Justin & Meredith Winokur's Kitchen Cooking Notebook
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posts/2021/08
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Tuna Cabbage Crunch -- back to top
I can't seem to find this from the past but Meredith made her regular "Tuna Cabbage Crunch". It is two cans of tuna, cole slaw chopped cabbage, a mix of mayo and greek yogurt, and Fox Point seasoning.
It was good! And healthier than regular tuna salad.
Double Chocolate Chunk Muffin Tops -- back to top
Meredith made Chocolate Chunk Muffin Tops from Liz Moody (LOCAL)
Her notes of changes: brown sugar for coconut, regular cocoa powder, mini chocolate chips, and black walnuts instead of regular1.
The freezer was overflowing again and I didn’t have the patience to dig. The black walnuts were in the inside freezer and very easy to locate ↩
Sous Vide NY Strip -- back to top
I made Sous Vide Steak [Serious Eats] with choice-level NY Strips from Costco. In the bag, I had half a cube of the frozen garlic, a thinly sliced shallot, and some fresh rosemary.
I did 140°F for about 1.5 hours and then seared them on the baking steel on the grill. I didn't use oil on one side and then decided I should. I also topped them with butter.
Other than one exceptional bite, I was pretty disappointed. I thought it was tough and not super flavorful. I need to work on getting more flavor into the steak! And maybe using choice-level wasn't the right answer. I did have one bite that was really, really good.
The Huffsmiths really liked it though!
I served with tater tots baked a bit longer than stated (which is the trick to them being really good!)
Brisket and Other Party Foods -- back to top
For Caroline's birthday party, I made sous vide brisket. Costco only had choice-level flat brisket. I got a 9.09 lbs piece and it didn't need much trimming. I would have preferred a prime "packer" even though it would have been much more work. But they didn't have it.
I trimmed what I needed and then cut it down the middle. I used the seasoning mix from the recipe without doubling it. I don't do another coat so I just used 1x. I added 1/4 tsp of liquid smoke in each bag. I put it in with the steak at 140°F and then brought it to 155°F for the next 26 hours. I quick-chilled it Saturday night in a cooler with ice and left it overnight (I meant to take it out but forgot. Thankfully, there was just a tad bit of ice left in the water and I checked the temp. It was fine overnight).
To reheat it, I put it in a cooler with hot tap water for a bit and then smoked it on the grill for 2.5 hours or so.
It was pretty good! Not super smokey but I liked the flavor and the crust. We basically just had enough. Everyone ate but it was not plentiful. Oops.
I also made "blue box". It was 1 large "deluxe" box and one regular. The deluxe has a sauce packet while the regular needs to be mixed with butter and milk. That also went.
Finally, Meredith made 2 lbs (two batches) of Omi's Haricots Verts Salad [Gaby Dalkin] with regular green beans and sans shallots. They were also popular!
Overall, pretty good though I wish we had a bit more.
And of course we had Tractor Birthday Cake for dessert with a watermelon and Blue Bell Cookies ’n Cream Cone Ice Cream.
Tractor Birthday Cake -- back to top
Meredith made a Tractor Birthday Cake for Caroline. The cake was with her favorite Cakes by Courtney recipe. It came out super sticky today but also extremely moist. Other than being a bit hard to work with, it was great!
The frosting was chocolate cream cheese from Sally's Baking Addiction (LOCAL). Meredith had to use about 15 grams of black onyx cocoa powder because she ran out of regular dutched cocoa.
Meredith used the mix pictured below for the rocks. Inspiration but not recipe from Completely Delicious and pictured below
Turkey Tacos and Vegetable Fajitas -- back to top
Turkey tacos with vegetable fajitas just done with adobo powder. The turkey was done with 1.5 Trader Joe’s taco seasoning packets
Mini Crescent Quiche -- back to top
Meredith made Mini Crescent Quiche from A Beautiful Mess (LOCAL). She said they were very good and Caroline really enjoyed them too.
Mini Crescent Quiche -- back to top
**No Photo**
Meredith made Mini (Crescent) Quiche Recipe [A Beautiful Mess] again.
I just wanted to note some of Meredith's changes like last time
Added to the recipe: 1 tsp kosher salt per batch seems about right
For today (and maybe last time too?): 1/8 tsp coriander, sprinkle of white pepper, and finely chopped chives from the garden. Probably about 2 tbsp of chives once chopped.
