So many recipes, so little time...

Here I am playing catch-up as usual...

3/16/11: Wednesday
Martha's Macaroni and Cheese, cheesy, cheesy, and even more cheesy. So good.
Half and Half Loaf. This bread wasn't that great. It was pretty basic, but not exceptionally tasty.

3/17/11: Thursday, St. Patrick's Day
Corned Beef- so good! We went to Seattle to shop today so I put this in our Crock-Pot and when we walked through the door the entire house smelled like meaty corned beef goodness.
Colcannon, which is sautéed cabbage and mashed potatoes.
Brown Butter Brown Sugar Shorties which kind of tasted like Pecan Sandies but not as good as them.

3/18/11: Friday
Apple Crumble. This wasn't very sweet. The apples were nice and caramelized, but the topping didn't have enough sugar in it so I would add more next time.

8 day total: 22 dishes

But I don't even like milk.

It's true; I don't like milk. I don't drink it. In fact, I can't think of the last time I even tried milk. Maybe I do like it but I'll never know since I never drink it. Oh well. I do love heavy cream, though. It's fantastic. I wanted to title this post "more heavy cream" until I realized this pudding didn't have heavy cream in it. Tragic, I know, but still fantastic. It must be that whole milk.

3/15/11: Tuesday

Oven-Roasted French Fries, the easiest thing in the world. Slice some potatoes, season with whatever is lying around, bake for a while, then broil if you're impatient until GBD (golden brown and delicious).

Chocolate-Peanut Spread aka Peanutella. I was really excited when I saw this recipe back in January because I love Nutella and peanut butter is great too so they must be great when combined, right? Not so right. It tastes great and all, but the spread is denser than Nutella and not as delicious and Nutella-y. Fun to make, not so fun to eat.

Vanilla Bean Pudding. Like rice pudding, but without the rice. I haven't tasted its final form because it's chilling in my fridge but it tasted pretty good warm.

5 day total: 17 dishes down (17! love!)

Southern Comfort Food

No, I am not from the South, but I was born in Kansas, so I think that gives me the right to cook up a little bit of chili now and again. Yes, this chili has beans in it. I don't care if that means it isn't chili, I guess it's just "chili" then.

3/14/11: Monday, Pi Day

Beef Chili and Sour Cream and Cheddar Biscuits. The biscuits were just ok but the chili was delicious. I added a few more vegetables and threw in a jalapeño for good measure. The recipe said it served 6 even though it made a mess of chili. A really tasty mess of chili.

A double-batch of Rice Pudding, if only because heavy cream is one of my favorite ingredients. I also have a vanilla bean pudding that I want to make but Shannon voted for rice pudding so I made this again first. Warm, creamy, dotted with those adorable vanilla bean specks- this is one decadent dessert. It's also great cold, or at any possible temperature.

4 day total: 14 dishes down

Happy Pi Day!

3.14159, or a tasty dessert. Enjoy!

Clockwise from top: slices of Peach and Crème Fraîche Pie, Crack Pie, and Peanut Butter Banana Cream Pie.

(Yes, it's a crappy picture. A good one of all four pies was taken with a real camera but I don't have that yet.)

The Great Spring Break Cook-Off

Who?: Kelsey, a cooking-deprived college student.

What?: Kelsey cooking as much as possible to get it out of her system before she goes back to school.

Where?: the Lubetich house

When?: Spring Break

Why?: The dedicated reading of multiple food blogs has left Kelsey with a folder full of things to make but with no way to make them at school.

9 days, ?? recipes. GO!

3/11/11: Friday, Shannon's Poker Night dinner

Cauliflower and Caramelized Onion Tart

Baked Potato Soup

Piña Colada Cake

It was basically a Smitten Kitchen party where everything was delicious.

Then I corned some beef to get ready for St. Patrick's Day. There's a four pound brisket sitting in my fridge now.

3/12/11: Saturday

Rice Pudding, which really didn't make enough because it was too delicious to not want a ton of it. I will be making this again and doubling it. I'd also been craving rice pudding ever since this blog post came out in January. It was worth the wait.

Pecan Sandies, made first over Winter Break and too good to pass up. I contemplated making them at school, but it would be hard to do without a food processor or a rolling pin.

3/13/11: Sunday, prep for Pi Day day

We started off the day with a few German Pancakes which were so good and so easy. After that it was all about pie.

Apple Pie,

Peanut Butter Banana Cream Pie,

Crack Pie,

and Peach and Crème Fraîche Pie because tomorrow is Pi Day and Shannon needed pie.

3 day total: 11 dishes down

Life, Part 2

Oh right! I have a blog! I seem to always forget about it, basically in the same way that I always used to start writing in journals only to forget about them a week later. While I certainly can't promise my non-existent readers a schedule for posts, I can promise that, like those forgotten journals, I will occasionally find this again, laugh at old posts and maybe write something new from time-to-time. Like right now, over Spring Break, I'll try and find time to write about what I'm cooking when I'm not busy cooking.

