Category Archives: Challenge Recipes

[70] Grandma Ella’s Banana Nut Bread

Once upon a time, I was going to ask the family of a friend of mine to take care of my cat for while. I don’t recall how long or why. I think it was during a holiday from school when almost no one would be around. I didn’t have a lot of money, so paying in cash wasn’t doable. So I asked my friend if payment in baked goods would work. I was advised that yes, and banana bread was the right answer.

I hate banana bread.

Thus, I didn’t have a recipe for it and was completely unwilling to taste test a bunch of recipes. So, I did what any sane college student would do: I asked my great-grandmother for her recipe. She was a fabulous baker (at least by the time I came around), and so I knew whatever I got from her would be delicious.… Continue reading →

[69] Arizona Pumpkin Soup

the cover of The Enchanted Broccoli Forest

This pumpkin soup recipe is on the facing page to “The Pumpkin Tureen”:http://www.metacookbook.com/archives/115-60-The-Pumpkin-Tureen.html, which means that when I was flipping around looking for pumpkin recipes, I had to debate.

The Pumpkin Tureen had a lot more style & pizazz, so I didn’t debate terribly long. I did promise myself I’d make this one “at some point”, but I really needed to check out the soup baked & served in a pumpkin. However, when the rubber hit the road and the taste of that soup didn’t live up to the presentation, I found myself thinking about pumpkin soups again.

Now. I’m not going to lie to you. The idea of soup in a pumpkin tureen has not been utterly rejected by me. I think the idea is a good one, but it needs some work.… Continue reading →

[68] Pancakes

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

Pancakes. Bill and I love us some pancakes. By now, readers of this blog are probably fairly familiar with this.

Our “first recipe”:http://www.metacookbook.com/archives/6-1-Whole-Grain-Griddle-Cakes.html was pancakes. We didn’t even get 20 recipes in before “we did a second pancake recipe”:http://www.metacookbook.com/archives/38-19Everyday-Pancakes.html. Our first actual encounter with “a duplicate recipe (a.k.a. recipe #45) was pancakes.”:http://www.metacookbook.com/archives/87-Well,-was-it-a-new-recipe-or-not.html

So, yeah. We like to make pancakes on lazy weekend mornings. Somehow, I suspect we’re not the only Americans who eat homemade pancake recipes so often. Given the sheer number of Americans, I bet we’re not even the ones who have tried the most recipes in the shortest time. But we might get there. Or we might find our perfect recipe and forget trying any others.

That would certainly make this challenge harder.

So, here’s a recipe that’s about being healthy.… Continue reading →

[67] Skillet Cornbread

Cover of The Pioneer Woman Cooks by Ree Drummond

There’s really nothing like a big pot of chili for wintertime, but one cannot live on chili alone. At least, not this one. Chili is a wonderful, hearty main dish; indeed it’s almost a one-pot meal. However, I always want something to go with it. I don’t always make something to go with the chili, but I always want it. Usually my unaccompanied chili is lunchtime leftovers from the freezer.

However, when I make a pot of chili for the first time, it usually calls out for cornbread. Hell, I bet you could say it ALWAYS calls out for cornbread. And I love cornbread enough that I basically always answer the call. Usually by opening a $0.69 blue box.

Whatever’s in those blue boxes has always been kind of my standard for cornbread.… Continue reading →

[66] Simple, Perfect Chili

Cover of The Pioneer Woman Cooks by Ree Drummond

I can’t lie to you guys. I really love The Pioneer Woman’s blog, and all of her recipes and photos make me drool. Except the ones with cilantro.

Bill also loves her blog. So when we found her cookbook in a bookstore, not too long after it’d been published, we both really wanted to buy it. We knew we could get most of her recipes online (thus costing us nothing), but we felt we should support her work. Also a book is, in some ways, more portable than the internet. For example, I can take this to my mother’s house and cook out of it more easily than hauling a laptop into the kitchen.

Not that I don’t want a kitchen laptop, even so.

I picked this recipe as one of the first to make out of this book because I really enjoy chili and I love having some in the freezer for cold days and lunches and so forth.… Continue reading →