Dinner for a month - Weeks 2 and 3

1/9 Chicken Kiev with roasted cauliflower, bacon, and pepperjack cheese - I liked this one a lot, but James found the cauliflower a bit "weird".

1/10 Cornmeal raspberry pancakes and spiced hot chocolate - The pancakes were wonderful, but the spiced hot chocolate wasn't too appealing. Due to not having the specific ingredients on hand, the substitutes left the recipe with a lot to be desired. I would be willing to try it again, if I had vanilla bean on hand and the correct chilies.

1/11 Dinner at church

1/12 Pretzel crusted pork tenderloin and grated potato pancakes - The tenderloin was alright, but nothing like the pretzel crusted pork chop I had a my gourmet dinner club that I was attempting to "channel" with the dinner. I do intend to make the potato pancakes again, perhaps with an Irish inspired meal around St. Patrick's day.

1/13 Baked Onions - This was a Paula D. recipe and it was alright. It had the flavor of french onion soup, but the salt content was a little overpowering. I'd make it again with some minor adjustments.

1/14 French omelet with mushrooms and mozzarella filling - I definitely prefer a regular 'ol omelet to the french. Something about the consistency - a bit runnier - did not sit well with my stomach.

1/15 Pickle roll appetizers - We tried this simple appetizer recipe for small group last Sunday mainly because the children of our leaders love pickles. These were nothing special, but they were incredibly easy to make and the kids loved them.

1/16 Ham hock soup with homegrown black beans and Fruit Platz (made with cherries from our trees) - It was fun to cook a meal using ingredients from this year's garden and both recipes turned out well. The soup had a nice flavor, and an interested purple tint due to the beans. Also, the fruit platz (an old Russian Mennonite recipe) turned out well and the texture held up decently during multiple reheatings over the next couple of days.

1/17 Creamy Cesar dressing and black cows - We had quite a few left overs that we decided to clean up with a side salad and black cows (cola floats). We didn't have any anchovy paste for the dressing, but I liked the flavor without it just fine.

1/18 Dinner at church

1/19 Lemon rosemary chicken with potatoes - This was an incredibly easy recipe, which turned out great. The chicken was very moist and flavorful, and James even loved the lemon-rosemary flavor with the potatoes.

1/20 Lemon "Puppy" Chow - This was a hit at small group, but I don't ever plan on making it again. The chocolate version is much better. However, if you like lemon bars, you might enjoy this easy treat.

1/21 Baked cheese sticks - Think Wisconsin Cheese sticks, but slightly healthier (baked; not fried). A nice marinara sauce would have been good with these.

1/22 Baked cavetelli and roasted green beans - The cavetelli had to be substituted for macaroni, but the recipe didn't take too much of a hit with the substitution. Overall the pasta was decent, but nothing too unfamiliar. The green beans however are worth making! These beans were mixed with onions, tossed with garlic, red wine vinegar and extra virgin olive oil, and then baked at 400 degrees for 15 min. (stirring around the 10 min. mark). If you're looking for a different and easy side dish, I'd give this a try.

Dinner for a month - Week 1

I was hoping to have more photo documentation of the new recipes we've tried this week, but some of them were much more appetizing (photo-wise) than others.

1/1 Imitation Mimi's Cafe Carrot Bread with Raisins and Almonds and wassail (though it was an old recipe!)- Very moist, but a bit too dense.


1/2 Taco Lasagna - This needed a layer of rice and a topping of broken chips to be enjoyable.
1/3 Imitation Pf Chang's Orange Peel Chicken - The breading on the chicken did not hold up during the "toss in sauce" stage, but it had a nice flavor.

1/4 - Dinner at church

1/5 - Crumb Topped Cauliflower (to go with a roast James made) - A great flavor (onion, lemon, and a bit of parsley in the crumb topping), but the topping didn't "stick" very well with the cauliflower; so the textures didn't mix that well. A decent side dish that will make it to the table again.

1/6 - French Vinaigrette Dressing - This was used on a nice salad with cauliflower, carrots, and mushrooms. We needed something easy and "new" while we finished off the week's leftovers.

1/7 - Gourmet Dinner Club Night - I was assigned something I've made before, but in my defense it was a new recipe for stuffed mushrooms. They were OK; I wasn't wild about the addition of parsley to the recipe, though I did enjoy the dusting of paprika on top. I most likely will go back to my original recipe.

1/8 - Mushroom Pasta and Hot Fudge Pudding - The pasta was very similar to stroganoff, though I was hoping for more of an Alfredo taste. The pudding (from a new copy of an old cookbook my mom had from 1957) had a nice consistency and flavor, but I would have enjoyed it more had we coupled it with a dish of ice cream.

An attempt

New Year's resolutions never last with me, but I thought I would come up with a smaller goal and build upon that. Not too long ago I watched a movie about a girl who cooks through the Julia C. cookbook in a year (I think it was Julie&Julia or something like that) and decided that I would try cooking a new meal every day - not for a year, but for a smaller, more manageable bit of time. So my attempt at a New Year's resolution is to make a new recipe for every dinner for a month (barring the nights we eat at a friend's, with extended family, or out).

Any one else care to join me?