2012 Starts With Food: another TIOLI challenge, Part II

We found a recipe in one of those food magazines you pick up for free at the grocery store and it turned out pretty good except that the red peppers my other half used were too hot for the recipe. We're going to have it again, and cut back on the peppers.

Roasted Cauliflower with Turmeric and Cumin

Basically you combine turmeric, cumin, and red pepper in oil, drizzle it over the broken up cauliflower heads and bake for about an hour at 425. Garnish with chopped cilantro and mint.
(Use an equal amount of the cumin and pepper to half that for the turmeric) - amount adjustable to how much cauliflower you use.

The red peppers we used were home grown in Texas at my brothers and are very hot! So we are going to play around with the pepper portion!

I haven't done as well as I intended with this challenge. The problem is that I keep seeing things online that I want to try. I'm visiting my dad. We've been trying to use stuff out of his pantry and freezer. He loves cobbler. My choices were frozen blueberries or canned peaches. He really loves peach cobbler so I decided to see what I could find online that would make the quick style of cobbler with canned peaches. I found this recipe:http://allrecipes.com/recipe/southern-peach-cobbler/. I thought it might need a little extra flavor so I added some cinnamon. I also had to use plain flour and add baking powder to it since our family has pretty much always done that rather than purchasing two kinds of flour. It turned out pretty well for canned peaches. I had my doubts since I always prefer using fresh fruit. Of course, the ice cream on top does make up for a lot of problems, I'm sure!

I was curious so I went and looked at your cobbler recipe. That is basically a variation on the original "Speedy Fruit Pie" which uses equal amounts of sugar, flour, and milk. I vary it still more, using less butter and sugar and whatever fruit I have from fresh or frozen berries to canned peaches. My son even made it once (years ago) in a Dutch oven over a campfire on a Boy Scout camping trick. I've used the trick with the cinnamon too, especially with apples.

I've been cooking from the book Cooking by the Seasons this month. I've tried Tomato Basil Soup, which was very nice, Tortellini with Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Feta, which was okay, but I've tasted better pasta dishes. The Lemon Risotto with Baby Peas was a smashing hit though, one of my favorite dishes of the book. Those were all spring recipes.

From summer, I made Penne with Cannelini Beans, Garlic, and Capers which was different but tasty. Southwestern Polenta wasn't bad either, although I'll make some changes next time to that recipe. Vegetable Stir-Fry in a Sweet and Savory Sauce was simple but nice. Butterfly Pasta Salad was easy and great for a hot day. Classic Greek Salad served with some hot-from-the-oven bread would also be great for a hot summer day, as it was nice and filling.

From the autumn chapter I made Spicy Hummus, served with pita bread, which was great. Tortellini Supper Soup was very nice as well, but very filling! The Piquant Corn and Tomato Chowder is one of my favorite soups ever - and I'm not much of a soup person, so that's saying something. And the Spicy Vegetarian Chili is so good that I could keep eating it! And for something sweet I made Apple Cranberry Crisp which was very good.

Didn't make anything from the winter chapter, but there were definitely some options that caught my eye! But I think I'll go for another of my cookbooks first, though!

My full review of this cookbook is here.

So many cookbooks, so little time. . .

DS
(Bruce's evil twin :-))

Rainy day - perfect for nice pot of minestrone!

I made Pollo Alla Cacciatora from Nigella Express today. It was pretty good. My full review of this cookbook is here.



(Picture from a recipe site I found when googling for a picture of this dish, since I forgot to make one myself before everyone here ate the whole pot!)

I made I made Bananas in Glutinous Rice from Martin Yan’s Asian Favorites. I used corn husks instead of banana leaves though. The only complaint that I have about this book so far is instead of telling you how to steam the rice in the recipe it refers you to another page in the book. Which really wouldn’t be too bad, if that page told you how to steam glutinous rice, yup clearly the wrong page was indicated.

My hubby really liked how it tasted. But I think that I will try it with mangos for the filling.

DS
(Bruce's evil twin :-))

Lori (2), I use allrecipes, too. I like its search and sort functions, but wish it was more like LT in telling me what I have. When I stumble upon a recipe, I want to know whether I already have that recipe in my "box", with something like LT's "your book information". I want to see "my copy" with my notes. (Rant over!) Otherwise, I've found some great stuff there!

My first try at canning. I've never had the time to do this before. It's so much fun. I'm even dontating some of my books to the YMCA book drive so that I will have shelf space for my jars of food.

