#BookClubCookbookCC: Allons-y a la France!

So.
It's time for a new month of the #BookClubCookbookCC!  Thanks to our leader, Camilla from Culinary Adventures with Camilla, I'm so excited to be hosting again.  I'm even more excited that we're giving away not one but two copies of the cookbook!  But let's start at the beginning.
This month, I invite you to join us and read Joanne Harris' Chocolat.

I've seen the film...but I haven't finished the book yet.  After report cards and our move (which is complete...not that I can find anything).  The movie is wonderful.  I don't see how the book won't be too.
Read it, and make Hot Cocoa, totally not the drink for this time of year, except maybe breakfast.  But this would be delicious.  Homemade hot cocoa is always the best.  Read, make a recipe, and enter the giveaway.  It really is that simple.  Everything you need to know is after the jump.
I present to you now from the Book Club Cookbook by Judy Gelman and Vicki Levy Krupp, Hot Cocoa:

#SecretRecipeClub: Lemon Blueberry Muffins

So.
It's time for the Secret Recipe Club!  I once again turned to carbs for a quick snack that used up things in my fridge and freezer.
Today's post is also celebrating our move to the new house.  While I was excited (and still am), it's finally sinking in that I'm losing my kitchen that we renovated a couple of years ago.  No more super deep sink and crazy amount of cabinet space.  But no matter.  We already are hatching plans to renovate.  So let's celebrate the last SRC in my old kitchen, shall we?
This month, I was sent to explore Lori's blog over at Lori's Culinary Creations.  Lori lives in Utah with a menagerie of pets.  She had tons of delicious things to choose from, like Hamburger Pasta Casserole and a Buffalo Chicken Quinoa Skillet but I was drawn to a breakfast food that used up things in my freezer.  Yes, once again I chose to make carbs.  But what a way to go!
I present to you now from Lori's Culinary Creations, Lemon Blueberry Muffins:

#SRC Bonus Post: Moist Chocolate Cake

So.
With 5 Mondays in the month, we're having an extra edition of the Secret Recipe Club!  It's all about BBQs, Picnics and Potlucks. Normally, I do a reveal with the other members of Group A the first Monday of the month (that's coming up next week!).  But with the fifth Monday, our intrepid leader Sarah put out the call for a special event - one where you can be paired with anyone else from the club.  Fun, right?  We always have a few BBQs and so on to go to in the summer, so I thought it sounded like a great opportunity to go looking for something new and different.
I should pause here to say that right now my house is a shambles.  Next Monday J and I are moving.  The fact that I signed up to do this and my regular reveal day means that I just might be certifiable.  But whatever.
I was happy to be paired with a blog that was totally new to me:  Loving Life.  Kirstin is a wife and mom who blogs about food, home, and life.  She lives in the Pacific Northwest, a place I have visited once but know very little about.
I enjoyed going through her recipes, knowing I needed a dessert for my Home Church BBQ.  What I discovered?  She doesn't blog about dessert like I do...and many of them are SRC recipes (I make a lot of desserts for SRC too), but never mind.  She had lots of yummy looking things, like Blackberry Balsamic Salmon and Lasagna Bread as well as the Candied Spiced Chickpeas that I bought the chickpeas to make and never got that far.  But no matter.  I did find a dessert, and a delicious one at that.
I present to you now Loving Life's Moist Chocolate Cake:

Revenge of the Magazine Challenge: Roasted Chicken Fajita Tostadas

So.
It's Cinco de Mayo today.  I know nothing about this holiday, but think it might have something to do with Mexican Independence.  What I do know is that it's an excuse to drink margaritas and eat Mexican-inspired food according to the interwebs.  For food bloggers, this also means that we post Mexican-inspired food posts.
I can get down with that.
The April 2008 issue of Everyday Food had an article on Lighter Tex-Mex favourites.  I marked 3 of the recipes as things I want to make (these tostadas, fish tacos and stuffed poblano peppers).  Based on the results from this recipe, the others will be delicious too.
I present to you now from the April 2008 issue of Everyday Food, Roasted Chicken Fajita Tostadas:

#BookClubCookbookCC: Pearl Earring Roundup and Breakfast!

So.
It's been a month since I issued the invitation to join the #BookClubCookbookCC and read Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier before making Griet's Vegetable Soup or something else inspired by the book.
I'm going to start with what others made before talking about my own literal dish that J and I ate on a Saturday morning while listening to Stuart McLean and the Vinyl Cafe.
Let's see what the crew made, shall we?

Andrea from Adventures in All Things Food made a Rainy Day Vegetable Soup with the vegetables that she could find...but I don't think I'd like turnip in my soup.  Mini red skinned potatoes are much more appealing!

Likewise, Ashley of Cheese Curd in Paradise opted to make a Quick Vegetable Soup for a weeknight dinner.  With tomatoes, this looks a lot like a soup that people in this house would enjoy!

Emily from Life On Food made the soup from the cookbook.  Doesn't it look delicious?  With a Spring that doesn't seem to be warming up, soup is still in regular rotation here.  Good way to chase away the chill.

Finally, Wendy from A Day in the Life on the Farm made a Colour Your Palate Soup with a pun on the painter's palatte and the zinginess that this soup would bring to your own tasting palate.

Renee at Tortillas and Honey decided to take inspiration from the book, and make a dinner like one described in the book with her Herbed Roast Chicken with Potatoes and Parsnips.  I love roasted parsnips.  This looks lovely.

Likewise, Camilla from Culinary Adventures with Camilla took inspiration from Griet's relationship with the butcher's son and made Lamskoteletten op zijn oud-Hollands (Lamb chops old-Dutch style.  I love lamb, and never cook it.  Now I'm hungry.

