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.

  

Week 17: Something from childhood

When I saw this week's theme, I had to laugh thinking back to my most memorable childhood meals. It's well known among my family that my dad wasn't a particularly involved cook, and my favorite dinners were probably the ones I ate on the designated "picnic towel" in front of a movie about seals, eating cheese, crackers, nuts, and raw broccoli dipped in french dressing.

I do however have some nostalgic childhood food memories, and the recipe I chose to recreate this week was always a favorite from summertime visits to upstate New York. It is a traditional chicken and rice casserole, courtesy of my Grandfather's Aunt Bess.  I learned this week that it's considered a "true casserole" straight from the 1950s, distinguished by the fact that the rice goes in raw and it all cooks together.  

Be warned though, there's nothing particularly photogenic about raw chicken on floating rice slathered with cream of chicken.  Here goes anyway...

Right before the casserole goes into the oven, after the addition of Lipton's onion soup mix, Campbell's Cream of Chicken soup, and the curry (the purported secret ingredient):

And last but not least, dinner is served... Complete with a side of frozen peas on vintage dinnerware!

              

Week 16: Asparagus

I was a little wary of this week's theme, since I absolutely love asparagus just roasted with olive oil, salt, and pepper.  Luckily, this recipe takes that same roasted asparagus, mixes it with a few tasty friends, and results in an incredible salad.  This is definitely one of the best dishes I've made so far this year. This recipe (and the tablecloth, serving dish, napkin, and utensils....) are all courtesy of my Aunt Maggie, who will now be serving as my weekly food stylist.  =)

Here's a quick "before" picture, when the asparagus is just about to go into the 450 degree oven.

And the final presentation, which includes the following: grape, pear, & cherry tomatoes, fresh basil, red onion, grated parmesan, and a delicious homemade dressing.  

Week 15: One pot

This was one of the first weeks where I decided first what I wanted to cook, then figured out how to make it fit the challenge. This week's challenge was one-pot cooking, which "by definition, includes all essential ingredients in one pot. Any recipe that requires the cook to 'prepare pasta separately' or 'serve with bread' doesn't fit the bill".  I've been craving the Carlsbad Tavern's green chile mac and cheese for quite a while, so I scoured the internet to find a highly-reviewed one-pot mac and cheese recipe.  It wasn't as easy as it sounds, most recipes had horrible reviews.  I finally found something and adapted it to incorporate the green chiles and the right type of cheese.  Here are two photos of the process, which uses just enough water to have most of it evaporate while the noodles are cooking:

And a photo of the final product, which I garnished with pancetta left over from last week's submission and thinly sliced green onions.

Week 14: Sandwiches

This week's challenge was sandwiches.  These are some of the highest rated submissions I've ever seen on the challenge website, mostly because I think sandwiches kind of lend themselves to being photographed better than some other types of dishes.  I hope my submission is no exception.

I made a roasted chicken caesar sandwich with shaved parmesan, pancetta, sun-dried tomatoes, and spring greens.  It includes a from-scratch caesar dressing sauce and supposedly home-roasted chicken.  I did cheat and buy a rotisserie chicken from the store, but as far as I can tell I haven't done the sandwich any disservice.  The recipe comes from Ina Garten on the food network.  I haven't tasted it yet, since I'm waiting for my boyfriend to come home from work and eat his share, but it looks delicious!

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.