Week in Review (4/3/22)

What a delicious week of food! It was really fun experimenting with the recipes this week to find the perfect combination of ingredients. I now have a favorite new soup, and a new go-to chicken dish! Bonus, both are one pot meals!

The first recipe I made this week was the steak stuffed with goat cheese and asparagus topped with garlic mushrooms.

Steak stuffed with asparagus and goat cheese topped with garlic mushrooms

This is a recipe I had made a long time ago, like in 2008 or something and posted it on my first blog back then. I remember it being really good, so I wasn’t sure why I hadn’t made it since then, so decided to try it out again. It ended up being delicious, but it is a bit of work, and I think I generally prefer my steaks plain with just some spices on it. Now I see why I haven’t made it in so long! However I will make it again on a day when I’m in the mood for something a bit more fancy!

One thing I love about this one is the mushroom topping. Now this topping I’ve made a bunch of times since 2008 since it can really go on anything. It’s super easy and adds a ton of flavor to a plain protein. Great for topping chicken, steak, or even pork!

The next recipe I made this week was the Asparagus Soup.

Asparagus Soup

This was actually my first time making asparagus soup, although I have a huge collection of various asparagus soup recipes. I decided to make one that, unlike most of the recipes, did not have flour or heavy cream. Instead, to get the creaminess, I used creme fraiche.

This turned out amazing! I love when recipes that are so simple like this one have such great flavors. I will definitely be making this one again in the near future.

The final recipe I made this week was the Creamy Lemon Chicken with Artichokes and Spinach.

Creamy Lemon Chicken with Artichokes and Spinach

This was a fun one since I was still trying to work out some of the ingredients and decided to have two versions of the dish cooking at once! I knew I wanted a light creamy sauce, however I wasn’t sure what I wanted to use to get it. Fortunately I had half a container of both creme fraiche and mascarpone cheese left in my fridge from earlier recipes, so decided to try those both out.

While both versions were really tasty, I ended up picking the one using creme fraiche as the winner. It maintained the creaminess while cooking that the mascarpone did not, and it the flavors seemed to blend a bit better, especially with the parmigiano reggiano, which really stuck out in the mascarpone version. Although if I couldn’t find creme fraiche I would definitely substitute it with the mascarpone since it was still really good!

Ok, for the winners and losers of the week. Well, for the loser I’ll vote for the steak stuffed with goat cheese and asparagus. While this was really tasty, it is a bit or work to put together and I could just as easily had steamed asparagus on the side topped with goat cheese to get a similar meal. I would definitely make it again, but only on days I’m in the mood for something a bit more fancy.

Now for the winner it was a really tough call, but I’m leaning towards the Asparagus Soup! This was so delicious, and tasted even better the second day! I couldn’t get enough of it, I kept running back for seconds and thirds. Definitely one to add to a more frequent rotation!

Keep an eye out tomorrow to see what’s on the menu for next week!