Recipe #45 - Garlicky Tomato Sauce

Let's bring the lights down.  This one goes out to all the garlic lovers out there.

If you're making your wife dinner on valentine's, maybe it's not the best idea to start with a recipe that includes 10 (10!) cloves of garlic.  But that's not how Gwen and I roll.  We both love garlic, so the effects cancelled out.

This is a modification to the easy tomato sauce recipe I posted a while back.  It was ridiculously easy, again.  By far, most of my time was spent on crushing the garlic.  The rest is to put in a pot and heat for a while and that's it.  We used it as dipping sauce for the breadsticks, but it would've been just as good or better on top of a plate of pasta.

This was seriously awesome.  One of my favorite tomato sauces ever for sure.

Modifications: Do I dare add even more garlic?

Make again?: Yes, hopefully soon

Recipe #44 - Baked Macaroni and Cheese

It's a very little known fact, but apparently Baked Macaroni and Cheese is impossible to photograph.  At least it's impossible for me because I took 6 pictures and they were all trash.  Sorry about that.

Luckily, the food was a bit better.  I cooked some macaroni about 90% of the way done, then set aside and cooled off with some water.  Next, I mixed milk, cheddar and parmesan cheeses, and some spices together.  I combined those, set them in a baking dish then topped with breadcrumbs and more cheese.  The end result was pretty good, but not as crazy decadent as you might think.  I think if that's what you're going for, you would want whole milk or maybe even heavy cream and quite a bit more cheese.

That said, I liked it, Gwen liked it, and even my niece and nephew liked it.  And if you can please 3 and 4 year olds with macaroni and cheese, obviously you're on the right track.

Modifications: Different cheeses, more cheese, whole milk

Make again?: Yes, but maybe a bit more splurging on the ingredients next time.

Recipe #43 - Linguini with Olive Oil and Garlic

I love Top Chef, but I hate how all their recipes describe every single ingredient in the dish.  Somehow, I got over that hangup and made this for Gwen since I know she likes this sort of thing.

I usually lean towards pasta sitting in a bathtub level of tomato sauce, but occasionally I will compromise on something simple like this.  The recipe was pretty vague on the amount of the ingredients to use, but I guess that makes sense since this is very simple and easy to adjust to taste.  If you're not in the mood to make a sauce or even open a jar, this is definitely a good way to go.  I think the key is to have good olive oil, because that's really all you'll be tasting.  And don't use too much, because it goes a long way.

Modifications: Some parmesan on top might've been nice

Make again?: Sure

Recipe #42 - Parmesan Breadsticks

A modification of Recipe #41.  This time, I added a good amount of grated parmesan to the dough, then cooked it exactly the same way as before.

As I'm sure you will be shocked to hear, it tasted similar but had a slight parmesan taste.  I think I could've used some more cheese to make the taste a bit more noticeable.  I also used some crappy generic cheese, so a better cheese woud've been even better.

I attached a pointless additional shot of them since they were on the same plate as the other breadsticks.

Modifications: More and better cheese

Make again?: Yes

Recipe #41 - Breadsticks

I love breadsticks.  There, I said it.  Whenever I order from Papa Johns (which is extremely rare), I always order breadsticks to dip into the various sauces.  

I've tried making them at home before with just decent results.  Generally, whenever I make pizza (which is always an adventure), I throw some of the extra dough on there as breadsticks.  This was a different dough recipe, and it's the best one I've tried so far.

Nothing fancy again, just yeast, flour, water, oil, sugar, salt, etc.  The major difference here was that I used the food processor to make the dough, not my stand mixer.  And I am now converted.  The food processor was way better, way faster, way easier to clean.  Seriously, I am not going back.  I think my stand mixer is slightly underpowered, which is why I've had some trouble with it, so this is how I'm going in the future.

Modifications: Several available, about to post one in a second.

Make again?: Definitely yes

Recipe #40 - Homemade Bread Crumbs

I've used breadcrumbs out of a can a million times. Generally they seem tasteless and so tiny that it's hard to imagine they were ever bread.

Again, this is a simple component type recipe, but I'm glad I made it.  I used italian bread and pulsed it a few times in the food processor until it was small enough. 

There are three advantages of doing it yourself:

1. you can make the crumbs whatever size you like, which is useful for different recipes.

2. you can adjust the taste easily

3. it actually does taste better and fresher

Modifications: Add spices to the crumbs, depending on the recipe

Make again?: Yes

Recipe #39 - Simple Syrup

I struggled with this one, but in the end, Gwen pointed out that if it's a recipe in the book and I tried it out, I should put it in.

