Marinated Tofu

I made the Edamame and Smoked Tofu Succotash again. This time I bought extra-firm organic tofu and followed the following recipe:

http://hubpages.com/hub/How_to_Cook_Tofu_Like_the_Pros

I used the first marinade. I bought the Bragg's Liquid Aminos from Wegman's. It was much better than the smoked tofu I had used the first time.

Edamame and Smoked Tofu Succotash, p.139

I used smoked tofu, frozen edamame, frozen corn, and a fresh, locally grown tomato. I agree

with Jody, it did come together quickly.

The flavors were good, but next time I will try a different tofu.

Oven-Roasted Chicken Cacciatora, p. 202

On Saturday, Kathy and I made this recipe. After reading the ingredients, we realized Kathy needed to go out and buy just a few things--the chicken (key!), cacciatore (key, but not really?), and a pepper. When she was out, I turned on the oven , started the rice in the rice steamer, and started prepping the other ingredients. It took a little more than the stated 10 minutes. Kathy called from the grocery store and said she could buy bone-in, skin-on thighs for a lot of $$, or skinless, boneless thighs on sale. We opted for the latter. She came home with hard salami (an option for the cacciatore), the pepper, and 14 thigh pieces (lots!). I cleaned up the thighs a little more, and finished the sauce preparation by cutting up the peppers and salami. I used a jelly roll pan as you see in the first picture. I rolled up the thighs so they wouldn't cook too quickly and topped with the sauce. Popped it in the oven, basted after 30 minutes and you can see the result at about 40 minutes in the pan. I plated two thighs each on the rice, squeezed on some fresh lemon juice, and served with our favorite summer salad--whatever fresh veges we have on hand (from the choices of cucumber--English hot house in this case, tomatoes--our own home-grown yellow cherry tomatoes in this case, onion--red in this case, and pepper--none in this version), mixed with fresh lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper. It was super tasty. The rice absorbed the liquid from the pan. Kathy thought we could have had even more vegetables and less chicken. I thought it was about right. I was worried about the fennel seed since I don't love that taste, but with only teaspoon, there seemed to be just a hint of that licorice flavor. We have a ton of fresh rosemary and sage right now, so it was fun to use that as well. Kathy is out of town, so I am going to have some leftovers tonight--I may update with a comment to let you know how it survived the fridge for two days. We froze two meals for the two of us as well, so this made a lot.

Comments: I would definitely make this again. Variations--for Jody, I think you could leave out the salami, or find a turkey salami. I actually didn't notice it very much. Maybe I would miss it if it wasn't there. For Elyn, leave out the salami, bake the topping about 25 minutes on its own in the jelly roll pan, then add a meaty white fish, like cod, and bake another 10-15 minutes. I want to try that next. We loved the topping and think it would work really well on fish. But you can't bake fish 40 minutes.

Slightly Less Lame

Well, at least we each had one post in August. Better than July. Here's an idea for September: Let's pick one recipe and all make it and then compare notes. Something none of us have made yet. Any suggestions?

Midnight Asparagus (aka Broccoli) with Creamy Eggs (p. 110)

This was Jody's dinner tonight. I was shocked by how quick it was - like maybe 12 minutes start to finish. So, you turn on the broiler and put in a skillet with olive oil. Then you add the veggies, onion, and salt and pepper. I substituted broccoli for asparagus, so I cooked the veggies a bit longer than in the instructions. Then you crack in the eggs and cook for 1 minute - I did that a bit longer as well. Then you squeeze half a lemon over that top and eat it with bread. It was quick and tasty, but not anything that I'll crave. But it is a good way to eat your veggies.

Bonus picture: The cupcakes I made for the family birthday party last weekend!

Coconut Macaroons p. 319

At Jody's suggestion, I tried a dessert. This one was very simple, very quick and very good! The recipe calls for sweetened coconut, but I used the finely shredded, unsweetened, organic coconut that I had in my cupboard. I made half a recipe using 1 egg, 1/3 cup sugar (to compensate for the coconut being unsweetened), 1/2 tsp almond extract and a pinch of salt. I should mention that normally I'm not a fan of shredded coconut, but these macaroons were moist on the inside, crispy on the outside, and not too sweet.

