Author: leora76

I have a confession to make: sometimes I fib a little in this blog.  Not about anything drastic like results or how well I like a recipe, but occasionally I’ll fudge on exactly “when” I made a certain dish.  If I flip through a cookbook and see stuff I’ve made in the past, or is so basic that naturally I’ve done it before, I rarely bother making it again just for the blog.  There are only so many variations on whipped cream!  I check the recipe off the list, and if I have anything to say, I’ll write it up as if it just happened.  This time it was banana bread, which I have made dozens of times in my life.  Like any good Joanna Gaines fan, I subscribe to her “Magnolia Journal” magazine.  One of her early issues featured the exact same recipe for After School Banana Bread that later appeared in Magnolia Table.  Keep in mind this was well before she even hinted that she was releasing a whole cookbook, and I baked it when it originally published.  Had I known, I would have taken a picture, but I didn’t want to make it again just for a photo opp.      

Fast forward a few years, and here I am in the middle of a quarantine with only a handful of recipes left before I complete the project.  Every time I passed the photo of this bread and saw the little checkmark by the title, I felt a twinge of guilt at my lie of omission to you, dear reader!  When I finally say I made every recipe, I want to be able to declare, loud and proud, that I recorded an image of each one.  Which brings me to today, when I walked into my kitchen and spied two blackened bananas on the verge of death, and several more that at least looked like they had lived a hard life.

I decided then and there that it was time to give the bread recipe another whirl.  Boy am I glad I did!  For one thing, there is no other use for decrepit bananas than bread of some sort, and I hate waste.  For another, I am mostly home alone, so I ignored my Other Half’s irrational disdain for nuts in bread and added the pecans!  I stuck to her recipe for the batter, but I was inspired when she said, “add as much sugar to the top as you want before baking.”  Don’t mind if I do, Jo-Jo.  But in addition to sugar, I incorporated a sprinkle of homemade gingerbread spice which was hanging out in the cupboard since last Christmas.  If you’ve never tried banana nut bread with gingerbread spice you are missing out.  On a practical note, she suggests baking this in an 8×8 pan instead of a traditional loaf pan.  GENIUS.  The result is perfectly baked bread with no gummy spots, no worrying if the outside is burning while the inside is raw, or praying it stays in one piece when you try to turn it out.  (I’m talking to YOU, Lemon Poppy Seed Bread!)

Secret #2:  I don’t think there’s a Lebanese bone in my body, and I wasn’t interested in trying to channel non-existent Middle Eastern roots when I made Jo’s Fatayar.  I took major liberties with the directions, and won’t even apologize!  I had NO CLUE what this was, and still don’t know how to pronounce it.  All I knew was I had the bones of the meal in the pantry and fridge, but changes were gonna happen.  I made this on a day when my Other Half and I had already done a ton of work on our basement remodel and yard cleanup.  I was beyond caring about dinner, but also hungry, with thawed beef eyeballing me every time I opened the door.  Frozen hash browns?  Nope, but I had a load of potatoes growing roots, so into the food processor they went and BAM, just as good as frozen.  Not as pretty though; luckily all that rusty, red oxidation rinses right off if you have to wait a few minutes before cooking the potato.  Bagged cheddar shreds?  Another no, but that’s why God invented cheese graters.  Technically I could have shredded that in the food processor too, but hindsight is 20/20, and at the time I’d already dumped it in the sink.  Here’s where I threw caution to the winds: Grands Biscuits.  Jo’s recipe is adapted from her grandfather’s laborious version, and she included a lot of shortcuts to make it accessible to modern American cooks, such as refrigerated dough.  I wasn’t about to make dough from scratch, but I had no biscuits.  What I did have was a tube of crescent rolls, and a “what’s the worst that could happen” attitude that made me certain it could work.  Turns out I was right!  My “fake-ayar” continued to go down a different path when I got to the part about cutting 24 circles of dough and painstakingly filling each one with the beef/cheese/potato mixture, then forming a little “purse pinch” to hold it together.  NOT TODAY, JO!  I just Super-sized it, making two giant pouches.  The meat inside was already cooked, so I wasn’t worried about giving us food poisoning.  To accompany this Middle Eastern meat pie, naturally I chose… a down-home, Southern side dish.  Look, I’m running low on options at this point!  I hadn’t yet made Creamed Corn Spoonbread, and it cooked for roughly the same amount of time.  Winner.  This was a surprisingly delicious (if squishy) recipe!  It called for two cans of corn (one regular, one creamed), sugar and salt, a couple eggs, sour cream, and a whole stick of melted butter.  Holding this soggy mess together was a lone box of dry corn muffin mix, barely combined.  Let me be clear: that is a TON of wet ingredients!  Jo didn’t provide a picture of the completed recipe, so I wasn’t sure what “it will still look loose in the center” really meant.  I was taking no chances however, and baked it an additional 10 minutes.  It was still jiggly and spread across the plate, but really, really tasty!  I suggest eating the whole pan in one sitting though; I didn’t love the reheated leftovers as much.

Finally, I must confess that occasionally I fail HARD at a recipe that was going well at the outset!  This happened to me last weekend when I was preparing what was supposed to be dessert for a post-quarantine get-together with another couple.   There I was, so excited to finally SEE other people!  To FEED them!  Alas, catastrophe awaited.  I’d forgotten to cancel my Royal Crest Dairy delivery several times, and was sitting on a stockpile of nearly four dozen eggs.  The perfect time to try out Lemon Angel Food Cake, which requires a full dozen egg whites.  It is for that very reason that I’ve only made non-boxed angel food cake twice in my life.  That’s a lot of eggs, and then you have to use up the yolks!  I see an InstantPot cheesecake in my near future…  Things went swimmingly at the beginning, whipping up the egg whites with sugar, salt and cream of tartar.  I added lemon zest and vanilla, but decided to spice things up a bit with ginger extract, since I did not have pure lemon extract.  The flavor was glorious.  The Other Half got to lick the beater, and wanted to know what kind of frosting I’d made.  That’s when I realized that the first part of making angel food is essentially Seven-Minute Frosting; at least until I added the thrice-sifted cake flour/sugar dry ingredients.  Who knew?  I dug out my “unitasker” tubed cake pan that literally serves no purpose except making angel food cakes, and spread fluffy clouds of gingery, lemony batter into it.  That is, after I performed an uncalled for, and ultimately disastrous, step.  I sprayed the pan with cooking spray.  Normally this is necessary!!  I stand by my logic, and didn’t think for a second that just possibly, Jo had omitted that instruction on purpose.  When I took my masterpiece out of the oven, it had puffed so high that it extended even above the posts on the pan meant to keep the surface of the cake off the cooling rack when inverted.  Another option is sliding the tube onto a wine bottle, which allows super-floofy cakes the extra room they need.  IN THEORY, I should have had to loosen the cake with a knife to remove it from the pan.  Instead, this happened.  There was nothing to do but laugh and come up with “Plan B” when the whole thing plopped out in a pile.  That, and make my family eat this mess (which still tasted good) at our own Memorial Day BBQ!    