The name says it's simple and the recipe follows through.  Sugar.  Water.  Heat.  That's it. 

You can use this in a ton of ways.  I put it on top of the fruit salad, but it would be good to sweeten just about anything.  It would be much better for drizzling on things than pure sugar would.

Modifications: None

Make again?: Yes

Recipe #38 - Tropical Fruit Salad

A slight twist on a normal fruit salad.  I used the coconut milk that I made in the previous recipe, along with some simple syrup (which I'll post about next).  Besides that, it's not rocket science.  Bananas, pineapple, mango, papaya, banana, strawberries and oranges cut up and put in a bowl.

It was good, and a nice desert, although not a revolution in fruit salad.  Although I guess there's only so much you can do to chopped fruit before it becomes a totally unhealthy desert entirely.  

Modifications: Better coconut milk as described before

Make again?: Yeah, but won't go out of my way.

Recipe #37 - Spicy No-Mayo Coleslaw

I am a fan of different types of coleslaw.  The typical one that comes to mind at first is the mayo based slaw that you probably ate from KFC a billion times growing up.  I am also partial to the vinegar type that is popular in North Carolina, especially on top of or served with pulled pork.

This was a different type entirely.  It used oil as the fat (despite the no mayo, I'm not sure it's any less caloric), some vinegar, but the main taste was spicyness.  I added red pepper flakes and cayenne, although another option was to use diced jalapenos.  In addition to the cabbage, there was red pepper, which I diced.  

For some reason, this just didn't seem like it came together.  On paper I would've thought that I would really like it, but it was just very forgettable.  I brought it to a party, people picked at it and said it was good, but there was a ton left.  I couldn't really get excited about eating the leftovers, and I ended up throwing a bunch away after it went bad.  It's not that it was bad, it just wasn't really good either.

Modifications: Adjust spice, use jalapenos

Make again?: No.  There are better bases to start from.

Recipe #36 - Cream Cheese Dip with Cranberries and Walnuts

Maybe it's time to get a dip thingy that is not Christmas related, but you will have to live with it for now.

This was pretty damn good, although it ages very badly.  It's a simple recipe with cream cheese, blue cheese, cranberries, walnuts and yogurt.  You can adjust the content of the ingredients to make it thicker or thinner, but I left it fairly thick.  The taste was very good.  I served it with crackers and got lots of good reviews.

BUT, this takes a massive dive downhill after a day or two.  The blue cheese goes from mild in the first serving to extremely overpowering after a day or two.  I would not make this recipe too far in advance, although the morning of should be totally fine.  Otherwise, it was really good, but I think that if you're the type of person who hates blue cheese, even the mild taste on the first day might be too much.

Modifications: Could try with other fruits and nuts

Make again?: Yes, within the appropriate time period of the event.

Recipe #35 - Chocolate Covered Peanut Brittle

An obvious takeoff on the previous peanut brittle recipe.  In this case, I covered the peanut brittle with some melted chocolate.  All the previous complaints about the brittle itself still applied, so it was hard to judge this independently.  Overall, I did think it was a nice thing to mix, if a little plain.  Maybe chocolate ganache instead of just regular chocolate would've been even better.

One thing the recipe did not suggest was putting it in the fridge after dipping in chocolate.  This was much better than trying to eat a piece of brittle with melted chocolate all over it.  Definitely needs to be refrigerated before serving.

I didn't get a good picture of this one, unfortunately.

Modifications: Try with ganache

Make again?: It's a maybe

Recipe #34 - Peanut Brittle

For the first time, I can confidently say that a recipe in How to Cook Everything seems wrong.  Peanut brittle isn't rocket science, it's just sugar, water and nuts.  Sugar is a crazy thing to cook with because of all the discrete phases it goes through at various temperatures.  

Now the problem here is that the recipe implied that I could keep the sugar on Low-Medium and it would eventually caramelize.  Maybe my stove sucks (very possible), but I could've left it there for days and it wouldn't have happened.  I compared with some recipes online and found out I had to crank up the heat, which I did.  

Now here's where I screwed up.  From what I read, I needed to pull the brittle at 290 degrees. I wasn't keeping close track, and I saw it at 300 so I pulled immediately.  When I took a second to think, I realized the sugar was still white and totally uncaramelized.  Unfortunately, it had already started forming into balls with the nuts.  I put the mix back in the pot and started cooking to get it caramelized, which I was able to do.  I think the cook-remove-cook steps ended up making a very hard brittle (oxymoron?).  Also, some of the caramel ended up burned.

