My 2006 culinary New Year's resolutions

Here are a few things I would like to accomplish in my kitchen this year:

1. Make my own pizza dough. I've made lots of pizzas on store-bought pizza shells but I've yet to make my own crust from scratch. I already have a couple of pizza screens (never used).

2. Make something in a tart pan (I have one, never used).

3. Make something in a springform pan (I have one, never used). Maybe a cheesecake, but perhaps a charlotte. I've always wanted to make a charlotte.

4. Smoke something in an electric smoker (I have one, never used).

5. Use my new bread machine (I just got it, never used) at least 6 times, hopefully many more. Can I make pizza dough in a bread machine? That would kill two birds with one stone.

Hmmmm. Maybe I should think of starting another blog - The Small Appliance Junkie, or The Kitchen Gadget Junkie.

6. $100 spending limit on new cookbooks. Seriously, how many cookbooks does one person need? $100 can buy a lot of cookbooks at Ollie's Bargain Outlet. I wrapped up 2005 by ordering a bread machine cookbook and a venison cookbook so there aren't any cookbooks I really 'need' starting the new year.

7. Make homemade marshmallows. I know lots of people have BTDT with the homemade marshmallow thing but it's been on my to-do list forever and this year I'm going to cross it off.

8. Make jam. Canning is a dream of mine and jam seems like a good place to start.

9. Make something with phyllo dough. This has always intimidated me.

10. Even out my categories a bit more. I've leaned pretty heavily on main dish and dessert recipes since starting this blog. I need to try more recipes for appetizers, soups and side dishes.

I'm confident I can do everything on this list, except I suspect number 6 will definitely be a problem.

I almost forgot about this

Sour Cream Banana Bread
The Ugly Binder, copied from the internet, source unknown (recipe from a B&B I think)

1 cup sugar
½ cup oil
2 eggs
1 cup mashed bananas (2 medium)
½ cup sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour bottom only of a 9x5-inch loaf pan. In large bowl, beat together sugar and oil. Add eggs, bananas, sour cream and vanilla, blend well. Lightly spoon flour into measuring cup, level off, Add flour, baking soda and salt, stir until dry ingredients are just moistened. Pour into prepared pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 50 to 60 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 5 minutes. Remove from pan. Cool completely. Wrap tightly and store in refrigerator. Makes 1 loaf. (I made four mini-loaves this time.)

I've been making this bread for over 5 years. I've tried countless other banana bread recipes but once I tried this one, I've never tried another. When my husband and I first got together, I made this bread countless times for him to pack with his lunch. It freezes beautifully. You don't have to stick to bananas. I've made it with bananas or (canned) pumpkin most often, but I've also made it with grated carrot, and also apples. I just adjust the spices depending on what fruit I use (adding pumpkin pie spice with pumpkin, cinammon with apple, etc). It always turns out great.

I gave this bread to my son's daycare caregivers, for Christmas, along with gift certificates. They loved it and you will too. I wish I could have sliced into it for a better picture but obviously I couldn't, since they were gifts.

Another hit from Weight Watchers

Buttery Herbed Chicken
Weight Watchers Five Ingredient 15 Minute Cookbook Copyright 2005

1 extra-large bag boil-in-bag rice
4 cups fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
I just made regular long-grain rice with chicken broth (1 cup rice, 2 cups broth)
2 tablespoons light butter, softened
¼ teaspoon dried Italian seasoning
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 pound chicken breast tenders

1. Prepare rice according to package directions, using 4 cups of chicken broth instead of water and omitting salt and fat, to make 3 cups hot cooked rice.
2. While rice cooks, combine butter, Italian seasoning, salt and pepper in bow; stir well.
3. Heat oil in a large non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken, and cook 4 minutes on each side or until done.
4. Remove pan from heat; add butter mixture, tossing well to coat chicken. Serve immediately over rice.

Yield: 4 servings Per serving (about 3 oz of chicken and ¾ cup rice) 6 points, 292 calories, 6.9 g fat, 29.3 g protein, 26.5 g carbs, .8g fiber, 76 mg cholesterol, 259 mg sodium

I thought I was crazy for paying ten bucks for this little magazine-style cookbook but I think it was well worth the price. Everything I've made from this book has been really good. This recipe was delicious and so simple. It doesn't look like much but it was very flavorful. Now, it is a Weight Watchers recipe so the sauce was skimpy but if you're not counting points or calories, you could double the amount of sauce you make with this.

Delicious but worth the $$$???

