Spinach & Artichoke Mac 'n' Cheese

This wasn't a new recipe. Jen has made it a few times before, because it is in other Rachael Ray recipe books. However, it was in Look and Cook, so I had to make it. It was fun! I love cheese, and there was a lot of it in this recipe. I am using cheeses that I've never used before. Italian Fontina and Parmigiano-Reggiano were the two in this dish. I am also not a fan of artichokes, but it was a part of the dish. It wasn't bad! I would say this is the new ingredient I could incorporate into other dishes.

Three-Bean Pasta e Fagioli

There were a lot of vegetables in this dish. My sous chef, Jen Cassel, did a great job chopping them all up for me. The dish was very simple. Basically, I put everything into one big pot and let it cook for a while. I guess that is what soup is :) My mom was here for this one, so she got to have a bowl. From what she said, she enjoyed it. We've already made it again for friends, so it was a hit. Simple, but good. Just add a salad and garlic bread....and you're ready to go. No pictures for this one.

Ancho Chicken Tortilla Soup

This dish had Cinnamon in it. We realized that we don't like cinnamon in a savory way. It is definitely not a dish that we'll have again. There was avocado in this dish. I've always said that it looks like playdoh, and that turns me off. However, it was in the dish, so I had to eat it. I thought it went along well with the dish and wasn't as bad as I thought.

Sausage and Onion Kebabs on Roasted Pepper Salad

I'm gonna spend some time catching up here, so I won't be writing a lot. However, this was a great mixture of flavors in one dish. The roasted pepper salad was strong, but good. I set the smoke detectors off with this one, and almost sent my daughter into a state of shock. I think we decided that balsamic vinegar is a new favorite ingredient in our home.

Sausage & Fish One-Pot

Yes, this dish is as weird as it sounds. This is the second dish of the weekend. Actually, its the third, because I cooked up a nice lunch from the back of Look and Cook today with the extra 1/2 pound of sausage that I had.

Fish is not my thing. I don't eat it and don't like it. I can't stand the smell of it. However, true to my challenge, I cooked the next dish in the cookbook and tried it. I went to the store and bought 2 fillets of Wild Alaskan Cod fresh from the seafood department. I was not looking forward to this one throughout the day. When it came time to cook, I still went all out!

Chopping up onions is getting old. Really, every recipe has onion in it. I combined the vegetables and potatoes and let it sit on the stove for a while. Then, I added cherry tomatoes and the cod. It cooked for another 8 minutes. Garnished with some fresh parsley, it was ready to serve.

Jen told me it tasted like fish sticks, which was encouraging to hear. I always loved those when I was a kid. Of course, I covered those things in ketchup. So, the question is....did the ketchup and hot sauce stay in the refrigerator tonight? No. In fact, both came out and were used on the fish. However, I ate it. That weird combination of sausage, potatoes and fish in one pot will never be made again.

The One-Pot

Chicken Ragu

I'm going for two recipes this weekend. I had to cook a meal for a dinner with international students, so I figured I would continue on in Rachael Ray's Look and Cook. So, I get to cook Saturday and Sunday night this week. For the international student dinner, I cooked the next recipe, which was pretty simple compared to other things I have done so far.

I cut up 4 chicken thighs. They are rather difficult to chop up, so it took more work than I expected. The other meat in the dish was Pancetta, an Italian type bacon. After cooking them together, I added the tomatoes, carrots, onions and a few other vegetables to the pan. Mixed with the Rigatoni, it looks like this:

It was ok, but nothing special. I won't be making it again.

Glazed Chicken and Peaches with Cheese and Bacon Biscuits

Abby turned 1 last Sunday! We had a big, family party and lots of great food. Needless to say, there was little reason for me to cook last Sunday night. So, I went for Tuesday night this past week and cooked up a chicken with some great biscuits.

This was an intense recipe, with a lot of things going on. I am getting used to working with tons of different steps in a recipe, but it still gets stressful in the kitchen. I started out with the biscuits. They were amazing and came out really well. The cheese and bacon were a great combination. Then, I jumped into making the chicken. I am thankful for my assistant chef, Jen Cassel. She does a great job helping out when things get busy. I ended up burning the bottom of the peaches a little bit, but they were still good. I learned that you can scrape the burnt part of the peaches. The glaze that went over the chicken was incredible, mixed with peach preserves and hot sauce. It added so much to the dish! Here is a picture of the final product:

Jen ended up eating the leftover biscuits the next day with peach preserves. I think this one was a hit! We'll probably have it again.