October 2010 Menu

Roasted Butternut Squash Salad w/ Warm Cider Vinaigrette  (serves 4)
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Mrs. #1:  "I expect resistance on this one.  Be open-minded.  I've already made this and it's absolutely wonderful. Customize it for those "Misters" who are fussy eaters. This is also probably the most labor-intensive recipe in October's menu.  Plan ahead.
Pepper-Crusted Pork Loin w/ Cherry-Brandy Sauce (serves 6)

Mrs. #1: Chosen because I can make it 24 hours ahead.  Always a winner with me!

Garlic Mashed Potatoes (serves 6)

Mrs. #1: Chosen because I've never tried this!  Looking forward to this one.

Roasted Garlic Green Beans

Mrs. #1: Easy!

Poached Pears w/ Raspberry Sauce

Mrs. #1: Yummy and healthy!

A HOT September

Well this menu was a very expected hit. Everything yummy and homey was expected from a fantabulous menu created by Mr. and Mrs. Gal #2. Everything was perfectly enjoyed and went great with our first Football Saturday together in a few years. However, here is my caution. Wings are meant to be made by experts and BW3's only.

 And here's why....

 Excited, but why do you have to separate the wing joint and tip? Let's save time and not.

 Here we are doing our spices coating...looking good (for now).

 Ryan makes his appearance in the kitchen to help!

Here comes the frying part, frying from one recipe and ingredients from another lead to....

Splattering and impromtu frying....which means...

 A wing disaster. Negative points for Gal #3 here folks.

But what I have observed from several cooking attempts and failures, one dish disaster does not ruin a meal. You can have a lot of success in other dishes and have one that needs a retry. So here follows what was most enjoyed from this menu for its taste and disasterless-ness.

FIRST PLACE:

The prep for the mac'n'cheese was not hard at all and made the grater of the gruyer cheese very happy!

We tried the tomatoes on half, but ended up discarding them. It was too "not mac'n'cheese" for us but super enjoyed this dish! This will be replacing the blue box.

RUNNER UP:

 The potato wedges smelled AWESOME and made the anticipation to eat them even greater. This will be a rerun at the #3 household. 

And the FINALIST:

 Ingredients for a most yummy dessert (minus very tricky fillo dough). I made this first and it turned out very well and was a highlight to the end of the wings saga.

The end result. I had lots o'filling and made them to freeze.

*note: do not freeze after baking, the fillo dough does not hold up well when reheated*

 Overall a very good meal, the wings will be a retry at the #3 house and will be posted as a follow up when attempted again. We enjoyed eating the sides of this meal and will give this an overall 8.5 out of 10! Nicely done Mr. and Mrs. Gal #2! Keep up the good recipes! Looking forward to hear from Gal #1 for next month. *Note: will not attempt wings again for 6 months*  =D

Our September

Several days before the menu I prepped the dessert:

 The filling was very easy to make!

 I was pretty nervous about working with the phyllo dough ... but it wasn't as hard as I was expecting. My biggest issue: the dough dried out very quickly despite a damp paper towel.

 I cut the filling recipe in half and still had enough to make 2 apple strudels! Here they are ready for freezing.

 The day of the menu! The hubster helped me cook =D

 Mr. Two cutting potato wedges

 My mac and cheese prep

 The potatoes and macaroni cooking away!

 Mr. Two making the honey BBQ sauce

 Our "boneless wings" aka. cut up chicken breasts!

 The chicken marinating in the buttermilk and chili powder. I nixed cayenne pepper since neither of us are hot/spicy food fans.

 The finished wedges! Delish!!

 The finish mac and cheese ... I did mess this up. But I don't know if Mr. Two would have liked it either way...? Bummer!

 Our entire menu! Overall, it was a keeper.

 Finished wings and sauce =)

 I thawed one strudel and was prepping it for baking.

 The finished dessert. It was super sweet but very good!

This is the first time Mr. Two has helped in the preparation and cooking of a cooking club menu! But since he had a lot to do with the choices, I thought it was only fair that he got in the kitchen. We had fun cooking together!

Overall this was a keeper menu! We really liked everything sans the macaroni and cheese. Unfortunately the blue box has taken over our taste buds and expectations and the homemade stuff isn't the same. After some double checking ... I also realized that I was off on the seasonings. I'm not sure if it was the halving of the recipe, the extra cook in the kitchen or that I was just reading off the wrong recipe, but there was a reason I was tasting too much nutmeg in that mac and cheese! Oops.

The chicken wings were great! Pretty easy (a little messy) and tasty. I was worried about the sauce, but we both really liked it!

My favorite thing was Mr Two's potato wedges; yummy! They got nice and crisp outside, and the rosemary was awesome.

Dessert was also good. I did things a little differently and made it up several days ahead and froze it, uncooked. I let it thaw on the counter for about ... 30 minutes and baked it. It is very sweet though! And that is coming from a gal with one major sweet tooth. We paired it with vanilla ice cream and ate it up pretty quickly.

