ryan's Shrimp Risotto from PW. I don't know if I'll be making the spinach salad because I forgot to hard boil some eggs, and I don't know that I want to wait for them to cook and cool. I'm so impatient these days! I'll be back with a review and a menu plan for the upcoming week after dinner.

Quick and Easy.

Tasty too!

Obviously, I diverted from my menu slightly. This week has been busy for us, and tonight I fell asleep and woke up ravenous. I certainly couldn't be bothered with taking the time to slice and saute potatoes. However, I had no sour cream for baked potatoes. So this is what happened. Tastes good and it's a great way to get Chris to eat his vegetables.

Just so we are clear, yes, Chris is a 22 year old man.