Today’s blog is brought to you by the letter “Almond”.  Though unplanned, it seems a theme has emerged, with this nut at the center of each dish.  Strangely enough, I was proven wrong time and time again this week by recipes which frankly I thought would suck, but turned out to be mind-blowingly awesome or oddly satisfying.  I have avoided, ignored, and “forgotten” to make these dishes for various reasons, but as I enter the final 20, now I have no choice.  Though it pains me to say this, I don’t approach each new recipe with an open mind and excitement in my heart.  These were prepared with Door Dash on speed dial and my finger poised above the “send” button.  But oh, how mistaken I was!  

I love Brussels sprouts.  Bacon, cream, Parmesan, balsamic vinegar, even mayonnaise; there are so many complementary flavors to pair with them!  You know what I do NOT think of when I imagine delicious counterparts to this amazing vegetable?  Blueberries.  Yes, you read that right.  Who in their right mind combines blueberries with Brussels sprouts?!  The main reason for procrastinating on making Brussels Sprouts Salad was that the mere idea of a hot side dish with fruit ‘n Brussels made me gag.  When I finally forced myself to make it for no other reason than I had all the ingredients, I read through the directions and realized it was a cold salad.  That got me thinking along the lines of coleslaw or an apple/fennel slaw, which wasn’t as horrendous as I’d feared.  I worked myself up to it, trying to imagine a sweet, mayonnaise-based dressing (like KFC makes!) and thought it might just bridge the gap between the bitter and sweet ingredients.  Alas, I was disappointed as I gathered up supplies and realized there was no mayo in sight.  Instead, the dressing consisted of a simple vinaigrette (vinegar, oil, honey, salt and pepper).  My faith can only be tested to a certain point, so I used a blood orange-infused olive oil to double down on the fruit flavors, and as much honey as I deemed necessary.  (Hint: it was more than just a teaspoon!)  I further flouted the instructions to “shred with a knife, cutting on the bias”.  Say what??  I did not have time for that nonsense (well, yes I did, what I lacked was interest!) so instead I used my handy-dandy, Pioneer Woman food processor shredding blade, recently purchased for a very reasonable price and shamelessly plugged!

Ree…  If you’re reading this, I still love you!

Ahem.  My sprouts were shredded in record time, and I threw in frozen blueberries and sliced almonds, then tossed everything together with the dressing.  After two hours of chilling, the moment of truth arrived.  I took the lid off the bowl and looked at a truly hideous salad, mostly due to the frozen berries leaching color and extra juice, but I was intrigued.  I closed my eyes so I wouldn’t have to look at it, and one bite later, I totally got it.  It shouldn’t work.  BUT IT DOES!!

My food photos generally don’t compete with the ones in Magnolia Table.  I’m no pro, and I have no specialty equipment save for my trusty iPhone.  Still, I have to give myself props for my Almond Chicken Tenderloins looking WAY more appetizing than the picture in the book!  But I have to give Jo props for designing an outstanding, quick chicken dish, which I ignored for so long because it looked sort of bland, dry, and tasteless.  Of course that’s not a fair assessment, but the saying “you eat with your eyes first” holds very true for me.  The cookbook photo looked like your average frozen chicken strips with some almonds thrown on top, and TADA!  Now it’s Almond Chicken!  Au contraire, mon frère!  Ok, in all honesty I am the one who is guilty of simply throwing sliced almonds on top of the chicken when it was finished.  I was supposed to toast them in butter or something, but I was really hungry.  And the REAL almond star was in the form of flour, not the topping.  The tenders (or in my case, giant chicken breasts cut into tender-sized pieces, because really that’s all the butcher does and it costs twice as much to buy something marked “tenders”!) were prepared similarly to fried chicken, sans the buttermilk bath.  The other difference is the use of equal parts all-purpose flour and almond flour, plus a mixture of spices.  I added garlic powder to the salt/pepper/Italian seasoning/onion powder combo, since that’s my favorite, but you could easily include paprika, cayenne, or other herbs to customize to your liking.  I believe there must be something in the chemistry of this flour combo that helped make the chicken brown so evenly and not burn, despite the super-hot butter and oil.  Whatever it was, I’ll be making these again!

Do you have any idea how many obstacles stood between me and Flatbread Pizza with Prosciutto and Parmesan?  It was like the universe was trying to keep us apart, yet fate brought us together.  1) I requested flatbread (garlic and herb naan in this instance) when I made an Instacart order two weeks ago, but when it arrived, there was no naan to be found.  I discovered I never actually added it to the list.  2) That evening, I sent the Other Half out into the world to fetch the aforementioned naan when he picked up a few extra things he wanted from the store, but too late for dinner.  3) Naan in hand, I planned to make the pizza the following day, but house-chores and yard-chores wiped me out.  Cereal for dinner.  4) Another day, another Instacart order, and the guy tried to sub out my requested fresh basil with dehydrated flakes.  Nah, dude.  Not EVEN the same thing!  He brought me nothing basil-related when I declined that swap.  5) I remembered I GREW FRESH BASIL in my Aerogarden; take that, King Soopers!  Now to just grab my naan and make it… except it had started to mold.  By now it was a matter of principle.  When I opened the package and saw the top piece had grown a patch of fur, I tossed that one, but decided the second piece was good enough.  I picked off the only questionable spot and set to work.  The real reason I’d let all these excuses get in my way is because it just didn’t sound very good.  Potatoes on pizza is something I’ve had before (and liked it fine), but I wasn’t feeling the carb-on-carb action.  As I built each layer, I realized I was an idiot.  For starters, a layer of olive oil was slathered on the flatbread.  So far, so good.

