Shredded chicken tacos (p. 189) with Chile-garlic spice paste (p. 589)

I usually have no particular reason why I pick one recipe over another on a given night. I usually have a list of TJOC recipes for which I have the ingredients on hand but beyond that, it's pretty random.

On this particular day, I had a pile of chicken thighs I needed to use before they went bad (I always imagine the chicken wearing a little leather jacket and smoking a cigarette--it "went bad") and I had eyed Shredded chicken tacos (p. 189) many times. I like garlic, so any recipe with garlic in the title is probably going to be a winner in my book.

This recipe is a throwback to the TJOC editions of old. Old TJOCs tended to read like a "Choose-your-own adventure" novel. You would start a recipe, have to leaf through the book for the sauce, turn to another page for the meat, leaf through for another technique. It could get annoying, especially for complex recipes. It's particularly annoying when you think a recipe is short because it doesn't take many lines and then realize that it refers to four other recipes, making it a much more complex procedure. Recent TJOC editions have really cut down on the referrals to other recipes but they still show up occasionally. This recipe is one of those. The recipe requires Chile-garlic spice paste (p. 589).

I mixed jalapeno peppers (I used jarred, I didn't feel like dealing with fresh), garlic (a TON of garlic), olive oil, lemon zest, black peppercorns, salt, and chili powder in my tiny food processor:




Yum!



I tasted it--a great mix of jalapeno and garlic. Because jalapeno peppers are not that hot (in relation to other peppers), it wasn't overwhelming, but the paste did have a nice heat.

I smeared (yes, that is the technical term) all over the chicken:



It was at this point of the recipe that I realized that the tacos only call for a half-cup of the spice paste and I used a whole recipe of it. I used TWO CUPS of spice paste when I was only supposed to use a half-cup. I was pretty sure I ruined the chicken--I mean, I quadrupled it. It was going to be way too spicy, right? They smelled extremely spicy (and yes, I think you can smell spicy). I added an extra chicken thigh just in case, thinking it could cut the heat if needed.



I shredded the chicken, added a little sour cream, and rolled it all up in a corn tortilla. They were delicious! Definately spicy but not too spicy. In fact, I think that if I had used the amount called for they would have been slightly bland. The jalapeno and garlic really complemented each other and the sour cream cut the heat. The chicken got even tastier after sitting in the fridge overnight--the flavors melded deliciously. I think this would be the perfect chicken taco dish to add to a "Tex-Mex Fiesta" or something--a chicken taco for people who don't think they like chicken tacos.

The biggest win of the night? I managed not to touch my eyes, nose, or mouth after working with the peppers!

Have you made a huge error in a recipe and had it work out for the best?

Egg drop soup (p. 124) and Grilled or roasted corn I (p. 271)

I can't say that Egg drop soup (p. 124) is something I regularly order at Chinese restaurants. When I was a little kid, I loved egg drop soup, but as I grew I started liking the much more flavorful hot and sour soup a lot more. I don't think I've had egg drop soup at a restaurant in years. It always seems so bland.

The recipe is incredibly simple (and I doubled it). I beat an egg in a bowl and boiled some chicken stock:



I added the egg to the broth slowly and drew wide circles until the egg cooked in long strands:



I was actually pretty impressed with this recipe. It looked exactly like professional egg drop soup. It was quite good and amazingly easy. Even so, it was pretty bland. To me, egg drop soup is the ginger ale of soups--perfect for when you are sick but too bland for other uses.

Josh and I don't utilize the grill for anything but meat, so Rachel keeps talking about grilled vegetables and they sounded really good. We only had sweet corn and zucchini on hand (the sweet corn in Colorado isn't a fraction as good as it is in Iowa). I decided to make Grilled or roasted corn I (p. 271).

We soaked the corn in water for a few hours:



And the corn were thrown onto the grill:



They cooked pretty fast:



The corn was really good (other than the aforementioned flavor issue), especially after being coated with butter, salt, and pepper. I think it was more tasty than my typical boiling method. What other vegetables are good on the grill? I really liked the zucchini but would like some variety.

Apple, peach, or plum cake cockaigne (p. 691)

I have ignored the randomly selected list for quite a while. I'm guessing it's mostly because there is nothing on it I really want to make. Of course, that's the whole point of the list, so I really should look at it more often. Apple, peach, or plum cake cockaigne (p. 691) was on the list, "Pies and Pastries" is an under-represented chapter, and peaches are in season in Colorado.

