List of recipes for the challenge

I don't have all 50 yet (*gulp*) but I'm getting close. Here is a partial list of those recipes I have compiled and have made the cut as ones that look the best and have the most reasonable ingredients:

• Basil, Sage, Cheese and Tomato Risotto
• Beef Tenderloin (definitely a weekend thing when the husband is home)
• Garlic Roasted Shrimp with Red Peppers and Smoked Paprika
• Yucatan Style Chicken, Lime and Orzo Soup
• Cream Cheese Dumplings
• Mexican Chicken Casserole
• Potato and Ricotta Gnocchi with Bolognese Sauce
• Lasagna
• Fondue
• Balsamic Roasted New Potatoes
• Mediterranean Salmon
• Pasta with Broccoli Raab, Goat Cheese, Sundried Tomatoes and Toasted Pine Nuts
• Gingerbread
• Grilled Shrimp with Bacon and Jalapenos
• Empanadas
• Fried Green Tomatoes (only if I can find any - they're not usually in season in the dead of winter)
• Baked Shrimp with Feta
• Prosciutto and Parmesan Gougères
• Spiced Pita Chips
• Greek Feta Spread
• Grilled Chicken with Green Chile Sauce
• Beef Lo Mein
• French Onion Soup
• Five Minute Chocolate Cake in a Mug (don't judge me)
• Shrimp and Grits
• Crispy Pork and Kimchi Pot Stickers (ambitious; I'm a little concerned about this one)
• Spaghetti with Tomatoes, Basil, Olives, and Fresh Mozzarella
• Grilled Cheese with Spinach-and-Tomato Sauce
• Grilled Tuna with Tomato and Cucumber Salad
• Grilled Middle Eastern Meatballs
• Masa Griddle Cakes with Poblanos and Goat Cheese
• Poblano-Pepper Jack Corn Bread
• Pear and Cranberry Turnovers
• Crispy Curried Chicken Tenders with Cilantro Dipping Sauce
• Hoisin-Glazed Salmon
• Goat Cheese Mashed Potatoes
• Potato Soup

Updated 1/2 to add:

• Onion Rings
• Smoky Shrimp and Parmesan-Polenta Cakes
• Polenta with Roasted Red Peppers and Fontina Cheese

Updated 1/6 to add:

• Hot Chicken Casserole
• Peanut Butter Granola
• Pecan Crusted Tilapia
• Marbled Chocolate Banana Bread
• Beer Cheese Soup

This is 45, still a few shy of 50. I think I can do it, though. I'm going through the recipes and either halving or doing them in thirds. Some of these recipes feed eight people. I found a lot of the latter recipes on FoodandWine.com. We used to subscribe to that magazine but most of the recipes started to get really complicated and ridiculous. Things we would never cook, like Braised Irish Goat Tongue with Kumquat and Green Peppercorn Dressing. I'm only half kidding, folks.

Cost prohibitive?

The husband asked me last night if I had thought about the financial impact of making new meals every night for 10 weeks. I told him that was one of my first concerns and that while I wanted this to be something fun, I wasn't in the business of letting it put us in the poor house. For one, I shop with coupons every chance I get. My local Kroger tallies the percentage saved with each shopping trip when you combine store sales, coupons, and double coupons. Last night I saved 20% off my bill by maximizing my savings, which is not far off what I usually save when I shop there. Good stuff. So I fully intend on utilizing coupons or other savings as often as I possibly can for the next 10 weeks. We also have WalMart which is a good choice for cheap groceries, but you're usually risking your life or sanity by shopping there.

Secondly, as I stated in my very first post, I'll just have to cut back elsewhere. I rarely eat out during the week as it is, but I'll have to be extra diligent about little costs adding up. I don't mind leftovers, and I have a feeling I'll be dealing with lots of leftovers if I'm cooking this much. Also, halving the meals will help cut back on the overall cost. Finally, I need to do a final look through of all my recipes to see if there are any that just have too many odd ingredients to justify the one-time purchase. If that's the case, I'll just cut it out. I did find two good Chinese items on close out at Kroger this weekend - rice wine vinegar and garlic chile sauce. Yum! Surely I can find a use for those items.

