Disasters

In case you haven't noticed, my entries have slowed down lately and are now on a bit of a break. I've been living in a home without a proper kitchen, so instead of uploading bad pictures of alright dishes, I figured I'd put a pause on the posts until I'm back in a real kitchen (which is happening in 3 weeks). For now, I'll leave you with some of my beautiful kitchen disasters. I will attempt some of these in the future with a few tweaks, but the rest are so bad that I have given up on them completely.

pretty boring blackberry muffins

grilled chicken with bruschetta: sounds much more flavorful than in tasted

the not quite perfect chocolate cookies

cashew chicken in need of more sauce, and a bit more of a kick

speculoos lacking in the spice department

cumin rubben fish that somehow turned out bland

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Chipotle Sweet Potato Soup

This recipe is another one sent to me by my sister. I think she is trying to make me jealous since we don't have ingredients like chipotles in adobo in my village. In fact, we seem to be missing most spices I usually cook with (cumin included). I absolutely love the flavor chipotles in adobo add to any recipe and hope that you can all access this great ingredient. You won't use the whole can of chipotles for this recipe, but they freeze really well if you end up with lots of extra.

My sister found this recipe and tweaked it a bit to suit her preferences, which are usually also my preferences, so the variation I'm posting is hers. She said it makes lots of soup, so you may might want to invite someone over to help you finish off the pot. Hopefully I can try this recipe soon since it seems like a delicious, hearty soup.

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Tiramisu

My mom's friend introduced us to this recipe many years ago. Ever since it has been a favorite no-bake dessert in my collection. This is such a easy recipe and can be made a day ahead of time. In fact, I think it always tastes better on the second day when the Ladyfingers have softened and the flavors intensify. I've definitely had leftover tiramisu for breakfast in the past and always thought it tasted better than the night before.

When it comes to choosing the Ladyfingers, I have realized that the ones from Trader Joe's are better for this recipe since they soften sooner than other brands. However, I've made this plenty of times without the Trader Joe's brand and still really enjoyed it. In those instances, I would allow the tiramisu to sit in the fridge overnight. There are raw eggs in this, which I know some people do not eat, so keep that in mind if you make this for somebody else. Also, if you don't have any chocolate at home when you make this, you could sprinkle the top of the tiramisu with cocoa powder instead of shaved chocolate.

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Betty Bossi's Bolognese

Betty Bossi, the Swiss goddess of food (though she's not actually a real person), calls this recipe "Super-Sugo". It's pretty super, so I guess I have to agree with this silly name for an old school recipe (the cookbook was printed in 1981). The recipe comes from my mom's collection of 70s and 80s Betty Bossi cookbooks. Over time she has made some changes to it to suit our family's taste buds. She exchanges the 1980s addition of mortadella for mushrooms, adds fresh herbs, and throws in some extra garlic. With those changes, there's nothing left to do but get cooking.

Bolognese is one of those comfort foods that almost every meat eater loves. It's a great cold weather meal that has never let me down. The longer you cook your sauce, the more flavorful it will be, so don't try to simmer it for less than an hour. I always sneak a taste here and there since I can be extremely impatient when it comes to waiting for food, but this is worth the wait, especially with a spinkling of Parmesan cheese on top.

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Tomato and Goat Cheese Tart

A couple months ago I made these tarts as an appetizer, but somehow completely forget to write the post. They tasted incredible and weren't too difficult to make. It combines so many great flavors from the goat cheese and sauteed onions to the tomatoes and basil. The only difficulty I had was with getting the edges of my puff pasty dough to rise. I was able to make 6 tarts instead of just 4 with the ingredients listed, so perhaps I stretched my dough a little thinner than intended. I also think these would make really great bite sized appetizers. Instead of rolling the dough into a 6 inch circle, I would consider rolling out 2 or 3 inch circles and using sliced cherry or Campari tomatoes  instead of larger ones.

The original recipe calls for a garlic and herb goat cheese, which I did not have at the time. To make up for this difference, I just chopped up some fresh herbs from the garden (mainly chives and thyme) and mixed them into the plain goat cheese. When you make this recipe, be sure to serve it fresh from the oven since it does not re-heat well. I had some left over and even though the flavors were still delicious, the dough did not get crunchy enough the second time around.

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