January 24 Meal: Pear Turnovers

Pear-Cranberry Turnover
Not the healthiest breakfast, but quite yummy!  These turnovers are filled with a pear mixture of dried cranberries, sugar, cornstarch, and lemon peel.  The shell is phyllo dough coated with butter.  It's a bit challenging to work with phyllo dough because you need to make sure it doesn't dry out.  However, if you make them too damp they stick together and break when you work with them.  I suppose you could also eat these as desserts, as I think they are intended.  But why wait?

Yumminess: 9 out of 10

January 23 Meal: Rose-Flavored Cookies

French Macaroons with Raspberry-Rose Buttercream
These little cookies are slightly complicated to make, but have a unique flavor that makes it worth the work.  The cookie part is made from powdered sugar, almond flour, egg whites, and sugar.  I may have made them a little too small on the baking sheet because they only came out a little larger than a quarter.  The next step is the raspberry filling, made with frozen raspberries and sugar.  last, the buttercream is made from sugar, egg whites, butter, and rose water.  I'd never used rose water before.  I found it in the vitamin section of Whole Foods. 

Yumminess: 8 out of 10

January 22 Meal: Crabby Soup

Tomato, Fennel, and Crab Soup
Even though I took the cheap way out on this soup, it ended up pretty good.  Instead of getting nice lump crab meat, I opted for canned.  And instead of getting lump crab from a can I got shredded.  Not exactly what I expected.  The soup is tomato-based and also includes fennel.  Good enough to try again with a better choice in crab.

Yumminess: 7 out of 10

Raw Mustard Greens Salad

This salad is like a kicked-up Ceaser.  The croutons are made from country bread, which is coated with oil flavored with garlic and anchovy, and then with a little grated Grueyere.  The dressing is lemon juice and anchovy-garlic oil.  Toss mustard greens with the croutons, dressing, and an extra bit of grated Gruuyere.

Yumminess: 7 out of 10


Triple Ginger Cookies
Gotta love a ginger cookie.  These have crystallized ginger, fresh ginger, and ground ginger.  The texture is chewy and soft, and amazingly, the ginger flavor was not too overpowering.  It is balanced out with molassas, cinnamon, and clove.

Yumminess: 9 out of 10

January 21 Meal: A Very Delicious Day

Turkish-Spiced Chicken Kebabs with Pomegranate Relish and Tahini Yogurt

I was working form home in order to monitor the meats for the mixed grill, so I decided to make these kebabs for lunch.  The best art is the tahini yogurt, yum!  The chicken is spiced with baharat seasoning, which include dried mint, oregano, cinnamon, coriander, cumin, and nutmeg.The tahini yogurt is made with tahini, Greek yogurt, lemon juice, garlic, and some baharat seasoning.  Finally, there is a pomegranate relish on the side, which adds a nice sweetness.  The relish has pomegranate seeds, pistachios, parsley, olive oil, and lemon juice.  Everything is eaten with pita bread.  Ours was fresh from Med Deli in Chapel Hill.  Mmm, my mouth is watering just thinking about it!

Yumminess: 10 out of 10

Steamed Clams with Miso Aioli and Harissa
There isn't much of a way to botch shellfish if you like it.  This version of clams has them steamed with garlic, shallots, white wine, clam juice, parsley, and miso.  The best part is the miso aioli.  It's made from mayo, garlic, lemon juice, miso, and canola oil.  It's a nice tangy sauce for the clams.  Serve with sourdough bread to mop up the delicious broth the clams were steamed in.

Yumminess: 9 out of 10

Mixed Grill with Sweet and Spicy Bourbon Sauce

Baby back pork ribs, beef short ribs, and chicken thighs, oh my!  All the meats are marinated in a sweet BBQ sauce accented with molasses, soy sauce, chili powder, and hot chili sauce.  The meats come out very tender.  My favorite is the pork rib since the beef rib has a lot of fat on it.