Modifications: More sugar mix, less nuts.  The ratio was way off.  Cook until caramelized.

Make again?: Peanut brittle is very good, but this is not the recipe for it.

Recipe #33 - Coconut milk

A friend at work told me he had a bunch of coconuts that he didn't need and obviously, I asked him to give me some.  Now, for those of you logical humans who have not tried to open a coconut without a machete, it is RIDICULOUSLY HARD to open one.  I had to use multiple knives and some lawn shears and I finally got one open after tons of hacking.

Eventually, I got to the hard brown shell.  I cracked this open for Gwen, and it reminded us that coconut water is not the same as coconut milk.

To make coconut milk, I mixed some of the grated coconut meat with some very hot water, then blended for 30 seconds or so.  If you do this, make sure the cap is tight on your blender, unlike me who did not bother to check.  DOH.

Anyway, my question was whether this would be better than the canned version.  It wasn't, in my opinion.  It was much less "coconut-y" for lack of a better term.  I'm not sure if the coconut wasn't totally ready or what, but the taste was milder than I expected.  

Modifications: Buy a machete before trying this again.

Make again?: Nope, just buy the can.

Recipe #32 - Onion Yogurt Sauce

I made some yogurt sauces before and they've been pretty damn good at times.  This was yet another subtle variation on the others.  This one featured yogurt mixed with onion and garlic.

I used this on some mixed vegetables, but it would be equally good on chicken.

It was a milder taste than the previous yogurt sauces and could definitely go with the right types of food.  I made it with light yogurt and it would be even better with some higher fat versions.

Modifications:  More garlic?

Make again?: Yeah, but worth experimenting with further

Recipe #31 - Herbed Broiled Chicken

I know, I know, more chicken breast.  I promise I'm almost done.

This one was kind of forgettable.  The recipe is purposely vague, telling you to use 2-4Tbsp of whatever fresh herb is available.  I used oregano here, which I grow at my house.

At this point, the different chicken breasts sort of blend together.  The key for these recipes is getting the timing right so the chicken is juicy.  The spices are almost totally secondary.  That was the case again here.

Modifications: Can try a variety of different fresh herbs next time.

Make again?: Hard to say.  Probably, but only as a variation.

Recipe #30 - Parmesan Broiled Boneless Chicken

Let's not get emotional, but I'm nearly done with the chicken breast recipes in my How to Cook Everything book.  It's been an interesting journey, but we'll have to move on.

Anyway, I actually made this recipe and the next two like a month ago, just never posted them.  But if I don't I'll have to make 368 recipes instead of 365 and that's crazy talk.

There were two main differences between this and most of the other chicken recipes.  This one used mayo as the fat instead of olive oil, and it had some shredded parmesan on the outside.  

I really wasn't impressed with this one.  For the amount of calories, I could've gotten a better chicken dish elsewhere.  It didn't have a really strong Italian sort of taste either and came out surprisingly bland.  Pretty disappointing.

Notes: I did not finely grate the Parmesan, I used the largest setting.  It might have been better if it was sort-of breaded with the Parmesan.

Modifications: Use finely grated Parmesan.

Make again?: No

Recipe #29 - Mixed Berry Cobbler

Wow.  Seriously, wow.  I've made several versions of berry desserts and there is no question at all that this is BY FAR the best.  This is one of the best desserts I've ever made, easily.

The recipe said you could use blueberries or a mix, so I went with the mix.  I mixed the berries with a ton of sugar and put them in a pan.

Next, I mixed flour and sugar with the food processor, then added in butter and a few other items that I can't remember at the moment.  Next, I thought the recipe was insane because it said to spoon the topping onto the berries but not spread them.  So when I put it in the oven I had a few clumps of topping which I thought would be very odd.  A few minutes in, the topping had melted pretty evenly over the top, so there was no need to spread.  I baked it for about 40 minutes until the top was slightly golden and pulled out.  I served it with some of the vanilla whipped cream from the previous recipe.

I was honestly stunned at how good it was, and so was Gwen.  This is a definite keeper.

Modifications: I really dont want to change a thing.  Maybe get the topping more even or something but honestly it was perfect the way it was.

Make again?: Yes!

Recipe #28 - Vanilla Whipped Cream

Gwen has a strong anti-whipped cream on top of desserts policy, but I decided to try my luck anyways.  My first thought was a bourbon whipped cream, because I just bought some recently for the sangria.  But she's the boss and asked for plain, which I modified to vanilla.