This recipe is "Creole-Spiced Picked Okra" from Canning for a New Generation, by Liana Krissoff. If you've ever wanted to put food by but you've been reluctant to give it a try, I highly recommend this book. She gives excellent directions for the beginner, and the recipes in this book make you want to spend the next month doing nothing but canning.

You might reasonably wonder why I chose a recipe for pickled okra as my first try at canning. I have another cookbook that uses okra in a lot of recipes, particularly in soup: My Mother's Southern Kitchen, by James Villas and his mother, Martha Pearl Villas.

Very pretty!

We, umm that is the hubby, does a lot of canning. I especially like homemade canned soups. A jar of soup is great when you are in a hurry and forgot to pack a lunch the night before. He has tried dairy, which I only would recommend if you have too much of something and can’t freeze it, because the results are . . . interesting.

The best part about canning is you know exactly what is in it and you are not limited.

DS
(Bruce's evil twin :-))

I must confess that I used Google to search for the recipe. I've discovered that I can locate recipes from several sites and then open them all up in separate windows to see what looks most interesting. Then I can adjust that recipe with ingredients from the others or with my own ideas of what will work which is what I did in the case of the peach cobbler. I could have made the cobbler without a recipe, but I've never done it with canned peaches and wanted an idea of the kind of adjustments that I needed to make and whether to keep the juice of drain it.

I'm not an intuitive kind of cook. Both of my grandmothers could whip up with ease any kind of cobbler - with any fruit, fresh, frozen, or canned - and with any crust, rolled, patted, batter, or crumbled. I inherited not one iota of their knack. Their cobblers were the stuff of legend in our family!

Cheddar and green chile biscuits from Joanne Fluke's Cinnamon Roll Murder.

The review: I prefer Southern biscuits, and I think they need more cheddar. I didn't have salted butter, so I substituted unsalted, but I really think they needed that extra salt.

I'm a sucker for biscuits in any guise; they look great to me!

Lori, those biscuits look delicious, but I bet you're right--you would like them better with made with salted butter. These look something like a spoonbread recipe--yes?

The instructions were sort of a drop biscuit type of biscuit rather than a rolled out one. Southern biscuits traditionally use buttermilk instead of whole milk, and I really think I would have liked the texture better if I'd used the buttermilk and adjusted the recipe a bit accordingly. I will say that I did have some country ham on hand and used that with a couple of the biscuits one morning. With that extra salt from the ham, they had the extra flavor they needed.

I am currently reading Madhur Jaffrey's Ultimate Curry Bible. We had the yoghurt with spinach and dill tonight. Even though I used less than it called for, it was very garlicy. We really enjoyed it. The spinach was from the garden, and I also substituted the first fresh mint of the season for the dried the recipe called for.

I have to admit that the rest of the meal was readymade products. I love Indian food, but to do it right takes hours on my feet, that I'm not up to for a midweek supper. But many of the recipes in here make we want them, so maybe one of these days...

>18 MarthaJeanne: Do you have 660 Curries? I was wondering how the two compared.

DS
(Bruce's evil twin :-))

I don't have that one. What I like about all of Madhur Jaffrey's books is that she knows what the result should look and taste like, but she learned to cook in a UK kitchen, and continues to live in the US and UK, so she has a fair idea of how WE cook. I have several other Indian cookbooks, but it's hers that I usually use.

I just have on of Madhur Jaffrey's books - Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian. But we do like 660 Curries.

DS
(Bruce's evil twin :-))

I use that one least - I like Eastern vegetarian cooking a lot better. (Madhur Jaffrey's World-of-the-East Vegetarian Cooking in the USA). But I also reach back for several of her others often. Madhur Jaffrey's Indian cookery was written to accompany a BBC cooking series, and comes the closest to being my standard cookbook for Indian food. I love the reviews.

Madhur Jaffrey's cookbook is really fun because it is not a purely Indian cookbook, but mixes Indian spicing with western dishes.

We made 'the Tastiest Slaw Ever' from the Paleo Comfort Foods: Homestyle Cooking for a Gluten-Free Kitchen. I was a bit skiptical since it is a coleslaw with mangos in it. The whole vinegar with mango didn't really catch my imagination. But wow is it good. Sorry I forgot about taking a picture until after it was gone :-(

DS
(Bruce's evil twin :-))

That sounds interesting. I brought a mango home today to use in a ceviche recipe.
I made Lamb Shanks with tomato, chilli and honey from Slow Cooking. It turned out rather well and suited the colder autumn weather we've been having lately. The added sweetness from the honey was a bonus even though I didn't add as much as the recipe called for. I'm also guilty of not taking a photo, but have added a link to the recipe and a few images. I think I've made this one before and there are quite a few other recipes in the book I should try over winter.

