Cookbook Club of January 12, 2016

On a cold, windy, wintry evening, Kathy Morrison was once again generous and gracious to offer the cookbook club a place to meet and share our efforts to make delicious food.

The book under review this night was Trisha Yearwood's "Trisha's Table."  Several things became apparent as we ate our way through the evening, as follows:

(1)  The recipes, as written, made for some very bland food.  The recipes, as written, made much more than notated in the book.  Overall, most of the recipes in the book we have in other cookbooks so they were not very original. Notwithstanding the foregoing, everyone had a wonderful time and the food was very delicious.

Michelle made Mel's Banana Muffins.  Presumably, Mel doesn''t mind that Trisha presented her recipe for all to see in this book.  Michelle said the recipe made a LOT more than Trisha said it would.  That is a good thing because these were really tasty muffins, filled with good things like blueberries, bananas, wheat germ and chocolate chips.  Yummy and healthy.

Anne contributed the peanut butter frosting cupcakes.  She said this is a good basic cupcake but the frosting was soooo good.  Anne said the recipe called for sifting cake flour.  She thinks that this made a big difference and the cupcakes were so delicious that following the recipe exactly turned out to be a good thing.  If you don't have a peanut allergy this was an excellent frosting. 

MaryAnn made the Zucchini Cakes with Herbed Sour Cream.  She made them smaller that the recipe called for but they were the perfect size for an appetizer or snacks for a party.  She did add some salt and pepper to the sour cream dip, which almost all of the recipes needed.  These make a beautiful presentation and with a little more seasoning are delicious.

Gretta made the Orzo Salad which was pretty delicious.  She did cook the orzo in chicken broth even though the recipe called for half chicken broth and half water.
She would also add something crunchy like celery to add some flavor and texture.  It was delicious even without that and she said it was easy to make.

                          

Donna made the White Chocolate Cranberry Cookies.  She said they were very simple to make but there was quite a bit more than the recipe described.  The recipe called for applesauce and Donna siad the snack size applesauce was perfect for the recipe.  Yummy stuff in here including macademia nuts.

Karen made the Cranberry Apple Crisp which was absolutely delicious.  Although the recipe called for peeling the apples, she just sliced them very thin and you couldn't even tell that they were not peeled.  A time saving hint.  She was afraid to use regular oats so she did use the quick cooking oats as called for in the recipe.

Kathy made the strangely named Billie's Houdini Chicken Salad.  She thought it was a little dry so she added extra yogurt.  There was a lot of fruit in it and the yogurt was low fat so it was a healthy salad.  Kathy thought it was Trisha's take on Waldorf Salad.  Tasted pretty good and not dry but make sure you add the extra yogurt.  Also we thought it was a little bland so add seasoning if you like.

 Arlene made the Black Bean Chili and Rice.  Instead of rice, she used farro. The black beans make it very high on protein and Arlene said it was very easy to make.  Nice alternative for a meat free dish.

Trisha made the Carmelized Onion Dip which was a big hit.  She was very pleased with the carmelization process, much better than Lipton Onion Dip.  Plus, it made the house smell great.  Everyone agreed this would be good for a party.  Trisha said it required constant stirring to carmelize the onion but you could use this process for other recipes.  Except for the constant stirring, it was pretty easy since everything just simmered together.

 Brenda made the surprisingly delicious Power Balls.  Lots of protein and flavor in these little balls that are intended to be a snack when you are on-the-go.  Everything goes into the food processor, then rolled into balls and put into the refrigerator.  If you like peanut butter, these are yummy.

Janet brought the Black Bean Quinoa.  Another healthy, protein laden dish.  Janet used red quinoa & although the recipe called for canned corn, she used fresh corn.  She said it was very easy and it tasted good too.

Stephanie made the brilliantly presented Yogurt Granola Parfaits.  So if you like plain, Greek yogurt these are the parfaits for you.  Stephanie used plain sunflower seeds instead of the salted ones called for in the recipe.  And she used more honey between the layers.  That's good to make the yogurt a little sweeter in case plain yogurt is too tart for you.  It shouldn't be a problem since they are packed with fruit and sweetened coconut.

Marlene made the Chicken Tortilla Casserole.  This made a very nice-looking dish but she said it was very messy to make since you had to make a roue and boil the chicken according to the recipe.  She used a total of 18 tortillas instead of the 24 called for in the recipe.  She said you could make it ahead but you would need to make sure the roue on top stays wet.

 Cindy brought Benita's Pasta Fazola.  We all agreed that it could have used a lot of seasoning. It was not difficult to make but Cindy said she would not make it again.  Like so many of the recipes in this book, it was a little bland.

