ladysprite (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ladysprite) wrote2015-12-27 06:01 pm
ladysprite) wrote2015-12-27 06:01 pm
Entry tags:
Cookbook Project, Book #209
"Better Homes & Gardens Five Seasons Cranberry Book," BH&G Test Kitchen
Ye gods, I am so far behind on this it's not even funny. I've actually been doing a decent amount of cookbook-project cooking; I've just been failing to write it up. I'm pretty sure I used this book over a month ago now....
Anyway, this is somewhere between a magazine and a cookbook. I picked it up for 50 cents, I think, at the library's Book and Bake Sale a while ago, mostly because, well, I really like cranberries. Sadly, once I got it home I realized that most of the recipes call for canned cranberry sauce, of which I am less fond.
Still, there are some good-looking desserts in here. And I was tempted to try one of them. But, because this project is about challenging myself, and because I felt obligated to live the full 1971 experience, and because my husband didn't say no when I asked if he'd be willing to eat them, instead I made "Stuffed Burger Bundles."
These are, essentially, large meatballs filled with a mixture of stuffing (standard, Stove Top bread stuffing) and chopped cranberries, baked in a sauce that's a mixture of evaporated milk, cream of mushroom soup, ketchup, and Worcestershire sauce. I figured they'd probably taste like nostalgia, given that half of the meat my mom cooked as a kid was baked in a combination of cream of mushroom soup and Worcestershire sauce.
You guys? These were kind of gross.
The meatballs themselves were okay, though the stuffing, having been double-cooked, had lost any texture and was more just a poorly-integrated panade. But the sauce was fatty and gloppy and weirdly salty-tangy and bleh. Overall, the meal was edible but not anything I'd ever want to experience again.
And I am never buying another can of cream of mushroom soup.
Though I may come back to this book and make the cranberry dumplings; those actually sound like they might taste good....
Ye gods, I am so far behind on this it's not even funny. I've actually been doing a decent amount of cookbook-project cooking; I've just been failing to write it up. I'm pretty sure I used this book over a month ago now....
Anyway, this is somewhere between a magazine and a cookbook. I picked it up for 50 cents, I think, at the library's Book and Bake Sale a while ago, mostly because, well, I really like cranberries. Sadly, once I got it home I realized that most of the recipes call for canned cranberry sauce, of which I am less fond.
Still, there are some good-looking desserts in here. And I was tempted to try one of them. But, because this project is about challenging myself, and because I felt obligated to live the full 1971 experience, and because my husband didn't say no when I asked if he'd be willing to eat them, instead I made "Stuffed Burger Bundles."
These are, essentially, large meatballs filled with a mixture of stuffing (standard, Stove Top bread stuffing) and chopped cranberries, baked in a sauce that's a mixture of evaporated milk, cream of mushroom soup, ketchup, and Worcestershire sauce. I figured they'd probably taste like nostalgia, given that half of the meat my mom cooked as a kid was baked in a combination of cream of mushroom soup and Worcestershire sauce.
You guys? These were kind of gross.
The meatballs themselves were okay, though the stuffing, having been double-cooked, had lost any texture and was more just a poorly-integrated panade. But the sauce was fatty and gloppy and weirdly salty-tangy and bleh. Overall, the meal was edible but not anything I'd ever want to experience again.
And I am never buying another can of cream of mushroom soup.
Though I may come back to this book and make the cranberry dumplings; those actually sound like they might taste good....
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Which means that you've trained your taste away from that kind of thing -- which isn't a bad thing by any means. It's a little sad to lose the nostalgia factor, but it generally means you're eating better (both in nutrition and in quality).
One of the things we got for the household this year was An Unexpected Cookbook, being an unofficial collection of recipes in the style which might have been served in the Shire. The author has done some research for (1) recipes appropriate to Tolkien's childhood (2) which would have been served in the kind of country working-folk community that the Shire is supposed to represent and (3) contain no New World ingredients with the exception of potatoes. The results... a lot of them look and sound Pretty Damn Good. You may want to acquire this one for yourself.
Cream of Mushroom Soup
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https://www.bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/food-dining/2015/11/17/recipe-for-pickled-cranberries/yallwMbkUnLBrdHExLqQKJ/story.html