A December Photo Summary

It's been a while... I'm summing up the rest of 2009 in this post and getting ready to take this blog (and my cooking life) in a new direction for 2010.


Autumn Millet Bake
A Mark Bittman recipe featured on 101 Cookbooks. I thought it was pretty good, a little strange, would have been great as a side for Thanksgiving. Definitely not a main dish though.




Carrot Oatmeal Cookies
A 101 Cookbooks recipe made for a cookie exchange party. I made a batch according to the original recipe, but I used unsweetened shredded coconut instead of the walnuts. This is a delicious little indulgence that I will definitely make again.




Pasta with Red Pepper-Feta Sauce
An Ellie Krieger recipe. The sauce was in the fridge all week (it made quite a bit) but I got sick of it pretty quickly. It was a slightly chunky sauce, more so than I would like, but it tasted good.




Casbah Chicken & Couscous
A Pampered Chef recipe using the delicious Moroccan Rub. It took a little getting used to, but this was pretty delicious. Couscous, mango, cilantro, chicken, almonds and some more I can't remember right now. This may be available somewhere on the Pampered Chef website.




Moroccan Chicken with Yogurt Sauce, Parsley Rice, and Red Cabbage Slaw
This is a sort-of original based on a restaurant I really like in New Brunswick. I just cooked some pieces of chicken with the Moroccan Rub; made a yogurt sauce with yogurt, garlic, and cucumber; cooked some rice and mixed in parsley; and used shredded red cabbage with some oil and vinegar. Delicious.




Pasta with Sauteed Zucchini
I had some leftover zucchini that I wanted to use up but didn't know what to do with it, so I sauteed it with garlic and olive oil. Next time I'll mix in some bread crumbs as well. It was okay, but could have used another vegetable with it.


Snickerdoodles
I made these last year for Christmas and they were a big hit with my boyfriend's family. And who doesn't like compliments? So I made them again this year. This is exactly the type of thing I try to stay away from, but of course you have to indulge every now and then :)

Lemon-Scented Quinoa Salad

I have been looking for quinoa recipes and the Lemon-Scented Quinoa sounded really appealing to me. I made my own chickpeas (and way too many of them... ugh my freezer is crying) and I thought it was going to be great.

OK - disaster. Seriously, actually inedible (by my standards - Ken ate it though, not sure how...) and I can't really pinpoint it. It had this horrible bitter taste which unfortunately could have been so many things - the natural coating of the quinoa (though I did rinse it) or the red onion or what. No idea. Sadly, I don't even want to try it again.

It did look nice, though.

Pan-fried Polenta with Sauteed Mushrooms and Garlicky Spinach

I have been wanting to try to make polenta for a while but I was hesitant because I didn't really know what to serve it with. I consulted The Book (we all know which this is by now) and found that sauteed mushrooms were suggested with polenta. How convenient that I had some mushrooms that weren't used for Thanksgiving. I wanted some green on the plate so I decided on spinach, and I used the Garlicky Greens recipe on 101 Cookbooks as a rough guide.

The polenta was easy to make, but a little difficult to work with when cutting it and frying it. First you cook it in a pot, then pour it into a pan (I used a loaf pan) to cool. You can let it sit there all day if you want. Then you just slice it and do whatever you are going to do with it. I wanted to pan-fry it. I tried my stainless skillet at first but this is not a good idea. You need nonstick for this. The stainless saute pan worked great for the mushrooms though, since you deglaze with a little wine (yum).

This turned out to be a nice, delicious meal. I think it was pretty balanced too - protein from the spinach and carbs from the polenta. I would like to try some lemon with the greens too - maybe zest instead of juice to give it a little something refreshing.

I thought I had pictures of this, but I can't find them. Sorry!