Smoky Turkey Shepherd’s Pie

I may have mentioned at some point that I got Rachel Ray’s 365: No Repeats – A Year of Deliciously Different Dinners, A 30-Minute Meal Cookbook. This is actually the 2nd recipe I have made from this book – see below for more details. I made this Smoky Turkey Shepherd’s Pie last night and am actually eating some leftovers as I type. I think this took me more than 30 minutes to make…I must not be as fast as Rachel! I liked that it used turkey instead of beef and I know that Jeremy likes shepherds pie. It was pretty good. I think after looking through the recipes in this book, it might be one that I use a lot when we have kids – the recipes are simple, fast, and crowd pleasers. They may not be recipes that would make their way into Gourmet but I think kids would probably really like them.

Like I mentioned, this is the second recipe I’ve made from this book, the first one was the Scramblewiches and these were a big hit! Sounds kind of silly, but we really liked them. I used ham and I think that I didn’t bother buying Swiss cheese and just the Monterey or Colby Jack that was probably in my fridge already. One thing I did was purchase frozen loaves of Hatch Green Chile baguettes from HEB, although that might be a Central Market Brand. Since I normally shop on the weekends, if I’m going to make a recipe later in the week, it’s hard to have fresh bread for it. So like in the recipe I shared for the Bruschetta I either use Pillsbury bread dough and bake it up that day or I buy it frozen – I thought it was fun having the chile taste in the bread for this particular recipe!

Frosted Double Chocolate Cookies and other treats

Lately I have been making mid-week treats for Jeremy to take to work and share with his co-workers. I’m not ashamed to say it – I bake in the hopes that this might help in maintaining job security for my husband and let’s be honest…I may do this for my own job too (I try to bring Monday morning breakfast treats to the office on a regular basis). Anyway, my mom gave me a stocking stuffer a couple of years ago. It was one of those check-out counter purchases – a small  cooking booklet if you will from Nestle Toll House entitled Best-Loved cookies and honestly my best cookies come from that baby!

So this week I made the Frosted Double Chocolate Cookies pictured above. Chocolaty and delicious – I especially liked the frosting!

Here are some others that I have made in the past couple weeks:

• Chocolate Turtle Brownies -  these were quite good and very gooey
• White Chip Chocolate Cookies – these cookies baked up perfectly
• Frosted Maple Pecan White Chip Cookies – I so wish I had taken a picture of these because they really looked great – and they tasted even better! These were the cookies that Jeremy thought I shouldn’t make (mostly because of the pecans) I made them anyway and came home after I had made them to find Jeremy sitting at the table with the cookies exclaiming, “these are amazing!” So we were very happy with them and they remind me of fall.

Broiled Chicken, Romaine, and Tomato Bruschetta

This picture may not be very exciting but this recipe was a big hit. I was making it and getting a little nervous. I put everything out on the table (along with the magazine so everyone could see I wasn’t crazy) and told people to stack them up however they wanted. Michael and Jen were eating dinner with us and we all thought this tasted so good – everything – the garlicky toasty bread, the roasted tomatoes with herbs de provenece, the chicken with the mustardy Parmesan mayonnaise sauce, and the lemony romaine – yum! We each had two and there was at least one person at the table that wishes that could have had a third! I don’t think I actually know what chicken cutlets are…but I purchased chicken tenders and they were the perfect size. For the bread I purchased Pillsbury Italian bread and put that in the oven first so the bread was nice and fresh! One thing to be ware – this recipe is for one serving so you’ll need to double, triple, quadruple, etc… as necessary. Also, the recipe suggests to use the excess sauce to on the table – I thought it didn’t need the extra sauce, so I’d say you could probably cut that in half (of course you could use it on sandwiches the next day if you have leftovers).  So, this was a good one, try out the Broiled Chicken, Romaine, and Tomato Bruschetta from this month’s Gourmet.

 

Quiz: What’s Your Interior Personality

This was a fun little quiz. My personality is apparently mosaic. And I actually liked the color palette it suggested to me! Maybe that will help me some day pick out what color to pain my living room! I saw this quiz on How About Orange – check it out!

Squash and Red Pepper Pilaf

I was a fan of this Squash and Red Pepper Pilaf! This is another simple and inexpensive meal. Jeremy didn’t get to try this so I don’t know what he would have thought, but I really liked it. The recipe suggests to have this with roasted chicken, but I ate it as a main (and it’s good as leftovers). After last week’s first attempt at butternut squash, I thought I would try again, in the spirit of fall and all. I think this time it went even better. I also did the toasted pumpkin seeds and I thought they added a little something special. This tasted fresh, yet warm and cozy.

Smothered Pork Chops with Mushrooms

These smothered pork chops with mushrooms really tasted like what I think when I think of country home cookin’. These were in this month’s issue of Gourmet and fit into my easy and inexpensive meals category. Let me tell you, lately I have been in love with crimini mushrooms (baby bellas) – they just have a distinct flavor that the regular button mushrooms have.