Warm White Bean Salad with Fragrant Garlic and Rosemary, p. 116

We are the first in with a post to meet the challenge! I finished working today at about 7 and thought, "I wonder if there is a quick, easy meal in the 'How To Eat Supper" cookbook?" I flipped open the book right to the warm bean salad. I always keep a bunch of beans on hand and had a bag of baby greens and fresh rosemary growing outside. The other ingredients are staples. Easy as pie. I went downstairs to my pantry and found that I only had one can of cannellini beans, so I chose a can of butter beans for the second can (Kathy loves butter beans). I prepped all the ingredients in bowls (mise en place). I used my little Cuisinart for all the chopping. I didn't bother with the crushing of the garlic with salt--just added the salt to the garlic in the Cuisinart. Then I got cooking. The bread crumbs toasted in the pan nicely. The garlic and rosemary smelled great in the olive oil (I used about half the oil). The beans heated easily and I tossed in two big handfuls of greens (I think Lynne skimps on the greens in all these dishes). I plated the whole thing in just two bowls--we eat a lot of beans--and topped with the crumb mixture. You can see what it looked like at the end. I loved the flavor and would definitely make it again. Kathy thought it was dry and could use a sauce. I could have used the whole amount of oil, but I don't think that would have been what she wanted, either. I loved that it was quick, easy, and flavorful.

Jerry Traunfeld's Tarragon Chicken Breasts with Buttery Leeks, p. 200

First of all, we suck. No posts at all in July. 2 posts, both by me, in June. Let's go for two postings each in August. Go team! Sis Boom Bah!
I made this for myself for dinner Saturday. I had fresh tarragon, so it seemed like a good one to try. It might look a bit bland, but it didn't taste that way.
I bought organic, free range, hand bathed, champagne fed chicken breasts from Trader Joe's. Okay, some of that was made up. But I have decided that I want my chicken to taste like chicken, and I cook meat so rarely that I can splurge on the organic when I do.
The recipe, no surprise, went more quickly than I expected. Perhaps someday I'll get used to that with this cookbook. You "melt" the leeks in butter and broth for a while, then put the chicken right on top of them and cover. Then you remove the chicken and finish the leeks with lemon, tarragon, and a little bit more butter, then pour that over the chicken.
It had a nice, fresh taste, and there were enough leeks that you could put some on your bread - toasted TJ's english muffin in this case - I highly recommend them. A side salad would be nice as well. I'd make this again, and I think it might be a good technique for cooking fish as well. You should try that, E.

Supper Tart of Red Onions, Greens, and Grapes, p. 131

E & M were visiting, so we thought we better make something from the book. We decided on this tart. We bought the best little red grapes at Rainbow. We left out the thyme, because I'm too cheap to pay $3 for a sprig of herbs. Our most creative move was to make some extra of the topping - greens, red onion, grapes, garlic, olive oil, etc. and served it as a side salad.

E & M will pitch in with their opinions and a picture of the finished product, but here's my take. I loved the topping - it was nice and fresh tasting, and a slightly unexpected combination. I felt the puff pastry was a bit rich to use as basically a pizza crust - I'd like to try it again on something like regular pizza crust. I'd also say that the topping makes a great little salad.

8/4: Finally got the pictures from E. Pretty, isn't it?

Edamame and Smoked Tofu Succotash, p. 139

I made this for dinner tonight. I was a little concerned that it would be a bit bland when I was putting it together, but it turned out to be really tasty. I used savory tofu from Trader Joe's. This dish was really quick - it was basically done 10 minutes after the time it to me to chop the onion and tomato. Much less than half an hour total. I highly recommend this quick, tasty, and healthy dinner. I'm soy-riffic!

