A Nitro Finish (Cream Whipper Chocolate Mousse 100/100)

My first post for this project was in April of 2017. It's finishing in September of 2019. I wanted to close with dessert to celebrate the 2+ year journey. Enter the chocolate mousse, which is only the second thing I've made with the nitrogen charged cream whipper I picked up to make pancakes. This mousse is mostly melted chocolate mixed with coffee and a little sugar.

So much chocolate 

I really need to put cream in the cream whipper someday

It was delicious, though I prefer the chocolate chess pie in a dessert showdown.

Victory is Sweet

My big goal with this project was to push myself to try new things. That worked out. I wouldn't have predicted shrimp and grits would get raves, but it did. Same for a grilled squid salad. I'm hugely grateful to all the friends and family who let me feed them experiments, loaned equipment (I still have one co-workers ice cream maker, she's in no rush to have it returned) and generally cheered me on. 

For reference, this is everything that got made (though not in the same order as the list). My top 10 favorites are marked. So long, and thanks for all the fish. 

1. Breakfast Carbonara 
2. Always Perfect Oatmeal (Favorite)
3. Buttermilk Lassi
4. Blueberry Pound Cake (Favorite)
5. Pho Bo
6. Oatmeal Banana Bread
7. BCLT Tacos
8. Little Brown Biscuits 
9. Grits with Shrimp
10. Chilaquiles
11. Overnight Coconut Oats
12. Nitrous Pancakes
13. Mr. Crunchy 
14. Scrambled Eggs V3.0
15. The Greens
16. The Black-Eyed Peas
17. The Corn Bread
18. Seedy Date Bars
19. Cold Brew Coffee
20. Peach "Cobbles"
21. Amaranth Wafers
22. Lacquered Bacon
23. Apple Spice Bundt Cake with Rum Glaze
24. No-Can Tomato Soup 
25. Grilled Cheese Grilled Sandwich
26. BBQ Potato Chips
27. My Big Fat Greek Chicken Salad
28. Tossed Beet Salad
29. Mushroom Wheat Berry Pilaf
30. Turkey Sliders
31. Beale Street Cheeseburger 
32. Smokey the Meatloaf
33. Roast Broccoli Hero (Favorite)
34. Roasted Thanksgiving Salad 
35. Fish Sticks and Custard
36. Black Beans/Brown Rice (Favorite)
37. Chicken Parmesan Balls (Favorite)
38. "Enchilasagna" or "Lasagnalada"
39. Oyster Po'Boy
40. Iceberg Slaw
41. The Final Turkey
42. Not Just Another Kale Salad
43. Green Grape Cobbler
44. Butterscotch Puddin'
45. Brown on Blonde (Favorite)
46. Kick-In-The-Pants Smoothies
47. Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies
48. Thai Iced Tea
49. Savory Greek Yogurt Dip
50. Crispy Chickpeas
51. Red, Red Wine (Sangria)
52. Zissou's Buffet of Underwater Delights
53. Cucumber Lime Yogurt Pops
54. Fiery Ginger Ale Concentrate 
55. Onion Oxtail Soup
56. Chicken Piccata
57. Cocoa Nib Vinaigrette
58. Kimchi Crab Cakes
59. Barbecue Pork Butt
60. Mussels-O-Miso
61. Bourbon Bread Pudding
62. Bad Day Bitter Martini
63. Char-Burgers (Favorite)
64. One Pot Chicken
65. Heavenly Orbs of Belgian Goodness
66. Weeknight Spaghetti
67. Cream Whipper Chocolate Mousse
68. Garam Masalmon Steaks
69. Pumpkin Cheesecake
70. Salisbury Steak
71. Snapper-Dome (Favorite)
72. Smokey Tequila Sour
73. Mushroom Stroganoff
74. Turkey Tikka Masala
75. Totally Panini-Pressed Dinner
76. Grilled Squid Salad
77. Peach Punch Pops
78. The General's Fried Chicken
79. Preserved Lemons-ade
80. Quick Preserved Lemons
81. Pate de Sardine
82. Hot Saltine Hack
83. Salty Chocolaty Peanut Buttery Crunchy Bars
84. Grilled Shishitos
85. Roasted Chili Salsa
86. The Last Pizza Dough I'll Ever Need
87. Barley Water 
88. Chuan'r
89. Watermelon Campari Sorbet
90. Cider House Fondue
91. Chocolate Chess Pie (Favorite)
92. Cockpit Shrimp Cocktail 
93. St. Louis Ribs
94. Fried Rice
95. Midnight Mug Cake For 2
96. Chili Glazed Wings
97. Chocapocalpse Cookies
98. Open Sesame Noodles
99. Jungle Bird
100. Tomorrow, French Fries 

Cockpit Shrimp Cocktail (99/100)

The second to last recipe on my list was a shrimp cocktail. I made it for a picnic we went to. The 1.5 lbs of shrimp gets de-veined, brined, broiled, and the peeled before serving.

