Kitchen Express and Greenling scorecard

Mark Bittman's Kitchen Express: 2.5 successes out of 3 tries so far. The honey orange chicken (substituted tenders and added garlic) paired with the carrot and raisin couscous (added slivered almonds and green onion tops) topped with a dollop of lemon zest plain yogurt was tasty, easy, and kid friendly. The pea and bacon linguine was tasty, and happily consumed by all, but I felt like it was pasty, not to make a rhyme. I did add a shot of half and half, and maybe a shot of olive oil is needed. It also seemed higher mess to me, as does anything that requires the blender, which then requires cleaning. But all in all, I like that the recipes are more suggestions than instructions, are easy to tweak based on preferences, and seem to be based on flavor profiles, with speed being a side benefit, instead of the other way around.

Greenling: let's say 75% successful. I'm a sucker for the novelty of delivery to my door, and of course it automatically won there. The apples are beautiful, but sadly, the pears are fairly battered. Tasty, but battered, and not in that Texas State Fair deep-fried way, either. They didn't have bunch carrots in stock this week, so it was deducted from my order, but it does make it tricky to base a menu around their delivery. I found myself grating baby carrots for the couscous salad today. And they gave me an incorrect item, although when I called them, they offered to bring out the correct one today and let me keep the incorrect one. I will order again, and plan on having a weekly sort of lunch makings basket delivered. This week was hummus, tabouleh and basil, along with wonderful Sweetish Hill bread, and next week I'll stick with the bread, but change out my sandwich fillings.

On another front, I baked challah bread on Sunday, using Chef Darla's recipe. It was easier and less sticky than I anticipated, and it made a godzilla sized loaf. The crust isn't my favorite, but the texture is spectacular, and makes scrumptious toast!

End of the Week musings

Thanks to a recommendation from a friend, I'm going to give Mark Bittman's "Kitchen Express" a whirl next week. I'm starting with a linguine in pea sauce with bacon (subbed for the prosciutto), and an orange honey chicken with a couscous side. On glancing through the cookbook, it looks like a more streamlined, yet simultaneously more gourmet Rachael Ray, with more room for personal creativity. I have high hopes...
I'm also trying Greenling for the first time next week, thanks to my new Groupon addiction. I'm very excited. I'm having some produce delivered, as well some prepared foods. I do love packages delivered to my door, and especially if there's something yummy inside of them! I'm not feeling up to the local box yet, where undisclosed produce appears weekly, and then I have the challenge of figuring out what to do with it. For the time being, I'm just building my own boxes, while knowing exactly what I'm going to do with it!
I'm not baking too many sweets right now, but my recipe sweet tooth is apparently alive and well. I came across a couple today that I want to try - the KAF no-knead sticky rolls and their chocolate snack cake. It will be interesting to see how the former compares to the Cooking Light sticky rolls, which I found really successful, and not overly taxing. The KAF version is based on one of the Artisan Breads in 5 Minutes a Day recipes, so we'll see...

This weekend will be a lovely sampler of good ol' Texas cuisine. We're headed to the Salt Lick tonight and to Marble Falls for pumpkin picking and the Bluebonnet Cafe tomorrow. Yeehaw!

Hooray, Fall!

To celebrate the first day of fall, kiddo and I made the gingerbread cookies from Betty Crocker's Cooky Book. While he was all for decorating them with chocolate chips, that taste combination didn't really appeal to me, so we went with craisins and vanilla frosting. A fine time was had by all. The gingerbread people look a little alien like, since he pushed craisins in for the eyes, which makes their heads too big for their bodies, but who says that aliens aren't celebrating the changing of the seasons?

I made up a butternut squash soup tonight that merits jotting down and repeating. Sautee one chopped shallot and about 1/4 c chopped pecans in canola oil. Peel, chop and steam a butternut squash. Put all that to the blender, adding nutmeg, salt, about 1T honey, some milk and a splash of half and half. That's it! Easy, freezable, and a toasty way to welcome fall!

Gene's Appleblossom "Bread" from Mom

Now we all know it's really a cake, but if we just call it a bread, then it automatically makes it much healthier and less caloric. :) And calling it a bread definitely doesn't mean that I can't put a custard sauce over it if I want to...

Mix 1 1/4 c oil (I'm sure a little applesauce substitution is fair game), 3 eggs, and 2 c sugar.

Sift (and we know what I think of that) together 3 c flour, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 tsp cloves, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp nutmeg (and we know what mom thinks of that). Add to wet ingredients.

