Monthly Archives: March 2011

My words sure do taste good!

It was “just two days ago when I said I wasn’t going to cook out of Bittman or Pioneer Woman cookbooks this week”:http://metacookbook.com/archives/224-Probably-no-recipe-this-weekend.html. Now I’m having to change my tune. Or eat my words. Whichever you prefer, really.

Here’s the deal. I promised our friend Rob I’d cook up some meals for him to toss in his freezer and eat once he got home from having his ankle replaced. He was, in theory, going to have this happen last week or so. It didn’t. We’re still not sure when it will happen. However, I’ve made some lasagne and I’ve given him some of the frozen leftovers from “Blue Ribbon Chili”:http://www.metacookbook.com/archives/196-99-Blue-Ribbon-Chili.html. However, I told him to make requests, and he did. One of his requests was black bean soup.… Continue reading →

Probably no recipe this weekend

I am not a morning person. It’s kind of a struggle for me to be awake at 6:45 am, especially on a Saturday. Yet, here I am, awake and posting a quick entry to say three things.

First, I probably won’t manage a recipe entry this weekend. Bill and I have many errands to run, so we’ll probably focus on getting those errands done and some repairs around the house. Hooray for the weekends!

Second, I’m making a commitment to not use How to Cook Everything, How to Cook Everything Vegetarian and Pioneer Woman Cooks this upcoming week. I love those books, but I feel like I’ve gotten into yet another rut, and am now just cooking from them. Which is really conducive to my “using all my cookbooks” plan.… Continue reading →

[114] Linguine Nagoda for Two

Cover of Cooking for Two

I picked this recipe because it looked very fast and easy to make, and because it involved pasta, heavy cream and walnuts. Which is funny, because I’m not the biggest fan of walnuts. They’re growing on me, particularly mixed in with something, but generally I don’t like ’em.

And I’d better not see any in or on my brownies. No joke.

Anyway, I needed a dish that wouldn’t take much energy, time or focus, because I was “battling baked beans TO THE DEATH for a party.”:http://metacookbook.com/archives/221-113-Borracho-Baked-Beans.html I needed something that would be fast and good enough to fill the gaping hole that comes from smelling delicious food cooking all day, then being told (or telling yourself), “Don’t eat that. It’s for a party.”

This appeared to fit the bill when I was digging through my cookbooks.… Continue reading →

About those bacon ends we bought

Welcome to the inaugural post in a new category here on MetaCookbook! I just decided this morning that we need a new “place” to talk about food without a recipe being involved. Specifically, I expect to occasionally have something to say about an ingredient I used (or want to) that has nothing to do with a recipe. The category description:

“Notes about ingredients we use. Normally it’ll be oddball things we discover through this blog, but we reserve the right to be opinionated about something mundane as well.”

Today, it’s an “oddball”. At least for me. Namely, bacon ends.

As I mentioned in the “Borracho Baked Beans”:http://metacookbook.com/archives/221-113-Borracho-Baked-Beans.html post, we purchased bacon ends to use as an ingredient in (originally) mac & cheese for the “beer and bacon” party.… Continue reading →

[113] Borracho Baked Beans

Cover of Red Chile Bible by Kathleen Hansel and Audrey Jenkins

I have a friend who throws an awesome party approximately yearly. I think she is not the originator of this party idea, but it has migrated to her home through the years. The party theme is “Beer and Bacon”. It’s basically a pot luck that everybody brings a food that has beer or bacon (or both!) involved. Also, many people just bring beer.

Obviously, it is full of deliciousness.

This year, I was very torn on what to bring. I just couldn’t make up my mind. Eventually, I settled on bacon macaroni and cheese. Bill thought this was a very great idea, I thought this was probably a great idea, and it sounded pretty straightforward. All systems were go. Until I realized that this is a pretty straightforward recipe, and so possibly it might be one the hosts would make…

Yup, going back and looking at a few comments she made on her blog about her plans, I realized she was definitely making bacon mac & cheese, and so I should probably do something else and not duplicate that.… Continue reading →