After the brining and broiling.

The sauce is simpler, everything gets tossed in the food processor. Smoked almonds, tomatoes, chili paste, horseradish, Worcestershire, lime... I knew it was going to have some kick.

The shrimp came out well, but the sauce the real hit. People were spooning it onto some of the other meats and salads (especially a quinoa vegetable salad). The sauce to shrimp ratio is radically tilted towards the sauce, we didn't even eat a quarter of the sauce before the shrimp ran out. Good thing it will go with a lot stuff.

Difficult Level: Medium

Will It Get Made Again? I won't voluntarily de-vein shrimp again if I don't have to. The shrimp isn't enough better than already prepped shrimp I can get from the grocery store the prep time and effort worth it. The sauce goes well with a lot of meat and veggies though, and may get requested for a repeat.

Grilled Cheese Grilled Sandwich (98/100)

Technically what we typically call grilled cheese sandwiches are griddled, not grilled. Alton Brown's response to this is to come up with a version that is literally grilled. This also makes it one of the labor intensive ways you could come up with to make a sandwich.
Both the cheese and the bread are grilled. To grill the cheese you'll need to take a grill spatula, wrap it in foil, pile shredded cheese on, and let it melt on the grill. Then after you've dumped the cheese onto the bread, you wrap the sandwich in more foil and grill heat the sandwich packet to finish the process.

The big question here was always going to be is it worth it? I have to go with no. I'll stick with the panini press or the griddle going forward. It's not that it was a bad sandwich, but for the amount of prep and cooking time, it would need to be amazing.

Difficulty Level: Medium
Will It Get Made Again? No, the effort to reward ratio fails.

Grilled Squid Salad (97/100)

This recipe is actually a great example of why I started this project. I wanted a reason to get out of outside my comfort zone and try new things. Grilling squid checks those boxes (the farro mixed in with the salad was also new to my kitchen).
I was nervous about the texture, but I did a test batch on the grill to get the timing (which for me turned out to be less than listed in the book) and was pleasantly surprised. The squid gets grilled with a salt, pepper, sumac, and cumin mix that gives it a nice kick.

Non-rubbery squid, victory!

The friend I fed some of the salad to declared that this proves kale can be tasty. The salad base has red onion, farro (cooking directions for the farro are not included, but are easily found on the internet), olives, and kale. It all ends up balancing really nicely.

Healthy, yet still tasty.

Difficulty Level: Medium

Will It Get Made Again? I'd make this again on request, but the reality check is that is squid isn't going to the regular dinner rotation.

St. Louis Ribs (96/100)

My next door neighbor loves to smoke meat. He was easily persuaded to loan one of his smokers for a day in exchange for a share of the ribs.

Smokin'

20 minutes after picking up his share, he called to say how good they were. He called again later specifically to ask about the rub recipe (which calls for starting from whole spices and grinding them). I sent another 1/2 rack home to a friend, who will be making me something tasty from her kitchen in exchange. One of the great things about making food is sharing it with people, this BBQ was a success.

This leaves only 4 recipes left before this project is complete!

Difficulty Level: Medium
Will It Get Made Again? This was fun to do once, but I'm not planning to invest in a large smoker of my own yet.

Zissou's Buffet of Underwater Delights

I wasn't feeling especially patriotic for the 4th of July this year, but I did take the opportunity to be grateful for my family and take time with them. When I pitched a big seafood boil for the day, the rest of the family got onboard enthusiastically.
I live in the Midwest, where the typical seafood boil is full of fish, corn, and potatoes. There's probably Old Bay seasoning involved (nothing wrong with that). This one has the corn and potatoes, but also an Asian fusion twist. The cooking liquid is loaded with soy sauce, ginger, garlic, chili sauce, and five spice powder. The seafood is a mix of shrimp, clams, mussels, and lobster.

Alton has a method for the layers of ingredients, with the basic goal being that the clams and mussels will be above the liquid line, so that they steam rather than boil. It worked; everything had just the texture we wanted. Plus it smelled great. It was a better day than any parade in DC.

My aaunt gets credit for looking at the whole garlic cloves that were in it and realizing that the best thing to do was squeeze them onto bread as a side.