I used a local specialty store’s Tuscan Herb variety (support small businesses!!) and then skipped all Jo’s directions for making a white sauce.  Instead, I pulled a bowl of homemade Alfredo sauce that I had been trying to determine a use for from the fridge.  It was too small of an amount for pasta, but just enough to serve as the sauce layer on pizza.  Per Jo’s flavor profile, I added Gorgonzola, which only makes everything better!  Next came salty prosciutto, Parmesan shreds, and thinly sliced red potatoes, which had been boiled briefly.  I baked the whole masterpiece for about 20 minutes, and topped it with torn leaves of fresh basil.  OH.  MY.  GOSH!!!  This is probably the single most delicious thing I have made out of the entire book, and I am kicking myself for taking so long to try it.     Green Beans Amandine…  Doesn’t that just sound hopelessly old fashioned??  Besides, I never trust a recipe that leaves the “L” out of “almond”.  I tried to serve these at a dinner party but lost my nerve and made something safer.  I tried again the ‘Day That Everything Went Wrong’, when I learned one does not simply freeze fresh green beans.  The resultant soggy mush forever put me off attempting that again, and I ditched the recipe for a second time.  I needed something green on my plate last night, so I bit the bullet and decided to make a batch of these beans, once and for all.  Except it most certainly will NOT be the last time I make them!  For starters, fresh haricot vert are delicious all by themselves, and I like the pretty little curly ends.  It makes me feel fancy, and don’t we all need a little of that right now?  Second, I didn’t realize there was a sauce involved; again, the cookbook photo didn’t do the dish justice.  Sauces are always a bonus, though I wasn’t excited about this one.  Vinegar and sherry had me imagining bitter, pungent greens, until I added honey, garlic and brown sugar.  That’s when the magic happened…  That, my friends, is teriyaki sauce!  Or at least most of the main ingredients, minus the soy.  The almonds (or should I say “amands”??) were cooked in this sweet, tangy mixture and mixed with the blanched beans.  Leftovers?  We don’t need no stinkin’ leftovers!  I ate every last one.

As a bonus recipe for this post, I must dedicate a minute to Creamy Squash Casserole. It was good, don’t get me wrong, but it didn’t fall into the category of “mind-blowing”, nor contain almonds.  In the Chicken Tender photo, it’s the other side dish in the background, and it’s a respectable contribution to dinner.  I used the food processor again to shred some yellow squash and added it to cooked onion and green chiles, cheese, a cream sauce and a Ritz cracker topping.  However…  When your cat climbs on the counter and is STANDING IN THE PAN to eat it, it must be pretty tasty!  I’m fairly certain these are not cat-friendly foods, so don’t try this at home!  My cat is just an ornery beast, and yes, several days later she is still fine.  Behold, the clear footprint in the casserole and the culprit, brazenly licking the evidence off her paw!

“Quarantine Log: Day 736.  Or something like that.  My scale is clearly a traitor, siding with the enemy, Calories.  My pantry and refrigerator are conspiring to only contain mismatched, half-empty containers, and fresh produce is scarce.  Nonetheless, I persevere in the goal of completing my cooking project.  Despite a critical lack of ideal supplies, progress is being made.  If anyone reads this… please send fresh baguettes and gouda!” – From the diary of a Lockdown Chef.

Hunker-Down Hash?  Made it.  Pandemic Potato Salad?  In the fridge.  Corona-Cranberry Muffins?  Last week’s breakfast.  Quarantine Quinoa?  Well no, not that one!  Truly, this is the first time in the lives of most Americans that we have had to get uber-creative with what we put on the table.  I used to run to the store 3-4 times a week to grab that “one thing” that I’d forgotten on my big shopping trip (plus a candy bar).  Ah, I was so innocent back then…in February.  Now, my friends, I make do with what I have.  It’s not worth putting myself or my family at unnecessary risk by hanging out in the grocery store.  And to be honest, it’s made me a better cook and far less wasteful.  Instead of tossing the little bit left in that can or that vegetable with the not-so-fresh-feeling in the crisper, I’m brainstorming hard trying to find ways to use up every last ingredient.  Here are just a few of the success stories from the pages of Magnolia Table.    

Normally an appetizer, Baked Brie served as my breakfast and lunch for at least three meals.  The impetus for making such an unusual choice for our current situation (not a lot of cocktail parties happening at the moment) was a glance in my cheese drawer.  I’d purchased about 10 different cheeses in late December, gearing up to make a lot of holiday dishes, as well as snacks for poker nights, Bunco nights, and friends coming over.  Remember them??  Alas, my wheel of Brie was shoved in the back and had been overlooked.  Secondly, Costco does not simply sell one apple, nor even three.  You’ll buy 8-10 pounds and you’ll like it!!  At least 15 Granny Smiths were taking up space and thankfully held up much better refrigerated than in my countertop fruit bowl.  Finally, I have been quietly ignoring a jar of spicy preserves for years, which I purchased at a specialty store several summers ago.  Did this recipe call for that?  Nope!  But it did require a partially desiccated lemon I needed to use up, so I took Jo’s recipe and used it as a jumping-off place to make my own creation.  It should be noted that generally I eat the rind of Brie, and leaving it in place allows it to keep its shape much better while baking.  However, my cheese was, to put it politely, aged.

And not in a good way.  Still, if the French taught us one thing, it’s that mold can be our friend!  Or at least not kill us.  Setting aside my penicillin allergy, I carefully removed the slightly fuzzy exterior, and voilà!  The inside looked as good as it ever had.  Preserves are by definition, “preserved”, so the date on the jar didn’t concern me.  I doubled up flavors by using a different one in each layer, Apricot Habanero on one, and Sriracha Peach (a gift from a friend and local apiary entrepreneur, Mother Tucker Honey and Jam!) on the other.  The original recipe called for pecans and brown sugar and butter.  I’m sure that would have tasted fine, but I was more than pleased with the spicy, sweet, nutty concoction which burned my tongue because I couldn’t wait an appropriate amount of time for it to cool.  That’s a sign of good food right there!      

The Breakfast Chapter is dead!  Long live the Breakfast Chapter…  This was the single recipe standing between me and finishing Chapter 1.  I put Baked Egg Bread Pudding off until the bitter end, because, bread pudding.  With a mere 27 recipes remaining, I had to bite the figurative bullet and be done with it.  I decided since I possessed the clutch ingredients (Boursin cheese, bacon and eggs), everything else had a little wiggle room.  Shallots?  Not so much, but finely shaved onion and a little garlic worked, since shallots lie somewhere in the middle.  Day-old baguette to make sturdy chunks of bread that hold up to liquid?  Not a chance.  But I sure had a few smooshed slices plus the butt-end of a stale (not moldy!) loaf of wheat sandwich bread.  Creativity is key, so I sliced those puppies into cubes and toasted them lightly in the oven to dry out properly.  Spinach…  Technically yes, but it was skirting inedibility, so luckily in this application, mushiness was actually a desirable trait!  I suppose one could even use frozen spinach in a cinch.  My expectations for this dish were abysmal, but I was a fool…  Talk about a sleeper hit!  The smell coming from the oven while it baked was enticing, and adding the egg on top knocked it out of the park.  She may not be a looker, but she has a GREAT personality!

