Weekly Recipe Wrap-Up

Hello all,

It's been quite a week. A bit of an emotional roller coaster, if you will. But one of my favorite remedies for feeling down is cooking something delicious. It's very satisfying to know that if you put these certain ingredients together and roast them for this amount of time, there will always be a yummy end result. If nothing else seems to be going well, I can still cook well, dangit! And so, I did. Here are the results.

It's been pretty mild for a winter here at the moment. It's been like 35 and not snowing and not windy. Now, that's not warm, but it's really not cold. Still it's been a little cloudy and grey, so it's called for some warm feel-good food. And what's better for that then some chili and cornbread? (Side note, about four of my friends on Facebook also had this idea, so I think it's a case of great minds and all...)

If you ever wanted to know what color my cutting board is, it's the color of a red pepper. Exactly.




I used this chili recipe, just with ground turkey. I've made it before, and it's nice and thick and bean-y. Hearty and satisfying.


And I tried out the Joy of Cooking cornbread recipe for the cornbread. Everything I read said to use stone-ground cornmeal because it's finer and the cornbread doesn't taste as gritty. I didn't have stone ground cornmeal, so I just took my regular cornmeal, and my tiny little mortar and pestle and ground it finer myself.



And I made cornbread cupcake style, which worked out really well. (Cook's note, better the second day! Mmmm, leftovers)



The next night was this Roast Turkey Panini with Pesto Roasted Red Peppers and Fontina. Brad wanted a panini with some meat in it, and we have an awesome panini pan (thank you Christopher Sampson and Kayli Moran and Mario Batali for the wedding gift). Of course, the recipe calls for "prepared basil pesto", so I also has to look up a basil pesto recipe. And after roasting some red peppers and pine nuts, the meal turned out beautifully.

Homemade pesto, with lots of great cheese.


And you gotta love those panini lines on the bread.


Last, but not least (especially according to Brad) was my very first attempt to make pork chops. I found these at Whole Foods, they are already rubbed in adobo and citrus, which made my job extremely easy. I just had to rub a little salt on both sides, throw some olive oil in a pan, and fry the chops for about 4 minutes on each side. I deglazed the pan with a little bit of tequila and water for a quick sauce that paired well with the spice and citrus, and done. Seriously, the first 10 minute meal I've ever made. It was wonderful. And I have nothing to compare them to, but Brad said they were good, so I'll believe him!



And that is all. Tomorrow I'll post my new favorite this I got with my friend Sarah at the nursery yesterday while we were looking for plants for the church foyer.