Curried chicken or turkey salad (p. 164)

I have a number of reasons for putting a recipe off instead of making it.  Sometimes a recipe is expensive, sometimes they are complex or challenging, sometimes they have an ingredient nobody in the house likes.  But sometimes I already make a great version of a dish, so there is no real incentive to make the TJOC version.  Curried chicken or turkey salad (p. 164) is one of these.  I make a GREAT curry chicken salad that is essentially my recreation of the curry chicken salad at Paradise.  

This version, too, tastes exactly like the version at Paradise, which makes me question where they got their recipe.

It was one of only two recipes left on one of my randomly selected pages though and I knew it would be easy.  It was easy.

I mixed cooked chicken (I used poached chicken the stock I made), pecans, golden raisins, a few scallions, a chopped apple, and some celery:

I whipped up some curry mayonnaise and poured it over the top:

How was it?  Good but my version is just as good (I use sunflower seeds rather than nuts, for example).  The curry lends a nice spiciness to the empty canvas of the chicken, the apple and celery give a juicy crunch, and the raisins add a nice sweetness.  This chicken salad is something different than the normal chicken salad, so if you are getting stuck in a sandwich or salad rut I recommend it.  Make sure you use a good curry or it would be awful--I always make my own but I'm sure you can buy good mixes too.  

I'm making great progress on this randomized list!  I'm a third finished already!

Sugar syrup (p. 43), The Highball (p. 59), Gin & Tonic (p. 56),Scarlett O'Hara (p. 63),Pink lady (p. 57),Grasshopper (p. 63),Whiskey sour (p. 59),

If you have a problem with alcohol, this might be a good post to skip!


You know, people have very different vacation styles. Some like to not plan and just let stuff happen. Others obsessively plan and almost keep a clipboard and whistle. I like to think I'm in the middle. I have found that if you don't plan, you don't do anything! Everyone sits around for at least half the day. I like to make a plan, if we don't stick to it, that's okay, but at least we have any idea.

As I mentioned in the last couple posts, my cousin Erica and her boyfriend Pat were coming to visit us for a day. I wanted to make the day especially fun so that they would come back. I thought about what is special about Fort Collins and came up with breweries! Fort Collins has a ton of breweries. There are at least 4 major breweries and another several brewery/restaurants in town.

Josh had to work a half day, so once Erica and Pat got up, we went to a local brewery/restaurant for lunch. CB&Potts. I really like CB&Potts-the hamburgers are delicious and the beer is excellent. Pat got a sampler and I got a delicious apricot ale along with our lunch. We then went to Budweiser and did a factory tour (plus we got to drink an AMAZING blueberry beer called Wild Blue-it was amazing, I will definitely be looking for that again). We went back to the house, picked up Josh, and headed to the tap room at New Belgium. The New Belgium tap room is always a hit with guests--you get three free drinks, there are always lots of fun people around, and they serve small-batch brews in the tap room that you can't find anywhere else. Finally, we had heard that Odell's brewery charges for their samples, so Josh and I had crossed it off the must-do list, but I talked to customers at New Belgium who really recommended it. We headed over there--I'm really glad we did! They don't charge very much (like $4 to $12 for a bunch of samplers) and had an amazing rhubarb beer and curry beer among great others!

We ended the night at this amazing speakeasy-style hidden bar that served great tapas. Unfortunately this is my only picture of the night (sorry that your eyes are closed, Erica!):



Believe it or not, we thought the perfect end to the night would be drinking TJOC cocktails. In fact, during the planning stages, Erica brought up drinking TJOC cocktails as a fun activity which was music to my ears. If you want to butter me up, say that we should get together and do some sort of TJOC activity. Let me tell you, mixing drinks for four people and taking photos, while progressively getting more drunk, meant that I don't have good notes or pictures of the drinks that were made. I am only counting the ones that I'm absolutely sure about.

A lot of cocktails require Sugar syrup (p. 43). Sugar syrup is really simple--I combined two parts sugar with one part water and cooked it over low heat. Extremely simple and I now have a container of it in the fridge:



The Highball (p. 59). I poured whiskey in a glass and added club soda. Either Josh or Pat drank it and said it was very tasty--the club soda cut the whiskey a little (if you don't want a straight whiskey on the rocks).