“Meatloaf, smeatloaf, double beatloaf, I HATE meatloaf!” – Randy, from A Christmas Story

I feel ya Randy…  I know I said “success stories”, but since others in the house ate this and appeared to like it, I guess it counts.  If I never made it again, I’d sleep just fine at night.    I thought this was just plain weird, although to be fair I may have messed up the proportions a smidge.  That Costco run a while back yielded 12 metric tons of ground beef, which, with the aid of a FoodSaver, became individually wrapped bundles of meat.  I think this was the tail end and didn’t quite make the 1.5 pounds required for Jo’s Meatloaf.  I failed to make the mathematical adjustments necessary to calculate how much less of a “sleeve” of saltines should be used.  The odd yellow bits that look like corn in the picture?  Yeah, those are saltines.  I have seen meatloaf recipes call for bread crumbs or even oatmeal as a binder, but crackers were a first.  The second strange ingredient was my remaining nugget of cheddar cheese.  Theoretically it should have added moisture back in, but a) what I had on hand fell short of the suggested amount, and b) the excess crackers dried out the final product too much for my taste.  Not one of my faves, but it served its purpose of clearing out bits and pieces from the fridge, and with a little tweaking, I’m sure I could do better.  Challenge accepted!

ZOOOOOOOMMMM…  That’s the sad sound of a deadline whizzing past my head.  April 7th was the day I was to have all the Magnolia Table recipes officially wrapped up in a neat little bow, preferably each accompanied by pretty pictures and an eloquent blog.  It was a lovely fantasy.  Unfortunately, I was no better at predicting global pandemics than the current White House administration, so alas, was equally unprepared for a long term hunker-down.  Then again, my reward to myself when I finished this project was supposed to be a trip to Waco to check out the Silos, Magnolia Market, the bakery, the hotel, and all things Joanna Gaines.  Since there is no traveling happening for awhile, I’m just going to place this “failure” in the Disguised Blessings folder, and keep plugging away at her amazing recipes until the world reopens!

I planned to celebrate wrapping up with a big “Finale Recipe Roundup”, full of fanfare, but since there is still a lot more left to cook, how about I just tell you about the last meal I prepared before the clock struck midnight on April 6th?  It was a doozy!

You’ve heard of KFC?  Popeye’s?  Maybe Church’s Chicken?  Just SOME of the places no one is allowed go right now!  So when I had a hankering for good ol’ Southern cooking, I had to look no further than my freezer and the cookbook I’ve been staring at for over a year.  Fried Chicken, Jo-Jo’s Biscuits, mashed potatoes and gravy, and homemade creamed corn made up an extravagant quarantine meal that was almost as good as eating from the red and white bucket.  If only there had been a Magnolia recipe for coleslaw with way too much sugar, my life would have been complete!

I have mentioned a time or three how little I enjoy the act of deep frying, but nothing compares to crispy, juicy, golden brown chicken.  It’s worth the mess!  And the abject terror…  To serve along with your standard 8-piece meal, Jo suggested an unusual sauce, Poppy Seed Jam.  When all the black poppy seeds floated to the top of the honey/citrus mixture, I can’t say it looked very appetizing.  When I drizzled it over the hot chicken, it suddenly didn’t matter!

What else could a girl want after all those calories?  Why, even MORE calories, of course!  Strawberry Shortcake and Whipped Cream fit the bill, with the added benefit of getting me one recipe closer to book completion.  Technically I’d already made the whipped cream a dozen times this year, but this is no time to argue semantics!!  I counted it, and checked it off the list.  

This version of shortcake called for using Jo-Jo’s Biscuits (a throwback to Recipe #1!) so I came full circle, making them at both the Alpha and the Omega of the Magnolia Table journey.  Ok, the quasi-Omega…  I really like these biscuits for breakfast, with dinner, covered in honey or strawberry jam, or even buried under sausage gravy.  As it turns out, where I don’t love them is in strawberry shortcake.  There is nowhere near enough sugar to qualify a biscuit as a cake substitute!  Overall I have to give this recipe a solid 5, since it’s so stripped down: just topped with plain whipped cream (which I jazzed up with hazelnut extract) and berries simply macerated in sugar.  I’m not sure what bells and whistles I was expecting, but I just hoped for more complex flavors.

So there you have it!  Though I didn’t quite make the finish line, I made a heck of a run at it.  107 recipes down, 33 to go.  The silver lining in all this?  Look what showed up in the mail today!  

To paraphrase pastry chef Jacques Torres, nothing is certain right now; eat dessert first!  These are words of wisdom under the best of circumstances, but even more true during this unprecedented modern quarantine.  For me, it hasn’t really altered life much, due to being on leave for the past nine weeks.  I enjoyed staying at home anyway, making a whopping 57 Magnolia Table recipes!  January’s hopeful goal to have this cookbook mission completed by April 7th, the day Joanna Gaines releases her second volume of recipes, is not meant to be…  Sadly, the time has come for me to go back to work, putting a damper on my kitchen activities.  The bright side of a statewide “stay at home” order is that returning to work only means a commute to my kitchen table; the downside being limited grocery shopping.

But this is a time to focus on the positives!  In two months I surpassed the 100th recipe mark and managed to write blogs detailing 25 individual dishes.  I also only gained a couple pounds, which given the circumstances, is really saying something!  According to the most recent press briefings, we are all going to be hanging out at home for the long haul, so let me turn your attention to 10 fabulous desserts you can cook to make the time as sweet as possible!

1.  Let’s start with “morning dessert”, shall we?  Technically these recipes were from the Breakfast chapter, but I’m not one to quibble when something is full of sugar!  I’d like to make a confession regarding Cinnamon Swirl Walnut Quick Bread.  I screwed up royally!  If yours looks anything like mine, I’m afraid you took a wrong turn.  Luckily, it tasted great anyway!  Where I (first) erred was missing the distinction of four separate parts: Topping, Filling, Cake and Glaze.  I didn’t realize my mistake until I had a walnut FILLED, cinnamon-sugar TOPPED loaf and there was no fixing it.  By then I figured a glaze was overkill, so I axed it.  The second “oops” would have been harder to ignore.  Although it appears to be a chocolate bread, the dark color is from loads of brown sugar and cinnamon.  Mine came dangerously close to becoming Cumin Swirl Bread!  Have you ever noticed how similar those containers look when you’re in a hurry??

2.  While I’m making True Kitchen Confessions, here’s another (don’t tell Jo!): I’m never eating Buttermilk Blueberry Puff again!  This recipe calls for cut-up croissants, blueberries (I used frozen), and a custard topping.  You don’t fool me for a second, “Blueberry Puff”, that is the definition of BREAD PUDDING!  Yuck.  The Other Half seemed to love it, and he ate it for days, but frankly I could hardly choke down a single serving.  However, if bread pudding is your thing, then by all means, raid your freezer and you should be able to throw this together without even waiting a week for an Instacart grocery delivery!

