Recipe Collection Meets Technology

While I don't have a lot of actual cookbooks to speak of, I've had an extensive recipe collection for some time now.  I store them a few different ways.  The recipes I find online and print out go into 3-ring binders, in plastic sheet protectors, and are divided by category- chicken, desserts, breads, etc. 

I also had a subscription to two different cooking magazines, Martha Stewart Everyday Food and Bon Appetit, for about 3 years each.  Every month when I received a new magazine, I pored over it cover to cover.  I marked recipes that looked good with a tiny Post-It note with the recipe name written on it.

About 2 years ago, I started an index system to keep track of what I had.  I went through the binders and magazines and made a list.  Binder recipes were indicated by "NB" for notebook.  Magazine recipes were marked with "BA" or "EF" and the issue date.  That way, I could scan the list of recipes, make up a menu, and mark my menu with a quick notation of where to find the recipes.  Easy peasy, and that system worked well for quite a long time.

Here comes the end of 2010, and I've got a big drawer full of back issues of magazines taking up valuable storage space in my dining room, and a brand new Nook Color for Christmas.  (If you haven't laid eyes on this fancy schmancy e-reader from Barnes and Noble, go get you some.)  Not only can you read electronic books, magazines, and newspapers, but you can store and view photos, play Sudoku, do crosswords, listen to Pandora, surf the web (with WiFi), and read Word and PDF documents.  It's like a mini iPad for the PC crowd, but without the $600 price tag.  Economy WIN!

I'm the wife of a computer dude and somewhat of a gadget whore myself, so one of my dreams in recent years was to have an electronic recipe collection at my fingertips in the kitchen, completely paperless.  Now, I had the perfect piece of equipment to help facilitate my dream.

Over the last week or so, I've been visiting the websites of Bon Appetit and Martha Stewart, looking up the recipes I have marked in my issues, and creating PDF printouts of each one.  It sounds time-consuming, but has gone very quickly.  I do a little at a time, and my stacks are getting smaller.  I will take my paper issues to the local library to give away- they have a give-away magazine shelf that gets pawed through daily by patrons.  I've offered this culinary goldmine to two people in my family who proclaim to be learning to cook, but they turned them down.  I call "bullshit" on their purported interest in cooking.

Soon enough, minions, a world of electronic recipes will be at my fingertips!  *insert maniacal cackle here*


Some of my Everyday Food issues with their wee little Post-It notes.



A fraction of my Bon Appetit mags.  Good bye, friends.  You've served me well.



Pork Chops with Peppers and Green Beans

The May 2010 issue of Everyday Food offers a recipe for Pork Chops with Peppers and Green Beans that is simple and tasty. I'm always looking for ways to sneak more vegetables into our meals, and this is a good one. You simply grill bone-in pork chops with some salt and pepper, and make the veggies separately to pile on top of the cooked chops.

I substituted garlic for the ginger because I forgot to buy fresh ginger, and I left out the jalapeño because I was feeding a 3 year old. The green bean and roasted pepper combination was unexpectedly good. I love roasted peppers, and fresh green beans are welcome on my plate any time.

This was one of the dishes I knew my husband would complain about, so I served him a plain pork chop and made some Rice-A-Roni wild rice pilaf on the side, which he likes. I'd prefer to ditch boxed sides altogether, but we compromise with rice and I often make my own with onion, garlic, parsley, and chicken broth instead of the plethora of unpronounceable crap that goes into a box of rice mix.

Day Twenty-Five: Creamy Lemon Squares

Day 25 of Operation: Expand Horizons brings another dessert from Everyday Food- Creamy Lemon Squares from the June 2008 issue.

This simple yet delicious dessert comes together quickly and easily. The crust only has four ingredients: butter, salt, flour, and powdered sugar. The filling has only three: lemon juice, sweetened condensed milk, and egg yolks. After briefly baking the shortbread-like crust, whisked-together filling is poured in and the whole thing gets baked until set. Chill, cut, and dust with powdered sugar, and you have a dessert that's sure to please.

Yum!

Day Twenty-Three: Coconut-Pineapple Loaf Cake

Day 23 of Operation: Expand Horizons brings a tasty dessert- Coconut-Pineapple Loaf Cake from the June 2008 issue of Everyday Food.

This simple dessert comes together quickly and tastes fantastic. I've always loved the combination of coconut and pineapple, and this cake is just right. I would make one small change next time. The recipe calls for toasting all of the coconut, a portion of which is scattered on top of the batter before baking. Because it was already toasted, some of the topping coconut got a bit over-browned for my tastes. Next time, I'll toast the coconut that goes into the batter but leave the topping as is, allowing it to toast while the cake bakes.