Guest Posting: Ginger Spiked Coconut Macaroons, p. 319

I gave Reva the book for her birthday, and here's her first foray:
"They're very yummy if you're not one of the many people who have an aversion to coconut and/or ginger. The "batter" was a bit messy to work with, and it was hard to get them to be pretty and round, and the sugar juice kind of spread so I probably shouldn't have put them so close together on the cookie sheet. But they're moist and kind of candy-like, and as directed, most of them are in my freezer now."
p.s. from Jody: I love that the cookies are cooling on the washing machine! They look fabulous.

Plumped Ginger-Caramel Shrimp p.227

I've made this dish at least four times at this point and it has never disappointed.

I usually use thawed shrimp so as suggested, I marinate them in the refrigerator.

I've tried fresh-caught shrimp versus farm-raised and I really can't tell the difference.

Sweet Yams in a Ginger-Stick Curry, p. 281 and Dressing-in-a-Bowl Simple Salad, p. 9

I made these two dishes for dinner tonight. I followed the directions almost exactly for both. I bought two huge garnet yams for the curry. It was plenty for both of us for a main dish (I thought we would have leftovers, but Kathy had a second helping--unexpected--and then I finished what was left). We are not sure why it is a "curry" except that it is possible that the savory bits (ginger, garlic, jalapeño, shallots, green onions, basil and lime) may be components of a curry paste. It was pretty hot--you could cut that back with less ginger and less jalapeño, but then it might be boring. Kathy and I like hot food, so it was perfect for us. You could easily cut this in half for one or double for four. 

The salad was a great find. Somehow, I always thought I had to make a dressing, then pour it over the salad. This is an instant salad--done in less than a minute if you use a bag of greens (we did--a mix of baby greens and baby spinach). Put the greens in a bowl, sprinkle with salt and pepper, drizzle on a little olive oil (I used a lemon olive oil tonight), toss that, then drizzle on a little vinegar (I used a lemon balsamic tonight). Serve and eat immediately! It was so good, I made another serving for myself to finish the meal.

The authors have meal suggestions in the front and back covers of the book. This one is at the bottom of the second page of the front. It suggests to serve mango iced tea with the meal, so I made some of that today, too. But then I found a light and fruity Spanish rosé at Whole Foods. It went well with the meal. 

21st-Century Mac'n'Cheese (p.182) and Smothered Broccoli with Peppers, Onions, and Raisins (p.273)

Jody, Bruce, and Jen G. made these for Saturday night dinner. Yum!

We didn't believe that the directions on the mac'n'cheese were accurate - it said to blend the milk/egg/garlic for 3 seconds (!), then add the cheese/onion/cream cheese and blend for 10 seconds more. Turns out that it was enough time for it to be all blended together. The sauce was thinner than we expected, but when baked it had a great thick consistency.

This is Bruce. The macaroni and cheese was really good. It had egg and cream cheese and got nice and thick. There was a lot of onion in the flavor (it only baked for 25 minutes or so) so it was a bit oniony--perhaps E would not like it. The vegetables were very flavorful. It made me want to eat broccoli--not a small feat.

This is Jen. I even ate the vegetables - onions, red peppers and all! The two dishes were very nice together. (I think there were too many ingredients in the delicious mac & cheese for it to be made in my own kitchen.)

Jody agrees - I was surprised by how well these dishes worked together - the richness of the mac'n'cheese contrasted really well with the healthy crispness of the fresh veggies. The veggies were really healthy - only a little bit of olive oil, and no other "bad stuff". And they were sooooo pretty!

Pasta with Chopping Board Pistachio Pesto

I made this Sunday night. I followed the recipe quite closely, or at least I tried to. When I went shopping at Rainbow, they had NO basil. Not plants, not in packages, not organic, none. So I ended up using the little frozen basil cubes I had from Trader Joe's. Oh, and I put the cheese on top rather than stirring it in.
It didn't take long, about 30 minutes, and tasted quite good. My only comment is that Lynn Rosetto Kasper likes pasta a lot - lots of pasta, very little sauce or other stuff. Which I guess is common for pesto, but with the onions and nuts and all I thought there would be more stuff. I think you could make this recipe and use half a box of pasta instead of the whole box.

