Sunday April 18th 2010
Hallelujah!!! I am finally caught up. Weeks 26 to 30 are now up. Though it may not look like I'm caught up from the dates-- we decided to take a little hiatus for a few weeks. I was tired of being six weeks behind posting our randevous. Since we went out of town the weekend after March 6th and we were also out of town for Easter, it was a good time to take a break. We will probably start again next week. Isabel told me she doesn't want to go too long lest we might forget about doing it.  Appearently they like our sunday meals because Elayna who is looking over my shoulder as I write this got disgruntled when she read the words "we might forget about doing it."

It is unanimous , me mustn't forget--  we must continue our culinary quest another 22 weeks and explore more recipes together!  Hopefully we will continue our tradition beyond the end of our blog year, especially since it will be more enjoyable without having to snap photos, commentate about it, and the worst part-- type up the recipes! In the mean time it will be much better now that I am all caught up. I felt like I was running on a treadmill, or rather, tripping on a treadmill. Now I can happily keep current on our escapades and that is a good feeling indeed.  By the way for some reason, Week 27 is out of sinc. with the others. I thought I drafted it in order but, who knows, this blog seems to have a mind of it's own. It is nestled before week 25. Go figure.  See you next week blog!

Week 30

Sunday  March 6, 2010

Super Easy Tortilla Soup, German Chocolate Bars

This week we have a special Guest-- Alexis!!!! She's spending the week with us on our spring break.  I drove down with the girls and met my sister half way between our houses for the exchange.  Since we spent the day driving on saturday, the name "Super Easy" jumped off the page as I strummed through our ward cook book that night. This was the recipe for me.  I remembered some  delicious sounding dessert from a Lionhouse Entertaining book we have. When I saw the German chocolate bars I thought it was a wonderful fusion of two loves, cookie bars and coconut pecan frosting--mmm mmm!

I guess this recipe isn't "super easy" for all the cooks!

The girls were in charge of rinsing the beans

Every thing goes straight into the crockpot. I just had to brown some chicken.

I love recipes like this. Especially on Sunday when we get home ravenous at 4:30.  It's wonderful to walk in to the aroma of dinner. 

 I think I like it so much because it brings back memories of Sunday dinners as a kid. My dad worked long hours and my siblings who were left at home were already teenagers from the time I can remember-- they were busy during the week and so, as I recall, traditional family dinners were not an every night occurance. But on Sunday, my mom often put in a roast before church, and we would come home to the delicous smell of a cooked dinner. Most importantly we had a family dinner in the dining room and we all ate together--I loved it.

After church, the kids were a bit distracted and I had a difficult time getting them to come help. I finally told them if they wanted the dessert, they had to make it themselves and left out the recipe. For Isabel-- who loves german chocolate-- that was all she needed to hear to make a bee line for the kitchen. Nothing like a threat to command attention. This one I thought was justified. Let the person who cares the most do the work. Today, it turned out to be Isabel!

While Elayna and Alexis started out helping.  This was about as far as they made it.

After that, they spent the time doing this...

Even rain can't keep the kids inside...

While Isabel did this...

and this...

And this...

and cooked the frosting...

And baked them...

She said she didn't mind. She loves to cook and she definitely has the attention span for it!

Luckily for her everyone got to enjoy these!

Lion House German Chocolate Bars

Bars:

2/3 cup butter

1 pkg. German Chocolate Cake Mix

1 cup Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips

1 tub coconut pecan frosting

 ( the actual recipe called for canned frosting-- are you serious? that is something I might expect from a pillsbury published pamphlet, but Lionhouse? so we tried a new frosting recipe from our ward cook book.  I just thought that was funny)

Frosting

1 cup evaporated milk
1 cup sugar
3 eggs yolks
1/2 cup butter
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/3 cups coconut
1 cup chopped pecans

Frosting directions: Combine the first 5 ingrediants in a sauce pan. Cook over medium heat for about 12 min. Remove from heat. Add coconut and pecans. Stir.

Cookie Bar Directions:

Cut butter into cake mix. press into greased  9x13 pan. Bake 10 minutes. spread choc chips over crust, and frosting (see frosting below) and then bake another 25 min or so. Cool and cut into bars. 

