Day 4: Spaghetti with egg and breadcrumbs p 125

This was a very simple and interesting recipe. I didn't know at first how I felt about having an egg and breadcrumbs with my pasta, but oh man, did it turn out yummy! We made this for dinner last night and it was pretty great. The leftovers were awesome too.

This recipe was pretty basic and simple. There weren't a lot of ingredients and it went together fairly quickly. The tricky part was cooking things at the right time so that they were all cooked and finished at the same time. But, the book has amazing instructions and it came together well. I LOVED LOVED LOVED the fried egg and breadcrumbs in the recipe. It added a dimension to the pasta was wonderful and the crunchy texture of the breadcrumbs with the al dente pasta was rockin'! The pasta is pretty plain by itself, so the egg and breadcrumbs make it! I was having difficulty getting the egg just right: cooked whites with a runny yolk. The blasted yolk was overcooked, but it still was yummy. We will do this recipe again sometime and make sure the egg is runny. I think that would be so tasty. I did deviate from the recipe and used whole wheat bread for the breadcrumbs rather than white bread. We don't eat white bread and I wanted to use what was in the house. I think it still tasted great and I'm not sure if you'd even be able to taste a difference.

What I learned: How to make homemade breadcrumbs which was super easy and simple and they tasted fantastic. No more store-bought breadcrumbs for the Talbot household.

What I'd change: This recipe is great on it's own. The thing that is fun about a simple recipe is that you can change it to make different variations. One variation that I'd LOVE to try with this one is rather than fresh parsley, use fresh basil with pine nuts and a little fresh lemon juice. For some reason, I love the fresh taste of lemon and basil. This recipe would be perfect for that spin-off. And then add an over-easy fried egg and home-made breadcrumbs---delish! As soon as my fresh basil is grown, I'm gonna try it and I'll let you know which one is better.

Bountiful Basket ingredient: garlic

Hope you enjoy this recipe for yourself. This cookbook has been fantastic. I love all of the ideas and easy instructions.

Day 3: Key lime bars p. 318

So excited for this meal! We decided to celebrate Spring with a yummy BBQ! We even broke out the smoker that was in winter storage. We made baby back ribs, salad with lime cilantro dressing and key lime bars. The key lime bars come from the cookbook and were so easy to make. We got the Mexican pack from Bountiful Basket and it came with mostly everything for our meal. Oh I love fresh produce!! And Bountiful Baskets is SO awesome! Liz brought baked beans which were super yummy!

Key lime bars. Oh wow! They were so refreshing. I wish I would have had more time to let them properly chill, but they were still good. I loved the tartness of the key limes with the subtle sweetness of the condensed milk and cream cheese. The two flavors worked really well together. The book suggests toasted coconut on top and that is a must. The coconut added a nice depth and contrast to the flavors as well as a nice texture. I also deviated from the recipe a little. I didn't have the animal crackers for the crumb crust, so I used graham crackers and I thought it still tasted great. The brown sugar verses white sugar in the crust was also a nice change. I also added a little more cream cheese than the recipe called for because I LOVE cream cheese.

What I learned: Not much. These were a cinch. I did learn that bottled key lime juice has a bitter aftertaste. I used fresh key limes and it tasted amazing. I wouldn't skimp on this detail. I would also wait the 2 hrs to let them properly chill. They would be so great even colder.

What I'd change: Nothing! They were delish. And the optional toasted coconut was a fantastic edition and garnish.

Bountiful Basket ingredients: cilantro, tomatillos, jalapenos, green onions, key limes, swiss chard, romaine lettuce, and tomatoes. (Thanks BB and the wonderful Mexi-pack).





Thanks to Dave, Liz and Lucy for coming over to help us celebrate Spring and participate in Project Julia. This has been lots of fun!! So far, so good. Haven't been disappointed in a recipe yet. :)

Project Julia--Day 2: Chicken Divan p 204

Oh me, oh my! This recipe was killer! It is not for the dieter, however. I had so much fun making this recipe! Tonight I made Chicken Divan. I'd never even heard of it before, but decided to make it because the picture in the cookbook looked so blasted delicious!

I invited my parents over for dinner. They have helped us SO much lately! They have made us countless dinners, helped babysit so that I could finish school, and my mom has come over several times to help me clean and get caught up with laundry. Having a baby has been a little bit of an adjustment. I wanted to do soto say "Thanks", so I had them over for dinner. We had lots of fun. We ate the chicken divan and then I made my mom's apple crisp for dessert.

So here's what I did tonight:
Chicken Divan is so amazing! It's kind of like a broccoli chicken casserole, but freakin' amazing. This casserole knocks the socks off any other casserole I've had. The broccoli and chicken are doused in an amazing hollandaise sauce that has cream, shallots, romano cmething nice heese, sherry and lemon. I literally wanted to lick the sauce off my plate. This is definitely a recipe I'll make again.

