My favorite recipes and a CONTEST!

Contest! I'll get to that in a moment.

Jennifer asked me a question on my Random Questions with Jessica post that I've been thinking about--what recipe do I make the most often and what are my favorite TJOC recipes within certain categories. And I think I finally have my answer! I'm only going to speak on the categories where I've made significant progress on the chapter--I will update it in the future I hope! I would love to know if any of you have made any of these recipes! Please comment.

Appetizers--
I LOVE tortilla chips. I make these all the time! They are so much better than store-bought and so amazingly easy. On the other end of the spectrum, the samosas were amazing but time-consuming and difficult.

Soups--
I make chicken stock CONSTANTLY. I love making my own chicken stock. I like it better than canned because I can control the salt content and it's a heckava lot cheaper than buying it. I make tortilla soup CONSTANTLY and it's become my go-to comfort food.

Vegetables--
Green beans, potatoes, and smoked meat seems like such a simple, obvious recipe--and it is--but the flavors are SO GOOD together. I can't recommend this recipe enough. I love fried eggplant--it's so crisp on the outside and creamy on the inside. TJOC's hash brown recipe is one of the best things I've ever eaten--you pour cream on them! Wow are they good--they take a while though.

Pasta--
I make creamy pasta with tomatoes and Swiss chard constantly. It's so good and the leftovers fry up amazingly. It's honestly one of my favorite things to make.

Poultry--
I honestly think that the turkey meatballs are better than TJOCs real meatballs. They are absolute perfection.

Meat--
The Italian pot roast is one of Josh's favorite recipes in TJOC and I've made it a number of times. On the other end of the spectrum, chicken-fried steak and meatloaf I are perfect examples of what they should be. There is nothing strange in either recipe--it must be the proportions that do it.

Sauces--
The blue cheese dressing is so good that people who don't normally like blue cheese love it (be sure to use Maytag blue cheese). Honestly, my mom doesn't normally like blue cheese and eats this dressing with a spoon. Curry mayonnaise is probably the thing I've made out of TJOC second only to tortilla soup--it's great with salmon. Also, make your own honey mustard and barbecue sauce--it's easy and will impress people.

Pancakes, etc--
Cornmeal waffles. OMG are they delicious. In fact, if I had a waffle iron I would make some right now. The tempura batter makes the best calamari I've ever had--and I've had a lot.

So those are my favorites within certain limits!

I recently reached 200 followers on Facebook (if you aren't a fan, join!) which blew my mind! I had promised to run another contest when I got to 200 FB followers or 100 blog followers and I will keep my promise! I'm giving away a copy of The Joy of Cooking, 75th Anniversary edition so you can cook along with me!

To enter: Leave a comment on this blog post, preferably a question (either about the blog, TJOC, myself, whatever). For another entry, leave a comment on another post. If you want to leave a comment and not enter the contest, just say so!

Deadline: June 15th, 2010. The book will be sent media mail because I'm just a poor college student. ***THE DEADLINE HAS BEEN EXTENDED!**



DON'T ENTER IF YOU JUST PLAN ON SELLING THE BOOK--I'LL WARN YOU NOW, I INSCRIBE IT. I WANT THE BOOK TO GO TO SOMEONE WHO ACTUALLY WANTS IT.

Now enter! Hooray!