My Recent Kitchen Adventures

OK, though I haven't done much posting, I have done cooking this past week! Here are some of my creations. The breads I made for our team meeting Tuesday--it was my turn to host for someone's birthday. They were all really good.

First to go were the Chocolate Chip Scones. A touch of lemon zest in the batter really took these up a notch. The recipe called for cutting them into 8 pieces; I got 12 out of it. Mine look speckled because I had giant choco chips that I chopped in the blender, along with a chocolate owl from a local chocolate place.

Additionally, Imade Mom's Cranberry Bread and Vermont Pear Bread. Both breads were very moist. The pear bread was made from a batter with 9 T. of butter (!!!), so it was a heavier, denser, richer bread. I omitted nuts from both recipes due to the birthday girl's preference, but would include them any other time.


Late last week, I made these meringue cookies. THey didn't turn out quite like they were supposed to, but were still oh-so-good. I used some left over Andes mint chips. WIth just an egg white, sugar, cocoa powder, and the mint chips for flavor, these cookies packed a huge flavor burst. Crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside, they were quickly disposed of. I made another batch but made them smaller, hence they were crispier and they were also very good. Chocolate+mint has to be one of my favorite combinations.

For this week's lunch bunch, I made this recipe, adapted from Mark Bittman's The Minimalist Cooks Dinner. Thanks to Adventures in Food and Wine for turning me on to this recipe! Coconut Chicken Curry has just the right balance of spice from the chili sauce and sweetness from the coconut milk. Rich and filling, this will definitely be a recipe I make again.

Finally, tonight I made Mediterranean Spaghetti from CL. This was tasty, but perhaps not up to my expectations. I did sub chicken for the ground beef, but I think this would be much better with the beef. I think my taste buds are dead, as though this recipe calls for 3/4 t. cinnamon, and I added 2x that much, I couldn't taste it. Ditto for the nutmeg. My cinnamon is fresh as well. Still, this is a recipe I will maybe play with again and see if some tweaking makes it more to my liking. I took a picture, but it is very ugly. Go on over and check out the picture at Culinary in the Desert if you want to see what this looks like!

That's all my recent cooking. This week will be a busy one, so I don't know what's on the menu. Tomorrow I am having bratwursts as a friend's house, so I won't be cooking. Until next time.