More on 365

Since we are talking about my (ahem, extensive) cookbook collection I thought I’d share one more with y’all.

Food Fest 365 – The Officially Fun Food Holiday Cookbook By Yvoun D. Lemoine © 2010

I got this fun book as a surprise present from a friend. So far, for Project 365, I have only made one recipe. Blueberry Popovers.

Delicious!

This book lists national food holidays with a corresponding recipe for each day. They are listed in chronological order, starting with January 1st. Each calendar date and recipe has a little food fact or history note to go along with it. This appeals greatly to my nerdy side. The author obviously has a quirky sense of humor. She includes food origins and political history relating to various dishes.

It is such a fun book. I started looking at specific personal dates to see what foods were listed for them. My birthday is Apple Dumpling Day. My daughter’s is Chocolate Cake Day. Our wedding anniversary is Raspberry Tart Day.

Then I skimmed to find some of my favorite foods. June 19th is Dry Martini Day, but she uses gin, not vodka. Okay, just use the stuff in the blue bottle!

Some other fun examples: January 19th is Popcorn Day. It is one of the oldest snacks. It became the official movie snack during the depression. The recipe she includes is for Salted Caramel Popcorn.

February 6th is Nutella Day – Nutella and Banana Crepes (yoooo hooo! Spindle, this one’s for you!)

April 30th is Raisin Day – Carrot Raisin Salad The book is interspersed with gorgeous photos of yummy food. Some of the recipes are the author’s family recipes, some are very simple and some are classic dishes with a new twist.

Who knew we needed an Escargot Day. May 24th. The recipe is for Escargot Hush Puppies and Pesto Mayo. I don’t know that I’ll be trying that any time soon, but it’s still fun.

May 27th is Grape Popsicle Day. I can’t think of a better excuse to turn my tongue purple, can you?

If you can’t decide what to cook today, check the date in the book and see what the theme of the day is. Fun!

Just for the record, today, October 30th is Buy a Doughnut Day and the Recipe is for Classic Cake Doughnuts with Maple Bacon Glaze. (Hey Pickle Gulch friends! Think LameBeaver would make this for us next year to go with the Bacon Martinis? I think he needs to. Yes, yes he does.)

Eat Well Stay Well

Eat Well Stay Well

Let me tell you about one of the books I am using for Project 365. One of my favorites.

The Project 365 recipes I have made from this book so far are Lentil Pear and Goat Cheese Salad, Swordfish Kabobs with Lemon and Garlic, Maple Pork Chops, Old Fashioned Mushroom Barley Soup, Orange Banana Breakfast Smoothie, Teriyaki Salmon,

Greek Style Romaine Salad

Strawberry Ricotta Crepes

Pork Piccata

Chunky Beef Chili

Other recipes I have tried include Cauliflower with Deviled Cheese Sauce, Fresh Fennel Salad with Lemon, Scalloped Potatoes with Smoked Turkey, Baked Rolled Sole with Lemon and Oregano, Ricotta Stuffed Turkey Breast, Chicken Normandy and Blueberry Scones.

The book starts out with nutritional information on a wide variety of foods, nutrients and food components. It talks about minerals and vitamins and why each is important. 

The chapters are organized by type of food, not the type of dish; Vegetables, Dairy & Eggs, Fish & Shellfish, Lean Meats, Fruits & Berries. Then each of the chapters is organized alphabetically by ingredient. Artichokes and asparagus begin the vegetable chapter for example.  This is good if you “read” cookbooks compulsively like I do, but it may be a bit frustrating if you are simply looking something to make for dinner. The index in the back, however, is very useful.

That said, I really like this book. It is one of the first books I added to my collection. We won’t talk about how many years ago that has been.  The recipes are simple, creative and healthy. This book is so loved that it is beginning to fall apart. A good sign for a cookbook!

About half the pages have super quick recipes down the side of the page with gorgeous photos. Unlike the full page recipes, these have the ingredients incorporated right into the directions.  Not every recipe has a photo, but every page does. The photos are beautiful!

Menu – October 29th – November 4th, 2011

Project 365 marches on. I’m currently at 279/365. Only 96 recipes left to go! I have a few weeks left, right? RIGHT?

My menu isn’t 100% finished yet. I still need to figure out what I’ll be doing (extra) for lunches, but I may decide that after I see what fruits and veggies look good at the store. I still have quite a bit of unused produce from this week, so I need to use that up. We don’t need a dessert on the menu this week. There is still leftover (storebought) coffee cake and chocolate rice crispy treats. What? I had marshmallows that weren’t being eaten. *grins*

Grocery List for the week: ham steaks, spinach, lettuce, leeks, rice cakes, chicken broth, ground beef, cucumbers (and a reminder to self to not let them get slimy!), orange chocolate candies

Everything else I will need is either in the freezer or pantry. Looking good here.

I had picked out a bunch of recipes from my Bento cookbooks for this last week and many of them did not get made, so I might just recycle them into this week. There are also some veggies sitting on my kitchen table that I haven’t cooked yet. Delicata squash (oh how I love thee!) and some zucchini that I have no idea what recipe it was supposed to go with. I think the zucchini might get snuck into the spaghetti sauce. Muwahaha….

This week is a tight budget week (damn those day care costs!) but I never let that stop us from eating yummy food… And thank goodness for dollar stores, where I can find chicken broth and ham steaks.  Anyway, on to the menu.