I think I would change one of our starches for something fresh and bright, a fruit or veggie dish, and then the menu would be perfect. Mr. Two disagrees and heartily liked the lack of veggies. ;-)

And we did watch football with our meal! Welcome autumn.

September 2010 Menu

I have three general impressions of September's menu.  The first and most impressive is that it was a hit with the guys.  No moaning and complaining and several compliments.  Refreshing.  The second is that although I wouldn't necessarily label this menu "labor intensive" I felt like I used every dish, pot, pan and utensil I own.  Mr. #1 came in after two dishes were finished and declared a half time so he could clean the kitchen.  (He's nice like that).  Lastly, I have to start remembering to look at servings/portion sizes.  I am still in the "cook for a crowd" mode and there's always too much food!

I made the dessert first.  Discovered I'm not a fan of phyllo dough.  The menu clearly indicates "frozen phyllo dough."  But I'm here to tell you that phyllo dough is only meant to be used in a thawed state.  I managed to piece it together - but I was not using "sheets" - I was using "strips."  Skinny strips at that.  It is rather forgiving, however, and I used the butter as my glue to hold it together.  Once I had my "sheets" prepared, I looked at my filling and thought..."there's no way all that will fit."  I was right.  About 1/4 of the filling ended up as compost.  You will see from my photos that the front view looks picture perfect, but when you move around to the back - there is leakage.  :)  I did put the glaze and cinnamon on when it was out of the oven, but declined to add more powdered sugar.  It was definitely sweet enough. It has a nice autumn flavor and the phyllo dough has a texture I enjoy.  I don't know how the menfolk like it yet - they are too full from the other dishes.

Next I made the macaroni & cheese.  I didn't have quite enough gruyere and too much cheddar - but the ounces worked out.  I was skeptical about putting tomatoes on top, but that turned out to be my favorite flavor of the whole menu.  Son #1 was positive about the flavor, not too keen about the texture.  He likes "smooth and creamy."  Because I had baked it first and it sat for nearly 1/2 hour while everything else cooked, it may have cooled off too much.  Mr. #1 was definintely a big fan of this.  Note: Like many of Barefoot's recipes - I cut back on the salt.  This one calls for 1 tablespoon!  I used about 1 1/2 tsp.

Chicken wings w/ barbecue sauce.  Easy preparation!  Overlooked "turmeric" on the ingredient list, so would be interested to discover what that adds to the taste.  Also wasn't prepared to purchase "creamed honey" because of the expense, so I cut down the tablespoons to 2 and used regular honey.  Again, this was a hit with the guys...they would like to have it again.  And contrary to my earlier comment - there wasn't a whole lot of these left.  They went fast!

Son #1 made the potatoes.  They have good flavor and great aroma while baking.  The unanimous comment about this recipe is that with the macaroni and cheese - potatoes could have been given a miss.  I agreed with this comment - especially for the crowd we had (three!).  But I would keep the potatoes if serving a crowd or having a football party! 

Thanks for the tasty treats Mr. & Mrs. #2!  Touchdown!

Gal Two's September Menu

September Menu

Honey BBQ Wings

Baked Potato Wedges

Homemade Mac and Cheese

Apple Strudel

A note about this month's menu: This was a combined effort! Mr. Two was getting tired of all this new food and having no say in any of it, so he volunteered to help create the September menu. Needless to say it ended up being very different from the all apple themed menu I had envisioned! This menu is all about fun, football, and comfort food. I did my best to make it a little healthier, but sometimes you just need a Saturday of tailgating food! We hope you all enjoy this one.

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Boneless Honey BBQ Wings

This recipe is a combination of Eating Well's boneless wings and Sonny Anderson's honey bbq wings. The link to the sauce is a link to her entire wing recipe; scroll down a bit and you'll find the instructions for her sauce. In fact, she does three different sauces if you are up for that challenge! This is my attempt at making wings a bit healthier for Mr. Two's fall football menu. If you chose to throw out the healthy part, and just do Sonny's wings, let us know!


Ingredients
1/2 Cup nonfat buttermilk
1-2 TBSP cayenne pepper
2 LBS chicken tenders
6 TBSP whole wheat flour
6 TBSP cornmeal
2 TBSP canola oil, divided
Salt and Pepper to taste

DirectionsSeason chicken with salt and pepper. Whisk buttermilk and cayenne pepper in a large bowl until combined. Add chicken, toss to coat, and refrigerate for one hour. (Stir occasionally).

Meanwhile, whisk flour and cornmeal in a shallow bowl.

Remove chicken from buttermilk marinade and roll in flour mixture until evenly coated. Sprinkle both sides with additional salt to taste. Set on wire rack to let coating set, 20 minutes

Heat 1 TBSP canola oil in a large, non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. Add half the chicken and cook until golden brown and baked through; 3-4 minutes per side. Transfer to a wire cooking rack (with a lined baking sheet underneath to catch drips). Repeat with the remaining 1 TBSP oil and chicken.

