Recipe Review 10/8/07

Last week was an okay week recipe wise. The cooking menu morphed a bit due to this and that: the parents invited us for dinner one night and we were in town late another so we ate out (Indian! my favorite!). Unfortunately, this means my chicken pot pie recipe keeps getting pushed back. I think I’ve had it on the menu for about three weeks now and it’s not going to happen this week either! Oh well, I’ll get to it eventually - I’ve got all the ingredients and I just need the time.

Paddy Burks Pepper Soup (Irish Pub Ckbk, pg 51) 7
This was another Hubby recipe. Two yellow bell peppers, an orange bell pepper and a red bell pepper are combined with some vegetable broth and seasonings (onion and garlic) and simmered till nice and soft. I believe a bit of half and half is added and then everything pureed (he LOVES the immersion blender too!). This turned out really good. The recipe calls for the addition of fresh creme fraiche and this simple "soured cream" really made the soup. It was sweet and tangy all at once. Perfect with some cheese and crackers on these cool rainy days!

Baked Ziti Casserole (Ckng Lght, Oct 07, pg 170) 7
This was a winner! So incredibly simple and not a ton of leftovers. I did make two significant substitutions: I subbed 6oz baby ‘bella’s for the 6oz ground turkey and I used jarred marinara. Boil 6oz tubular pasta (ziti, penne, etc) according to directions. Meanwhile, fry meat or saute mushrooms in a bit of butter. Here I added 2 cups sauce to the mushrooms and let it warm up. Drain pasta, add to sauce, add ½ cup mozzarella and 1/4 grated asiago (or Parmesan) and stir. Put in an 8x8 baking dish coated with cooking spray. Top with ½ cup mozzarella and some grated Parmesan. Bake for 30 minutes or until cheese is bubbly. Serves 2-4. (4 people if you’re having salad and garlic bread). I think this dish has a lot of potential because you can really change it around to suite your tastes.

Pumpkin Waffles (Culinary in the Desert c/o Ckng Lght) 6
I had some leftover pumpkin in the freezer from a previous recipe and saw a pumpkin waffle recipe in Ckng Lght. Unfortunately, I've lost the recipe since then, but Joe over on Culinary posted the recipe after he made them.

These were just...okay. They seemed to go from underdone to over-cooked in my waffle maker in the blink of an eye. Still, they did bake to a very nice dark brown (a bit disconcerting when used to lighter waffles) and the pumpkin flavor was more of a background element than up front on the taste buds. We tried them with pure maple syrup, homemade raspberry sauce and apple butter. I was partial to the maple syrup myself. I would probably make these again, because it was a nice way to use up that odd bit of leftover pumpkin and I can freeze leftovers for later.