I sifted together flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt, and then added cold butter and worked it in with my pastry blender:


I added an egg, some vanilla, and a little milk, and mixed the concoction:



I patted the dough into a greased pan. This was not an easy task--the dough was very sticky. It tasted good when I licked it off my fingers (before washing my hands, of course! Wash your hands if you lick them!).




I think peaches may be the fruit I hate the most (to which I'm not allergic, which cuts down the list sharply)--I really don't like peeling them. It takes forever. And peeling four cups of peaches takes a particularly long time. I arranged the peaches in a pretty pinwheel pattern:



I mixed brown sugar, cinnamon, and a little melted butter in a bowl:



And sprinkled it on the top of the cake:



I thought it was attractive. It definitely made the house smell amazing.



This cake got a split decision. I thought it was bland and that the dough was strangely mushy. Josh thought it was tasty and even better when we got some vanilla ice cream to go with it. I think the cake would be better with apples (more texture) or plums (more flavor) than the peaches I used. I would love to hear what other people thought of this recipe--let me know if you've made it.

High-altitude two-egg cake (p. 749)

Most of you are probably lucky enough not to live at high altitude. I really hate baking at high altitude because it affects pretty much all baking and cooking. There are rules of thumb to ingredient adjustment but they aren't universal and vary based on recipe. In my experience, cookies turn out pretty normal, although they stale quickly. Items with whipped egg whites are problematic. And cakes can be disastrous. That being said, it's probably a good idea to bake my way through all the high-altitude recipes before we (potentially) move.

I decided that we needed some sweets and I made High-altitude two-egg cake (p. 749) in cupcake form.

The recipe is simple. I mixed sifted cake flour (considerably more expensive than most other flours and sold in a box), baking powder, and salt. In another bowl, I mixed butter, sugar, and vanilla, to which I added the two eggs alluded to in the title. I added the flour to the egg mixture, alternating it with milk. And into the cupcake pans it went:




As you can see, I'm not the neatest baker in the world.

The results were a mixed bag, as evidenced by the picture below:



Some of the cupcakes were beautiful. Some of them exploded and leaked cupcake guts all over the pan, becoming cupcake conjoined twins. I threw out the rejects and frosted the rest with store bought frosting (I hang my head in shame). They were tasty! These cupcakes aren't going to win Cupcake Wars but they were good and were extremely simple.

I'm in the middle of my goal of making progress in the under-represented chapters during the summer. Cakes and cupcakes is definitely one of those chapters, so look forward to more cake posts.

Glazed root vegetables (p. 245) and Turkey tetrazzini (p. 96)

I am really happy to be making such great TJOC progress. The one problem is that I am quickly running through all the easy or delicious sounding recipes in the chapters where I'm the furthest ahead (Stocks and soups, Brunch, lunch, and supper, Appetizers and hors d'oeuvres).

I've eyed the Glazed root vegetables (p. 245) for a while because I always have carrots and potatoes on hand. I combined the potatoes and carrots (you can use any root veggies) with chicken stock, butter, sugar, and salt.




I noticed that the recipe didn't mention how long it would take, which is probably because it would be different depending on the combination of vegetables. Even so, it took a REALLY long time to cook down.



Delicious! I love carrots and potatoes. This recipe has an underlying sweetness but relies much more on the inherent flavor of the vegetables than on any spicing. The glaze was perfect. I'm tend to butter the heck out of potatoes and carrots but this mix didn't require any extra. I'm sure I will make it again. Plus, it doesn't take the oven, so it's great for the summer.

I know almost nothing about Turkey tetrazzini (p. 96) except it was a common hot lunch item and I've never eaten it. The idea of spaghetti in a casserole always disgusted me. I didn't have any turkey but I did have chicken (which TJOC mentioned as an acceptable substitution).