Review

These were yummy, but they were quite the sugar bomb. Of course that didn't stop us from gobbling them up. The best part was the frosting, and that is why the idea of a German chocolate bar is genious, it solves the frosting ratio issue that I have with cake. Too much cake not enough frosting. These bars were a little too dense and sugary since you only add butter to the cake mix. Next time I would try making a traditional cake mix cookie recipe and either follow the directions the same, or just spread on the frosting after they are baked. These will definitely be experimented with in the future, they were tasty. Thank you little red hen Isabel!

Super Easy Tortialla Soup

1 can condensed chicken with rice soup

1 1/3 cup water

1 cup salsa

1 can pinto beans

1 can black beans

1 can corn

1 cup diced cooked chicken

1 tsp. gr. cumin

Directions:

In a large sauces pan combine all ingrediants. Cook over medium heat 5-7 min. Until heated through. Serve with tortilla chips, cheese, and sour cream.

(we doubled the recipe and put everything in the crock pot before church. and cooked it on high for 4 hours or so. )

Review:

This was a big hit. Isabel even said it might rival Chicken Courdon Blue for her. This recipe was super easy and super tasty-- thumbs way up! I like the chicken alternative to a popular Taco Soup recipe we like to make.  I am sure we will be revisiting this one many times in the years to come!

WEEK 29

Sunday, February 28th 2010

Oatmeal Fudge Bars

This turned into an unusal circumstance for dinner.  Some friends invited us over for dinner. It was decided we would bring dessert which would afford us the chance to still try a new recipe. Sunday morning my friend called and said her son was sick, but she had already made double the dinner and still wanted to bring it to us to have. How could  I turn down a meal someone had already prepared? Since we made the dessert I figured we swap after church. During Church they were passing the Missionary calendar around and that Sunday was still empty. The list had already been around the room and I didn't want them to go without dinner.  I knew we were getting a pan of Shepard's Pie,  I figured with some side dishes, we would have enough. So I signed up. I made some breadsticks and smoothie, and the dinner they brought us was great! We enjoyed dinner, had plenty of dessert (even with the swap), and shared many laughs with the missionaries.  During the course of events however,  I was amused that somehow we managed to go from a dinner date at a friends house, to having people over for dinner, serving them food someone else prepared.

-- life can be strange sometimes.

I gave my baking cupboard a make-over. It had gotten quite terrible between the desert sands of spilled  sugar and the sticky streams of leaking honey. 

My spice cupboard has been revamped too. It's been bothering me for years but I never wanted to take the time to do something about it. Instead, time after time I simply shoved the toppling bottles back in and quickly shut the door to keep them from falling.  When I finally got the courage, it took me all of 15 minutes to go through it. 15 minutes!!! Why do I do this to myself. I could have had a clean cupboard years ago.  There are a lot of things like that in my life. Little jobs that if I took the time would make life so much easier. The time is now to take them on! I have figured my goal for this year. To eradicate my time wasting clutter. Oh wait, that has been my goal for years. darn it!  It will proabably continue to be for years to come.  Oh well, hopefully it won't be my baking and spice cupboards again.

Isabel was very excited about our new and improved cupboards. It made it much easier for her to find what she needed.

This was the extent of Jordan's helpfulness-- Watching JJ play Zelda on his computer.

Learning to open cans.

I love her concentration

Mmm Mmm, is there anything better than sweetened condensed milk?

As Laney poured it out we noticed it made an interesting shape. The front part hung like that while the back dripped in a steady stream.  It certainly was not what I would have expected.

Instead of sprinkling a portion of the dry mixture over the top, we spread it all in the bottom--it was the only way to cover the large cookie sheet.

Having the cupboard organized also prompted Isabel to be more neat as she cooked.

Instead of the counter looking like this when done...

(as it did in week 1)

It looked like this!!!

She has gotten much better at cleaning up her messes after cooking. Which encourages me to let her cook more often.

Oatmeal Fudge Bars

Cookie Dough
1 cup butter
2 cups brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. Vanilla
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
3 cups oats


Cream butter, br. sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Add flour, soda, salt. Mix in oats. press 1/2- 2/3 of dough onto cookie sheet.





Chocolate Filling
1 can sweetened condensed milk
12 oz. semi sweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup butter

2 tsp. vanilla

Cook top ingrediants together until melted. Stir in vanilla.  spread chocolate filling over dough evenly. Sprinkle remaining mixture over top.  Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes (mine was spread over 11x17 inch pan and 20 minutes was too long).


