I am getting married! That may seem like a strange way to start a food blog, but walk with me for a minute, I’m getting to a point. My Other Half was not ensnared by my glorious cooking skills (at least not entirely!) but it’s fair to say it’s probably on his Top 10 list of reasons why he loves me. On my list of reasons he’s The One is the fact that he eats nearly everything I cook without complaint and doesn’t fuss that I am perpetually experimenting in the kitchen. So while we are simpatico on this topic, our waistlines over the past two years have grown right along with our love, and that my friends, does not bode well for form-fitting wedding attire nor a beachy honeymoon. So the point is (see? I promised!) we have been in the throes of the worst “D” word in the English language: DIET. The last thing I wanted to do was write all about these four wonderful recipes I made, but which will sadly not be on our menus again very soon! Alas, I have a commitment to my beloved Pioneer Woman as well, so I am going to finish this project despite the threat to my calorie count. Remind me to apologize in advance to my alterations gal!
Let us kick off the reminiscences of feasts past with an appropriately love-themed recipe that I’ve made on numerous occasions before realizing I should have been taking photos of it: Linguine with Clam Sauce. I say this is related to love because of Ree’s story behind it; this was the first meal she ever prepared for her then-boyfriend, Ladd. He hated it. And he ate it anyway. Ahhhh, l’amour! They laugh now about the big, burly cattle rancher choking down seafood lightly bathed in white wine and lemon juice only to spare his date’s feelings, but I think he was missing out by being culinarily biased against the poor clams. Flash forward 20+ blissfully wedded years and she’s never forced him to eat it again, but thankfully she still included it in her cookbook for the rest of us! What I love about it is the fact that all of the ingredients were already in my pantry (yes, I keep canned clams on hand!) and it presents as “fancy” without requiring much work. The pasta is just pasta, and the clams simply simmer in an inviting pool of melted butter, garlic, oil, white wine, lemon juice and cream, with a sprinkle of parsley and Parmesan at the end. How could he not love this?? We sure did!
I have to admit I felt a little betrayed by the name of recipe #19, Mocha Brownies. It clearly implies that I should feel like I’ve just enjoyed a strong cup of joe after eating one of these, and yet… There is no coffee in this brownie!! Blasphemy. All the coffee is in the icing, which quite frankly I don’t believe even belongs on a brownie. To be fair, this is a solid brownie recipe. And I do mean solid. Just look at it: dense, thick, and chewy. But for all that, I’d rather have just eaten it plain, ditched the “mocha” title, and made this frosting for a fluffy Devil’s food cake. Which is what I’ll be doing in the future, since the recipe made a gallon of frosting, almost as thick as the brownie itself! I went a little (lot) overboard with the coffee trying to amp up the flavor, but all I succeeded in doing was making it too runny. I even added more powdered sugar, but as this was a buttercream, I actually needed to use more softened butter which wouldn’t have incorporated well. Chalk one up for learning, and when I can afford to pack on a few pounds, this will be back in the rotation with a few modifications.
On to breakfast! If there is one thing I have limited patience for, it’s standing in the kitchen for an hour before any food hits my plate in the morning. I prefer meals that take 10 minutes or less, or just pass me the cherry Danish! Still, my Other Half has a thing for hot breakfast, so I oblige him occasionally with pain-in-the-behind meals like this one. The problem is simply that there is too much to chop up here, so I outsmarted the recipe by prepping far in advance. I shredded cheese, diced peppers and onions, mixed eggs with cream and seasoning all the night before while I was already making dinner featuring many of the same veggies, and in the morning I just had to dump it all together. Frozen potatoes O’Brien were my friend here, or you can make Ree’s fresh Breakfast Potatoes (hers are admittedly better!) Clearly the ones pictured are mine – doused in sour cream – while my love drowned his in hot sauce. I included jalapeño, but even I had to admit they could have done with a bit more spice. Since there are so many steps involved in creating this meal, you could (and should) pre-wrap several burritos and cover them in tin foil to be reheated in the oven as needed.
At last we come to a great big pan of comfort carbs. I mean, Lasagna! What can I say, it’s hard to mess this up! The one part that I wholeheartedly disagree with, yet didn’t ruin this recipe, is the substitution of cottage cheese for ricotta. Yes, I know a lot of people do it, yes I love cottage cheese all on its own. But no… I don’t think it belongs here to the exclusion of real Italian cheese. But I digress. My usual objection to cottage cheese is the lumpy consistency when it’s just plopped onto the noodle bed, but I whipped this cottage cheese with eggs, herbs and Parmesan, smoothing it out considerably. Fresh herbs (not dried) added a nice flair to the meat sauce too, and naturally I doubled the quantity of mozzarella called for, which is just about the right amount! I’ve made dozens of lasagna recipes over the years, and there are some that have you simmering sauce for eight hours and some that practically have you opening a can of Manwich and dumping it on uncooked noodles. Ree’s recipe splits the difference nicely, keeping it simple and inexpensive, but not shorting you on flavor. I’ll be making this again…when eventually “calories” won’t be mentioned in this house!
Have Book, Will Cook 