Eat it with a spoon

January 26, 2010
Test lunch #2

Tasters: Lisa, Mr. H, Kristin and me

Menu:
Minestrone soup with bacon and beans
Whole wheat roll
Hunk of cheese
Applesauce
Pistachio cardamom rice pudding

Recipes, notes and feedback:

Soup: Recipe from January Cooks Illustrated.
Bacon was well received but I thought chunks were too big. Soup needed more salt. Biggest issue was portion size and serving containers. I used wide mouth mason jars for storage/serving. Most folks got 16oz but container was a bit deep. Female tasters found this was way too much soup. Mr. H said it was just right. I had 8oz which seemed about right for me.

Roll: Used same whole wheat bread recipe as last time but made into rolls about 4inch diameter.
Baked for 22 minutes--they were a touch overdone. Put in container with a hunk of cheddar about 1"x4"x.5". Cheese was very popular. Couldn't figure out a way to offer butter...

Applesauce: made/processed in the fall with Apple Hill apples.
One 24 oz jar served 4 (so 6 oz servings I guess). By far the most popular part of the meal. I didn't do a veg since the soup had so many veggies.

Pudding: Pistachio Cardamom Rice Pudding from MS Everyday Foods.
This was a bust. I was the only one who ate it. Rice pudding was a risk on its own and with the cardamom it was a total fail. I still think it's delicious; oh well. Other pudding flavors may do okay.

Other accomplishments:
Found silverware

Goals for next week:
Oops, same as last week.
Make napkins.
Better menu planning
Layout menu attachment for binder clip
Plan a week's worth of menus just to see.