TWD Pizza with Onion Confit

Paul is definitely the pizza maker in our house.  He's a bit obsessed, to say the least.  When he makes pizza it involves a sourdough starter, and the dough must be started several days ahead of time.  He's also very particular about the sauce, and has all kind of tricks (which I don't like to think about) for getting the oven hotter than it's supposed to be.  He's also been talking about building a wood-burning clay pizza oven in the back yard.  All this to say that I almost never make pizza.  When I was single I used to, but now I feel like I just can't compete.  Which is sad because even though mine isn't nearly as good as his, mine is much quicker and I could definitely get used to eating pizza more often!  So, it was nice to have an excuse to make pizza.  I warned Paul that I already knew it wasn't going to be as good as his and he didn't need to waste his time comparing, and got to work.  I followed the recipe closely, but substituted half whole wheat flour for the AP.  This crust definitely wasn't as good as Paul's, but it was much quicker, a bit healthier, and a good vehicle for the caramelized onions, goat cheese, and olives.  This is definitely a recipe that I'd make again.

TWD French Apple Tart

I think, again, that my main problem with this dessert was not being able to get good enough apples.  I used the granny smiths the recipe called for, but grocery store apples in January just don't seem to be that great.  After roasting them for the called for amount of time, they were still way too hard to mash. I tried letting them go a while longer, but it didn't help at all.  I finally put them in the food processor and was able to get the filling to an applesauce-like consistency, but the flavor just wasn't that great.  The other thing that drove me crazy with this dessert was the crust.  I had trouble understanding the instructions, and my fluted edges are nowhere near as pretty as I'm sure they were supposed to be.  We still definitely enjoyed the dessert, but I don't think I would go to the trouble again, unless I had some really fresh fall apples.

FFWD January (Long and Slow Apples, "Liver", and Shrimp and Cellophane)

Just for my own records, I'm going to try to do quick run-downs of all of the recipes that I've failed to blog about over the past few months.  I think I've actually made all of the recipes except for one.  Here's January:

I was pretty underwhelmed by the Long and Slow Apples.  Luckily I own a mandoline so they weren't too hard to make, but I thought the flavor was only so-so.  Maybe what I needed was better apples, but the options in January usually aren't that great.  This definitely needed the whipped cream to pick it up.  This is probably why I'll never be very skinny, but I'd definitely choose an apple pie, crisp, or tart any day!

I am normally a very strict rule follower (even my mother teases me about it!) but I didn't do a very good job with the Chicken Liver Gateaux.  I know I wasn't a very good sport, but I really don't eat liver so I decided to make vegetarian chopped liver (like this one) instead.  I was planning on at least trying to mold it and making the pickled onions to accompany it, but I ran out of onions (this never happens to me, but yet I managed to do it twice in two weeks!) so that didn't happen either.  The vegetarian chopped liver was actually pretty good (although Paul said it was nothing like the real thing), but I did wish I had the pickled onions to go with it.  I think it would have cut some of the richness.  What really was good was the Rachael Ray minestrone soup that Paul made to go with the dinner.  I know she's easy to make fun of (I do it often too), but I really do enjoy her recipes.  I very rarely actually get them done in 30 minutes but they are usually relatively quick, always work, and are usually very good.

Last, I still don't quite understand the placement of Shrimp and Cellophane Noodles in a French cookbook, but we did really enjoy these.  I thought the sauce had a nice, subtle Asian flavor to it.  My only complaint was the portion size.  It didn't seem like a lot of noodles for four servings!

TWD Best Ever Brownies

Better late than never, right?  I made and photographed these brownies back in November, but totally failed to get a post up about them.  Am I the only one who enjoys the cooking and eating more than the actual writing part?  The good news is, I have a disturbingly good memory for food and these brownies were especially memorable.  They were absolutely excellent!  I think I may have under-baked them for about a minute, they were almost too gooey to eat when warm, but they set up very nicely when cooled.  I just loved the pure, rich chocolate flavor.  They were so rich that even I was happy with a relatively small piece, they kept well, and they were delicious straight from the freezer.  I don't make brownies too often, but this will definitely be my new, go-to recipe.

FFWD February (Squash and Brussel Sprouts, Coeur a la Creme, and Pea Soup)

I don't eat pork so I skipped the tenderloin, but I did make all of the other February recipes--with mixed results.

I would give the Brown Sugar Squash and Brussel Sprouts en Papillote a C-.  First, I know I need to learn to be more adaptable, but it frustrates me when vegetable recipes don't make use of the entire vegetable.  I never know what to do with the extra half of a butternut squash.  Because the recipe didn't use up either the whole squash or the bag of brussel sprouts I bought, in addition to preparing this recipe I also cooked the rest of the squash and brussels on the same night.  I followed this recipe exactly, and then after preparing the remaining vegetables the same way (halving the brussel sprouts and cubing the squash) I just tossed them with olive oil, salt, and pepper and threw them on a sheet pan.  I put them all in the oven and then worked on the rest of the dinner.  After about 30 minutes, the sprouts and squash on the sheet pan were cooked through and browned in spots--exactly how I like them.  The ones in foil were still largely raw.  Because the rest of dinner was ready I decided to just serve the cooked ones, saving the ones in foil for the next night.  The ones in foil probably took at least an additional hour to cook.  They tasted just fine, but I didn't like them any better than the ones on the sheet pan, and will not bother with this recipe again.

