Week 1, officially: Thanksgiving

Remember the moments of, oh, my previous post? When I mentioned I might fail, and it’s all right. I have already kind of failed for week one. But, I cooked five dishes new to me, which all fit the theme of the week. So, I will call it a half win.

Chrissy Teigan has two of the cook books I am most interested in cooking with. And I made four of her recipes for my thanksgiving dinner, plus a cheesecake. However, they were not from her books (I know what you’re thinking, isn’t this a “cookbook challenge?”). But she recently launched a website. On her website she launched a section of her site for Thanksgiving with over 30 side dishes.

I decided to take on four of them.

Yukon Gold Smashed Potatoes with Crispy Shallots

4 pounds of Yukon gold potatoes, skin on
Kosher Salt
Oil for frying
3 shallots
Flour
1 cup heavy cream
2 sticks of unsalted butter
Freshly ground black pepper

Basically cut and boil the potatoes, mash them, add a bit of salt and pepper and the heavy cream and butter. Fry some thin slices of shallots and add to the top.

My rating: 7/10, I say this only for my own mistake. The shallots weren’t getting crispy, and I let them go a bit too long, so they were a bit burnt. But also, no offense Chrissy, they were just good mashed potatoes. I didn’t find them extraordinary. Again, maybe my fault with the shallots.

Husband’s rating: 9/10. I was surprised by this, he’s not a huge mashed potato fan, but apparently these were right up his alley.

2. Sweet & Spicy Butter-Roasted Butternut Squash

1/2 cup melted butter
1/4 cup olive oil
3 tablespoons Sriracha
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
4 pounds peeled, seeded and cubed butternut squash
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 teaspoon chili flakes

Mix the butter, oil, Sriracha, salt, pepper and cinnamon. Toss the squash in with this mix and put on two baking sheets. Bake for 20 minutes and put on the brown sugar and chili flakes and put back in oven for 15-20 minutes. Serve.

I was so exited for this recipe. There are a few food items I have never tried, and I am afraid of trying them by cooking them because if I cook them incorrectly, I will never enjoy them if I somehow make them incorrectly. Quinoa falls into this category. And until recently, so did butternut squash. For my birthday I went to a restaurant and had risotto with fall vegetables, which included butternut squash, and it was so delicious. I was excited to try it and add it for my thanksgiving menu.

Now, I also made a mistake with this recipe. I will blame Thanksgiving. I was trying to cook too many dishes and ran out of time. I didn’t wait to put on the brown sugar and chili flakes, I mixed everything together and called it a day. This I believe is the reason for the black/brown sauce on the pan.

However, miss Teigan, your spice level is far and above my own. When I make this again, I will cut the Sriracha down to one tablespoon, and possibly also half the chili flakes. The texture was good, the general flavor was good. But nobody could eat more than a few bites of it. But I am excited to make this again in the modified way. Why does butternut squash need to be a Thanksgiving only treat?

My rating: 6/10. Only because of the spice level. I’ll update this again later.

Husband’s rating: 7/10. I think slightly higher than me because he’s Tunisian and can possibly handle a higher spice threshold than I can.

3. Cranberry Relish

1 12 oz bag of cranberries
1 whole orange
1 cup sugar
1 2 inch piece of ginger

Mix everything in a food processor until smooth. Very simple. My aunt’s mother makes a very delish cranberry relish. I have zero idea how it is made or what is in it, but this was far from it. Chrissy suggests to leave the rind of the orange on. I feel like this did something to the taste for me. I feel as though it needs a bit more sugar. I will add some to the leftover relish and update again.

My rating: 4/10. I am sorry Ms. Teigan. I will try again, without the rind. Even by peeling the orange this would be super super simple and easy on Thanksgiving.

Husband’s rating: He didn’t try them, and neither did Andrew. Did not realize how much people weren’t about the cranberry relish.

4. Herby King’s Hawaiian Stuffing

1¼ cups chicken stock
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 (12-ounce) package King’s Hawaiian rolls
4 tablespoons butter
3 celery stalks
1 medium onion
5 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon sage
1 tablespoon thyme
2 teaspoons poultry seasoning

Cut the bread into squares and toast. Dice the vegetables and add into butter with the spices. Put the bread into pot with mixture and pour broth over mixture until combined. This last part was the key, and was my third Thanksgiving mistake (don’t worry, they’re not finished yet). I doubled the recipe and I believe it was too much broth. I put it all over the bread and it became very soup-like. I then had to cook it a super long time for everything to combine, and the bottom of the pan got a little toasty. However, regardless, to me they were amazing. Add the broth a little at a time next time, and it’ll be fabulous.