Gin & Tonic (p. 56). It's hard for me to believe that anybody likes gin, especially since when a anybody tells a story about how they can't even smell (insert alcohol) it seems to be either gin or tequila. I've never had a gin incident, I just don't like it. In fact, I think the only time I ordered gin was when I was lucky enough to take a business-class flight to Italy and found out they give you tiny free alcohols at that level (little Bombay gin bottles are particularly cute). And tonic water is one of those most vile things on earth. So I fed the gin and tonic to Josh. He wasn't sure about it but I think it was less the recipe and more the revolting taste of tonic water.



Scarlett O'Hara (p. 63). I shook Southern Comfort, cranberry juice, and lime juice over ice. I liked it--I like SoCo--but it wasn't my favorite because I'm not a huge fan of lime juice.



A Pink lady (p. 57) is gin, grenadine, and cream, shook over ice.



Erica drank this one. She said it was good, I liked that it matched her outfit, and we both felt like we were in the 1950's with our pink ladies and grasshoppers. I like pastel drinks (but don't tell anyone!).



I thought that a Grasshopper (p. 63) would be perfect to drink while Erica was drinking a pink lady. I shook creme de menthe (green, I was amazed they made it in more than one color!), creme de cacao (white because brown looks gross), and half-and-half with ice. It was really good, like a creamy Thin Mint (that is a delicious Girl Scout Cookie for those of you outside the US).



We were outside while everybody but me enjoyed a fine cigar (Josh has a humidor and an increasingly impressive collection--he is ecstatic when someone wants to smoke a cigar with him). My drink matched my outfit too!




Whiskey sour (p. 59). I shook blended whiskey (I'm sorry Erin and Heather! I used Scoresby rather than Jameson--it was cheaper and I was buying a LOT of alcohol), lemon juice, and sugar syrup with ice. Josh enjoyed it and said it was a perfect whiskey sour (I think he was exaggerating but I was glad to hear it).



I actually didn't make any notes to go with this picture--thankfully, I took a picture of the drink sitting on TJOC and could figure out that it was a Screwdriver (p. 57). I shook vodka and orange juice with ice and, apparently, decided not to serve it on ice. It was good--there isn't a whole lot to say about something as simple as orange juice and vodka mixed together. It's the tailgating breakfast of champions.



Tequila sunrise (p. 62). I stirred tequila and orange juice then poured a little grenadine over the top. It was so beautiful and looked like a perfect tequila sunrise! I have no idea who drank this. Hopefully they will comment.



I was amazed by the recipe for the Singapore sling (p. 57). It has so many things in it! I was happy to see that it gave me another use for cherry brandy, since I bought some to marinate cherries in for chocolate covered cherries, which I never ended up making. I shook gin, cherry brandy, pineapple juice, lime juice, triple sec, grenadine, and bit of bitters (I did not use benedictine--I'm not exactly sure what it is). I don't know who drank this or what it tasted like--I will report back or, hopefully, Pat or Erica will comment.



It was an amazingly fun day. I can't wait for them to come back to visit. I know I made a number of drinks that weren't photographed--for example, I'm positive I made a Sazerac because I think they are strange to drink when you aren't in New Orleans and I'm used to them being made with absinthe (not required in the TJOC recipe).

Friends, you can look forward to a night of this sort of TJOC drinking when you visit, now that I have a well-stocked liquor cabinet.

Anyone regularly drink any of these? How would you describe them? Have you gone on any of these tours? Do you want to go on them when you visit me? :)

Liptauer cheese spread (p.76) and Eggplant caviar (p. 75)

As I mentioned in the last post, my cousin and her boyfriend were going to be visiting and I tend to forget to have much in the way of snack food in the house. I knew we were likely to have a night of TJOC cocktails and it seemed like a good idea to have some carb-heavy appetizers. Of course, I totally forget to serve them and Josh and I ended up eating them all the next week.

I actually have made a significant portion of the "Appetizers and Hors D'oeuvres" so it is getting increasingly difficult to find items that both are not particularly difficult and look appetizing.

Liptauer cheese spread (p.76) seemed like it could go either way to me. I mixed cream cheese and paprika by hand (I made sure the cream cheese was really soft and it wasn't difficult to mix by hand). I then stirred in minced onions and capers:



It actually was really good on dark rye break. The sweetness of the cream cheese was broken up by the tang of the capers and the paprika. TJOC recommends spreading it on radishes and I bet that would be good.

I also made Eggplant caviar (p. 75). I forgot to take any pictures of the process or the finished product until the next day. I roasted two eggplants and then peeled and chopped them (as they oozed water everywhere). I sauteed onion and garlic in olive oil until soft, then added in the eggplants, a can of tomatoes, and salt. I cooked it for an over an hour, until the liquid evaporated.