Salt and Pepper Kugel and Thai Style Cabbage Salad -- back to top
We made food to bring to the Pettit's for dinner.
For the kugel, I called my Baba and got her recipe and then also combined it with a few others. It is Mom's (Joan) Salt and Pepper Kugel. I used 1 stick of butter which was delicious but it probably could have been less. I also skipped the optional stuff. I cooked it at 365°F for about an hour. The noodles on top got really crunchy which everyone else loved, though I would have preferred them a tad softer. This was super easy though!
Meredith made Crunchy Thai Style Cabbage Salad from Cook Republic (LOCAL). She followed the recipe. It was okay. Honestly, we thought it was very similar to Asian-ish Shredded Chicken Salad / "Redemption Salad" [Dinner: A Love Story] but not as good and we would have preferred that!
Baked Potato Salad -- back to top
We bought too much potato and needed to use them up so Meredith made baked potato salad.
Tossed 1.5 lbs Yukon gold potatoes with some penzeys ranch powder. Roasted them for about 30 min at 425.
Let cool then used the notes from previous time to make loaded baked potato salad.
Croque Monsieur -- back to top
Croque Monsieur [Bon Appétit]. Meredith accidentally doubled the flour so it was thick but still very, very tasty!
Meredith made Greek Nachos. The ideas was inspired by Better Homes and Gardens but she kind of just did her own thing.
It was:
It was really good and pretty easy. Also a fun new thing
Chickpea Chaat Salad and Saffron Tomato Confit on Eggplant -- back to top
Meredith made a dinner of Cook Republic (LOCAL) and Saffron Tomato Confit from What's Gabby Cooking (LOCAL).
For the salad, I think Meredith followed the recipe pretty closely. It was a lot of chopping but was pretty good. We topped it with some Indian snack blend rather than peanuts. I think we could use the food processor (carefully) to do some of the chopping next time!
Also worth noting that all of the tomatoes, cucumber, and mint came from the garden.
Meredith also followed the recipe for the tomato confit but the temps were really too high. It all should have been set to low. We served it with marinated mozzarella balls to be kind of like bruschetta.
We served both on roasted eggplant which we've done before (I think 2012-01-21 was the first)
Aloo Gobi Traybake -- back to top
We made the Aloo Gobi Traybake [Cook Republic]. I don't think we made any major changes except that we probably went heavy on all of the veggies.
It was really good. The whole house smelled like Indian food and it was great!
Peach-Compote Dessert Cups -- back to top
Meredith made Peach-Compote Dessert Cups [Martha Stewart] for dessert since we had a ton of leftover peaches. She halved it. The marscapone was hard to mix in so Meredith used the mixer. That seemed to only deflate it a little bit.
Not the prettiest but very tasty!
Pumpkin Baked Oatmeal -- back to top
Pumpkin Baked Oatmeal [Joy Food Sunshine]
Smash Burgers with Sautéed Onions -- back to top
I made Smash Burgers [The Food Lab/Serious Eats] for dinner for myself.
I sautéed a 1/4 of a red onion with salt to put on as well. I went a bit too heavy on the salt but it added a lot of flavor.
For the burger, I used a super-pre-heated baking steel on the grill. I used about 0.6 lbs of 85% beef. After putting all four balls on, I pressed them (bottom of a pan with non-stick aluminum foil). I salted them and let it go for about 45 second. I flipped them, added onions and cheese, and then basically took it off.
As you can see in the photo, they came out medium-rare/medium. A bit more rare than I was aiming for but really not too bad. I wanted to serve it on mini-tortillas but they went bad so I used ciabatta and did it open face.
They were really good. A tad salty but the onions really added a lot of flavor and it was, generally, really tasty. Probably the best ones I've made.
Also leftover Aloo Gobi Traybake
Grilled Chicken Salad -- back to top
I made a simple grilled chicken salad. I grilled some chicken with Montreal Chicken Seasoning. I made the salad with spinach, leftover eggplant, crunched cheese crackers, red onion, and peanuts. I used the Bolthouse Farms Cilantro Avocado dressing. (I want to try to make my own of this kind sometime).
It was very good and very filling!