Tom was away on a motorcycle trip this week so I got to try recipes for foods that he wouldn’t like.  It started on Friday with Vermont Cheddar, Beer and Mushroom Soup.  I didn’t have access to wild mushrooms so used these gourmet mushrooms instead.

Here are the vegetables and spices simmering with the ale.

And here it is after the stock, cream and cheese are added.

And here it is in my bowl with a side of IPA.  This was really yummy.  

I had bought a lot of spinach and mushrooms for upcoming recipes so made some spinach salad lunches with the extra using my favorite recipe.  

I made some Muffin cups eggs for breakfasts.  This recipe came in a newsletter from my medical insurance company, but it sounded intriguing so I thought I would try it.  You preheat the oven to 350F and spray a 12 muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray.  You then break one eggs into each cup.

You then sprinkled them with a total of 1/2 cup finely chopped onions, 1/4 cup finely chopped chives, and fresh ground pepper.

Then you bake them for 15-20 minutes until the eggs are not runny in the middle.

You cool them for 5 minutes in the tins before removing and eating.  I ate a couple and then store the rest in the refrigerator for breakfasts the rest of the week.  I will admit I was sick of them by the end of the week so opted for yogurt and berries this morning instead.  But prior to that they were really good.  I did try to warm some up yesterday morning in the microwave, and one exploded all over.  So I would recommend against that or at least fork them first.  

For Sunday dinner I used the Thai-Style Curried Coconut Chicken Soup recipe.  I used our cooked turkey breast and stock instead of chicken.  I skipped the kaffir limes leaves as I did not have any, and I used spinach for the greens.  Here it is as the spinach is put in.

And here it is all cooked up.

And here it is in my bowl for dinner.  This was really yummy and exotic.  A great use for leftover turkey in my mind.

For Monday lunch, instead of another spinach salad I made Deviled California Avocados.  For this recipe I skipped the toasted bread crumbs and just made the eggs salad, stuffed it in the avocados and sprinkled smoked paprika on top.  These were really good and highly recommended.

For Monday dinner, I made Asparagus Pie.  I skipped the pie crust and just put the filling into olive oil sprayed bowls.  I couldn’t find double cream so used heavy whipping cream.  You cannot get Västerbottensost is the United States (although we ate a lot of it in Sweden, so good!).  I didn’t have the inclination to drive to Ballard to pick up a substitute Scandinavian cheese so I substituted Irish cheddar.  This is probably sacrilege.  I did toast the pine nuts though and had plenty leftover for later snacking.  Here is the pies going into the oven.

And here they are coming out.  They were really good, and I will be making these again in the future.

So Wednesday for dinner I made Smoked Salmon Pea Wiggle over Roasted Vegetables.  So this was somewhat adventurous as I have never heard of a Wiggle before, and I usually do not use canned salmon.  I skipped the potatoes (limiting carbs) so only roasted cauliflower and mushrooms.  I put the mushrooms in 10 minutes after the cauliflower and that worked out well.  

This is the milk-based sauce cooking.

And here it is with the salmon, fresh herbs and peas added.  

And here is the whole thing on my plate with some smoked salmon garnish.  This was really tasty and fairly economical too.  

Last night I was courageous and made Paul Hollywood’s Twice-baked Stilton Soufflés.  I skipped the Lavash Crackers though.  I love blue cheese so thought this would be tasty.  Plus it is always fun to try a British baking recipe.  I sadly do not have 6 dariole moulds so used bowls instead.  Here are the soufflés coming out of the oven for the first time.  

Then you scarily have to “turn out” the soufflés onto a lined lipped tray.  You put the glaze on top and then baked them again.  Here is one of these soufflés on my dinner plate with yet another spinach salad on the side.  Since I used bowls instead of the moulds, my soufflés are much bigger.  Plus I was trying to use up the last of the spinach and dressing so this ended up being a large meal.  But it was delicious and elegant.

I realized that I ended up making a lot of dishes out of our eggs.  It is because Tom is not a fan of eating eggs, and this was an opportunity for me to try some interesting recipes using our abundance of them.  But now I am tired of eggs so will likely avoid them for a little bit.  I made lots of leftovers this week, much of which ended up in our freezer for future meals. So that is always nice.  And I got to try some recipes that I have been saving for a while for an opportunity to try them.  This was fun.  Most of the recipes are reasonably healthy too (if you are not concerns about cholesterol), and I manage to lose some of my steroid weight in the process, always good.  Feel free to try some of these recipes yourselves, and let me know what you think.