It's a very similar technique to other whipped creams I've made.  I cooled the bowl in the freezer, put in a cup of cold cream and beated until there were stiff peaks.  The book had great pictures to show you the various stages.  The picture looks a little bit overwhipped, but I think it actually was just right, maybe a tiny bit overwhipped.  In addition to the cream, I added in sugar (a disturbingly high amount) and a tsp of vanilla extract.  

It really was much better than canned whipped cream.  This is one of those things that you really can tell the difference when you make it fresh.  The major downside is that it only lasts about 30 minutes before it starts to become some weird mutant version of whipped cream, which is still completely edible, just requires you to sit on the couch with the bowl and a spoon.

Modifications:  Lots of variations available, bourbon, maple, chocolate.

Make again?: Yes, better than my previous whipped cream recipe.

Recipe #27 - Baked Potato

Yes, I have made a baked potato before, but this is not cheating.  I've tried "baked potatoes" in the microwave, broiler, even the grill in addition to actually baking them.  The recipe discussed the merits of the different options and prefers to just regularly bake them without foil.  I cooked for an hour at 425 (I think) and removed them when there was almost no resistance when a knife was put in.

It was definitely not any sort of revolutionary baked potato, but it was well cooked.  The main difference is the interior texture is better than if you microwaved it, and the flesh right under the skin was just very slightly toasted, which was good.  I served with sour cream and a very little bit of cheese.

Modifications: More toppings next time.

Make again?: I would, but I definitely prefer the sweet potato recipe from before.

Recipe #26 - Thai-style Stir Fry Chicken and Basil

The last (and best?) recipe of the Super Bowl of cooking.  Yes, I'm very very very late in getting these up to date.  I suck.

So I needed some sort of meaty kind of dish for the Super Bowl party (of 4), so I chose this one.  It's a pretty typical stir-fry, first frying the onion, ginger and garlic in oil, then removing the vegetables, replacing with the chicken and cooking with more garlic and ginger.  Finally, I dumped the vegetables back in with the chicken and cooked them through.  At the end, I tossed in some shredded basil.  The recipe recommended Thai basil, but I wasn't about to go to an asian market just for that, so regular basil it is.

I served them with lettuce wraps, In a desperate ploy to make them seem healthy.

It was really, really good.  There was a near-universal consensus that this was the best of all the things I made, which is saying something considering I made about a billion recipes.

Notes: I used a bit more ginger than needed, I think, but it was still good.

Modifications: Use Thai basil next time.  Serve with rice maybe?

Make again?: Yes, definitely.  

Recipe #25 - Marinated Vegetables

The title made it sound like something I had to make for Marty, but reading the recipe made me unsure. I went ahead anyways, and I'm glad I did because Marty went nuts for it.

Here's the recipe in full since she will kill me if I don't post it:

2 cups red wine vinegar

2 Tbsp salt

2 sprigs fresh oregano or 2 tsp dried

2 bay leaves

2 cloves garlic, peeled

1 cup extra virgin olive oil (I cut this in half or more)

1 head broccoli, cut into florets

1 small head cauliflower, cut into florets

2 medium zucchini or summer squah, sliced crosswise

2 medium carrots, cut into 1/2 inch thick slices or sticks

1 red bell pepper, sliced

1 onion, cut into eights

1/2 cup green or black olives (optional)

Freshly ground black pepper

1. Put vinegar, salt, oregano, bay leaves, garlic, olive oil and 1 quart water into a large pot and bring to a boil. Ad broccoli and cauliflower and cook for a minute, then add zuchini, carrots, bell pepper, onion and olives. Cover and turn off the heat.

2. Let cool to room temperature in the pot. Serve at room temperature or chilled, drizzled with some of the liquid.

Modifications: I used baby carrots instead of slicing large ones and I couldn't find zucchini or cauliflower anywhere. Might try the full thing next time.

Make again: I will probably, but Marty will apparently make this every day forever.

Recipe #24 - Fried Plantains

How can a good Cuban boy such as myself not have made fried plantains before? Hard to believe, but true.

If you read the title, you know how to make them. I got some yellow-green looking plantains and sliced them as thin as I could. It would've been much easier with a mandoline (just about the only cooking tool I dont have yet, I think). I fried them in the deep fryer for a couple of minutes until they turned hard, let them rest and covered with salt. I don't think I used the optional lime on top.

Everybody seemed to like it a lot. I wish I had the recipe for the sauce they usual serve on the side (not just mojo, I think) to drizzle on top.

