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I think I'm officially shifted to a monthly idea post rather than a weekly idea post, at least for the next few months? We'll see how it goes...
Anyways, it occurred to me that the "ideas post" is also the perfect place to report back on all the recipes I've been trying that have failed. It's not that I've been ignoring my blog or the recipe voting results (I swear), but a lot of things have flopped lately.
Everything I made from Melissa Clark's latest cookbook, "favorites from her kitchen", was a complete disaster. I did write that in response to the ideas post related to that cookbook, but then it occurred to me, who goes back and looks at old comments?! Here is really the right place for a debrief. I think I'm convinced that I'm just going to avoid Melissa's recipes from now on. I'm clearly not her target audience.
Surprisingly, given how much I loved her winter pizza, I felt somewhere between meh & bleh about the roasted (plum) muffins and kohlrabi fritters from Dishing Up the Dirt. Of all the cookbooks I've been testing, I wasn't expecting this one to fail my "make three recipes" rule. I'll be making the other two recipes voted for (the two pesto-based dishes), and hoping they turn out better.
The peanut satay sauce was also a bust, as it tasted just like watered-down peanut butter.
The macarons from French Patisserie were good, but a nightmare to make, so I'm not going to share them with you until I can fiddle with the recipe enough that I feel comfortable sharing it with you. The chocolate lava cakes from French Patisserie were a complete flop, as was the salted caramel buttercream. I'm probably not going to give this cookbook a second chance, because I'm just not confident in the recipe testing/writing that was done before its publication.
On the other hand, I've quite liked the salads from Love Real Food, so look for those coming soon. I finally made the caramelized cabbage risotto from Smitten Kitchen Every Day, but it's not quite the right season for eating that. I do still need to pick a night to make the halibut with red curry, but maybe this week?
Feel a little more up-to-date yet? You can see a work-in-progress list of the cookbooks I've been cooking from and the ones I've parted with since starting this blog (it's not a complete list - I donated a bunch and lost track of exactly which went into that pile).
This week's batch of recipes ideas comes from a book by a pair of female runners:
A) Sweet Potato Waffles
B) Wild Rice Pancakes
D) Brown Rice Risotto with Mushrooms and Peas
all from Run Fast. Cook Fast. Eat Slow.
Hands down the rainbow stir fry. Who can resist that title??
Eat the Rainbow Stir-Fry—agree with M-E that I can’t resist the title!
D) Brown Rice Risotto with Mushrooms and Peas (sounds delightful)