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.