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.