Pan Fried Pork Chops

Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes

Grade: A-

Make Again: Maybe

Recipe Source: Cook's Country (February 2009)


I found some 2 year old pork chops in my freezer last week when I was cleaning it out.  They weren't even wrapped well, just frozen in the thin plastic they were wrapped in at the grocery.  I've only cooked pork chops once or twice before, and I forgot about them.  I didn't have much hope for them, but they seemed ok after they were defrosted and I didn't notice much freezer burn, so I decided to try this simple recipe.

I was pleasantly surprised.  It was super easy and fast.  The biggest time suck was waiting for the bacon to cook.  But you have to wait 10 minutes in between flour dredging the chops the two times, so it works out well.  I used less oil and it worked fine.  The chops are seasoned first before they go in the flour with garlic powder, paprika, and salt and pepper (and a little cayenne.) 

I was starting to not want to try them though because of their age.  When they were resting some blood started to seep through the flour from the bones and as an ex-vegetarian this grossed me out!  Then I really didn't want to try them. 

But I did anyways, and they tasted really good.  The crust was perfect on them and they were still moist.  I may have to try them once more with fresher meat.

Baked Ziti

Prep Time: 35 minutes
Cook Time: 60 minutes
Cool Time: 20 minutes

Grade:B-

Make Again: No

Recipe Source: Cook's Illustrated (March 2009)
Recipe: America's Test Kitchen TV Show (Season 10)

This was  nothing special in my opinion.  I do have to admit, however, that I used an inferior cheese which definitely affected the taste.  I chose the store brand (Safeway) cheese because it was cheaper, and then, even worse, accidentally purchased the low-fat version.  It was too salty and not creamy at all.  Now I have 8 oz left of this crappy cheese, which I won't use, just to save $1.  Oh well.

However, even without that issue, I still don't think this recipe would have been all that better than the very simple baked pasta dishes I've used before.  It uses cottage cheese, which I like, but I usually don't include ricotta in my baked ziti anyways, so it didn't solve any problems for me.  It just seems like more effort than I want for a simple pasta dish, so I probably won't make again.

Savory Bread Pudding with Spinach and Feta

Prep Time: 17 minutes
Rest Time: 20 - 30 minutes
Cook Time: 60 minutes

Grade: A-

Make Again: Maybe

Recipe Source: Best of 2010


This was in The Best of America's Test Kitchen 2010 book, and appears to originally come from The Best Slow and Easy Recipes cookbook.

This is definitely an easy recipe with very little effort.  I'm not exactly sure what the difference is between a strata and a bread pudding.  I guess bread puddings are a little richer.  You only use yolks, and the recipe called for 3c. heavy cream and 2c. whole milk.  I usually make my stratas with low-fat milk.  There was no way I was making this with all that cream - too heavy for me.  I ended up using whole milk and about 1/3 c. cream (for a half recipe) instead.  It still was plenty rich.


I did really like this, but guess I will probably just stick to making stratas which I do quite often.  They are lighter and I can basically make them from memory with whatever leftovers I have on hand.

Hermits

Prep Time: 25 minutes (10 of it waiting for butter to cool)
Cool Time: 90 minutes 
Bake Time: 20 minutes
Cool/Icing Time: 30 minutes 

Grade: B

Make Again: probably not

Recipe Source: Cook's Country (October 2008)

I have two complaints about how this recipe was written.  1) It starts off saying to preheat the oven to 350 in step 1.  Then by step 4 (or something like that) it tells you to wrap dough and stick in refrigerator for 1 1/2 hours!  That is a long preheat.  2)  They tell you to put dough in 10" logs, but don't tell you how wide or how tall the dough should be.  One measurement is not enough.  I need two.  I had to guess.  I made my bars about 1/2" high which seems fine.

These are good, but a little more effort than many other spice cookies that I love.  I hate raisins so I tried them with chopped dates, which I do like.  That worked out well.  I love the ginger in them also.  Again, these are just fine, but if I was craving a spicy cookie, I think I would choose this or this.

Cornmeal Biscuits

Prep Time: 23 minutes
Bake Time: 13-15 minutes

Grade: A-

Make Again: Maybe

Recipe Source: Cook's Country (February 2009)

This taste great, although most biscuits do.  I've never had cornmeal biscuits before, but I love cornmeal, so I knew I would like these.  However, even though you soak the cornmeal, I still found the biscuits to be a tad gritty.

Also, I feel like 12 T of butter is a lot, even for biscuits.  Most biscuits use 8 T per 2 c. flour, and still taste quite buttery. 

I did struggle with the dough a bit - it was too sticky for me to knead.  I'm guessing that is the reason these didn't rise as much as they should have. 

I may make these again, but since they take a little longer than my other biscuit recipes, I'm not sure if it will happen or not.  Maybe if there is something that I think would really go well with the cornmeal flavor.  They would probably be great with Chili, of course, so maybe then.

Chicken Spiedies

Prep Time: 16 minutes
Marinade: 30 minutes - 3 hours
Cook Time: 10 minutes

Grade: A-

Make Again: Yes

Recipe Source: Cook's Country (June 2009)

This is a nice simple recipe and it tasted good.  The sauce (which looks a little like cheese in the picture) was a nice addition.  It is basically just a grilled chicken kebab. 