3.  I am a self-proclaimed scone snob.  The humble scone is either a brilliant triumph, or a door-stop unfit for human consumption.  There is no in-between.  For years I labored under delusion that they were all dry, hard, and flavorless.  The first one I ever tasted was more like a bad biscotto.  Years later, Starbucks, of all places, showed me what a scone could be with their Petite Vanilla variety, and the Pioneer Woman later taught me how to bake a perfect, tender version.  I figured Jo had a lot to live up to with her Orange Scones, and she did not disappoint.  The recipe was basic enough that you probably have what you need in your pantry and fridge already, and tasty enough that you’ll want to make them for a weekend breakfast.  I took issue with just one thing: Jo called for FREEZING the butter cubes, then cutting them into the dry ingredients.  All I can say is good luck!  My poor little pastry cutter was not up to the task, and it nearly broke!  Just refrigerate the butter; it works just fine, and your scones will turn out like the flaky star of a Pillsbury commercial!

4.  When the going gets tough, the tough get their kids to do the work!  At least that’s what I did for the last “bressert”, Cinnamon Squares.  Home-schooling is in full effect, and my daughter chose to bake these as a Home Economics project.  That’s good, because I have been avoiding this recipe like the… well, never mind, I’ve been avoiding it!  Jo spoiled me with simple, quick recipes, and this one just took too darn long!  Lucky for me, I had a student willing to do the heavy lifting.  Basically a nut-filled, cinnamon sandwich, these pastries were a bit too “bread-y” for me, but they had a sweet, spicy flavor.  Warning: this recipe will use up all your flour, so make a half batch if you really need these in your life!  Also, when the filling boils over into the bottom of your oven, your house may fill with smoke, and Emergency Services doesn’t need that kind of hassle right now, so just be sure to put a drip-pan underneath your baking sheet!

Now for a brief shout-out to a couple “pretty good, but I could improve them” desserts, such as 5. Aunt Opal’s Banana Pudding.  These didn’t wow me like I’d hoped.  For banana pudding, it was just not “banana-y” enough.  Vanilla instant pudding, really??  I would substitute at the bare minimum, BANANA instant pudding, or better yet, make your own pudding from scratch.  Really, it isn’t that hard, and it tastes better…  Secondly, plain banana slices are fine for an ice cream sundae or a smoothie, but they don’t pack enough punch to make this interesting.  A Bananas Foster approach would bring out a lot more flavor (flambé with brown sugar and rum).  RUM!!  Sorry, Aunt Opal…  Her recipe sure did look pretty though.  I whipped out crystal daiquiri glasses to build the parfaits, but even though they are great for a photo op, they are a pain to eat from!

6. Cherry Almond Crisp was a solid effort, but texture was a problem.  The oatmeal didn’t ever quite get cooked through, so perhaps toasting it separately (like granola) prior to mixing with the nuts and sugar would make the crunchy part more effective.  I may be at fault here; leaving the house for fresh cherries seemed an unnecessary risk, so I used frozen, which produced a huge quantity of liquid.  I had at least a cup or more of juice that I discarded.  Jo didn’t mention what to do with excess moisture, and maybe I should have used it to soften the oatmeal more, thus leaving the sliced almonds as the crunch factor.  Live and learn!

I’ve saved the best for last, so I hope you’re still reading; here’s the good stuff!!  Delicious, easy, and very likely using ingredients you have even during lockdown, the last few desserts are Magnolia Table gold!  7. Chocolate Dipped Shortbread Cookies, are commonly known as “black and whites”, for obvious reasons.  Shortbread is one of those genius recipes that is, by definition, short.  There are so few ingredients you are sure you must be doing it wrong!  Butter, sugar, flour, salt, vanilla, DONE.  (PS, the meaning also describes the short rise, and therefore crumbly texture!)  The dough comes together into a solid mass you can roll into a log, then slice and bake.  I made these for poker night in a matter of minutes, plus a half hour of chilling time.  The dipping chocolate is as simple as melting chips with a touch of shortening, which helps it set quickly.  Just remember this key fact: chocolate is like Gizmo the Mogwai… it hates water!  If you let your melted chocolate come in contact with so much as a drop, it will turn as ugly as a gremlin!

Tied for first place, because I honestly can’t choose, are 8. Mina’s Lemon Bars and 9. Spiced Pecan Pie with 10. Jo’s Pie Crust.  Perfection; that’s the only way to describe them!  For your sake, I pray you have fresh lemons in the fridge, though you could try the recipe with RealLemon bottled juice, if that’s all you have.  For buttery, tart, blissful lemon bars, I urge you strongly to try the recipe below!    

Ingredients:

• Cooking spray or parchment paper
• 2 c all-purpose flour
• 1/2 lb (2 sticks) salted butter, melted
• 1/2 c powdered sugar, plus more for garnish
• 1/4 tsp sea salt
• 2 c granulated sugar
• 4 eggs, slightly beaten
• 5 Tbsp fresh lemon juice (from about 2 lemons)

Instructions:

• Rack in middle position; preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Either spray a 9×13 in glass baking dish with cooking spray or line with parchment paper. (Acidic desserts should be made in non-reactive pans, i.e. no metal!)
• In a mixing bowl, combine flour, melted butter, powdered sugar and salt. Mix with a fork until barely combined; don’t overmix. Place dough in baking dish and use fingers to flatten into the prepared pan.
• Bake for 20 minutes, or until the edges are lightly browned.
• In another mixing bowl, whisk together granulated sugar, eggs and lemon juice until combined.
• Pour lemon mixture onto prepared crust directly out of the oven. Return to oven and bake 15 minutes more. Tent with foil and bake an additional 15 minutes.
• Remove from oven and dust with powdered sugar. Let cool completely on wire rack before cutting into bars.
• Store in airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week. For longer storage, wrap in plastic or freezer bag and freeze up to one month.
• ** These are not going to last long enough to worry about storage!** 

  Last, but in no way least, is hands-down the best pecan pie I’ve ever had. I don’t even really like pecan pie!  I’ve always found it to be a bit off-putting with its gooey texture, and (dare I say it?) too sweet.  That is almost inconceivable for me, but there it is.  I only decided to make this for another poker night because I had all the stuff in the pantry, save for the one ingredient I was very wary about.  Ancho chile powder… in a nut pie?!  I’ve made plenty of “sweet-heat” combinations of chocolate and cayenne, or habanero and apricot jam, but this seemed weird.  My friends, embrace the weird!  The spicy note with the cinnamon was the absolute perfect offset to the sweetness of brown sugar and corn syrup.  There was nothing cloying about the filling, and though I grumbled profusely, I was glad I made the pie crust from scratch as well.  Only because I was out of pre-made crusts, I decided to roll my own from Jo’s first chapter.  I had made her recipe previously and frozen the dough, which works in a pinch, but I have to say baking it fresh really did make a difference.  The combined calorie count for all the recipes listed here is probably insane, but desperate times call for desperate measures!  May you all stay safe and healthy, and while you have all this extra time on your hands, why not try something new for dessert?  Or breakfast… no one’s judging!

