Cooking With The Wolfes

Although I wholeheartedly agree with Dee that it's too hot to cook much, I did make a special dinner for my mom's birthday on Friday. Thus, you get lots of new recipes! To start with, Rosemary Bread that the recipe states tastes like the bread from Macaroni Grill.

I've only been to that particular restaurant once, years ago, so I can't tell you whether or not it did, but I can tell you that this bread was delicious! I replaced some of the bread flour with whole wheat flour, so I doubt it was exact. I let my bread maker mix up the dough, then baked it in the oven to avoid that weird rectangular shape my bread maker turns out. We had this bread with olive oil and dipping spices, and it was almost gone by the time the main course was served!


I tried a new pork tenderloin recipe that used my crock pot, featuring an Asian-style glaze. I decided to try a new recipe for tenderloin because I felt like I was in a rut with my favorite way to prepare the dish. I would have never thought to try tenderloin in a crock pot, because it works so well with cheap, tough cuts of meat, but I must say I was quite pleased with this recipe. The pork was super-tender and moist, and the glaze was amazing. The recipe also works with ribs, so I plan on trying that as soon as I can lay my hands on some!


Last, dessert! I tried the blueberry-orange cheesecake recipe from the latest issue of Taste of Home, but with a few twists. First, once I had decided to make this recipe and had assembled the ingredients, I remembered that my springform pan has been MIA since the move. I decided to go ahead with the recipe, but make them into individual-sized cheesecakes. They were much easier to serve that way, and I think they still turned out well. Second, I used strawberries to creat a pretty design on top of each cupcake. I decided to try this recipe because it uses cottage cheese instead of cream cheese, and I wanted to see what a difference that made in taste.

It definitely was different - more mild, but with the sour cream-sugar concoction on top, and the pretty berries on top, it was a great dessert, and not as heavy as New-York style cheesecake, which was great after a big meal.
I think this meal was a success! Happy birthday, mom!