White and dark chocolate cherry cookies

Ingredients

• 1 stick butter, softened
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tbp milk
• 1 cup dried cherries
• 1 cup white-chocolate chunks
• 1 cup dark-chocolate chunks

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla and beat until just combined. Set aside.
Stir together flour, baking soda, and salt. Add milk to the butter mixture and then add the flour mixture. Mix until just combined. Batter should be quite stiff.
In another bowl, combine cherries and chocolate chunks, then add to batter, stirring only to blend. Mold into balls and set on greased cookie sheet.
Bake for 11-13 minutes. Eat.

Thoughts: Pretty good. The original recipe called for macadamia nuts, so I'm glad we dispensed with those. Super good. Dan wasn't expecting to like them, but he did. Once they've cooled a little, they get more crunchy on the outside.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Blueberry-Lemon Mini-Muffins

Ingredients

• 3.5 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 tbp baking powder
• 1/8 tsp fine salt
• pinch nutmeg
• 1 stick unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup half-and-half, mixed with 1/2 cup skim milk
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tbp finely grated lemon zest
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1.5 cups frozen blueberries, thawed and coated in flour

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Spray a mini muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray. Set aside.
Whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg together in a medium bowl. Set aside.
Put the butter in a microwave-safe vessel and microwave until melted (30 seconds).
Whisk the milk, eggs, lemon zest, and vanilla with the butter.
Make a small well in the center of the dry ingredients. Pour the wet ingredients into the well, then stir with a wooden spoon until the dry ingredients are moistened but still lumpy. Do not over-mix the batter, otherwise the muffins will be too dense.
Gently stir in the flour-coated blueberries. Divide the batter evenly into the muffin tins and sprinkle the tops generously with granulated sugar.
Put the muffins in the oven and immediately reduce the temperature to 375. Bake for about 30 minutes, rotating half-way through. Muffins should be golden brown and a toothpick should come out clean with inserted.
When done, turn the muffins out of the tins.

Thoughts: Delicious. These were really good. You can definitely taste the lemon zest. If you don't like to taste lemon zest, you can reduce it. But then again, why would you be reading the recipe for blueberry-lemon muffins if you didn't like lemon? Right-o. Not much to say here. I would eat these all the time.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Steamed egg with shrimp

This recipe is sort of like an egg custard with shrimp in it. The texture is SORT OF similar to bread pudding, but savory and without the bread chunks. I don't know if that was a good analogy.

Ingredients

• 4 eggs
• 1.5 cup soup stock (cold)
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp vermouth (or other white wine)
• 1 tsp soy sauce
  
• 10 shrimp, shelled

Lightly beat the eggs in a bowl. Add the soup stock, salt, wine, and soysauce. Mix well. It may turn brown from the soy sauce, but don't let that throw you off. It will be delicious.
Pour the mixture through a sieve.
Rinse the shrimp with cold water, drain, and pat dry.
Pour the beaten eggs into a ramekin (we used four). Arrange the shrimp over the eggs. Place in a boiling steamer. Now, we don't have a boiling steamer, so what we did was prepare a large saucepan with water and put a bamboo steamer in it. Then we placed two ramekins at a time in the steamer, then we covered the saucepan.
Steam the ramekins over high heat for 2 minutes, then reduce heat to low and continue to steam for 20 minutes. The eggs should not be jiggly in the middle, but they shouldn't be COMPLETELY firm. You don't want to overcook the eggs. But you don't want them to be raw. I guess it's better to go over than under.
Serve with rice.

Thoughts: This was delicious. I had this dish at Nam's Noodle in Madison and I was like, shoot, I want to be able to eat this all the time. So now we can. The original recipe calls for Chinese parsley, which we didn't have. But it probably would have been delicious. Green onions would also have been good. Next time I would increase the shrimp to egg ratio. Our shrimps were very small, and they kind of got lost in the custard. This dish is super easy to make. I highly recommend it. And it's also super low-cal, if that's important. And it's pretty low in fat too. If you serve it like we did, into four servings, then you're only eating one egg, 5 shrimp, and some soup stock. That's like, 150 calories per serving, tops. Anyways. This recipe is like, my favorite. In addition to scallions, you could also to chives, Dan suggests.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Maple-Roasted Parsnips

Ingredients

• 1 lb parsnips, peeled, ends cut off
• 2 tbp vegetable oil
• 4 tbp real maple syrup
• salt

Once parsnips are peeled and have the ends chopped off, cut them into thirds.
Take the middle section and cut it into halves lengthwise.
Take the largest section and cut it into fourths lengthwise.
Preheat oven to 375.
Toss parsnips in a large bowl with the oil. Toss to coat.
Add maple syrup. Toss to coat (you can use tongs if you want).
Place on baking sheet, sprinkle with salt.
Bake for 40-60 minutes, or until the sections are golden and not woody (you might have to taste one or two). Turn halfway through.
Remove from oven, dot with butter/margarine.
Eat.

