Cookaholics Bulletin Board

Adria's family cookbook is extremely accessible and the recipes are not nearly as time consuming as say The French Laundry Cookbook.

Amy

Yes, they are somewhere around ATK Family Cookbook in difficulty for the most part, though a little better technique (sautéing etc) then assumed for ATK would be required I think. I'm liking so far and have quite a few recipes marked to make.

Belated Christmas dinner with my husband's sisters - sausage and bean soup (epicurious and Katiepie's blog),spiral ham, CI pot roast, CI mashed pots, CI roasted green beans, caesar salad (croutons made with Penzeys sandwich sprinkle), mixed greens with balsamic/evoo/goat cheese/blueberries and whole wheat rolls (technically I made them as hamburger buns but figured they were fine as rolls too). One sister brought a broccolli and cheese dish (yum) and the other brought desserts.

So, everything but the mixed salad and the ham I learned due to joining TOBB and meeting all of you. What the heck did I make before?

Last night we had company, but I wasn't all that ambitious and the company mix made menu selection a PITA, so ended up with a nice salad to start and then Cassoulet and finished with cheesecake brought by one of the guests; I had sorbet in the freezer, but the guest dessert was a surprise and I couldn't ignore it. The Cassoulet was a hit; none of the guests had had it previously. I told them they were having beans and sausage

Oh, addendum: I used the Runner Cannellini from Rancho Gordo over my previous uses of Great Northern or canned cannellini. I was pretty stunned; the texture, and flavour, of the runners were amazingly good and far superior to my earlier beans. You can make good cassoulet with a lesser bean, but the quality bean definitely enhances it and is noticeable even in this strongly flavoured dish.

Amy's mac and cheese for my son who was very pleased. Yummmm!

Last night:

Sapporo-style (mildly spicy) Miso Ramen with tamago, shitake, and vegetables. Also sake I brought back from Japan and have no idea what it's called.

After a sushi lunch (today), enough with the Japanese food; we went out and had crepes and fries.

Grilled Ribeye steak, sauted green beans with onions and red peppers, roasted buttercup squash and a spinach salad with parm, assorted veg and bacon. No particular recipe's, just free stylin it as the pickers would say! LOL

I've had a craving for an Egg Salad Sandwich on plain white bread. I boiled some eggs on Monday night and last night after work, I bought a loaf of bread at the Sav A Lot ($1.69) and made myself not one, but two egg salad sandwiches. It's been years since I've had one and boy were they good.

I know that craving...sometimes nothing but egg salad will do.

I had a craving of similar proportions last night. I was solo for dinner and decided on a grilled cheese. Used ciabatta I made the other day, spread on a little cream cheese, added some pickled jalapenos, used aged Gouda. Grilled in some butter. Scrumptious...

Amy