18 blogposts - 0lbs lost/gained - 100s of dishwasher loads
And most importantly many great meals with friends, family & co-workers
I choose Bon Appetit over Gourmet because I though it would be a little more practical in terms of time spent, ingredients and costs. Overall, while I love Ruth Richel and Gourmet I still think Bon Appetit is more assessable to the average home cook.
Price. This endeavor was a little pricier that I expected, probably at least 2x my normal grocery bill. Of course with parties and friends over more often that is to be expected and I have not eaten out in weeks so that did help.
Time Spent/Cookabilty. In terms of cooking complexity I think Bon Appetite does a good job of keeping recipes geared to anyone with some basic cooking skills. There were a few multi part recipes that took some planning but overall everything was simple to make and not fussy or prone to cooking failures. The section on 15 dishes in 15 minutes was great. Most were good, quick as advertised and creative enough to get you try some things you might not normally try during the busy week.
Ingredients. I am lucky to live in a city with lots of great grocery stores and rarely have to go to a specialty store to find ingredients. There were only two ingredients (zucchini blossoms and ginger preserves) that I could not find and the first is likely due to season. If you live somewhere where the grocery stores are not as good this would have been more of a challenge. There seemed to a few theme ingredients this month: Shallots, Creme Fraiche or Sour Cream, Berries & Cherry Tomatoes. The berries and cherry tomatoes were due to the season, but we here in far pacific NW are a little behind and some of the berries are better in late June and July. I appreciated that a few items, where you only need a small quantity, like pine nuts and pumpkin seeds were used in more than one recipe. I know this is not cooking light, but they could do a little better with dropping some of the creams & butter or giving an alternative lower calorie option.
And now (drum role) the top ten. In no particular order.
Grapefruit Gimlet (pg28)
Spinach Salad w/Pecorino Pine Nuts & Currents (pg49)
Noodles w/Ground Chicken & Crispy Shallots (pg12)
Mixed Berry Pie w/Orange, Ginger & Almond Streusel (pg113)
Chicken & Watercress Salad w/Almonds & Feta (pg105)
Seared Duck Breast w/Cherries & Port Sauce (pg84)
Strawberries from Strawberry Romanoff (pg108)
Shrimp Scampi w/Green Onion & Orzo (pg105)
Blueberry Jam Cookies (pg111)
Tomato-Cucumber Gazpacho(pg78)
Bottom 5.
Peach Royal (too sweet)
Pasta w/Goat cheese, lemon & asparagus (needed more flavor)
Ice Cream from Strawberry Romanoff (just not good)
Lemony Herb dip (wasted calories)
Cornish Hens (just not for me)
So long June. It's been fun!
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