Thoughts: I hate parsnips, but these were delicious. So I guess I don't hate them. Dan made these. Yay Dan! Hurrah hurray! The maple wasn't overwhelming either. It didn't make the parsnips super sweet or anything.
Maybe puree them too? After you bake them?
Also, oregano might be good on these. But I think oregano is good on almost anything. Give it a shot.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Radiator Sweet Potatoes

Ingredients

• 1 large sweet potato
• 1.5 tbp flour, mixed with salt and pepper
• vegetable oil or Pam

Cut the sweet potato into even-sized sections (about 5). Make a series of slices that run 3/4 of the way through the potato so that each section looks like a radiator.
Place in saucepan with water to cover. Add pinch of salt. Boil until slightly undercooked. Pliable but not too soft. Just tender.
Remove potatoes and remove them. Toss with the flour mixture until lightly coated.
Place on greased baking sheet. Drizzle with oil (olive or vegetable) and put in preheated 375 degree oven.
Bake for 30-40 minutes.
Garnish with a little butter or margarine.

Thoughts: Next time, Dan says he would cut the potatoes differently. Maybe cut rounds instead of 5 even sections, and then slice those rounds 3/4 of the way through.
Also, I accidentally over-cooked the sweet potatoes in the boiling water. So next time we will shorten the cooking time, or at least watch it more carefully.
Next time we are planning on putting grated parmesan and oregano into the flour mixture.

Disaster Index: 2/10

Pasta with Squash and Mushroom Sauce

Ingredients

• 1/2 red onion, chopped finely
• 2 cups cremini mushrooms, slices
  
• 1 small yellow squash, or 1/2 large yellow squash
• 1.5 cups chicken stock (or veg)
  
• 2 tbp dried parsley flakes
• 1 tbp Italian seasoning (or herbes de provence)
• 1 leek, thinly sliced
• 1 lb pasta (we used wavy egg noodles)
• 1 tbp butter
• a little olive oil (2 tbp?)
• 1/4 cup vermouth, to de-glaze pan

Start pasta water.
Chop the red onion, slice the leeks, and put them in a pan with some olive oil and the butter. Carmelize. De-glaze the pan with the vermouth, and add the chopped yellow squash and slices mushrooms.
Water should be boiling. Add pasta if it is.
Add parsley and Italian seasoning. Cook for 2-3 minutes, until the mushrooms and squash start to release their juices.
Add stock. Cook until stock is reduced, about 10 minutes.
The pasta should be done. Drain it and add to the sauce. Mix well.
Garnish with Romano or Parmesan or similar cheese.
Devour.

Thoughts: Awesome recipe. Dan recommends using pasta water to mix the stock (if you use powdered stock. This won't work if you use liquid stock) because then the stock will be thicker. I have no recommendations. This was totally awesome. Dan also thinks you could add a splash of lemon juice somewhere in there. The sauce is really low-cal and full of vegetables, so this dish is really good for you.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Lime Cookies

Ingredients

• 1 stick butter
• 1/4 cup powdered sugar
• 3/4 cup flour, heaped
• 1/8 cup cornstarch
• 1 tbs lime zest
• granulated sugar for flattening cookies (you'll see)

For lime glaze

• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1 tsp lime juice
  

To make cookies:

Using a kitchen aid, on medium-high speed, beat butter and powdered sugar until light and fluffy. Reduce speed to low and add flour, cornstarch, lime zest and vanilla extract and mix until well-blended. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate 30 minutes.
When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease baking sheet. Shape dough into 1-inch balls and place about 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets.
Grease bottom of a large flat glass with butter, press into granulated sugar and gently press glass on dough until dough is about 1/4-inch thick. Repeat, pressing glass into sugar each time, until all cookies are flattened.
Bake 9 to 11 minutes, or until edges are light golden brown. Remove from oven and transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make lime glaze:

In a small bowl, whisk together powdered sugar and lime juice until a light glaze forms. Using a knife, spread glaze across cookies.

Thoughts: These were ok. The glaze didn't work out so well, I don't think. It wasn't thick enough, so it just sort of made the cookies wet. And it was sort of "limey". Too much citrus.
The cookies themselves were ok. They were pretty much your standard sugar cookies. Overall, the cookies were unobjectionable, I guess. I don't know that I would make them again. They were moist, which was a plus. Maybe more sugar in the glaze? If we made them again, Dan says he would use a cream cheese-lime frosting rather than a glaze, and he would go for a moister cookie.

Disaster Index: 3/10

Sweet Potato Latkes

This was only somewhat disastrous.

