Why Haven’t I Made That?: One Year Later

December 12, 2023 by akc

It’s officially been a year since I started Why Haven’t I Made That?, which was a project to make one Smitten Kitchen recipe every week. I tried to focus mostly on recipes that were new to me, but I didn’t want to set a bunch of rules and then feel like someone else was in charge of my kitchen. So how did it go?

In reality, I didn’t cook a Smitten Kitchen recipe every week. But I still managed to make 65 of Deb’s dishes as part of this project. In the early summer I was working ahead for a while to try and make sure I had posts to put up while I was out of town for almost half of June, so there was a stretch of weeks where I was making a point of doing two a week.

They weren’t all new-to-me recipes, in part because I wanted to share some of our favorites. And in part because there were some weeks where I just didn’t feel like making something new (or at least, I didn’t feel like it on the day we did meal planning and groceries).

For the most part I haven’t repeated anything yet, but there are several recipes from this project that I know I’ll make again:

Slow-Simmered Lentils with Kale and Goat Cheese: A great veggie option that can take any kind of soft cheese. I think ricotta would work well, and Deb also has a similar dish with burrata on the blog.
Baby Wedge Salad with Avocado and Pickled Onions: We really liked this, and leftovers held up surprisingly well.
Ginger Garlic Chicken Noodle Soup: I enjoyed this a lot.
Buffalo Chicken Cobb Salad: This is a great entree salad option, and the buffalo sauce is perfect.
Chicken with Rice, Chorizo, and Tomatoes: The chicken and rice dishes are great, but this felt special with the chorizo. Made me think of paella.
Green Angel Hair with Garlic Butter: This was delicious, the roasted garlic really makes it.
Spaghetti Pangrattato with a Crispy Egg: This seems to be my go-to single-serving pasta now.
Toasted Ricotta Gnocchi with Pistachio Pesto: This was incredible and not that hard to make.
Corn, Bacon, and Parmesan Pasta: A very tasty summer pasta.
Essential Raised Waffles: I think this will become our Christmas Day breakfast tradition.
Marbled Banana Bread: I think about this all the time and need to make it again.
Crispy Chili Garlic Butter Shrimp: We like shrimp and this gives a similar vibe to gambas al ajillo, which is one of my favorite tapas dishes.

I’m sure there are others I’ll end up making again, but these are the ones that jump out at me when I review the list. Interestingly enough, I still haven’t made the Pizza Beans or the I Want Chocolate Cake Cake, the two things that were on my mind when I dreamed up this project. I might have to throw a dinner party to rectify that.

I feel like I should wrap this post up by sharing some learnings, but I didn’t really go into this project with learning as a focus. It was interesting to notice that there are some very similar dishes on the blog and in the cookbooks, though. So if you hear about something in one of Deb’s cookbooks, poke around on the blog a bit. You might be able to turn up something similar.

I suppose the main thing I’ve learned is that if I want to cook out of a particular source, I need to make a point of doing it, not just see what happens. While I don’t see myself doing another yearlong project, I can see where I might pick a cookbook and make something from it every week for a month. And I will definitely continue sharing things here.

Braised Winter Squash Wedges

October 26, 2023October 17, 2023 by akc

I love winter squash, so I decided to try the Braised Winter Squash Wedges from Smitten Kitchen Keepers. Usually I just roast it, but the technique here seemed interesting.

Deb calls for a kabocha or red kuri squash, but notes that butternut and acorn will work as well. I decided to try this with acorn squash becuase I knew it’d be easier to scale the recipe down for the two of us. And indeed, I had one acorn squash that was a little shy of 1.5 pounds, so I halved the rest of the ingredients.

With this technique you roast the squash on both sides, and then add some liquid into the pan for the last few minutes of cooking. Deb calls for a very specific size of sheet pan which I did not have, so I pulled out a ceramic baking dish and managed to Tetris all the squash pieces in. However I didn’t get any browning on the squash, I think because I didn’t use a metal pan. (In retrospect I should have just used my quarter sheet pan, but I was thrown off by the specific sizing given.) Anyway, the lack of color didn’t bother me but is something to keep in mind if you make this.

The squash turned out well but I’m not sure the technique really added much. It’s not fussy, but it didn’t really impart anything special. The best aspect of this recipe is how you serve it. Deb has you smear some yogurt on a serving dish, add some lightly dressed arugula, and set the squash on top. The heat of the squash wilts the arugula, and the yogurt is a great accompaniment. Any kind of regularly-roasted winter squash would work well with those flavors, so while I’m not sure I’ll follow this method for the squash again, I will almost certainly serve it this way in the future.