I started by cooking mushrooms in almost a stick of butter. I added flour:



I whisked in chicken broth and milk:



And added my cooked chicken. I didn't add the almonds because I knew this was going to make a TON of casserole and Josh doesn't like nuts and I did not want to eat it all myself. I mixed it with elbow macaroni (no way I was going to use spaghetti noodles if I didn't have to) and poured the mixture into a prepared pan. I sprinkled Parmesan cheese on the top:



And popped it in the oven:




This was amazing. I thought it would be bland because it had no seasoning at all. It was kind of bland but in a good way. I think this would be the PERFECT dish when you are bringing over a dish and you:
1. Don't know what the people like. Unless they are vegetarians or don't like mushrooms, this is a pretty innocuous recipe.
2. Are making a dinner for a lot of children.
3. Are making a dish to bring to someone going through chemotherepy. Both Josh and mom couldn't tolerate a lot of spicing during their bouts with chemo. This is a filling dish that heats up really well.

Pickled dilled beans (p. 949)

My name is Jessica and I'm a horribly inattentive blogger.

I am 23 recipes behind. I promise to catch up. And I'm going to work in the opposite direction I normally do--I'm going to write about the recipe I made the most recently and work backwards, so if you don't have a blog reader, make sure to check back and read backdated posts--I will have to write at least 10 posts in the next couple days. And some are about absolutely delicious foods that you don't want to miss.

I'm always conflicted when I write about canned items. Should I post when I make them or when I taste them? Any opinions? I made Pickled dilled beans (p. 949) from my farmer's market finds (Des Moines has one of the best farmer's markets in the country, hands down).

I like canning with my mom. First off, it makes me feel like a pioneer woman for some reason--probably because in every young adult pioneer book I've ever read, the heroine seems to can food for winter with her mom. Second, I'm less terrified of botulism when mom is helping me. Apparently, I am confident in mom's ability to limit my botulism exposure.

Mom was making her delicious pickles and I thought I could get in on the pickling action with my beans.

I boiled white vinegar, water, and canning salt:



I (or rather mom) sterilized my jar, packed it with green beans, dill, garlic, and crushed red pepper flakes:



Make more brine than they recommend--my jars were smaller than recommended and my double recipe of brine did not fill two jars. It may be because my green beans weren't "plump" like recommended but I took what I could get!

I poured boiling brine into the jars, sterilized the lids, and popped them on.



I made three jars--it was interesting to see the color change as they cooked in the hot brine!

I have no idea what these taste like because they have to pickle! I will have to update this recipe when iI finally get to eat them. Mom wanted me to add alum to keep the pickles crisp, but I figured I needed to accurately see how crisp the TJOC recipe beans are before applying modifications.

Ratatouille provencale (p. 274) and Tofu Salad (p. 317)

When I think of Ratatouille provencale (p. 274) I think of the movie about the cooking rat. And, I'm sorry to Ratatouille (the movie) lovers out there--it just didn't do anything for me. The idea of all those rats in the kitchen was really, really gross. Esp. the end of the movie.

I've been putting off making ratatouille for a while because of my hatred of red peppers. Red peppers don't seem to be an optional ingredient in the dish and Josh was unlikely to want to eat an entirely vegan dish several times. My mom loves red peppers and zucchini and I'm convinced she would love eggplant if she would just give it a chance, so it seemed a perfect dish to make.

I cooked an eggplant and zucchini in olive oil. For one thing, a quarter cup of olive oil wasn't nearly enough--the eggplant soaked it right up and then it all started to brown too fast. For another, I read this recipe as called for one zucchini and it actually calls for a pound, so my ratatouile




I removed the zucchini and eggplant to a dish and then added in sliced onion.



I removed the onion from the pan and added red pepper and garlic, only then noticing that I wasn't supposed to remove the onion from the pan and had very likely overcooked it.



I then added tomatoes, thyme, and a bay leaf, and cooked the concoction for five more minutes:



Finally, the eggplant and zucchini were added back in and cooked for twenty minutes. Finished!

(Imagine a beautiful picture of ratatouille)

For some reason, I totally forgot to take a picture of the finished product, even though it was beautiful. And I can't take a picture of what my mom has in the fridge, because she added corn to it for some mysterious reason. She said it was delicious but seemed more like a side dish than a main course. I thought it was a perfect main dish option if you had vegans or vegetarians coming over for dinner and didn't want to make the ubiquitous pasta dish. It was surprisingly fast and easy--the chopping was even easy, fast chopping.

For some reason, the placement of the tofu, tempeh, TVP, and seitan dishes really makes me laugh. They are in the back of the "Vegetables" section like an afterthought. I can imagine the Beckers sitting around, trying to fit these ingredients in and having trouble--
"Well, they aren't really grains."
"So are the vegetables?"
"Not really. But I suppose that's as good as anything else."
"So...do we work them into the alphabetical order?"
"Hmmm...no. Just throw them into the back. I figure both people who want to make tofu salad will find the recipe."

