Foodie Hits and Misses

I haven’t posted about food in a while. Maybe overload on the holidays. I have had a few successes… and failures. And of course, I never remember to photograph them.

My mother-in-law gave me this booklet and I was excited to try some new recipes.

Let’s start with the good news first. I made sourdough bread without additional yeast for the first time. It was a sandwich bread which had a softer crumb. The recipe indicated a 5-6 hour cycle from start to finish. Mine was over 11 hours. I barely got it out of the oven before I went to bed. I was really surprised because I put the dough to rise on the wood pellet stove, nice and toasty warm. It was a good loaf.

The next quasi-success was a sourdough skillet biscuit. It had great sourdough flavor but was quite dense, a little more than my family liked.

The abject failure was sourdough chocolate cake. I have never in my life thrown away three quarters of a chocolate cake. It saddened me to do it. The instructions were specific on the order of ingredients but I’m sure that’s where the problem was. I was to add flour and sugar to a half a cup of starter. This made for a thick, lumpy mix. A thick, lumpy mix that was not remedied by the addition of the wet ingredients. It formed small, dense balls of dough within the cake. The taste wasn’t that objectionable but the consistency and appearance was awful. Even the kids wouldn’t eat it. I actually have a picture of the cake but it’s so unappetizing that I don’t want to post it.

Another winner (not from the book) was Butternut Squash Risotto. I used brown basmati rice instead of arborio and it was great. Even better the next day. (Watch the salt if you use store bought chicken stock.)

The insanely addictive Christmas appetizer (which I made for two gatherings) is Buffalo Chicken Dip. If you really like chicken wings and blue cheese and have self-control issues, don’t read further. I may make it for the Super Bowl but then I have to lay off it. Of course I changed things after reading the reviews as I often do. Here’s my version. Mix one 8 oz. block of softened cream cheese with half a jar of Marie’s Super Blue Cheese salad dressing. Add chunks of real blue cheese if you really want to go crazy. (Who doesn’t like lots of stinky cheese?) Spread in an 8 x 8 pan. Shred one cooked boneless chicken breast and toss with Texas Pete’s hot sauce to moisten, more or less to taste. Top with a handful of shredded cheddar cheese and heat in a 350 degree oven for 20-25 minutes. Serve with celery and carrot sticks, dipping crackers or just a spoon (when no one is looking.) Enjoy!