Thursday, January 18, 2007

Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen Things I'll Learn to Cook This Year

Earlier this week, I made French Onion Soup for the first time. I had never even eaten it before, but Hubby loves it and I had two pounds of leftover onions that I needed to do something with. So I made some soup (using the last bit of my homemade chicken stock), and it was awesome. And, in the way of most soups, it tasted better the second day than it did the first. So, in that spirit of things….:

13 Foods I Want to Make This Year

1.) Osso Bucco – because really, can you ever get enough veal

2.) Risotto - I found a recipe for Sunshine Risotto looks really yummy – lots of colors of bell pepper all over the place. Now, if I can just find it again…Ahh! Here it is!

3.) Lemon Sorbet – we’re going to pretend that the one I made a couple of months ago never happened, even though my hubby was a good man and pretended to like it. He loves lemon sorbet so much that I have to get this one down. Of course, it would be a lot easier if I had an ice cream maker - since 99 percent of the recipes I can find call for using one of those machines. And I'm a wuss - my arm gets tired.

4.) Petit Fours; I think I’ll do these in a couple of weeks for a retirement party. I’ve even found a no-bake cheesecake version that I can use if I wimp out. But I want to try the real thing, complete with jam, icing and a wrecked kitchen.

5.) Potato Soup – I love, love, love me some good potato soup with a little cheese and bacon on top. Or maybe I love, love, love me some cheese and bacon with a little potato soup underneath. Either way, I’ve never made it from scratch.

6.) Creamed Cucumbers – mmm, maybe they’re not creamed. But there’s a recipe in Mark Bittman’s cookbook “How to Cook Everything” for some kind of cucumber dish –served warm - that sounds interesting.

7.) Quiche – So many yummy variations that the hard part will be deciding what to put in the thing. And then convincing my husband to eat it.

8.) The salmon in the dishwasher recipe. My curiosity for this is overwhelming. Every time I see salmon in the seafood case, I tell myself that one day I’m going to try it. And now that I’ll be getting home before the husband a few day a week, I may actually get a chance to cook it without him seeing me remove it from the dishwasher.

9.) A few good homemade breads – not the kind that requires a machine. The closest I’ve come to making bread at home is my grandmother’s cheesebraid recipe. And I have a bread machine. But I want to make some whole grain breads from scratch. More importantly, I want to smell them baking in my oven.

10.) A couple of Indian dishes. Hubby dearly loves Indian food, but the closest good restaurant is about 40 minutes away. I’m thinking that something like this eggplant and potato curry might be a good place to start. Finding some of the spices will become the first step in the process, since I’m pretty sure that Wal-Mart won’t have them. And since Calera doesn’t have an Indian population to speak of, then this gives me a really good excuse to check out a few spice stores that I don’t visit often enough.

11.) Chayote Squash. I bought one a couple of days ago, because I’ve never had one and it wasn’t too expensive. So now I have to look up how you cook one, and what you do with it. That will happen either tonight or tomorrow, since it’s already sitting on my counter staring me in the face.

12.)Flan. A good one, nice and smooth and creamy…mmm…

13.)Bouillabaisse - My sister always makes such an incredibly good one that I’m scared to even attempt it. But the taste sensation is enough to get my saliva going. Of course, getting fresh seafood when you’re 1 mile from the coast like she isis a little different than when you’re a couple of hundred miles. Still, there’s a seafood place up in Birmingham that I think I can use. And it will all be worth it, if I can pull of her second trick of culinary magic and transform the Bouillabaisse into a bisque the next day.

Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. Cheeky 2. Amanda 3 Suki 4 Karen 5 Caylynn 6 Jill 7 Lindsey

8 (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here! The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

10 comments:

Wendy aka Cheeky said...

Oh these sound delightful! What a wonderful idea

Amanda said...

They all sound great! We're Indian so lots of indian food here. I love Flans and will definitely try the salmon... not in the dishwasher though! Great list!

Anonymous said...

Those sound delicious. ;) Hope to hear the progress on those as the year goes by!

Anonymous said...

Since my dishwasher hasn't worked for two years, I've got a real good reason to skip on that one. Besides the obvious "you're putting what, where, and then going to eat it??!!" reason.

I'm almost afraid to give you my recipe now. You may try to cook it with an iron.

Caylynn said...

Those all sound yummy, although I'm not too sure about the salmon in the dishwasher! ;) It does sound intriguing though!

Happy T13. :)

Caylynn said...

Those all sound yummy, although I'm not too sure about the salmon in the dishwasher! ;) It does sound intriguing though!

Happy T13. :)

Caylynn said...

Those all sound yummy, although I'm not too sure about the salmon in the dishwasher! ;) It does sound intriguing though!

Happy T13. :)

Jill said...

I'm proud I'm not the only person trying new recipes!! Since I like to cook, and something get tired of life old recipes, I try new one!! Most of the time, it is good(maybe not good looking!!) And it might be hard to find some of the stuff if you live in a small town, I have the same problem here, but thanks to God, we have a place Bulk Barn that is amazing!!
my tt are up

Lindsey said...

I haven't had a bowl of potato soup in years! I might need to get me recipe out soon...great list!

Lindsey said...

I haven't had a bowl of potato soup in years! I might need to get me recipe out soon...great list!