Sararwelch

I made grilled tuna with moroccan pepper salad and herb potatoes from the Mustards Napa Valley Grill cookbook:

I made hamburger buns from one of the white bread recipes in the Bread Baker's Apprentice:

Sararwelch, Roasted tomatoes are the only way I can eat tomatoes in the winter since it's pretty hard to get a decent one in Chicago this time of year. Can you tell me about the toasted orzo? Is that two types of orzo in there? One looks darker than the other. ← I watched Bobby Flay make this on the food network a few months ago - only half of the orzo is toasted, he said that the flavor was too strong when he tried toasting all of the orzo. Here's the recipe.

I made bread pudding with pecans, golden raisins and white chocolate chips:

Last night I made oven roasted lamb shanks with roasted tomatoes and toasted orzo. Time consuming, but worth the effort!

Homemade pepper fettuccine with roasted chicken, bacon, bell peppers and parmigiano reggiano. I just got a pasta roller, so I've been making a ton of pasta!

I've just started to get into celery root -the first time I made it, I boiled chunks in salted water and pureed it with salt, pepper, a splash of milk and about a tablespoon of cream cheese. It was really good. The second time I pureed it in a soup with turnips, parsnips, leeks and onions.

I saw it too - but I wasn't surprised, the food network's not exactly about gourmet food/cooking these days.

This was a "clean out the fridge" kind of pizza: pesto, feta, asiago, fontina, prosciutto, piquillo peppers and fresh basil

Last night I made chicken picatta - I haven't made it in years. I served it with mashed potatoes.

I just started a food blog about 6 weeks ago, and I've found with the photos that it's really just a matter of practice. My pictures are getting better and it definitely helped to read the manual that came with my camera.

I made an angel food cake and served it with blood orange sauce, creme anglaise, and citrus salad.

My work schedule is about to become very hectic, and this weekend I'm planning to do a lot of cooking to get the freezer stocked with meals or components that I can put together to create meals. Here's what I'm planning so far: Pureed vegetable soups (carrot ginger and maybe one more) Manicotti Marinara sauce Homemade ravioli Homemade bread Pizza dough Meatballs Turkey burgers Any other ideas?

I am still working my way through my meyer lemon supply. Here's the granita I made last night:

I really miss From Martha's Kitchen. I used to watch the food network constantly. I've reduced my intake to around an hour or two a week. I like the Barefoot Contessa, I watch Sandra Lee for comic value. Sometimes I watch Easy Entertaining with Michael Chiarello, Molto Mario or Boy Meets Grill, but not that often. I can't stand the travel shows! And have any of you seen Paula's Party? Talk about a train wreck.

They're also really good on pizza - I usually buy the smaller variety (perlini). Try it with tomatoes, the cheese, and prosciutto. Just make sure to dry them off really well or you'll have watery pizza.

I get the best results by sauteeing frozen vegetables - they're always too watery out of the microwave.

I could live on hummus and pita chips. I usually buy sea salt or sesame multigrain pita chips. The cinnamon sugar pita chips are great for a sweet snack.

I just ordered a Kitchenaid Professional 5 series stand mixer. I noticed that there were a few negative reviews on Amazon, with people saying that the motors burn out when making bread dough. Just curious, do you have any issues with your Kitchenaid stand mixer, or are only the disgruntled customers posting reviews on Amazon?

How was the blood orange zest? I have quite a few blood oranges at home and would like to use the zest for baking.

I map out a dinner plan for each week. I take into account prep time relative to our schedules (I have a lot of night meetings), and decide on a general idea for each night. It's usually based on what I already have in the fridge/freezer, and I look at the grocery ads each week to see what's on sale. I always pick the protein in advance, but often I will base side dishes on what looks good at the store. I shop at multiple markets too, but try to keep it to one or two markets each week.

I have a star bundt pan, individual bundt pans, a bundtlette pan (slightly larger than a mini muffin). I really like the bundtlette pan, it's good for cake and also makes nice brownies. I don't have any problems with the cakes releasing from the pans, and I use a flour/oil spray. When I have extra batter I generally bake it in a loaf pan.

I don't think Emeril's exactly picking when it comes to shilling products. I heard he even has produce with his name on it. I also watch less and less of the food network. I used to watch it all the time, I'm down to about an hour a week.

I have quite a few Meyer lemons in the house, so I made the Barefoot Contessa lemon cake. It was really good, and a great way to use a lot of lemons.

I made focaccia from the Bread Baker's Apprentice today. I used the Pain a l'Ancienne as the dough and made a basil infused olive oil instead of using an oil with coarsely chopped herbs.