Episode 9: Cooking my way through the Runner's World cookbook

I believe from here on out I will use "episode" instead of "week" to mark my installments since this has gone to chaos. While I have been cooking right along I just have not had time to update on the internet- I'll chip away at it!

And yes, there was the week this summer that I/we ate pizza for a week straight. Quite a few different kinds of pizza which was good, and pizza really never gets old to me! (and sometimes, all you have time and/or ingredients for is pizza so you say screw it and go for it, with beer and chocolate as a side dish!)

Anyway.

Mint Potato Salad

Even for me this is a bad pic. Thank heavens I am not an actual real life food blogger because this is atrocious!
Right.... So Potato salad is one of my favorite foods and I appreciate how most are laden with eggs, mayo and ill health. That's my jam. (I am not lying.)
I went into the taste testing of this salad with a positive attitude knowing that it would probably be different and that different can be good.
In the end I was still "MEH" on this one. I'm not sure if it was the overall pungency of the mustard and lemon laden dressing paired with the equally salty/bitter capers or what. Perhaps it just wasn't really my thing? I also used some pretty flavorful fancy olive oil so omitting that for some very basic EVOO might do the trick.
I gave this a 5.5 and Eric (the non potato salad fan) gave it a 6.25 and ate all the leftovers. Evidently a win in the Eric department!

Awesome granola

Yes. This is actually called awesome granola and I have been meaning to make it for months.
HOLY CRAP this stuff is so good. SO GOOD!!!! Solid 8.5 from both Eric and me- we ate it dry, in milk, dry again and then it was gone, boooooo.
My only advice.
Make a double batch!!

Grilled vegetable polenta casserole

We had a good run of recipes that we really enjoyed and knew it was bound to end at some point.
And it did, with this atrocity.
I knew it would be time consuming (and it was- 2 hours start to finish. I made the polenta from "scratch" and had to grill the veggies in several batches.) Two hours is for fucking ever. I only have time like that if the food is so amazing that I cry tears of joy.
See my face? ^^^ That is not a happy face. Not joyful tears.
The polenta was nasty- I always try to like polenta and remember (upon re-trying it) that I do not.
The veggies, which were great immediately after grilling had taken on a slimy consistency. I do not like my food to be slimy, definitely not my favorite consistency.
And two hours.... UGH!
Eric gave it a 7 upon first bite and then a 5.5 when he was done because, honestly, it was crap.
I gave it a 4 which I still think was generous.
Skip this and make some damn eggplant rollatini or something...

Mediterranean pizza with (zero) ham

None of us like ham so I left it off. Otherwise I followed the recipe and this was a hit.
As previously mentioned, you can't really go wrong with pizza around here!
This was another fantastic way to use the kale pesto (I ended up freezing a big batch and I drag it out and defrost it for a variety of things- really tasty stuff!) Next time I make this I will drizzle some (or lots) of olive oil on either the crust, the spinach or both. It needed a little improvement and I am pretty sure that would fix it! This would also be great with some onion, some sun dried tomatoes, maybe a few pine nuts?
That is the fun thing about pizza- you can add or subtract to make it something completely different each time.
The crust wasn't terrific- it was a Portland Pie premade crust and was just "meh".
I gave this a 7, Eric an 8 and Kate a 6 because she really did not care for the crust.

Swiss chard with roasted quinoa and tomato

With both swiss chard and tomatoes coming out my ears thanks to my Dad's garden this was an easy choice for a side dish.
I only managed to take one picture because I was hungry and stopped caring.
This was good- all of the flavors were very complimentary to one another and the very sweet tomato balances out the pungency of the quinoa and the slight bitterness of the chard nicely. 
I am not always a quinoa fan (proving, once again my shortcomings as a health blogger as well as a food one!) However, this was a nice way to use it and we both enjoyed it and both gave it a solid 7.

OK, so I have managed to catch up a bit.
Hopefully episode 10 will be up soon since I am way behind!