705. Pickled Gherkin

Just a few weeks ago I had a dill pickle, which was much better than I was expecting. That meant that when I was going to try the very similar pickled gherkin I figured maybe that would be ok too. Oh no. This was just as I thought the dill pickle would be. It was bitter and sour and just not tasty at all. My hotdog was infinitely more enjoyable once the pickle was gone!

705 down, 1091 to go

687. Waldorf Salad

Having spent the past few months unemployed (which is about to come to an end :) ), I’ve been trying to at least use my time productively by making myself slightly more interesting lunches than just the standard soup or sandwich. The other day I decided to make myself a Waldorf salad, and topped it off with some grilled chicken. I’ve seen Waldorf salads with a few different bits and pieces added to them, but I kept mine to the basics - apples, celery, walnuts and a light mayonnaise dressing.

687 down, 1109 to go

676. Celery Heart

I actually really really love celery. Most people tend to either hate it, or just think it’s a little bland, but I always make sure I have celery in my fridge as it’s awesome. Raw it’s crunchy and tastes delicious and is perfect with peanut butter, or hummus, or just about anything else you can dip it into. Then when you cook it, it soaks up all the flavour of whatever you put it in. Celery rules.

676 down, 1120 to go

671. Dill Pickle

I’m sure I’ve made it pretty clear on this blog before that I don’t like pickles. So dill pickle was never going to be my favourite thing to try. It turned out to be surprisingly ok though. It was sweeter than I expected and the dill added a slight herb flavour which took away from the picklyness.

671 down, 1125 to go

663. Hash Browns

I love hash browns. Actually I love any kind of breakfast potatoes. Breakfast is always better when it involves potatoes. I made these with grated potato and onion bound together with a little egg and flour, then served them with a couple of fried eggs. Breakfast heaven.

663 down, 1133 to go

653. Meatloaf

Meatloaf is just my kind of meal - hearty and delicious, but as I don’t like ground beef I would never order it out anywhere. I decided that I would make my own at home using ground turkey instead, wrapped it in bacon (because everything is better with bacon) and then glazed it very lightly with ketchup and mustard because I wanted to have some gravy with it. As it was just for me I made a little individual loaf but by the end I was SO FULL, this easily could have served two people, but you know, sometimes being greedy is just good. I served it with broccoli potato mash which is awesome.

653 down, 1143 to go

635. Strata

Strata is another one of the American dishes that I had never heard of before starting the blog. When I saw that it was like a savoury bread pudding I got very excited. I decided to keep mine relatively simple and mixed the cubed bread with some cubed potatoes, ham and cheese before pouring over the egg mixture. I made mine for dinner rather than brunch so I made it early morning, but I think it could have done with even more time to get all soaked up and moist and squidgy so next time I shall leave it overnight.

635 down, 1161 to go

617. Chicken Divan and 618. Cream of Mushroom Soup

I hadn’t heard of chicken divan before so I had to look it up. When I found a recipe for it, it sounded like something that I would love, but with a couple of ingredients that made it sound a little on the weird side. I know that a lot of American casserole dishes are made with mushroom soup, but considering I think that mushroom soup is pretty gross by itself I was never really tempted to try it. Also the recipe contains mayonnaise and I would have never thought to add mayonnaise to a cooked dish like this before; I only ever use it as a condiment, or as a dressing for chicken and salads. A chicken and broccoli bake topped with cheese sounded tasty whatever the ingredients were though, and that turned out to be the case. I served mine with mashed potatoes because everything is always better with mashed potatoes. Fact.

618 down, 1178 to go

605. Migas

I had never even heard of migas until a little while back. Then one day I was browsing my Pioneer Woman cookbook and there it was, a migas recipe, and in seconds I immediately went from having no clue what it was to wanting to eat it immediately. Basically, it’s like a Tex-Mex scrambled eggs - eggs scrambled with tomatoes, bell peppers, cheese and crunchy pieces of fried corn tortilla. You were also supposed to add coriander but I forgot to buy any so I just topped it with a few chives instead. Mexican-style egg dishes are always awesome and this was no exception, it was really yummy and made a great Sunday brunch.

605 down, 1191 to go

600. Pumpkin Pie

So I totally dropped the ball on seasonably posting this one, but hey, pumpkin pie is delicious at any time of year so who cares if I forgot to write it up straight after Thanksgiving. I actually go to have two Thanksgiving dinners in 2011, which considering I live in the UK is pretty good going. First I celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving with friends in London cooked by my friend Mags, then I got to go to a US Thanksgiving lunch at Pie’s office courtesy of our friends Nate and Rhonda. I had pumpkin pie at both.

On the whole pumpkin pie is not a popular dish here at all. We actually don’t use pumpkin all that much at all, and certainly not in sweet dishes and baking. I love it though. It’s sweet and creamy and (hopefully) oh so cinnamonny. Mmm. I might have to make my own this year.

600 down, 1196 to go