Winter Break Eats

It's obviously not Winter Break anymore and I'm actually on Spring Break now, but I figured I'd repost this here since it was on my Facebook before. I think it will give some context to my next few posts detailing all the things I'm cooking over this break.

Last year I tried to cook something every day of winter break. This year I'm trying to continue that tradition. Except for travel days; those don't really count. Plus I'm going to Whistler, so I won't be able to cook there either. Well, "try" is the key word here.

12/17: traveling home, but I mixed up Cardamom Shortbread dough

12/18: Cardamom Shortbread

12/19: nothing. oops.

12/20: Cooking one last dinner before we head to Kansas, and a few cookies to take along for the trip. Plus I watched an episode of Giada At Home that I basically wanted to cook everything from...

Creamy Sweet Potato and Rosemary Soup

Cranberry, Oatmeal, and Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Bourbon Pecan Praline

12/21: traveling to Kansas

12/22: nothing again, I'll make up for it tomorrow

12/23: Today was Christmas pie day with a little extra thrown in the mix. My cousin Chris made Penne alla Vodka for dinner and I made the peas as the side.

Browned Butter Pecan Pie

Cranberry Apple Pie

Carol's Almond Roca Bars

Peas and Prosciutto

12/24: Christmas Eve: more desserts and hearty dishes are on the menu

So I ran out of time to make other things because I had really crappy yeast when making the rolls. Seriously, it was dead. Twice! Third time's a charm?

Parker House Rolls

Potato Gratin with Gruyère

12/25: Christmas

Lubetich Family Stuffing, a holiday staple

Mashed Potatoes

12/26:

Crack Pie, so good!

12/27: nothing. I think if I at least average to one thing a day this could be called a success.

12/28:

Oven-Baked French Fries

12/29: traveling home

Thumbprint Cookies, Pillsbury Kitchens' Family Cookbook, 1979 Edition. Our classic Christmas Thumbprint cookies.

12/30: my Dad's birthday. we were also going to have our Christmas dinner today but that didn't work out so well...

Crack Pie x2. It has to chill overnight and I needed it for New Year's Eve. Apparently Crack Pie is this year's Creme Caramel Bread Pudding...

12/31: New Year's Eve / Christmas. we had our family Christmas today so we made all the best sides again.

Parker House Rolls

Potato Gratin with Gruyère

Peas and Prosciutto

1/1: New Year's Day

Crispy Salted Oatmeal White Chocolate Cookies

1/2:

Golden Cupcakes, How to Cook Everything

Risi e Bisi aka Pea Risotto

Angel Food Cake, How to Cook Everything. I've really wanted to make Angel Food Cake from scratch for a long time and I finally did when I had enough egg whites left over from two Crack Pies. It was ok, but no revolution over the boxed version. Personally I'll be sticking to my mix, 2 1/2 cups of water, and 3 minute Angel Food Cake. That batter is just too good to pass up.

1/3: traveling to Whistler

1/4: Whistler

1/5: Whistler

1/6: traveling home

1/7:

Spritz Cookies, family Christmas cookie that we never had time to make around actual Christmas

Double Chocolate Brownies, How to Cook Everything

1/8:

Strawberry Pretzel Jello Salad, from my Aunt Karen

1/9:

Chocolate Fudge

1/10:

Snicker Doodles, Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy Melt-in-Your-Mouth Cookies. Snickerdoodles are like the one thing I cannot make. I've tried a lot of recipes and they never come out the way I want them too- with a soft chewy cookie instead of a crunchy one. These were crunchy and bad.

1/11:

Mashed Potatoes

Cheating-on-Winter Pea Soup

1/12:

Pink Lady Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting. This is my new favorite cake. I used to like one that my grandmother made that involved strawberry Jello but this is so much better. The cake was insanely moist. And pink! So cute!

1/13:

Canadian Cheddar Cheese Soup from Le Cellier

Heavenly Oatmeal-Molasses Rolls, which were pretty heavenly.

Whole Wheat Apple Muffins

Raspberry-Topped Lemon Muffins. Shannon needed to bring muffins into class so I supplied them and boy, were they good.

1/14:

Pecan Sandies

Oatmeal, Chocolate Chip, and Pecan Cookies

1/15:

My mom made Warm Custard Spoon Bread while we slept in, but I picked out the recipe.

Bourbon Pecan Praline again. We had a lot of pecans around...

1/16: traveling back to school where it's harder to cook

1/17: the end of Winter Break :(

So how did I do? I didn't cook something every day. Oh well. I did cook an awful lot though.

Stats:

32 days

11 days without cooking

40 dishes

Average: 1.25 dishes a day

Average for days that I cooked: 1.9 dishes a day

Not too shabby. Cooking, I will miss you.