My rating: 8/10. If I had done as mentioned, it could have gotten a 10/10. I thought the kings Hawaiian bread definitely added a great level of sweetness, even though my friend Andrew said he couldn’t tell. I thought about adding a 3rd category for Andrew’s rating, but I feel like he’s too much of a realist for my sunny side way to look at my cooking adventure.

Husband’s rating: 7/10.

Finally, I also made a recipe from trusted and true Martha Stewart

5. Pumpkin-Cheesecake with gingersnap crust

6 ounces gingersnaps
3 tablespoons sugar
4 tablespoons melted butter

12 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup canned pumpkin puree
1 large whole egg, plus 1 large egg yolk
1 tablespoon plus 1 1/2 teaspoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
Pinch of ground cloves

For the crust, crush the gingersnaps, put with the butter and put into a 9 inch spring form pan. Freeze until firm, then bake until golden. Mix the filling and put it in the crust and bake until firm, around 30 minutes. Here is the next mistake. Are you feeling better about your Thanksgiving meal yet? I opened the oven door to check if it was set, and pulled the rack and boom, it split.

The recipe also called for meringue for the outside edge, but this falls into the category mentioned before. I’ve never had it, so I don’t want to make it and for it to be terrible and for it to ruin meringue forever. I just put some good old fashioned cool whip on it. What really crushed it for me were the cookies. I used these AMAZING cookies from Trader Joes, triple ginger snaps. They have candied ginger in the cookies themselves. It made for an amazing crust. I’ve been threatening to make a cheesecake with these cookies for over a year and I finally did. It was amazing.

My rating: 9/10. The crack was a bit of a bummer, and the crust was slightly over-baked, again my fault.

Husband’s rating: He doesn’t eat sweets. But Andrew’s rating in this place will do, a 9/10 as well.

To conclude– week one, Thanksgiving week. Partial success. Five recipes down, 495 recipes to go. Takeaway? With so much cooking comes so many dishes. Here goes nothing for week two.

I screwed up…

All right, so… my first post was about a year ago about this great cookbook challenge I wanted to accomplish. Long story short, I did not have a fridge and I kept beating around the bush about getting one. Did I want a small new one? A used one? A rented one? Well, I finally have one, and my cookbook challenge is officially kicking off. I have each week planned from now for the next 51 weeks (I have technically finished week one). I have to accept there will be failures and set backs, but I definitely will work on my challenge. I feel I have all of the tools I need to succeed now (a fridge, the time, and the drive).

Here, officially, goes nothing.

Day 1

I have been trying to plan this challenge for a month. While I do have a good start with some ideas for themes in mind, I needed to just start with an easy theme. This first week is just going to be celebrity chef week. I did a bold start with two recipes to start, but they made a lovely dinner. Both of today’s recipes come from the Twitter queen herself, Chrissy Teigan. They’re from her second cookbook Cravings: Hungry for more.

My first recipe is her Spice-Rubbed Parmesan Chicken Breasts. Her recipe is as follows:

1/4 cup olive oil

6 cloves garlic, finely minced

1 1/2 teaspoons paprika

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon finely ground black pepper

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1 1/2 cups finely grated Parmigiano-reggiano cheese

I did this recipe because it seemed like it could be an easy one to start with. There are basically five steps:

You heat the oven to 400 degrees F.
Mix the spices, garlic and oil in a bowl and rub all over the chicken.
Put the cheese on.
Bake for 15 minutes.
Broil for 3-4 minutes.

For every recipe I make I am going to give everything three ratings: how easy it was to make it (1-10), how much I enjoyed it (1-10) and how much my husband enjoyed it (1-10). For this recipe, I’m happy I started with it. On a difficulty level, I would say it’s a 3. The only difficult thing for me to be honest was broiling– I had never broiled anything before. I didn’t even know what that setting was but apparently it makes fire shoot out of the top of my oven. My problem was, I didn’t really understand what it was doing and when I opened the door I only saw the front half of the chicken which meant the back half of the pan was a bit burnt. Basically, broiling made it nice and crispy and made the cheese almost like breadcrumbs on the chicken.

I thought the chicken might be a bit too spicy, but it turned out quite nice.

My rating: 7

Husband rating: 8

I would definitely make this again. Only difference would be to keep a closer eye on the broiler. The chicken was slightly dry and I also believe this was the culprit.

My second recipe I made was her Crispy Potato Smashies. The recipe is:

1 1/2 pounds baby potatoes

1/4 cup olive oil

1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt

1 teaspoon pepper

2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

I obviously did not have any parsley. I never have any fresh herbs on hand. I keep saying I will start some sort of herb garden, but alas, one thing at a time. For these, they were a bit more difficult than the first dish but still not easy. Basically boil the potatoes (she used a method which I thought was really cool and easy! Put the potatoes in a microwave safe dish (I used a pyrex dish), put in 1/2 inch water (I used a bit more, I thought the water should mostly cover the potatoes), put some plastic wrap on top and poke some holes and then put it in the microwave for about 15 minutes, checking after 10.