Modifications: Thinner slices would've been even better, but only so much I can do without a mandoline and/or 10 more years of knife skills.

Make again?: Definitely going to be a part of my small but hopefully growing cuban food repetoire.

Recipe #23 - Caramelized Spiced Nuts

Now we're talking. These were damn good and right on the verge of awesome.

Again, I started with unsalted mixed nuts, but this time it was a two-step process. First, in a skillet I boiled water and sugar, stirred in cayenne, curry, salt and nuts. I turned it down to medium and cooked for 10 minutes until it turned into a syrup.

Next, I dumped all of that into a baking dish and cooked for 10 minutes on 450. I pulled it and let it sit for a while, because it was ridiculously hot. It tasted incredible, but there were 2 things that prevented it from perfection.

1. I let it cool a little too long, and/or I crowded them a little too much. The nuts were extremely hard to get out of the pan because the caramel had hardened so much, and they were forming into clusters that were hard to break too. The hardening also made the pan really really hard to clean, so I had to soak it overnight, but you don't care about that, you just want to eat my food.

2. They were very slightly burned. If I had cooked them for 2 less minutes in the pan or oven they would've been even better.

Modifications: Cut two minutes off the cooking time and these will be fantastic.

Make again:? Absolutely yes.

Recipe #22 - Roasted Nuts with Butter

As I was making this, I was wondering why I'm buying unsalted nuts, then roasting and salting them. The recipe claimed these were way better than the salted ones you'd buy in the store.

I emptied out a container of unsalted nuts into a roasting pan with butter, salt and pepper. It was tough to know how much salt to add, so I just guessed. I probably should've used some more in retrospect. I baked them for 10 minutes at 450, tossing a few times.

It was good, but not as good as I figured since the book raved about it. It was definitely more buttery than the nuts from the jar and you could definitely taste that they were nicely toasted. It wasn't that much effort and a nice change of pace, but I'm not sure I'll go out of my way to make it in the future. You could taste the difference when you had them side-by-side, but it wasn't a shocking difference.

Modifications: More salt next time.

Make again?: I think so, but not as good as the next nut recipe....

Recipe #21 - Gorgonzola, Apple and Walnut Salad

For some reason, I hate it when I go to a restaurant and the item reads like a purposely long list of what's in it. Caesar salad is Caesar salad, not salad with anchovies, mayonaise and lime. Maybe I should make up a name for this salad so it annoys me less during this post. Let's just call it triple salad, ok?

So this triple salad (I don't really like this name either, but we're stuck with it now) had gorgonzola crumbles, apples cut into wedges and chopped walnuts. Gorgonzola, fruit and nuts usually make a good combination. One of my favorite steaks I've ever had was served with gorgonzola, grapes and walnuts on top. I thought I'd hate it, but I loved it and I've tried to find some good combos with it since then.

You really have to like gorgonzola to like this salad. It is by far the strongest taste. Maybe if I had used a tarter apple it would've stuck out a bit more. I should've also considered julienne-ing the apple instead of wedges. Interestingly enough, the salad was better the second day. If the lettuce didn't start to wilt, I would consider serving it like this.

Modifications: Can try with other cheese/fruit/nut combos. Maybe some better gorgonzola cheese?

Make again?: It's possible but I think there might be some better options out there.

Recipe #20 - Honey Mustard Vinaigrette

I don't really like vinaigrettes, but for some reason I continue to try and make them. I should really stick to regular style dressings, since that's what I like.

Anyways, I like honey mustard so I thought that if I'd like any vinaigrette, it would e a honey mustard one. The recipe was very basic, honey (shocking!), mustard (can you believe it?!), olive oil, vinegar and that's about it. Incorporated them in the food processor and served.

It was OK for a vinaigrette, but compared to a good honey mustard dressing, it was not close. I'm going to stick with the creamy style dressings from now on I think.

On a side note, is it possible to take a good picture of salad dressing?

Modifications: Maybe a little sweeter?

Make again?: Nope

Recipe #19 - Croutons

I've never made croutons before. I knew they were some sort of cooked bread, but part of me thought that maybe aliens brought them from outer space and delivered them into those cardboard boxes sealed by foil.

This was incredibly, ridiculously easy and WAY better than the boxed ones. And I didn't even try any of the spice options. All I did for this was put some olive oil in a pan, slice bread into cubes, add salt and pepper, and cook in a skillet for a few minutes. I used sourdough bread but you could use any.