This cake is quite tasty the next day as breakfast! :D

Day Nineteen: Quick Lemon Mousse

Day nineteen of Operation: Expand Horizons brings a fast and easy dessert from Martha's minions- Quick Lemon Mousse from the May 2010 issue of Everyday Food.

This citrusy, creamy concoction is made up of no more than gelatin, sugar, lemon juice, water, and heavy cream, and is chilled briefly before being served with some berries to balance the tanginess. I would love to have used the blackberries called for in the recipe, but again, my budget dictates my ingredients, and blackberries are about $5.00 for a half pint. No thanks! I had some good (and inexpensive) strawberries, and they were an excellent substitute.

The recipe states it serves 4, but it could have easily served 6 instead, especially when you have plenty of fruit to pair with. The generous portions were a little too much, and the lemony flavor can be a little overwhelming if you eat the whole bowl. Nevertheless, this super fast and elegant dessert is a must for the repertoire of sweets.

Day Eighteen: Spring Vegetable Couscous and Steak Kebabs

Day eighteen of Operation: Expand Horizons offers one new recipe from the May 2010 issue of Martha Stewart's Everyday Food, Spring Vegetable Couscous, as a side dish to some tried-and-true steak kebabs.

I've never tried couscous before, and it was super quick to prepare. The dish itself is simple- asparagus, green onion, frozen peas, parsley, couscous, and water. I really liked it, but my husband, who is season-weary of asparagus, complained about it and also said it had too many peas. I think I might make a variation of this dish as a cold salad, using tabouli wheat (bulgur) instead of couscous. I may even spring it up further by adding some shredded spinach!

The magazine version calls for lemon zest and fresh lemon juice. Knowing our tastes (asparagus may well pair with lemon according to traditional cooking lore, but I find it has too much bitterness), I omitted the lemon and added two small cloves of garlic. The magazine also calls for adding shredded rotisserie chicken to make this a main dish, but that sounded weird to me and I opted instead to make it as a meatless side.

I like to keep frozen peas in the fridge at all times. For one, I got lucky with a youngin who will literally eat peas as a snack. Secondly, the frozen variety are infinitely more tasty than the canned variety. I learned my lesson buying the cheap store brand frozen veggies. There is a noticeable difference in flavor and texture- I now buy either Green Giant or Birds Eye exclusively.

Here's the recipe as it appears in this month's Everyday Food, with my changes noted in italics. I halved the recipe to make it a side for two adults and a 3 year old, and had about a serving left over.

Spring-Vegetable Couscous with Chicken

Serves 4

3 tbsp. unsalted butter

4 scallions, white and green parts separated and thinly sliced crosswise

2 wide strips lemon zest plus 1 tbsp. lemon juice (I omitted in favor of 2 cloves garlic, minced)

coarse salt and ground pepper

1 lb. asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1/2" pieces

1/2 c. frozen peas

1 cup couscous

leg and thigh meat from 1 rotisserie chicken, turn into bite-size pieces (I omitted.)

2 tbsp. chopped fresh parsley

Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium-high. Add scallion whites (and garlic) and cook, stirring constantly, until softened, about 3 minutes. Add lemon zest and 1 1/4 cups water and season with salt and pepper. Cover pan and bring liquid to a boil, then add asparagus and peas. Return to a boil and stir in couscous. Add chicken and remove pan from heat; cover and let sit 7 minutes. Add lemon juice (I omitted), scallion greens, and parsley and season with salt and pepper. Fluff with a fork and serve.

I have a well-worn recipe my husband found online for a dry rub for steak. It's purported to be like that used by Outback Steakhouse, but whether that's true or not, it's a good mix.

Steak Rub

Makes about 1/2 cup. Mix the following in a small bowl. Sprinkle generously over steak or pork chops about 1/2 hour before grilling. Store leftovers in a sealed container with your spices.

4 tsp. kosher salt

4 tsp. paprika

2 tsp. ground black pepper

1 tsp. onion powder

1 tsp. garlic powder (I use garlic granules, which I think have a more potent flavor.)

1/2 tsp. cayenne powder

1/2 tsp. ground coriander

1/2 tsp. ground turmeric

Day Seventeen: Burgers and Fries

Day seventeen of Operation: Expand Horizons is a new interpretation on a family fave, burger night. Everyday Food offers up an Emeril Lagasse recipe for Pork and Chorizo Burgers with Green Chile Mayo. I also tried a new method of makinghomemade fries with a technique offered up by America's Test Kitchen.

