Perfecting Pru has chosen an interesting looking spaghetti dish for next week’s project. I hope you’ll join us in cooking it!

Perfecting Pru has chosen an interesting looking spaghetti dish for next week’s project. I hope you’ll join us in cooking it!

Thanks to Sassy Suppers for choosing today’s project, Coconut Ice Cream Sandwiches. I am not a huge fan of coconut, but in recent years, I’ve liked it a bit more. For this recipe, you make the dough, freeze it, slice it, bake it, fill with ice cream and freeze again. I thought the dough was kind of hard to mix up. I ended up getting in it with my hands to get it to come together. The recipe said to slice with a serrated knife, but I found a regular knife was better. I thought they were actually pretty good, given that coconut is not at the top of my list.  They’re a different play on an ice cream sandwich, which is definitely fun.

Thanks to Sassy Suppers for choosing today’s project, Coconut Ice Cream Sandwiches. I am not a huge fan of coconut, but in recent years, I’ve liked it a bit more. For this recipe, you make the dough, freeze it, slice it, bake it, fill with ice cream and freeze again. I thought the dough was … Read more →

Sassy Suppers picked Coconut Cream Sandwiches for next week’s project.

Sassy Suppers picked Coconut Cream Sandwiches for next week’s project.

This recipe is from January Living. I’ve had the magazine open to this page almost since the magazine came and finally got around to making it. Nothing too complicated here really – put your potatoes and chicken in a roasting pan and drizzle some oil and lemon over the potatoes and oil over the chicken. You stuff half a lemon and some parsley into the chicken, then roast it. Meanwhile, you make an uncooked sauce of garlic, oil, parsley, lemon juice and zest and Parmesan. I did this in the food processor so it was quite simple. I served the sauce on the side and did not spread it over the food before serving.

I loved the sauce – very bright and fresh. It went well with both the chicken and potatoes. I was not wild about the way the chicken and potatoes roasted. I had about an inch of juice in the bottom of my pan so the potatoes did not get crispy very much. They were still good. I don’t find that stuffing the chicken with things adds much to the flavor of the dish. I wouldn’t bother stuffing it like that again and that might cut down on the overwhelming amount of juice in the pan. Definitely give this sauce a try!

This recipe is from January Living. I’ve had the magazine open to this page almost since the magazine came and finally got around to making it. Nothing too complicated here really – put your potatoes and chicken in a roasting pan and drizzle some oil and lemon over the potatoes and oil over the chicken. … Read more →

Today’s project was Chicken with Artichokes, Capers, and Angel Hair Pasta, chosen by Megan at Megan’s Cookin’. I have to say, it sounded kind of plain, and it pretty much was. I had some grated Parmesan cheese at the ready but even that didn’t do much to help it. I also added some onion powder to the sauce thinking that might boost it a bit. It didn’t. Not a fan of this one unfortunately. What did everyone else think?

Today’s project was Chicken with Artichokes, Capers, and Angel Hair Pasta, chosen by Megan at Megan’s Cookin’. I have to say, it sounded kind of plain, and it pretty much was. I had some grated Parmesan cheese at the ready but even that didn’t do much to help it. I also added some onion powder … Read more →

I recently discovered ponzu just by happenstance when I saw it on the shelf in the Asian section of my grocery store. I had never heard of it so I picked up the bottle to read what it was. I ended up bringing a bottle home to try and really, really love it. Ponzu is a combination of soy sauce and citrus and is much lighter than soy sauce. It’s just the perfect blend of citrus flavor and the light saltiness of soy. It’s pale in color. I used it recently in a salmon recipe and was really thrilled with the result. It’s also great as a dipping sauce for sushi for something different. I’m going to use it with chicken next. It brings a really great fresh pop of flavor to anything you use it in. This is definitely one of my newest favorite finds!

I recently discovered ponzu just by happenstance when I saw it on the shelf in the Asian section of my grocery store. I had never heard of it so I picked up the bottle to read what it was. I ended up bringing a bottle home to try and really, really love it. Ponzu is … Read more →

In the winter I usually take on a baking project each weekend. This past weekend I decided to make challah, which probably should count as a dessert, not a bread! It was delicious and made two giant loaves. I use a recipe I adapted from fellow writer Lynne Meredith Schreiber:

Dissolve 2 1/2 tablespoons yeast in 1 cup warm water with 1 tablespoon sugar. Allow to proof for about 10 minutes.

To this add:

1 cup warm water

1 cup vegetable oil

1 tablespoon salt

4 eggs

1 1/4 cup sugar

7 cups bread flour

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour

Knead for 5 minutes then place in a greased bowl and allow to rise for 2 hours. Divide in half and then divide each half into thirds. Roll these out like logs that are about 2 feet long. Place 3 of them on a baking sheet and smush one end together. Braid the three pieces and smush the other end. Do the same with the other 3 logs. Allow to rise about an hour. Brush with an egg wash and bake at 325 for  30-40 minutes, rotating shelves and direction of the pans, until light golden brown and the bread feels cooked in the center when you touch it.

This is enough for 4 meals for my family of 4. I think in the future I might make it into 4 smaller loaves, so you can definitely try that as well.

In the winter I usually take on a baking project each weekend. This past weekend I decided to make challah, which probably should count as a dessert, not a bread! It was delicious and made two giant loaves. I use a recipe I adapted from fellow writer Lynne Meredith Schreiber: Dissolve 2 1/2 tablespoons yeast … Read more →

Megan’s Cookin’ has chosen Chicken with Artichokes and Angel Hair Pasta for our next project.

Megan’s Cookin’ has chosen Chicken with Artichokes and Angel Hair Pasta for our next project.

I made this great little salmon dish (and promptly forgot to take a photo). It’s made with lemon olive oil (buy it in the oil section of your grocery store) and ponzu, a citrus soy sauce you can find in the Asian section of your grocery store. It was light, citrusy, delicious and super quick for a weeknight dinner.

2 6 ounce salmon fillets

1 1/2 cups chopped Napa cabbage

salt and pepper to taste

1 tablespoon Ponzu

1 tablespoon lemon olive oil

Place the salmon fillets side by side on the parchment. Pile the cabbage on top. Season with salt and pepper. Drizzle oil and ponzu over it. Fold the packet (see Technique page on this blog) and bake at 400 for 20 minutes.

I made this great little salmon dish (and promptly forgot to take a photo). It’s made with lemon olive oil (buy it in the oil section of your grocery store) and ponzu, a citrus soy sauce you can find in the Asian section of your grocery store. It was light, citrusy, delicious and super quick … Read more →

I just had to share this with my readers. Teresa Stannard is the director of the library in a place called Parchment, Michigan. Parchment paper was manufactured there from 1912 – 2000 at the Kalamazoo Valley Paper (KVP) Company.   The library has many samples of the papers the plant produced, but KVP was especially known for its parchment paper.   Here is a link to a scan of a 1931 KVP booklet in their collection entitled “Paper Finds Many New Uses.”   It contains several pages devoted to parchment paper cooking techniques.  You have got to check this out – as well as the other uses they describe for parchment paper! Many thanks to Teresa for sharing this!

I just had to share this with my readers. Teresa Stannard is the director of the library in a place called Parchment, Michigan. Parchment paper was manufactured there from 1912 – 2000 at the Kalamazoo Valley Paper (KVP) Company.   The library has many samples of the papers the plant produced, but KVP was especially known … Read more →