Difficulty Level: Easy (Seriously, the prep time is minimal and the cooking time is speedy. You can strip the directions down to pile in first batch of ingredients into the pot, bring to boil. Add steamer insert piled with seafood, walk away for 12 minutes. Dump resulting goodness onto platter and eat)

Will It Get Made Again? I don't typically have occasions that call for a seafood boil (and lobster is $$$) but if I have a reason, I wouldn't hesitate to do it again.

Barbecue Pork Butt on a Summer Day

This is the type of recipe that takes some planning, but very little actual effort. You need to brine the pork overnight, and it'll spend most of the day cooking. You'll be rewarded with pork so tender it falls off the bone.

Sometimes the best things come wrapped in foil.

This piece of pork butt spend the night brining in a molasses and salt bath, then got smoked for 4 hours and slow roasted for another 3 and 1/2 hours. As promised, this is gets you pork that will never need a knife to be shredded. I garnished the sandwiches with some local BBQ sauce and pickles. No regrets.

Difficulty Level: Easy

Will It Get Made Again? If I need smoked pork, sure thing.

FabricQuest Gets A Kick In The Pants (Kick-In-The-Pants Smoothies)

Some recipes I need an excuse to make. In this case the excuse I was looking for was a morning craft store run with a friend who was guiding me on a quest for lining fabric for a costume I'm having made. I asked her if we should do this with or without coffee smoothies and got an enthusiastic "with".

Travel smoothies 

If you like chocolate, fruit, and coffee you'll want to make these smoothies. Even non-coffee drinkers like myself liked this one, and my friend Loved it. Plus, I got the lining fabric.

Difficulty Level: Easy*

Will It Get Made Again? My friend is hoping yes, and these are simple enough that it won't be a hard sell to repeat.

*You do need to make the cold brew coffee the night before so that it can steep, but that takes less than 10 minutes to prep

Fish Stories (Garam Masalmon Steaks)

My aunt and uncle go fishing in Alaska every year, and catch their own supply of salmon and halibut. So when we scheduled a winter escape from Wisconsin to their place in Florida for a week (ducking an ice storm as we left) I asked if we could break out some salmon for this project. A large fillet was liberated from their stash.

Note, this isn't actually the cut that the recipe calls for, but when life hands you salmon that you can trace back to the boat it was caught on, you go with the fish less processed.

The fish is rubbed in a homemade spice rub; starting from whole spices, toasting them, then grinding them.

Are you grinding your own spices? Of course you are.

Toss it onto the grill, and voila.

Note the lack of snow in the background...

Dinner

The family was pleasantly surprised by how much they liked the spicing (my uncle was nervous about the fennel). Dinner was declared a success.

Difficulty Level: Medium

Will It Get Made Again? Unlikely. The spice blend is good but not addictive, and salmon is expensive in the Midwest. This is going down as a vacation food, not a staple.

The manatee has nothing to do with the recipe, it's just a cool souvenir photo from swimming with them on the trip.

Happy Thanksgiving (Roasted Thanksgiving Salad)

This year I am grateful that I got a quiet, low-stress holiday. There was plenty of good food, including the thematically named Roasted Thanksgiving Salad.
This salad is full of sweet potatoes, parsnips, red onions, and quinoa (plus a few other things). It's both tasty and pretty healthy, which is a bonus.
Roast your veg, cook the quinoa with some cinnamon, toss with a maple vinaigrette, some apple, and pepitas. Enjoy.

Everything but the turkey and pie in a bowl.

Difficulty Level: Medium

Will It Get Made Again? I've actually made this before (pre-cookbook project), so that's yes. This isn't a super common salad in my house, but it definitely passes muster.

Grits with Shrimp

I sent a group of friends the remaining list of recipes on the project list, and asked them if there was anything they's especially like to try for a party. They picked Grits with Shrimp. I was surprised, but it was a good excuse to make it. It did mean that I was hunting for whole, out-of-season shrimp in the Midwest though. After calling 5 seafood places, I found one that had some.
These are not fast grits. Step one is take your whole shrimp, chop off the heads and tails, peel them, and use the head/tails/shrimp shells to make the stock you're going to cook the grits in. The grits and the now peeled shrimp brine in the shrimp stock for at least 6 hours before cooking.
The final cooking goes much faster. The question was, would it be worth the effort?
The grits were an unqualified hit at the party; everyone loved them, including me. I was impressed, because normally I don't like grits. These however come out super creamy and flavorful, full points to Alton for the technique.

Declared by several people better than restaurant versions.

Difficulty Level: Medium (mostly due to having to peel and de-vein shrimp)
Will It Get Made Again? If I had a special enough occasion, I could be talked into the repeating this. They're really good, but they're also expensive and time-consuming. If I ever move somewhere that shrimp is cheaper, the odds that this would get made more often go up.