Keep in mind that the fry recipe is available now for free from ATK, but you must have a login for their website and it won't be free forever!

While the pork and chorizo burgers weren't all that great, the green chile mayo was fantastic. It's a simple combination of roasted poblano pepper, mayonnaise, garlic, and lime juice, thrown together in the blender. I'll definitely make it again. In fact, it would be a good base for a chicken salad sandwich!

The fries were awesome as well. I think I cut them a little bit big, but they still turned out crispy and cooked all the way through without being overly greasy. Another thing to remember: the fry recipe is for Yukon Gold potatoes, not Russet! Yukon Golds have a firmer texture than Russets, and hold their shape better.

There are 3 cutting steps for evenly sized fries: squaring off the potato sides, cutting them into 1/4" planks, cutting the planks into 1/4" batons.

Finished fries. A wire spider is the key to fishing hot fries out of hot oil with a minimum of clinging oil. It's also a useful tool for cooking tempura in a wok.

Day Sixteen: Breaded Pork Chops and Wild Rice with Mushrooms

Day sixteen of Operation: Expand Horizons seemed like it would be a very picky-husband-friendly meal. It wasn't his favorite, but he didn't hate it. The March 2010 issue of Martha Stewart's Everyday Food brought both new recipes for this dinner- Breaded Pork Chops and Wild Rice with Mushrooms and Parsley.

The pork recipe makes 8 chops and is actually a freezer batch. I made 3 chops and skipped the freezing. I don't know if this made a difference, but the crust didn't seem to adhere well to the chops. The recipe indicates that any other herb can be substituted for the fresh sage. I never have sage, but I have thyme in a pot on my back patio, so that's what I used. It usually matches well with Dijon mustard, and this was no exception. The chops were a little too mustardy for our tastes. They also took longer to cook than the recipe indicates, but I also don't broil meat on the top rack for fear of burning the outside and having a raw middle.

The mushrooms and wild rice was a good basic side that I will make again. It's a simple mixture of cooked wild rice blend, sautéed mushrooms, garlic, and fresh parsley. The recipe called for some fresh lemon juice at the end, but I didn't think it needed any so I omitted it.

I have a trusty container of Rice Select rice blend that I use frequently. It contains white, brown, wild, and red rices, and has a mild, nutty flavor that I really enjoy.

The EDF recipe calls for making the rice according to package directions. I find that packages vary, and Martha's people often use less water than I do. My way of making rice is very simple and no-fail.

In a straight-sided sauce or sauté pan, combine 1 part rice with two parts water, a drizzle of olive oil, a good sprinkling of kosher salt, and a few grinds of black pepper. Cover and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Cook without stirring until the top of the rice is no longer submerged and there are holes throughout the surface. Remove from the heat and let it stand for 5-10 minutes before fluffing with a fork and seasoning to taste.

You can also make a simple pilaf by heating some olive oil in the pan and sauteing some chopped onion and minced garlic before adding the rice, water, and a bouillon cube for extra flavor.

Day Twelve: Pad Thai and Potstickers

Day twelve of Operation: Expand Horizons offered some Asian fare from the minions at Martha Stewart's Everyday Food- Vegetable Pad Thai from May 2010 and Pork and Chive Potstickers from October 2009. I stir-fried some mung bean sprouts as a side dish.

The pad Thai recipe was simple and did not require any hard-to-find ingredients, but as is often the case with recipes from Everyday Food, it tasted quite bland. I wound up adding some Asian chili garlic sauce I had in the fridge to kick it up a notch. Also, the rice noodles I used were not adequately cooked by the soak-and-stir-fry routine of this recipe. I added some additional water and microwaved the serving bowl full of noodles for a minute.

The recipe gives a suggestion to add some thinly sliced chicken breast or peeled shrimp to the skillet before adding the noodles and sauce. Because my husband gets cross-eyed if a dish lacks meat, I sliced up one small breast, salted and peppered it, and cooked it through after sautéing the garlic and onion and before doing the rest.

The pork and chive potstickers were good in flavor, but I have a small disagreement with the way they were cooked. I've made potstickers before from an Alton Brown recipe, and they were awesome. Alton's method is to sauté the dumplings on one side in a very small amount of oil until browned and stuck to the pan (hence the name "potstickers"), then adding a small amount of water and clamping on the lid until the water steams them through and unsticks them from the skillet. They came out nicely browned on one side, and tender and puckered on the other.

