Week 21: French

I've never been especially interested in French food.  I realize that I probably use many French inspired techniques and recipes when cooking, but this challenge might be the first time I've ever sought out a specifically French recipe.  I'm not sure how authentic it is, but according to the website I found it on, it's a traditional dish, titled French Leek Pie.

It's very simple to put together, it's mostly leeks and gruyere cheese.  Unfortunately it didn't slice up very well, because it was absolutely delicious! I served it with a simple green arugula salad with a homemade dijon dressing.  It was the perfect Saturday brunch after a long bike ride.  

Week 20: Rice

Rice! Considering how much rice I eat, I figured the real challenge this week should be to cook something that really included rice as an ingredient rather than just a side dish.  I first planned to do a rice pudding, and then found an intriguing recipe for rice pudding muffins. Yes, that's right.  This week I made almond rice pudding muffins.

A few pictures of the process (and proof there's rice in it!):

Following the addition of cream, milk, butter, almonds, dried cranberries, and other ingredients I'm sure I'm forgetting:

Here's a shot of the filled muffin pan, each muffin is garnished with toasted sliced almonds: 

And finally the finished product:

The muffins are certainly tasty, I love the almond and cranberry flavor together.  I can definitely taste the rice, though it's subtle.  My only minor complaint is the result of my own error, instead of using slivered almonds I used sliced, and the slices are just a little bit big on the inside.  Oh well, I'm sure we'll have no trouble polishing them off. 

Week 19: 5 ingredients or less

This week, our challenge was "5 ingredients or less".  It was left pretty open aside from that, and I saw submissions ranging from basic french bread to salads and full meals.  I chose to do a complete meal. According to the rules oil, butter, salt, pepper, and water don't count towards the ingredient total, so with that in mind I made it in with exactly 5 ingredients!

I made a peppered loin steak with a pan sauce, garnished with shaved paremsan cheese and served with fresh spinach and rice.

My 5 ingredients were:

• White Rice
• Loin steak
• Spinach
• Parmesan cheese
• Beef broth

I also used salt, pepper, and olive oil.   

Week 18: Salad

My original intention for this week was to replicate a delicious dish that they recently took off the dinner menu at my Grandma's retirement community: a cherry tomato and fresh mozzarella salad with basil and a balsamic reduction.

Unfortunately, that was before I inherited 1.5 pounds of french green beans.  So I searched the internet until I found a recipe that used most of the ingredients I'd bought for my tomato salad, plus green beans and minus anything I didn't already have in the house.

The result is an Asian Green Bean salad courtesy of the Food Network with cherry tomatoes, basil, toasted peanuts, and a homemade sesame vinaigrette.