Recipe Reveiw from 6/14/10

Have you noticed, it's harder to fit in those summertime blog posts? With the long lazy days of summer one would think the postings would come more readily. Nope. Not happening. It's more like the frenetic energy of trying to fit in a years worth of activities before the short days of winter bring us back inside.

So this is a bit of a catch-up post covering the last two weeks. Several good recipes, IMO. Because there are quite a few recipes, I've linked to them when able. Just click on the recipe name.


Chicken Enchiladas (Ckng Lght May 2010) 3.0
This recipe fell into the putsy category and could be greatly simplified by using rotisserie chicken or leftover chicken or turkey. I did grill my chicken breasts for added flavor, then I baked the entire dish on the grill as well as I didn't want to heat up the kitchen that evening. I didn't have quite enough cream cheese so I added some leftover goat cheese I had on hand.

This recipe is one that is also written backwards. It has a person cooking the chicken first, and then letting rest, but chicken takes almost no time at all to cook and the sauce needs 30 minutes to simmer on the stove once it's going. I recommend starting the sauce, then cooking the chicken.

End result - flavor was good, not as saucy as some enchiladas and it made a nice sized pan at 11x7.




Corn and Radish Salad with Avocado-Herb Dressing(Ckng Lght May 2010) 4.0
This was good and fairly quick. One could substitute thawed frozen corn in a pinch and the salad would be just as refreshing. I also deviated from the recipe here (when don't I?) and I grilled the corn. It seemed silly to turn on the oven just to cook a couple ears of corn. The recipe makes plenty of dressing so we found ourselves eating it with salads and veggies the rest of the week. Recommended for it's simplicity. Serve by itself for a light meal or along side a grilled meat or even leftovers.




Zucchini, Cherry Tomato, and Fresh Ricotta Pasta (Ckng Lght May 2010)2.5
The low score on this recipe is due more to the cook than the recipe. I decided to skip making the fresh ricotta to 'save time' - really, there is nothing quick about bringing a quart of milk to a boil - and just use regular store-bought even though I know that the two are nothing alike. I did try and look for fresh ricotta in the store but no such luck. I even asked. So this turned out quite a bit different from what was written. But even at that, I'm not sure the flavors would have been better - over all it was quite bland and I kept adding more fresh ground pepper in an attempt to add something to the dish. This won't be a repeater.



Spinach, Feta and Tomato Quiche (Vegetarian Times, April 2009)
This was my favorite of the last couple of weeks. I had some phyllo dough in the freezer and just needed to pick up some spinach and feta cheese. And onions, but I use those for other dishes too. Very quick to assemble (especially once the dough is thawed...). Feta goes in the bottom, drained and squished spinach and onion go on top of that, nestle the tomatoes on the spinach mixture then add the egg batter. Bake. Wah-la! My only complaint concerned the egg batter - it was two eggs beaten with one cup milk. I think a ratio of three eggs and 3/4 or 2/3 cup milk would have been better. I will be making this one again.