sadie4232

Last night I sauteed corn, shrimp and chorizo, added some chopped tomatoes and mixed it together with a lovely vinegarette made by browning some minced garlic cloves in olive oil. Once the oil cooled slightly, I added some sweet paprika and let it steep for about 15 minutes. Strained it, whisked it with some sherry vinegar and pored it over the corn, shrimp and chorizo and topped it off with some chopped cilantro. Served the warm salad with toasted garlic bread. From the empty plates, it seems to have been a hit.

I feel your pain. My mom used to slice up SPAM, put a ring of canned pineapple on each slice, then bake it. This delight was served with a healthy helping of canned potatoes adorned with dried parsley. To this day, I still have nightmares about it.

Good one! ← Bless her heart, I guess I was wrong about dear Sandra: http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/re...6_31910,00.html Any idea how one might even begin (or want) to eat this?

Ever run across a recipe so loathsome it sends a shiver down your spine? Reading through the ingredients finds you battling your gag reflex? Today I received a copy of Food & Family magazine from Kraft. Having never gotten one before, I paged through it. The very first recipe (submitted by a devoted reader) was as follows: Velvety Vegetable Cheese Soup 1 pkg. (16 oz.) frozen broccoli, cauliflower and carrot mix 2 cans (14 oz. each) fat-free reduced-sodium chicken broth 3/4 lb. (12 oz.) Velveeta Pasteurized Prepared Cheese product, cut up Place veggies and broth in large saucepan; cover. Bring to boil on medium high heat. Reduce heat to low; simmer 10 min. or until veggies are tender. Mash vegetables with potato masher to desired consistency. Stir in Velveeta; cook 5 min. or until Velveeta is melted and soup is heated through. But wait...it gets even better: You can save 40 calories and 6 grams of fat per serving by preparing with Velveeta Made with 2% Milk Reduced Fat Pasteurized Prepared Cheese Product. Just makes you want to race through the rest of the magazine, doesn't it? I doubt even Sandra Lee would stoop this low. What recipe horrors have any of you run across in magazines, local newspapers, or from other sources?

The Figgy Piggy is delicious. You'll be impressed. ← Did you ever approach a recipe with some trepidation? Harbor doubts about the blend of ingredients and/or the cooking method? Dive in and make the dish only to have it come out exceeding your wildest expectations -- to the point you could hug the chef who came up with the recipe after tasting the first bite? Well, that’s what happened to me when I made Michel Richard’s “Figgy Piggy.” When I read that one takes a pork tenderloin, browns it on all sides, slathers it with honey and cinnamon, rolls it up in plastic wrap, marinates it overnight, then poaches it for an hour, and then browns it again, I was already eyeing the leftover pizza as our backup for dinner last night. But as soon as I took the first bite and the pork practically melted on my tongue, all thoughts of day-old pizza were banished from my mind. The cinnamon/honey coating not only lent beautiful color and caramelized nicely with the last sear, it lent a luscious compliment to the port wine sauce. I may never cook pork tenderloin in any other way from this point forward. Chef Richard, you are a genius!

While some recipes require some special equipment (meat slicer, madoline, turning veggie slicer, etc.), there are lots of others that don't. So far I haven't had to pull out anything but my standard kitchen tools to make the brussel sprouts, the stuffed onions, and chicken salad. Heck, if you have a food processor, a baking sheet and plastic wrap (you may be surprised how often he uses plastic wrap), you can make the Spuddies!

Made these last night, as a matter of fact. They are certainly a far cry from what you get in the frozen food aisle. I think we might have over cooked them just a bit on the second fry, but definitely plan on making them again. Next time, I would like to play around with adding some additional spices. Was also wondering how little bits of sun-dried tomatoes would taste. P.S. Also made the Neo-Chicken salad and it was awesome.

Where did the prep take time? It took me awhile to pull off the translucent membrane from each layer of baked onion and get all the roasted peppers cut into the recommended 1/4-inch-wide strips -- maybe because both were a bit slippery to work with. Combine that with the 2 hours to roast the onions and the 1 1/2 hours to cook the onion/pepper combo, all the other pieces and parts that the dish requires, not to mention the half hour to bake the final product and, well, you've eaten up a good part of the day. To be fair, Chef Richard does make it a point that it does take some time to prep in the very first paragraph and it can be made in stages if one chooses. But still in all, it's a dish I would highly recommend. Do let us know about that confit -- and the Spuddies! ←

I received this book for Christmas and highly recommend it. It's so much fun to read and the photos are stunning. Was so intrigued, I've already tried the following recipes: Jolly Green Brussel Sprouts - fabulous! Asparagus Salmon - looked beautiful, tasted great. Stuffed Onion Shells - really yummy, but does take a goodly amount of time to prepare. Worth it though just to see how the ground chicken worked as a binder (who would have thought?) A batch of the Lemon Confit (pg.193) got made just today. Can't wait to taste the end result in a month or so. Next up: trying out the Figgy Piggy, Spuddies and Neo Chicken Salad.