  Ingredients:

• 1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
• 1 cup light corn syrup
• 3 tablespoons salted butter, melted
• 3 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon, plus more for serving
• 2 teaspoons ground ancho chile powder
• 2 cups pecan halves or chopped pecans
• One 9-inch deep-dish pie shell

  Instructions:

   

• Preheat the oven to 350°F.
• In a large bowl, whisk together the brown sugar, corn syrup, and melted butter. Whisk in the eggs. Whisk in the cinnamon and ancho chile. Stir in the pecans.
• Pour into the pie shell.
• Bake until the filling puffs around the edges and is nearly set in the center, about 1 hour. A knife inserted 2 inches from the center should come out clean. Cool to room temperature on a wire rack.
• Serve at room temperature or lightly chilled with a dollop of whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.
• Cover leftover pie with plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator for up to 2 days.

   

I am German.  And Swedish… with a smidge of Scottish, and a touch of Maltese.  Luckily for me, I’m also Irish!  Huzzah!  Not that Ireland is much known for its cuisine, but if there’s a potato involved, they can mash, whip, roast and bake with the best of them.  Saint Patrick’s Day 2020 saw a distinct lack of partying and green beer drinking, but I was determined to celebrate one of my nationality’s holidays with as much style as I could manage.  Magnolia Table is not exactly chock full of traditional Irish cooking (thankfully), but I found a couple appropriate recipes, such as Shepherd’s Pie.  I have vivid memories of my mother making this meal a couple times a year as I was growing up.  And hating it.  Her version featured ground beef, canned green beans, mashed potatoes and a cheddar cheese topping.  Keep in mind I was about 5 years old when I first had it, and I made a snap-judgment as soon as I saw an onion speck peeking out of the beef layer.  I was NOT an onion fan!  I determined then and there that Shepherd’s Pie was fundamentally gross and didn’t enjoy it for decades.

Hallelujah, I got over the onion aversion, and now use them every chance I get!  Jo’s Shepherd’s Pie has some similarities to Mom’s early 80’s version, but with a little more spiff.  Ground beef with sautéed onion is still the base, but the addition of tomato paste, carrots, garlic, Worcestershire, and a bay leaf went a long way towards improving the depth of flavor.  In the waste-not-want-not spirit of our current times, I scrounged everything I could from the fridge, including the baby carrots my daughter used to take to school, back in the good old days when kids left the house…  Last week.  Even if the recipe didn’t call for carrots, I would have used them anyway!

I admit I took a couple shortcuts, personalizations and additions after the base was cooked.  I was supposed to use fresh cut green beans, but seeing as perishable veggies are in short supply at the moment, I whipped out a nice bag of frozen steamer green beans which worked just fine.  I make a mean mashed potato all by myself, so I ignored her directions and made my standard recipe.  But here’s where Jo got it wrong: she ended with the potato layer!  WHAT?!?  As far as I’m concerned, there is no excuse for skipping a healthy pile of cheese on top, so I added sharp cheddar and mozzarella.  Here’s to you, Mom, sorry I was so picky as a child!

I was willing to give a meat-and-potato dish the benefit of the doubt, but I held NO hope for the only Irish side dish I could find, Dutch Oven Cabbage & Bacon.  I really can’t stand cooked cabbage; in fact I only ever eat cabbage in KFC coleslaw or in a salad.  Corned beef and cabbage was a dinner I endured for a period of two years when Mom had a fixation on it, and on those nights I would usually just eat a bowl of cereal.  Look, I tried to eat it, I really did, but that was one thing I just could not choke down.  So imagine how thrilled I was to make a big ol’ pot of limp cabbage…  To be fair, the start looked pretty promising: a Dutch oven lined with thick-cut bacon and dotted with butter.  Well that sounds good!  After that, I dumped wedges of green cabbage on top, added some apple cider vinegar, and salt and pepper rounded out the seasoning.  Surprisingly, this recipe also called for thick slices of onion and wedges of a sweet apple, like Honeycrisp.  Truthfully, I was able to clean out several partially used baggies of food, such as my daughter’s half-eaten sack of apple slices, though I have no idea what variety they were.  I expected to cook this on the stovetop, but the Dutch oven was simply lidded and thrown into a 300 degree oven for 2.5 hours.  I went rogue here again, since I wanted to match up the serving times of both pie and veggie, so I jacked the temperature up and reduced the cook time by about a half hour.  You know what?  It came out perfectly; ugly, but nonetheless perfect!  We all ate it, adult and kid alike.  We all LIKED it!  I would eat this again!  It must have been a St. Patty’s miracle…  

The end of the world is nigh!  Or perhaps not…  But in any case, the world is definitely on a crazy-train right now.  In the midst of corona-insanity, I have one positive thing to offer the internet community, and that is another story from my kitchen to yours.  First off, I’d like to point out that I picked a hell of a time to try and decrease my shopping bill!  Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know the difficulties associated with buying groceries at this time.  I was extremely pleased to have my faith in humanity restored by the behavior I witnessed at both the local markets and the nearest Costco, where absolutely no one was hoarding, being aggressive, causing long lines, or in any other way acting like an imbecile.  I know that’s not the case everywhere, and since my family is currently staying at home as much as possible anyway, I’m glad we stocked up on the essentials this week before everything officially went to hell in a virus-basket.  At least I’ll be able to feed us in style.  I imagine if the lockdown continues for long, I will be getting very creative with frozen and dried goods.  Here’s to making the best of things, and keeping us all safe in these uncertain times!

What we all need right now is some good ol’ comfort food, preferably meals that can be cooked with all the foods we have recently stocked up on.  I have 45 recipes remaining in Magnolia Table, and I was shocked to see that I had not yet made the Gaines Family Chili!  Seemed like just the time to whip this one out, seeing as I had just doubled down on bean purchases.  Honestly I had mixed feelings about this meal; on the one hand I liked that it was very simple, but on the other hand… it was very simple.  Ground beef, onion, beans, diced tomatoes.  The end.  Snoozeville….  She said “salt and pepper to taste”, but no amount of that was going to salvage something so bland.  I elected to add in my old standby, fresh garlic (of course), and a bunch of extra seasoning.  Normally cumin is my go-to chili spice, but this time I just used Backyard Daddy Barbecue seasoning.  My other concern with this recipe was a general lack of “stuff”.  It called for two pounds of ground beef, but relatively little else by quantity.  I prefer Chile con Carne over Carne con Frijole!  There was also a lot of liquid, due to the tomato and bean “juices” included, but it looked more like a meat soup than chili.  My solution was adding a second type of bean (I used kidney and pinto), and a little brown gravy mix to thicken the whole pot.  With those couple improvements, plus cheddar and sour cream toppings, it went from a runner-up to a top contender!