Green Beans with Preserved Lemon and Black Olives, p. 271

Kathy and I had some green beans to use up last night for dinner. We also had some preserved lemon left from the chicken recipe a while ago (it is preserved, so like a pickle, almost). So, we made this dish--a perfect fit for our ingredients. The original recipe on p. 270 is green beans with gremolata. We followed the variation very closely. I was suspicious of the length of cooking time--15 to 20 minutes, but the beans did turn out really tender and melty--not crisp like I usually like them. My mom would be proud of them! I did not add salt to the beans as they cooked since the preserved lemon and the olives are both salty. Turned out just right. 

We served these as a side dish along with something I made up--sauteed turkey cutlets with a wine, mustard and dried cherry sauce. Kathy liked it better than I did, but it was fine. I also served baby "confetti" potatoes--small potatoes--including the purple ones (I just love purple potatoes, just for the fun of it!). 

We also had a good dry white wine with dinner--Floria, a French varietal from Gascony. It was in a box of "12 wines under $12" that I bought at a wine bar/restaurant in Virginia. We are going to look for it again--at least the same region of France.

Little French Fudge Cakes, p. 313

I made these for a dinner at Lori's Saturday night. They we expensive, but really good. I modified the chocolate used a little bit. I used one bar of the Lindt Excellence they recommended - half for melting and half for the little bits of chocolate happiness. I then used the unsweetened as directed, as well as some Baker's bittersweet. Because (a) I'm kind of cheap and (b) I didn't really want leftover Lindt. So all that chocolate was pricey, but these would be at least $3 each if you tried to buy them anywhere, so totally worth it.
Anyhow. The chocolate and butter melted up beautifully - I did the "double boiler" version instead of the microwave. That's the first picture. I added the extra sugar "for the kids" because not everyone at the party was a hard core bittersweet chocolate fanatic. I didn't find the result too sweet at all. I baked them in this old cast iron Griswold popover pan. That I actually took out of a dumpster from Steve's neighbor's house when they were cleaning it out. It worked really really well for this purpose. (And yes, it's been washed several times.)
I served the cupcakes with Cool Whip (not Reddi Whip, which is fake). They were just yummy. The only thing that I'll change when I make them again (which I plan on doing) is to use a little less cinnamon next time, but that is probably because I used my Vietnamese cinnamon from Penzey's, which is quite potent.
Okay, kids, this is the only posting in March. Get to it!

Almond Chutney Chicken in Lettuce Roll-Ups, p. 113

Me again. With no picture again. Okay, here's a picture of a chicken, since I don't have one of the dish. Anyhow.
I made these for our family Oscar party. They weren't quite what I expected - the lettuce wraps I've had at restaurants (or bought at Trader Joe's) have hot cooked ground chicken, with some kind of sauce and crispies. These are more like a chicken salad, that you roll up with veggies and herbs. But they were really good. The braver Sorensens really enjoyed them. They were a bit messy to eat, though. I had torn the lettuce leaves in half, maybe I wouldn't do that next time.
Some alterations: I didn't buy radishes as an accompaniment, and I had cilantro but not basil. I think that was fine - they still had a really nice fresh bright taste. Also I use 2 lemons instead of the 3 suggested, and it tasted very lemony. (There was more than enough acid, as they say on Top Chef). I learned that "Major Grey's Chutney" seems to be a type of chutney, not a brand.
I'll definitely make these again as a party hors d'oeuvre/appetizer.
p.s. Elyn - post the stuff you've made!!

Tomato Cheddar Packed Turkey Burgers

Lori and I made these last Thursday for dinner, and they were really good. As predicted, the mixture is really soft and messy to get in the pan, but they cooked up so moist and flavorful. I love the concept of using the onion/tomato mixture both in the burgers and as a condiment. I'll definitely be making these again. Although I don't think that they'll work on the grill in the summer.

