Cooking with Mickey, part 2

So, I misled you a little in the last post. The dish was from Cooking with Mickey, called Crevettes a la Provencale. It came from Club 33 in New Orleans Square in Disneyland Park in California, not the Port Orleans hotel in Orlando as I had stated. I apologize. The recipe was a cross between a shrimp scampi and a shrimp etouffe. It came together super fast. This dish has nothing on Rachel and her 30 minutes. It was good and filling. I don't think it was Husband or I's new favorite. I'm glad we tried something new (and something there was no picture of in the book - there are no pictures of any of the food in Mickey's cook book) and very glad I can say I've made a dish from the book.

This new way of cooking is fun and adventerous. I have to say I usually read through all the books, make lists of pages that sound good and then am overwhelmed by choice and don't do anything about it. Having Husband randomly pick a book and page number and just committing to it is a good system for me. I get new stuff without actually being daring. Ahhh, safety and security.

Does that answer your question Cyndi?

Cooking with Mickey

The cookbook adventure continues. The book Colin picked randomly (9th from the left on the bottom row is what he said) was Mickey's Gourmet Cookbook. This is a book I bought the semester I was interning at Disney World because 4 of the recipes were from the restaurant I worked at, The Prime Time Cafe. I thought I would make them again and again to remember my time there. That never happened. In fact, like so many of my cookbooks, I had never opened to make any recipe out of it.

Colin randomly picked a few page numbers before we landed on what will be tonight's dinner. It's a shrimp dish (I'll give you the actual name of the recipe when I let you know how it goes) that was featured in their Port Orleans hotel. So we'll be getting a little taste of our former life in the South tonight at dinner.

Happy Birthday to Cyndi!

Happy Birthday to Cyndi! My dear blogging inspiration, baking pal, trophy empathizer, scone enjoying, SATC watching, travel enthusiast, always there friend! Have a great day doing whatever it is you choose to do.

91

So, I did count the cookbooks, and it turns out my estimate was a little lacking. 91. I have 91 cookbooks. Maybe I'll alphabetize or categorize them and list them all and start a little cookbook lending library. And I'll for sure be taking a break from purchasing any (but it's so hard when you're standing at Borders, and it's ONLY 4.99...)

The State Dinner

As I mentioned, a major goal of 2009 is to use the resources I've got. Namely, my extensive cookbook collection. I jumped right in last night, choosing a book, letting the husband randomly pick a page number and off we went.

I chose Ellie Krieger's The Food You Crave as our first book. Colin randomly picked page 193 and away we went. Page 193 was Pork Medallions with Cherry Sauce, I added the mushroom and green bean recipe in her side dishes section and off to the grocery store we went. Dinner was amazing! I love making a sauce and the one that went on the pork was so easy, and soo delicious. I would make this again and again.

1 1/4 pound pork tenderloin cut into 1/2 inch thick medallions

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

3 tsp olive oil

2 T shallots, chopped

3/4 cup low sodium chicken broth

2 T balsamic vinegar

1/4 cup dried tart cherries

Season pork medallions with 1/4 tsp of the salt and pepper. Heat 2 teaspoons of the oil in a large skillet over a medium-high heat and cook the meat through until there is just a slight blush in the center about 2 minutes per side. Transfer the meat to a plate and tent with aluminum foil.

Add the remaining 1 tsp oil and the shallot to the pan to cook, stirring, until it begins to soften, about 1 minute. Add teh broth, vinegar, the remaining salt, and the cherries and cook until the liquid is reduced by half, about 4 minutes (this took a little longer for us). Taste and adjust seasonsing, if necessary. Pour sauce over medallions and serve.

Yum. The sauce was perfect, easy and really very flavorful. What will the next cookbook be? Stay tuned...

The Ticket

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

I know this movie just came out, and I don't want to spoil it for anyone. I have some thoughts, will probably wait a few more days to share them, just in case you haven't seen it yet, want to, and don't want my opinions murking up your film going experience.

Go see it, then we can discuss.

Napoleon's Battle Plan

According to Sports Night, where I took today's title from, Napoleon had a two part battle plan.

1. Show up.

2. See what happens.

I'm adopting that as my New Years guideline. I make resolutions every year. I've made some that stuck - like the year Laura and I started our cross country book club, or the year I said I'd make the t-shirt quilt (see photo at left), or last years which was learn to knit. I've learned grand plans and statements aren't successful, that it shouldn't take a new year to start a resolution revolution and small accomplishments make for a better year.

This year it's about my cookbook collection. I have many. Too many to count. Probably near 70, plus all the cooking magazines - Bon Appetit, Rachel Ray, Taste of Home, Cooking Illustrated not to mention the one offs I just buy in the store occasionally. So many recipes, so many dog eared pages implying I thought it looked good and I'd like to try it. So many hundreds of dollars on cookbooks - bargain ones, old ones, passed down ones, pretty hardback ones, celebrity Food Network ones, baking ones, healthy cooking ones, impossible appetizer ones, cooking for the seasons ones...the list goes on.

So I decided each week a minimum of one time to pull a cookbook off the shelf and make some recipe out of it. By the end of the year I need to have made something out of each cookbook I own.

Lastly, on this New Years blog I'm going to reference a couple of friends who are often wise and always helpful. I got a note from Laura telling me that we get to start over with a whole new year. That's always very optimistic and I like the sound of it. And Cyndi, whose blog post today was simple, but perfect. She shared this sentiment found on a Good Luck card,