The recipe calls for bone-in pork shoulder chops but I was in a hurry and just grabbed what looked inexpensive which were some boneless pork loin chops – still really good. I cut the recipe in half but we still have enough for another meal! I didn’t use fresh rosemary just because buying fresh herbs can be expensive if I don’t use them for several recipes (and using the same fresh herbs for several recipes within the span of a week can get a little boring); I thought the dried rosemary worked just fine. Also, my chops were finished but the veggie mixture was still pretty watery so I put the chops in the oven to stay warm and then I simmered the onions and mushrooms and added some cornstarch mixed in cold water until it thickened into a sort of gravy – yummy! I also made mashed potatoes which were the perfect side to this cozy meal!

Poblano and Mushroom Tacos

It’s amazing – two food pictures in a row! These may not look super appetizing but they definitely were! These are the Poblano and Mushroom Tacos from the current issue of Bon Appetit. These were super fast and easy and I liked them very much! I added roasted potatoes to mine because I love potatoes and they seemed to fit. I think chicken would also go well if you really feel like you can’t have a meal without meat. I’ve realized how much I like poblanos, they add a great flavor to veggie dishes and I really liked the crimini mushrooms – they add a different flavor than the regular ones might. This was tasty and easy – definitely a keeper!

Gnocchi with Roasted Cauliflower

What’s this? A picture of food? That’s right! Now, don’t get to excited, I actually didn’t take this picture and I technically didn’t cook this dish either! Last week Beth and Jenn came over for a couple hours and when we got hungry we thought we should cook something at the house instead of going out (and Beth seemed to be going through some sort of cooking craving since her kitchen has been out of commission, so I think she was more than happy to put this together). I was busy working on something else, so Beth, with baby Jude sleeping in the sling, threw this recipe together (that I picked out and had previously shopped for – see, I had a part in it!) We all thought it was pretty good. It also looked like it was really easy to make, the only thing that took extra time was waiting for the cauliflower to roast. The gnocchi is from a box and it wasn’t as good as homemade but it of course made the recipe really easy. I really loved the roasted cauliflower. Thanks Beth for being a fabulous cook! Here’s the recipe for Gnocchi with Roasted Cauliflower.

Butternut Squash Risotto with Shrimp

I don’t have a picture for this recipe I know, I suck. I have started making our dinners on Wednesday nights and taking them to Jeremy at rehearsal and then I eat mine right before d-groups and every week I seem to start the recipe with plenty of time and then it ends up taking more time than I anticipated and I’m running late and there is no time for a picture – so there is an excuse with this one! But hey, no fear because Bon Appetit has a lovely picture of it here.

I actually really enjoyed this dish – although it was a little rich. Jeremy, on the hand, said he was ‘not a big fan’. He didn’t elaborate but he wasn’t sure he liked it. Now I got a little nervous about the squash when I went to put it in so I used quite a bit less than the recipe called for, however I later looked up a tutorial to make sure I was cutting the squash up right and I felt better after that, so I’m going to try another recipe with a butternut squash this week. Anyway, I realyl enjoyed the rissotto and shrimp and thought it all tasted really good and cozy. My favorite thing about shrimp is how incredibly fast it cooks!

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

We had bookclub last Friday and as always it was a great time! We met at Beth’s house, talked about the book, and stuffed ourselves with fabulous cheese, nuts, fruit, bread, crackers, brownies, and cupcakes – so good! Oh, and wine…can’t forget the wine! Anyway, feedback from this book was generally positive. It was well written and thought out. I liked the book, but I’m a little hesitant with the recomendation – there are several scenes that are pretty graphic and sexually violent as well as some other sexual themes in the book. I think if I were trying to describe it I would say it’s a little like an extended version of Law and Order: SVU based in Sweden with a financial/journalist twist. I had no idea what this book was about when I picked it up, and honestly the first couple of chapters are a little boring but it picks up really quickly. It focuses primary on two main characters – Mikael Blomkvist and Lisbeth Salander, the two of which don’t even meet until halfway through the book. Mikael is a financial journalist who is hired to investigate the supposed death of a girl who had gone missing years before from a wealthy industrial family. Lisbeth works for a security firm and does private investigation; they eventually end up working together to solve the mystery. One thing I really appreciated was that Larson tied up all the loose ends. Sometimes books don’t do that and I felt like even if something small was mentioned early on in the book he tied that up, even if it wasn’t in the climactic way that I thought he would. Don’t get me wrong, there is plenty of climax in the book – about halfway through there is a turning point and the book moves very fast from then on out as all the pieces fall together. If you are a looking for a muder mystery thriller, then this is a good one, but be prepared for some rather disturbing and brutal scenes in the book. This is the first in the trilogy by Stieg Larssson that he handed over just before his death. I am looking forward to reading the next two.