Shrimp Creole & White Chocolate Chip cookies

One of my favorite things to eat is the jambalaya at Disneyland. I don't remember the name of the "cafe," but it's so freaking good. I love the seasonings and oh yeah, the cream. This is kinda like that, minus the cream, so I'm going to call it healthy. Here's the recipe. I agree with the reviewers- this would taste better with rice. It's not very soup-y so it doesn't really flavor the noodles enough. (Although if you added cream it'd probably be awesome as a pasta dish)

I ended up buying "cajun seasoning" and I'm not sure what's in it, but it's good. I put it on fries and chicken too. I omitted the mushrooms- that just didn't seem right. And even though I followed the recipe, it wasn't "super-hot," I think I'll add more red pepper flakes next time or some Tabasco.


I was also craving white chocolate macadamia nuts. There's a store in Westwood called Diddy Riese and it's famous for its cheap cookies and ice cream sandwiches (and hot dogs too). As much as I love cheap and ice cream sandwiches, I am not in love with their white chocolate chip and macadamia nut cookie- it's not chewy or crunchy. It has this perma-stale texture to it. BLEGH. I was so happy to find this recipe. This is truth in advertising- you will make chewy, buttery cookies.

And the recipe makes a TON. You probably notice dark brown specks? This is what happens when I mix by hand and get lazy. Yep... I decreased the amount of white chocolate chips + macadamia nuts because I like more dough in my cookies. Also I chopped up my macadamia nuts to sort of match the size of the chips.

Macaroons are coming! I'm determined to make macaroons this month.

Frittata

I love eggs, I think I've already used up a dozen and I just bought them on Sunday. This is a great recipe to use up some eggs in case yours are going bad. This is delicious fresh out of the oven, or at room temperature the next day. I used asparagus, potatoes (a la spanish tortilla), green onions and BACON. I thought it was kinda weird using ricotta cheese- I thought the recipe would call for heavy cream, but I think this is healthier?


Anyways, this is the recipe. I used my cast iron skillet, hurray! I've had it for a few months now but I keep forgetting to use it. Also I've never used a cast iron skillet ever so I'm always nervous I'm going to break it. It's a 10 inch one and weighs a ton.


The hardest part was keeping the flame low. I'm always in a hurry, it's hard for me to keep the flame low and slowly stir. agghhh I overcooked a little bit because I couldn't help myself- I hope you're more patient... It was still delicious though.

Honey Yeast Rolls

I haven't made bread in awhile, but the weather was unusually warm these past couple days so I thought I'd take advantage of it. I've had this recipe bookmarked for awhile, I LOVE dinner rolls almost as much as I love crunchy breads. These are slighty sweet because of the honey. They came out perfectly and were still soft two days later.

This recipe is also great because the mixer does the kneading for me.

Resting. Thanks to the warm weather, it actually rose a good amount.

Resting again. By now it's dark and the pictures are fuzzy )= Bread takes awhile to make because of all the resting- not a good recipe for busy weekdays.

Fresh out of the oven. (Mine aren't as brown as the original author's for some reason.. not enough butter/egg wash?)

Chicken Pot Pie

I was craving Marie Calendar's chicken pot pie so I thought I'd try to make it myself. I found a recipe from Ina Gartan, a food genius. I saved time by chopping up the vegetables the day before. I didn't have peas (darn) so I made it with potatoes, celery, carrots and green onions. I also saved time by using boneless/skinless chicken breast and pan-fried it and used Trade Joe's chicken broth. Annnndddd I used store bought puff pastry (I love puff pastry). I cheated my way through this recipe and it was SO GOOD.

Here's the roux. There's a lotta butter in this (I skipped the cream and used 2% milk instead, I figured there's enough fat in this recipe).

Ingredients chopped and ready to go! I par-cooked the potatoes and blanched the carrots (I wanted them to be slightly crunchy).

I made 2/3ish of the recipe and I made enough for four small ramekins and...

I still had enough for an 8" cake pan.... I don't have any pie pans (yet).

Look at that!!!! It was so good! The double whammy of chicken broth and chicken bouillon really make a difference in this recipe. I also ended up using the same pan for frying the chicken and the roux and I think the fond gave it some extra depth. It was very chicken-y.... and delicious.... and disappeared in 1.5 days!

Snickerdoodles

I've had this recipe bookmarked for awhile, but I didn't have cream of tartar. I finally picked some up at Ralphs and I'm so happy I finally made these! These are SO GOOD. There's nothing bad I can say about them... they baked perfectly and the recipe makes A LOT. I made 3 dozen. Go ahead and click the first photo, look at the cookie up close.


They are very butter-y and kinda hard to roll out, so a quick stay in the fridge will help you roll them out. I don't know what else to say besides make these, you will love them. It's a foolproof recipe. I made these in the afternoon and by the next day they were gone. Seriously.

Meatloaf

I've only had meatloaf a few times in my life and they were very greasy, bland or overly-salty. I was craving meatloaf for some reason so I dug up two recipes: this one because there's ground turkey in it and this one because it seemed like a good basic meatloaf recipe.


In the second recipe you'll note that you have to make a "well" around the meatloaf and you need to drain the grease TWICE. Aghh... which is why I used ground turkey instead. I followed the basic onion, garlic, celery, eggs and breadcrumb formula, but I made up my own tomato-y recipe. I had leftover tomato paste so I used about 5oz of that, then 3 tablespoons of sriracha, some Trader Joe's marinara sauce to thin it out a bit, and then a few healthy dashes of soy sauce and a tablespoon of brown sugar.


I think the most important part of meatloaf is the mixing. I didn't mix it very well and had some chunks of turkey in there. Also I didn't have anything to drain so YAY for ground turkey. It was still a moist meatloaf too without the added fat.

*I made the meatloaf on my day off and had lots of natural light to take the photos in. What a big difference!

Julia Child's Ragout of Chicken and Onions

I read Julia Child's memoir, My Life in France and then a few weeks later I watched Julie & Julia. I'm so sad that I never watched her on TV! I also realized I've never made a Julia Child's recipe! I sort of wanted to make the roasted chicken, but that would require rubbing butter in a chicken's crevices and under the skin, TOTALLY NOT READY FOR THAT YET. But Julia Child's always talked about how the chicken she had in France tasted more chicken-y so I will make her roasted chicken one day.... for now I will settle for a chicken ragout. The recipe is from Good Morning America.


All I had to do with the chicken was brown it, much more manageable. Mmm it was delicious. This is probably my 5th time cooking with wine and my first time using it in a stew. Thank goodness the recipe suggests a few types because I had no idea what a "young red wine" was.


The only weird part is that you end up with purple stew. I served it with some garlic roasted potatoes and roasted brussel sprouts. I'm going to look for some more of her recipes because she vigorously tested them time and time again. Although some of them are a bit dated... I remember aspic and I do not ever want to have to eat it again.