The Last Five: New Recipes I've Tried

I'm not a great cook; nor is it something I particularly love.  I do like to bake, but mostly because I like to eat baked goods. Sometime I feel particularly inspired and enjoy the process, but mostly I just want to get something fast, cheap and easy in my mouth (#TWSS).

I do know how to make a few things in my sleep (hellllo E's favorite pasta and chicken!) but I like to try something new once in awhile. Some of the following are winners, some are just okay (which may be more of a product of the cook as opposed to the recipe).

Baked Gnocchi with Chicken - E loves gnocchi and so we had a package of it lying around, but the times we've made it according to the package I thought it was really bland. Since I also had chicken marinating that I had planned to grill but then didn't and it had to be cooked, I made the chicken and then made my own version of this. Except that I don't like muchrooms and didn't have spinach so I used zuchinni and corn I had on hand. I liked this, I think it was just okay for E.

Cheddar Jalapeno Chicken Burgers - oh my yum! These are awesome. I made them once with chicken and a couple of times since using ground turkey since it's been cheaper. Also I used whatever cheese I had on hand at the time, I think it was even a couple of cut-up pieces of string cheese once. No matter, they are delightful. We took them camping and it felt like a bit of a sophisicated upgrade from your standard hot dog, you know? It's easy to make quite a few of these and freeze them, also they make cute little sliders for a crowd that maybe isn't such a fan of spicy.

"the BEST fluffiest chocolate frosting EVER" - So I pinned this and the pin didn't track back to the original source... I tried to track down something identical and found this on Kraft recipes. Full disclosure: I had a big glass of chocolate-coconut milk on hand from a recipe I had started to make (this one) when I realized I had low-fat coconut milk instead of the the full-fat I needed... Long story short, I decided to try using that in the recipe and it still came out great. One person mentioned (without prompting) that it had a slight coconut taste and one person (again, unprompted) mentioned a slight pudding taste. I loved the texture of this right out of the fridge -- it was more like mousse than frosting (I also ate the rest out of the bowl after frosting all the cupcakes I made. The only thing was that it was a hot day and just leaving the cupcakes covered on the kitchen counter for an hour or so while doing party prep caused the frosting to melt a bit and sticking them back in the fridge didn't reclaim the same fluffy, mousse-y texture. Bottom line: super yummy if you keep it nice and cold.

Hungry Girl Sassy Wonton Tacos - I had something like this at a restaurant awhile back and was stoked when I found the recipe (I mean, it's not rocket science, but...) and had been meaning to make them for awhile. I made these the other night for a potluck but I think they'd be better without having to transport --- 20-25 minutes in the car left them a little sloshed-around and a little but soggy but still good. I cheated a bit by using a salad mix (it was basically cole slaw with some bacon bits and tossed in bbq and ranch sauce) and since I had some "salsa-con-queso" sour cream on hand from a family dinner and an avocado, I added those as garnish. The shells are the most time-consuming and hands-on to make, I had to turn them so that both sides browned evenly and there's a very fine line between firm enough to hold fillings and firm enough to crack when you touch them. Also, it was quite easy to make the opening way too narrow and almost impossible to stuff. Since I had leftover chicken and salad topping E and I made them again the next night but just cooked the wontons flat and ate them tostada-style. just as good if a little bit messy (they really had a tendency to crack and fall apart when you bite into them). Verdict: Very cute but probably easier (if higher calorie count) to skip the wontons and just use tortillas as a burrito or tostada. The filling combinations are yum.

Pumpkin Spice Rice Krispie Treats - There's no special trick to these or anything, you just need the Pumpkin Spice marshmallows and make as you would any other Rice Krispie Treat recipe (or for the Heather-and-Leila version -- don't even bother putting them in a pan and cutting into squares, just let the molten marshmallow cool enough --or not -- to eat straight from the pot). If you like pumpkin-flavored-any-and-everything this time of year, of course they're yummy.

I also tried adding a zuchinni and a yellow squash to the turkey chili I've made a few times... I wasn't sure E would like the veggies but he gobbled it and even ate leftovers, which he usually only does with pizza, score!

What should I try next? I have a cookbook of beautiful-looking chocolate recipes for the holidays, so I think some of those will be a must in the next month. Maybe I should try making some kind of showstopper chocolate cake for our anniversary (our 5th is coming up -- ahh! where have 5 years gone?!?! -- and I want a tribute to our amazeballs chocolate cake covered in ganache).

I also want to do that thing where you make like ten crockpot meals and put them all in your freezer at once and then you have crockpots and leftovers and your life is magical... but have I done that yet? Obviously not.

Until then...

Happy Cooking!