Ingredients

• 2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and roughly grated (cuisinart works great for this)
  
• 2 smallish onions, chopped
  
• 2 leeks, washed and chopped
  
• 2 cloves of garlic, chopped
  
• 3/4c flour
  
• 3 eggs
  
• salt, pepper, oregano, and parsley to taste
  

Combine everything in a big bowl, basically. That's pretty much it. Then form the pancakes and fry them in a thin layer of oil or PAM. Make sure the oil is good and hot. Then, put them on a plate with paper towels to drain the oil. Serve with sour cream or plain yogurt and apple sauce.

Thoughts: I had a very bad time trying to get these to NOT fall apart. This is because I didn't want the oil to smoke by heating it too much. Claire, on the other hand, was fearless and ultimately saved the day by figuring out how to cook them right. If I did these again, I'd want to have an electric skillet (a flat-bottomed pan didn't work so well) and I would use an oil with a higher smoke-point if I could find such a thing.

Disaster Index: 4/10 - Delicious, really, but so frustrating to cook correctly.

Spinach Feta Roulade

I totally made this recipe up on the spot. And it worked! How cool is that?

Ingredients

• One recipe pizza dough (especially with added herbs)
  
• 1/2 red onion, sauteed in olive oil
  
• 10oz chopped frozen spinach, thawed (or fresh if you've got it)
  
• 4oz feta cheese
  
• 1/2c grated parmesan
  
• 8 cloves garlic, roasted
  
• dill, salt, pepper to taste
  
• some olive oil
  

Prepare the pizza dough. Let it rise about an hour, until doubled. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Roll the pizza dough out on a well floured surface to about a 18" by 24" rectangle. Spread garlic evenly across dough, and then do the same for the spinach, onion, and cheese. Sprinkle with dill, salt, and pepper and a little bit of olive oil. Now, carefully roll the dough up into a log the long way - that is, so that the 18" sides will be at each end of the log. Using a serrated knife (or an electric knife!) start cutting the log into rounds, about 1" wide. Lay the rounds out on a greased baking sheet - this is kind of like making very thin, savory cinnamon rolls. The recipe will make about 24 rolls - you'll need two baking sheets in total. Going in two batches (don't try to bake them all simultaneously) bake the roulades until they're a little brown, about 20 minutes (though sometimes a little longer). Serve.

Thoughts: This recipe has enormous potential, and they were pretty successful this first time we tried to make them. Next time, we will use more feta (6-8oz) and more spinach (last time we used about 6-8oz, next time we'll use the full 10oz). Alternatively you could use arugula or mustard greens.

This recipe is very adaptable, too. I considered using a thin layer of tomato paste (so it'd be like pizza) or pesto. Strips of zucchini would be good, too, so long as they're thinly cut. We considered adding prosciutto, but we didn't have any. More red onion would have done well, too.

Disaster Index: 1/10 - more toppings next time, though.

Herbed Spaetzle

Based on a Martha recipe

Ingredients

• 1 cup skim milk
• 1 tbs thyme leaves (we used dried)
• 1/4 cup packed parsley
• 3 eggs
• 1.5 cups all-purpose flour
• 1.5 tsp salt
  
• pepper
• olive oil

Put thyme leaves in a sachet or tea bag and tie shut. Put it in a saucepan with the milk and heat to a boil. Remove from heat and discard thyme.
Transfer milk to a blender; add parsley and eggs. Blend until combined.
Whisk flour and 1.5 tsp salt in a medium bowl.
Gradually whisk in milk mixture until smooth.
Bring a medium saucepan of salted water to a boil.
Put the "dough" in a plastic bag and snip off one of the corners. Make sure this is a pretty small hole.
Pipe the mixture slowly into the boiling water. Cook until the spaetzle float to the top, about 1-2 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer to an ice-water bath. Drain.
Take half the spaetzle and put it in a pan with some olive oil. Cook until golden brown. Repeat with the other half of the spaetzle.
Garnish with more parsley and romano/parmesan cheese. Eat.

Thoughts: This was all right. The texture came out kind of funny and boiling the spaetzle in the water was pretty much a failure. The original recipe called for 1 cup of whole milk rather than 1 cup of skim. That could have accounted for the weird texture. Also, the original recipe called for cooking the spaetzle in butter rather than olive oil. Maybe there's something to be said for using full-fat ingredients. Also, the spaeztle totally stuck together after we took them out of the boiling water and drained them, so that was inconvenient. All in all, though, they tasted pretty good. If I were going to make this again, I would definitely use like, half skim and half whole milk, or something, and I would cook them in butter afterward rather than olive oil. Also, neither of us really know what spaetzle is supposed to taste like.

Disaster Index: 4-5/10. Edible.