Helen & Amber in the kitchen with Martha (well, ok...with a Martha cookbook)

Martha Stewart is the queen of the kitchen…of the whole house really! She knows good things when she sees them, so why not try out some recipes from one of her books for our return to Blog Dinner nights! J

We decided on a very health conscience menu tonight, starring some chicken poached in coconut milk…that’s right! Coconut Milk! YUM!

The Book:

The Menu:

The Undertaking:

Thankfully for our first night back on the task of making a meal for a crowd who were going to be critiquing us, we chose a meal that would be easy and quick to assemble…which is rare for a Martha Stewart recipe (at least in our experience).  We wanted to make sure that dinner was on the table at a decent hour for the kids to eat, so we opted to just feed them some chicken nuggets and raw veggies for supper (I am not sure if they would have enjoyed the coconut chicken anyways).  So really, we made two meals tonight in very good time!

Our prep work was done in no time at all.  Mince this, slice that, chop, chop, chop…DONE!  The main and side consisted of “throw all ingredients in a pot” which is my FAVORITE way to cook! 

Out of the three recipes that we did up for the main meal, the rice noodle cakes demanded the most of our time this evening, because we were frying up little rice noodle pancakes for everyone in one pan and it took some time.  But really, the meal was still probably done cooking in an hour (14 or 15 rice noodle cakes later).

Since we live in a small town and not all ingredients that are found in our favorite cook books can be found in town, we do occasionally have to substitute ingredients.  Tonight we substituted Arugula for Watercress and Radish Sprouts for Soya Bean Sprouts.  Funny thing about Radish Sprouts is that they taste a lot like radishes!  Two of our judges don’t normally eat spicy foods, so we try to make sure we don’t serve spicy foods at our Blog Dinner nights …but neither one of us put much thought into how a radish sprout would taste while out purchasing our groceries this morning. 

I sure realized our mistake this afternoon during prep when I just happened to pop a sprout in my mouth and was completely taken aback by the flavor of it!  I wasn’t really expecting a sprout to taste like a radish, but it’s got the exact same bite to it as an actual radish!  Woopsie daisies!  I laughed out loud and asked Helen if she had ever tasted one of these sprouts before and she said “No why?”, “Because they taste like radishes!!!”  We laughed about it and just hoped that they would go over well in our noodle cakes anyways…there wasn’t anything that we could do about it now.

Radish Sprouts were not the only spicy ingredient in our meal tonight that we snuck past our diners!  There were jalapenos in the salad dressing!  Who knew that salad dressing could taste SO GOOD!

The Judgment:

Arugula Salad

“My favorite part of the meal.  Very tasty with lots of flavor” – Amber’s Man

“I had SECONDS” – (veggie avoider) Helen’s Bob

“Ok” – Stuart

“Awesome!  Very good flavor.” – Andrea

The salad got an average score of 4.4 out of 5.

Chicken:

“I appreciate it for it’s healthiness but chicken and coconut milk are two ingredients without a lot of flavor.  This chicken was moist.” – Amber’s Man

“Tender and yummy.  Coconut milk added great flavor.” – Helen’s Bob

“Chicken = yummy, sauce = good” – Stuart

“Very moist and yummy” – Andrea

The chicken got an average score of 3.75 out of 5.

Crispy Rice Noodle Cakes:

“Again lacking in flavor.  Needed some sort of spicy sauce or something” – Amber’s Man

“Tasty but not very filling” – Helen’s Bob

“Good” – Stuart

“Ok, although I may have had prior expectations (potato – my bad) therefore didn’t give it the best chance” – Andrea

“My favorite part of the meal!” – Teenage Parker (no longer pre-teen LOL)

The Crispy Rice Noodle Cakes got an average score of 2.8 out of 5.