Martha's recipe calls for boiling the dumplings first, fishing them out with a slotted spoon, and then cooking them in a small amount of vegetable oil in a nonstick skillet. I'm not sure who forgot over there at Everyday Food, but you can't very well put a wet dumpling into hot oil without having issues. Even with a nonstick skillet, the dumplings did not brown nicely and came out misshapen.

They tasted pretty good, however, and although the dipping sauce is somewhat vinegary (another Everyday Food issue- they have a hard-on for vinegar), it was a good match for the dumplings.

You can get the potstickers recipe at the link above. Because the pad Thai recipe is not yet available online, here it is.

Vegetable Pad Thai

Adapted from Everyday Food Magazine, May 2010

Serves 4

8 oz. dried, wide, and flat rice noodles

2 tbsp. dark brown sugar

2 tbsp. fresh lime juice, plus wedges for serving

3 tbsp. soy sauce

2 tsp. vegetable oil

3 scallions (We call 'em "green onions" here in Oklahoma.), white and green parts separated and thinly sliced

1 garlic clove, minced (I laugh at recipes calling for 1 garlic clove. I used two.)

2 large eggs (optional), lightly beaten (Eggs in Asian food gross me out. I omitted.)

1/2 c. fresh cilantro (My plants are currently going to seed, so I didn't have any.)

1/4 c. chopped roasted, salted peanuts (Baby Chef is allergic, so I omitted.)

Soak rice noodles according to package instructions. Drain. (Mine needed a bit more than soaking. Maybe a soak in hot water instead of cold would do it.)

In a small bowl, whisk together brown sugar, lime juice, and soy sauce. Set aside.

In a large nonstick skillet, heat oil over medium high. Add scallion whites and garlic and cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, 30 seconds. Add eggs (if using) and cook, scraping skillet with a rubber spatula, until eggs are almost set, about 30 seconds. Transfer egg mixture to a plate.

(This is where I added the sliced seasoned chicken breast and cooked it.)

Add noodles and soy sauce mixture to skillet; cook, tossing constantly, until noodles are soft and coated with sauce, about 1 minute. Add egg mixture and toss to coat, breaking eggs up gently. Serve noodles with lime wedges, topped with cilantro and peanuts.

Day Eleven: Pineapple-Stuffed Jerk Chicken with Pineapple Rice

Day eleven of Operation: Expand Horizons was a pair of Martha Stewart recipes-Everyday Food's Pineapple-Stuffed Jerk Chicken, from June 2008, andPineapple Rice, from July/August 2007. I had made the rice before and liked it. I thought it would pair well with the new chicken recipe.

The chicken wasn't our favorite, but it was fun to try something different. There was something about the jerk seasoning we didn't like- probably the allspice. However, I may use the same idea of pineapple stuffing in chicken for another meal, using a honey-soy glaze instead. The pineapple rice recipe is paired with pork kebabs that use this flavor combination, and they are great.

I served fresh green beans on the side. Baby Chef was quite helpful during prep time. She snapped all of the beans by herself!

Day Ten: Red Beans with Andouille Sausage

Day ten of Operation: Expand Horizons brought a simple dish from the minions over at Martha Stewart Omnimedia: Everyday Food's Red Beans with Andouille Sausage. This one is completely idiot-proof, cheap, filling, and weeknight simple.

Recipes from Everyday Food have shown themselves to often be quite bland, so from the start, I made a modification to the recipe. It calls for adding the sausage to the beans after they are cooked- I left it in while the beans simmered to add flavor.

Don't skip the important overnight soak of the dried beans. I'm glad I looked through the soaked and drained beans instead of just dumping them into the pot- there were several dozen "rogue beans" that had not benefited from the soak and looked as though they hadn't been in water at all. I picked them all out. Who wants random hard, undercooked beans ruining the pot of deliciousness?

I served the red beans and sausage over plain white rice, and we had cornbread and iced tea on the side to round out a fine Southern meal.

Properly soaked beans on the left; rogue beans on the right. Remove them and discard.

Day Three: Skirt Steak with Crispy Garlic Potatoes

Day three of Operation: Expand Horizons was, unfortunately, a most dismal failure. I chose a recipe that seemed to fit with my husband's tastes, because it was his birthday. Everyday Food's Skirt Steak with Crispy Garlic Potatoes just didn't work out.

The first problem was the skirt steak. It was gamey and tough, and although I grilled it to the recipe's specifications, my husband said it was too rare. The second problem was the crispy garlic potatoes. The recipe did not indicate that the bottoms would brown faster than the tops, and my potatoes wound up overcooked.

