There is a very fine line between some soups and some dips. Sometimes I like to walk that line and sometimes I like to dance back and forth across it, creating dishes that you’ll want to dip bread in or chips in or eat with a freakin’ spoon. When broccoli and cheese something won the poll last week, this soup/dip mash-up is what I wanted to make.
The only reason this deal isn’t a soup is that it’s just too thick. You couldn’t eat a bowl of it by yourself or at least you shouldn’t eat a bowl of it by yourself. So we’ll call it a dip and proceed.
There’s a long-running food joke that if a dish isn’t quite meeting expectations, the way to save it is to put an egg on it. Eggs are delicious and whether you fry them, poach them, or soft-boil them, they will probably make the meal better.
I feel like the calzone is the Italian equivalent of that concept. As far as I know almost anything is better if you wrap it in dough and bake it.
The key to a good calzone is making sure you have a good filling-to-bread ratio. This recipe does that. There’s plenty of filling in each calzone but you’ll still have some good edges that are just crispy calzone bread.
The recipe does take a few hours though. If you’re crunched for time, you could use store-bought pizza dough and it should get the job done also.
I would estimate that the most hyped cookbook of 2012 was The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook. It was pre-released literally six months before it was actually available. As a rule, I don’t really buy things six months in advance unless that thing can carry me across the country in the air.
But eventually I did buy it and guess what, I was able to get a copy even though I ordered it after it was actually available.
Of course, I doubt that Deb (who’s blog I seriously enjoy along with millions of other food lovers) wanted to release her book six months before it was available. It was probably the publisher’s decision so they could build some serious hype around the book. And build hype they did!
In fact, they built so much hype that at some point I started to seriously doubt that the book would live up to the hype.
Personally, I’m not sure that the book is my style. I’m not a huge baker or sweet tooth and a lot of the recipes are on the sweeter side. But I love her writing. It’s funny and sincere and you can tell she really spent a lot of time crafting the recipes.
One of the recipes that snagged my eye the first time I flipped through the book was this dutch baby recipe. A cross between a pancake and a crepe? I’ll take it!
As expected, the recipe was pretty much flawless and worked like a charm even though I used the wrong size pan and didn’t follow it 100%.
The next few weeks are going to be really busy around here. I have a few huge projects at work, Betsy has a few long trials coming up, and Porter is working on a new ways to take up the entire couch while napping.
Oh, and I have the first of two cookbook deadlines in just two weeks! Seriously, yikes.
So far I feel pretty good about the book and how things are coming out, but it’s going to be stressful to send off half of the book into the void, not to see it again until it’s printed and hopefully beautiful.
The Poll
The Links
The Hot Mess- A delightful little sandwich that looks like a full meal to me. It has onion rings in the sandwich, people. What more do you need to know? (@ White on Rice Couple)
Roasted Bone Marrow – I’ve only had this once and for some reason never thought to make it at home. It’s perfectly carnivorous though on a cold winter day. (@ Crepes of Wrath)
Baked Churros – Churros hold a special place in my heart. I never wouldn’t thought to bake them though and they look just as wonderful as the fried versions. (@ Sprinkle Bakes)
Stuffed Tofu – A vegetarian’s nightmare. It looks like tofu but it’s actually stuffed with meat. Looks delicious, but pretty tricky! (@ The Food in my Beard)
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Happy Valentine’s Day lovely readers! I decided not to post something chocolate or red because I’m sure you’ll see a ton of those things on the Internet today. Instead, I decided to post something healthy that you could make tonight to go along with all the chocolate and desserts.
As regular readers know, I almost always post a poll on Fridays to give you all a chance to vote for a meal you want to see on Macheesmo. Two weeks ago you all shocked me by voting for a stuffed sweet potato. Shows you what I know. I thought the cherry oat bars would win and they came in dead last by a long shot.
You guys have good taste though. Not only is it pretty healthy, but it’s packed with flavor and can easily work as a meal on its own. It’ll fill you up and keep you on track if you’re trying to eat healthy.
One of the easiest ways to become a better cook is to stop measuring your ingredients by volume and start measuring them by weight.
To be honest, I’m not a total stickler on weighing because I’m not a professional baker. I don’t weigh stuff like salt or baking powder. I also don’t weigh recipes unless I’m baking because typically having an extra ounce of onions or whatever will still work out in most recipes.
That said, if you want consistency, weighing ingredients (especially stuff like flour) is the only way to go.
Trust me, I want you to be the best baker you can be so I’m giving away THREE of these fancy kitchen scales today.
I’ve been in cookbook testing mode for the last few months and I’m currently going back over all of the chicken recipes that are in the book. If you aren’t familiar with the book that I’m writing, it’s based on using leftovers effectively and one of the chapters is on leftover chicken.
This is a recipe that I considered adding to the chapter, but decided not to just because the chapter is already pretty heavy on Tex-Mex recipes. That said, I thought the final dish was still unique and tasted great so I just decided to post it rather than save it for the book.
The nice thing about this recipe is that you can serve it as a side dish or serve it on tostadas and make a meal out of it. Either way, it’s a unique take on couscous and has great flavors.
The next few weeks are going to be really busy around here. I have a few huge projects at work, Betsy has a few long trials coming up, and Porter is working on a new ways to take up the entire couch while napping.
One of the easiest ways to become a better cook is to stop measuring your ingredients by volume and start measuring them by weight.
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