June 8th – 14th, 2008

Well, another wonderful week has passed.  Coupons clipped, groceries shopped, food prepped, and bellies bursting.  This week’s menu had quite the variety but enjoyed by many.  Most of the recipes are from cookbooks and other resources, but I threw in my “twist” when I could. From semi-homemade pizzas to slow-cooker recipes and on to luscious desserts, I recommend these dishes to the food lover in you. 

Sunday, June 8th: After venturing through my cookbooks and then visiting the local super market to pick up the ingredients for this week’s concoctions, I returned home to endulge my kitchen obsession for, sad to say, seven hours.  Sometimes, I get so caught up playing around in the kitchen, with my little tv tuned to the food network, that I lose track of time.  Baby Zoey was in my belly just dancing away and other than a little ache in my feet, I was tickled pink to be making these creations. 

I started the menu with our lunch, Caribbean Shrimp Spread from Pillsbury’s Potlucks (June 2008).  Now, I know what you are thinking, this woman just cooks out of those darn books and does nothing else.  As I mentioned before, I do cook A LOT from recipes, but rarely do I stick to the them exactly.  I enjoy the Pillsbury books because their simple and cost effective AND I don’t feel like my creative license will ruin the integrity of the dish.  In this particular recipe, I used the remaining crab I had from last Thursday instead of shrimp.  It was good but I think it needed a little something extra.  I added some garlic powder, dill  and paprika to the mix to liven it up a little.

For dinner we moved onto the recipe Adam and I were really looking forward to, Lamb Tangine with Potatoes & Chickpeas.  A few weeks ago, we purchased a tangine and a container of Traditional Tangine Spices and this recipe was under the label.  I didn’t want to spend the exorbitant amount on Lamb so we used a beef boneless Boston butt roast.  I happened to have a box of Tandori Rice but to be frank, I didn’t care for it with the dish.  I would have preferred a long grain, white rice that could soak up the wonderful flavors of the tangine dish. 

I went all out on Sunday and made not only one dessert but two.  First, I put together the delectable Pistachio Mousse Brownie Torte from Pillsbury’s Bake Off (May 2008).  I followed the directions for the brownie layers but as always, I did something wrong with my baking because they didn’t rise as much as they should have.  Also, for the icing, I didn’t realize that I didn’t have semi-sweet chocolate so I just used a candy bar.  I think it tasted fine. I also piped the top of the dessert, which I was impressed that I made the little flowers.  I think that the ladies at work enjoyed it.

Then for my second dessert, I wanted to surprise Adam with a neat treat that I read in Pillsbury’s Potlucks (June 2008), Peanut Butter-Cereal Bars.  It is kind of a variation of rice treats but with Chex mix.  I changed it up by using the Chex Chocolate Turtle Mix for the whole recipe.  As an extra special twist,  used Honey Roasted Peanut Butter instead of regular and oh, goodness, they were to die for. 

Monday, June 9th: I think this was one of my favorite recipes this week, mainly because I learned a trick that I can use again and again.  I made the Mediterranean Pizza withCheese-Stuffed Crust from Pillsbury’s Bake-Off (May 2008).  The two techniques were using corn meal on my pizza stone when baking the crust and how to stuff the crust edges with string cheese.  I used mild Italian sausage instead of spicy and I was out of mozzarella so used some of the chive & bacon cheese from Beechwood Cheeses.  I also had some trouble with the pizza dough because it comes out of the tube as a rectangle.  I rolled it in a ball and tried to reshape it into a circle but it never made it the desired diameter and I wasn’t about to fling it in the air.  Oh, I also shredded some fresh parmesan around the edges for the extra browning.  I used some La Famiglia Del Grosso’s Late Nite Puttanesca as the sauce.  I found out tonight on Iron Chef that Puttanesca typically has tomatoes, capers, olives, fennel and other vegetables in the sauce. We enjoyed my coworker Dorothy’s homemade brownies for dessert.  Way better than a box, I guarentee.

Tuesday, June 10th: I have this strange obsession with quiche that I think I must have it at least once a month.  I found the Chicken-Asiago-Spinach Quiche recipe in the, you guessed it, Pillsbury Bake-off (May 2008).  I followed the recipe exactly and it was good, but not great.  It needed something because the flavors were all to mild.  Maybe a topping of fresh diced red onion or maybe a sprinkling of red pepper flakes.  Let’s put it this way, this quiche finatic let the remaining 3 pieces sit in the fridge until they had to be thrown out.

I also made my typical Spinach Salad with a few extras to accompany the quiche.  Spinach and romaine mixed topped with sun-dried tomatoes, black olives, shredded carrot, tomato, oranges, crouton, diced bacon, fresh parmesan cheese and a few slivers of Cypress Grove Midnight Moon Cheese.

Wednesday, June 11th: So while I was making dinner on Monday night, I watched Rachel Ray make her Flank Steak Pinwheels and I thought that Adam would really enjoy them.  He actually helped me put the dish together and they were very good.  My only advise is to be very careful when you are butterflying the steak because one little tear and they are a pain to get skewered and cut.  We also made garlic mashed red potatoes as a side dish. 

Thursday, June 12th: I found an interesting pasta at the supermarket on Sunday, gorgonzola & walnut tortellini and since I was using the gorgonzola cheese in the pinwheels, I thought I would use the remainder for this dish.  I sauteed some fresh, diced tomatoes with some garlic for a minute and then added in some roughly chopped artichoke hearts.  I poured the last three tablespoons of puttanesca sauce I had into the saute pan along with some italian seasons, sliced black olives, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper.   When the tortellini was done and floating on top of the water, I tossed it into my mock sauce.  I topped the servings with the fresh gorgonzola cheese and a few shaves from my parmesan block. We were eating within 20 minutes and the dish was delightful.

Friday, June 13th a.ka. ADAM’S BIRTHDAY: Since it was my wonderful hubbies birthday I gave him the option of what he would like for dinner that evening.  He chose the Cheesecake Factory and though we ordered enough to feed four, we only ate a few bites and took everything home.  I think the baby shower earlier that day had filled our bellies with snacks, punch and lots of ladybug cake.  I will say that our appetizer, the fried macaroni and cheese in the pink sauce was really good.  I ordered a raspberry lemonade that was so tart it was almost intollerable and I love anything raspberry.  We also ordered the lettuce wraps and orange chicken.  The lettuce wraps were different than any others I had tried and since they had raw bean sprouts and I am pregnant, I immediately traded plates with sweet Adam.  The orange chicken tasted really good but nothing I couldn’t one-up in my own kitchen. He did get his cheesecake though, a Pisachio-Chocolate cheesecake to stick with this week’s dessert theme.  I don’t know if it is because he is such a great man or because I am an emotional basketcase, but he did say my dessert was better.

Saturday, June 14th: We pretty much just ate leftovers on Saturday but since we were visiting Kendall and her Adam for a housewarming party, I made the Slow Cooker Barbecued Beans from Pillsbury’s Potlucks (June 2008) to take with us.  I thought they were really delicious and gave you a new perspective on baked beans from a can.

Well, that was our week.  This week we are starting with Raspberry-Chipotle Barbecue Chicken Pizza and Apricot-Gorgonzola Crescent Appetizers.  Stop by next week to see what crazy antics this Hurricane Cocina is up to.

Fino a che non mangiamo ancora!