Or at least that's how I imagine the conversation going.

Honestly, I think the average person who gets excited about Tofu Salad (p. 317) is probably not an active TJOCer but I could be wrong. My mom brought this recipe on herself. I mentioned how getting Josh to eat moo shu tempeh was going to be nearly impossible and she said she would eat it. So I quickly followed that up with a question about the tofu, seitan, and TVP recipes and she relied that she would try them all. 'DONE!' I thought.

I started the tofu salad before she could change her mind. TJOC says to cut up the tofu and then mix in the ingredients but I didn't want my cubes to break up. I thought it made a lot more sense to mix up the sauce first and then add the tofu.

The sauce had a few "mandatory" ingredients (mayo, Dijon mustard, red onion, celery, carrot, and basil) and a few optional ingredients (capers, chili powder, ground red pepper, white wine vinegar) and I added them all.





Extra firm tofu is really easy to cut into cubes:



And I mixed it together:



The tofu salad was really good! If you hate tofu, you will be likely to hate this salad too, but if you either like tofu, or have no opinion, it's a good one to try. The chili powder and ground red pepper lent a little heat, the capers and mustard gave some tang, and everything else lent some sweetness. It was a very well rounded salad and mom and I both liked it. TJOC mentions that it is good on a sandwich and I'm sure that's true. The recipe was super easy too.

Grilled venison chops with blue cheese and caraway butter (p. 529)

After knocking out a game recipe with Rachel on Saturday night, it seemed smart to make a second dish for lunch on Sunday using the rest of the venison loin. We decided that Grilled venison chops with blue cheese and caraway butter (p. 529) looked promising.

I mixed butter with blue cheese, caraway seeds, Worcestershire sauce, and a little salt and pepper. We used Rachel's new immersion blender which turns into a little chopper (I have the same blender and I LOVE it).

Before:



After:



I cut the venison into chops:



The chops were quickly cooked and topped with butter:



This was a seriously delicious dish. The slight gaminess of the venison was offset by the strong flavors of blue cheese and caraway. I always associate caraway with bread or cabbage, so it was interesting to use it to spice meat. Jon and I both thought this was the superior dish of the two while Rachel liked the steaks with tomato sauce. Both of these meals were good enough to convince me that maybe I was too hasty with my dislike of venison. And I'm really looking forward to getting my hands on some more of the deer meat the next time I'm in town--I have five more recipes to make!

Sauteed venison steaks (p. 528)

One of my best friends got married Saturday and after an arduous journey that kept me on tarmacs for more than seven hours and caused me to get into Des Moines at 1 AM (making me miss both the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner) I was even more happy to be there. Congrats Rachel and Jon! Rachel has been one of my biggest supporters since the very beginning of TJOTJOC and regular readers will remember her from my birthday, New Year's Eve, and the wedding.

I don't have many wedding pictures but here is my mom, Rachel, and me (not the most flattering picture of any of us but the only one I have):



Since the happy couple wasn't leaving for their amazing honeymoon (Prague and Italy!) for a couple of weeks, Rachel recommended that I come up to Ames and cook dinner. I thought it was a great idea and then she pointed out that I could cook venison and make progress on the woefully neglected "Game" chapter, which was a marvelous idea!

For dinner we thought Sauteed venison steaks (p. 528) looked good. Neither Rachel or I are venison fans so we weren't particularly excited.

TJOC says to brown four garlic cloves in olive oil. This is what Rachel thought was about four cloves:



Forty cloves maybe. I was fine with it though--I love garlic! No vampires would attack us. There was no way I was discarding the garlic like TJOC recommended. Almost anything is better with more garlic!


I pounded six venison steaks into submission:



They were cooked in the skillet at high heat, which was terrifying. Oil was leaping out at us. The steaks cooked REALLY fast.

We then added two pounds of tomatoes, oregano, and crushed red pepper to the pot and simmered:



When it was reduced, I added black olives and a little white wine and poured it over the steaks:



It was good! This was the least gamey venison I've ever eaten. I swear it's because Iowa game tends to graze the corn and soybeans so they "finish" themselves on grain. This sauce would be really good on beef or buffalo, too. The sauce kept extremely well and was even better the next day.