Indonesian Ginger Chicken

When I first looked up the Barefoot Contessa Cookbook on Amazon.com, most of the reviews all talked about her Indonesian Ginger Chicken that she sold at her store. I knew this had to be at the top of our list of things to try. Danny is not a big fan of ginger and was a little apprehensive, but he enjoyed it a lot. The chicken was VERY moist. If you took off the skin and didn't eat it (so much healthier for you too)- you didn't taste as much of the marinade. I was very impressed how crispy and brown the skin got- I usually burn chicken skin :)

Changes I made:
- Used half of 1 chicken (bought already cut at the store- the whole chicken was sliced in half and in one container so I have the other half to make her roasted chicken recipe later)
- I used dried ginger because I already had it and HEB had been out of fresh ginger for 2 weeks and didn't know when they would get it in
- I only marinated the chicken about 10 hours, which was more than enough

(Non-Grilled) Salmon Salad

I love any recipe that I can make ahead of time. With 2 toddlers that is a huge bonus. Like Anjali, I didn't grill the fish outside. I just sauteed on a grill pan inside. It tasted so good without being grilled outdoors that I bet it is knockout when it is grilled. We ate it on a bed of salad, kinda like you would do with chicken salad...not sure if that is how Ina wanted it, but it was perfect that way. I will be making this recipe again. I made it about 5 hours before we ate it, and the salmon had marinated in the "dressing" perfectly. It tasted much better 5 hours later than it did when I first made it. I know the picture doesn't do much for it...kinda just looks like an orange blob. But a good blob it is.

Adam said that he really liked it also. The 2 year old scrunched up her nose and pushed the plate away, but the 4 year old asked for seconds...so 3 out of 4 customers were happy!

--Carissa

More Roasted Carrots

I LOVED these roasted carrots. My 4 year old kept saying they were too spicy...I might have gone a little heavy on the pepper. I used dried dill and baked them an extra 5-7 minutes. I put a touch too much oil on them as you can see in the picture, maybe that is why they were extra good. I ended up eating almost the whole plate myself...I finished them off cold the next day at lunch. I thought they were just as good cold! This is definently a keeper that I will be making again soon. I actually just bought another bag of carrots today.

--Carissa

Grilled Salmon Salad (p.102)

I love salmon, so I decided this might be good to try. I wasn't up for grilling so I just put the salmon in the oven and I didn't have time (everyone was hungry) to let it "chill in the refrigerator until cold and very firm" so we ate a warmer salad. It was not bad with crackers. My son wasn't into it (but what does a 2 year old know about "fancy cooking" =)

Anjali

Cheddar Corn Chowder (p.74)

I also made the Cheddar Corn Chowder and cut the recipe down a bit since it serves 10-12 and we are only4 (with my 2 year old eating next to nothing and my 8 month old eating another more blended meal). I cut out the bacon and onions since...well...I don't like them and didn't use all the butter since I didn't cook the bacon or onions. It was a bit bland for my taste when it all came together but my husband added fresh cilantro, chives, paprika, creole seasoning, and extra black pepper. That made it taste wonderful!

Anjali

Cheddar Corn Chowder and Parmesan Croutons

I made the cheddar corn chowder (page 74) and the parmesan croutons (page 87). The chowder was very yummy! Phil told me many times that he really liked this recipe and it was his favorite so far. I followed this recipe fairly closely except for a few things. As I was cooking I began to notice how much I was cooking. This recipe makes way more than 10-12 servings. I only used 3 large onions and 9 cups of chicken stock because my large stock pot was over flowing. I had to cook the corn, cheddar (I used regular yellow cheddar because that’s what I had), and half & half in my crock pot because there was no more room for it on the stove. Once the chicken stock mixture was finished I just added it to the corn mixture and let it cook on high for about 2 hours and then I let it simmer one low over night in the crock pot. This recipe is great, but I would cut all of the ingredients in half. Phil’s suggestion, if you have room of course, is to add cooked chicken instead of the bacon.

This is the corn chowder before the corn was even added...a very full stock pot!

Since the stock pot was so full, I cooked the corn mixture in my crockpot

For the parmesan croutons, I used dried parsley instead of basil and they were so yummy in the soup. I wouldn’t leave them in the oven for longer than 10 minutes at 400 degrees because they could end up being too hard (too hard even for croutons!)

From a baguette with cheese and oil...

...to parmesan croutons!

The finished product!

Homemade Granola

This is the granola that I usually eat:So I was excited about having some homemade granola, but wary about the price difference. Trying to stay within the budget, I used the following ingredients instead of everything Ina says:
That's raisins instead of figs and "mixed fruit" instead of apricots and cherries (there were apricots, plums, and apples in the mixed fruit). Since I didn't have coconut (I was going to include it, but realized after I went to the store that I didn't have any), I decreased the amount of liquid that I added to the dry.

I used two pans instead of one, and after slightly burning one pan I lowered the heat to 325F.
After ~30min I decided it was toasted enough.
The final product didn't look so bad. It tasted a little burnt, sadly, but it made my milk taste really good. I would cut out some of the fruit though, but maybe that's because I'm used to the HEB-only-raisins granola.