I'm definitely not going to quit my day job to try anything artistic!  However, despite my best attempts to ruin it, the Coeur a la Creme was an easy and delicious dessert.  I'd give it an A.  I thought I had raspberry sauce in the freezer but didn't, so I decided to defrost and warm up some chocolate ganache I found instead.  Raspberries were also insanely expensive at the store (I'm guessing due to Valentine's) but blueberries were on sale, so I bought those instead.  In hindsight, while I actually really like the blueberry and chocolate flavor combination, the color combination didn't exactly scream Valentine's Day.  I also knew I was in trouble the second I tried to "drizzle" my chocolate ganache over the dessert.  It turns out ganache (at least mine) doesn't drizzle at all, and I was left with random puddles of chocolate on my white dessert.  Not exactly appetizing.  I started to panic, reminded myself that it was only Paul and I, and did the best I could to push the ganache off the edges and decorate the top with blueberries.  Still not pretty, though.  The taste, however, was excellent.  A lot like a cheesecake but not quite as dense, and so much easier to make.  When I make this again I'll either spring for the raspberries, or serve the dessert plain with sauce on the side.

I was really unsure about cooked lettuce, but we actually liked the Cheating on Winter Pea Soup.  I wouldn't say it was exciting, but it had a good clean flavor and was certainly easy to make.  I'd give it a solid B.  Next time I'm definitely going to pull out my real blender, though.  The immersion blender left some small pieces of cooked lettuce, which definitely weren't so appetizing.

FFWD Chicken Breasts Diable and Cheesy Creme Brulee

I actually made both of these recipes on the same night.  Since the creme brulee had to chill in the refrigerator anyway, I decided to go ahead and make it to serve on the following night.  Despite how easy and relatively healthy they are, I almost never make boneless skinless chicken breasts.  I have a very hard time cooking them so that they're cooked through but not dry, I find that they don't re-heat that well (key for me since we almost always eat dinner leftovers for lunch), and--most importantly--Paul doesn't really like them and is prone to complaining.  However, I absolutely love anything with mustard and this recipe definitely sounded easy, so I was happy to give it a try.  The verdict?  We both loved the sauce, I think it would taste good on almost anything, and given how quick and easy it was this is a recipe I would make again.  I served it with carrots provencal (an old favorite of mine from Jacques Pepin) and some hash browns I made with leftover boiled potatoes.  Definitely an enjoyable Sunday night dinner.

The creme brulee, on the other hand, I most likely will not be making again.  I'm very curious to see what everybody else thought of this recipe.  I love custards and am a big fan of creme brulee, so I had high hopes for this recipe.  The oven temperature called for seemed way too low to me, but Dorie's recipes almost always work, so I proceeded along.  When I checked the custards after the suggested amount of time, they were nowhere close to being ready.  I turned the convection on and kept cooking them, checking whenever I remembered, but they just would not cook.  At some point I turned the oven up about 50 degrees, but I think I should have gone higher.  I finally pulled them out after 2-3 hours (at some point I lost track of time), when they were finally set.  When I served them the next day, I was sad to see that the bottom layer of cheese hadn't melted at all!  I just don't think my oven ever got hot enough.  This is probably my fault, although I've never had problems with my oven before and double-checked the oven temperature in the recipe several times, but I thought this dish was pretty gross.  I normally have no problem eating very rich things, but the layer of rich (but pretty flavorless) custard followed by un-melted, room temperature cheese did not appeal to me at all.  Paul was a total trooper and made himself eat several of these (he follows in his father's footsteps and cannot bear to see food go to waste), but this is one of the few things in recent memory that I actually threw away.  It just didn't feel worth trying to make myself eat it.

FFWD Herb-Speckled Spaetzle

The problem with getting behind in posting (and I guess procrastinating in general) is that it just keeps getting harder to get caught up.  I've actually made every recipe (except for one) over the past two months so there is a very long catch-up post in my future, but I've decided to just try to start posting on time again and write the catch-up post when I get to it.....So, spaetzle.  I've always wanted to try making spaetzle (Sara Moulton has an excellent-sounding recipe for it that I keep meaning to try) so I was glad when I saw the recipe schedule for this month.  One of my few problems with AMFT, is that Dorie always makes everything sound so easy.  The way she describes it you mix the batter, put it through something with holes in it, boil it, and then very soon dinner is ready.  I thought it sounded perfect for a weeknight dinner!  I was very wrong.  Maybe it would have gone better with a spaetzle maker--I'm very curious to see if anyone has one and how much easier it made things--but I spent an awful lot of time holding my hands over a pot of boiling water trying to push the thick, sticky dough through the holes of the largest disk of my food mill.  (I also tried a colander and big slotted spoon, but this seemed to be my best option.)  My mom happened to be over and offered to help, but after trying for about a minute she said it was impossible and gave up.  Luckily, my mom did come to the rescue when I noticed that I didn't have anything to finish the dish.  I skipped buying the mushrooms (still don't like them) and I couldn't find the onion half that I'd saved for this purpose.  I probably would have panicked but my mom--who's much better at substitutions and cooking with what's available than I am--suggested adding celery and garlic and it worked quite well.  Dinner was very late on Wednesday, but we definitely both enjoyed it.  I made the spaetzle with half all purpose flour and half of an ancient grains mix that I bought from KAF, and really liked the nutty flavor that the anxious grains added.  The only thing I wish is that the spaetzle had gotten crispier.  A few of mine browned nicely but most did not.  I think next time I'll use a bigger pan to fry them in, and also won't skimp so much on the butter and oil (I was trying to be healthy!).