Review: I absolutely loved the chocolate part. That is a great fudge topping for any cookie bar. The oat bottom was good too, but because I over cooked it, it tasted a little dry to me. I might add a little less oats next time too. Sometime I want to try this adding peanut butter into the the dough. I'm not sure what it would do to the consistancy but I think it will be fun to experiment. Peanut butter and chocolate-- yum yum!   These were a hit for JJ and the kids!

Week 28

Week 28 Sunday February 21, 2010

Lemon Chicken Stir-Fry,  Lemon Bars

A friend gave me a bag of fresh lemons she had recieved somewhere and I decided it was a good time to put them to use before they went bad. It was a night of discovery about lemon. Lemon, it turns out can be quite temperamental. Whilst the lemon bars were delicious, the lemon stir-fry.....not so much. I've decided to distrust any recipe heavily laden with lemon that doesn't include an equally large dose of it's equalizer--sugar! In my opinion some things are not meant to mix with lemon, in this case, meat and vegetables.  Perhaps that isn't a fair assesment for all recipes, but it is with this one. Even hefty additions of sugar didn't take away the tongue twisting tartness of the main ingrediant. While I found it to be palatable, despite the flavor, my children didn't. They pushed it around on the plate, but even Isabel the stir fry queen, had difficulty swallowing.  Live and Learn, I guess.

JJ went on a work snowboarding trip to Flagstaff for the day. I enjoyed sleeping in Sunday morning and woke happily to the aroma of Isabel making pancakes. She had gotten up, found a recipe, and made them herself. When I came downstairs, she was flipping them. It was so nice to be served breakfast, which is a fairly rare occasion. They were good too! Way to go Isabel!

Pound that Chicken!

Glad to see them consulting the recipe

Isabel's First time making a smoothie on her own.

Lookin' good

Coating the chicken

It looked good, Unfortunately looks can be misleading!

Lemon Chicken Stir-fry

Ingrediants

4 chicken Breasts

1 tbsp. soy sauce

5 tbsp. cornstarch

1 bunch scallions

1 lemon

1 garlic clove

1 tbsp. sugar

2/3 cup homeade chicken stock

4 tbsp. olive oil

salt and pepper

(we added more veggies such as zuccini squash, and yellow squash,

Directions:

1. place chicken in between syran wrap and flatten to 1/4 think with mallet or rolling pin.

2. cut in 1 inch strips and place in bowl of soy sauce. Sprinkle 4 tbsp. cornstarch and toss to coat

3. cut scallions diagonally into 1/2 pieces only using the root part.

4. Remove lemon rind either by grating or peel and cut into thin strips. Reserved the lemon juice.

5.Blend juice, sugar, chicken stock, and mix with water and cornstarch to form and paste.

6. heat oil in stir fry pan or wok, and cook chicken quickly in small batches for 3-4 min. until lightle  

    colored. remove to dish.

7. add scallions and garlic to pan and cook 2 min.

8. add other veggies cook a couple min.

9. add chicken and paste and bring to boil. sirring until thickend and veggies are cooked.

10. Serve over rice.

Review

Whilst I enjoyed the consistancy of the sauce and the way it coated the rice, it was much too tart to want to cook it again.

Lion House Lemon Bars

Crust:

1 1/4 cup butter

2 1/4 cups flour

1/2 cup powdered sugar

Filling:

4 eggs

2 cups sugar

6 tbsp. lemon juice

4 tbsp. flour

1 tsp. baking powder

Frosting Glaze:

1 1/2 tbsp. milk

1 tbsp. butter

1 1/4 cup powdered sugar

1 tbsp. lemon juice

1/2 tsp. lemon rind

Directions:

Beat butter, flour, powdered sugar until crumbled and mixed evenly. press into 9x13 pan. bake @ 350 for 10 min until light brown on corners .

Mix eggs, sugar, lemon juice, flour and baking powder in a medium bowl. mix on low for a just a few minutes. pour onto partially baked crust.  and bake @ 350 for 30-35 min.

(I added the lemon glaze from another recipe in the book on top.) Make sure the bars are well cooled. Then mix ingrediants for glaze together and spread over the top. Cut into bars.

Review:

These turned out scrupmtious and the kids really liked them too. The glaze on top made them even more delectable than regular lemon bars.  Thumbs up on this one. The crust is pretty thick so have a drink handy they make you thirsty.

