The cooking challenge has changed slightly this year. Now that I've gone through almost all of my cookbooks, it is time to work through the next big thing - the giant envelope of cut-out recipes. These include recipes from friends, from magazines, from the side of boxes or cans, the coupon section, etc. etc.
After digging through the recipes the first week, I decided that I needed to do a little organizing to make the process work better. So, on one of my days off, I sorted all the recipes into five folders - appetizers/breads/sides, main dishes, drinks, breakfast/brunch, and desserts. I am not surprised that the dessert folder is the biggest...we could probably make a new dessert every 2-3 nights and just barely get through it in the year. The next fullest folder is the main dish one, which is good because that's how we do the majority of our cooking.
I hosted my bunco group in January, which made it easy to start. I picked an appetizer recipe and a dessert.
The appetizer was Parmesan-Scallion Pastry Pinwheels. I'd never used the pastry sheets before, but found them to be easy to use and the appetizer was great - there wasn't a single one left at the end of the night.
The dessert was Chocolate Chip Bundt Cake. I love a bundt cake and this one delivered. Two of my guests don't like coffee at all and they couldn't taste the small amount that goes into this. I will admit that I couldn't find a cake mix without the pudding in it, so I just used a smaller box of pudding with the mix. It seemed to turn out fine and I don't remember anyone turning it away!
For dinner later that week, we had Slow Cooker Beef and Bean Burritos, which were heavenly. Mike said the house smelled great when he arrived home and the meal was fantastic. I have decided that every time I see a London Broil on sale from now on, I am buying it to make these! I must have been too busy eating to take a picture of these...
The next dinner was from a hand-written recipe from my former boss. She must have brought it to a pitch-in or maybe just told me about it. It doesn't even have a name on it, so I am going to call it the Chicken Tortilla bake. It was quite good but I think it would almost do better as a dish at a pitch-in or a party because it isn't that substantial. We paired it with veggies for dinner.
After we made that, we tried individual apple dumplings made with crescent rolls. They were fun to make with the kids and very tasty! I even sent a few to my mom's with the kids the following morning and they had them for breakfast.
The last recipe for the month was Ham and Peas Casserole. It was a great dinner! Everyone in the house liked it and it was a nice change of pace from the casseroles we usually make since eggs and cornbread were the "guts" of it. This one will be going into our rotation, and it would be great for a brunch recipe too.
Overall, we were 6 for 6 this month - I think we will make all the recipes again!
After digging through the recipes the first week, I decided that I needed to do a little organizing to make the process work better. So, on one of my days off, I sorted all the recipes into five folders - appetizers/breads/sides, main dishes, drinks, breakfast/brunch, and desserts. I am not surprised that the dessert folder is the biggest...we could probably make a new dessert every 2-3 nights and just barely get through it in the year. The next fullest folder is the main dish one, which is good because that's how we do the majority of our cooking.
I hosted my bunco group in January, which made it easy to start. I picked an appetizer recipe and a dessert.
The appetizer was Parmesan-Scallion Pastry Pinwheels. I'd never used the pastry sheets before, but found them to be easy to use and the appetizer was great - there wasn't a single one left at the end of the night.
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| Pastry Pinwheels |
The dessert was Chocolate Chip Bundt Cake. I love a bundt cake and this one delivered. Two of my guests don't like coffee at all and they couldn't taste the small amount that goes into this. I will admit that I couldn't find a cake mix without the pudding in it, so I just used a smaller box of pudding with the mix. It seemed to turn out fine and I don't remember anyone turning it away!
 |
| Chocolate Chip Bundt Cake |
The next dinner was from a hand-written recipe from my former boss. She must have brought it to a pitch-in or maybe just told me about it. It doesn't even have a name on it, so I am going to call it the Chicken Tortilla bake. It was quite good but I think it would almost do better as a dish at a pitch-in or a party because it isn't that substantial. We paired it with veggies for dinner.
After we made that, we tried individual apple dumplings made with crescent rolls. They were fun to make with the kids and very tasty! I even sent a few to my mom's with the kids the following morning and they had them for breakfast.
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| Gooey Apple Dumplings |
Overall, we were 6 for 6 this month - I think we will make all the recipes again!
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