Last night I made Spanish chicken with pimento olives & saffron which is a family favourite that I haven't made for years. I used an online recipe to prompt my memory but the original is from one of the first cookbooks my husband gave me.

You know what I love about LT? Connecting with people who are experiencing autumn when it is spring here! (Minnesota, USA)

There isn’t very much info on Slow Cooking on LT, how do you like it? I am always looking for interesting slow cooking recipes.

DS
(Bruce's evil twin :-))

#25: sorry didn't catch your post till now. I still haven't managed to try any other recipes from Slow Cooking but I did make the lamb shanks recipe again. I mostly do my own version of Hungarian goulash when using the slow cooker and I now also use labwriter 's Pea soup with ham recipe that I slow cook overnight and my son loves it.

I'm in the process of trying a few different versions of pumpkin soup lately. First up I made "Pumpkin soup with toasted pumpkin seeds' from The great kiwi vege road trip: vegetarian recipes from around New Zealand. This recipe came from The Yellow House cafe in Westport. blurb: 'this unusual sweet and spicy take on pumpkin soup will surprise and delight'
I chose this because one of the ingredients was peanut butter and I thought it would be an interesting combo. Overall I enjoyed the flavours though wouldn't bother again with the toasted seeds scattered on top.

Then I made the Sundays at Moosewood St Lucia pumpkin soup which was a more simple and straightforward recipe. This probably wins the day for both ease of prep and taste. I froze most of it and added cream after it had reheated. My son has finished this all off so I'm looking for more pumpkin soup variations to try.

I tried another recipe from The great kiwi vege road trip: vegetarian recipes from around New Zealand as it also involved pumpkin and I had a fair amount of it on hand at the time. From Culverden's Red Post Cafe it was Pumpkin and Feta pie. I avoided the filo pastry altogether and used baking paper in the muffin pan. So ended up with 12 cute souffle type eats. These were popular and disappeared soon after they came out of the oven. No seasoning is needed as the feta is salty enough.
1/4 medium pumpkin - diced
2 spring onions - angle sliced
250 gm cows feta
6 eggs
300ml cream
green herb stock powder for garnish (optional)
24 sheets filo pastry (4 sheets folded per muffin pan)
Boil pumpkin till just beginning to cook but still firm. Layer the pumpkin pieces, spring onion and feta in pans. Pour over cream/egg mixture ensuring mix reaches the bottom of layers. Bake 30-40 mins till set. Cool, serve with salad.

And tried a nice oatmeal type cookie recipe from the New Zealand Listener, a weekly culture magazine.
Wendy's Delovely Cookies. My only suggestion would be to swap the chopped chocolate for dried cranberries. I also didn't do the decoration top, like my cookies to be plain.

My hubby made lemon bars from Paleo Comfort Foods. It was a bit on the 'tangy' and sweet side for me. but I think if we add some meringue on top it will be perfect.

Ds
(Bruce's evil twin :-))

Last night I made the Garlic-Chipotle Chicken Tacos from the latest Cooking Light. My whole family loved them.

Gracious! That looks good!

My husband made me a curry dinner out of Curry Easy last week. I think I need to try it myself, but he decided he wanted to make curry and he did, with only a bit of help finding the right spices. (Many of mine are labeled in German, and he doesn't know the translations, plus I have them separated by packaging, which can also be confusing, just uses the space better.)

I just tried Healthy bread in five minutes a day. By golly, it works. Doesn't seem like the results should be as good as they are.

I went to add Curry Easy to my wishlist and it is not listed on Amazon :-(

DS
(Bruce's evil twin :-))

30> Oh and we put all of our spices in mason jars - it avoids that whole different packaging issue. We keep them in the box the jars came in and put labels on the top. they are way cheaper then fancy spice bottles. I also find that the rubber seal on the lid really helps keep things fresher, even nuts, which we seem to use a bit of and then forget to finish off.

