Category Archives: Challenge Recipes

[4] Orange & Sesame Dressing

Enchanted Broccoli Forest

It turns out, for those who were waiting with bated breath, that the correct answer was neither salmon nor soup. It was salad.

Bill and I realized that we would rather go to the store to pick out side-dishes and such together than for me to just head out midday and do it alone. So, back to the drawing board to determine what we were having for dinner. Given we had a giant pile of lettuce, I decided our best bet was a salad. Unfortunately, all the salad recipes we have in the books call for ingredients we didn’t have, which was basically useless.

Luckily, in digging through The Enchanted Broccoli Forest, I found a whole section on salad dressings. I have to admit, that was the point at which I said, “A recipe!… Continue reading →

[2] & [3] A dinner from Better Homes and Gardens, circa 1962

Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book (1962)

Tonight’s dinner was inspired by the fact that Bill and I hadn’t done much shopping this weekend, in anticipation of our CSA half share arriving. Also, it was inspired by not wanting to leave the house today. The final inspiration for it was realizing we have committed to cooking nearly 2500 recipes before we can ever buy a cookbook again, and we want that to be the shortest possible time.

I have to admit, we’re both a little nervous about tackling the Better Homes and Gardens “New Cookbook”, because it’s huge and so many of the recipes seem to come from a cooking style rather different than our own. Still, my grandmother gave it to me when everyone had good reason to believe I was going to starve in undergrad (I was not so much a fan of cooking back then).… Continue reading →

[1] Whole-Grain Griddle Cakes

Joy of Cooking

We have a funny way of making pancakes in this house. Namely: we don’t have a big griddle to make them on, so they come off the pan one or two at a time. This leads to eating in the kitchen while waiting for the next one to come off the pan. We’ll also alternate who makes each one so that the other can enjoy theirs while it is hot.

As far as heat is concerned, let the pan get hot over a medium heat. Add your butter (what else?), add the batter, and wait until you see bubbles popping and not closing back up. Flip the pancake, then turn the heat off. Repeat a lot.

This says it makes “about fourteen 4-inch cakes”.… Continue reading →