More Good Food

January really did turn out to be the month of many recipes.  As evidenced by my budget.  When I was working on setting up my 2012 budget, I realized that I had spent nearly two months' worth of money in one month because of all the cooking I was doing.  Whoa!!  So I'm going to have to scale back a bit for a while until things get back on track monetarily.  But here are some of the results from the pre-money awareness phase...


fried calamari

This is the Crispy Squid from Nigella Lawson's Nigella Express.  I had actually bought all the ingredients a while back (the squid were frozen) and hadn't gotten up the nerve to actually try it.  And I have to admit that if I didn't already know that I love fried calamari, I don't know if I would have tried it after seeing all those stringy tentacles and slimy bodies.  Bleh.  But it really was all very quick and easy.  The tentacles were so funny, because thawed, they were thin and about 10-12 inches long.  But as soon as they went into the oil, they drew up into the little blobs that I am used to seeing on a plate.  This is definitely something I would do again for something different and fun.


beef!

The next night was Nigella's Steak with Lemon and Thyme, and let me just say that thyme is officially my new favorite herb!  The steak was grilled on a stovetop grill pan, then marinated in olive oil, lemon juice, lemon zest (got to use my new zester I got for Christmas!), worcestershire sauce, fresh thyme, salt, and pepper.  I don't like lemon, but you really couldn't taste it specifically.  Overall, it was just super flavorful and fresh.  I also steamed some broccoli rabe in the microwave and boiled these itty bitty potatoes (from Trader Joe's -- their term, although it was quite accurate!).  The potatoes were so small that they cooked up very quickly, and I just tossed them with a little salt, pepper, butter, and some of the fresh thyme.  Mouth-wateringly delicious.  The broccoli rabe made a nice alternative to regular broccoli, since I tend to eat a lot of that.  And the leftover steak made a truly scrumptious sandwich the next day!

naan pizza

Looking for another quick and easy dinner recipe (this was a week when I worked 'til 6), this is another Nigella Lawson recip from the Express cookbook.  Yes, Nigella again.  It really was easy... naan purchased from the store, jarred pasta sauce (Barilla's tomato basil sauce -- absolutely the best jarred sauce!  ever!), jarred marinated mushrooms, chunks of fontina cheese, and a sprinkle of fresh thyme.  It was good, but I will definitely tweak it some the next time.  I don't love tomoato sauce, so I'll probably leave that off and just use a little olive oil and garlic, which is what I usually do when I make pizza.  I think I've had fontina before, because it tasted very familiar.  It was very tasty, and I'll be adding it into my regular rotation of cheeses that I like to keep on hand.  There was something slightly off about the mushroom and thyme combination, so I might look for other options in the future.  The naan was great, though, because they're much cheaper and a little smaller than the Boboli crusts that I've used in the past for quick pizzas.  So this recipe was not a home-run, but can absolutely be adapted into something great.

So I went back and counted up all the new recipes I've tried since starting the project (#73), and I'm at fourteen so far.  Essentially, I'm all caught up through February, so I can get back on track for one a month now.  It's been a lot of fun, and I'm looking forward to more good food!