DS
(Bruce's evil twin :-))

Been a bit quiet here lately. I've been cooking lots of different soup recipes over the current winter months, usually trying out different ones from Digby Law's soup cookbook, so far have been impressed by his Kumera and celery soup and the Leek and watercress soup. I've only used his book over the years to make the curried caulifower soup but lately have tried to spread my wings a little. Tonight I made the St Lucia pumpkin soup from Moosewood again and we've voted it an all time favourite.

Yesterday I ditched my gym class and went to the weekly vege market and among other veges picked up a big bunch of fenugreek leaves. Luckily I also got lamb on the way home because I was able to cook a lovely Indian dish - Lamb Saag using a recipe I found online, much nicer than what I've had in standard Indian restaurants. Must look through my cookbooks to find a Persian version of this.

#30: I've got a couple of Madhur Jaffrey's books, must start looking through and try some. She came to our local writer's festival last year and was an interesting speaker.

I just found Madhur Jaffrey's Flavors of India this weekend, but haven't had a chance to cook anything.

We just got home from a Tibetan restuarant. I can now say that I have had Yak! Minnesota grown yak even. Who knew we had yaks here! Now I am looking for a recipe for Momo.

I see I can get a paperback copy of Digby Law's Soup Cookbook for only $435.41 used on Amazon. Who makes up these prices?

DS
(Bruce's evil twin :-))

Can't say I've eaten yak! What was it like?
I was looking online for the title of one of the Madhur Jaffrey cookbooks that I own and came across this blog, India on a plate, with a photo of his Indian cookbook collection, you need to scroll down to see them stacked beside his son. I have World Vegetarian and a new edition of Eastern Vegetarian Cooking.

The late Digby Law wrote several useful cookbooks in New Zealand back in the 1970s and 1980s. They all seem to be available from time to time as they get reprinted every few years. A used copy of The soup book goes for about $5-$10 on our local trading site here. I notice that about Amazon, every now and then an old book is listed at hundreds of dollars and yet a visit to abebooks.com brings up a copy for $1-$2.

I was recommended NZer Peter Gordon's cookbooks, especially his salads and vegetable recipes and just made my first one from Cook at home with Peter Gordon. This is one of his earlier cookbooks, Pear, pistachio and prune tart with Middle Eastern flavoured syrup is a very decadent, moreish treat.

edit: managed to take a photo before it all disappeared

I haven't had yak to eat, but I've spun a 50/50 yak/silk mixture. Wonderful!

I made a banana cake last night from Jekka's Herb cookbook. I used it as the base and added apricots and sour cherries on top. It was amazingly good - no sugar, just the mashed bananas and a spoonful of dried powdered stevia from the garden. My husband is diabetic, and he can eat this one. Whole wheat flour and fruit aren't too bad on his system, but sugar and white flour really do a job on his sugar levels. Lots of recipes use stevia preparations from the store, but this is the first time I've found one for the powder I make. He's been using it for a few years now, and for sprinkling prefers it to the commercial sweeteners.

Hmmmm! I sort of forgot about this challenge until this week when I brought home the cookbook called The New Vegetarian Epicure.

I made the Brownie recipe in it with great success. I think I finally found a "go to" recipe for an excellent brownie for those who like "fudgy" brownies.

*does happy dance*

I bought a self-published cookbook from a local farm stand on Saturday. Haven't tried anything from it yet. Will report when I do.

I just got SMART SCHOOL TIME RECIPES: The Breakfast, Snack, and Lunchbox Cookbook for Healthy Kids and Adults free for kindle. I am hoping to try a few recipes from that. I was really surprised by how much I liked this free cookbook.

DS
(Bruce's evil twin :-))

I like the Pumpkin Pancake recipe from the new cookbook we got on Friday Practical Paleo. Bruce made them this morning. They were pretty good even if the cook needs to learn how to cook pancakes. . .lower heat & longer in the pan . . . I bet they would be even better with some chopped nuts in them. I didn't even want to put syrup or sugar on them.

We also tried a receipe for bacon-wrapped chicken thighs that is in the book. I think that it could have used a bit more spices but otherwise it was very good.

DS
(Bruce's evil twin :-))

I haven't cooked myself from Österreich Vegetarisch yet, but I had four things from it at the presentation last night, and it was all good.

(Shouldn't spend that long at that bookstore, though. Ended up taking Delia's Vegetarian Collection home with me as well.)

It's late in the year, and I did poorly on this challenge. However, I made a great Chicken Tortilla Soup from page 76 of The Pioneer Woman Cooks, a cookbook I found today in my library. Of course, my husband said it wasn't thick enough. I, however, thought it was perfect!