From a mediocre recipe to a real stunner, these Potato Gratin Mini Stacks brought back the high standard I expect from JoJo.  I was highly intimidated by this recipe for some reason, but I’m here to tell you this can work as a Quarantine Special: you can use any kind of potatoes mixed with garlic, cheddar cheese, cream and spices.  The key to success  here is using a mandoline.  If you don’t have one, skip this recipe until you have it, since uniform slices are important, and using a knife to accomplish them is next to impossible.

The muffin tin is a stroke of genius, as it allowed adorable little stacks to form with minimal effort!  I thought I had to somehow pile the potatoes carefully onto a sheet pan, which was why I thought it would be such a pain in the backside, but all I had to do was drop handfuls of potato into the wells and they naturally formed towers which glued together with cheese.  Easy-peasy!  If you’ve never tried nutmeg with your potatoes, I suggest you give it a whirl.  It’s interesting, different, and pretty good.  Next time I will try this recipe with garlic instead, but I stand by my statement: TRY the nutmeg!

Last up for our stay-at-home breakfasting pleasure were Quick Orange-Walnut Sweet Rolls.  I tell ya, she had me at “quick”!  I have an absolutely glorious cinnamon roll recipe.  They are fluffy, soft, and perfectly sweet.  They are also a nightmare to make and take two days to do properly.  With that in mind, I was happy to use Jo’s shortcut, refrigerated crescent roll dough.  I’m not a huge fan of orange-flavored treats, but these smelled amazing during prep and baking.  The filling consisted of softened butter, brown sugar, cinnamon and orange zest, and the oddly satisfying instruction to “mash into a paste”.  I love mashing things into paste…  Great stress reliever; yet another reason to make these during tense times!  After schmearing the dough with the sugar paste, just top it with walnuts or pecans, roll them up and slice into discs.

The rolls are baked like monkey bread, all together in a pie plate so they grow together as they puff up.  A simple orange juice and powdered sugar glaze topped off a tasty breakfast dish that anyone with a sweet tooth will enjoy!

While most of us are restricted to our homes for the time-being, hopefully we won’t be eating like we’re on prison rations.  Let’s embrace the ingredients we have on hand and try to have some fun experimenting in the kitchen!  As for me, it looks like I’ll have even more time on my hands to keep posting inspiration to anyone who wants it.  Take care all!

Some days I think I’m a damned fine cook.  There are times when I pull a masterpiece from the oven that would rival Julia Child, and plate it with flair and style that would put the competition on Chopped to shame.  Other days, I’m just lucky I don’t burn down the kitchen.  To be fair, I don’t have many culinary disasters these days, but when I do, they are EPIC.  Like the time I made THREE batches of 7-minute frosting and simply could not figure out what was going wrong.

No matter how long it boiled, it never reached the prescribed temperature, and I was unable to achieve the “syrup” consistency I was looking for.  I even tried whipping it into submission with the stand mixer.  Instead of the marshmallow fluff texture I wanted, I got something comparable to beer foam, and not very sweet to boot!  Into the trash.  Second batch was no better, and by then I was getting miffed at the number of egg whites I was going through.  When all else fails, call your mama!  While on the phone with the woman who taught me to cook, explaining that I had done everything exactly right each time but it still wasn’t working, and that maybe my candy thermometer was faulty, I spotted the problem.  I inverted my measurements.  1/2 cup of water to 2 cups of sugar yields a WAY different result than the other way around!  Whoops.

That was nearly two years ago, and I’m still embarrassed about making such a silly mistake.  Three times in a row…  So last week I decided to replace that memory with an even MORE humbling experience!  It all started out so promising too…  After so many chicken recipes that I feared we would eventually sprout feathers, I was looking to put “the other white meat” on the table.  Much to my surprise, there are few pork recipes in Magnolia Table.  I had beautiful bone-in chops thawed, but no use for them from the book, so I decided to make an MT side dish instead.  I seasoned the chops, got a tasty oil/butter combo browned in the pan, and achieved an excellent sear on the beautiful, thick cuts.  They were perfect, so I placed them in my double oven (affectionately known as the “Doven”) turned to the warming-setting while I completed the rest of the meal.  I came up with my own mushroom gravy so we could “smother” the chops, made some stovetop stuffing, and paged through the cookbook looking for a veggie side that would go well with pork.  Green Beans Amandine; winner!  I had seen a Ziplock full of leftover haricot vert in my freezer that morning.  If you are unfamiliar, those are just string beans which still have the pretty, curly tails on one end and the stems on the other.  I trimmed up the still-frozen beans and blanched them in boiling salt water, which in theory should have kept them bright green and a bit crisp.  WRONG.  Apparently frozen green beans don’t keep forever, and after only a few minutes they were mushy and had a distinct “freezer stank” taste on them.  On to Plan B…  Roasted Asparagus with Red Wine Béarnaise.  

You may note a lack of béarnaise sauce in the picture.  Two reasons: a) I can’t stand red wine, and b) the wheels of my meal-cart were rapidly coming off by the time I would have made it, so it was best left undone!  Roasted asparagus is nothing new in this house, so the simple recipe should have been a piece of cake.  So to speak.  I was in a bit of a hurry by then, and the stalks were so thin, I thought I could get away with a shortcut.  Jo suggested peeling the bottoms with a vegetable peeler to ensure they were tender, or alternatively, snapping off the bottoms wherever they naturally break.  I usually do this, I swear!  I figured I would just cook them and cut off the bottoms before I put the spears on the plate.  Olive oil and salt and pepper combined with a 400 degree oven should have produced delicate, yummy asparagus in just 15-20 minutes.  Oh, did I mention that during this time, I realized the burner (which I thought was off) was in fact scorching the stuffing out of the… stuffing?!  Yeah, that happened.  So much for fluffy; it had congealed into a clump.  Then the timer went off, and I pulled out the pan of vegetables.  Though they looked beautiful, they weren’t sizzling or giving off much aroma.  Back into the oven for another five minutes.  By now my honey was home and I wanted to feed him.  I taste-tested one of the spears and it was still crunchy.  What the heck??  That’s when my world crashed around me.  I’d set the TOP oven to 400 degrees… 25 minutes ago…  Plus pre-heating time.  You know, the one with my perfectly cooked pork chops inside??  The bottom one wasn’t even on.  How could my Doven betray me like this?!  In utter horror, I stared at the sad remains of dinner.  On the bright side, I could now easily re-sole boots with these chops.  I could NOT however, saw the bottoms off the stupid asparagus, because even cooked, the ends were just too stringy.  We should have just ordered a pizza, but we suffered through the absolute worst meal I have cooked in probably 20 years.

Fast forward a few days, and the memory of those over-cooked chops still haunted me.  A cute little Wilbur died for that dinner, and look what I did to it!  I needed to prove that I could, in fact, cook pork.  A pork loin is by far the easiest cut to make properly, and Jo had a recipe for Raspberry-Chipotle Pork Tenderloin which looked divine.  I found the exact brand of marinade she recommended (which I just doctored up with extra ingredients) at the store, and took that as a sign that this time, all would go to plan.  All did not go to plan…  The pork sat in its bath for two days instead of just eight hours, due to a leftovers situation in the fridge.  No harm, no foul, right?  Jo wanted me to grill the tenderloin for a total of 15 minutes, using tongs to turn it 1/4 of the way for 3-ish minutes per side.  The hitch for me was “grill”.  I don’t do that.  Not only is it still technically winter and we haven’t put propane in the tank, but I just prefer cooking indoors.  I have a grill pan I normally use when instructions call for it, but my Costco loin-a-saurus was easily three times the size she called for.  I knew it would neither fit inside my little pan nor be cooked through in 15 minutes.  Still, I sallied forth!

A griddle is practically the same thing as a grill pan, right?  Turns out the answer is no…  I should have seen it coming, but the full-contact with the hot surface really was a bit much for the marinated meat.  That sauce charred immediately, but I let it go for the full three minutes.  When I turned it, the burned part easily came off, leaving behind perfectly acceptable pork.  Whew!  Still, after cooking all four sides I knew it was unfit for human consumption on the inside.  I set the treacherous Doven for 350, verified I knew which one was on this time, and pulled out my trusty in-oven probe thermometer.  This thing is a lifesaver.  I have never overcooked a roast or turkey with the use of this device, because you tell it to beep when the internal temperature reaches a certain point!  Brilliant.  I can safely say that THIS time, no one had to “pity eat” their dinner!  I consider myself REDEEMED!          

There is nothing more comforting than a hearty bowl of soup on a freezing cold day.  Living in Colorado, that means you could pretty much plan to make soup on ANY given day, basically from September to May.  Don’t be fooled when it starts out as a sunny day with clear blue skies!  By dinner time, there may be snow flurries and an icy wind, and you’ll be clamoring for a bowl of something hot.  For some reason, Waco-dwelling Joanna  dedicated a huge chapter to soups, despite the lack of snow, and I have been plowing through them since August.  Here’s a sampling of her creations thus far:

Pictures never do a soup justice, so you have to use your imagination.  Chicken & Wild Rice Soup may not look so pretty, but it tasted great and used up the bits and bobs left over in the veggie drawer.  You don’t even need to worry if they are somewhat past their prime!  Celery, mushrooms, onion and parsley make up the base, as well as the ever popular pre-roasted chicken from the market.  I have determined that Jo must have a little “arrangement” on the side with the Uncle Ben’s people, because she promotes the heck out of their Long Grain and Wild Rice Fast-Cook blends!  I suppose you could possibly try a Rice-a-Roni flavor you prefer, because the rice is cooked separately and then added to the broth and veggies at the end.  Just remember you want to eat this soup quickly, because that rice acts like a sponge!

Look, it’s a soup!  It’s a consommé??  No, it’s a White Cheddar Bisque!  What the heck IS a bisque, anyway?  I had to look it up, and there were conflicting reports.  One definition said it required a shellfish base, such as lobster or crab.  Other definitions just say it has to be smooth-textured with cream.  Sounds good to me!  This particular soup was prepared on a night when I had ZERO time, nothing thawed, and minimal interest in working hard on food.  Dinner was on the table in about 20 minutes!  The hardest part was shredding the cheese… so I just bought pre-shredded!  As usual, Jo had me start out with a base of (LOTS) of butter, onion and celery, but this time I also threw in a thick slice of bacon.  Jo next gave me the option of adding chicken broth and/or wine (pssst…. I used the wine, duh) to form a liquid base, and then I dumped in a pound of shredded cheese.  When that melted, another cup of heavy cream and salt and pepper finished it.  What I had in the pot looked nothing like the picture, so I read the directions again: “Use an immersion blender to blend until smooth and velvety”.  Um… there was still a big floppy piece of bacon in there, which I envisioned wrapped around the blade of the blender.  Upon the third re-reading, I finally found where it told me to remove the bacon, which had already imparted all the flavor it could offer, and with relief I whipped that chunky soup into the very definition of “bisque-i-ness”.  The recipe called for a topping of crème fraîche, but who the heck has that?  I used sour cream and some chives and called it a day.  Honestly, it took me longer to write this paragraph than it took to throw the meal together!

All hail soup from a can!  Not to be confused with “canned soup”, which is a totally different animal.  Soup from a can simply uses canned ingredients, and is transformed though alchemy into something WAY better.  No offense, Campbell’s… The Magnolia Table Tomato Basil Soup is just such a creation.  Jo called for four cans of diced, fire-roasted tomatoes, but as a spice-fearing woman, I used only two.  The rest of the tomatoes were Italian stewed and plain diced.  Chicken broth and cream, fresh basil and garlic stepped the canned tomatoes up about about 15 notches and all I needed to do was hit it with that trusty immersion blender.  I made this for poker night last month and it was quite a hit with the group.  However, my plan for keeping it off the Scoville scale failed miserably.  This soup was HOT, and I don’t mean temperature.  I could only eat half a bowl, which was delicious, but had too much fire for my taste.

Remember how easy I said it was to make that whole chicken in the Instant Pot?  Well, I meant it, so today I threw a still-frozen bird into the IP while I went to the gym, and by the time I got home from walking the track, I had auto-magically made the basis for today’s lunch!  I had to overcome a Tortilla Soup that I ate last weekend at a well-known Mexican restaurant.  Actually, “ate” is too strong a word for it; all I did was have a taste.  Ok, “taste” is also overstating, because frankly it was flavorless…  I knew Jo had to be able to do better than that.  She did not disappoint!  While I wanted flavor, I was a little worried about “spicy” after that pot of tomato lava, but I dutifully included both the red onion and the jalapeño.  The IP chicken produced plenty of broth and shredded in minutes, and lo and behold, Jo wanted me to use that darn Uncle Ben’s rice again!  Sorry, today she didn’t get her bonus check from them, because I used HER rice instead!  A few weeks ago I put together a Magnolia Table Tex-Mex dinner featuring Blackened Fish Tacos and Mexican Rice.  As per usual, even cut in half the recipe made way too much, so I decided to find out if the tomato-based, seasoned rice would freeze well.  I’m pleased to report that indeed it did, and I was saved from wasting time on cooking rice separately.  I just threw the frozen chunks right in the pot, and voilà!  The real stars of the dish were the toppings, or “bottomings”, as the case was.  All the good stuff was added to the bowl first, so I layered in crumbled tortilla chips, avocado slices, mozzarella cheese, and fresh cilantro, the topped it all with a big scoop of the soup.  Flavor = Check.  It’s fair to say, it kicked the Mexican restaurant’s butt!