Last week the recipes from Everyday Food: Great Food Fast mostly lived up to the cookbook’s title, so I’m trying a few more this week to decide if I want to buy the cookbook. I don’t know what I liked better — the Grilled Tomato Linguine or the Braised Chicken with Mushrooms and Oven-Baked Polenta — but I’ll be making both of those again.
I also have Cook’s Illustrated’s latest, The Best Make-Ahead Recipe, checked out from the library. I will almost certainly buy that for myself, as the Cook’s Illustrated books are my favorite ones to read, if not actually cook from. I find their recipes overly complex. I always learn from reading them and cooking them, but I rarely make any of their recipes more than once. They’re just too much work.
This week’s plans:
Spinach Mushroom Tart from Great Food Fast. Mushrooms, spinach, and onions on a puff pastry crust dotted with goat cheese crumbles. I love tarts!
Maple Glazed Roast Pork Loin from The Best Make-Ahead Recipe. A double-duty dinner: leftovers will be used in Cubano Sandwiches later on in the week.
Chili-rubbed Salmon with Zucchini and Corn from Great Food Fast. The salmon and zucchini are broiled while the corn is sauteed with fresh tomato salsa.
Cubano Sandwiches from The Best Make-Ahead Recipe. A south Florida favorite, apparently — roast pork, thinly-sliced ham, swiss cheese and mustard on a French roll. Buttered, pressed, and grilled. I think even my pork-doubting husband will enjoy it.
Rigatoni with Sausage and Parsley from Great Food Fast. I’ll use the Italian-seasoned ground turkey from my freezer. It’s not sausage but probably close enough.
Garlic-Marinated Grilled Chicken Cutlets with Potatoes and Asparagus from Great Food Fast. The potatoes are grilled in a foil packet. Could they really get brown like in the cookbook photo? I’m skeptical.
As-cooked recipes for any winners will be posted later. No sense sharing recipes that don’t turn out.