I was nervous about the plastic wrap being in the microwave but it was fine and I feel like I saw on The Great British Baking Show (or The Master Class) that you can even put it in the oven? But don’t take my word on that. Once they’re fork tender, drain them and then smash them on a baking sheet. Chrissy Teigan says you should use the palm of your hand, but I was nervous about them being so hot and I wanted to get dinner a move on so I used the back of a flat spatula. Coat them with the oil, salt and pepper. You then pop them on the FLOOR of the oven and cook for 10-15 minutes, flip, cook another 10-15 minutes, sprinkle with some parsley and enjoy.

Now, I had two issues. One, I think I over microwaved them. One or two exploded and the middle was honestly completely missing, no idea what happened.

Two, I was not comfortable with baking these on the FLOOR of the oven. For one, I have a rack close to the floor and I had already been cooking the chicken and I was nervous about taking the bottom hot rack out. I also am just not so comfortable around fire and hot ovens to begin with (I’ve burned myself more times than I care to count) so I opted out of this. My potatoes were crispy but I feel like they would have been crispier if they HAD been on the floor. I’m sure it’s a nice tip but it wasn’t for me.

Level of difficulty: 4

My rating: 9

Husband rating: 8

I would definitely make these again. I might try broiling them for a minute or two to try and get them crispy. I have made a similar dish before, but I don’t remember there being any instruction to flip which I feel is KEY to get that even crispiness. So far, Ms. Twitter Queen is 2 for 2.

My Challenge

Hello there!

At this stage, I am alone in my journey so I guess I am speaking to myself and myself alone, but hello, and congratulations on starting your challenge. I am doing a year long challenge– and it’s a doozy. I’m attempting to make 500 recipes from my stack of cookbooks over the next year. I’m doing this for many reasons including:

I own a lot of cookbooks. At the current count, we’re at 23 cookbooks. Some are left from my mom but a lot are from myself. I get drawn into cookbooks and cooking shows at all of the wonderful and lovely things one can prepare but my problem is, I stop there. I buy the book, look at it going, “Oh yes, I should make that, that sounds amazing!” and on the shelf it sits. I really would love to make some of the recipes from my shelf.
To be quite honest, I need a hobby. My husband and I are at the bottom of the barrel on our Netflix playlist. I thought of things I enjoyed and they were: TV, food, writing, photography and baking. This combines all of them (i.e. I can bake whilst watching Netflix, and then photograph it and write about it on this blog). Win-win-win-win, in my book.
I spend far too much money eating food outside of the house. I don’t make time to cook and often find I don’t have the energy. With some careful planning and if I make it into something I will enjoy, I’m hoping to eat healthier (marginally) and spend less money.
Simply put, I would like to improve my cooking skills. I feel like I used to be quite a good cook and quite a good baker. But when I think about it, I thought it was good and I was complimented mostly because there wasn’t a lot to compare it to. My food was tasty when I was in my early 20s when I was right out of college and not a lot of my peers could do anything other than microwave. I feel like I got cocky and felt like I knew my way around the kitchen and then I would start burning things and convincing myself that was all right because I wouldn’t time things correctly, or I would over or under spice. Tonight, I told my husband I was going to go to the store to pick something up and I came home and said ok I’ll start dinner, he said, “Oh, you’re going to cook…. oh…” I would really like to stop that reaction.
Finally, at the end of a year (if I go through with this challenge, let’s be real), I’m hoping to have my own recipe book. My mom had a recipe book which I now own that had recipes from her grandmother and recipes people had passed on to her as well as recipes she cooked from cook books and magazines which became family favorites. I’d like to have my own recipe book of tried and tested recipes to just flip through and go, “Oh yea, that was good, dinner’s planned.”

Now then, let me introduce you to my challenge. While it’s myself challenging myself and I feel like I will throw in an awful lot of cheating (because who is the judge of me but me), I do have a few ground rules I’d like to start with. We’ll see how this goes.

I must cook 500 recipes in 365 days. My official start date is December 3, 2018.
No recipe shall be repeated.
However, dishes may be repeated (i.e. which chili is the best chili) once.
Each week will have some sort of theme. If I have any Great British Baking Show fans reading this (hi Charlie and Andrew), the title of the blog may sound familiar. My inspiration comes from this show and every week there are three challenges based around a theme (i.e. bread week, Danish week, etc.). Themes cannot be repeated.
I must make at last one recipe from each cookbook.

I may add rules as we go along, but first things first, I have to start. On my mark, get set, challenge! Cook? Try? Eat? I’ve gotta work on that…