Green Tea with Mint Milkshakes:

“Excellent, very good!” – Amber’s Man

“Delicious and refreshing.  Almost tastes like it is a health drink.” – Helen’s Bob

“It was good.” – Stuart

“Yummy!” – Andrea

The kids all got to have some of our desert too.  Here is what they all had to say about it:

“No, I don’t really like milkshakes...” – Emmersyn (6 years)

“Yum!” – Carter (2 years)

“Delicious!” – Abbegail (6 years)

“I love it!” – Jaxon (6 years)

“This is my favorite!” – Samantha (3 years)

“Super like it!” – Seth (4 years)

We all forgot to score our Milkshakes, but they were very yummy so let say they were a 5 out of 5! J

Helen and Amber’s scores:

“The salad was absolutely delicious!  The lime made it even better!!  I would make this again LOTS!” – Helen

“The salad was FANTASTIC!  Super, super good.  I expected it to be spicy because of the jalapenos, but it wasn’t – it was just really, really good!” – Amber

“The coconut flavor in the chicken was strong and therefore delicious!  I thought it could use a touch of finishing salt but it was fantastic!” – Helen

“Really tasty!  Really happy to be able to taste the coconut flavor in the chicken…I was a little surprised.” – Amber

“It was my least favorite part of the meal.  Too many sprouts and it needed more flavoring.  I added the chicken coconut juice and it helped.” – Helen

“They were okay, but not super flavorful even thought there was a ton of ingredients in them.” – Amber

“The milkshake was really yummy!  So fresh tasting!” – Helen

“The milkshake was SO GOOD!  I love the addition of the mint!” – Amber

We were so pleased with the success of our first blog dinner night all together again after almost 9 months!  In the past nine months, a lot has happened to our little family here in our small town!  Amber and Emmersyn committed a ton of time in the fall to the community theater and appeared in “The Sounds of Music”, which was such a great way to end 2011.  And what better way to start 2012 but to welcome an addition to our family!!!  Helen and Bob had a little baby boy at the beginning of February!  And luck Baby Boy Lewis got to sit at the big kids table during his very first blog dinner night!

I am going to finish up by letting you all know of a little change that is going to be happening to our blog.  Since blog dinner night takes a lot of preparation and balancing of 3 family schedules, we have decided to do our big blog dinner nights once a month and do a blog each week about a recipe that we either find on Pinterest (our new addiction), or online or in a magazine.  In this weekly blog we will share the recipe with our readers so that they can make the recipes that we try out at home too!

We hope that you will enjoy our changes and that you all will try some of the recipes out with us!

Let us know what your favorite recipes are so that we can try them in our kitchens too! J

We're Baaaaccccckkkkk!

I know right...where have we been? Well, time just got away from us. This past summer, we were too busy to get together to pull off a blog dinner and then we just never got our acts together enough to get going again...UNTIL NOW!

We are planning a blog dinner for the end of this month, but until then we thought that we should probably get some of our kitchen adventures documented on our blog for all to see. Today I will start with a kitchen adventure (which was actually a "blog dinner" that I hosted for my family back in the summer time).

My judges included my brother BJ and his wife Beth, my two cousins Marc and Callan, and of course two of my gorgeous children.

The Book: 

365: No Repeats

The Author: 

Rachel Ray

The Menu:

Shrimp Martinis and Manhattan Steaks, Recipe # 158, Pg. 141

The Undertaking:

This dinner took place in the home of my brother and sister in law right after the birth of my beautiful niece J

Since I was attempting to pull off a dinner on my own (without my fabulous Helen), I chose to do only one recipe (which included a starter, a side and a main).  Luckily, I wasn’t lonely in the kitchen…I got some help from my brother…he tackled barbequing the steaks for me.  Thanks BJ!  And while BJ was working on the barbequing, I worked on the martinis (which is the reason I chose this menu of course), the broccoli spears and the Manhattan sauce for the steaks.  Since I had an assistant working on the steaks, this recipe was a synch to cook up.

I had a lot of fun making this recipe, mainly because we got to play with fire!!!!  It surely is a great choice to do when you have guests!  I suggest practicing a few times first though, so that you can get really good at it…good at the flambé part of the process I mean.  You could definitely put on a good show!  As for my first attempt at a flambé though…it was a little more like:

“Where is the fire extinguisher?”
“Get ready…we are going to try it now!”
“Make sure the door is open so that we can get out quickly should something catch fire!”

