Kitchen Adventures: Two Yeas and a Nae

I've been trying some new recipes in the kitchen lately.  When the kids were growing up, I was pretty explorative, and somehow that went away in the last dozen years or so (really, I think I know why, as 2015-2023 were all very stressful years).  Lately I am finding that I miss that inquisitiveness and creativity and so I am trying to incorporate some of it back into my culinary life.

The first new recipe, which I tried for Pi Day, was a definite flop.  I'm sure part of it had to do with me freestyling and tweaking the recipe I was using as a guideline.  But even if I had made it to the letter as written, I don't think we would have liked it as much as it sounded like we would.

It was called Strawberry Cheesecake, but not a real cheesecake; it was actually a pie that mixed a block of softened cream cheese in with a box of vanilla pudding. In the recipe, it said to take a graham cracker crust (which I duly made from scratch), line it with fresh strawberries (which I did not have, but I did have several baggies of frozen strawberries), mix the cream cheese with the pudding mix and milk, pour into the crust, cover with plastic wrap and chill for at least 2 hours before serving (so the pudding would set).

I knew that my frozen strawberries, as they thawed, would get mushy underneath that pudding/cream cheese layer.  So I thought why not just blend them in?  Make it more like a strawberry pudding layer than fruit under pudding.  Sounded feasible.

Um, yeah.  Maybe you can tell from the photo below how well that worked.  The photo was taken after I cut and removed the first two pieces.  

Runny, runny, runny.  Texture was a total fail.  Blending the strawberries was a mistake.  I probably should have reduced the milk in relation to the strawberries.  Although even if I had done that I suspect the acid in the strawberries still would have messed with the setting ability of the pudding.  Oh well. After the first two pieces we ended up serving this dessert in bowls rather than on plates.

It tasted good, although the combo of the cream cheese and vanilla pudding was a little weird.  If I was in the habit of making no-bake cheesecake mixes maybe I would have liked the taste better, but typically when I make cheesecake it's an honest to God real cheesecake that requires a springform pan and the oven. And eggs. No pudding. Completely different texture and flavor.

The next kitchen experiment was Irish Soda Bread.  I was planning on actually doing an 'Irish' dinner on St. Patrick's Day, and since I don't like corned beef (or, as I refer to it, "Salty Meat"), I was going with a lamb stew.  Stew needs some form of bread to dip into it, in my book.  So Irish Soda Bread was on the docket.

This was a yea.  Definitely will make again.  It was super easy to make, went well with the stew, and the rest of the loaf makes a nice toothsome toast or hearty sandwich bread.

The Irish Stew itself was also a win.  Lacking a Dutch oven, I had the idea of using my electric skillet (which I've had for ages and very rarely use) instead.  Lamb shoulder (from the lamb we bought last Fall and put in the freezer) cut into chunks, carrots, potatoes, four onions (was supposed to use one onion and three leeks but my local grocery store was out of leeks the day before St. Patty's and was not getting more that week), garlic, beef broth, and stout.  

Yum, yum!  It was delicious.  The meat was nice and tender, the stew was rich and creamy (not a runny thin broth), and we will definitely be eating this at least annually henceforth.