For the final month of my 2011 “magazine recipes” resolution I chose a recipe from the December issue of Cooking Light. The Roasted Root Vegetable Salad includes turnips and parsnips–two vegetables that I’ve never really done much with and don’t regularly buy.

The vegetables tasted great just seasoned and roasted, but the vinaigrette made this a dish that wasn’t our usual fare. We often have seasoned and roasted potatoes, squash, beets and Brussels sprouts. Now, I’ll add turnips, parsnips and, maybe, some vinaigrette too.

The “magazine recipes” resolution was a pretty fantastic idea, if I do say so myself. I stepped out of my cooking comfort zone and learned a few things. I found some new foods for my family and made use of those magazines that I get. Yes, it’s been a great year and I’m pretty certain I’ve developed a habit here–I already have a couple recipes I want to try in January! It won’t be part of a resolution now, it’ll just be a practice.

Here’s to a yummy 2012!

Until now, that is. Last January I made my magazine recipe resolution(only one month left!) so that I’d try new recipes, methods and ingredients and not just gawk at all those pretty pictures in my magazines. Death to intimidation! A little boiling won’t hurt me!(Well, that’s not quite true– I should say: boiling won’t hurt me as long as I manage to not boil parts of myself…)

The bagel recipe from the November issue of Cooking Light actually seemed pretty straight forward and simple, if a bit time consuming. So, into the boiling water I dove.

I found some barley malt syrup without any trouble and stocked up on cream cheese. I only made half the dough because my little family just doesn’t need a dozen bagels at a time. The recipe didn’t take as long and wasn’t nearly as involved as I feared it would be. They turned out pretty darn good. I think this is a recipe that could be pretty easy to throw together in the evening  for enjoyment in the morning– and I’m going to try to do that a couple of times in december… with cinnamon and raisins… and cranberries and orange zest… mmmm…

image from http://www.sloppydawgsrestaurant.com/

Tonight, instead of preparing dinner, the boys and I hopped on the bus(it stops right outside our door!), rode to the mall and played in the toy store until daddy got off work. We probably could have warmed up leftovers and made a salad for dinner, but Mike suggested we go out to Sloppy Dawgs downtown and I thought that was a fine idea. I mean, it’s been a hectic month and we’ll be swimming in turkey leftovers in just a couple of days–so, we deserve a dinner out, right?

An alternate name for Sloppy Dawgs could be Ground Beef City or maybe Hamburger Heaven. I’m not complaining.

The menu is simple with daily specials. They offer mostly hot dogs and sloppy joes, some spicy and some not, with chicken fingers, a hamburger, a few salads and soups too. The Tuesday night special was goulash over penne pasta. Mike opted for the special, Nathan had a kid’s hot dog and I had the spicy sloppy joe. The baby does not yet get his own meal, so he had bits of his daddy and brother’s dinners.

It was good, totally non-intimidating and inexpensive food. My spicy food had just-enough-not-too-much heat, the french fries were thick and salty, and we just enjoyed the whole meal. We were the only ones there and I think that contributed to the casual atmosphere, but really, how can a place that sells hot dogs and sloppy joes not be casual? Again, I’m not complaining.

It was a wonderful evening out altogether and dinner turned out to be the icing on the cake– which, incidentally, we didn’t have room for in our full, full bellies..

These call for a cup of cooked and mashed delicata squash. Delicata is, for me, one of those mysterious other squashes that isn’t acorn, butternut or spaghetti and since I’ve never cooked it I’ve… never cooked it. My mom used to make acorn squash and spaghetti squash and the butternut squash recipes come pouring out of the Internet, magazines and cookbooks as soon as September hits, but this is the first time I’ve noticed a recipe for delicata.

I roasted it with a little butter and brown sugar. All the descriptions of it’s flavor compare it to sweet potato, but I thought it had an artichoke-like (but still squashy) flavor and the texture was kind of like artichoke hearts. I really liked it. I will eat it again.

The dough for these cinnamon rolls smelled amazing. The combination of the squash, the spices and the yeast made me salivate. On a scale of one to ten my anticipation for these cinnamon rolls was turned up to eleven. No joke, I was as excited for these as my kid was for trick-or-treating.

They totally delivered too. So good. I want to make them every day.