Wine-Braised Carrots with Fried Sage Leaves, p. 264

I had extra sage from the butternut squash pasta, so I decided to make this side dish. It was pretty quick and easy, and tastes good. But I don't think it's a replacement for pennies from heaven.
When frying the sage leaves there was a LOT of spatter - maybe because I rinsed them off first, so perhaps drying them first would be a good idea.
I'll post a super-exciting picture of this dish soon.

Stir-fry of Hoisin Lamb w/Cashews & Snow Peas (p.247)

Last night we tried the lamb stir-fry. It was most excellent. The interesting ingredient was Chinese five-spice powder, which is as advertised a bit like anise seed flavor-wise. Lest you are afraid of this dish because you do not like anise-flavored food, don't despair. I wasn't sure myself, as I do not like those little spices to eat at the exits of Indian restaurants! I liked the flavor a lot.We also think we should use hoisin sauce more often when we stir fry other meals. We added an ingredient (horrors!) - red pepper - because stir fry is almost always improved by red pepper. It worked well. We used lamb on the bone (mistake), which added 20 min to the prep time (more if you're slow). Despite this, Bruce claims victory as he did not cut himself. For the vegetarians, we plan to try this with tofu as a replacement for lamb. Chicken might be good, too, if you can't get, or afford, lamb. Possibly a halal butcher may have been a better bet for pricing of the lamb. 

Sweet Roasted Butternut Squash and Greens over Bow-Tie Pasta, p. 169, The Wahl Version...

We had guests over the last weekend (from Wednesday to Tuesday, actually). Kathy's friend and colleague, Susan from Florida and my sister, Carolyn, from Illinois. Carolyn is a big squash fan, so I thought the squash pasta dish would be perfect for Monday after Susan had left (not a squash fan). On Mondays, I teach until 7:30 PM and Kathy gets home pretty late usually. Carolyn went to Mt. Vernon for the day, but stopped to buy all the groceries for the dish on the way home. She found everything on the ingredient list. She and Kathy prepped the whole dish and had it in the oven when I got home at 8. 

We agree with almost everything Jody said and should have taken her advice. We used escarole, and would use a lot more next time. I still have some living sage, so we used that, but could have had more. We also bought the basil and used that. We think we could have used less oil, but, as Jody said, the vegetables did not stick while they were roasting. Our vegetables looked virtually the same as Jody's in the picture below. We added the cheese to the dish and ate it with some good multigrain bread. Yum! Kathy even liked it, and she was skeptical. 

I put the leftovers in a baking dish (the little directions at the top of the recipe basically say you can do this). I added a little milk and left the cover on and baked at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes. It turned out really good--sort of liked any other baked pasta dish--a little crusty on the outside and steamy. The cheese was melty and yummy. We really liked it that way. I would definitely make the whole dish again, with the cheese and separate it into 6 portions--eat two fresh, and save (freeze or fridge) the other four in two baking dishes for baking later. Oh, I forgot. I had a slight disaster as I was putting the leftovers away the first night--I had the baking dish in the fridge and when I opened it, the dish fell out and about 1 portion of the pasta fell on the floor. I am sure you are all surprised that something fell out of my fridge and spilled. So, we could easily get six portions. In fact, we may use even more squash next time. As Jody says, we like more "stuff to pasta" ratio.

Squash Pasta Part 2

The leftovers were better than I thought. The flavors combined nicely, and it's didn't get too dry. I will make this again, although maybe just a half recipe next time. And maybe slightly less pasta, but I like a large stuff to pasta ratio.

Sweet Roasted Butternut Squash and Greens over Bow-Tie Pasta, p. 169

This is a winner! This tasted great, and my house smells fantastico right now. Mmmmmm...
Let's see. It took about an hour, including all the chopping of squash and other veggies. I altered a couple of small things: I used sage but not also basil - I couldn't bring myself to pay $3 for each herb, and I love sage, especially with squash. I used the mixed greens option instead of escarole. And I just sprinkled with cheese at the end instead of stirring the cheese in - I thought that would work better for my week's worth of leftovers.
This is another "good technique" recipe. Roast the vegetables in the oven, then stir them into the pasta with some half-and-half, and you're done. I was happy that the veggies didn't stick to the pan. This recipe worked really well, and I will definitely be making this again. I used two large handfuls of greens, but I will use even more next time. I'll post briefly about the leftovers work out sometime tomorrow.

