Welcome Erin

I would like to welcome Erin, our newest delish maker! I'm sure you'll have tons of fun like the rest of us! I've added you to the rotation for May 31. Feel free to post any previous recipes you've made or just jump in whenever you can.

Just a reminder, delish is open to anyone, so if you know anyone who would like to join, please let me know.

Danielle's Orzo

First, here are the changes I made to the recipe. I made mine vegetarian and omitted the shrimp. I think next time I'll try it with chicken (I'm not that into shrimp these days). Also, I used regular orzo instead of whole wheat orzo. I would've preferred to use whole wheat since it's healthier, but I couldn't find any. And I used goat cheese instead of feta. Feta is a bit too sharp for me, and I pretty much always substitute goat cheese.

I have mixed feelings about this meal. I liked it well enough, and I think I'll make it again. But I think it needs some changes.

Good things first -- I loved the combination of dill with the goat cheese. Those flavors went really well together. I also liked the roasted grape tomatoes. And the best part is that Max loved the roasted tomatoes! He usually doesn't like tomatoes very much, and up till now I thought he always preferred to leave them out of any meal. But the first thing he said when he took a bite was, "Wow, these tomatoes are great! This has got to be the best way to eat tomatoes!" Any recipe that can get Max to eat tomatoes stays in my recipe rotation. And overall, Max really liked this dish.

My biggest complaint is that it seemed too dry -- like it needs a sauce or liquid or something. I added some extra olive oil, but I didn't want to add too much and make it greasy or add too much fat. I'm not sure what I'd do about that next time. Maybe some lemon juice? I think lemon could go well with it. Also, next time I'll definitely add extra dill and extra goat cheese, but I think I'll also add some roasted garlic or sauteed garlic. I think it could use it.

Roasted Shrimp and Orzo

This recipe comes from Good Housekeeping magazine, December 2009 edition. I made it about a month ago and thought it was really yummy. I thought about taking a picture of it at the time, you know, because I was thinking ahead, but didn't. And I don't know if I'll make it this week, so sorry no picture. But tastes good and looks really good, trust me! This is what the magazine has to say about it: "The Mediterranean flavors will make you feel like you're on a summer vacation. This dish also delivers over half your daily fiber." So, it's flavorful and healthy.

I shared this recipe at a recipe exchange with friends in Chicago, so some of you might already have this.

Roasted Shrimp and Orzo

Ingredients:
1 pt. grape tomatoes
3 tsp. olive oil, divided
1/8 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper, divided
8 oz. whole-wheat orzo (1 1/4 c.)
1 can (15 to 19 oz.) white kidney beans (cannellini), rinsed and drained
12 oz. medium peeled and deveined shrimp
1 bag (6 oz.) baby spinach
2 oz. feta cheese
1/4 c. packed fresh dill, chopped, plus additional springs for garnish

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Line jelly-roll pan with foil. In prepared pan, combine tomatoes, 2 tsp. olive oil, salt, and 1/8 tsp. pepper. Roast 15 minutes or until tomatoes begin to collapse.

2. Meanwhile, heat covered 4-quart saucepan of water to boiling on high. Cook orzo as label directs; drain and return to pot.

3. In medium bowl, toss beans, shrimp, 1/8 tsp. pepper, and remaining 1 tsp. olive oil. Add to tomato mixture; stir to combine. Spread in single layer and roast 5 minutes longer or until shrimp are opaque throughout.

4. Add spinach to orzo in pot; toss to wilt. Stir in shrimp mixture, feta, and dill. Transfer to shallow bowls; garnish with dill sprigs.

Total time: 30 minutes
Makes: 4 main-dish servings

Each serving: About 480 calories, 35g protien, 67g carbohydrate, 10g total fat (3g saturated fat), 15g fiber, 142mg cholesterol, 585mg sodium.
(This was included in the magazine. Don't think I calculated that all on my own!!)

Total cost: approximately $10-$12.

