Week 25: Regional Cuisine

One week too late for my trip home to Alaska we had a "Regional Cooking" themed week. Since I was half traveling and half packing for a big move, I decided to cheat and submit my Grandpa's smoked salmon as my dish.  Last time I was in Alaska in the summer I took several photos of the fish smoking process, and I submitted them as a mini photo journal for this week's challenge.  I also did brought some fresh smoked salmon home, which Grandma and I will definitely be enjoying during cocktail hour!

 

Week 24: Berries

This week makes my second recent berry tart. Our week 22 challenge was tarts, and this week's is berries.  I've been traveling in Alaska  (which explains the delayed post) but I did have time to make raspberry poptarts using Grandpa's homemade jam.

The recipe is super simple since it uses ready made pie crust and prepared jam.  They were pretty tasty considering, especially since the jam I used was pretty tart.  Strangely enough, this submission was one of my highest voted ever in the online submissions! 

Week 23: 20 minutes or less

For week 23, our challenge was to create a full meal from prep to finish in under 20 minutes.  I found that the time limit made me a little less inspired than usual, I don't particularly like to be rushed.  At any rate, I went looking for simple recipes that wouldn't require an extra trip to the grocery store this week.

This is what I found:

It's a quick and easy curry tuna on rice.  It's flavored with yellow curry powder, cumin, paprika, salt, and pepper.  I didn't eat the salad because I'm pretty sure Ben is saving the greens for lunch tomorrow, but I'm sure he won't mind that I borrowed them to give the plate a little color!

Week 22: Tarts

For this week's sweet or savory tart challenge, I immediately knew I wanted to do something with fresh berries.  I also knew that I wanted to make  my own crust, unlike last week's challenge where I used the frozen store bought variety.  These criteria led me to a Rustic Blueberry and Blackberry Tart with a cornmeal crust.  

Here it is just before going into the oven:

And after coming out, cooling on a rack, and being placed on another of my Aunt Maggie's stellar serving dishes:

And finally, sliced and ready to serve:

It sliced up more neatly than I thought it would, and was the perfect end to our new Saturday sweet corn feast tradition! 

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.