Mike thought they’d be even better with more walnuts, but we both agreed that the glaze was unnecessary. I wonder if I couldn’t sneak a little more squash in with the filling too, instead of just in the dough.

In any case, they’re really great just as they are. I’m going to go have just one more.

This month I chose a chili recipe from Better Homes and Gardens. I usually follow the recipe to the letter… but not today. Today I pretty much rewrote the recipe.

First I halved it. Then I didn’t want to go to the store so I subbed an ingredient. Then I subbed another ingredient. Then I used less of an ingredient. And finally, I added a whole new ingredient.

Anyway… I ended up with a great, quick chili that was mild enough for the kids and was perfect for me with the addition of a dash of green hot sauce.

Not The Magazine’s Chili

1 lb. Ground Beef
1 medium Onion, chopped (about 1 cup)
3 Cloves of Garlic, minced
1 4 oz. Can Diced Mild Green Chiles
1 Tbsp. Chili Powder
1 Tsp. Ground Cumin
1 14.5 oz. Can Diced Tomatoes, No Salt Added
1 15 oz. Can Kidney Beans, Rinsed and Drained
1 5.5 oz. Can V-8 Juice
1/2 oz. Semisweet Chocolate Chips

Brown the ground beef and drain the fat. Add the onion and garlic and cook until softened. Add the chiles, the chili powder and the cumin. Let that cook for a minute or two. Add the diced tomatoes. (I mashed about half of them with a fork so that it wouldn’t be so chunky.) Add the kidney beans, the V-8 and the chocolate and stir until the chocolate melts. Let it all simmer about a half hour until it’s thickened, stirring occasionally.

The chocolate was the thing that intrigued me about the original recipe in the magazine and I kept that ingredient in my modified recipe. I’ve never put chocolate in chili before, although it does make sense. I couldn’t taste it, of course, but I trust that it added to the overall flavor and the overall flavor was good.

This is a pantry meal that I could have on the table with a fresh batch of corn muffins in less than an hour. I think I’ll keep it.

Dang! They’re good, aren’t they?! And easy too!

Just tear the leaves of that tough stem that runs all the way up the middle. Tear them into chip size pieces. Wash them and dry them really, really well. Coat them with a tablespoon or so of olive oil. Lay them on a baking sheet and sprinkle with salt. Not too much salt, mind you–you’re not supposed to eat too much of that stuff! Now bake ‘em at 315 F for… crud… I forgot to set the timer again.

I baked them for the amount of time it took to switch the laundry to the dryer, check Facebook and Twitter and pick out some music… about fifteen minutes. Most recipes suggest fifteen to twenty minutes of baking. Pull them out when they look like this:

Just try not to eat all of them at once and feel a little less guilty when you do.

My recipes this month were from Iron Chef Michael Symon’s Greek Easter Menu in the April issue of Bon Appetit. I made the Grape Leaves with Bulgur and Mint and the Zucchini Keftedes with Feta and Dill. Since these are just meant to be appetizers I rounded out my meal with pork tenderloin medallions in a quick Greek-ish pan sauce of garlic, oregano and white wine.

I’ve never worked with grape leaves before and work they are. This recipe didn’t blow me away. I thought it was good, but not amazing, not something I want to put that much work into when I have children tugging at my apron strings. I was the only one who thought they were good too. Mike and Nathan didn’t like them much, probably because of the vinegary taste of the grape leaves. In the end it was a fun experiment, I’m willing to try another recipe with grape leaves at some point and I’ll gladly eat them in a restaurant if the opportunity arises, but this particular recipe won’t be repeated.

The zucchini keftedes, however, were pretty great. Both Mike and I liked them.(Another way I like zucchini! Who knew!) The recipe said you could serve them warm or cold, but I definitely liked them better warm with a dollop of cool yogurt on top. The best thing about them is the pleasingly rubbery texture of the feta cheese when you fry them. Lovely, chewy, little bombs of salty feta hidden in the zucchini! Yes, these will be made again.

I actually kind of want to make them again right now. Yum!

