Thai Chicken and Basil

So we love Thai food, and Christine always orders spicy Thai chicken with basil, and I usually try to order something different but usually end up being jealous because hers is so good. With that in mind, we used our Williams-Sonoma "Chicken" cookbook to make their version of Spicy Chicken and Basil Stir-fry. I was at the NCAA basketball games during the day, so took on prep and cooking duties for this meal on Sunday night. Prep was really, really easy...garlic, jalepenos, red pepper, basil, and chicken were the basic ingredients and then the liquid portion, which was pretty straight forward. The dish came out great and really did taste like what we get when we go out for Thai food. Start to finish, the dish was about 20 minutes in total, and the jasmine rice in the rice cooker was a nice addition. The only veggie in the dish was red peppers, so I think the addition of some straw mushrooms, baby corn, or a few other items would have made the dish even better! I think with its ease of preparation and good flavor, this is going to become a staple for us! —ms

Another good use for ripe bananas

I had another pesky ripe banana left that no one was going to eat over the weekend. Maybe I should learn not to buy so many bananas for the week. But I didn't want it to go to waste, and I had remembered recently seeing a cookie recipe in Martha Stewart's "Cookies" cookbook that called for one really ripe banana. The Banana-Walnut Chocolate Chunk Cookies were tasty. It was an above-and-beyond twist on regular chocolate chip cookies. The banana, toasted walnuts, and oats really added a nice dimension, and they didn't go flat as they baked as some of my chocolate chip recipes do. 

They got rave reviews so I'll definitely be making these again. My 22-month-old son wanted "more." And our friend Laurel said it was delicious: "Like breakfast and dessert all in one cookie." --CS

Good old comfort food

We're heading into spring so we don't have too many more opportunities for heavy comfort foods. But yesterday was somewhat rainy and cool, so we decided to try out Ina Garten's Spaghetti and Meatballs from the "Barefoot Contessa Family Style" cookbook. This was a big step for us since Matt has been making his version of spaghetti and meatballs with his own sauce for about the last 10 years.

The recipe was fairly simple for both the meatballs and sauce. I wasn't able to find ground veal for the meatballs so I substituted another 1/2 pound of ground pork instead. The pork definitely came out strong over the ground beef instead of a more blended mixture. The sauce was really good, I think the Chianti gave it a great taste. It was very rustic. But I actually prefer my onions and garlic in the meatballs instead of the sauce.

I love the Barefoot Contessa, but I don't think we'll make this recipe again. Matt's spaghetti and meatballs is still the household favorite! —CS

Soup's on!

The last two cookbooks that we've used have been for soups. I'm trying to get some winter cooking in before spring arrives!

I'm not sure if this is cheating or not. But about a week and a half ago, I made Asian Chicken Noodle Soup with Ginger and Chiles from Bon Appetit's "fast easy fresh" cookbook. I  got this cookbook for Christmas, but it's full of Bon Appetit recipes that I have been making for years. I have been making this soup with Thanksgiving leftovers since 2004. And because we love this recipe so much, we use rotisserie chicken in place of the turkey so we can have it year-round. It's so simple to make, and the serranos tossed in to the bowl before serving gives it some great heat. When you want the comfort of chicken noodle soup, this twist is just what the doctor ordered.

Tonight we're trying out our new panini machine (yes, appliances are another obsession in addition to cookbooks!), so we thought soup would go great with our roasted pepper-mozzarella-chicken paninis. We made the Roast Turkey Vegetable Soup with Rice from Williams-Sonoma's "Soup for Supper." It was really light, fresh, and flavorful. We used already roasted turkey and a bunch of veggies—mushrooms, onion, celery, carrots, and broccoli. The recipe called for homemade turkey stock, which we opted not to do. Maybe next Thanksgiving! With spring and/or Cinco de Mayo around the corner, I might have to try the Asparagus Soup or the Chicken, Tortilla, and Lime Soup next.

Ten cookbooks down, 65 to go (since the initial counting of cookbooks, we added the Jessica Seinfeld cookbook, and then Matt was given an Atlanta cookbook). We better get cooking! —CS

Adding those veggies

We have been having a hard time getting our 21-month-old to eat his veggies. So I decided to buy another cookbook focused on kids. It's "Deceptively Delicious" by Jessica Seinfeld—yes, Jerry's wife.

Her technique is pureeing vegetables and adding the purees to your basic recipes. I decided to take a stab at it and start with the Spaghetti and Meatballs since Oliver is a pasta fan. I roasted butternut squash and pureed it for the meatballs, and I steamed some carrots and pureed for the sauce. It definitely adds to the dishes since I used my steamer, my food processor, and my blender to puree canned whole tomatoes. But the overall result was pretty tasty and healthy since it called for ground turkey. And Oliver ate his entire serving with a side of cottage cheese (he loves any kind of cheese or dairy product!).

I'm planning on trying the Grilled Cheese recipe later in the week, which calls for more pureed butternut squash. I had plenty of that leftover, so it should make it a little easier and a lot less dishes.

I'm still not sold on the dessert recipes. Chocolate cake with beet puree? The chocolate cupcake recipe has avocado puree, and the frosting has cauliflower puree. And then, the chocolate chip cookie recipe calls for chickpeas. Maybe I'll have to try one of the dessert recipes just for the heck of it. Maybe it'll be scrumptious (as well as packed full of veggies)! —CS