secret recipe club: mexican mac & cheese and bakewell tart

i had already made my grocery list and planned my meals for this week when i realized two things: i totally forgot that it's time for the secret recipe club again and this week is cinco de mayo! i had browsed rachel cotterill's blog and bookmarked a few recipes right when i got my assignment, not even thinking about mexican food. once i realized my blunder, i read through the list i had bookmarked and easily chose this mexican mac and cheese! while not spicy, it went over really well in our house with a toddler and preschooler. for dessert, i made one of my favorite combinations: almond and raspberry in this bakewell tart. i knew the tart would taste great, but both jason and i were surprised at how light it is. i assumed the almonds would make a heavy, dense cake, but that couldn't be farther from the truth. and while rachel and i don't have much in common besides food - she's a computational linguistics PhD student, declares she's "someone who collects skills the way other people collect stamps", and she has written two fantasy novels - there's no doubt that we both share a love of food.

cowboy calzones

for the last six months or so, i've made homemade pizza about every other week. while relatively easy and oh-so-delicious, i was getting slightly bored with our toppings and was looking for something else to do with my now favorite pizza dough. one night, over said homemade pizza, jason and i were talking about eating pizza as kids and i mentioned that sometimes i would forgo pizza for a calzone and that i couldn't remember the last time i had one. right then and there i knew calzones would be on the menu for the following week. jason had one and only request: add meat. and because i'm not a huge fan of pepperoni, this cowboy version loaded with ground beef and three cheeses was the next best thing.

secret recipe club: italian sloppy joes

i had a hard time this month making my choice from wildflour's cottage kitchen for the secret recipe club. it was a toss up between savory - italian pizzeria style sloppy joes or philly cheesesteak sloppy joes - or sweet - peanut butter bars with cinnamon or amaretto russian tea cake cookies. ultimately, and somewhat surprisingly, savory won out.

polenta with roasted mushrooms

when we were in las vegas a year and a half ago, jason and i had a killer dinner at scarpetta in the cosmopolitan. we started with the famous spaghetti with tomato and basil, and while it was good, it was the creamy polenta with a fricassee of truffled mushrooms that we both dreamed about after the meal was over. the polenta was so rich and creamy, the mushrooms perfectly garlicky, it's a delicious combination. ever since that trip i've been on the lookout for a reasonable substitute. and while this isn't as ethereal as our scarpetta version, it's delicious none the less.

leek and mushroom frittata

i love love love frittatas. they're easy to make, you can use whatever combination of meat, cheese, and vegetables that you like, there are always leftovers that reheat beautifully, and they can be served for breakfast, lunch or dinner. this version uses two of my favorites - sauteed leeks and mushrooms - paired with fontina cheese. if you absolutely have to have meat, top the frittata with chopped crispy bacon before it goes into the oven. the salty bacon goes great with the creamy vegetables and cheese.

secret recipe club: enfrijoladas

since i've gone sweet for the last three secret recipe club picks in a row (see cherry sorbet, bacon topped maple french toast cupcakes, and chocolate snack cake), i decided this month was time for something savory. and not just any savory, but my favorite kind: mexican. i spied these enfrijoladas on edesia's notebook, and while they aren't very photogenic, how can homemade refried beans, tortillas, and melty cheese not be a good combination?! they are delicious and toddler approved! thanks lesa, for teaching me how easy it is to make refried beans at home.

tomato, bean, and barley soup

i can't believe i'm sitting here in pants and a long sleeved shirt, listening to the pouring rain, and hoping the temperature will reach 60 degrees today. just two weeks ago, we were turning on the air conditioning as the temp hit above 90 for a couple days in a row. the change in weather messes with my meal planning - one week we're eating salads and grilling chicken, the next we're longing for big bowls of pasta and soup. and while i won't be making this bowl of soup tonight - this chicken marsala risotto won out in the end - if this weather holds out, it might end up on the menu sooner than i think.

chicken cordon bleu soup

it's funny how people react to snow. last weekend, we got hit, just like everyone else on the east coast. i had plans friday to take the baby out for the day, but after watching six inches fall in the morning, i ditched them and stayed inside. mostly because i didn't want to deal with the other idiots driving around that don't realize you actually do have to drive differently when there's this much snow falling. by late saturday morning the snow stopped falling and it was absolutely beautiful outside. all the tree branches were covered in snow. it was picture perfect. other than having to be plowed out of our driveway, we weren't really affected. our power didn't go off, we didn't go to the grocery store to stock up, i didn't even bother getting out the flashlights.

secret recipe club: mushroom barley soup

i had a hard time choosing my recipe for this month's secret recipe club. jane at the heritage cook has hundreds of sweet and savory recipes, most of which look like something i would make at home. and i can totally get behind her "chocolate monday" feature. (marry that with alison's sweet tooth friday and the start and end of the week is covered!)

i had it narrowed down to three recipes - mexican black bean soup with cilantro lime sauce, triple layer lemon cake with lemon buttercream icing (for hubs, of course), and one of her two mushroom barley soups. i ultimately chose the mushroom barley soup because i didn't have the patience for the black bean soup this month, i had already made two layer cakes in the last four weeks and couldn't justify another, and the first and only time i made mushroom barley soup it came out far too thick. i've had every intention to remake it and as soon as i saw jane's version, i stopped looking for anything else!

