2011 Goals: New Foods update

Jesse and I have been doing a pretty swell job at trying a new recipe or a new version of an old recipe each week.

Last week we made a bunch of new recipes:
French Bread We made this with a couple thoughts in mind.
1) We needed bread for our cold meat sandwiches the next day for lunch. -- It was super yummy with the seasoned turkey Jesse picked out.
2) It would be a yummy side for any meal. -- We ate it for snacks, with lasagna, with honey...pretty much as much as we could.
3) Maybe we could use it for a dip later on in the week. -- Which we did. Jesse cut it up, tossed it in an EVOO, butter, minced garlic concoction and baked it for 90 minutes at 225. It was a great addition to the artichoke dip we made.

Rolls that we used as buns for our sloppy joes on Saturday. Since they were dinner rolls, they weren't quite a bun to eat with sloppy joes, but we both thought it was yummy! I only baked enough for us to eat that day and froze the rest of the dough balls to be thawed and baked later as desired. It just so happens that I desired them last night! ;)

These brown sugar biscuit twists I've been wanting to try for quite some time. We finally purchased a rolling pin so I had no reason not to go ahead and make them. Jesse suggested we add cinnamon to the brown sugar. It was an excellent idea and they tasted yummy...they did not last long! Next time I'll have to remember to roll the dough thinner than I did this time as the dough to yummy insides ratio was a bit off.

I also didn't realize that we didn't have any powdered sugar for the icing. So Jesse quick found a recipe to make some online (which I cannot find now!). Again we got a bit ahead of ourselves and dumped all the ingredients in at once, which you definitely were not suppose to do. Then you were suppose to cool it after it bubbled....which I did by sticking the pot outside in the snow while stirring. Obviously we were excited to taste test!

Then for the Packer game on Sunday we made a new Spinach-Artichoke Dip. FYI: it makes a ton! We baked it in our 9x13 Fiestaware casserole dish. It was scrumtious but we had tons of leftovers since it was for only four people (and we had four different appetizers to choose from!). Luckily it is just as good....maybe better...as leftovers, cold from the fridge.

And the last recipe for the evening is Creamy White Chili. We both thought it was great and that it will be a keeper for the cold months menus. I did change it up a bit though. Whenever I have a recipe that calls for sour cream, I use plain greek yogurt. Didn't have the green chilis so left that out but added some red and yellow bell peppers that we had leftover from the spinach-artichoke dip. Tasted good and added some pretty color to the white soup. It was pretty simple and fast to make, especially since the chicken was already cooked (whole chickens were on sale last week, I bought three, cooked two and shredded the meat to have on hand).

I would post pictures of some of the foods, plus me cooling the icing in the snow, but I'm being a bit too lazy with my slower than slow computer tonight. Maybe I'll get ambitious and have a link that includes pictures later?

Any yummy new recipes you have made lately?