As usual, these are in no particular order. I just write it out this way so that I make sure I have all my bases covered… And like for Monday, which is Halloween, we won’t have a lot of time for preparing dinner, so I’ve planned leftovers.  Add salad and/or a vegetable and bread and the dinners are pretty much complete

Saturday: Fish from Trader Joes? – depends on what they have. OR Navy Bean Soup with Ham (1001 Slow Cooker )and corn bread

Sunday: Scalloped Ham, Potatoes and Leeks (365 One Dish)

Monday: Leftovers

Tuesday: Chicken Drummettes Valencia (365 BBQ) – I have legs in the freezer

Wednesday: Fettuccini with Greens and Caramelized Onion (1001 Low Fat Vegetarian) – put whatever leftover meat we have into hubby’s portion

Thursday: Leftovers

Friday: Tomato Sauce with Ground Beef (365 Pasta)

Lunches: Tuna and Cucumber on Rice Rounds (365 Low Cal)
Three Mushroom Rice (Bento)
Baked Delicata Squash

Other: Chocolate Cream Muffins (1 Mix 100 Muffins) – with orange chocolates

Feeding the Dragon – Review

Feeding the Dragon – A culinary travelogue through China with recipes

By Mary Kate Tate and Nate Tate. © 2011  A (western, not Chinese) sister and brother team.

The first thing I do when looking at a book such as this is to look at the photographs. This one does not disappoint. The beautiful photos are a mix of both history and modernity.

Chapters are divided by region – Beijing, Hong Kong, Yunnan, Tibet etc. Each begins with a description of the area and personal stories from the authors. There is lots of history included. I particularly liked the piece on “dog on and off the menu”. Dog meat = gou rou. It is believed to be medicinal. Contrary to what westerners might believe, it is truly not that common in China. There are no recipes for dog in the book.

A lot of the recipes would be good for bentos. I have several that I have bookmarked to try, either for dinners or in smaller portions for my lunches.

Stir-fry spinach with Oyster Sauce (Beijing)
Stir-fried Potatoes and Peppers (Beijing)
Radish and Baby Corn Quick Pickles (Fujan)
Corn and Pine Nut Stir Fry (Fujan)
Lemongrass Chicken Wings (Yunnan)
Pineapple Rice (Yunnan)
Chicken Spring Rolls (Hong Kong)
Tibetian Curry Potatoes (Tibet)

In additional to traditional recipes, such as Won Ton Soup and various stir fries, there are also creative recipes that use traditional ingredients in new ways, such as the Lychee Martini. I must try that!

There are a lot of descriptions and how-to methods in the back of the book. There are also sample menus. The glossary of ingredients is extensive.

The book is a great mix of recipes, stories and photos. There are two little things I would change about the book. I would have liked captions to the photos. Also, in addition to the Chinese characters in the recipe titles, I would have liked to know the phonetic, English pronunciations of each as well.

Simple Step by Step Bento – 15 min

First, get out your box and tools. Today I’m making onigiri and using my basic rectangular box.

Make the onigiri and place them in the box. These are filled with sauteed chanterelle mushrooms.

Next comes the side dishes and veggies. This is a small tomato stuffed with tuna and cilantro. I had mixed up the tuna to make spring rolls, but changed my mind when making lunch this morning. There is still enough mix left to make some tomorrow.

Gaps get filled in with veggies. Carrots and snowpeas here. I have a little container of green goddess salad dressing for dipping.

Then fill in the box with more veggies. Here is roasted red bell pepper (from a jar) and simmered kabocha squash.

Those onigiri look a little plain, don’t you think? How about a little furikake to dress them up? I also added a can of sparkling water and a plum for dessert.

The Menu this Week. October 1-7 2011

The Menu this Week. October 1-7 2011

I have less than 100 recipes to go to complete Project 365! I have made  recipes. I think I got behind in the last couple of weeks because I have been traveling and not doing a lot of cooking.

As usual, these are most likely not in the order that I will make them. I’ve been trying to get the husband and kidling to eat more fruits and vegetables so I will also serve  grapes, pineapple and/or oranges with dinner. And bread. Always with the bread.

Hubby requested corn on the cob this week and the kidling wants (as always!!) chicken legs.  They wanted home-baked cookies yesterday, so I made spider web sugar cookies. I’m out of eggs and we don’t really need more baked goodies right now, so the baking recipes may get pushed into next week. We’ll see how many of the cookies hubby ends up eating between now and the weekend.

It looks like I’m making a ton of food for lunches, but these will be scaled down to 1-2 servings. I like a lot of variety.

Sat – Quick Quesadillas – 365 20 Minute Meals

Sun – Linguini with Quick White Clam Sauce – 365 20 Minute Meals

Mon – Sausage Rice Skillet with Broccoli – 365 One Dish Meals

Tues – Ploughman’s Chicken – 1001 Low Fat Recipes (had this last night. AMAZING!)

 

Wed –  CORN – Clean Out Refrigerator Night – leftovers

Thurs – Fish Teriyaki – 1001 Low Fat Recipes

Fri – Macaroni and Cheese with Smoked Ham – 365 20 Minute Meals

Lunches –  Easy Quinoa Temaki from 365 Quinoa (this didn’t work)
Mini Hamburgers (freeze ½ or more) from Just Bento (very good!)
Chestnut Rice from Just Bento (good)
Carrot Rice from Just Bento
Tofu Soboro from Just Bento
Shiitake Teriyaki from Just Bento

Other – Quinoa Carrot and Lentil Stew (freeze ½ or more) from 365 Quinoa
Cranberry Orange Loaf from 365 Quinoa (freeze ½)
Top Banana Bars (freeze ½) from Easy Everyday Low Carb