Alex brought Garth's Taco Pizza and to say she was disappointed with it is an understatement.  She pointed out that the recipe in the book was much different than the one on the Food Network.  The recipe called for Pillsbury dough which is slimy and the TV pizza called for Big Poppy's Dough.  Bland, bland, bland.  She would not make it again but if you want to try it, add seasonings.

I made the Smashed Sweet Pea Burgers.  I don't eat chickpeas so this was a challenge for me.  The recipes instructs you to smash the chickpeas with a fork or pastry cutter.  If I did that, I would still be smashing so after about 5 minutes, I just used a coarse setting on the food processor.  Other than that, they were simple to make but again there really was no seasoning in them except for a little bit of chili powder.

Cookie Exchange of December 8, 2015

Apologies to everyone for the tardiness of this blog but technology issues arose and I was no match for them.  However, the good news is that there is plenty of time before next Christmas so you can practice these delectable recipes and get ready for the holidays of 2016.

Our table was laden with treats and except for a sugar coma the night was a lovely get-together.

A lovely cherry topped cookie was contributed by Mary Anne who called them Hungarian Cookies.  This is mysterious since there is no paprika in them but they look festive and they taste great so that's all that counts.

I made these fairly tasteless Double Ginger Molasses cookies.  If I made them again, I would add some spices, double the ginger and use brown sugar instead of the white sugar called for in the recipes.  Although this was not a particularly tasty cookie, I get it from a cookbook called "The Flying Brownie."  Except for this cookie, it is a really good cookbook filled with excellent recipes.

 There is nothing better, I think, than a shortbread cookie and Kathy provided us with this wonderful shortbread.  She said it is amazingly easy to make with only 3 ingredients.  Of course one of them is gobs of butter so that explains why it it is so delicious.

The nut crescents were sweet and very nutty (duh).  They were made with ground almonds so they are healthy as well.  

What could be better than chocolate and candy canes?  Donna was kind enough to share these totally tasty cookies with us.  And she said they were easy too.  They are made with brownie mix and Andes mints.  That explains a lot.  Delicious.

Mistletoe cookies have nothing to do with mistletoe but everything to do with tastiness.  Ginny made them from a cookbook we reviewed in 2014.  It is filled with such good recipes.  It is "Christmas Made Easy".  It is made with cake mix and other goodies and just like the title, is very easy.

This cookie has everything, Oatmeal, cranberries and  white chocolate chips. They just sound scumptious and they are.  Find the recipe on the back of the craisin package.

 Black Bottom Minis turned out to be a very different but nevertheless delectable cookies.  Gretta graced us with these family favorite cookies.  The surprise ingredient is vinegar which Gretta says combines with the baking powder to do something in a very good way.

The Pecan Butterballs are pretty descriptive.  The name says it all.  Powdered sugar, butter and pecans combine to make a treat to remember.  It is said to be an Italian cookie.

If you like jelly, you will love these linzer torte type cookies.  Marianne made them and you can see the work that went into them.  All that rolling, cutting out, filling etc.  She says she got the recipe from Annie B but these are way better than Annie B's cookies.

Natalie made these perfectly beautiful ribbon cookies.  She explained how she made them but I was lost after the first 100 steps.  They tasted as good as they looked.

Marlene contributed her family's favorite and called them "S" cookies.  Look carefully and you will see why.  She got the recipe from her mother-in-law.  They are filled with good things like raisins which is probably why they taste so good.

These cookies look they came from a bakery but, no, Cindy brought them to share. They are Chocolate Dipped Hazelnut Cookies.  They are piped onto the cookie sheet so they are very fancy.  These came from the Christmas Made Easy cookbook.

Mickee made Snowball cookies.  You can see why this is their name.  She got the recipe from the Land O'Lakes box so, of course, there is a lot of butter and oodles of good taste in them.

Inside these bags are the most delicious Raisin Gingersnaps ever that Donna brought.  They were so good that there were none left for a picture.  

Brenda made traditional Mexican Wedding Cookies.  No wonder they have such lively weddings.  Delicious Cookies.

FINALLY, last but absolutely spectacular is Anne's Pistachio Thumbprint Cookies.  Not only are there cookies but there is filling and then glaze too.  And yes, she did use her thumbs but I know for a fact that she washed her hands after each thumbprint.  Yummy, yummy.

Okay everyone.  I f I left out some cookies or didn't put your names down, it's because I didn't have them.  On Tuesday, put your recipe and your name on the card in front of your food.

Marian

Cookbook Club - November 10, 2015

November 10, 2015

Our cookbook for this month was Wine Bites by Barbara Scott-Goodman. The subtitle of the book is "Simple Morsels that Pair Perfectly with Wine and each recipe is annotated with a suggestion for a type of wine to serve with the food.  Sadly, we did not provide the wine with each recipe but I think it was much safer that way. 