IT WAS SO GOOD! If you like eggplants and garlic, this is the recipe for you. I suppose if you don't like eggplants or garlic, stay far, far away from this recipe--it is strong. I ate it on crackers. Warning--it makes a LOT of eggplant caviar. A LOT. It says 8-10 servings, I would say it makes more than that. I will make this again--it would be a bit hit in my garlic loving family. It's a great summer garden recipe--a lot of people grow tomatoes and eggplant and I think the recipe would be even better with garden-fresh veggies.

Pound cake (p. 716)

My cousin Erica and her boyfriend Pat were coming to visit Josh and I before heading to a Philip K Dick festival. They were going to stay at our house Thursday night, all Friday, and leave early Saturday. I have a bad habit of not having any easy snaking food in the house and forgetting to eat so I decided to make a Pound cake (p. 716) thinking that we could have a slice if anyone got hungry.

I'm not a pound cake aficionado. Before Josh, I probably only ate pound cake once or twice. Josh loves strawberry shortcake with pound cake. Usually it's pretty mediocre pound cake (I like the more spongy base) and too dense and heavy (or maybe that's the way it's supposed to be, I really don't know). Historically, pound cake was made with a pound of flour, eggs, sugar, and butter.

The TJOC pound cake uses four sticks of butter, nine eggs, two cups of sugar, and four cups of flour--I don't think it's quite a pound each but it might be close!



I started by beating the butter for a minute:



I added the sugar and beat the batter for another seven minutes. At this point I really wished I had read the recipe through (well) before starting cooking--I would have made this in my stand mixer so I didn't have to stand over the bowl the whole time.



The egg yolks were added (one at a time, more or less) and then vanilla and a bit of brandy (I can't stand rose water so I didn't add it--in my opinion, roses [and perfume] aren't meant as food). Finally, I added the flour:



I whipped the egg whites with a bit of cream of tartar and salt:



It took FOREVER to incorporate the egg whites into the rest of the batter by folding. Honestly, I thought it was never going to happen. I folded, folded, folded, folded, and folded some more. FINALLY there was no white showing.



I poured the batter into a tube pan and popped it in the oven.

My cake was truly a thing of beauty:



Gorgeous! Perfect! I was so proud of this cake. It was absolutely delicious. I used most of it for strawberry shortcake, which was amazing. The pound cake wasn't as dense as some pound cakes are--it had a nice firm grain but was still tender (if that makes any sense) with a nice, subtle vanilla flavor. I didn't make any adjustments for altitude and it didn't seem to be a problem at all. I'm really glad this turned out so well since there are at least four other variations of it still to go.

Oatmeal raisin cookies (p. 767)

I love oatmeal cookies. I always have. They are easily my very favorite cookie variety (followed closely by gingersnaps--what can I say? I'm an old-fashioned desserts type of girl). My mom isn't a big sweets-eater but she did regularly make oatmeal cookies.

I remember an assignment in elementary school where we were to write a recipe as we remembered it and then go home, get the real recipe, and compare. I have no idea what the point of that assignment was but I do remember that I picked oatmeal cookies and had the recipe entirely right other than forgetting baking soda and getting the temperature of the oven 25 degrees off. Pretty good, even now. That should let you know how often mom made delicious oatmeal cookies.

My mom was a home economics education major in college. She did a college project on the many uses of Quaker Oats and her love of Quaker Oats never really died. To this day she says if she hadn't gotten married young, she would have loved to work in the Quaker Oats test kitchen. Which probably explains the oatmeal cookie addiction.

I was cautiously optimistic about Oatmeal raisin cookies (p. 767).

This was a pretty typical oatmeal cookie recipe. I mixed flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nugmeg and salt in one bowl and butter, sugar, brown sugar, eggs, and vanilla in another. I slowly stirred the flour mixture into the butter mixture:



I mixed in craisins (I like craisins a lot better than raisins) and rolled oats:



They held their shape nicely. Until I noticed that TJOC specifically says to flatten the balls. I flattened half of them and left half balled--it didn't seem to matter:



They flattened and spread quite a bit regardless:



They were okay. I've had better oatmeal cookies. I like my cookies cakey and soft, not flat and crispy, although I know not everyone agrees. Honestly, I like cookies to be half Crisco, half butter so they are softer but still have the buttery flavor. I think cookies without nuts are a travesty but Josh doesn't like nuts in cookies (he's obviously out of his mind) and I decided to make them his way (they were far less delicious without nuts). They did have a nice flavor.

