Grandma's Kitchen Table

Whole30: Roasted Salmon with Tomatoes and Fennel

      The 41st recipe I’ve made for this group is Roasted Salmon with Tomatoes and Fennel and can be found in the Whole30 Fast & Easy cookbook on page 116.

       Ingredients: salmon, cherry tomatoes, fennel (I used cabbage), salt, pepper, garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, capers, fresh dill, and Dijon mustard. I also added some asparagus spears.

      Another rainy day…all rain all day long…so another sheet pan dinner seemed a good choice. Sheet pan dinners are very nice, and if you learn how to stagger the cooking times, they work even better. I cooked the cabbage (instead of fennel as Mark did not think licorice taste and salmon would be very nice together), 20 minutes before adding the asparagus for 10 minutes before adding the salmon and tomatoes for the last 13 minutes, all at 425 degrees. It was perfect, everything came together nicely and the seasoning/sauce was delicious. Definitely a repeat.

       As usual here on this blog, I do not publish recipes that belong to others, respecting their rights as authors. Many times the recipe creators are generous and publish them online, or you can buy the book I that I have cited and have all the recipes at hand. 

Whole30: Roasted Sausages with Potatoes and Cabbage

      The 40th recipe I’ve made for this group is Roasted Sausages with Potatoes and Cabbage and can be found in the Whole30 Fast & Easy cookbook on page 139. Margaret's post is here.

       Ingredients: ghee, Dijon mustard, garlic, salt, black pepper, green cabbage, small potatoes, and chicken sausages. 

 
      The rain comes and goes…tonight was a sheet pan dinner that required hardly any effort, cooked for just a half hour, turned out wonderfully well, and was enjoyed by all. The mustard mix that is applied to the cabbage and potatoes gave it a rave review here as we are definitely mustard lovers (there are, at any given time, at least a half dozen mustards available in the refrigerator). Definitely a repeat. This would be a most welcome meal on a cold winter’s night.

       As usual here on this blog, I do not publish recipes that belong to others, respecting their rights as authors. Many times the recipe creators are generous and publish them online, or you can buy the book I that I have cited and have all the recipes at hand. 

Tuesdays with Dorie: Baking with Dorie - Jelly Roll Cake

       The 50th recipe I made with the Tuesdays with Dorie: Baking with Dorie group is Jelly Roll Cake and can be found in the Baking with Dorie cookbook on page 135. 

       Ingredients: flour, cornstarch, eggs, lemon zest, lemon juice, vanilla, salt, sugar, jam, whipped cream, and powdered sugar.  I made a half-size version in a quarter sheet pan.

       This month the group is celebrating the birthdays of Margaret at Tea and Scones and Kim at Is This A Keeper?  They chose for us to make the Jelly Roll Cake in the book, which has many options, and I'm sure that when you visit the other members' blogs, you will see a variety of the options Dorie presents in the book. The birthday option has frosting on the outside with sprinkles, and topped with birthday doodads and candles…how fun! Today, however, I went the simple route, no birthdays here this month, so I did the standard Jelly Roll Cake filled with whipped cream and strawberry jam, topped with sprinkles of powdered sugar. While not as exciting as some of the others, it seems a lot more accommodating to the amount of sugar we need to be ingesting on a non-birthday occasion. The taste was wonderful…very light and creamy, I especially loved the lemon flavor coming through so nicely,  just perfect for these hot summer days we are having right now. 

       The cake looks like it would be a bit fussy, but really, it’s not all that difficult. One just follows the directions for baking the cake that she gives, rolls it up, waits for it to cool, fills it, lets it rest in the refrigerator an hour, and Bob’s Your Uncle…one very nice fruity dessert with very little fuss. And there will come a time when I will make it and “birthday-it-up” because all that frosting, the candy sprinkles, the candles, and the doodads are just so festive and cute. Definitely repeat-worthy. 

       If you would like to join in, just make it, bake it, and leave a link to your post at the Tuesdays with Dorie website:  click here.  At the website you will find the postings for the current recipe, the list of recipes chosen each month, and some baking chit chat that is definitely helpful as well as fun.  We don’t publish Dorie's recipes here, but you can buy the book and have them ALL at your fingertips.

