Smitten Kitchen fans, over here!

[IAmRubyLennox]

I was going to post this on the low-cost meals thread but I've got a terrible habit of hijacking threads, so I thought I'd better start my own!

smittenkitchen.com/ Smitten Kitchen is fab, can't wait for her book to come out.

I love the fact that she's pretty fat & sugar conscious too. OK, there's some cake recipes on there that are never going to be health food, but if you read the description of how she developed the recipe, she's often changed other versions to reduce vast quantities of sugar.

Anyway, do any other SK fans want to tell me what they've been cooking from this site?

I've done the asparagus pizza, which was delish, also the blueberry crumb bars (did a Christmas version too with orange and cranberry), also apple latkes, and the mango slaw... oh, so many things

Ohhh, I'd forgotten about this website.
In the summer I made the Ricotta and Zuccini Galette which was delicious.

Havent seen this site, shall check it out!

Coming late to this thread but maybe we can revive it :)

I love Smitten Kitchen, I love the pictures & the writing. But I haven't yet cooked anything from this blog even though I've been following it for ages. Perhaps we can try out a few things (simple main meal weekday recipes) & compare notes? Anyone interested?

Oooh, I love her site too. Can recommend the cream-cheese brownie recipe.....

What a wonderful site!!

Have seen this and HAVE to make it as soon as my rhubarb comes through. Is there an easy way to translate to UK measurements or should I just bite the bullet and buy some measuring cups?

It's very easy to do the converting in sites such as this.

lovely! thanks Maria

Love that site too! It's amazing.

My favourite recipe is the tomato sauce with butter. It's amazing here

Oh and her wee son is gorgeous i want one just like him!

HopefortheBest, yes let's try a few recipes & see how we go. Sorry I didn't see this earlier.

Chard & white bean stew looks like something I would love eating (but not my DP), and I'd be happy to try it asap. Shall we go for it?

The other thing we might do which might be a bit more productive is if each of us tries a different weekday meal from SK, and then we can recommend it or not.

Anyone else up for it?

Can I be the cake tester? I made the buttermilk and vanilla layer cake with swiss buttercream last week, and it was very nice indeed, sandwiched with cherry conserve.

I've got a couple of birthday cakes coming up, so I'm auditioning recipes and using it as an excuse to gorge on cake. I spent all morning today reading Deb's celebration cakes section, and I think I'm going to try the pink lady cake next.

The World Peace Cookies and David Leite's chocolate chip cookie are both delicious.

Is the tomato sauce with butter the Marcella Hazan recipe? I think I tried that after seeing it on Orangette, and it was nice, but not as special as I'd hoped from the write-up.

Ooh, also just remembered I made the curried sweet potato and lentils last week. So nice it's coming out again tomorrow!

Yes, I like the raspberry buttermilk and the youghurt cakes. Very tasty.

Also liked the blueberry crumb bars a lot. They get rave reviews. Oh and the cream cheese choc brownies are also excellent.

I make the tomato with butter sauce with passata which might help the flavour - I think you do need really good tinned tomatoes to make it work - not just tesco own brand (which I use for most everthing).

I just posted a link to Smitten Kitchen on another thread, and thought to myself, it deserves its own thread! I love her love of food, the fresh tomato sauce is one of my favourites. DH loves her love of chocloate/peanuts. I made him this for his birthday.

Good that there's now quite a few Smitten Kitchen fans here! So who's up to trying out some recipes & letting the others know about the results?

The chard & white bean stew that HopefortheBest suggested sounds lovely. I think I'll try making it in the next few days & let everyone know how it went.

The raspberry buttermilk one looks lovely. I'm very tempted to try it this weekend (although I have a Victoria Sponge in the oven at the moment)

These potatoes are amazing

Have made many things from SK, she rocks!! I have made her empanadas - amazing, everyone adores them,

the pink lady cake for my niece - very cutesy and nice cake

crumb bars - big tick

brownie cookies - hard to get right but good when you do

her indian recipes -the caulflower and potato curry is yum if you add in some tomato and lemon juice towards the end

she inspired me to try the ottolenghi cauliflower cake - it's utterly delicious

artichoke olive crostini - tasty

dimply plum cake - mmmm

spinach quiche - great meat free supper

I'm sure Ive done others but can remember them all!

Trying to cook more new things this year so will keep an eye on this thread for what to try next!

Recipes OK but if it's full of writing like this, I won't be able to read it...

'...makes for a soup that literally smacks you in the face (or perhaps knocks you off your stool) with flavor.'

No it doesn't. Soup does not have arms.

Argh.

I love her blue cheese scallion drop scones. In summer I make the carrot, feta and harissa salad pretty much every weekend...it's so good!

Ok those scones do sound delicious.

hopeforthebest please tell us more about your meal planning...ok, pls just tell me. I have an entire fridge of mouldering veg because I am such an impulse buyer. I go to the supermarket most days because I don't decide what I'm eating till the last minute - but would happily be guided!

Do you cook something new each week? I aim for this but don't always succeed.

Hi Painfullyhonest, I too do a bit of meal planning & even though it often falls apart, mostly it goes well.

What has worked really well is to restrict red meat to just one day a week (and sometimes we have some meat on our 'pasta night' too, but not always). So then we have, each week: 1 meat meal (on a weekend), 1 chicken / poultry, 1 fish, 1 pasta / risotto, and 3 evening meals with veggies, pulses, vegetarian pies etc. So far this system has worked well.

I then also make a short list of lunches that I want to try out during the week or snacks for my DS. This list, as I said, is much shorter, & I just follow it when & if. But I try to use up these ingredients too during the week.

The other thing that has worked really well is to make a basic, short list of meals that I know the whole family likes as both my DP & DS are super fussy! I've put those meals into categories eg pasta, fish, meat etc, and then I base my meal planning each week mainly on that list, adding 1-2 different things each week, but mainly keeping everyone boringly happy with things I know they like.

Hope this helps? I'm sure Hopeforthebest can give us better ideas.

Just to warn you though, I too had to throw out a mouldering aubergine yesterday, as well as a few other rotten vegetables which I had forgotten in the cupboard. No meal plan can avoid that kind of thing happening unless you're super super organised (which I'm not) & follow the meal plan to the letter (which I don't) .