This challenge officially starts in seven days. The husband leaves for the academy in six days. I need to get my butt in gear and finalize my recipes so I can know what to can and what to keep. Time's a wastin'!

Practice recipe: Farfalle with Creamy Mushroom Gorgonzola Sauce

One of my Christmas gifts from the husband was a cookbook from the perky-chested Italian chef Giada De Laurentiis:
The husband and I like to watch her show whenever we can, though I watch for the culinary aspect while he just hopes to see a speck of cleavage. I will say she delivers on both. But anyway, I found a recipe (one of many) in the cookbook that looked pretty good. I have to give you a small disclaimer, though: I normally dislike mushrooms, peas and Gorgonzola cheese. So what in the world am I doing cooking a meal featuring all three of those items? I don't know. It just looked good and I figured I might as well try it.

Farfalle with Creamy Mushroom Gorgonzola Sauce
2 T unsalted butter
3 T all-purpose flour
2.5 C whole milk at room temperature
5 oz creamy Gorgonzola cheese, cubed
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 T extra-virgin olive oil
1 pound assorted mushrooms (cremini, oyster, stemmed, shitake, sliced)
3/4 C frozen peas, thawed
1 pound farfalle pasta (bowtie pasta)

In a 2-quart saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. When the butter starts to sizzle, add the flour and whisk until smooth and the flour loses its raw flavor, about two minutes. Carefully add the milk all at once and whisk until smooth. Bring the sauce to a simmer. Simmer for two minutes, whisking constantly. Remove from the heat. Add the Gorgonzola and stir until melted. Season the sauce to taste with salt and pepper. Set aside and cover to keep warm.

Heat the oil in a large, heavy skillet over medium heat. Add the mushrooms and sauté until tender, about 12 minutes. Stir in the peas. Season the mixture to taste with salt and pepper.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the farfalle and cook until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring often to prevent the pasta from sticking together, about 10 minutes. Drain. Transfer the pasta to a large bowl. Add the Gorgonzola sauce and mushroom mixture and toss to coat. Season with salt and pepper and serve.

Another limitation I found is that I don't have access to some food items, in this case, the creamy Gorgonzola. I opted for regular Gorgonzola and crumbled it when adding it to the milk mixture. It melted fine. Additionally, I didn't use whole milk, just regular 2%, and it also turned out fine. I just had to stir it a bit longer for the sauce to thicken. For the mushrooms, I just used sliced baby Portabellas. Again, no biggie. I also did my best to halve the recipe since this feeds 4-6 and there is just the two of us at home.

The finished dish looked very nice. The sauce coated the pasta well, and the green peas added a welcome pop of color to an otherwise monochromatic dish, save for the mushrooms. The first thought I had when I took a bite was that the dish was a bit bland. I went for more salt and pepper, and tried another bite. Still a little bland, and on the second bite the Gorgonzola really started to make itself known. The husband thought it was a little bland, too, and the more we ate the more we realized this was not going to be a staple menu item for us. I think the peas did us in. The Gorgonzola was a bit heavy, too, and I didn't even use the full amount. Both of us whole-heartedly gave this dish a resounding, "Meh." I'm only slightly disappointed, though, because I knew going into the challenge that something like this could happen. I could spend all night cooking up a storm only to be unimpressed with the results. Better luck next time.

Changing things up a little bit

The more I got to thinking about having to come up with 70 recipes, the more I regretted making that statement. Granted I haven't come as far as I would have liked in accumulating recipes at this point, as I'm only at about 25 so far. Totally behind schedule and nowhere near 70. So I've adapted my plan a bit to make things easier. I'm taking the recipes down from 70 to 50. This leaves the weekends open to cook whatever I want or go out to dinner. Plus, having to assemble 50 recipes, while still quite a feat, is much more attainable than 70. So, that's what I'm going to do.