Week 26

Week 26   Sunday, February 7, 2010 

6  Month Celebration

Courdon Blue, Easy Chocolate Chip Pound Cake

This was our half way week. We decided to revisit our favorite Dinner and Dessert from the last 6 months. We let the kids choose-- which really means Isabel picked and Laney and Jordan agreed with her. They did legitimately like those, but I don't even think Jordan remembered the Courdon Blue. It was a good one however, and definitely one of my top three choices.  We made the dessert in the morning since we would get back late from church and JJ had to catch a flight to Anaheim for a work trade show. The kids were so jealous, knowing he would be back next to Disneyland.

He's become quite steady at measuring

Anatomy of a Taste Check...

1

2

3

After Cooking they worked on Valentines, while it baked in the oven.

The Finishing Touches

Isabel was my only helper for dinner. And even she bailed once the pounding was over. The others were too busy enjoying playing with their dad before he left for his trip.  We'll let it slide for a good cause.

I am posting the Recipes for these since I didn't have them on the site the first time we made them.

Chicken Courdon Blue

6 boneless skinless chicken breasts

6 slices provolone cheese

6 slice proscuito

3 tbsp. flour

1 tsp. paprika

6 tbsp. Butter

1/2 white wine

1 tsp. chicken bouillon granules

1 tbsp. corn starch

1 cup heavy whipping cream (we use half and half or even milk works)

Directions:

Chicken flat between syran wrap until flat. Place cheese and ham slice on each breast within 1/2 inch. of edges. Fold the chicken over the filling and secure with toothpicks. Mix the flour and paprika in a small bowl and coat chicken.

Heat the butter in a large skillet over medium high heat and cook chicken until browned on all sides. Add the wine and bouillon. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 30 min. until chicken is no longer pink and juiced run clear.

Remove tooth picks and transfer to platter. Blend the cornstarch with the cream in a small bowl and wisk into skillet juices. Cook stirring until thickened and pour over chicken. Serve warm.

Review:

This is a family favorite now.  I am not a big fan of large chunks of meat which is why I put off trying Courdon Blue for years, but I love this recipe! The kids gobble it up too! This one gets 2 thumbs way up, which is why we decided to repeat it!

Easy Chocolate Chip Pound Cake

1 pkg. yellow cake mix

1- 3.9oz. pkg. instant chocolate pudding

1/2 cup white sugar

3/4 cup water

3/4 cup vegetable oil

4 eggs

1 cup sour cream

1/2 cup milk chocolate chips

1/8 cup powdered sugar (for dusting)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees

greae and flour bundt pan

mix ingrediants together. Fold in chocolate chips. Pour into pan and bake for 50-60 min. or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool 10 min before inverting onto serving dish. Dust with powdered sugar.

Review

Although I am not a huge fan of cake and especially a frostingless one, this is surprisingly moist and tastey for an easy recipe. I think it's a keeper and the kids love it!

Here are the kid's top choices so far...

Elayna
Dinner
1.Courdon Bleu
2.Chicken Tetrazzini
3.Pesto Calzone

Desserts
1.Chocolate Pound Cake
2.Lemon Bread
3.Chocolate Popcorn



Isabel
Dinner
1.Courdon Bleu
2.Pesto Calzone
3.Pirate Stew

Dessert:
1.Chocolate Chip Pound Cake
2.Lemon Bread
3.Mint Chocolate Mousse Dessert

Jordan
Dinner
1.Courdon Bleu
2.Pesto Calzone
3.Chicken Tetrazzini

Dessert
1.Chocolate Chip Pound Cake
2.Carmel Apple Cheesecake

My Favorites Are....

Not in any particular order,

Dinner:

Courdon Blue

Chicken Lasagne

Pesto Calzone

Dessert:

Carmel Apple Cheesecake

Chocolate Mousse Dessert

Chocolate Cheesecake

As far as JJ goes. I couldn't pin him down, but looking back on his responses the food I  think he liked the Courdon Bleu, Pesto Calzone, and Moussaka for dinner.

JJ isn't much of a dessert person but he did eat and enjoy...

Carmel Apple Cheesecake

Chocolate Cheesecake

Mint Chocolate Mousse Dessert

We look forward to more choices for the end of the year top picks!