The taste was excellent, and we were snacking on them before we put them on a salad. My one mistake was not cooking them a little more because some were a bit chewy. I shouldn't have crowded the pan so much and I should've tried to make the chunks a little bit more even. Oh well, it was damn good. Next time I'll add in some spices and make it taste even better.

Modifications: Try with different bread, more even chunks, some spices.

Make again?: Yes, and looking forward to it.

Recipe #18 - Nachos

What do you do with a whole bunch of tortilla chips and corn salsa?  Make nachos, obviously.

I've made nachos plenty of times for Super Bowl parties.  My favorite recipe is this one, from Bobby Flay:   

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/bbq-with-bobby-flay/the-original-bbq-nachos-recipe/index.html?rsrc=search

This version is very different.  Bobby Flay's nachos are all about ridiculous amounts of melted cheese, while this one is regular cheese and toppings that you can taste a bit more.  The nachos here really wen't anything special.  It might have been partly because the jack cheese I used was sort of bland.  Overall the nachos didn't have as much spice as I like with them and you could eat them without assigning one roll of paper towels per person, which means it needed to be messier.

Notes: Lots more toppings options in addition to what I used.

Modifications: Better cheese.  Try melting it slightly?

Make again? :  The reigning champion wins, I'm sticking with the other nacho recipe.

Recipe #17 - Fried Tortilla Chips

What do you do with a load of corn salsa?  Make tortilla chips, obviously.

I've done this sort of thing before, and this recipe was basically no different.  Fresh chips are definitely a nice change of pace.  The only issue is getting them out quickly enough.  People seem to nibble on them as you're making them, so you have to be quick.

I setup the fryer with a bunch of corn oil and heated it to about 350.  I sliced up some corn tortillas into 1/4ths and fried them for about 2:00 each batch.  When they're out, I poured some salt and sometimes lime juice on them.

These really were no different from other ones I've made in the past.  That's not a bad thing because I like them, but I was hoping for some sort of magical revelation.  Oh well, they were still really good.

Notes: Thanks to Marty for helping me crank these out quickly.

Modifications: How about flour tortillas next time?  Also, maybe an extra 15-30 seconds would make them crisper for nachos.

Make again?: Yep.  This specific recipe was nothing different, but it's a solid thing to make at home.

Recipe #16 - Corn Salsa

So what do you do with 8 ears of roasted corn?  Make corn salsa, obviously.

When I think of corn salsa, I think of regular salsa with some corn in it.  This is not that.  There is not tomato in this salsa, which I have mixed feelings about.  It was kind of a nice change, but I like tomatoes so maybe next time I'll include them.  Then again, eating too many tomatoes makes your skin red, so maybe this recipe is saving me from an embarrassing skin condition.

It was a very simple recipe, taking off the kernels from the 8 cobs in the previous recipe and mixing them with cilantro, peppers, scallions, salt, pepper, and lime juice.  I let it sit for a while to let the tastes mix, which helped as always.

Luckily, I had that crazy corn removing tool that Gwen's mom bought me a few years ago to make removing the kernels from all that corn much faster.  It would've been pretty annoying otherwise.

Notes: Might be interesting to try without roasted corn.

Modifications: Next time I'll mix this with tomatoes to make it more of a traditional salsa, but with corn instead of corn being the main event.

Make again?: Yes, but with some changes and not going to be my go-to salsa recipe.

Recipe #15 - Roasted Corn on the Cob

Here we go, the first recipe of the day.  This is part of a later recipe (Corn Salsa), but I ate some off the cob just to try it.

I've made grilled corn on the cob a ton of times and it's really great.  Usually I slather it with salt and butter as I'm cooking it.  This recipe just called for roasting at 500 degrees for about 20 minutes, turning every once in a while.  I didn't put any salt or butter on it since the followup recipe didn't call for it.  It was still surprisingly good.  Usually when I cook it on the grill there are a ton of flareups and it's tough to get a fairly even cook without burning them.  This worked really well and the taste was basically as good.  

I attached a picture of one of the cobs along with the corn from a few now naked ones.

Notes: Didnt use salt or butter but would be even better with it

Modifications: Recipe called for 10-20, I ended up cooking for about 23, but still good.

Make again?: Yes.  This is probably a much easier way to cook for parties.

The Super Bowl of Cooking

So you're wondering how I'm going to make 365 recipes this year when I am travelling and trying to lose some weight?  Making about 15 new recipes on Super Bowl Sunday, that's how.  Strap yourself in because there will be a ton of new posts in the next 2 days.  Marty suggested I cut it down, but you know how good I am at listening.  Good luck to me!