Spinach and Chickpeas

I have fallen in love with the Smitten Kitchen blog. Deb Perelman's recipes are just really elegant, the photography is outstanding, and she makes food I might actually want to eat.

Last night I made Spinach with Chickpeas or as she likes to say espinacas con garbanzos. It was slightly more labor intensive, because it involved transferring bread cubes from a fry pan to a blender, and then back into the fry pan. The chickpeas take on a delicious flavor and it's very filling. I served it with couscous.

I definitely recommend this.
*Image courtesy of Deb Perelman.

Cooking Club: Porkchops with Mushroom Bourbon Cream Sauce

I was searching through recipes I had bookmarked for myself, looking for something to make for dinner tonight, when I came across this recipe for Porkchops with Mushroom Bourbon Cream Sauce. I made this for cooking club just a few weeks ago and had meant to share it with you guys! The sauce is delish! I chose to bake the pork chops the entire time so they took a bit longer to cook than I anticipated. Overall, I don't love pork chops, but I'd make the sauce again and serve it as a side!

Photo credit to Simply Recipes - but mine looked the same.

Chipotle Chicken & Rice

The combo of seeing Louisa this weekend at Maura & Christopher's wedding and having a less than fabulous moment in the kitchen tonight prompted me to post here! I decided to make the recipe for Chipotle Chicken and Rice in the July / August 2009 issue of Everyday Food magazine. All was going well (and I was thinking about how this is such a great dish to make b/c while it takes a long time - most of the time is hands off and leaves you with time to do other things - I did 2 loads of laundry and cleaned my apt a bit!) until the last 5 minutes. It seems there wasn't enough water in my pot during the last step, so all of the water absorbed about 5 minutes earlier than the estimated time and burned the bottom layer of rice. When I was putting the rice in, it didn't feel like enough, so I actually added more then - but still not enough! Thankfully, I could tell something was up and managed to save the bulk of it. It tastes great and I have plenty of leftovers for lunch this week! Definitely worth making again!

ps- photo credit to Everyday Food magazine - but mine pretty much looks the same if you discard the bottom layer!

Cooking Club: Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookies

A friend of mine started a Cooking Club and last night was our first meeting. Our Cooking Club is going to meet once a month and the basic premise is that each month we'll have a theme, selected by the person hosting. The host makes a main dish and everyone else has to make an appetizer, side, or dessert to go with the theme. Also, we each need to make something we've never made before. It can be a dish you've made before, but it at least needs to be a new recipe.

Last night's theme was Mexican, so I made the Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookies found in the April 2010 Everyday Food Magazine. The picture is theirs, but mine looked pretty good! They were super easy to make and everyone seemed to love them.

I'm hosting next month - so we'll see what I come up with as far as a theme and a main dish!

Rhubarb Cake

Every spring, this giant plant of rhubarb springs up from besides the garage. This is the only plant that I can harvest from on our rental property, and it gives loads and loads of rhubarb.

I've made strawberry rhubarb jam and pie and crumble, but i wanted to try something new. So, here's the recipe for rhubarb cake. (Modified from this recipe)

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups brown sugar, firmly packed
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 1 cup milk
• 2-4 cups coarsely chopped fresh rhubarb (I used 4)
  
• 1/2 cup walnuts, chopped
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Preparation:

In a large mixing bowl with electric hand-held mixer, cream the butter until it is light and fluffy. Add the brown sugar slowly, continuing to beat, until the mixture is well blended and fluffy. Beat the egg and vanilla into the creamed mixture until well-blended.

In a separate bowl sift together the flour, salt, and baking soda. Combine the lemon juice and milk; add it alternately with the flour mixture to the creamed mixture, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Beat after each addition, just enough to blend. Gently fold the chopped rhubarb into the batter; spoon into a greased 9x13x2-inch pan, spreading evenly.

Dash the cinnamon on top of the batter. Bake in a preheated 350° oven for 50-60 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool the cake in the pan at least 25 minutes, then cut into squares and serve.

Carrot Soup

I guess it was about time for me to get back to the original theme of this blog - this carrot soup was disastrous. I thought oh I'll just get some carrots and whip up this carrot soup in no time. That was my first mistake, because this recipe took a lot longer than I expected. I don't exactly know why because there aren't that many ingredients so maybe I was just slow. It was still going well though, up until the end. Second mistake - I put too much salt in. I usually put way too little and somehow this time I overcompensated. But I thought it would still be edible. Then my third and final mistake - the sesame oil. I either put way too much, or unbeknownst to me mine was the super strong kind she mentions in the article. Once that was in, the whole thing tasted like sesame which is kind of weird with carrots. Li wouldn't even eat it. I ate a little just because I'd put all this time into it, but it was terrible. Frustrating!!!! I definitely want to try it again though because I think it had potential - next time no sesame oil at all. In the comments they suggest curry powder which sounds like a good idea - as long as I go easy on it.

Chicken Patty Pockets

I haven't been cooking a lot the past month or two, and when I do I haven't been trying anything new. But I decided it was time to shake things up and I finally made something from my first issue of Everyday Food Magazine (just like Uma, yay!). I made these chicken patty pockets, which I think Uma made too. The recipe is from Emeril but I don't think they have it on the site. They came out pretty good, except I used ground white meat because it was on sale, and I think the dark meat would have more flavor. Also, the recipe said to broil them for 4 minutes on each side but when I did that they were nowhere near done. I had to bake them for at least 10 more minutes. They had this yogurt sauce on them, with mint and lime, which I really liked. So I think I'll be making them again!