learn to cook 1 new meal per week

I made potato salad tonight. We had 3 bags of potatoes in the fridge about to go bad so I figure I should use them up. I didn’t really follow any recipe specifically, just browsed a few and figured out what ingredients to use. I added 3 boiled eggs, mayo and mustard, 2 chopped green onions and some chopped up dill that I got at the market yesterday. The dill smells and tastes amazing, I have never really used it before. The salad is in the fridge cooling down some more, only thing left to do is top it with some paprika.

Next time I make this I might add some bacon to it.

Best idea ever! Bruschetta! I bought a big bag of tomatoes while I was in the Okanagan and I needed to use them for something so we made bruschetta on Monday and it was so great and so easy! Cut them up in cubes and added 2 cloves of minced garlic, some balsamic vinegar, some olive oil, some parmesan, and some chopped up fresh basil. Toasted some fresh french baguette and put some shredded mozzarella cheese on top. I want more!

I had one failure last night though. Since I have so many cherries right now (3 bags in my fridge!) I wanted to make a cherry crumble. It totally sucked though. The recipe I used had way to much flour and other dry ingredients so the crumble part was really just too powdery/floury. The cherry part was good though. I still don’t understand what happened since I followed the recipe to a T. Anyways, it’s not a big deal, I am going to try again tomorrow maybe. Need a new recipe though!

Edit: I tried another recipe for the cherry crumble. It called for more butter but when I added the dry ingredients it still seemed way to dry for me. I didn’t want to end up with another powdery crumble so I added probably almost 1 extra cup of butter. And it turned out great! The cherry part was good and the crumble part was even better. Just goes to show I don’t always have to follow recipes exactly if something doesn’t seem right. Trust my gut!

I made a pasta sauce last night from scratch. Two tomatoes, 2 carrots, 2 celery stalks, a third of yellow onion, 3 garlic cloves, some herbs, 1/2 can tomato paste, 2 cups water and 1 cup red wine. Simmered for about 45 minutes (although prob should have been longer) and then put in blender for 1 minute. It was fun and turned out pretty good. Although it is quite different than the sugary, bright red sauces at the grocery store.

We ate it with gnocchi and some sauteed zucchini.

I tested out the bread machine on Friday and made some basic white bread. It was super easy, just tossed the ingredients in and pushed the start button. And it was fun to watch it mixing and kneading the dough. The bread is pretty good, fluffy on the inside and has a nice crust, although a little sweeter than I expected. I can’t wait to try something else.

I made a cheesecake for Father’s day. Just need to top it with blueberries (his request).

I have no idea how it tastes, so I am going to get a back up dessert, just in case.

Made banana bread last night. Pretty awesome and made the house smell so good.

I also checked out a couple thrift stores yesterday, for fun, and found a Pyrex glass baking dish (for loaves) for only $4. It worked perfectly.

Edit: This week we also cooked ribs again in the slow cooker. They were great, of course… and I made cupcakes again, but I gave most of them to my family to eat because there were just too many. And I made a tortellini soup, nonna style, but of course never as good as hers.

I want to try making a casserole of some sort, I’m thinking pasta with tuna or salmon or cheese. And I want to make some muffins or cupcakes from scratch (I have only tried the boxed mixes).

We made lasagna last night. It was just… okay, needed more mozzarella on top and maybe something else to make it less… boring. I don’t know what.

My guy is cooking ribs tonight in my slow-cooker.
I have never used the slow-cooker before (got it from a friend) so this will be the first time testing it out. If all goes well we will try a roast next time. I have also never eaten ribs before so I will get to sample those, they smell good.

We also made beef jerky last weekend in the dehydrator. It was pretty darn good. And so easy, we need to make more soon.

Tonight I am going to try dehydrating apples. I got 2 kinds, Granny Smith and Gala (my favourite). I also bought an apple-corer today to make the job easier.

I made a stir fry tonight with some vegetables that needed cooking up. It was pretty darn good but I made way too much again.

This seems to be a recurring issue. I don’t know what appropriate portion sizes are. Need to figure that out.

I cooked quinoa last week. It was great! Except that I made twice as much as I should have. Next time I will use just half a cup. I love quinoa cause I can add anything to it & it’s healthy.