I followed the recipe pretty much exactly, but I used regular orzo instead of whole wheat because that's what I had, and my shrimp were large not medium, but I don't think that matters at all. It filled us up for dinner, plus we had leftovers the next day (though you probably want to add fresh spinach the next day).

Also, I know some people might not be familiar with orzo. It's ok, I didn't know what it was until just a couple years ago. It's basically rice-shaped pasta that can be found in the pasta section, usually in a small box. Here's a picture:

Calorie/Cost Counter

I thought I would make a little reference post for some of the ingredients we often find in these recipes.  Anyone can add items as they come up.  I just pulled the basics out of this recipe.  An easy reference for anything not listed is this site.  What I recommend is calculating the cost/calories of the entire recipe.  Our serving sizes will all be different so we can each divide it by the # of servings we got out of it.  Just don't let the big number of the full recipe get to you.  Also, if you identify one as low calorie or low cost make a label for it.

1 oz. cream cheese = 100, $.20
1 C flour = 400
1 C cake flour = 440
1 C shortening = 1920 (1 tbsp. = 120)
1 C sugar (brown and granulated) = 768 (1 tsp. = 16)
1 egg = 80
1 egg yolk = 63
1 egg white = 17
lemon juice = 0
1 C butter = 1600 (1 tbsp. = 100)
1 C heavy cream = 832 (1 tbsp. = 52)
1 C skim milk = 80, $.15 (based on $2.50/gal.)
1 C 1% milk = 102
1 C 2% milk = 120
1 C whole milk = 150
*salt = 0, super cheap
*baking soda = 0
*1 tsp. baking powder = 4

*I don't think it is necessary to calculate these types of things into cost or calorie, but just thought I'd throw them in there because I am a little OCD...forgive me for stating the obvious.  :)

Later I can also do a calculation of the estimated cost for each of these items.  Sorry if requesting the calories and cost ruins all the fun.  It doesn't so much for me because I will totally go for a high calorie dessert if it tastes good...I just want to be aware.  Is that backwards?  I'd like to say that I compensate by eating eating other healthy foods on that day, but it isn't happening now.  (If anyone is wondering if my new pooch is a baby...it isn't.  Will exercise soon and continue to eat sweets.  Couldn't stop if I wanted to.)  But for my next postpartum era it would be nice to have a few delectable recipes up my sleeve.

As for cost...I also don't mind spending money for a good dessert, but we will all (well almost all of us) have times that are tight so we might as well have a few good recipes on hand so we can still take pleasure.  In all honesty...if your primary concern is about calories and/or cost then I suppose Baked isn't the book for you.  But I imagine there are some lower cost/calorie items in this book and I'd just like to identify them.  If you don't want to go through the trouble then I will do it for you (unless I'm too busy...and can't promise it will be timely).

Danielle's Lemon Drop Cake

*Sorry, no pictures of the inside of the cake since the pieces I cut fell apart.

Isn't it cute? I love 6" cakes!

Today is Max's birthday, so this is Max's birthday cake. (Such a mean wife... he didn't even get to pick the flavor.) But lucky for me, he also really likes lemon flavored things. And we both thought this was such a delicious cake!

My experience with this recipe may not be all that helpful for the rest of you because the only part I followed out of the recipe was the cake layers. I made more of a traditional buttercream frosting because that is Max's favorite. And as I said before, I wanted to use up the curd I had leftover. However, the recipe I used for my lemon curd is very similar to the one in the book, and the curd I used made a delicious filling.

The cake itself was my favorite part. The only thing I changed was the ratio of butter to shortening. Instead of 50/50, I used a 75/25 ratio (more butter, less shortening). The cake was perfectly moist and light and had a great flavor. I'm interested in trying this recipe to make cupcakes sometime.

For anyone else who tries this, let me know how you like the frosting. I'd like to try it with the Baked frosting next time if it's good.

One thing I wanted to do was crush up a bunch of lemon heads and press them into the sides of the cake, but I went to two stores and couldn't find any! Do people not sell lemon heads anymore? Sad.

