Hot Fudge Sauce

I had some heavy cream in my refrigerator that I never used, and the sold by date has passed. I hate to throw it away, so I decided to make some hot fudge sauce, which can be stored in the refrigerator a month.

The recipe come from Fresh & Fast by Marie Simmons which is a great cookbook for easy quick recipes.

You simply mix 1/2 c. dark brown sugar, 1/2 c. cocoa powder and 3/4 heavy cream in a saucepan. Bring to a boil (over a low-medium heat) stirring frequently to constantly. When it starts to boil take off the heat and stir in 1 T of butter.

I had no need for this sauce right now, but wanted to try it, so I poured a heaping spoonful on a thin slice of toasted banana bread. Yum!!

Time: 10 minutes total

Grade: A

Make Again: Yes

Flaky Buttermilk Biscuits

Cooks Illustrated (January 2006)

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Freezer Time: 15 minutes
Roll and Cut Time: 15 minutes
Bake Time: 15 - 17 minutes

I should be able to speed this up a little bit if I tried this one some more. But, it will never be a super fast recipe.

Grade: A+

Make Again: Yes

This is my 2nd time with this recipe. I did a little better this time, but I still have room for improvement in my biscuit technique. Although, not perfect, I am so amazed that I can make biscuits that are so flaky.

I have trouble pinching pieces into "nickel-sized" pieces. The pieces start out quarter size, and by the time I have pinched them, they seem more like dime sized. I tried not to get too caught up in the change size comparisons.

This recipe is not simple, like the usual biscuit recipes I make with the food processor, and it does make a bit of mess.











But when you are done you end up with biscuits that are so tall and flaky. They started at 1/2" high but end up almost 2" high when done. They have those nice layers that are fun to pull apart when you are eating them. I used to love to do that when I was little with the Hungry Jack Biscuits my mom would buy.










Ok, so some of them were not so pretty. I am not too experienced at rolling things out, and it showed. I was also not sure about the "invert and transfer rounds to sheet". Turning them upside down revealed my poor rolling and folding job, so I stopped inverting them. Those are the ones that looked better. The inverted ones looked more like this one.











The ugly biscuits still tasted great though. The only problem with this recipe is that they are hard to stop eating. These are really good!

UPDATE: I threw the extra bits of biscuit dough left over after cutting biscuits (you can only reroll the dough one time) onto a pan and froze them. I then stored them in a baggie in the freezer. I cooked them from frozen at 425 for about 15 minutes (I think) and used them for dunking in my tomato soup. They were incredible. I would not say they had the same texture and taste as the biscuits, but they tasted delicious - a little bit like puff pastry actually, just not quite as flaky. I won't waste those extras in the future, knowing this works so well.

Marinara Sauce

Cook's Illustated Marinara Sauce March, 2006

Prep Time: 20 minutes (because of my de-seeding)
Cook Time: 30 minutes

Grade: A

Make Again: Yes

Make Ahead: This stores well for a few days, and it also freezes well.

The first time I made this sauce, I really liked it overall, but didn't like the fact that I could taste the tomato seeds. So, this time, I made the recipe a little more complicated. Normally, I try to make recipes simpler, but I think my extra step is worth it.

I drained the tomotoes over a bowl. Then I got out a second bowl with a strainer. Instead of using my finger to break out the core, I cut the tomato in half and squeezed tomatoes over strainer. I cut out the core, discarded it, then put seeded tomato back in the original strainer. When done with all tomatoes, I pressed down on seeds, to get as much juice out of them as possible.

I had to do this to keep the seeds separate from the tomatoes, but still get as much juice drained. Combining juice from both bowls gave me enough to make the sauce.



I enjoyed this sauce more than my initial try and will do it this way again.

Magazine - Everyday Food

NOTE:  If you clicked to here looking for the recipe, go back and try to click on the link attached to the date.  I try to include the link to the recipe when I find it available online.

Although my most successful recipes come from Cook's Illustrated, I also use recipes from Everyday Foods magazine quite often. My success rate is a little lower (maybe around 75% of the ones I have tried) and I can tell from reading some recipes that I wouldn't like them much. However, these recipes are generally quick, and some of them offer creative and interesting combinations. Some of the best ideas are the pasta recipes and the desserts.

I subscribed since the beginning (I was mailed a free copy of the premiere issue and subscribed after having success with many recipes), but after about 4 years, I felt like I didn't need it anymore, because of the repeat ideas. I have enough of a stable of recipes from this magazine to last me a lifetime.

There is currently an Everyday Food show that is on PBS. They usually feature about 5 or 6 recipes from the magazine per show, and it is sometimes helpful to see the recipes in action.

To see the recipes I use from this magazine, click on the "ef" label below.

My Recipes

Here is an index of the recipes I have come up with on my own. Sometimes (maybe usually) they are inspired from another recipe, so I have tried to note where the inspiration came from in each recipe.

• Skillet Cauliflower
• Summer Chipotle Vegetables and Black Beans
  
• Zucchini Beef One Pot Meal
  

About this Blog

This is not like most other food blogs. It is not a great read, and there are only a few recipes. Instead, it is a Recipe Review blog. It is a place for me to review the recipes I have tried. Often half the cooking I do is something new. But when I do go back to an old recipe, I don't want to waste my time repeating past mistakes, so this blog has been an easy way for me to prevent that from happening.

I also like using this blog to search for recipes by ingredient (see the label section) when I want to use up an ingredient I have on hand. I have posted the time it takes to prepare and cook, so that I know what to expect next time, and this has come in handy more than once.

If you are fan of Cooking Illustrated/America's Test Kitchen you might find this blog useful because most of the recipes I use come from there. I have links to the recipe source when available, but many of the Cook's Illustrated recipes are for subscribers only, so you will be asked to log in. Many of the Everyday Food recipes are on-line and I provide the link when available. (The Martha Stewart web-site changed in the past year though, so I am still working on fixing the old links.)

Basically this is my cooking journal, so I can keep track of recipes that I like (and remember not to make the ones I don't like again.) I keep it public because some people might find some of the info on here useful.

To see my very favorite recipes, click on the "A+" label below. Some are amazing "wow" recipes and some are just really simple things that I use over and over again.