Fun times!

Now it’s time for a little bit of education!  I am about to explain what Flambé is.  I am sure that by looking at the pictures on this blog post, or from watching the Food Network, you might already know what it is…but humor me! J

Flambé is a cooking procedure where you add liquor to a dish to add flavoring.  The word flambé means flamed in French.  Flamed?  Yes, FLAMED….because you light your dish on fire!  …Noooo…not while you are eating your food!  You light it up during the cooking process in order to burn off the alcohol.  Once the flame has gone out and all of the alcohol is burned off, you are left with the flavor of the liquor…not the hangover!

The Judgement:
Manhattan Steaks:

“The savoury tender viscosity of the main course tingled my tastebuds and stimulated my salivary glands in a competent spectacle of debaucherous taste and splendor.” – Marc

“Sauce was very good, nicely cooked.” – Callan

“Very good.  Good way to prepare.  Steak sauce was awesome." - BJ

"Really good.  Perfectly cooked and everything. Sauce was really good.  A nice change from BBQ sauce.” – Beth

“Really good steak.  The icing was the sauce with the yummy shallots.  I would definitely eat this again and again!” – Amber

The Manhattan Steaks got an average score of 4.9 out of 5.

 Shrimp Martinis:

 “I’m too drunk” – Marc

“Too much vodka, and it’s kinda spicy.” – Callan

 “Good, but too much vodka, lemon and tabasco." - BJ

“Don’t like the cocktail sauce, but it was ok. Too much vodka” – Beth

“This was hard to eat, because it called for too much vodka.  There was tons of celery flavor though, which was nice.” – Amber

The Shrimp Martinis got an average score of 2.3 out of 5.

Broccoli:

 “yeah…” – Marc

“Kinda plain.” – Callan

"Too plain, needed a sauce, but still good for plain broccoli." - BJ

“It was broccoli.” – Beth

“Was good.  By the time I got to eat it, it was kind of cold, but it was good.  At least I could eat it, which is more than I could say for the cocktail appetizer!” – Amber

The Broccoli got an average score of 2.9 out of 5.

 The Kids Vote:

Both kids ate their supper pretty well.  They did not get to try the shrimp because it had liquor in it of course.  Emmersyn gave all of her food an infinity rating, and the broccoli got an infinity rating (even if she didn’t really like it as much as the meat), because “it is healthy for you”.

So I mentioned that we are going to be having a blog dinner at the end of this month and you can expect a new posting soon!  I hope that you all are as excited as we are about getting started on our blog posts again!

Amber & Helen

Mmmmm...Burgers.... (by Amber)

Rachel Ray is the queen of 30 minute meals and she loves her burgers.  So in the spirit of Canada Day and Independence Day, we decided to whip up some Rachel Ray burgers this week.  We used two of Rachel Ray’s cookbooks and cooked up two very different meals (in one night).  Helen made up one meal and I made up the other…and we squared off to see who would make the better burger and side.

The Books:

2, 4, 6, 8: Great Meals for Couples or Crowds

365: No Repeats

The Author:

Rachel Ray

The Menu:

Chicken Burger with Chow Chow and Cold Sesame Noodle Salad – Page 64

Super Tuscan Burger with Potato Salad with Capers and Celery – Page 13

The Undertaking:

Fortunately, the undertaking of this evening’s dinner was super easy.  It was our simplest prep and fastest prepared “Helen and Amber” meal yet.  But of course it should be…it’s just burgers J

Just because this was the simplest and fastest “Helen and Amber” meal that we’ve done, doesn’t mean that we were free from foul ups!  I always seem to be missing ingredients or forgetting to pickup grocery list items from the store.  This week I forgot the potatoes at my place (when dinner was to take place at Helen’s place) and I when I asked my hubbie (also my savior of the day*) to do my grocery shopping for me, I had forgotten to tell him what Arugula was (a type of green)…so he ended up looking for it in the cheese section and not coming home with Arugula because he couldn't find it...ooops! 

