Tilapia Po' Boys

http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/tilapia-po-boys-00000000057184/index.html

I have a whole package of frozen tilapia fillets that I need to use up soon, and this is one of the recipes I've found to use it up. David isn't the biggest fish fan either, but this recipe fries up fish and then you eat it in a baguette. Which he did like.

It could be that the baguette was too small (10.5 oz is what the store had), but there was more fish called for in this recipe than would fit on 4 sandwiches. If the baguette is small, 10 or 12 oz of tilapia is plenty for 4 sandwiches, or two hungry people. I used some generic fish seasoning I had in a packet in the cupboard (a salt free one). He had a hard time deciding between 3.5 and 4 on this one. This could benefit from some tangy sauce, like a horseradish sauce or something. But we didn't have any. I served this with pickles, lettuce, and mayo. I liked it too, but it was somewhat bland.

Pie Crust

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/pie-crust-recipe/index.html

This recipe turned out really well. I used lard and butter as called for, but used a pastry cutter since I seem to be the last pie maker who does not have a food processor. I put the dry crumbs in to a bag and then added water to the bag and mixed it with my hands that way. Even though it wasn't "frozen" fat and I touched it a lot, it was still flaky and good, and reheated the next day was still flaky. I refrigerated it and then rolled it out on my silpat with a rolling pin. It worked very well, didn't even try to crack.

Blackberry Sorbet

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Blackberry-Sorbet-108070

I had two 12 oz bags of frozen blackberries I wanted to use and this recipe looked perfect. It worked well, but turned out to be too sweet. I would use only 1 cup or even 3/4 cup sugar next time so it is more tart. I did put through a wire mesh to get rid of the seeds and I'm glad I took the trouble. The finished product did take many hours to freeze up, and it is not near as smooth as store bought sorbet so the seeds would have made it  very gritty. (I even blended it in a blendtec before putting in the ice cream maker, so I think the level of smoothness is just how homemade sorbet is. I've never done it before)

The blackberry flavor has an over-ripe taste to it. I'll bet this would taste better with fresh blackberries or another kind of berry. But these blackberries were weird in this form.

Spinach and Bacon Quiche

https://web.archive.org/web/20190408035624/https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/spinach-and-bacon-quiche-recipe-2131172

This recipe is very tasty. The filling volume requires a deep dish 9 inch pan. It also required 1 hour and 10 minutes to bake. I used frozen spinach since the fresh I'd bought was bad. I just put on a bit, not even a cup of wilted. It turned out to be plenty. I also used precooked bacon I had on the fridge. I cut up 12 slices. I didn't use the full 1.5 cups of cheese either.

The cream wasn't overwhelming, but I'm sure it would taste well with half-n-half or some combination with cream and milk. I used heavy cream and it was rich but I had no trouble eating 2 pieces.

Notes 6/14/14
I made this again exactly as written in the recipe. It was great! It cooked in 45 minutes.

Greek Orzo Pasta Salad

http://thealisonshow.com/2012/05/perfect-orzo-pasta-recipe.html

I really liked this salad. All the little extras makes it very fun. I used toasted pine nuts and not sunflower seeds, and regular raisins instead of golden. I also added ~1/4 cup chopped sun dried tomatoes. My family liked it a lot too. I didn't have quite enough orzo so I subbed elbow macaroni. Both pastas were whole wheat too and it was a great flavor.

Paleo Pie Crust

http://www.elanaspantry.com/paleo-pie-crust/

I made this crust and pressed into a tart pan. I put 4 peeled/sliced mealy peaches and mixed with 2 T flour and 2 T sugar, then put filling into tart and baked at 350 for 40 minutes. The crust was ok. I think it would compliment the right filling, but the peaches still tasted mealy so the dish wasn't that great to me overall.

I didn't like this as well as normal crust. I didn't eat the edges. The crust was mostly cooked on the bottom, but perhaps more time in the oven would have helped.