A square white serving platter holds golden wedges of roasted acorn squash that are neatly lined up on top of a bed of green arugula. There are swooshes of white yogurt peeking out from under the greens. — The Braised Winter Squash Wedges from *Smitten Kitchen Keepers.*

Chicken with Rice, Chorizo, and Tomatoes

October 16, 2023October 15, 2023 by akc

The Chicken with Rice, Chorizo, and Tomatoes was one of the dishes that called out to me from Smitten Kitchen Keepers, and I finally made it recently. It was delicous.

I scaled back on the amount of chicken, using about 1.5 pounds. (I should have also scaled back on the rice, but for whatever reason I did not.) I had trouble easily finding cured Spanish-style chorizo, and when I finally did spot it somewhere it was sliced for charcuterie boards. I just chopped it up a bit, and then spent a little time peeling all the pieces apart. I was about an ounce short but we still got plenty of chorizo flavor.

I did find that there was quite a lot of oil left in the pan after I browned the chicken, so I spooned most of it off, and just added a little bit back in later when I needed some. Next time I’ll go easy on the oil.

I used my enameled cast iron dutch oven, and I did not get the crispy bottom on the rice, in part because the rice burned and stuck. This seems to happen with this pot, particularly when I’m making something that’s not being stirred regularly. I’m not sure if it’s because the finish is worn down or if it’s just because it holds the heat. Deb calls for a saute pan but the only other thing I had that I think would have held the volume is a heavy-bottom stainless steel pan, which I suspect would have had the same problem.

I served this with a side of sauteed sprouting broccoli, which was a nice counterpoint to the richness of the rice. I’ll definitely make this again.

A white plate holds a pile or reddish rice, with pieces of browned chorizo and red tomatoes scattered throughout. To the left of the rice is a golden brown chicken thigh. Behind them both is a pile of long spears of deep green sprouting broccoli. — Chicken with Rice, Chorizo, and Tomatoes from *Smitten Kitchen Keepers*

Two Bean Salad with Basil Vinaigrette

September 15, 2023September 4, 2023 by akc

The recipe for Two Bean Salad with Basil Vinaigrette in Smitten Kitchen Keepers didn’t really jump out at me initially. But as I was looking for ideas for something light to have alongside tomatoes and burrata it seemed perfect. I served it with some quinoa to round it out a bit and it was a nice, fresh side dish.

I made the basil vinaigrette a couple of days ahead of time and stored it in the fridge. My basil wasn’t minced very well, I think because I used my mini food processor. There’s not a lot of liquid in this vinaigrette, so the basil leaves weren’t moving around very much. Now that I think about it, I bet the blades on that are fairly dull, I think it’s at least 20 years old. (Perhaps I should replace it…)

I didn’t make any changes to this, though I have no idea if I had the amount of green beans she called for; I just used a quart of them that I picked up at the farmer’s market.

A pile of bright green beans and beige cannellini beans rests on top of some red and white quinoa. The beans are coated in flecks of dark green basil and slices of fennel. — The Two Bean Salad with Basil Vinaigrette from *Smitten Kitchen Keepers*

Zucchini Cornbread with(out) Tomato Butter

September 10, 2023August 31, 2023 by akc

This is another recipe I decided to make because I had extra buttermilk on hand. I also had a small zucchini that had seen better days and I wanted to do something with it, so I decided to make the Zucchini Cornbread from Smitten Kitchen Keepers. I opted out of making the accompanying tomato butter, mostly because the only tomatoes I have on hand (except for heirlooms that are absolutely not going into a baking project) are sungolds, and I didn’t think the flavor of those would go well with this.

This came together pretty quickly. The small zucchini I had was a little bit more than I needed, but not by much. Interestingly you don’t have to wring it out, so it was nice to be able to skip that step. I had thought I’d use some fresh corn, but then when I realized you only needed a half cup I went for frozen.

Deb says to bake these for 28-33 minutes. I went for 30 and then put them back in for 5 as I really wanted to make sure this wasn’t underbaked, and with the zucchini I knew it would be hard to tell.

This turned out pretty well, though it’s not really in line with my cornbread preferences. It’s a little saltier than I expected, and the texture is lighter. (I like a dense, sandy cornbread that gets its salt from the amount of butter you slather on it.) For that reason I don’t think this is really a snacking cornbread, but I think it would be good with a pot of chili in the late summer.