A few weeks ago, a friend introduced me to Foodily, a gloriously inspiring site filled with the most delicious looking recipes. One night I showed it to Kyle, saying “Wouldn’t it be amazing if we actually ate this kind of stuff?” He just looked up and said, “Why don’t we?” Well, there’s lots of reasons, right? I don’t know how. I don’t have time. It costs too much. It takes to long. Not to mention that my current culinary conversations revolve around how many Cheerios are on the floor and that cheese on your sandwich tastes the same as cheese on your plate.
Despite all this, we kept talking. We convinced ourselves that we could actually become Foodies. It would be an arduous journey…one filled with burned dinners, soggy sides and fallen souffles. But if we trained long enough and hard enough (and kept the freezer stocked with emergency pizza), we just might succeed. Thankfully, I’ve been blessed with a husband that will eat just about anything and I really would like to expand and improve my cooking skills. So our goal is that at least twice a month, we’ll try a totally new to us meal. We’ll do it on a night that he’s home to help babysit, so that I can concentrate on oven timers and the like. And we’ll use a rating system, a scale of 1-10. And finally, most importantly, there will be no hard feelings if it’s crap. After all, it’s an experiment and if it flops, we’ll be thankful for the Red Barron.
So last night was our first Foodie night. The menu came from Bobby Flay Cooks American cookbook:
- Pan-Roasted Lamb Chops with Red Wine-Black Currant Sauce
- Sweet Potato Biscuits
- Spinach Salad with Feta Cheese (I managed to come up with this one on my own)
- Maple Custard with Gingersnaps
I was excited to try everything, especially lamb since I’d never cooked that before. I thought the lamb was delicious, managed to achieve the perfect doneness. The sauce was good but I didn’t take time to reduce it far enough, so I think that could have been better. But seriously, how long does it take to reduce four cups of liquid down to one? Anyone? Anyone??
On to sweet potato biscuits, these also were very good, especially drizzled with a bit of honey. Thing to learn for next time – cutting the butter into the flour. At first I tried the little half circle pie crust cutter thing that I’ve had in my drawer since my bridal shower and used maybe never. But that didn’t seem to be doing much, so then I switched to the food processor. My only logic being that I thought I remembered someone doing that on the PBS show America’s Test Kitchen. (I’m sure my Chef Sister is cringing right about now). I still don’t know what I should have done as it never reached the stage of “resembling rolled oats”. But nevertheless, they were tasty and Berlin and Kade’s favorite.
The spinach salad prep was difficult, but I managed to pull it together. Opened bag of spinach, placed on plate, then topped with crumbled feta.
After savoring every bite, it was time for a bit of dessert. I’d never made custard before and it didn’t help that my copy of the cookbook had a printing error and listed 3 ingredients that it never mentioned what I was to do with. Luckily, I found another copy online and continued. My next hurdle was that it wanted me to pour the custard into six ramekins – SIX! I had only 2 matching cup type dishes that could be used as ramekins, then 2 other mismatched ones that I use for veggie dip or hummus on random occasions, both completely different sized than the first two, and finally a coffee cup that I managed to wedge into the roasting pan half filled with water. I had zero confidence that they would cook evenly, but in actuality it worked fine. The custard was SO rich but very maple-y and delicious, and sooo creamy.
Now the one thing I was confident about making for this meal was cookies. I’ve made dozens upon dozens of cookies in my life. I was absolutely certain that these would be amazing and if there would be any fault with them, it would be that Bobby Flay had decided to include pepper and dry mustard in a cookie. Isn’t there some saying about pride and tripping or something? I was rushing, and I wanted to be out of the kitchen and so I crammed too many cookies onto a cookie sheet and in the oven they oozed into a gingersnap sheet cake. They looked hideous! I will say though, it was the best mustard and pepper sheet cake I’ve ever eaten.
Overall, we gave the meal a 7.8. It was very good, and I did learn a lot. But to be honest, we both figured for the same cost and effort, we’d rather have steak than lamb. The custard, although also delicious, required a lot more work than instant pudding. If I had the time, I would make it again…but that might not happen for a few years. The sweet potato biscuits and gingersnaps will definitely both be added to the regular rotation.
Foodie Training Night #1 – Success!
| Sweet Potato Biscuits |
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon plus 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 5 tablespoons very cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces, or solid vegetable shortening
- 7/8 cup buttermilk
- 1/2 cup mashed, cooked sweet potatoes
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or nonstick baking mats (or use a nonstick baking sheet). Sift the dry ingredients together into a large bowl. Cut in the shortening until the mixture resembles rolled oats.
- Make a well in the center of the mixture, add the buttermilk, sweet potatoes, and honey, and stir vigorously until the dough forms a ball. Knead lightly for about 30 seconds, until the dough just begins to look smooth.
- On a floured surface, pat the dough out 3/4-inch thick, making a 7-by-8-inch rectangle. Cut into 2-inch rounds, rerolling the scraps and cutting out more biscuits. Transfer to the prepared pan, brush tops with egg wash, and bake for 10 – 12 minutes or until lightly browned.