Cami's Lemon Drop Cupcakes

I think this is one of my favorite Baked recipes we've done so far. I mean, it is right up there with the German Chocolate Cake. So, as you can tell, I made cupcakes instead of the cake. They are easier to divide up and share than a cake. Not that you need to share these.

As you can see I put the curd inside. After they were cooled I cut a circle in the top and emptied out a little bit of the center of the cupcake. I put about 1 1/2 teaspoons in each cupcake. I could have put a little more I think but I was worried about getting too close to the bottom of the cupcake. I then popped the top back on and frosted them. You would never know I cut the hole. I love the little surprise in the center. I think I am going to try it with different flavored cupcakes and filling.

The flavor is so good! It is very lemony but I like it that way. The curd is delicious. I didn't put mine through a sieve. I'll be honest, I was lazy. I actually like the texture of it. The cakes turned out very fluffy and just right I think. I baked mine for 23 minutes. The frosting is good. Not too sweet but just right. This frosting would be great for piping if you so desired. To sum it up, I loved them. The Young Women I work with loved them and my husband's coworkers loved them.

Cost and Calorie Counts

The cost and calorie calculations are totally optional. If you choose to include them with your recipe, great, if not that's great too. I think it would be most helpful for the dinner recipes and not the dessert recipe. Obviously those aren't too healthy.

Also, if someone knows an easy way to calculate the cost of a meal, could you share? I'm having a hard time wrapping my mind around it. I mean, do I include the cost of a whole onion if I only use half of it in the recipe? If you know of a website that does this for you, please let us know.

Lemon Drop Cake -- pg. 63

Happy New Year! I'm excited to be kicking off the next round of tasty new recipes!

So first off, some news... I'm pregnant! Cami mentioned that "several" of us are pregnant, and yep, that includes me! I'm super excited. I'm due July 24. (You know you're from Utah if your first thought was, "Hey, that's Pioneer Day!" I'm not, but I have been notified of the holiday coincidence a number of times.)

Anyway, my only real pregnancy craving so far has been lemons. That's right, actual lemons. As in, I have a strange urge to suck on lemons after I've squeezed the juice out of them (be a shame to waste any of it). And it actually tastes pretty good to me.

In order to harness that craving into actual tasty treats, I made lemon cookies the other day and a ton of lemon curd. I didn't know what I was going to do with the rest of my lemon curd till I came across this recipe that calls for lemon curd filling.

So this week's recipe is the Lemon Drop Cake on page 63. I haven't made it yet (because I forgot I was picking this week... oops), but I'm going to try to make it and post about it on Tuesday.

Side Note:
My new strategy with desserts is to always halve the recipe so we don't end up eating fattening desserts all week long. With cakes that seems a little difficult, but I'm going to pick up some 6-inch cake pans and halve all the ingredients. So that's my plan for this recipe. I'll let you know how it works out.

Back to the Grind

Hello Delish Makers,

I am so excited to get back to baking and cooking new recipes. I hope you all are as well. I just posted the 3rd baking / cooking rotation list here. I know several of you are pregnant and I can't remember everyone's due date. If you need to change the date when you choose a recipe, please let me know. Also, if you want to sit this one out, just let me know that as well.

Instead of having personal questions associated with this rotation we're going to do something different. When you post a new recipe could you estimate the cost of the dish per serving and include a calorie count per serving. (Thanks for the idea LuAnn) There are some cookbooks that provide this already, which is nice. It doesn't have to be exact science but it would be so helpful for us to have that information as well.

*Update: I am not as organized as I would like to be. There were some errors in the rotation that hopefully have all been corrected. Check out the new list here.

Holiday Break

Hello Delish Makers,

I think we are all a bit busy as of late and would benefit from a holiday break. So, I purpose that we delay starting the third (YAY) rotation until Monday February 1. That should give all of us some time to relax before getting back into the swing of things. If for some reason you don't want to participate in round 3, just let me know.

If you do decide to make something from previous rotations, PLEASE post during the break. It would be fun to see what everyone is doing and if they are incorporating these recipes into their holiday meals.

Merry Christmas!