Cook the Book Fridays: Everyday Dorie - Mostly Rhubarb Tart

 
      The 60th recipe I made for the Cook the Book Fridays group using the Everyday Dorie cookbook by Dorie Greenspan is Mostly Rhubarb Tart, it can be found on page 288. 

       Ingredients:  rhubarb, sugar, cream, egg, vanilla, rose extract, strawberries, and a Sweet Tart Dough Shell (page 327).

       It’s strawberry and rhubarb season here so I am going back and making the recipes that call for these while they are in season. The group actually made this in June 2022, so it’s a bit of a rewind to finish it up now. We both happen to like both strawberries and rhubarb so I knew I would get to this recipe sooner or later. I liked that it was a tart with just one crust as it’s fun to see the ingredients without another crust covering them up like in a double-crust pie. We made something similar to this in cake form with strawberries and rhubarb recently, so it reminded me of that recipe. 

      The recipe comes together quickly and tastes delicious, very fresh with the fruit in season, strawberry flavor shines over the rhubarb but the rhubarb gives it a nice tartness. Worthy of a repeat? Definitely. It’s good to have recipes to look forward to during strawberry and rhubarb season.

       To see what others in the group made, click here, for the Cook the Book Fridays link. We don't publish recipes from the book here in deference to the author, but the author has been generous and  you can find many of them online.

Tuesdays with Dorie: Baking with Dorie - Father's Day Blueberry-Cherry Pie

       The 49th recipe I made with the Tuesdays with Dorie: Baking with Dorie group is Father's Day Blueberry-Cherry Pie and can be found in the Baking with Dorie cookbook on page 269. 

       Ingredients: All-Butter Pie Dough (page 347), cherries, blueberries, water, sugar, salt, lime zest and juice, flour, cinnamon and almond flour. The recipe had an optional glaze which I did not use (water and confectioners’ sugar).

   

      The group made this recipe last year and I’m just getting around to it now, much to Mark’s delight as he loves a pie, and so now that the fresh fruits are coming into season, my hope is to catch him up with the missing entries in the pie category. I am making half-size pies (7”) so that I can bake more varieties since a full-size pie isn’t hanging around waiting to be finished off. This was a very simple recipe, the most time-consuming hands-on part being pitting the cherries.  I followed her baking instructions, and while I thought the crust might be a tad dark, it tasted really nice, like a caramelized version, so that was a happy find. I cut this piece so Mark could have a warm slice of pie and the filling was a bit loose, but it did firm up nicely after it cooled and the other slices were all nicely set…I didn’t bother getting another photo as the light was long gone in my kitchen for taking a sunny photo on a lovely day. This recipe was very good and definitely worthy of repeat-status. 

       If you would like to join in, just make it, bake it, and leave a link to your post at the Tuesdays with Dorie website:  click here.  At the website you will find the postings for the current recipe, the list of recipes chosen each month, and some baking chit chat that is definitely helpful as well as fun.  We don’t publish Dorie's recipes here, but you can buy the book and have them ALL at your fingertips. 

Tuesdays with Dorie: Baking with Dorie - Strawberry Rhubarb Squares

      The 48th recipe I made with the Tuesdays with Dorie: Baking with Dorie group is Strawberry Rhubarb Squares and can be found in the Baking with Dorie cookbook on page 112. 

       Ingredients: flour, baking powder, baking soda, butter, sugar, salt, honey, vanilla, egg, buttermilk, rhubarb, and strawberries.

     We are in strawberry and rhubarb season here in the midwest, so this recipe seemed a perfect fit for being able to use local homegrown produce. This is an easy and quick recipe, you just make the cake base, and then scatter the rhubarb and strawberries over the top. It bakes up nicely, and after cooling, you slice it into 16 bars. It is good both plain or with whipped cream.

      The texture of the cake is moist and it is best eaten within a day or two, so it’s a good one to make if you are having company around to help eat it. The strawberries overpower the rhubarb flavor, maybe that is because I had really fresh strawberries from my farm basket. It was nice that she didn’t have us sugar the fruits, so the only sugar is in the cake part, and I liked that tartness from the rhubarb. It would be repeat-worthy in season.