We had a wonderful selection of recipes as follows.

Janet brought the Kielbasa Bites which were hot and delicious.  She said they could not have been easier.  It should be noted that Janet is an excellent cook so for the average person, they may be a tad more difficult.

Anne and Greta both brought the Chocolate Cherry Cookies.  This was a very good thing because they were delicious.  They were both disappointed that the cookies spread as much as they did but they thought this was probably because there was a lot of shortening and butter in the cookies.  It was discovered that the eggs and butter need to be at room temperature to make the item rise.  Alex also shared the hint that refrigerating the dough would prevent the cookies from spreading.  Greta thought the Toll House cookie recipe would be just as good since you could add dried cherries to them.

Both Alex and Cari brought the Creamy Chicken Liver and Date Spread.  Cari said you need to plan ahead to make them because you need to soak the chicken livers in milk because the lactic acid breaks down the liver taste  You also need to chill the chicken livers.  Soaking venison and fish in milk will do the same thing.  Cari soaked hers for a little while but Alex soaked it overnight.  Anyway, it was very tasty.  Not my mother's chopped liver but tasty nevertheless.

I brought the Swiss Chard Mushroom & Chorizo Fritatta.  This looked very pretty and tasted very nice but it took over an hour to chop and grate and chop and grate everything.  The recipe called for the chard to be sauteed and then chopped which is not feasible since the pan is smaller than the chard.  There are plenty of other recipes which taste extremely similar but do not require to amount of work that was entailed for this recipe.

Trisha made the Spicy Chicken Salad and it was very delicious.  The recipe called for discarding the chicken bones and the rest of the ingredients after boiling the chicken and Trisha thought it would be much better to keep it for chicken stock.  This was a very attractive presentation since Trish used endive to serve as a vessel for the salad.  The recipe also called for chopped walnuts which she thought  was strange since it is not a nut used usually in Mexican dishes.  She thought maybe radicchio would be pretty instead of the endive but someone thought it would be too bitter.  Alex thought jicama may be a good choice.

Brenda made the very delicious chicken satay and did all of the preparatory work the night before.  She said the marinade was relatively easy and made it the night before and marinated the chicken and also made the dipping sauce the night before.  She didn't grill the chicken until the day of the meeting and it turned out very well indeed.

Mickee made the delicious blondie bites and was surprised they turned out so well because there was no picture of them.  She used 1/2 cup of nuts even though the recipe called for a 1/2 cup.  She had a little trouble finding the cake flour but did find it and Alex and Greta pointed out, you should not substitute all-purpose flour is the recipe calls for cake flour since cake flour is lighter and airier and helps the recipe rise.

Marlene brought the Spinach, Swiss Chard & Feta pie which looked almost exactly like the Swiss Chard & Mushroom Fritatta.  It was apparently much easier to make since Marlene said the hardest part was taking the stems off of the chard.  This recipe called for boiling the chard first instead of sauteeing it so it seems like the author is very versatile with chard.  Rinsing the chard is challenging.   This was a delicious "bite".

Donna elected to bring the Buttermilk Biscuit Bites which was a good thing because they were so very tasty.  She had half with turkey and half with ham.  The recipe called for a 1 inch scoop and she went up one to the next larger size.  They were the perfect size so take note of this.

Mary Anne brought the fresh fruit with Marscapone Dip for a refreshing and delicious break from the savories.  She said it was super easy to make and used the electric whisk for the dip.  A VERY HANDY TIP:  use pineapple juice to keep the fruit from getting brown.  Who knew???

Cindy was very worried about her recipe of Stilton Stuffed dates with Proscutto since her husband was not very pleased with them.  She needn't have worried.  Even persons who do not like Stilton liked the dates.  She said they were very easy to make.  So much for her husband's taste.

Natalie brought the Cherry Tomato, Corn and Caper Salsa.  Yummy and as she said very easy.  Certainly better than the jars of salsa you buy in the grocery store.

Who doesn't love crab dip?  Well, except for those who don't Arlene provided a very delicious crab dip which as a bonus, she said was very easy.  What a nice treat.

I am usually not a fan of white bean dips but Donna made the Herbed White Bean Spread which was a tasty treat.  She said she added garlic so that may have been the difference.  The croutons were very good too.

 Greta felt so so bad that her cookies were ugly that she also made Chesse Crisps.  She said the hardest part was chilling of the dough which took a little longer than 10 minutes.  Make sure you grease the pan.  She used parchment paper and rolled them like a log and then froze them for an hour.  Make sure you do this because the dough is crumbly.  You can freeze them for when company comes.  Alex says make sure you don't use pre-grated cheese.