Fettuccine Alfredo p.180

Made this for dinner last week. Cut the recipe in half as I was only feeding two of us. I used Barilla pasta and cooked it for 9 minutes and then finished it in the pan for an extra 4 minutes. I used one cup of grated cheese which may have been a bit much. It was, however, still really good!

Almond-Turmeric Potatoes

Made these potatoes to go with baked salmon and green beans. I used a mandolin slicer on the thinnest setting. This had the effect of having the slices stick to each other making something very much like home fries (which I like).

Roasted Chicken Breasts with Preserved Lemon, p.195

We had never cooked with a preserved lemon before (see picture - still looks like a lemon, just a bit muted from the pickling, I guess). Had to go to a specialty grocery store, Whole Foods, to find it. The cookbook overlay says "Chickens - the free, the natural, and the organic"  I can't vouch for our chicken (it had to be defrosted...), but the finished product tasted delicious. Bruce said the prep time would have been about 5 minutes if the chicken was fresh. Bruce modified the recipe by using frozen chicken, and removing the skin. The flavor was great.  To spice up the dish, he made a rice pilaf inspired by the rice pilaf recipe (Scallion-Dill Pilaf, p.298), but modified the recipe to complement the chicken dish - using red onion (sweet) and lemon (acid), and cilantro as the herb. It was a winner.

Turkey Burgers - Part II

So - the frozen turkey burgers were great. Bruce broiled them (after defrosting!). I liked this better than pan fried.  The potatoes were good leftover, too. We wondered whether one might make them in the oven the first night, maybe by putting them in the oven in the pan after the "browning the onions" phase.  

Chicken Curry with Gentle Spices

I made the chicken curry on Thursday night. I followed the recipe pretty faithfully, except that I used my blender to make the curry paste since I don't have a food processor. But that seemed to work well - better than I expected. I didn't make rice but instead ate it with Trader Joe's naan - both seemed too carb intensive.
The dish was tasty and was done in about an hour, but I'm not sure that I'd make it again. It wasn't craveworthy for some reason. Perhaps the Penzey's cinnamon that I used was too strong. Or perhaps it's the fact that except for some onion it's just chicken in sauce and I prefer some veggies with my curry. I'm taking a vegetarian Indian cooking class with Mike on Monday night, so perhaps I'll get some good curry recipes there. For now I'll have to be content with the leftovers.

Crispy Tortilla Eggs with Avocado and Lime

(page 106) In spite of the fact that eggs are normally breakfast or lunch fare for us, I made this for dinner tonight. It turned out savory enough for me to make it again. I picked up the corn tortillas on the way home tonight, so not as stale as the recipe calls for. I used the small ones - about six inches in diameter. Since this was dinner for two (and not 4), I used four eggs. However, M and I both agreed that we could have eaten more, so perhaps next time I will use six eggs (from free-range, college-educated chickens).

The pictures are courtesy of M.

Lentil Soup

We tried the coriander, orange-scented red lentil soup this week. I did buy an organic orange and I used Swanson's vegetable broth (which I like more than the author's of the book). The soup came together in about an hour. It was thinner than I expected for a lentil soup, but very flavorful. The orange juice and cilantro give it a very bright taste. I agree with Bruce that it might be good served cold in the summer.

Here is the recipe:

http://splendidtable.publicradio.org/recipes/soup_corianderlentil.shtml

Almond-Turmeric Potatoes (p.289) & Tomato Cheddar Packed Turkey Burgers (p.210)

These two recipes were really yummy together. Bruce says the recipe progressed as advertised, nothing surprising. The pictures are NOT as well executed as in the cookbook (no surprises there, either!). Frankly, the plating left a lot to be desired. Bruce slapped the potatoes on the plate, and wanted me to hurry up to photograph it and get out of the way so he could eat! We almost forgot the almonds, as can be seen from the haphazard way they are on the potatoes. No extra points awarded for looks, for sure. Taste was excellent. There are two extra turkey burgers and sauce in the freezer. I think possibly the burger portions could be made into 6 (rather than 4) as I had plenty to eat.