Coat chicken with the Honey BBQ Sauce!

Sonny's Honey BBQ Sauce

Serves 6-8.

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Baked Potato Wedges
Jared wanted potato wedges to go with his wings! So, I went to my two favorite cooks, Ina and Alton for ideas. Sadly, I couldn't find anything from Alton so I turned to this top rated recipe from Ina. These are baked, not fried, making them a bit healthier. They also look pretty darn easy!

Ina's Potato Wedges

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Mac and Cheese

Dish number three was my idea. Wings and wedges are great, fun, fall football food. But I just felt like we needed something else. So I decided, and Mr. Two agreed, that a batch of creamy, homemade macaroni and cheese fit the bill. This Ina recipe seems hearty and filling and I've been looking for an excuse to try this for a while now!

Ina's Mac & Cheese

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Apple Strudel

And last, but not least, dessert! What fall menu would be complete without an apple dessert? Mr. Two saw this recipe and decided that we needed to try it! I have never worked with fillo dough; excited that I don't have to make the pastry, but a little nervous too. The reviews said that you might want more than 5 pieces of filo dough, and that the filling recipe makes enough for 2 strudels! Bake accordingly. I am thinking this would be something you could make ahead, pop in the oven to warm and then glaze.

Paula Deen's Apple Strudel

Add a salad or veggie platter to this meal and have yourself a fantastic fall day enjoying your favorite football team! We plan to =D

Holy Batman Does Orlando!

Gal One

Over the last several months I've learned that if I want to keep my sanity while participating in this cooking blog, there are a few things that are an absolute must. One: cook on the weekend. Two: don't shop for the ingredients the same day you are going to prepare them. Now I have a third: don't disembark from an airplane and cook four brand new dishes on the same day. I did learn some wonderful things from August's menu, however. One was how to pronounce "JICAMA." (HICKAMA). White, crunchy and kind of tasteless. We opted to leave out the cilantro - probably should have left it in.

The best discovery was gruyere. I'm always afraid of food I can't pronounce, but this cheese is something Barefoot uses alot of - now that I've tried it...I'm a believer! Wonderful flavor. Another benefit of the chicken dish (besides the discovery of gruyere cheese) is that Mr. #1 will definitely be a fan.

I love cooking together - that was the best part hands down - even though we didn't finish cooking until close to 9:00 in the evening! It was a great way to start our mini-vacation with not only Gal 1 & 2 but Son 1! Food always tastes better when we're at the table together!

Gal Two

Unbelievably, our cooking club has been able to be together to cook two out of our three summer menus together! This time we didn't have all the guys around to critique, just one. It was kind of nice that way. ;-)

I really loved this menu! The chicken dish was excellent and so easy. The good cheese, while pricey, is essential. I will be making this one again at home for Mr. Two. He's going to love it. The salad was crisp and fresh; I loved the colors and the texture. We made a substitution with the herbs and I think because of it the salad needed just a little something ... The puree was another favorite! It was very autumn in it's ingredients and flavor; a nice hint of fall in our end of summer menu. I will also be making that dish again. Dessert was light and fresh; good for the figure but not so exciting for me the dessert lover!

Overall, I think this was a fantastic menu and I really enjoyed getting to cook with the other gals. I give it an 8!

Gal Three

Well we've done it again. We've beaten the miles and the odds are here we were together once more to make our menu. I must say I was nervous about this one, it is a very different departure for my other Gals so I was anxious to see how it would all come together. I think there was an overall agreement that 3 of the 4 dishes were a big hit. The chicken was very good and the Gruyere cheese was an absolute must! The creaminess and smokiness of the cheese really made the chicken dish amazing. The chicken went nicely with the puree because they are very fall-type dishes. The salad was good but not with the other dishes. It was so different from the richness and heartiness of the other dishes it just seemed to be a stranger on the plate. Omitting the cilantro called for lost something of the flavor so this one will be tried again with something more summer-type, like kabobs.

I loved the dessert but for my heavy dessert fans I think my next choice will involve some type of baking or chocolate for my Gal 2! Overall I would give the menu an 8, and looking forward to cooking some more menus together with my favorite Gals and Guy helper!

The beginnings of our August Menu in Gal Two's Orlando kitchen

Freshly grated Gruyere cheese. AMAZING

We brought in some help to pound out the chicken breasts

Rolling the chicken cordon bleu

Gal One cutting some fresh herbs from the lovely patio garden

Cheerful, summer table setting

Candid kitchen moments

The panko bread crumb coating for the chicken

Peeling parsnips

Gal Two NOT thrilled about the coating station for the chicken - turned out to be worth it!

Gal Three cooking up onions and apples

Finishing the parsnips to add to those onions and apples

Getting ready to make the salad