Fall 2013 Hits and Misses

One of the reasons I started keeping a blog was to have a place to journal my favorite recipes, so I'd be able to come back to them. I still check my old blog for recipes that would otherwise be long gone. In that spirit, I thought I'd share some recent recipes that I'd like to be able to find again someday:

Hits:

The Pioneer Woman's Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls. These were a huge hit with Brian and a couple other families I gifted. The dough is beautiful- I let it rest at least as long she recommended, which resulted in a shiny, malleable dough that had no problems rolling out or rising. I found, with a lot of icing, these were way too sweet for me. I'd cut the amount of icing in half, or maybe skip it altogether next time. That "one" recipe made three 9x9 pans of rolls, so this is great for gifting.

The Kitchn's Orzo with Carmelized Fall Vegetables. I made this for dinner last night. The flavors are so great. I could always come up with sauteing veggies with pasta, but adding in fresh ginger took it to whole other level. Two mistakes that I'd right next time: follow the instructions and cook the orzo first. Prep the veggies before you start. I thought I could chop as I went but it caught up to me and then I got behind.

A Couple Cooks' Cinnamon Ice Cream. This is a really easy recipe that I managed to screw up. Here's the golden rule of ice cream that you do not, do not, do not break: You must freeze your KitchenAid ice cream bowl overnight. 7 or 8 hours in the fridge will not do it. Trust the Rule. I made the mistake of churning the ice cream on Sunday afternoon, only to have it not come together. I dumped the ice cream base back into my mixing bowl and threw it in the fridge, washed out the KitchenAid ice cream bowl and put it in the freezer. OVERNIGHT. Then I tried again yesterday evening- success! The ice cream took about half an hour to come together.

Serious Eats' Baba Ghanoush: I made this sometime over the summer for one of our potluck dinners with friends and it was a hit. Our non-dairy, gluten-free friends could eat it. Our friend who doesn't eat vegetables was incredibly intrigued by everyone's rave reviews, but upon hearing it was eggplant, wouldn't even try it. Their loss, our gain.

Misses:

A slow cooker red beans & rice. I won't even post the recipe, because that's not nice, the recipe is probably fine. But it made WAY too much for 2 people. Here's the deal on red beans and rice, especially when you live in Wisconsin: Zatarain's is delicious. You need a quick meal? Use the box. Add some sausage. The end.