Cheese toast (p. 182)

I was hungry and I wondered if there were any quick recipes left in TJOC. I found Cheese toast (p. 182)



This is such a short post! So I will answer a short quiz (and would love you to answer it too!).

Favorite:

Breakfast item: Hash browns--but the little squares, not the shreds. I LOVE the TJOC recipe. Incorporating the cream just makes the even more delicious. Granted, I don't regularly eat breakfast so I usually make hash browns for lunch or dinner.

Soup: Tortilla soup (no chicken). I make it all the time. IMO, it's vital to make your own tortilla chips (it only takes a few minutes!) and your own chicken stock (so that you can control the salt content). I really love soup. I REALLY love soup.

Dessert: I like old-fashioned desserts. I make a great rice pudding and an amazing bread pudding. My blueberry buckle is amazing. And I love pineapple upside-down cake but I can only eat it if it's made with canned pineapple (I'm allergic to fresh--the canning process inactivates the enzyme I'm allergic to).

Spice: I must be bland, because I think my favorite spices are vanilla and pepper (although rarely together). I don't like cinnamon, making me a real anomaly (or so it seems).

Ice cream flavor: Butter pecan or pralines and cream, hands down. Josh makes Earl Grey ice cream all the time and it tastes too much like flowers to me.

Beer: Lindeman's lambic in cassis. LOVE IT.

Ask me more favorites! Tell me yours!

Wontons (p. 342) and Wonton soup (p. 126)

Sometimes I have reasons why I make a particular recipe on a particular day and sometimes I don't. I was in the mood to make filled noodles and decided to make Wontons (p. 342). This was odd for a couple reasons. I don't like wontons, never order wonton soup at restaurants, am actively annoyed if wonton soup is my only choice, and like other filled pastas like pierogis and ravioli. I think the lone mark in the wonton's favor was that I can easily buy wonton wrappers at the grocery store.

I took pork and mixed in cornstarch, soy sauce, sherry, sesame oil, chili oil, sugar, salt, and black pepper.



I went digging for the water chestnuts I was completly positive we had. I even remembered the day I got them on discount at the grocery store. After searching, I realized we had bamboo shoots, not water chestnuts. And I was unwilling to run to the store for eight water chesnuts (not cans, eight individual water chestnuts). So my wontons had bamboo shoots. I added my bamboo shoots, along with scallions, and ginger.



I laid out my (bought) wonton wrappers, brushed each wrapper with egg wash, and placed a bit of filling in the middle:



I folded the wonton wrapper and pinched the edges:



And folded the sides in:



WONTONS!

Wontons for Wonton soup (p. 126)!

Once you have the wontons, the wonton soup is simple. I heated up some chicken stock, dumped the wontons in, added a bit of soup, and was finished.



I was pleased with this recipe. My wontons looked professional and I was proud of them. I wasn't sure if they were pinched tight enough but the shrunk during cooking so it wasn't a problem. I was also afraid the pork wouldn't cook in such a short time but it did.

The wontons tasted exactly like every meat wonton I've ever eaten--they were savory with a slight heat (I assume from the chili oil). I think they would have been even better if they were half pork and half shrimp. The recipe was super easy, and, terrifically, on my RGL.

Don't forget to add me on Twitter (@tjotjoc) and Facebook!

Blender borscht (p. 149)

I have been invigorated by the new randomly generated list!

::hangs head::

That's actually a lie. I was depressed and developed my new RGL. I noticed that two pages that I had cooked something from but not yet blogged about were included. I decided to backdate the RGL to the beginning of the month (which makes more sense anyway).

I was hungry, I had all the ingredients for Blender borscht (p. 149), and I have a very fancy blender (a Vita-Mix!). The perfect combination.

There is just something about the quick soups in TJOC that turn me off. They remind me of Sandra Lee and "Semi-Homemade Cooking". Granted, she did develop the wonder of the Kwanzaa Cake (Google it) but I like to stay away from anything that could potentially merit a "tablescape". I don't want to mix three cans of soup. I want to make stuff! One can of soup, fine. Two, maybe. Three, no way.

And that is literally what this recipe is. I combined a can of beets, a can of consomme, and a can of cream of chicken soup, with some garlic.