I also bought a potato ricer this weekend. One of the recipes I want to make calls for the potatoes to be riced and I was about to be SOL when I found a Martha Stewart *crossing myself* potato ricer for $9 off! Score! It's a really pretty blue color, so even though it's Martha Stewart *crossing myself* I can still use it and not feel like I'm in any way endorsing her and her devilish ways. Maybe I can even scrape off the MS logo on it and pretend nothing of hers ever graced my kitchen in the first place.

I have a following!

Hello follower! *waves* :-)

Today is a snow day for me, as we have two inches of the white stuff blanketing our area. I opted to not brave the roads so I'm at home enjoying rare delicacies such as The Price is Right and being able to snuggle with my pooch. I'm also taking this time to collect recipes. Thankfully, my December issue of Southern Living has a full listing of the recipes from their 2008 issues so I'm going through with an ink pen to select a few. I also have an Emeril Lagasse cookbook I've never really explored, so I'll check that out, too. Truth be told, I have a good number of magazines, cookbooks and clippings that should more than provide the 70 recipes I need. It's just going through all of them that's the hard part. But, that's what a day like today is perfect for.

Time to start planning

I'm a good cook. I'll just throw that out there. I don't claim to be a fantastic cook or even an awesome cook, but I'll say I'm a good cook. For one, I haven't willingly cooked Hamburger Helper in a long time. Secondly, I've come a long way since the beginning of my marriage when one night, dinner was a single chicken breast, no veggie, no starch and no bread.

"What's for dinner?" asks my brand new shiny husband.

"Chicken," I reply.

"What else?"

"Just chicken."

Fear washes over him as he realizes what he has unknowingly gotten himself into. Tiny beads of sweat appear on his forehead. He didn't even think about the fact that his brand new shiny wife might not be able to cook. He eases into the next question.

"Umm, any vegetables?" he says with pleading eyes.

"Just chicken," I replied.

*blink, blink* At this point, my husband is pretty much convinced he's screwed.


And so from feeble beginnings comes a woman who has learned to add veggies to dinner and can even whip up a meal without a recipe, though my husband is still a little apprehensive when he notices no ingredient list in front of me when I start dinner prep in the evenings. I can make a mean salmon with mustard glaze and I've been told my fried chicken, which was something I just "whipped up," can make a grown man cry tears of joy.

My conquest: to have a new recipe to make every night for ten weeks while my husband is away at the Police Academy.

Ten weeks of new recipes means I need to plan for 70 meals, give or take. Holy crap. I can't decide if this is pure ambition or pure craziness, but in the end, one will come out as the winner. Not all of the menu items will be brand spanking new, as the Husband has asked for a few of his comforting favorites on the weekends he's home from the Academy. I will of course oblige, as there's no need in subjecting the poor man to an experimental concoction with no guarantee of edibility after he's just eaten a week's worth of S.O.S. in the mess hall.

Additionally, not all of the menu items will be dinner fare. Some might be appetizers, some might be sweet, some might be side items, who knows. They'll just be anything I choose. There are some recipes I have my eye on that could be incredibly difficult, and some that will be easy peasy. We'll just have to see how it all comes out. And the more I think about it, this could also be an exercise in frugality. With all of these new recipes I'll be creating, there's the chance that I'll be required to purchase an item that I don't normally stock in the pantry. I could be buying a lot of frivolous foods/spices/ condiments/cuts of meat to accomplish this. To compensate for that, I'll have to cut corners elsewhere in the purchase of staple items. We'll see how that all plays out.

But for now, I have my challenge. I'll spend the next few weeks getting together the recipes I want to make and organizing them into some sort of file. This challenge begins in 26 days, so I'd better get cracking.

Bon appétit!