       If you would like to join in, just make it, bake it, and leave a link to your post at the Tuesdays with Dorie website:  click here.  At the website you will find the postings for the current recipe, the list of recipes chosen each month, and some baking chit chat that is definitely helpful as well as fun.  We don’t publish Dorie's recipes here, but you can buy the book and have them ALL at your fingertips. 

Whole30: Grilled Salmon with Cauliflower Couscous-Spinach Salad

      The 39th recipe I’ve made for this group is Grilled Salmon with Cauliflower Couscous-Spinach Salad and can be found in the Whole30 Cookbook on page 194.  Margaret's post is here.

       Ingredients: cauliflower (I did not use this as we don’t care for it), olive oil, spinach or kale, grape tomatoes, basil leaves, almonds, white wine vinegar, shallots, Dijon mustard, salt, pepper, salmon, chives, and lemon wedges. 

       The recipe uses cauliflower and we just don’t really care for that, so instead I threw in some asparagus that Mark grilled along with the salmon and that worked just fine for us.  Everything else was the same as the recipe stated (I used kale as it gave a choice). I love having the fresh herbs from my garden pots as they always add such nice flavor to anything I’m making. This was a very good dinner salad, next time I will make them a bit smaller as it was a lot of salad…the recipe could easily served 8 instead of the 4 indicated. The vinaigrette was delicious, we both love Dijon and salmon. We both enjoyed it and would make it again, we usually have salmon once a week.

       As usual here on this blog, I do not publish recipes that belong to others, respecting their rights as authors. Many times the recipe creators are generous and publish them online, or you can buy the book I that I have cited and have all the recipes at hand. 

Whole30: Southwest Chicken Noodle Bowl

   
      The 38th recipe I’ve made for this group is Southwest Chicken Noodle Bowl and can be found in the Whole30 Fast & Easy cookbook on page 199.

       Ingredients: chicken, southwest seasoning (I used chili lime), olive oil, chicken broth, red bell pepper, onion, potato, salsa, and fresh lime juice. 

       The recipe actually calls for the potato to be spiralized making it into “noodles,” but I don’t have a spiralizer, so I just diced the potato into a small dice instead. We usually have leftover chicken each week, so this is a great place to use that, I seasoned it with the chili lime mix and sautéed the chicken in it for a little bit before adding the other ingredients. The soup flavor is very nice, the lime really comes through with the seasoning and the fresh lime, so that was great as I love the flavor of lime. It’s not too spicy but does have a bit of a kick, the salsa I used was spicy so that contributed to the overall spice level. This is definitely a recipe worth repeating.

       As usual here on this blog, I do not publish recipes that belong to others, respecting their rights as authors. Many times the recipe creators are generous and publish them online, or you can buy the book I that I have cited and have all the recipes at hand. 

Cook the Book Fridays: Everyday Dorie - Mixed Berry Pie

      The 59th recipe I made for the Cook the Book Fridays group using the Everyday Dorie cookbook by Dorie Greenspan is Mixed Berry Pie, it can be found on page 285. 

       Ingredients:  blueberries, sugar, water, flour, lemon zest and juice, blackberries, raspberries, and All-Butter Pie Dough recipe (page 326).

     A full-size 8" or 9” pie here at the house, now that it’s just the two of us, is way too big of a commitment. It is harder to hand off pie slices to others than it is cupcakes, cake pieces, or cookies.  I have taken to making smaller sized pies…most often a 7” pie, which is about half the size of a 9” pie. For a 7” pie, I use a third of pie dough crust (2 if it is a double crust pie like this one) and half of the filling ingredients. The bake time for a 7" fruit pie is 425 degrees for 30 minutes then lower the heat to 375 degrees for another 15 minutes. (All ovens are different, so you can adjust the times to your own oven.) The recipe has us making a sort of blueberry jam-type filling and then adding in the blackberries and raspberries after it has cooled a bit. All in all, it’s an easy pie to make with wonderfully delicious results. Definitely repeat-worthy. Mark is already waiting for the next one.

       To see what others in the group made, click here, for the Cook the Book Fridays link. We don't publish recipes from the book here in deference to the author, but the author has been generous and  you can find many of them online.