Six Recipes You Should Bookmark (and then Make)
I love Pinterest, but I can’t stand it when people leave other people’s notes about a recipe on their pin.
Because I don’t really want to know that someone 84 repins ago “loved this more than anything I’ve ever made.” I want to know if YOU loved it, because I actually know you and trust your opinion.
In that spirit, here are 6 recipes I’ve made recently and can vouch for myself. Not “one pinner says, ‘My family scraped the pan.'”
(By the way, I’m sometimes feel like my blog makes me sound unbelievably crabby. I’m actually somewhat pleasant in real life. And if you repin someone else’s text, I won’t judge you for it because I sometimes do it too, when I’m on my phone and just can’t be bothered, or if I accidentally hit the repin button too quickly and am unwilling to make the effort to go back in and edit something).
1. Blueberry Coconut Cake with Lemon Sauce: A Sunday night scramble to figure out what to make for dessert when we were having company over. This was a huge winner. That Mel, she never lets me down (and I should know – I’ve probably made 50 or more recipes from her blog).
2. BLTs with Spicy Mayo & Fried Eggs: Whoa. You guys. I’m not much of sandwich maker, but we had an impromptu dinner party with Landen & Adam and our dear friends, James and Allison, a few weeks before we moved, and made these because we had so many eggs and also a bunch of bacon, and these were mindblowingly good sandwiches. Do not skip the sriracha sauce. Also, it was a great way to break in our new-to-us electric griddle, which the Cavanaughs offered us because they got two for their wedding. Score
3. Chickpea Curry: I way overcooked my chickpeas in the crockpot, but even so this was really really ridiculously good. I didn’t bother with the coconut rice – I just used brown jasmine rice.
4. Snickers Chocolate Chip Cookies: We got an embarrassing amount of mini Snicker bars from a Duke event, and then it took me AGES to figure out which recipe I wanted to use them in. I settled on this one, and Bart and I were both pretty astounded by how good they were. It wasn’t just a mediocre cookie jammed with candy bars; the cookie itself was really delicious.
5. Coconut Lime Chicken with Green Chiles: This was one of those, “everything-on-my-menu-looks-lousy-time-to-search-Pinterest-boards” and it was a smash hit. I meant to save some to eat the next day . . . but we failed. I added zucchini because I had two in the fridge looking very sad.
6. Baked Polenta with Feta, Tomatoes & Mushrooms: I can tell I’ve completely lost my taste for fake chicken stock, because this recipe was kind overwhelmed by the fact I used chicken bullion cubes (I had a couple in my pantry that I found when we moved and I hadn’t yet made any vegetable broth myself), but aside from that, this was EXCELLENT. I put spinach on top because I didn’t have arugula.
Any recipes you’ve loved lately? Share the wealth.
Here's what I made for dinner last night. The website it came from has disappeared. Fortunately I had already saved the recipe.
4 1-pound chicken breasts
2 tablespoons olive oil or butter
1 medium onion, chopped fine
1 1/2 tablespoons curry powder
1 1/2 tablespoons flour
2 cups chicken stock
1 clove garlic, crushed
1/2 cup coconut milk
1 tablespoon red currant jelly or juice of half a lemon mixed with 2
teaspoons sugar
3 to 4 tablespoons heavy cream
1 teaspoon arrowroot mixed to a paste with 1 tablespoon stock
2 ripe peaches, cut in half
To be served with white rice.
Skin breasts and cut in half. Brown slowly in half of the oil. When
brown on all sides, remove from casserole and keep warm.
Heat remaining oil or butter in the casserole. Add onion and gently cook
until brown. Stir in curry powder and cook 3 minutes. Sprinkle in flour
and cook 1 minute.
Remove from heat and pour in stock. Add garlic and bring to boil. Simmer
20 minutes.
Return chicken to casserole. Cover and cook for 45 minutes or until tender.
Transfer chicken to a platter and strain sauce into a pan. Add coconut
milk and red currant jelly and simmer 3 minutes. Place chicken back into
clean casserole.
Stir heavy cream into curry sauce and thicken if needed with arrowroot.