Lentil Soup, Day 2

Kathy and I had the lentil soup as leftovers and they were better than the first day! The flavors had married in an interesting way--there was still a prevalent citrus flavor, but there seemed to be a little more heat today--from the ginger, maybe? I added some fresh cilantro. The soup was really good. I didn't try this, but it almost seemed like you could serve it as a cold soup on day 2 as well--maybe if you made it in the summer.

Coriander-Orange-Scented Red Lentil Soup p.74

This is Kathy writing in Bruce's place. Bruce made us this refreshing, tasty soup for dinner last night. It had a good citrus flavor. He did not use the suggested organic orange, so we will perhaps die from the chemicals in the orange peel. Or maybe not. Bruce said it took twice as long to prepare than advertised, both in cutting/prep time and on the stove. There is a lot of chopping and prep work (15-20 min, longer if Kathy is doing this). Then, simmering the lentils for 7-10 min, then for another 15 minutes, after you've already sauteed the onions and other savory bits (tasty!), adds up to far more than the advertised 25 minutes stove time. Maybe this one falls under the "Math is hard" category of the cookbook. The outcome was wonderful. Bruce heated up a couple mini-pitas and hummus.  

Green Apple, Cheese, and Chard Oven Omelet, p. 97

I made this for myself today, although stupid Lake Street Rainbow didn't have Swiss chard, so I went with spinach instead. It turned out really well, and I'm looking forward to the leftovers. It's a great technique - cook the veggies in a skillet, add the egg/cheese/milk mixture, then bake to finish. (Elyn's probably already a master of this one, but it was new to me.) It was ready start-to-finish in an hour, with about 20 minutes of active time.
I used a container of "Bel Gioso Four Cheese Shred" as the cheese component, and it was super tasty.
Hmm, I'm not sure I know how to add more than one picture. Oh, that seems to have worked. This is fun.

Tried the cauliflower soup tonight

I tried the curry cauliflower soup tonight.
My curry was old and mild, Bruce's version was better
and spicier. What curry did you use?
I also think that I added too much water -
perhaps my cauliflower pieces should have been smaller -
then less water would have covered it. I found
the good Greek-style yogurt at Wegmans! (Fage)
All in all, a bit of a disappointment - but still my
favorite way to eat cauliflower.

Corn Chowder, p. 62, on 12/29/2008

I made the corn chowder (p. 62) on 12/29/2008 for supper, served with bake-at-home French bread. The chowder was really good. I browned bacon (can you substitute turkey bacon in dishes like this?--I have never tried) that I had chopped up, then reserved the bacon and tossed out most of the fat. I didn't add the olive oil--just browned the onion and herbs in the tiny bit of leftover bacon fat.I added the bacon bits back in when I added the potato. Followed the rest of the recipe pretty faithfully, except I forgot to sprinkle on parsley at the end (even though I bought it for $1.59 at the most expensive grocery store...). I even bought Green Giant frozen Niblets as Lynn suggests. I might buy cheaper corn next time...or just wait for summer to use fresh corn.

Curried Cauliflower Cream Soup, p. 71

On December 22, Jody decided to make this soup for Bruce and Kathy. I made it as directed, using canned chicken broth. We really liked it, and it was even better when Bruce made it in January and served it with good Greek yogurt. We were impressed with the creaminess given that it is close to fat-free. We also enjoyed using our hand blenders.
Note that one lemon is probably enough.
It seems to freeze quite well, and we noticed that it got a bit spicier when reheated. Definitely a winner to be added to the repertoire.

Up next for Jody: maybe the apple and cheese omelet, or the chicken curry.