Chuck Smith's Blog

The Cookthrough Begins October 28, 2008

We’ve had a couple of favorite recipes in Red Sage over the years–Chicken Poblano Pesto Quesadillas and the chili recipe. But like many of our cookbooks we haven’t fully explored it’s wonderous depths. Plus, every time we open it we wonder aloud “why haven’t we made that recipe yet?” Thus it becomes my cookbook of choice for the fabled cookbook cookthrough of my 101 things list.

Little did I realize at the outset that it has 114 recipes therein, which means it needs to outpace my 101 things effort. Plus several of the ingredients are hard to find (huitlacoche) or downright strange (softshell crabs). Nevertheless I embrace the challenge and will put forth a good effort at reasonable interpretations of the recipes.

First up:

• Roasted Loin of Pork with Fig and Chipotle Stuffing
• Warm Maryland Spinach and Bacon Salad
• Pumpkin Pie with Cinnamon-Vanilla Crust

I cheated on the pumpkin pie–Amanda was the baker–but I offered moral support so that counts. Plus I was drunk on my American beer challenge so I cant remember too much. But I DO recall that the meal was very tasty. The pork roast was sweet and just mildly spicy. The fig seeds added just a bit of crunch. The salad had a fair amount of vinegar so it was sharp, but that was balanced well with the bacon and parmesan cheese.

For the pumpkin pie Amanda mercifully reduced the amount of butter by half and also used a fresh pumpkin. We’d never cooked pumpkin from scratch before, so that was fun and tasted great. Usually I’m not a pumpkin pie fan but this was excellent. So excellent that we bought another one and made pumpkin soup the next week.

Anyway, 3 out of 114 recipes means we’re 2.63% done. It’s going to be quite a journey!