Tag Archives: cook’s illustrated

menu plan Monday

Hard-boiled eggs and casseroles don’t mix

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My dear friend Amy got me a subscription to Food Network magazine, and the latest issue grabbed Poppy’s attention. She was fascinated by the “Mix & Match Baked Pasta” feature, which is in the “Fun Cooking” section of the magazine. Well played, Food Network magazine. Anyway, I told her she could help with the mixing and matching, and we’d make it for dinner one night this week. She chose:

Fusilli + shredded chicken + hard-boiled eggs + artichoke hearts + a creamy sauce + mozzarella

The very idea of hard-boiled eggs in a baked pasta makes me gag a little, so I planned to leave that out. The rest of it sounded fine, though, so I put it on the menu. And I told her later that we’d be having it on Monday night. “Great!” she said. “I won’t eat it.”

Of course not.

We did reach an agreement, though. I’m going to make her a dish of just pasta and sauce, and I’m going to put some chicken on the side.

She’ll grow out of this someday. I was a picky kid, too — not as picky as some people, though — and I grew out of it. Eventually. When I was 20 or so.

Sigh.

Monday: Baked chicken & pasta

I’m making it with chicken, roasted red peppers and spinach.Menu Plan Monday

Tuesday: Meatballs & polenta

Tuesday is usually kids’ choice night, but since Poppy chose something other than eggs or spaghetti this week I decided to have two kid nights. This is Pete’s choice. The meatballs are, anyway. I’ve never made polenta before. I’m counting on it to be awesome.

Wednesday: Dinner with friends

Thursday: Kung pao chicken

Thursday is supposed to be bean night, but this week it’s Rockford’s Choice night. And he picked kung pao chicken. I’ll be following the Cook’s Illustrated Kung pao shrimp recipe. The ingredient list is approximately two miles long, but it comes together easily and is delicious.

Friday: Pizza

Eating

Feeling blue

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Q. What’s the difference between a blueberry and an elephant?
A. They’re both blue! Except for the elephant.

We went a little overboard last week when we found cheap, fresh blueberries at the grocery store. One of my favorite breakfasts is a bowl of bran flakes with fresh blueberries, and I’ve been enjoying them every morning since we got home from my dad’s house. But I haven’t made it through the first carton yet, and we bought two.

I didn’t want to see the lovely blues go bad, so I made some blueberry muffins, using a Cook’s Illustrated recipe that I’ve had filed away for awhile. As advertised, these muffins are “rich, moist and dainty.”

Cinnamon-Sugar-Dipped Blueberry Muffins
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1 large egg
1 cup granulated sugar
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
1 1/4 cups sour cream (10 ounces)
1 1/2 cups frozen blueberries, preferably wild
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
4 tablespoons unsalted butter

Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray standard muffin tin with nonstick vegetable cooking spray.

Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt in medium bowl until combined. Whisk egg in second medium bowl until well-combined and light-colored, about 20 seconds. Add sugar and whisk vigorously until thick and homogenous, about 30 seconds; add melted butter in 2 or 3 steps, whisking to combine after each addition. Add sour cream in 2 steps, whisking just to combine.

Add frozen berries to dry ingredients and gently toss to combine. Add sour cream mixture and fold with rubber spatula until batter comes together and berries are evenly distributed, 25 to 30 seconds (small spots of flour may remain and batter will be thick). Do not overmix.

Use ice cream scoop or large spoon to drop batter into greased muffin tin. Bake until light golden brown and toothpick or skewer inserted into center of muffin comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes, rotating pan from front to back halfway through baking time. Invert muffins onto wire rack, stand muffins upright, and cool 5 minutes.

While muffins are cooling, mix sugar and ground cinnamon in small bowl and melt butter in small saucepan. After baked muffins have cooled five minutes, working one at a time, dip tops of muffins in melted butter and then cinnamon-sugar. Set muffins upright on wire rack; serve.

The recipe calls for frozen berries. I ignored that, and my fresh berries sort of exploded in the muffins. That doesn’t bother me one bit, but unexploded berries would be more aesthetically pleasing, I suppose.

I also had a hard time getting the wet and dry ingredients thoroughly blended, because I was afraid of mashing the fresh berries. The magazine’s notes say, “There should be no large pockets of flour in the finished batter, but small occasional sprays may remain.” It also says, “Do not overmix the batter.” So I made do with largish pockets of flour, and the muffins came out perfectly delicious anyway.

The cinnamon-sugar glaze is tasty, but it’s very sweet. I think the muffins would be fine — and more suitable to breakfast — without it. The muffins were still too hot to handle five minutes out of the oven, so I sort of basted them with a pastry brush.

Overall, this one’s a keeper.