Justin & Meredith Winokur's Kitchen Cooking Notebook
Sitemap ·
Our Recipe Book ·
Steven's Recipe Book ·
Ann's Recipe Book ·
Meal Ideas ·
Copied Recipes
Random ·
Random Links
Home > 314
KitchenKatalog: Blog 314
Wednesday, February 29, 2012, 08:57 PM
This was a very successful meal. First, the zucchini fritters. I followed the original recipe with my notes from that day (basil,cayenne, spices). I also used a bit extra baking power. I was nervous about these since last time they stuck. I extra pammed the pan and all. I also tried to make them thin so they would cook more. When I went to flip the first one, it stuck but then I switched to the sharpest, flattest metal spatula I had and I really scraped before flipping. That worked well! I also let them cook a bit longer. The fritters were as good as, if not better, than the first time.
The taco cupcakes were inspired by the recipe at EmilyBiltes but I am not going to copy the recipe since we didn't really follow it for anything but the idea. We had eggroll wrappers but not wonton so we quartered the wrappers. We pammed muffin tins and pressed a layer into the wrapper. Then we added our taco meat stuff, put some grated cheese on it, then pressed another layer into it. The double layering helps hold it all together and kind of join the wrappers. We then topped it again with the taco and then cheese.
The recipe calls for cooking them for 18-20 min at 375. However, since we had the oven at 425 for the fritters, we used that for about 8 minutes. Just until the edges of the wrappers were crisping. While that worked, next time we will do the lower temp for longer. The part of the wrapper not hanging over the edge didn't get as well cooked but we couldn't go longer without burning the outer part.
Meredith made the taco filling so she may be able to clarify, but it was largely inspired by the taco stew without the water. We used sautéd onions, browned extra-lean beef, black beans, taco seasonings and diced yellow squash (since more zucchini would have been redundant).
These were extremely good, even if the wrappers didn't fully crisp. We will definitely make them again. And use the idea with the wrappers to make other meal cupcakes as well.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 1850, 2012-02-29_205714
Monday, February 27, 2012, 11:59 AM
Meredith prepared everything so she may have more details, but I got home extremely late and this was fast and easy. We made pizzas on sandwich flatbreads. Meredith had made sauce and she roasted mushrooms, peppers and yellow squash. We topped the pizzas with low fat cheese, some leftover ricotta salata and low fat regular ricotta.
We cooked them at 400 until the bread was crisp. I do not recall how long though. Probably around 10-15 min.
We liked this as a good, quick meal.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 1844, 2012-02-27_115930
Wednesday, February 22, 2012, 11:56 AM
The salmon was basically the same technique described here with the time adjusted since these were thin pieces. However, I put some Emril Essence on to make it cajun salmon. The seasonings did blacken on the salmon but it was all very good. I may have slightly overcooked the salmon but only slightly. The nice thing about using good salmon (wild) is that it is more resilient to overcooking.
We also had roasted artichokes. Meredith did them so I am not sure of the details but I know they had some bread crumbs and then we roasted them for a while. And we had a Pasta Sides thing to balance out the meal.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 1840, 2012-02-22_115619
Tuesday, February 21, 2012, 11:56 AM
I am writing this pretty far past having made it so my memory won't be great. We used the same Falafel recipe as in the past but with a lot of parsley and cilantro (hence the green). After flipping them, I gave a small press to make sure the side was in contact with the pan. This gave a bit more crispiness.
I also made Hasselback potatoes but unlike last time, I didn't put something in each slit. While they look really cool, they aren't all that special. Maybe they need all the butter and cheese that all of the recipes call for. On Meredith's suggestion, we put salsa on them and they were fine.
We also had tzatziki (home made) and pita (store bought) for the falafel.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 1837, 2012-02-21_115601
Sunday, February 19, 2012, 07:08 AM
We made Pasole using the same recipe from The Homesick Texan again roasted the tomatillos. We also used double the poblanos and probably at least double the tomatillos. I also put a single dried Bhut Jolokia pepper in to spice it up. Despite the fact that I forgot the lime (lemon?) juice, these tasted rather lemony. Weird. It was good but not our best effort. I do not really know what is different though.
We also repeated our bean eggplant(basically white bean bruschetta but with broiled eggplant instead of bread). However, despite being my Dad's son, we didn't have white northern beans in our inventory. We debated between chick-peas or black-eyed peas and ended on the black-eyed peas. They had a chalkier taste that wasn't as good. We also cut up a tomato which was a nice addition. I still really like this side. It is easy, low in points, and has lots of veggies. Oh, we used Israeli olive oil my parents brought back for us. It was good though the flavor was lost a bit with the mix. We used it also when we made our valentine's day dinner
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 1826, 2012-02-19_070803
Wednesday, February 15, 2012, 07:07 AM
We followed the standard sloppy joe recipe except I also added some sriracha to kick up the spice. We let it simmer for a while which really is the trick with these. Our first ones were pretty standard on Arnolds but for the rest, we make into sloppy joe taquitos. They were pretty good and a different way to eat them.
I like this meal since it is pretty easy. Easy to prep and clean and you can do other stuff while it is cooking.
Of course, since we use 2/3 lbs of beef for both of us to make 4 sloppy joes, they tend to be rather clean.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 1823, 2012-02-15_070732
Monday, February 13, 2012, 06:28 PM
We bought vealvenison steaks at Whole Foods to try something new. As per the instructions, we seared them and cooked them to medium rare. Well, the two larger steaks were still...whatever noise deer make...and the smaller steak was medium. Anyway, they had a gamey taste to them and neither Meredith nor I thought they were amazing. A fun experiment none-the-less.
Meredith also made mashed potatoes using fake butter, non-fat greek yogurt and a bunch of spices. It was okay but a tad chalky. We also had steamed asparagus that tasted really funky for some reason.
I guess just a strange meal all around
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 1812, 2012-02-13_182806
Saturday, February 11, 2012, 06:27 PM
The main part of this was the avocado. We had read about it on Lifehacker but we changed it a bunch. Meredith made a stuffing out of egg beaters, cheese and Pace salsa. We hollowed out a bit of the avocado to make a bigger space and poured the egg in. We baked it for about 20 minutes. I think at 400 but I do not remember for sure and the site doesn't seem to have it. It was really good and cool. The warm avocado added a nice touch and the egg stuff was also good.
I also made a lean hamburger with a lot of different seasonings including curry powder and cayenne. It was dry but fine.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 1806, 2012-02-11_182727