Recipe #12 / Pgs 172 - 173 / Baked Potato Wedges

This was a little bit ho-hum, but I think the potatos were a bit undercooked.
But still potable.

Baked Potato Wedges

Recipe #11 / Pgs 90-91 / Sole with Almonds

First off, I am not very fond of fish.
Whenever there's a choice, I will go for something other then it.

But through the years, I've made ma actually like salmon and I get cravings sometimes for gish sticks ... which are smothered in batter.

This recipe though has made me look at fish as something with a different potential now. It was delicious and tasty! I will definitely try others.

Sole with almonds

I accompanied it with curried rice. The tastes didn't really compliment each others so next time I'll try another side.

Recipe #10 / Pgs 114-115 / Fried Rice

This was a last minute idea and I used stuff I had in my kitchen. And no bean sroupts, because I don't like those. Blech!
I used a can of mushromm and it's confirmed : canned mushroom although they can save in a pinch taste horrible. Much rather have fresh ones. I also used some leftover from fried chicken I had at lunch.

This makes for a nice quick supper with anything you like thrown in. Great for leftovers!

Fried Rice

Recipe #9 / Pgs 216-217 / Creamy Lemon Desert

This looks a little pale because I couldn't find my food colouring. But it tasted mighty fine!
The picture makes it look like shortening. O_O

Creamy Lemon Desert

Recipe #8 / Pg 204 / Strawberry Smoothie

That was pretty delicious. I used frozen strawberries, so it made it all thick and chunky. YUM!

Strawberry Smoothie

Recipe #7 / Pgs 184-185 / Roasted Vegetables

Roasted Vegetables

Pork and Vegetable Stir-Fry with Peanut Satai Sauce on Egg Noodles

Not part of the challenge (although there is a stir-fry coming up later on) but I was tempted at the store by a jar of peanut satai cooking sauce. It's got a zingy kick to it. I quite like it.

Here's tonight's feast!

I put roasted cashews and sesame seeds on top. Yum!

 

 Pork and Vegetable Stir-Fry with Peanut Satai Sauce on Egg Noodles

Recipe #6 / Pgs 28-29 / Beef with Pea Pods

Now that I have a regular job, I felt less intimadated at buying a choicier grade of meat. I will usually go for the cheapest or on sale. But I was determined to follow the recipe and get the piece it called for.

What a difference GOOD meat makes! So tasty!

Also, I substituted half the water for the rice with beef broth. Nice and tasty too.
A definite success!

  Beef with Pea Pods

Recipe #5 / Pgs 154-155 / Old-Fashioned Potato Salad

Not much to say about this, except that I put too much onion in it.
In fact, I think I should have alltogether omitted them.

I find that I'm not liking raw onions in things.

Old-Fashioned Potato Salad

Recipe #4 / Pgs 16-17 / Meat Loaf

Okay, I've been doing that meat loaf for a good while now, since I got the book a couple of yers ago.
But, fur accuracy's sake, I decided I would still do ALL the recipes in the book, even the ones I've done before. In fact, what better opportunity to improve myself!

So here is my meat loaf. I like it knid of sweet, so I made a few changes. I  covered the bottom of the pan with brown sugar, which gets caramelized when the leaf bakes. Yum! And I covered it with honey-garlic BBQ sauce instead of ketchup. And left out the onions.

The picture came out blurry though. Sorry!

 Meat Loaf

Recipe #3 / Pgs 22-23 / Quick Lasagna

This recipe called for quick cooking lasagna. Now I thought that was WAY too lazy. I can cook some regular lasagna noodles, sheesh! Betty Crocker's a lazy old broad.

Quick Lasagna

Recipe #2 / Pgs 20-21 / Chili

Chili

Recipe #1 / Pgs 18-19 / Mexican Beef And Bean Casserole

My ancient computer is acting up and keeps crashing without a moment's notice. So, I'm just going to post this week's three recipes just as images and hopefully will edit coments on them later this week.

Mexican Beef And Bean Casserole

Getting rid of the back-log

Okay, before I post about the recipes I did (because I did them!) I have to catch up with a few of the things I've done beforehand. 

Pita pizza: it's like pizza ... but on a pita!!!!

Pita Pizza

I had some hamburger meat that I needed to use because it was getting past due-date. So I searched the we for something easy that could be tasty, with the ingredients I had. And here it is! Hamburger soup. I modified it quite a bit, adding lots of veggies and some chili powder for taste. Pretty delicious!

Hamburger Soup

And last but not least, I was craving some stuffed crepes and decided to make shrimp ones. I tried to do some crab ones a few days later, but they weren't as good.
Here's the shrimp ones, straight out of the oven. I also realized that I needed a square cooking dish.
It was truly delicious and decadent though!!! It's hard to see them, because they are smothered with sauce and cheese!!! :D

Shrimp Stuffed Crepes

A new outlook

Okay, so this blog has been stagnating and I've been in a cooking "blah" for a while.
So, I decided to kick my behind in gear and set myself some goals, since it seems that's the only thing that works.

Inspired by, but way less ambitious/impressive then the Julie/Julia project, I will be going through the heftiest cookbook I have, from cover to cover.
I will not be holding to as rigorous a regiment as doing the entire thing in a set time, but have decided that for now, I would be doing a minimum of three recipes a week, until done.

The book is actually two, an contains a variety of admittedly easy level recipies for the most part. But they give the basic of cooking techniques, and are delicious foods. :)

So the book is Betty Crocker Basics: How to Cook and Entertain With Confidence.

I won't hold to the recipes as law, being that I consider recipes guidelines more then rigorous instructions. I'll try to be as faithful as possible, but still substituting ingredients when appropriate or when unavailable.


Right now, I'm waiting for the first result to come out of the oven!