Wednesday, June 11, 2008

The Joy of Cooking

I have a wonderful hubby who occasionally takes over the cooking duties. The other day he made three bon appetit recipes. He made:

- Grilled Chicken with Jerk Seasoning pg 340 - very good
- Green Beans with Citrus butter sauce pb 438 - good
- Butter milk corn bread pb 372 - fair

The grilled chicken is marinated in the jerk sauce and leaves a nice hit of Jamaica without being over powering or too spicy. The green beans were very good, but I believe the oil in the dish overpowered the citrus - I could hardly taste it. Lastly, the cornbread was good, but I always like mine with honey - so it was like dessert.


Sometimes I feel like I want to get away from the whole Bon Appetit idea. Just yesterday I made a dish I love best. I boiled pasta, the enriched kind, but not whole wheat, and while I was doing that, chopped up red bell pepper and garlic. I roasted these plus red pepper flakes in olive oil and added herbed goat cheese. Last, I put in fresh basil that I had cut into chiffonade. This over the pasta with kosher salt and pepper is a thing of beauty. I love this dish - it messes up two pans, but I feel very cozy while I eat it. I'm trying Bon Appetit to learn new things, but sometimes I love the easy, old recipes too.