Best Blueberry Muffin

Prep Time: 32 minutes
Bake Time: 16-18 minutes

Grade: A-

Make Again: Yes

Recipe Source: Cook's Illustrated (May 2009)
Recipe: America's Test Kitchen TV Show  (Season 10)

I have to say once more that I really like the ATK TV show website. (It's free but you must register first.)  It is really nice to go watch the video before I start the recipe.  The videos are usually around 8-10 minutes, and well worth the time since it will answer many questions you might have while following the recipe.  Not that CI's recipes aren't complete - they are. But they can be long with small print, and I sometimes miss things!

Anyway, the video helped me know how the sugar and eggs should look, how the jam should look, and how to really get the jam into the muffin.

Yes, these take a little longer than many muffin recipes, because you have to make a little blueberry jam, and then swirl it in.  However, I feel that these are worth the effort.  I love the lemon sugar topping.

I do think they could handle a few more blueberries in the regular batter.  Not a lot more, but maybe 1/4 c. more total.

I froze these and took some out for a road trip last week.  The crunchy sugary topping (made from sugar and lemon zest) wasn't all sparkly like it was when they were fresh, but it was still crunchy and very good.  

Swedish Meatballs

Total Time: 45 minutes
Grade: C+
Make Again: No
Recipe Source: Cook's Illustrated (January 2009)

NOTE:  I didn't make the cucumbers, and I my times reflect that fact, and the fact that I doubled the meatball recipe. 

I never had Swedish meatballs until I tried a bag of meatballs from Ikea this summer.  I liked them quite a bit, even without the sauce.  Since it was a large bag, it provided quite a few quick dinners. 

Since I've been using the Best of 2010 cookbook recently, I saw the recipe for Cook's Illustrated Swedish meatballs.  I wanted to try to see if they compared, and if it would be cheaper. 

I ended up doing something I never do the first time with a recipe, and I doubled the recipe.  Since it called for 8oz of both pork and beef, it seemed like a good idea to just double and not refreeze the leftover meat.

I also made one major change - instead of pan frying the meatballs, I decided to bake them.  That was not a problem.  I turned them midway through the baking.  (About 15 minutes at 450).  They still browned, and there was plenty of fat. 

The taste ended up being similar to the Ikea meatballs, however they were way too salty.  The recipe calls for 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt.  I didn't actually double that amount, because it seemed like it would be too much.  I used 2 teaspoons instead - maybe a little more. Besides the saltiness, these were good and tasted similar.

I am going to freeze the leftovers (without sauce) and I am sure they will be fine, because usually leftovers need a little more seasoning. 

But would I make these again or buy the Ikea meatballs.  I'll get them at Ikea.  They are $8 for a 2.5 pound bag.  I spent just about that amount for the ingredients, and didn't like them quite as much so there is no benefit to making them myself.

Chewy Chocolate Cookies

Prep Time: 13 minutes
Cool Time: 30 minutes
Roll Time: 10 minutes
Bake Time: 10-11 minutes

Grade: A

Make Again: Yes

Recipe Source: Cook's Illustrated (January 2009)
Recipe: America's Test Kitchen TV Show (Season 10)

This recipe is available during 2010 at the America's Test Kitchen TV show website (along with video). Print it out now if interested, because it will probably be gone by 2011.

These are very good, with an intense chocolate flavor. My nephew enjoyed licking the bowl, but he didn't really like the final cookie because it tasted too rich for him. That wasn't a problem for me.

They are simple, but since you need to roll them, take a little longer than regular drop cookies. I would definitely make again, but who knows if I will, since I have lots of good chocolate cookie recipes.

Hummus Bread

Prep Time: 10-15 minutes
Rise Time: 2 hours
Bake Time: 35-40 minutes
Cool Time: 30 minutes
Grade: C+ (B, when you eat it really fresh)
Make Again: Maybe
Recipe Source: Whole Grain Baking
Recipe: Hummus Bread

The link to the recipe above is not exactly the same as in their Whole Grain Baking book.  The ratio of Whole Grain to regular flour is flipped.  There is no bread improver called for in the book, and it uses olive oil instead of garlic.  The amounts are slightly different on some of the ingredients, but otherwise the ingredient list looks pretty similar.

This one didn't start out too well.  I weighed the flours and hummus but my dough was super soft and sticky.  I have been having this problem on the last few doughs, so I'm wondering if I am not doing a good job of measuring the liquids - I should probably weigh those also.

Sometimes this book gives good instructions, but usually not as thorough as Cook's Illustrated.  This one wasn't too explicit and didn't say how long I should need or if it was okay for the dough to be so sticky.  It said a soft dough.  Well, the dough never got very "soft" in my mind because it was using a whole grain flour (with a little all-purpose included.)

I ended up adding another 1/4 c of flour.  The dough still wasn't anything that I could shape really well into a loaf, so after the first rise I poured/pulled it into the pan.  I couldn't tell if it had doubled and I wasn't sure if it would rise 1.5" above the pan so I used 8x4 instead of 8.5x4.5 to be safe.  I didn't want a shorty loaf.  It ended up tall enough.  It smelled really good while baking.

This recipe uses 1 cup of hummus.  It also calls for toasted sesame seeds which I skipped.  Mine was really garlicky and I would probably try to avoid that next time although I still liked how the bread tasted.  There was a more crusty version of the recipe in the book and I can see why.  The crust on this bread is delicious.

The bread has a unique taste and I did like it. I wanted to eat more when it first came out of the oven.  However, it has more of a quick bread feel to me, and I don't feel like it was quite special enough that I will long for this in the future.  Since I made it right around the time I made the Rustic Rolls, which I loved, it does not live up to those high expectations.  I may make again if/when I have leftover hummus.