(food) eat all the things
This weekend was all about comfort at the Cook house. We spent most of the weekend catching up on True Blood (almost to the end of season 4!), attempted to see the Dark Knight Rises which was sold out (wtf!!!!), and I cooked – a lot. After eating out the entire time last week, it was nice to crack open my cookbooks and spend some time in the kitchen.
The major standout was chicken and dumplings from Gwyneth Paltrow’s cookbook. Warning 1: She states this takes about 2.5 hours, but it took me more like 3.5 hours. Warning 2: She says to buy a whole organic chicken and then you cut it up into 10 pieces. Why I didn’t just buy a chicken that was already cut up is dumb. I wasn’t thinking clearly and I will never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever again attempt to cut up my own chicken, and neither should you. Unless of course wrestling with raw chicken and kitchen shears is your idea of fun. This is probably why it took me way longer to make than suggested, but who doesn’t love eating dinner at 9:30? Anywho, the recipe turned out great even if I couldn’t find duck bacon and forgot to buy a leek. If you don’t have GP’s cookbook, which I’d definitely recommend, you can find the recipe here.
An honorable mention goes to my homemade macaroni and cheese. It’s the second time I’ve made this recipe, and it’s a real winner (don’t you love how I call it my mac and cheese even though it’s clearly not my recipe). It comes from the cookbook Bride and Groom: First and Forever, which is a cheesy (pun!) name for a great cookbook. I’ve made almost everything in this book and it never fails to taste awesome. The recipe for stovetop mac and cheese is super easy and super tasty and I like that the sauce is creamy and cheesy and not from Velveeta. I added some steamed broccoli to the noodles and cheese to convince myself I was being healthy.
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First prize in the sweets category goes to these peanut butter-oatmeal-chocolate chip cookies. Basically, I like to cram as many flavors as possible into my cookies and I just so happened to have all the ingredients on hand for these cookies, so what did you expect me to do besides make them immediately? I subbed Crisco for half the butter the recipe called for because I like my cookies on the chewy side and Crisco is good for that.
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Did you do any cooking this weekend? Let me know your approved recipes; I’m always on the lookout for more tasty, homemade eats! And if you make any of these goodies, let me know what you think. Happy Monday.
Oh wait.
