Back Seat Baker

Planning menus, grocery shopping and finally the cooking. This is how our family prepares for big family weekends. Uncle J. and Aunt S. and family were coming in to visit for the weekend, so I had another great opportunity to try out some new recipes. My sister and I did most of the work at my mom's house. There is always something special about bonding time in the kitchen. I began with Peanut Butter Chicken. This definitely was by far the most odd combination of ingredients I have ever used for chicken. A shopping cart worthy of an Iron Chef competition. Results- pretty good, pb taste not too overwhelming. Congratulations you advance to the next round!

As I moved on to prepare the desserts, my sister had a request - Chocolate Mousse. I obliged - especially since she had already bought all the ingredients, laid them out on the counter, and prepared fancy individual serving dishes. Can you say Type A personality? As I began to prepare the mousse according to the directions I feel eyes peering over my shoulder, and a little ahem behind me. I turn around its my sister.  "It says - Fold in the marshmellow creme, FOLD not mix." - Who knew there was such a thing as a Back Seat Baker.  Next came the whipped cream. " Don't forget to FOLD it in, not mix" - came the voice of the BSB again. Mousse came out great. Thanks Sis.

Next up Classic Guacamole. It was easy to make with an interesting addition of cumin to taste. It was so good, it practically fed the whole family dinner. Enjoyed by ages 2 until 42.

The next few weeks for me are going to be extremely busy. I have never really been a cook and freeze type of gal,  but I know that if my family is to have any dinner over the next two weeks its either going to come from a take out menu or my freezer. Most of the food I made was easy reliables for me, in order to get a lot done in a short amount of time. I did make a new Finger Lickin Chicken and Meatballs from the cookbook. The problem with cooking and freezing is that you don't have the chance to really taste anything right away. For the chicken I followed the exact recipe, but the meatballs I only had the grape jelly on hand and not some of the other ingredients so I improvised. I talked to the BSB about it and she vetoed it and said it didn't count as actually following the recipe.
 I guess the kids will be eating a LOT of meatballs in the next few weeks.

Cakes, Cookies, and Pie.. Oh My

This week was all about the desserts. We are heading out to visit family this weekend, so I took the opportunity to try some of the desserts. There are actually three sections of desserts in this cookbook - so I guess I will be doing a lot of baking. I actually enjoying cooking better than baking, but I must finish my goal. So I made an apple cake, it seems there are multiple apple cake recipes in the book. I just picked one that had ingredients that I have on hand. The only thing I don't have is a tube pan. So I just baked in a 9 x13 pan. Does it really matter what shape it is? We are going to visit Duncle D. and Aunt S. Problem is Aunt S. doesn't eat any fruit - so not sure if she will sample the cake.
When A. came home from school the delicious smell of the apple cake led her straight to the kitchen. She couldn't resist picking the apples off the top. I hope there are some left by the time we make it to Maryland. I made a coffee cake with chopped pecans. I am always nervous about making anything with nuts because of any allergies - but since it will be mostly adults this weekend I figured it would be safe.
I also did chocolate chip cookies that calls for instant coffee in the dough. Still not sure if that means coffee crystals or liquid coffee. I never was a big coffee drinker but since we had to pick up and move across the county, DD lattes were the only way I was able to make it happen. Now I look for any way to get my caffeine fix!

Apple cake and cookies went over well, even with Aunt S. who doesn't eat fruit. Coffee cake definitely took third place.

Four Pieces

Four pieces. That's right - someone in my family ate four big pieces of chicken. A kid in the family and it was not the 8 yro or the 5 yro. Thanks to Aunt N. because I know it was your recipe in the book. Little E. loved the cracker crumbled chicken. He loved everything about it. He helped prepare it, with some help from Ziploc again and he loved eating it. Loved might be actually be an understatement. Every time I turned around, he was helping himself to some more chicken from the serving dish! This recipe is definitely a keeper.

I finally made the celery soup from last week and although I enjoyed it, no creative name could convince D. and A. to try it. Little E. found another dish he enjoyed. He actually tossed his spoon to the side so he could drink it straight from the bowl. I love how 2 yro will try almost anything.

Also did the Beef with Broccoli, which tasted very much like a dish I already make. I think I will combine my original recipe with this new one to make an even better one. In my first post I stated that I was not good at substituting ingredients but is it really substituting to use frozen broccoli instead of fresh?

I have one more recipe cooking this week. It seems I have raised a family of carnivores. Chicken just doesn't do it for them. Except for R. - he loves chicken - just ask anyone who has hosted us for a meal. Maybe that is where little E. gets it from. The others -nope - they need meat, so I have done the Beef w/ Scallions. This one has a picture in the book. Lets see if mine will look as pretty.

Not too bad!


Next week the kids have school vacation. One activity that will be on our list- baking! Hamentashen anyone?

23 done. 177 to go.

Nothing says get well soon like a nice bowl of ....celery soup

I had my recipes all planned. I was going to attempt the Essence of Celery soup. A soup that would require me to invent a different name before anyone in my family would even consider tasting, but I did not get to use my creative side in the end. My husband R. got sick this week and I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to make him some old fashioned Chicken Soup, so the celery/ green lantern/ kryptonyte soup will have to wait until next week.

Back around Thanksgiving time I discovered one of the nice benefits to living in NJ. You could earn yourself a free chicken or turkey from the supermarket just by spending enough money. The only thing I ever got free from the Jewel in Chicago was a new pot. Not too bad either. This frozen chicken has been sitting in my freezer since then and it needed a way out. I looked through my book for a whole chicken recipe. I found the apricot glazed chicken, which had a picture and used a whole chicken - perfect. Recipe was not too complicated and I had all the ingredients at home. Tasted okay but nothing too special. I will attribute it to the fact that I omitted using the dried apricots and only used the apricot preserves.

So far, this cooking week not going so well, but wait, there was still a new side dish still to test out. This led me to a new milestone in my journey - the first dish that I will definitely not be making again. It didn't look good, it didn't taste good and it has some very unhealthy ingredients. Even R. who eats almost anything and hoards leftovers, pretended to look the other way when I tossed it in the garbage.

Hopefully this next week will bring better cooking luck.

17 done. 183 to go.

Help! My cookbook has been hijacked

My cookbook has gone MIA after a weekend visit to Aunt E.'s house. You may wonder what my family ate all week - is it okay for me to cook something not in the cookbook?
Don't worry last night we made tacos and taco salad for dinner. Once my cookbook made its way home and we had our teary reunion, I discovered the taco salad recipe I used was actually in the cookbook, only instead of taco seasoning which I used, it called for fajita seasoning. Not sure what the real difference is between the two but I will definitely be making the taco salad again, as all three of my kids gobbled up the taco salad including the vegetables. Next time I will use the fajita seasoning and try to sneak in more veggies underneath the meat!

When preparing dinner last night, D. (8yro) asked me if there was any brisket left over from friday night. That was the beer braised brisket that was polished off by his friend. hmmm- are you sure the alcohol evaporates out of the meat when cooked? I am not convinced.

Now that I have begun making headway on my project, I am going to begin keeping a tally of how many recipes I have completed towards my goal. The intro to the book says a total of 200 recipes.

15 done. 185 to go.