Last week I kind of laid low on cooking for the cookbook club and just went back to some of our household traditional recipes. But yesterday I told Phil that I was returning to the cookbook but with a southern flare. I made 3 dishes from my Barefoot Contessa cookbook. For an appetizer (and football viewing, though not the traditional football watching food) I made the sun-dried tomato dip. It was really easy to make, but I think next time I will decrease the mayo by a 1/3. It just tasted too mayoey (I don’t think that’s a word but you get what I mean). For all of the ingredients I used the light or non-fat option. Amy from our smallgroup made this a couple weeks ago and hers was so delicious that I totally copied her with how to serve it.
Sun-Dried Tomato Dip with asparagus, squash,
tomatoes, zucini, carrots, and cucumbers pp.54
For dinner I cooked what Ina cooks her husband every Friday night, the Perfect Roasted Chicken. She says that recipe is simple, and in actuality it was. I already had all of the ingredients needed and it came out of the oven extremely beautiful. Maybe this Ina lady really does know what she is doing! I had been to the market earlier in the day and had gotten some fresh organic green beans and corn, but when I was actually cooking I totally forgot the corn, oh well! This was an awesome Sunday night dinner and I thought the gravy was the best part!
Perfect Roast Chicken pp.130
For dessert I wanted to make the peach and raspberry crisp, but Ina says that you can make it with any fruit that is in season. When Phil and I were at the market he helped me to pick out the fruit; he chose Fuji apples, raspberries, and blackberries. We loved the culinary freedom with this dish. The apples were so huge that we only needed 3 for 3 lbs of apples! Since I didn’t have a pan as large as the recipe called for I halved the amount of fruit, but accidentally forgot to half all of the other ingredients. I didn’t really mind this though because the topping is my favorite part. I think that next time I will add a little bit of cinnamon to the topping though. I omitted the orange zest and simply used a rectangular pyrex pan. I loved the sweet aroma of the freshly harvested apples while the crisp was baking; yum-o! We had this crisp after dinner with some delicious double vanilla ice cream on top.
Fruit Crisp pp.190