Finally, Erin of the Spiffy Cookie thought outside the box, and took the vegetables and bacon of the soup and made a spring-like Bacon and Vegetable Pizza.

But what did I do, you ask?  Well, I went literal.

On a cool Saturday morning, I made a Dutch Baby with Lemon Blueberry Sauce.  (Recipe after the jump).

Secret Recipe Club: Chicken and Vegetable Cobbler

So.
It's time again for the Secret Recipe Club!  When last we left our heroine, she was once again eating carbs and enjoying Pumpkin Muffins.  This month, I took a slightly different tact when looking for a recipe.
The blog I was assigned was one that I am familiar with because we've been involved in other projects together.  I was pleased to have a chance to explore Adventures in All Things Food written by Andrea.  Andrea lives on a farm, has really cute kids, and is crafty.  But she does also cook.
I decided that I didn't want to be just baking again this month.  I mean, I love to bake, and with Andrea's participation in #BundtBakers there were some amazing cakes to choose from (including my favourite cake, Pineapple Upsidedown Cake; or how about Rum Rocky Road??)  But I decided that I wanted to make an entree, so I searched chicken, and came up with something yummy.
When I first told J I wanted to make a chicken cobbler, he looked at me a little oddly.  Like myself, I reserve the use of the word "cobbler" for a fruit dessert.  But with this casserole chock full of chicken and vegetables under a crispy topping, baked in the dish that I would normally make the fruit dish, I am more than willing to make an exception.  But whatever.  When the weather won't warm up, this was a welcome dinner.  On a miserable and drizzly night, we were warmed from the inside out.
I present to you now from Adventures in All Things Food, Chicken and Vegetable Cobbler:

Magazine Challenge: May Planning

So.
It's May.
In education, when you come back after March Break, there is one month left, affectionately known as "Aprilmayjune". We have added to the insanity by deciding to move.
The house closes June 3, and we're moving June 6.  I have to pack.  And empty my freezer.  It's scary.
But enough about what's going on around here.  My absence around these parts has been due to not really cooking while trying to sell a house.  Now I need to use up the supplies of things that I have amassed to use at "some point", like 3 pork tenderloins.  Or a rather large rack of ribs.
The May 2008 issue of Everyday Food may help in some regards.  I was commenting to J that it's the first issue where I've actually made a few things.  But let's get on to the list of 6, shall we?
Here's what I'd like to make from this issue:

• Better-than-Basic Muffins
• Hamburger and Grape Tomato Pizza
• Sausage and Asparagus Saute over Soft Polenta
• Spinach and Feta Turnovers
• Grilled Greek Chicken Kebabs with Feta and Mint Sauce
• Roasted Carrots with Honey

I think I've made the Pizza, and I make the Sausage and Asparagus Saute regularly.  The rest of this list looks doable.  Here's to May and packing!

Secret Recipe Club: Pumpkin Oat Muffins

So.
It's time for April's edition of the Secret Recipe Club!  For those of you who don't know, the Secret Recipe Club is a group of foodie bloggers who are assigned each other in secret.  We then stalk visit each other's blogs, choose a recipe, make it and all reveal who had who and who made what on the same day at the same time.  It's a lot of fun, and I always enjoy learning about a new blogger each month.
This month, I was assigned Anna's blog from over at bcmom's kitchen.  There were so many amazing things to choose from.  I always seemed to be one ingredient short, and I didn't want to go to the store.  I considered her Raspberry Swirl Bread (which I am going to make because it looks amazing!), and I wished I had an occasion worthy of her Caramel Rolls.  I also had some feta in the fridge, and still really want to make Spinach and Feta Stuffed Chicken, but I'll have to buy a bottle of sundried tomatoes.
I finally found a recipe for which I was sure I had everything.  I was so very, very wrong.  But that was okay.  I figured it out.
I present to you now bcmom's Pumpkin Oat Muffins:

#BookClubCookbookCC: An Invitation

So.
Earlier this week, I posted my recipe for March's book in the year long project of the Book Club Cookbook Cooking Crew that Camilla of Culinary Adventures with Camilla has headed up with a group of great bloggers.  I'm thrilled that in the month of April I am hosting the party.
I'm so happy that April's book is Tracy Chevalier's Girl With a Pearl Earring.

While I saw the film when it first came out, I didn't read this until I selected it as this month's read.
It's even better as a book.
Even without Colin Firth.
Read it, and make Griet's Vegetable Soup, or take inspiration from the pages and make something else.  Then enter the giveaway (below the recipe, after the jump).  Start by considering the soup:

#BookClubCookbookCC: Crockpot Baked Beans

So.
It's time for another installment of the Book Club Cookbook Cooking Crew!  Once a month, for 1 year, a group of bloggers led by Camilla of Culinary Adventures with Camilla are cooking from Judy Gelman and Vicki Levy Krupp's Book Club Cookbook.  This month, Emily of Life on Food invited us to Make a Charlotte Russe and read A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.

I should start by admitting that I didn't read the book.  I planned to, and time got away from me.  I read the notes in the cookbook and Wikipedia's synopsis (as my teacher's soul withered and died), and planned to make a hearty bread to go with the turn of the century story of a family struggling to survive in the slums of Brooklyn.
But then there seemed to be a lot of bread recipes coming from the other club members.
Then I considered the copy of the Boston Cooking School Cookbook that had belonged to my great aunt Anna to make something that was of the right era.  But then I started reading about cooking in medium ovens in buttered baking soda tins with clarified chicken fat, and I was scared off.
Finally, I decided to make something that is economical, makes a ton and can be eaten for days.  I'm always on the lookout for things that I can take in my lunch.  I'm not above eating the same thing for 3 or 4 days in a row.  This fit the bill on cold, damp days to help chase away the chill.
I present to you now from Budget Bytes Crockpot Baked Beans: