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Cookery – February 2013

My monthly(ish) reporting of the delicious or not so delicious things I made in February. If the recipe is mine, meaning I made it up, I will link to my cooking blog, heidikins cooks. If the recipe is the brainchild of someone else, I’ll link there instead. See previous posts on my culinarious adventures here.

Appetizers:

Blackberry Prosciutto Toasts: This title is a bit misleading, yes, these are toasts topped with blackberries and prosciutto, but they are ALSO topped with soft goat cheese and the berries are soaked in a balsamic reduction. This is basically a small piece of heaven. On toast. Recommended.

Stuffed Mushrooms: Italian sausage mixed with Neufchatel and Gruyere cheese and a handful of fresh spinach, sliced into ribbons. Mix that all together, spoon into crimini mushrooms, and bake until the cheese is (even more) melty and delicious. Amazing. Love.

Desserts:

Chocolate-Coconut Cupcakes: Devil’s food cake chocolate cupcakes (made with coconut oil and extra chocolate chips) filled with a coconut-sweetened-condensed milk concoction and topped with almond butter cream. They are basically the cupcake version of an Almond Joy, but without the almond on the top (eww). If you’re pro-almond, you could always add some as a crunchy topping I suppose.

Main Dish:

Hawaiian Haystacks with Spaghetti Squash: Instead of using a little pile of rice I used a little pile of roasted spaghetti squash and then topped with this sauce which is NOT made with cream of chicken soup (I subbed pork chops for the chicken, it was delicious). Then I added a little shredded cheese, some tomato, diced bell pepper, mushrooms, minced green onion, and black olives, salt and pepper. Yum.

Spaghetti Squash Pizza Bake: Yes, I am becoming a little obsessed with spaghetti squash, but it’s just such a great thing to build a meal off of! This is one of my favorite meals I’ve ever made, mostly because it is full of some of my favorite, savory foods: Christmas ham, artichoke hearts, goat cheese, caramelized onions…it’s amazing! Basically, you top a pan of baked spaghetti squash with pizza sauce, mozzarella, and whatever pizza toppings you like and then throw it in the oven for a while so your cheese is melty and the flavors get all cozy.

Verde Chicken Mexican Lasagna: That link is actually mostly useless if you want to recreate what I made. My sister has adapted (but not posted) this recipe to make it almost unrecognizable. Following her instructions I made this with a a bag of fresh spinach, sliced into ribbons, pork instead of chicken, more green chilies, less corn, and I guess the rest was about the same; we call it Mexagna. I wish I had used corn instead of flour tortillas, and toasted them good before using them as “noodles” as they got pretty squishy after sitting in the fridge overnight, but the filling is quite amazing.

Soup:

Broccoli and Cauliflower Soup: I made a few adaptions, I didn’t add carrots (because J-Mo doesn’t like cooked carrots), and I used 2 heads of broccoli instead of 1, and added a LOT more garlic, white pepper, and dry mustard. I also used about half the amount of cheese called for. BUT! I think the cauliflower substitutes nicely for the potato in a traditional brocolli-cheese soup, but I definitely missed the thickening roux/cream sauce of my favorite recipe. Sigh. Alas, one must sometimes slurp brothy soups in the quest for better health. Top this with a bit of grated cheddar and some diced red bell pepper!

White Bean Chili: This is a standard favorite and fit perfectly into the “no bread, no pasta, no rice” restrictions of my current “No Sugar, No Carb” cleanse-thing. I love how you can amp up the taste with extra green chilies or cumin. I made a few changes this time around, I only used 2 cans of beans and half the meat, I cut the liquid to about 1 1/4 cups of broth and about 1/3 cup of whipping cream because that was what I had left. I also only used a good dollop of sour cream instead of an entire cup. I love that soup is always so forgiving, it was still amazingly delicious and made the house smell wonderful.

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