Add peaches. Heat.
Pour over chicken.
I have the baked polenta on my menu this week. Glad to know it's a good recipe.
I will now have the baked polenta recipe on my menu this week…and probably the fried egg BLT's. I also adore Mel's Kitchen Cafe.
Chili and Cornbread is one of those things that I almost never actually make when it's on the menu because, meh. That being said, I've made this chili (skipped bacon the second time and used a little butter, used ground turkey, and about half as much) once a week for the past two weeks. I'm pretty certain it will be my go-to chili for.ever. This cornbread is really good too.
This cornbread could almost be a meal itself.
JALAPENO CORN CASSEROLE
1 stick margarine
1 large onion-chopped
1 or 2 fresh jalapenos ( I used 3 tsp. of sliced jalapenos from a jar)
3 eggs
1 large can cream style corn & juice
2 large cans whole kernel corn & juice
2 boxes Jiffy Corn Bread Mix
2 cups grated cheddar cheese (8 oz. pkg. Bar cheese)
Saute onions & jalapenos in margarine.
In bowl, mix beaten eggs, corn bread mix, creamed corn & whole kernel corn
with its juice.
Spray a 9 X13 in. pan with Pam. Pour corn bread mix into pan
Spoon onions & jalapenos on top of this.
Sprinkle cheese all over the top.
Bake 45 mins. at 375 degrees F.
Can't wait to try these!
Warning: if you make these Greek chicken gyros and tzatziki sauce for anyone, you'll be asked to make them again…and again… I wimped out and bought the naan to save time because even though I tried this for the first time earlier this summer, I've already been asked to make it five times. http://www.bigredclifford.com/2013/04/greek-gyro-chicken-wraps-tzatziki-naan-flatbread-recipe.html
I don't think you sound crabby… Because I agree! (Maybe we're both crabby! 😉 Anyway, the pinner comment thing drives me crazy; a few months ago everyone in my feed had received this meal "while I was recovering from surgery," which was really annoying. My least favorite is "pin now, read later." Read it now! Okay, maybe I AM crabby.
Ooh, I'm trying the chickpea curry and the baked polenta! Thanks!
I hate that too! When someone else wants to "make something for Abby"…oh, you have a daughter named Abby too. Weird.
I hate how you're required to leave a note on each pin. I also really don't like when someone leaves the previous person's note, but usually don't want to come up with my own instead. (This isn't as much of a problem on recipes, where the note can be a description, but some pins I just don't want to bother to describe!)
Yum! Can't wait to try the coconut cake and the chickpea curry! Thanks!
And yes, it's REALLY annoying when random pinners leave comments (well, unless if it's something useful, like "made this with 1/3 the amount of oil and worked well" etc etc)
Have a great week!
.
In fact, we're having it tonight with company!
That polenta sounds amazing!
I just wrote about three yummy recipes I'd recommend:
http://thegiraffelife.blogspot.com/2013/08/good-stuff-to-eat.html
So what did you use in place of the peppers in the chickpea curry. (I recall that you or Bart are not a fan.) I am going to try it this week, hence the question. 😉
we made the chickpea curry last night (thanks to this post) and it was a huge success. thanks for the tip!
Hi Janssen, I wanted to thank you for sharing these recipes (and others) and in particular, the link to Mel's website! Loved the Blueberry cake! I came across her Sweet and Sour Chicken as I was looking up the cake recipe.I guess that's the best recipe I've come across lately. My 14-year old son wouldn't complain if I made this everyday! If you like sweet & sour chicken, you'll love this. And if, like me, you are not a fan, you might change your mind. The only change I made was to reduce the vinegar by about half as my daughter is not a big fan.
http://www.melskitchencafe.com/2008/07/sweet-and-sour-chicken-updated.html
Love your blog! Seems like we have so many shared interests like food, fashion, DIY and books. I've bought 'The Happiness Project' based on your recommendation – can't wait to dig into it!
Thank you! Isn't Mel's Kitchen Cafe one of the best food blogs out there? I've made dozens of her recipes and they've all been winners.