Foodie Friday

Chef of the Month

I definitely made up for not trying many of Ina's recipes.  Let me just say that Ina is my new friend.  We  have been well fed this week.  The only problem is that all of her cookbooks are equally good.  With Giada and even Bobby there was 1 cookbook that I used far more than the others.  With Ina all 7 of the cookbooks I'm using are full of great recipes.  I really don't have the space or budget to buy 7 more cookbooks but I'm going to have to figure something out quick.

So This week we had:

Parmesan Chicken from her Family Style book - This is a pretty standard chicken cutlet recipe.  You dredge the chicken in flour, egg and then a bread crumb mixture and lightly pan fry it.  This turned out super flavorful and super crispy.

Confetti Corn from Back to Basics - a nice corn side dish with onions, bell peppers, and basil.

Garlic Mashed Potatoes from Barefoot in Paris - I didn't particularly care for this one as the taste of olive oil was a little strong for me.  Everyone else liked them but I still like Pioneer Woman's better

Brioche Loaf - came together nicely but took awhile to make and then has to rise overnight.  I have discovered with a few things that her cooking times seem to be way over - like by 10 minutes or so.  The tops of them got a little over baked but I just cut off the tops and used the rest of the loaf for dinner the next night which was:

Challah French Toast from Family Style - she said you could use challah or brioche for this so I used her brioche recipe and then made her French Toast out of it.  This was good French Toast but I like Nigella's and the French Toast from Orangette better.

Hashed Browns also from Family Style - These were really really good and pretty low maintenance.  You chop the stuff up, dump it in pan and stir it over medium heat for awhile.

Shortbread Hearts - though mine were actually shortbread pumpkins.  This is another recipe where the baking time was an issue.  The first sheetful got burned to a crisp but luckily I had more dough.  These are butter-y with just the right amount of crunch.  Everything a shortbread cookie should be.  They're also the perfect base to add too.  She has another recipe where she adds pecans and also uses this as the base for her linzer cookies.  I think they'd also be good with half dipped in chocolate.

Cheddar Corn Chowder from Barefoot Contessa - This was amazing.  It did take awhile but it was essentially pretty simple.  Chop and stir.  The only downside was the recipe made a VAT of chowder.  I think I could cut this down to a 1/3 and still feed everyone plus have leftovers.

With this I served her Cheese Straws from Barefoot in Paris.  These use puff pastry as a base so they're super easy and puff pastry may just be one of my favorite things.  The only change I would make would be to cut the strips in half.  The straws were a little long and tended to bend.

So not a bad week for the Contessa and I'm looking forward to trying more of her food next week.

Pinterest

Only 2 recipes were made from Pinterest.  After all the Contessa food there wasn't much time for anything else.

Homemade Flour Tortillas from Mom on Timeout - these are so simple to make and all the ingredients are pantry staples.  They heat up really well too.  I've made these probably a dozen times and have completely stopped buying flour tortillas from the store.  These are so much better.

Hot Chocolate Cookies from Seeded at the Table - these taste just like a cup of hot chocolate with marshmallows.  I love how you bake the cookies until just about done, stick the marshmallows on and let them toast for the last few minutes of baking.  They're nice and chewy and chocolate-y.