What I learned: I learned how to "tempur" a sauce. Tempering is the technique used when using eggs in a sauce. You basically take some of the sauce to warm up the temperature of the egg mixture before putting it into the whole sauce mixture. If you put it in straight, you'd get scrambled eggs.
What I'd change: Honestly, not a dang thing.I just wish I would have made a double-batch. The chicken was SO moist and juicy. And the sauce, oh the sauce, to die for. Seriously you gotta try this recipe.

Bountiful Basket ingredient: broccoli

Here's the pics:


Assembling




I'm using America's Test Kitchen: Best of 2008 cookbook. The chicken Divan recipe is on pg 204. So far it has been an AMAZING cookbook. I love that they perfect different techniques and ingredients. It's basically fool-proof. If you want a copy, you can visit the website here. I love the show too.

Thanks for following adventure Day 2! Day 3 to come soon. Maybe tomorrow or the next day. Who knows. Stay tuned. :)

Day 1: Chicken Marsala, pg 198

Today is day 1 of my adventure. I made Chicken Marsala. I've had it before at some restaurants, but it was always mediocre. Just the picture was mouth-watering, so I was excited to try it.

Chicken Marsala: thin, tender, juicy chicken cutlets breaded, pan-fried and soaked in sweet marsala wine. Layed on a medley of mushrooms, caramelized onions and fresh parsley. Topped with fresh lemon juice and garnished with a sprig of fresh Italian parsley.

The recipe called for chicken cutlets. I had no idea what that was, so I googled it. Basically, it's just a piece of chicken breast that's been flattened out to 1/4"-1/2" thick. This helps the chicken cook relatively quickly. I looked at a video on YouTube to see how to do the cutlets. The video I watched basically took a boneless, skinless chicken breast and cut it into thirds. Then she pounded them out with her knuckles until they were thin. So, I tried that. It worked, but the breasts didn't look very pretty. When I was almost done, I tried butterflying the breast and then cutting it into a cutlet. That was the winner. I had so much fun making this--can't wait to try it again. I loved having Kynli there too. Hopefully she'll grow up loving to help mom cook! :)

The Chicken Marsala was delicious! The chicken was so moist and it cooked so fast. I'm glad I learned how to do chicken cutlets. The sauce was out-of-this-world too!

I learned: How to make chicken cutlets and how to "dredge" chicken.

What I'd change next time: I'd butterfly the breasts so that they look more appetizing. I'd also make a little more of the sauce. (It is SO tasty!)

Bountiful Basket ingredient: mushrooms




I hope you are enjoying my adventure as much as I am so far! Feel free to leave a comment if there is something you'd like to see in my posts next time. Thanks for following! :)

Project Julia

For those of you who don't know, I love to cook. I haven't always known how to cook, but I'm learning. Cooking is such an adventure and I love making new creations. I enjoy watching Saturday morning cooking shows and imagining the possibilities. One of my favorites is America's Test Kitchen. It's fun to see every-day recipes transformed into something lovely---and they make it easy to learn how to make delicious food.

Dirk gave me America's Test Kitchen: Best of 2008 cookbook for my birthday this year. I spent hours looking through it and drooling over the pictures. I couldn't wait to try making some new culinary delights.

Project Julia. Here's how it started. I watched the movie "Julie and Julia" and I was inspired. Deep down inside me is a little Julia Child waiting to be unleashed. I couldn't decide what to make for dinner tonight, so I browsed through my new cookbook. Then the thought came: What about cooking my way through this cookbook? So here is my new adventure. I admit, it's not as amazing as Julia Child's creations, but this is great for starters. I also wanted to do this project so that Kynli can be exposed to cooking and being in the kitchen at a young age. Even though she's not learning much right now, I think it will be fun to do something with her. It will create great memories---even if she can't remember. :)

I will be cooking my way through this cookbook. I don't know how long it will take, but I'm gonna do it. I will try to cook one recipe a day, so hopefully I'll get through it fairly quickly. I'm balancing being a new mom, going to school and will be going back to work full-time in a few weeks, so hopefully daily recipes will work out. I'm excited to try new recipes and learn new techniques. You can follow my adventure here. I will try a new recipe and blog about what I learned and if the recipe was a success. I will also be using at least one ingredient from our weekly Bountiful Basket. I hope you enjoy this journey with me. I will post what recipe I cooked, a few pictures, the corresponding page number in the cookbook, what I learned, what I'd change when I make it again and the BB ingredient.

However, I will not be posting the recipe. I don't feel good about that since no one would buy the cookbook if I'm posting the recipes for free. If you are intrigued with what I cook, then you can go out and get your very own copy for your collection. :) This cookbook is amazing because it has step-by-step instructions, so it's great if you are a beginner.

"Project Julia" began today, April 21, 2010! Hopefully 365 days from now I will be through this cookbook!