Category Archives: Challenge Recipes

[79] Seared Salmon with Orange Glaze

Cover of The Healthy Kitchen, by Andrew Weil and Rosie Daley

I generally love fish. I love everything about them, from watching them swim to knowing there’s some creepy fish out there to the way many of them taste.

Fish rule, basically. That’s what I’m saying. I’m also saying I wish I had the contents of my friend Claire’s freezer after she gets back from a trip to Alaska. Her husband and her father go out fishing. And, apparently, “fishing” isn’t code for “gettin’ away from the wimmin folk & drinkin’” the way so many of those trips are, but it actually means “fishing”, because she ends up with a big ol’ pile of halibut.

Halibut that her husband’s not a big fan of, because he disagrees with me on the “fish rule” thing. Oh well. Can’t win ’em all.… Continue reading →

[78] Pork with Dried Apples and Prosciutto

Cover of Eating Well Serves Two

Also known as, “Pork with Dried Apples and Pork.”

At least, that’s how I saw it. Take your pork and season it with pork! YUM. If Nancy ever has Porkapallooza again, I’m finding a way to scale this recipe up to party size. That and do the pork liver wrapped in bacon thing I heard about in Kenya. But she knows about that pork + pork plan already. This is a new one.

Anyway, this is another pre-Thanksgiving meal. I think it’s even the last one. Like others (at least one other), a large part of the motivation was in having a meal that wouldn’t leave a lot of leftovers. However, and this is happening more and more (thankfully), it was also that I had almost all of the ingredients on hand.… Continue reading →

[77] Whole Roasted Turkey Without the Gravy

How to Cook Everything, Revised Edition by Mark Bittman

And now we come to the main event. A 22.5 lb monstrosity of an event. A gorgeous event.

Now, I have to admit to you something. Icing the turkey breast is nowhere near Mr. Bittman’s method. His method also assumes you WILL make gravy, which we didn’t (as you can see from the title). That leaves us with having actually made a variant on this recipe. I’m okay with that, though some of my readers may call foul.

I’d be sad if you guys did that.

So, let’s not. Let’s just get on to this gorgeous bird. I was pretty darn proud of it, I have to say.

… Continue reading →

Thanksgiving Turkey Brine and Pre-Roasting Prep

Okay, quick diversion from cookbook recipes into “recipes from my imaginary friends”.

Like so many folks, I spend some time around various internet haunts that are not, in fact, this blog. Crazy talk, I know, but it’s still true.

Awhile back I wanted to do Thanksgiving for the first time ever. I asked at one of those haunts and got all kinds of useful advice about what to do. In fact, I’d go so far as to say the folks there might qualify as “some of them.”:http://metacookbook.com/archives/146-75-Roasted-Brussels-Sprouts-with-Garlic.html

Anyway, one of “them” gave me this brine recipe, saying it was from “Alton Brown.”:http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/good-eats-roast-turkey-recipe/index.html I used it that first year, and I used it again this year. I’ll probably use it until eternity. Or I stop making turkeys.… Continue reading →

[76] Mashed Baked Potatoes

How to Cook Everything, Revised Edition by Mark Bittman

This is the second to last recipe that counted for this challenge from Thanksgiving. It’s also the second of two that I failed to remember to take photos. My apologies.

Now, with that out of the way, let’s talk about why I did a slightly different recipe than Mr. Bittman’s traditional mashed potato recipe. I had two reasons, both very simple. First, because I was convinced (erroneously, it turns out) I had already made mashed potatoes (version 1) for this site. Obviously part of this challenge is to get me to spread my wings in the kitchen, so minimizing repeats is important. It’s also important if I ever want to buy another cookbook again in my whole forever life. Secondly, and even more basely, I picked this recipe because Bittman says that baking the potatoes, rather than boiling them, dries them out and allows them to soak up even more milk and butter.… Continue reading →