Yumminess: 8 out of 10

Grilled Hearts of Romaine with Blue Cheese Vinaigrette and Pickled Onions

Grilling lettuce seems a bit odd.  For this recipe, romaine hearts are grilled and served with pickled onions, blue cheese, and a dressing of white wine vinegar, Dijon mustard, and olive oil.  The pickled onions are made by marinating them with white wine vinegar, sugar, water, bay leaves, red crushed pepper, and kosher salt.  It certainly doesn't sound like a good time (given I'm not a huge blue cheese fan), but it was actually pretty good.

Yumminess: 7 out of 10

Whoopie Pies with Mint Filling and Chocolate Ganache

Oh my, these are amazing!  They are cakey, chocolate cookies with chocolate ganache and mint cream sandwiched between them.  The cookies are very soft and are meant to be relatively large.  Like other ganaches, this one is made with dark chocolate and whipping cream.  When I make these again I will make a little more ganache since I didn't have enough to really coat the cookies.  The cream is made from vegetable shortening, peppermint and vanilla extracts, powdered sugar, egg whites, and for effect, green food dye. 

Yumminess: 10 out of 10

Hot Cocoa with Ancho Chiles and Spices

What could be better than a dessert of delicious whoopie pies?  A dessert of whoopie pies followed by some hot cocoa.  This cocoa is made with low-fat milk, but still seems quite rich since the chocolate comes from chocolate chips.  Ground ancho chiles nutmeg, allspice, and cinnamon sticks give this cocoa a unique kick.

Yumminess: 8 out of 10

January 19 Meal: Chicken and Dumplings

Negroni Chicken with Braised Blood Oranges

This is a great way to make chicken a bit more interesting.  The chicken starts in a brine of water, salt, and sugar.  Then it is transferred to a marinade of ground cloves, garlic, sweet vermouth, fresh thyme, cinnamon, orange peel , crushed red pepper, and olive oil.  The chicken is baked and topped with a sauce of onions, juniper berries, chicken broth, red wine vinegar, and fresh marjoram.  The extra-tasty part is the braised orange.  Thinly-sliced blood oranges are cooked with rosemary, butter, and chicken broth until they are very soft. 

Yumminess: 9 out of 10

Mixed-Greens and Sausage Soup with Cornmeal Dumplings
This is a nice spicy soup.  Shaun approves because there is meat and dumplings.  It is a tomato-based soup with lots of ingredients.  The highlights are andouille sausage, hot pepper sauce, allspice, and turnip greens.  The soup cooks for a bit and then the dumpling batter goes in.  These dumplings are made from cornmeal and accented with green onions.

Yumminess: 8 out of 10

January 18 Meal:

Saigon Chicken Salad

Any Vietnamese recipe that pops up in Bon Appetit is music to my ears and taste buds.  As I've said before, I love Vietnamese spices and food.  This salad includes green beans, radishes, plum tomatoes, cucumbers, green cabbage, carrots, celery leaves, cilantro leaves, green onions, peanuts, and marinated chicken.  The chicken is marinated in cilantro, lemon juice, lemongrass, lime, olive oil, and salt.  The dressing is made with fish sauce, brown sugar, lime juice, chiles, and garlic.  So much flavor and such a refreshing meal!

Yumminess: 10 out of 10

January 17 Meal: Tired of Butternut Squash

Multi-Grain Pasta with Butternut Squash, Ground Lamb, and Kasseri

I think I've already said it, but I'm really tired of butternut squash.  This pasta dish has butternut squash, ground lamb, and a nice amount of flavor from onions, garlic, cumin, cinnamon, cayenne, tomatoes, chicken broth, fresh cilantro, and cheese.  The kasseri cheese was super expensive (I think $9.00 for a little block), so I opted for feta.  Feta is not a similar alternative, but I think it goes well with lamb. 

Yumminess: 6 out of 10

January 16 Meal: Fresh Tostadas

Coriander Chicken Tostadas with Refried Beans and Grilled Fennel

Another easy meal and not your ordinary tostada.  This starts with coriander-crusted chicken and sauteed fennel.  The bean component is made from blended pinto beans, onions, oregano, garlic, and a chipotle chile in adobo.  The rest of the tostada is dressed with romaine, cilantro, lime, and radishes (go figure).  It all works nicely together, and seems like a health alternative to a greasy burrito.  But I do live some greasy burritos!