Add 3 c chopped, unpeeled apples (tart is good), 1 1/2 tsp soda dissolved in a little water, 1 tsp vanilla, and nuts if desired. Pour into 2 large loaf pans, greased and floured.

Bake at 350 degrees for 50-60 minutes. Mom notes that it can also be baked in a bundt pan, which will take a little more time. However, that may make it harder to pretend that it's a bread...

September 7, 2009

Whee for free Chik-Fil-A day! A fine time was had by all on wear a team t-shirt/get a sandwich day. Although initally sceptical of a change in the traditional shape, Kiddo is now officially a fan of waffle fries.
I don't think that I managed to cook anything memorable or particularly useful last week, other than getting smart enough to do chicken breasts in the crockpot the night before I wanted to make lasagne, and then not having to cook meat before assembling said lasagne. This week I'm going to make simple gorditas using the Cookie Magazine recipe, Chickpea Pasta from Cooking Light, turkey cutlets with cranberries and mashed potatoes, and Eastside Cafe's split pea soup and potato leek soup. Let's get those simple, staple recipes rolling!
With the advent of preschool, we've also got muffin recipes rolling. Tomorrow kiddo will help me make the King Arthur flour oatmeal muffins again, and we'll add blueberries this time. I made mom's pumpkin bread muffins this weekend. Here's the recipe, since I can't seem to keep track of it...

Mix 1 c oil (I use 1/2 oil, 1/2 applesauce), 3 c sugar (scant if using applesauce), 4 eggs, 1 15oz can pumpkin.
Sift (an instruction that I rarely honor) together 3 1/2 c flour (can handle some whole wheat), 1/2 tsp baking powder, 2 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp cloves, 1 tsp allspice.
Combine wet and dry ingredients, add 2/3 c orange juice and nuts if desired. Grease and flour 2 loaf pans or 24 muffin tins. Bake at 350 degrees for 60-75 minutes if bread, less if muffins. (Truth be told I tend to up the cinnamon, leave out the allspice, and add a little nutmeg, despite my mother's deep hatred for the latter. I just don't tell her.)


Oh. Speaking of King Arthur Flour...I have now tried the 5 minute artisan bread several times. The loaf is so small, that is hardly seems worth the time saving, and I found that it was not better for leaving the dough in the fridge for a week. It was frankly so yeasty that I found it inedible. I did find the dough useful for quick pizza crusts, though. However, the Betty Crocker Cookbook recipe for honey whole wheat bread made with the King Arthur white whole wheat flour is dependable and spectacular, not to mention a lovely golden color!

Cupcakes, cupcakes!

We have been on a cupcake quest for awhile. We've been trying various cupcakes around the city, and using a 5 star scale, giving them a cupcake quality rating and an ambience rating. While we've awarded a 5 star ambience rating to Hey Cupcake (you just can't beat a good airstream trailer), we haven't given out a 5 star quality rating until now. (I must mention that the final rating detirmination is made by the kiddo.) We've tried Quack's (love the idea of the lemon curd, but so big and heavy), Upper Crust (love the marble cupcake, but can't they please sweep the floor occasionally?), Sweetish Hill (hard to get a good read, since the frosting is sooooo cold and hard when it comes out of the case, but certainly tasty), Sugar Mama's (had them at a party, so we can't speak to the ambience), Whole Foods, Central Market, and HEB. But we have a new 5 star favorite, in both of ambience and quality...Walton's Fancy and Staple. The space is lovely, the background music choice is delightful, the staff is exceptionally friendly, the prices are reasonable, and the $9 cupcake sampler for 6 flavors was just too tempting. Every one we tried was fantastic, not too sweet, lovely, and distinctive. I think my favorite is the strawberry, but then there was the red velvet...

Now while I wholeheartedly endorse the Austin cupcake craze, I do miss Once Upon A Tart in Soho. A cupcake can only get so far when compared with a freshly made fruit tart.

August 20, 2009

Homemade banana pudding...not necessarily gormet, but an awfully nice way to celebrate the start of Top Chef 6.
Last night's dinner was definitely one to file and do again in terms of input vs. output. That's the goal here...low input, high output. I threw a brisket into the crockpot with a little chopped garlic, about 1/2 cup of orange juice, and about 1/2 a bottle of Central Market's hoisin sauce. I served it with jasmine rice and Rachael Ray's orange scented broccoli. I skipped the shallots and used butter instead of EVOO. I haven't watched the excessively enthusiastic Rachael in quite awhile, but if you can get recipes that aren't loaded with fat, they are often good on my input/output criteria. I should look at her side dish suggestions.