What's Cooking February 2022 Part 3

This month seems to be happening at a much more normal pace after the never ending January.

My bacon roses came out well I think. The bacon took longer to cook than I expected but I wanted to be sure that the roses cooked through. After cooking, I moved the bacon to a clean mini muffin tin so they could cool without extra grease. And then refrigerated them . I did a test rose on Sunday to be sure I could get them on the stems. They were easy to finish Monday morning and then deliver.

Besides making bacon roses, I decided to make a salmon salad one night. I roasted small potatoes, bell pepper, asparagus and salmon and then added all roasted items to a bed of romaine with some grape tomatoes. Oil and vinegar for dressing. So good! I used herbes de provence seasoning when roasting.

Also had a craving for shrimp risotto. I used this recipe as a base with slightly larger shrimp. Frozen ravioli with Rao's sauce one night, baked cod one night, another made up recipe.

I baked grape tomatoes, canned diced tomatoes, zucchini, peppers, onion, garlic with olive oil salt and pepper in a 400 degree oven until soft. Added some red pepper flakes and the cod and baked until the fish was cooked. Served with over penne pasta with a little feta.

Swedish meatball meatloaf was very good too. No picture since meatloaf is not photogenic. I followed the recipe using panko for the bread crumbs. I used Bob's Red Mill potato flakes to make the mashed potatoes for the meat loaf. I made two loaves, one to freeze after baking. Not sure how long it took since I set a probe thermometer to know when they were done.

I had a couple odd breakfast ideas that ended up being delicious. First I thought I thawed a half package of puff pastry but it was filo dough. I had planned to make a kind of breakfast pizza tart with the puff pastry but needed plan b.

I brushed the sheets of filo with olive oil and layered a few sheets in a rimmed baking pan. I baked it for about 8 minutes. After parbaking I added some shredded cheddar, chopped up leftover bacon roses and halved grape tomatoes. Bake for another 5 minutes.

Added scrambled eggs with chives to the crust. Then scrunched up some filo sheets brushed with olive oil for the top and baked until the eggs were cooked.

I also made some breakfast fried rice using up some leftover rice. I used this recipe for a base and added some red bell pepper. Very good.

I even baked one day. The cookies were good, but in all honesty mine crumbled when I sliced them so I gathered the crumbs, rolled them into a ball and then smashed the ball on the cookie sheet. I made 12 cookies and even though they did not slice, they looked fine. And tasted great.

I thought I'd grocery shop Friday but seem to have enough produce to last. I'm now thinking Tuesday since Monday is a holiday and I avoid crowds at stores. Freezer foraging with pork chile verde for Friday.

School classes are over for the 7th and 8th graders but I've accepted a request to teach 4th and 5th in March. So we'll see if after school cooking is interesting to a younger group.

In other work news I had a KitchenAid training call one evening so I can be ready to train KitchenAid customers on the new food processor. Bridal events are still happening in February.

I've been keeping up with yoga, it really helps my back. Meditation is still happening and I am enjoying it. I've been knitting, reading fiction and my women's group book. Trying to balance work, fun, food, relaxation.