Week 13: Russian

Following last week's creative endeavor, I found myself looking for something simple and low maintenance this time around.  This must be technically "week 3" of the month since our challenge was culturally based: we were instructed to cook something Russian inspired.

I chose to do a cookie very similar to the classic Russian tea cookie: the familiar crumbly, nutty, powdered sugar coated delicacy.  I made orange tea cakes flavored with orange extract, zest, and fresh squeezed juice.  They came out just right, especially dipped warm in powdered sugar.

Week 12: Cheese

This week our challenge is cheese.  For the first time in several weeks, I decided I really wanted to try to make something at least slightly photogenic.  For that reason (and also because I have helpful, artistically minded family visiting) I have 2 dishes to submit.

First, I made the Parmesan cheese straws from the American Test Kitchen cookbook. They are essentially just puffed pastry sheets sprinkled with cheese, salt, and pepper, and twisted into twisty logs.  We weren't at all crazy about them, they basically just taste like puffed pastry.  They did look pretty though, so mission accomplished?

Part 2 was our family Sunday dinner.  With the help of my aunts, I made a spring vegetable and cheese dip.  It's made with white cheddar, goat cheese, asparagus, leeks, and artichoke hearts.  And mint, lots and lots of mint.  We served it with crusty bread, and though it was definitely unusual, it got good reviews.  We thought it was even better warmed up the next day with crackers.

 

Week 11: Breakfast

I seem to be caught in a rut of unattractive submissions, and this week is no exception! This week's challenge is breakfast, and the challenge forum is full of beautiful, colorful omelets and sky high stacks of gingerbread pancakes.  I, on the other hand, decided to make biscuits and gravy from scratch.

Here are the biscuits:

Here is the gravy:

And here is everything all put together: 

The biscuits are a simple, 5 ingredient drop biscuit.  They were tasty but a bit bland.  The gravy is a pork sausage gravy, flavored with black pepper and garlic powder.  My main complaint about the meal is that it was exceptionally heavy, even for biscuits and gravy.  I might use the leftover gravy on egg noodles, I'm hoping it makes a better dinner than breakfast.  

Week 10: Movie Inspired

Welcome to Week 10 of the 52weeksofcooking challenge! This week's challenge was a creative one: to make a dish inspired by a book or movie.  I rarely watch movies, and am ashamed to say that I'm hardly reading these days, so I defaulted to the last novel that I read: The Help.  It's also one of the more recent movies I've seen.

There was a lot of great looking food featured in that movie, but one particular item stands out to anyone who has seen/read the story.  It's Minny's chocolate pie, seen here:

Now I won't ruin the story for anyone who hasn't seen it, but rest assured my pie is free of any unsavory additions that Minny might have added.  Here are two photos of the process:

                    

And  photo of the finished product, seen here served with whipped cream:

It certainly isn't as pretty as I would have liked, but I guarantee it tastes a lot better than Minny's pie.  

Week 9: Coffee

Since this week is technically week 1 of March, our challenge was based on a particular ingredient.  This time it was coffee.  From what I can tell, there are two types of recipes using coffee: desserts and meat marinades/rubs.  I didn't really want to do either of those, but ended up choosing to do a breakfast muffin.

These are Spice Island muffins.  They are flavored with coffee, cinnamon, and nutmeg and thankfully aren't overly sweet.  I'm still working on my photography skills, but I liked this photo, and these muffins! 

Week 8: Slow Cooking

Who knew that messy chunks of beef and potatoes would make for my least-photogenic submission ever? This week's challenge was slow cooking, and at the request of my newly-employed significant other I decided to do a roast.  It's a 2.5 pound chuck roast that makes it's own gravy after cooking for 8 hours on low.  I added carrots and potatoes to make it a meal and served it with a single, sad piece of toast.

At least it was delicious.  

Week 7: Love inspired

This week brought on the most abstract challenge we've had so far.  Our theme was open ended; we were simply instructed to make a dish inspired by love in honor of Valentine's Day.  I chose this week to do two dishes. The first was a marinated baked salmon dish served with green beans and focaccia bread.  I was inspired by love for the following reasons: I love to go fishing for red salmon with my grandfather back home, green beans are one of my most loved foods, and foccacia bread was one of the first things I really learned to cook.  You might say it inspired a "love" of cooking!

For dessert I took a more literal approach to this week's challenge.  I made coconut meringue kisses, which are apparently a family recipe.  They are extremely easy to put together, and as far as cookies go could be much worse for you.  They're chock full of protein enhanced corn-flakes, nuts, and egg whites.  They're pretty addicting, and the recipe makes a ton!