What's For Dinner??

I subscribe to many food blogs. Or maybe I should have said "too many." Sometimes I feel like I spend more time reading than I do cooking.

I have tons of photos and recipes for things that I've already cooked, but Kathleen @ Gonna Want Seconds gave me the idea to post what I'm planning to cook instead of what I've already cooked.

Since I returned from San Franciso, I've waded through over 500 blog posts in my Google reader, plus the 75 or 80 more I sift through daily. Oh, I don't read them all. That would be an impossibility. Mostly, I just look at the title and if it is something I think I might want to try, I open the post and if the dish still looks promising, I print the recipe.

I have organized recipes into three categories: To make in the near future, to make in the very near future and recipes ready to post.

The recipes I want to make in the near future are added to a corresponding folder in my ever expanding crate-like file box. The recipes to make in the very near future are piled, in no particular order, into a red manila folder titled "Food Blog." The recipes I've already prepared and photographed and are ready to be posted on my blog are merely added to the red Food Blog folder, but clipped together with a large, bulging paper clip that looks like it's going to become a dangerous projectile at any given moment.

But, even with the vast amounts of printed recipes I've already hoarded, I still continue to look, drool and collect. What catches my eye? Everything.

These are some of the dishes that have caught my eye and that I plan to prepare in the very near future...

Paula Deen's Sweet Chicken Bacon Wraps that I saw posted at Bearly Edible...

I'm not particularly a Paula Deen fan, but these look and sound amazing. I'd like to make this appetizer for a potluck.

I have been reading posts at A Year of Slow Cooking for quite awhile, but this recipe in particular caught my eye. I am anxious to try Stephanie's recipe for Slow Cooker Asian Shredded Beef.

Stephanie suggests that the beef be served wrapped in little pancakes, which sounds incredibly delicious to me.

Before my trip, I made Peking Duck (the recipe to come at a later date) and I served it with small chinois pancakes. I think those would be perfect wraps for this beef.

Tom and I use a lot of garlic in our cooking. Probably the only thing that doesn't receive a dose of garlic is dessert. This recipe is really for my own amusement more than anything else. I've sliced and sauteed garlic. I've roasted garlic. But this Garlic Confit recipe that I found on Stumptown Savoury sounds interesting.

Tell me, what on earth could be bad about garlic mellowed by cooking ever so slowly until it's soft enough to smear on a toasted French baguette topped with maybe some shaved Parmesan or mashed anchovie and capers or chopped tomato and basil?

Besides, there is nothing better than the aroma of cooking garlic to make your kitchen smell like a cozy bistro.

Also in my "to cook" stack is yet another pasta salad, this one using chickpeas, aka garbanzo beans. Reeni @ Cinnamon, Spice and Everything Nice posted her recipe for Chickpea & Orzo Pasta Salad last summer and I've been wanting to try it ever since. Reeni added tuna, almonds, herbs and a simple lemon vinaigrette for freshness. I hope to make this dish sometime this week or next.

In the late 70's and early 80's while living on the north shore of Lake Tahoe, my oldest son attended North Tahoe Middle School. In eighth grade he decided to take a Home Economics class and came home from that class one day with a recipe for Char Siu Bao, Chinese steamed pork filled buns. I've since lost the recipe and so has my son, but I found a two recipes to make authentic Char Siu Bao at Whats4Eats.


The recipe for the Char Siu, the Asian roasted barbecue pork which fills the bun, and the recipe for the Bao, the yeast bun. The dough is rolled out into rounds and filled with the flavorful barbecue pork, then steamed and eaten hot. They are scrumptous.

Finally, I'm generally not a casserole person, although when I'm craving comfort food, casseroles are usually what I choose to satisfy that craving. Last month I found the recipe for Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole posted by Mel @ My Kitchen Cafe, a blog chock-full of wonderful dishes.

Mel's recipe calls for the traditional ingredients - swiss cheese, ham and chicken - but with the addition of sliced potatoes and everything mixed with a cream sauce laced with Dijon mustard, garlic, topped with  a buttery bread crumb mixture.

A perfect dish for a cool fall evening.

These six recipes don't make much of a dent in my "to cook" collection, but it's a start.

What recipes have you collected and are ready to cook?