Weekend Cooking: Adventures with Bon Appetit

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Although I love my cookbooks and the Internet, I still get a few magazines. My all-time favorite was Gourmet (moment of silence for its passing), which I subscribed to from about 1978 until it ceased publication. I've gotten Bon Appetit for the same number of years, and I look forward to each issue.

I know it's going to sound corny, but I have a routine when I get a new issue of a cooking magazine in the mail. I like to sit down with a cup of coffee or tea and a pack of sticky flags and mark all the recipes that look good to me. (See the markers sticking out of the top of the magazines in the photo?). Then I try to make one or two of those dishes.

I thought I'd share some of my adventures with Bon Appetit over the last three months. I am not a very good food photographer (yes, I need to work on that), so I've used the photos found on the magazine's website. All the dishes I tried are found there; follow the links for the recipes.

March

The cover of the March issue is soups, and I'm one of those people who could eat soup almost every single day. I had marked a few to try, like Chicken and Biscuits, but for some reason I never made any of them. Well, I know the reason: I'm insanely busy in March and don't do much cooking. What I did make was a wonderful Beer-Marinated Pork Tenderloin with Red Cabbage. I made this with boneless pork chops (because that's what was in the freezer) and instead of baking it in the oven, I grilled it. The cabbage is a side dish and was yummy.

April

The April cover is the one you see in the photo above. Doesn't that stack of pancakes look awesome? I didn't make them, but boy were they tempting. Instead I celebrated spring with a flavorful White Bean and Radish Salad. We had it as a side dish with grilled cheese sandwiches and then ate it for lunch during the week. This is a definite keeper and would be terrific at a summer cookout or on a buffet.

For my husband's birthday, I made the Strip Steak with Onion Marmalade. This was good, but I didn't use their suggested seasoning, which I thought was going to be way too salty. The butter baste (hey, it was a birthday!) didn't really add anything to the flavor,  so wouldn't do that again. We liked the onion marmalade, though, and put it in the grilled cheese sandwiches I mentioned earlier. Now that was an wonderful discovery.

May

May's cover featured a gigantic fried-chicken sandwich. I'm not that interested in fried food, but I did find a few fabulous recipes. Have you ever made a savory bread pudding? If not, you should give them a try. They are the ultimate comfort food. We loved the Parmesan Bread Pudding with Broccoli Rabe and Pancetta so much, we were tempted to eat the whole pan in one sitting. Really, it was that good. I used regular bacon because I had it in the house, but other than that, I pretty much followed the directions.

We also really liked the Steak and Soba Stir-Fry, although I'm not sure if I really needed a recipe for such a simple dish. Another winner was the Brown Rice and Beans with Ginger Chile Salsa, served with avocado and Cotija cheese. This stood on its own for dinner but would go well with tacos or enchiladas if you wanted to add meat to your meal.

I still have a lot more recipes to try from these issues of Bon Appetit. Sometime this summer, I'll reassess the likelihood that I'm really going to make any of the others, and cut out and file the ones that still look good.

Photo credits: the three food photos are from Bon Appetit.