Sunday, November 13, 2011

Weekend Cooking; Happy the weekend is over (did I say that?!) with recipe

Little Women; The Musical was the play this
 weekend but keep reading for what I cooked...
It's been a busy week with a full rehearsal schedule and opening night was Friday.  I went to all three shows as I don't know when I'll have the pleasure to watch Teenage Boy on stage; he is an excellent actor but dislikes being in plays.

I cooked this week.  I think the zucchini pizza from last Sunday night kick started me off creatively and the rest of the week followed through.

I made this potato soup from Lynn's Cooking Adventures-I found it using the scientific method of googling "creamy potato soup" and then picking the 1 of 5 recipes that matched what I was dreaming of eating.  How many of you use this simple technique to find a recipe?

Someone at school left two Real Simple magazines in the lounge and I paged through one of them while waiting for my lunch to heat in the microwave.  I found this Broccoli-Quinoa Pilaf recipe-I did not make the cod but used it two days in a row for my lunch.  Heidi at 101 Cookbooks has lots of recipes listed for this power grain.  It is one of the grains I purchase from the bulk section of my local organic store, making it always available in my pantry.

I have more chickens and a turkey coming from Tim, my local farmer/meat man so I decided to make one of the last chickens from my freezer.  While I made this recipe I pondered just how I came to cook meat in my kitchen, which for years, had been vegetarian-but that's a whole 'nother post.  I wanted to make a BBQ chicken from homemade sauce someone gave me when I found this recipe instead as I paged through Not Your Mother's Casseroles by Faith Durand and found Pot Chicken and Potatoes Baked in Cinnamon-Saffron Milk.   Her recipe is adapted from a Jamie Oliver recipe.

To finish the weekend off we had a potluck at church today and I wanted to bring a side dish-this one is from Durand's casserole book.  The pan was cleaned out before I made it through the food line-I was toward the end after cleaning up the nursery-other people told me it was good though.  One grandmother even said it was her grandson's favorite dish.  A success at the church potluck does not always happen for me!!

I had to hunt down the chef's of two dishes that I loved (one of the great things about a potluck-trying new dishes)-one was a heavenly caramel brownie dessert served in a trifle bowl and the other was a 3-squash bake, this one was made by a friend and she shared some of the leftovers with me (hello, Monday lunch!) but the guy who made that amazing caramel dish did not share the leftover layer at the bottom.  I'm just sure he took that dish home and licked it clean!  I've asked for both recipes and will pass them on as I get them.

Luscious Oven Creamed Corn
(110)
casserole dish: 9 x 13-in baking dish
bake time: 45 minutes

2 T. unsalted butter
1 small onion, diced
4 1/2 cups frozen corn kernels (about 26 ozs), thawed
1 tsp salt
1 T. sugar
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 cup milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 T. all-purpose (unbleached) flour
1/4 cup minced fresh chives
1/2 cup coarse yellow cornmeal
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1. Preheat the oven to 350.  (I never do this step at the beginning to save energy unless I'm baking) Lightly grease the baking dish with nonstick cooking spray or butter.
2. In a large skillet, heat the butter over medium heat.  When it foams, add the onion and cook for 5 minutes, stirring frequently.  Stir in the corn and cook just until the corn is hot.  Stir in the sugar, salt, and pepper.
3. Stir in the  milk and cream and bring to a simmer.  Whisk in the flour and cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens slightly, about 5 minutes.  Remove from the heat and stir in the chives and cornmeal. Spread in the prepared baking dish and sprinkle with the Parmesan cheese.  Casserole at this point could be covered and refrigerated for up to 24 hours.
4. Bake, uncovered, for 45 minutes, or until the top is golden.  Let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

Click on all the recipe titles to find their links.  Happy cooking!
This post is linked to Weekend Cooking hosted by Candace at Beth Fish Reads.  Click her link to find many delicious food-related posts.

6 comments:

Peppermint Ph.D. said...

We always share recipes from potlucks every few years in a church made cookbook :) I love, love, love potlucks :)

Beth F said...

I'm going to have to remember to encourage people to share recipes next time I host or am invited to a pot luck. I like your week's foods! I haven't bought quinoa in a while, you've inspired me to remedy that. :)

Little Nell said...

My goodness, I think you deserve an award for this week’s achievement. You’ve made me decide that I really must try quinoa. I keep seeing it in health food shops here and wondering what to do with it. I’ve printed off the Broccoli-Quinoa recipe to try. Thanks.

Dawn @ sheIsTooFondOfBooks said...

Yay for Teenage Boy and his budding stage career :)

The corn casserole sounds like perfect cold weather comfort food ... how can you go wrong with cheese!?

Christine said...

What a fun weekend cooking post. I'm surprised how much I enjoyed following along with your meals over the weekend! : )

I use the same google scientific method for finding recipes online!

FYI, I just spent 15 minutes playing the geography game at the bottom of your blog after spending 5 minutes getting upset over some of those alarming stats on the world clock!

TheBookGirl said...

Sounds like you had quite the busy week :)

I used to love attending the shows that my daughter performed in (she loved to sing and is a bit of a ham).

I am glad for your creamed corn recipe -- that's one of my husband's favorite sides.