Recipe Review Week of 9/14/2015

Summer is slowly winding down up here in the Northland - weather has been absolutely fantastic this fall.  Continued warm temps of 60* to 73*, some moderate rain showers passing through to help with fall recharge and keep the grass nice and green (much to the Husband's irritation).  Fall flowers are still blooming and just a hint of color is starting to show in the leaves.  Great time to take an hour or two and enjoy sitting out on the porch for weekend and some evening meals.

Which brings me round to last weeks meal plan, which imploded in a spectacular fashion all because of one oops on my part, which I will discuss in a moment.   Cooler temps also means bread baking has started again; at least that was successful.

Our main flock of chickens hasn't started laying yet, though everyone keeps telling me they will do so "any day now".   What the main flock of chickens has decided to do, is start going over the 6' high fence.  So far we've shooed back in one Amy and Red, on separate days.  Goofy birds.  They get out, then they want back in.

So here are the new recipes:

Cuban Bread (New Complete Book of Breads by Bernard Clayton)
If you enjoy baking bread, this is an awesome book.  It has become my go-to.  With one exception, the recipes turn out consistently good bread.  Clayton offers three ways to assemble in any recipe: by hand, stand mixer, or food processor.  I do by hand and by stand mixer.  

This is a very simple bread to assemble and bake.  It makes two loaves - one for freezing and one for immediate eating.  Because it doesn't have any fat in it (shortening/butter/oil) it is not a long lasting bread and best eaten right away.  This makes great toast, and would probably make awesome French toast as well. 




Herbed Wheat Berry and Roasted Tomato Salad with Grilled Chipolte Chicken Breasts (Ckng Lght, Aug 2015)
COLOSSAL fail, which was ENTIRELY my fault.  Allow me to explain:   

I love wheat berries, and when I saw this recipe I was thrilled!  Dinner one night, then lunches the rest of the week.  I thought I would be efficient and slow cook my wheat berries to save me some time.  Smart, right?  Exccepppt...what I tossed into the slow cooker wasn't exactly wheat berries.  It was barley.

Oops.  I quick rummaged around my freezer looking for those darn wheat berries.  Nary a berry to be found.  I must have used them up prior to The Remodel and not yet replaced.

But!  Barley can be subbed for wheat berries, so I proceeded forth.

Annndd forgot that water and cooking time needed to be adjusted.  I ended up with the plumpest barley I have ever seen!  It was a bit like plump mush.  Oy.

I plowed ahead, dubbing this barly "risotto".   It...kinda worked.  Not my best meal, but not so bad to be tossed.

But, that wasn't the end.  I forgot to buy the chipolte in adobo for the chicken.  So those just got grilled plain.

And so I ate the barley "risotto" for the rest of the week for lunches.  It was decent - not something I care to repeat, but decent and filling.

I'm not going to type out the recipe because it is fuggly long.  Cooking Light hasn't yet posted the August recipes to the website - which is odd for them.  I'll try to remember to come back and link.