The one thing that tasted good was the salad I made. :\

Day Two: Honey-Soy Grilled Pork Chops with Crunchy Bok Choy and Rice

Day two of Operation: Expand Horizons brings us a quick and easy dinner from Martha Stewart's Everyday Food magazine, Honey-Soy Grilled Pork Chops with Bok Choy and Rice.

My husband said the pork chops were good- a high compliment from the man who had previously threatened that I'd better not ruin a good pork chop with some silly glaze. He didn't mind the bok choy, except that some of the stalks were too thick and therefore didn't cook all the way through, and he said they tasted too cabbage-y.

The problem with this is that I had to use regular bok choy instead of baby bok choy as the recipe calls for. My grocery store has carried the babies before but I haven't seen them recently, so I bought a head of regular. We've had it in stir-fry before and liked it, so it wasn't entirely new to us. I tasted the raw bok choy after it was drizzled with sesame oil and salted and peppered, and it was delicious. It would make a great base for an Asian salad or slaw.

He was also not enthused by the rice, which is cooked plain and dressed at the end with rice vinegar and red pepper flakes. Martha's people at EDF seem to have a hard-on for vinegar. It must be an East coast thing.

I'm easy with food, though, and I thought that all in all, it was pretty good. I only made two pork chops, so I had some leftover rice and bok choy that I'll probably use for lunch this week with some other things.

And now, the recipe.

Honey-Soy Grilled Pork Chops with Crunchy Bok Choy

Adapted from Martha Stewart's Everyday Food, June 2008

Serves 4

vegetable oil, for grill grates

1 cup long-grain white rice

2 tbsp. rice vinegar

1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes

coarse salt and ground pepper

2 tbsp. honey

1 tsp. soy sauce

1 tsp. finely grated fresh ginger (I forgot to buy fresh so I used some dried ground ginger and it was fine)

4 bone-in pork rib chops (8 to 10 ounces each)

4 heads baby bok choy, halved lengthwise

1 tbsp. toasted sesame oil

Preheat grill to high; lightly oil grates. (I didn't oil my grill. I usually don't have to.) Cook rice according to package instructions. (I use Uncle Ben's Converted Rice, double the amount of water to the amount of rice, mixing them together before heating over medium to a simmer until done. The rice will have small holes in the surface and will still steam lightly when it's done. Remove from heat and let it sit for 5 minutes.) With a fork, stir in vinegar and red pepper flakes; season with salt. Cover and set aside.

Combine honey, soy sauce, and ginger in a small bowl; season with salt and pepper. Season pork chops with salt and pepper. Grill until opaque throughout, 5 to 7 minutes per side (The thick chops I bought took a little longer.). Brush pork with glaze, and grill 30 seconds more per side. Transfer pork to a plate to rest.

In a bowl, drizzle halved bok choy heads with sesame oil, season with salt and pepper, and toss to coat. Grill until lightly charred on both sides, 1 to 3 minutes. Transfer to plate with chops. Serve chops and bok choy with rice.

Operation: Expand Horizons - Recipe list

I've compiled a list of 31 days' worth of new recipes for Operation: Expand Horizons. Here it is, in no particular order.

Pork and poblano tamale pie

Falafel with hummus

Chicken cutlets with asparagus, capers, and shallots

Vegetable pad Thai

Pork chops with peppers and green beans

Spring vegetable couscous

Quick lemon mousse

Fettuccine with peas, asparagus, and pancetta

Spring vegetable and quinoa pilaf

Mushroom and leek soup with parsley dumplings

Pork stew with hard cider, onions, and potatoes

Three cheese beer bread

Arroz con pollo

Chicken and sausage cacciatore

Pasta Trapanese - pasta with tomato and almond pesto

Skirt steak with crispy garlic potatoes

Meat sauce with spaghetti

Lemon zucchini cornmeal cookies

Spinach and Brie chicken with tomato orzo

Breaded pork chops; wild rice with mushrooms and parsley

Pound cake tiramisu

Red beans with andouille sausage; buttermilk cornbread

Honey-soy grilled pork chops with bok choy and rice

Pineapple-stuffed jerk chicken

Coconut pineapple loaf cake

Creamy lemon squares

Pork and chive potstickers

Pork and chorizo burgers with green chile mayo

Best blueberry muffins

Bratwurst bites with beer-horseradish mustard; German-style fried potatoes

Multi-grain bread

Most of these recipes come from America's Test Kitchen, Everyday Food, and Bon Appétit. I'll post links and recipes as each one is tried.