It went from this:




To this:



I tried to gussy it up with some sour cream:



What did it taste like? A can of consomme mixed with a can of cream of chicken soup, some beets, and a lot of garlic. Nobody with taste buds would have thought this was homemade. I did not think it was acceptable. In fact, I would go so far as to call it "gross". I'm really hoping the other three borscht recipes are a lot tastier than this one.

Creamy Dijon dressing (p. 577)

I have found that having lettuce or baby spinach on hand drastically increases our chances of making a salad (I know that's really hard to believe!). Salad dressing is really easy to make so I decided to whip up Creamy Dijon dressing (p. 577). I honestly don't know why I chose this recipe over recipes that look much more delicious to me--I don't really like mustard, so I didn't have high hopes.

I mixed sour cream, buttermilk, Dijon mustard, parsley, chives, dill, a bit of sugar and a little salt and pepper:



I poured some of the dressing on a salad and tried it. I wasn't very impressed.

I mean, it's mustard on a salad. Weird. I was very disappointed, considered throwing it away, but instead put it in the fridge.

A couple of days later, I dragged it out of the fridge, along with the much more delicious walnut vinaigrette. Josh happily doused his salad in Dijon dressing and loved it. He even brought up how great it was the next day. So, if you like creamy dressings and mustard, you will love this dressing. If you don't, make something else.

In other news, I'm from Iowa, so it's bred in to me to love the Iowa State Fair (best state fair in the country IMO!). I'm very disappointed I didn't get to go this year. I love those tiny doughnuts, think fried candy bars are highly overrated, would have tried fried butter, and plan on submitting something to the cooking contest next year. I've never been to the Colorado State Fair because it's pretty far away but was very disappointed in the Nebraska State Fair. What is your state fair like?

Randomly generated list #3

The best part about running your own blog is that you can change the rules as you go along. I desperately wanted to start a new randomly selected list but haven't finished the last one, on which I haven't made very impressive progress. But, as Josh pointed out, it's my blog, so I can change things. I started a new randomly selected list. I promise to finish this one. U used random.org to generate the numbers, throwing out pages that didn't contain recipes.

New rules:
I will finish the list within four months, so by December 1st.
I can carry between 5-10 unmade recipes to the next list.
There will be thirty recipes on each list.

Any thoughts on this list?

I will update it with a link, the recipe chosen, and the date it was made.

33: Beverages--Iced coffee, 1/16/11
147: Stocks and soups--Becker blender gazpacho, white gazpacho, cold cucumber soup, winter fruit soup
149: Stocks and soups--Blender borscht, 8/6/10
159: Salads--Caesar salad, 9/12/10
164: Salads--Curried chicken or turkey salad, 8/24/10
194: Eggs--Coddled eggs, 12/5/10
206: Eggs--Spinach, broccoli, or cauliflower timbale, 8/24/10
219: Fruit--Berries cockaigne, 8/29/10
290: Vegetables--Puree of peas, 8/26/10
342: Pasta--Wontons, 8/3/10
401: Fish--Braised whole fish with red wine sauce, poached quenelles, gefilte fish
410: Fish--Fish and chips, marinated deep fried fish, Thai fish cakes
426: Poultry--Broiled teriyaki chicken, 8/30/10
435: Poultry--Chicken tagine with chickpeas
448: Poultry--Roast duck a l'orange, 1/15/11
472: Meat--Roasted fillet or tenderloin of beef, grilled fillet or tenderloin of beef (expensive!)
511: Meat--Ground meat patties, 8/26/10
548: Savory sauces--Sweet and sour orange pan sauce, 1/15/11
566: Savory sauces--Chimichurri, 9/28/10
582: Savory sauces--Potato-garlic mayonnaise, Rouille (red pepper garlic mayonnaise)
586: Savory sauces--Teriyaki marinade, 8/30/10
599: Bread--Whole wheat bread, 10/5/10
615: Bread--Brioche au chocolat, Brioche a tete, Sectioned brioche loaf (going to make this with mom too!)
737: Cakes and cupcakes--Yellow cupcakes, 3/10/11
748: Cakes and cupcakes--High altitude angel food cake, High altitude coconut angel food cake, High altitude white cake
771: Cookies and bars--Butterscotch nut cookies, 8/27/10
778: Cookies and bars--Rugalach, Individual nut tarts, jelly tots
849: Frozen desserts--Caramel sauce, 12/4/10
853: Frozen desserts--Fresh strawberry sauce, Fresh mango sauce, Fresh blueberry sauce
866: Candies--Caramel corn, 3/8/11