pappardelle with mushrooms

as much as i adore mushrooms, i've always steered clear of any recipe that called for dried porcinis. i don't know why, but they've always intimidated me; something about having to reconstitute them made me afraid they would turn into chewy sponges in the end. boy was i wrong! i'm so glad i gave this recipe a try. it's really simple and full of mushroom flavor. don't let the time fool you - 30 minutes of it is spent waiting for the porcinis to reconstitute. no wonder this was one of cooking light's best recipes.

vegetable noodle soup

why yes, that is the may 2012 issue of bon apetit on my coffee table. and yes, my bookmark is on the editor's letter page, so i didn't make it very far. i'm a bit behind on my reading. i have a good 15 or so magazines that have piled up since last june (and apparently earlier) along with a few new cookbooks from christmas and my birthday. same thing goes for some of the posts saved in my google reader. which brings me to this soup: this soup has been sitting in my reader, starred, waiting for me to make it, since it was posted two and a half years ago. week after week it got pushed aside for something flashier. what a shame, considering how delicious, easy, and adaptable this soup is. and now that i have the last four pounds of baby weight to lose, this meatless soup may make it's way into our weekly rotation more often.

chicken paprikash

if i remember it correctly, i was in sixth grade when i finally got a cd player for christmas. it was the first year in our new house and one of the only times i can remember waking up christmas morning in my own house. usually we went to our grandparents'. that year, they came to us.

chicken (or leftover turkey) & tortellini soup

i hope everyone had a great thanksgiving. did you eat a lot of turk? if you're anything like my father, you have pounds and pounds and pounds of it left over. he cooks two turkeys. one the day before thanksgiving - specifically for sandwiches and leftovers - and one the day of to be served with dinner. earlier this week he told me he cut way back and only cooked 35 pounds of turkey instead of the 44 he cooked last year. 35 pounds of turkey for 12 adults. needless to say i never went hungry growing up.

so if you - like my dad - have pounds of turkey left over and are already getting sick of turkey sandwiches, i suggest this soup. it's painless to whip up, transforms turkey into something different, you probably have leftover carrots and celery from your thanksgiving feast anyway. and if you don't have spinach or mushrooms hanging out, then omit them. no big deal. don't have fresh tortellini? substitute egg noodles or broken spaghetti.

secret recipe club: chicken souvlaki with tzatziki

last thursday, my mother stayed home with the baby so jason and i could have an hour or so to ourselves for dinner. we went to a great local greek restaurant and had moussaka and a gyro, both delicious dinners. and now i am on a greek kick, since i chose this chicken souvlaki and tzatziki from katherine marinelli over her  shadow layer cake (i was thinking of making a small, six inch version to celebrate absolutely nothing, when jason talked me out of it) or linguine with sweet potato parmesan cream sauce (until jason reminded me he does not care for sweet potatoes) for this month's secret recipe club assignment.

creamy chicken florentine soup

we spent the second to last weekend in september at barktoberfest, an annual fundraiser for lollypop farm, the humane society of greater rochester. we have gone the last four or five years, watching our team grow from four of us raising a couple hundred dollars to our friend susie raising thousands and gathering up a team of more than thirty! this year was especially fun since we brought baby winn with us.

grilled ginger soy glazed chicken

i've made this recipe a couple times in the last few months. the first, it was too cold to even think about grilling - i think there was snow on the ground - so i made the sauce on the stovetop, sauteed chicken thighs in a pan on the stove, and doused them with the sauce for serving. second, we grilled chicken thighs and the third, we grilled chicken breasts. (i say "we" since i never man the grill, that's jason's domain.) while the grilled chicken thighs were definitely the tastiest - since four of us managed to down 3+ pounds of them for dinner - breasts were a close second. my advice: use whatever chicken you have on hand and get grilling! there are only a couple weeks left of good weather. at least where i'm from.

pork tenderloin with mushroom mustard sauce

"this is one of the best meals you've made in a long time." that pretty much sums up this dinner. it's incredibly simple, foolproof, and delicious. although it takes 45 minutes to make, 20 of it is roasting the pork. so for a mere 25 minutes of active time, it's a good weeknight meal.

white bean & chicken chowder

yes, it's june. yes, it's warm out. but every year, there's always a week or two about now where summer sneaks away and we're left with cool, rainy days, and even cooler nights. filled with fresh vegetables, chicken, and cannillini beans, this chowder is perfect for one of those cool summer nights.

you aren't still buying your beans canned, are you? a couple years ago our good foodie friend chris picked up a small pressure cooker on clearance for us. ever since then, i ditched the cans and make beans in my pressure cooker. it's insanely simple and works well for black, cannellini, and kidney beans.

chicken marsala risotto

chicken marsala is one of my all time favorite dinners, but i rarely order it in a restaurant. maybe it's just me, and my dumb luck, but almost every single time i've ordered it, there's something drastically wrong. rubbery mushrooms. the sauce is too thin. the sauce is too thick. the sauce is tasteless. there's no garlic. dried out chicken. chicken drenched in uncooked flour. either way you look at it, a decent chicken marsala is hard to come by around these parts.

chicken and pearl couscous with tomato and lemon

late last fall, while perusing the public market, i impulse bought a pound of pearl - or israeli - couscous. like most things i impulse buy, i didn't have any plans for it, so i quickly grabbed it and went on my merry way through the rest of the market. it made it's way into my pasta cupboard, where it sat for the next six months. until jason asked suggested it for dinner.