This month I faithfully hit the magazines once again and picked a couple of recipes to push our boundaries. Grilled pork tenderloin with mustard-dill sauce from the March issue of Bon Appetit. We made the zucchini pickles in the recipe too. As an additional side dish I made roasted radishes with brown butter, lemon and radish tops from the April issue that I just got in the mail. This was a bit of a risky dinner because I don’t usually like pork or zucchini and Michael doesn’t like radishes. The three-year-old mostly only likes broccoli, but that’s a whole other story.

Everything was great. I liked zucchini for probably the first time ever and although nobody was ultra-wowed by the radishes, they were good.

We did the pork in a pan instead of on the grill(the grill needs a good spring cleaning!) and it turned out just fine though I’m betting there would be lovely charred bits if it had been grilled. I’m beginning to think that my disdain for pork will utterly disappear if I properly sauce it. The mustard-dill sauce did the trick for me– I ate every last bite.

Delicious and nice to look at too!

Bozmangia Cooks

Bozmangia Cooks is a casual cooking, eating and all-around having fun group that seems to be sliding on to the Bozeman scene with success.

They’ve already had a few pot-luck style events(Moroccan Your Socks Off! was last night) and have collected nearly 200 hundred Facebook friends since the beginning of the year. I haven’t been able to attend due to the new baby(currently napping at my feet while I type) and a total lack of babysitters, but I would in an instant if I could swing it. If you live in the Bozeman Area and like cooking and eating please, please get in on this. It looks like so much fun!

Bozeman PopUp

The Bozeman PopUp Facebook page has only been around for a couple of weeks and has already garnered nearly 500 friends and with good reason. Bozeman PopUp offers a “limited time only” restaurant experience, the first of which is Indian food at Wild Joe’s Coffee House downtown tomorrow night. This collaborative effort has been warmly welcomed in Bozeman and why not? What could be more exciting than an exclusive event with can’t-get-it-anywhere-else food?

Now, this is important, as of this writing there are still tickets available for 7 p.m. on March 5th, so if you’re interested in being one of the few, one of the lucky, you might want to shell out the $40 now at Wild Joe’s or on the Bozeman PopUp website.

Again, I would go, but… oh, it will be fun when the kids can watch themselves…

The Parrot Confectionary

This old-fashioned candy store in Helena is part of the hallowed ground of my youth. My mom took me there to eat chili when I was very young, I bought candy there during lunch breaks from summer theatre school at Grandstreet Theatre and I try to go there any time I visit Helena. The place is amazing. Helena folks and anyone who loves quality candy should be following The Parrot.

Their Facebook page has informed me that they have a game night and that they’ll be offering clam chowder. Makes me wish I lived in Helena, but they’ll also have online ordering from their website sometime soon(you can order by phone until then). I personally can’t wait for online ordering. It will change my life and the lives of the people I buy gifts for.

This is just the tip of the Facebook iceberg. There are many food related pages that offer tantalizing peeks at what is available in the Bozeman area and beyond and I “like” it.

I grabbed my magazines and leafed through them with determination. I would make good on my silly resolution and, fortunately for me, Cooking Light had just what I needed–revamped fast food recipes that all take less than a half hour. I could swing that even if I had to run to the store for a few ingredients.

I’ll admit, I almost gave up. None of the recipes seemed quite right– either they didn’t seem like something we’d really like or they involved ingredients I’d never used. Scary. But that’s why I chose to do this, isn’t it? I wanted my family to try something new.

So, I sucked it up and decided to make Shrimp Pad Thai from Cooking Light even though we’d never eaten anything like that and I was a little hesitant about the fish sauce. Really, fish sauce can be intimidating for a born and bred Montana girl.

Despite the trip to the store, it was a really fast and simple recipe. Mike and I devoured it with enthusiasm. The three-year-old wasn’t too interested, but he isn’t interested in anything we eat for dinner lately so, whatever. Seriously, we could be having chocolate cake for dinner… but, I digress. We got him to eat a few bites anyway.

I was on a roll and it was still early so I set about making Peanut Butter and Jelly Bars from Bon Appetit.

Really rich and sweet and so, so good. I used peach-raspberry jelly that Mike’s mother made and they seemed to be a bit much in bar form so I cut them down to nuggets.

Now, see? That wasn’t so scary. Trying new things is good. I’m glad I made that resolution and I’m so glad I’ve added these two new recipes into rotation.