Perciatelli with Meat Sauce and Fontina
Food and Wine Magazine’s Quick From Scratch Pasta Cookbook Copyright 1996,2001,2002,2004

1 tablespoon cooking oil
1 onion, chopped
1 pound ground beef
½ cup red wine
1 ½ cups canned crushed tomatoes in thick puree (one 16-ounce can) my can was only 15-ounces
1 teaspoon dried oregano
2 ¼ teaspoons salt that is way too much! I used 1 tsp and it was still very salty with all that cheese
¾ teaspoon fresh-ground black pepper
½ pound perciatelli I used Dreamfields spaghetti
½ teaspoon red wine vinegar
2 ounces Fontina cheese, grated
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for serving
¼ cup chopped fresh parsley

1. In a large stainless-steel frying pan, heat the oil over moderate heat. Add the onion and cook until starting to soften, about 3 minutes. Add the ground beef and cook until the meat is no longer pink, about 2 minutes. Stir in the wine and simmer until reduced to ¼ cup, about 2 minutes. Add the tomatoes, oregano, and the salt and pepper. Reduce the heat, cover, and simmer for 15 minutes.
2. In a large pot of boiling, salted water, cook the perciatelli until just donw, about 15 minutes. Drain and toss with the meat sauce, vinegar, Fontina, Parmesan, and parsley. Serve with additional Parmesan.

This dish was quite good. I tend to love any tomato sauce made with red wine. But while, I liked the taste of the Fontina, it was ridiculously expensive - over $10/pound. And it only came in approximately 8-ounce portions. I think if I made this again, I would substitute whole milk mozzarella or maybe fresh mozarella.

I loved Food & Wine Magazine’s Quick From Scratch One-Dish Meals Cookbook so I picked up the pasta and the chicken versions of this book too. I was fortunate enough to find them in my favorite store in the world, Ollie's Bargain Outlet - cookbook nirvana. Tons of cookbooks, dirt cheap. I even saw The Gourmet Cookbook there for $9.99 after I paid $25 for it. Grrrr.

Now back to 'real' food

Creamy Tomato-Rice Soup
Superfoods: Cook Your Way to Health Copyright 2001

4 cups canned chopped tomatoes, undrained I used a 28-oz can
4 cups water I used a little less since I used less tomatoes
1 ½ cups cooked white rice, divided
1 cup chopped celery
2 tsp. onion powder
2 tsp. Italian seasoning
1 ½ tsp. minced garlic I used garlic powder
¼ cup tomato paste
1 tbsp. sugar
¼ tsp. black pepper
½ tsp. Mrs. Dash seasoning I used salt - baby steps
1 tbsp. dried parsley

Combine tomatoes, water, ½ cup cooked rice, celery, onion powder, Italian seasoning, minced garlic, tomato paste, sugar, pepper and Mrs. Dash seasoning in a large saucepan or soup pot. Bring to a boil over high heat; reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer 30 to 45 minutes. Remove pot from burner, uncover, and let cool 20 to 30 minutes. Transfer soup to food processor or blender and process until smooth (this may need to be done in several batches). I used my immersion blender. Return soup to pan; add remaining rice. Cook soup over medium high heat until hot. Sprinkle with parsley just before serving.

Serves: 6 Per serving: 120 calories, 1 g fat, 26 g carbs, 0 mg cholesterol, 3 g fiber, 3 g protein

It's time to get back to cooking non-sweets, and cooking healthier to make up for my holiday indulgences. Well, not just my holiday indulgences but my level of health has declined greatly since having my son and I really need to shape up.

I've been meaning to start making a new soup every week, to take for lunch, and I finally got around to doing that. I liked this recipe because I had just about everything on hand. It turned out quite spicy which surprised me. I was a bit heavy-handed on the fresh ground pepper or maybe it was the garlic, or something in the Italian seasoning. I really liked the punch but this could really be seasoned any way you'd like to season it.

The texture was nice. Not quite the same as a cream-enriched soup but satisfying. I've always liked my tomato soup made with milk or cream. I wonder if some evaporated skim milk or fat-free half and half would work in this.

I've had this cookbook for quite some time. It was written by the 'America's healthiest mom', Jyl Steinbeck. It has a wonderful variety of recipes yet they're all quite severe - fat-free, low-sodium, low-sugar. This would be an excellent cookbook for anyone who has to eat well for serious health reasons. Otherwise, for anyone just striving to eat healthier, I think some modifications would need to be made to many of the recipes, such as substituting low-fat ingredients for fat-free ingredients.