This week however, I was surprised when it was Helen who added the whole amount of an ingredient only to read later in the recipe that she was supposed to save some of it for later in the cooking process.  Usually it’s me that makes that mistake, so I was excited to get to laugh at her for doing it!  “Didn’t you pre-read your recipe, Helen?  Ha ha!”  My excitement was short lived because moments later I realized that I had added ½ cup of red wine to the burger mixture when I was only supposed to use ¼ cup and save the rest for later…sheepish, that’s all I have to say about that!

The Judgement:

Chicken Burger with Chow Chow and Cold Sesame Noodle Salad:

“The flavor and the texture were wicked good!  The Sesame Noodle Salad had awesome flavor!” – Amber’s Man

“The burger was tasty.  Sweet and Spicy.  The Sesame Noodles had strong flavors.  There was a nice spicy after taste.” – Helen’s Bob

“The burger was sweet and spicy…it was a nice combo.  The noodle salad was interesting, but I am not a big fan of cold 

noodles." - Stu 

“The chicken burger was a little dry, but 

the toppings helped it out.  I didn’t like how 

spicy it was, but would eat it again.  The 

noodle salad was too spicy for me.  I thought 

that it overpowered the other flavors.” 

– Andrea

The Chicken Burger with Chow Chow got an average score of 3.5  out of 5.

The Cold Sesame Noodle Salad got an average score of 3 out of 5.

Super Tuscan Burger with Potato Salad with Capers and Celery:

“WOW!  Favorite to date.  Love the cheese and flavor combo.  These two burgers are the best burgers I have had in a long time.  The potato salad is tasty.” – Amber’s Man

"The Tuscan burger was plain without very strong flavors.  The potato salad had some lemony goodness. No mayo is a nice touch." - Helen's Bob (the man who NEVER eats potato salad because he doesn't like it at all) 

“I’m not a big fan of onions, but it was basically good.  The potato salad was good but a little spicy.” – Stu

“I did not like the toppings (mushrooms and the top part of the bun).  The meat was ok, there was no overwhelming flavor.  The potato salad was delicious!  (But too many onions).” – Andrea

The Super Tuscan Burger got an average score of 3 out of 5.

The Potato Salad with Capers and Celery got an average score of 3.2 out of 5.

The Kids Vote:

Neither burger called for any of the regular type condiments in the recipe…but that didn’t stop the kids from wanting ketchup on their burgers!  Only Abbegail enjoyed the Tuscan burger (and she even asked for a second helping!).  The rest of the kids liked the chicken burger best.  Most of the kids liked the sesame noodles better than the potato salad (what child wouldn’t choose peanut butter flavor over lemon?).

Helen & Amber’s Review:

 “The chicken burger was yummy.  The chow chow was spicy but delicious.  The Sesame Noodle Salad was good.  Spicy.  Tasty.  Very strong peanut taste.”… “The toppings on the Tuscan burger were tasty, but the meat was bland.  I enjoyed the potato salad’s lemony taste.  It was not as heavy as regular potato salad which is great.” 

– Helen

“I was not a huge fan of the chicken burger.  I don’t know what is was…I just didn’t like it.  However I did like the Sesame Noodles.  There was lots of peanut flavor and a touch of spice too! Yum!”…“I really liked the Tuscan burger…but it could have used more seasoning though, I don’t think that I added enough.  I would have also liked more cheese on it (we didn’t have enough, so the cheese that we did have was rationed).  The potato salad would have been REALLY good if I didn’t overcook the potatoes.  The flavors were perfect, but the texture was just a little bit off.”

 – Amber

*I would like to make a special shout out to my fabulous husband and my super helpful bro in law Stuart, because this laid back “Helen and Amber” dinner night didn't start out being laid back and easy.  Earlier in the day while I was working (which some of you know is done in my home with my own computer equipment)…my computer monitor died in the middle of my shift and as I was freaking out and trying to figure out how I was going to finish the rest of my shift, my husband and my brother in law came to my rescue.  They each dropped everything and brought me monitors; Stuart brought me one of his monitors from home and Audie brought me a brand new one from Walmart.  Both men came to my rescue within 10 minutes!  Thank you guys, I appreciate all that you do for me!!!!

CHEERS!