Yummiess: 8 out of 10

Caribbean Succotash

Succotash is one of those side items that is perfect to make when you forgot to think about a vegetable.  There's usually the makings on my freezer - some corn from last summer, lima beans, etc.  This version didn't quite live up to my expectations.  It was missing something, but I could never put my finger on it.  There was lima beans, carrots, corn, onion, zucchini, red bell pepper, garlic, fresh thyme, and (here's where I think it went wrong) cucumber.  The seasoning was a combination of coconut milk, cayenne pepper, and nutmeg.  Certainly lots of vegetables, but not my favorite.

Yumminess: 6 out of 10

Acai-Blackberry Sorbet
I started making with sorbet one night so we could eat it the next.  The mixture is made with frozen blackberries, sugar, agave nectar, acai puree, and lemon juice.  I found the acai puree in the frozen section of Whole Foods.  The outcome was a very tasty, if not too sweet, frozen treat.  If I made it again I'd probably leave out some of the agave nectar or the sugar.  The texture was also really good.

Yumminess: 7 out of 10

Warm Apple Cobbler
Hmm, miso in apple cobbler?  I feel like this was a bit of a stretch for Bon Appetit.  It tasted good, but I didn't really feel like there was a big difference from normal apple cobbler.  The miso is in the topping along with butter, eggs, flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, and ground ginger.  The apples (Granny Smith and Fuji) are flavored with lemon juice, lemon peel, vanilla, brown sugar, flour, and cinnamon. 

Yumminess: 7 out of 10

January 15 Meal: A Miso Meal

The ingredient of the month in January was miso.  The 4 different miso-related recipes called for 3 different types of miso: white, yellow, and red.  I opted for just the yellow and red, since my local Asian food market owner didn't know about white miso (I think that was the one?).

Roast Pork Tenderloin with Apricot-Miso Glaze

This is a fairly quick recipe with relatively few ingredients for Bon Appetit.  The sauce is the main component of the dish.  It's made with apricot preserves, red miso, Champagne vinegar, orange peel, and garlic clove.  Some of the sauce coats the pork while it's cooking and the rest is thinned out with chicken broth.

Yumminess: 7 out of 10

Beet and Fennel Soup with Kefir

Our love affair with beets started when we were in London on vacation a few years back.  Neither Shaun or I had ever cared for them, but our dinner was served with what I like to call a beet steak, topped with goat cheese.  For weeks after, my mouth watered just thinking about that dish.  So, when I saw that there was a beet soup in this issue I was pretty excited.  Shaun was a fan, but I wasn't, and my office mate, who doesn't like beets, loved it, too!  You be the judge.  The beets are sauteed with onion, fennel, and fennel seed.  Add in chicken broth and boil.  Blend the soup and add in kefir, which is a very thin yogurt substance.  To make it pretty, add a few dots of kefiir into each bowl and run a knife or toothpick through to make hearts.

Yumminess: 7 out of 10 (Shaun), 6 out of 10 (Me)

Green Salad with Miso-Ginger Dressing

If you like the salads at Japanese restaurants, you will probably like this.  The dressing is almost the same, made with rice vinegar, white miso (yellow in my case), fresh ginger, garlic, sugar, white pepper, and vegetable oil.  The salad itself is just mixed greens, carrot, cucumber, and onion.  Sounds familiar?

Yumminess: 8 out of 10

Blood Orange Panna Cotta

What an interesting dessert.  The panna cotta is made with fresh blood orange juice, gelatin, sugar, Greek yogurt, cream, and lemon juice.  It solidifies into a nice firm consistency.  The sauce is made from more fresh juice, orange peel, sugar, and cardamom.  It was a bit strong for me, so I would just make the panna cotta next time.  It was sweet with a nice tart aftertaste, nothing like I've had for dessert before.

Yumminess: 8 out of 10