Pressure Cooker Hungarian Chicken

http://www.food.com/recipe/pressure-cooker-hungarian-chicken-170094

This was very good. It took an hour total to make. I used whole wheat rotini instead of egg noodles. I used a  14 oz can of diced tomatoes instead of a medium tomato. That probably added a bunch more liquid than would have been in there, so I let the sauce reduce the whole 15 minutes as recommended. I used smoked paprika, which was not hot at all. I could have put in double the amount, but the flavor was still good as is.  The sour cream addition was great. I put in just under 4 lbs of bone-in chicken leg quarters (3 quarters). I pulled off the skin and split the thighs from the legs (3 of each).

This would feed 4 I think. It fit easily into my 4 qt pressure cooker. I also added 2 carrots cut in 1 inch pieces and 8 frozen brussel sprouts. The brussel sprouts were for sure overcooked, but still tasted well I think.

Ghirardelli Chocolate Chip Cookies

http://www.ghirardelli.com/recipes-tips/recipes/chocolate-chip-cookies

This recipe is from the back of the 60% dark choc chip bag. Except it calls for 10 oz of chips, which is how big the bag is. I made this today using whole pecans. David really liked them. He is a fan of dark chocolate likes pecans better than walnuts.

Mexican Bean Salad

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/mexican-bean-salad/

I loved this salad. I used half the salt and sugar called for and put in garbanzo beans instead of black since that's what I had. Next time I will also halve the oil and vinegar since there was too much.

This is best eaten in the first couple days since the cilantro will turn brown and there is a lot of starch released  into the oil which makes it thick and weird.

Berry Crisp using frozen berries

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Mixed-Berry-Crisp-101940

When I made this the topping fell in and the dish became thick as glue. It would probably work better if I'd melted the butter instead of keeping it chilled like the directions say. I will try that next time.

Roasted Almonds

http://www.elanaspantry.com/how-to-roast-almonds/

I roasted some raw almonds and it worked well. The salt did not stick, but the almonds were still very tasty.

Green Thai Curry with Chicken

The instructions on the green curry paste bottle that "Thai Kitchen" makes say to put in 1 or 2 tbsp of paste for 1 can of coconut milk. I made the recipe that way (2 tbsp) and it was so mild I could barely taste any flavor. It really needs 2 or 3 times that amount. It wasn't hot at all either.

I added diced onion, carrots, and potatoes and let simmer until cooked. Also added cooked chicken somewhere in the simmer time. It would have been nice to add some fresh basil but I didn't have any.

We ate it on brown rice. David and I liked it, but it was very lacking in flavor. Also I did not add sugar as the bottle suggested and was glad. It is plenty sweet from the coconut milk.

Baleada Tortillas II - winner! / flatbread

http://foodwishes.blogspot.com/2011/03/fresh-homemade-flour-tortillas-in-no.html

I doubled this recipe and used lard from a local farm. It was fantastic. David said it tasted just like what he'd hoped, and similar to what he remembered authentic tortillas to taste like from his mission. I measured 16 oz of flour for this recipe and used less than 1/4 cup during kneading. For the water I microwaved 1 cup of water for 1 minute and the temperature was right. The dough was very easy to handle. Divide into 12 (or 6 for a single batch. I think the video says to do 8 per recipe, but that makes too small a tortilla). I let it rest in a large mass and split up after resting. Then I rolled out between two silpats. My octagon one is the perfect size, the tortillas were the same diameter as that one and were perfect.

If you use this for flatbread you could make them thicker. I think mine were around 7 or 8 inches diameter and they worked well as tortillas.

Baleada Tortillas I - loser!

http://cocinahondurasymas.blogspot.com/2010/03/baleadas-catrachas.html

This recipe sort of bombed. I put in 2.5 TBSPs of soda instead of tsps, and it tasted horribly bitter. The recipe needed more than twice the liquid called for as well (I did 1 cup plus a little bit of warm milk). I will try another recipe before I do this one again in tsps.

Cheddar and Dill Scones

http://kt-recipe-box.blogspot.com/2008/06/cheddar-and-dill-scones.html

These were great. I've had them once before, but several years ago at a melville breakfast. I made the mistake of pressing the dough into 9 inch cake pans instead of pie pans. I guess I didn't read it closely enough and the scones were thinner than they should be. But still good! David really liked them, both texture and flavor.