Next Cooking Class Sept 30th!

Hello everyone, are you surprised to see this blog get updated? I sure am! I got the flu, which forced me to cancel a trip so I had time to write this. Imagine what a cool person I could be if I didn't travel! Wait sorry, this isn't my personal blog it is a cooking blog so.. LET'S COOK!

Or not..

September's topic:

BROWN BAG!! See how this could help you...

• Are you tired of your kids complaining that the food you send in their lunch has no trade-in value on the streets?

• Are you burned out on getting invited to a quilting lunch and just stay home and watch your favorite rerun of MASH instead because you don't have anything at home that doesn't require hours in the kitchen?

• When your grandkids come over, do you feel like you have to have costco snacks in the pantry to bribe them (wait, which ones do they like?)

• When you go to play group, do your kids always want to eat Lyndsi or Jo's snacks?

• Do the cafeteria ladies make your kids put their chocolate away (I know, that is none of their business, right?)
  

Well this is the class for you! Come to class and bring something that looks healthy enough to fool even the most astute of lunch ladies!

SEPTEMBER 30th at 7pm MPR (Multipurpose room, I just got that acronym from a cool school in Indiana!)

Lynette Mill's Chocolate Mud Cake

This was the slow cooker recipe. I know, I know, forever ago. But just in time for the slow-cooker season!

Serve with vanilla ice cream

1 cup flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

6 tablespoons butter

1/3 cup chocolate chips

2/3 cup sugar

3 tablespoons + 1/3 cup cocoa

1 tablespoons vanilla

1/4 teaspoons salt

1/ 3 cup milk

1 egg yolk

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 1/2 cups hot water

1. Spray Pam all over slow cooker.

2. Whisk together the flour and baking powder in a bowl. Set aside. Melt butter and chocolate chips in microwave.

3. Whisk in 2/3 cup sugar, 3 tablespoons cocoa, vanilla, salt, milk and egg yolk. Add to flour and stir well.

4. Pour batter into slow cooker and spread evenly. In bowl, whisk together brown sugar, 1/3 cup cocoa and hot water. Stir until sugar is dissolved.

5. Pour mixture over batter in slow cooker, cover and cook on high for 1 to 2 hours.

6. When done, cake is very moist -- floating on a layer of chocolate (sides pull away from pot)

Super Sinful Chocolate Chip Cookies

I had these at a family party last month and they were really and truly unbelievable. Like I literally could not prevent my hand from reaching out over and over again. Soo bad. But so good!

Bertha Mendez’s Chocolate Chip Cookies

½ pound butter

½ pound margarine

1 ½ cup sugar

2 cup brown sugar

3 eggs

3 Tablespoons vanilla

6 cups flour

1 ½ teaspoons baking soda

1 ½ teaspoons salt

Approx. 4 cups chocolate chips (I use lg bag of CC from Costco and pour ½ bag in)

1 bag vanilla chips

½ bag of pecans from Costco. I am guessing 2-3 cups?

1. Cream together softened butter and margarine. Must use both, something about the combo of both that makes the recipe!
2. Add sugar, brown sugar and mix
3. Add eggs and vanilla
4. In two separate bowls, measure 4 cups of flour in one, 2 cups in other, set this one aside.
5. In bowl with 4 cups of flour, mix in baking soda and salt.
6. Add flour mixture to butter mixture.
7. Based on the consistency you like, add as much of the remaining 2 cups of flour as you see fit, you may not use all 2 cups. I use all six because I like thicker, rounder cookies, so does Bertha, but do whatever you like.
8. This is the creative part of the recipe. Let your taste guide you. If you like chocolate chips more than vanilla chips, add more or visa versa. You can also use walnuts instead of pecans. I personally think pecans and more cc taste the best.
9. Add chocolate chips, vanilla chips, and pecans. At this point I use my hands to mix.
10. When you are ready to make the cookies, I basically make sure that there is barely enough dough to hold everything in it. If it looks like too much dough, I add more of whatever I have left.
11. Using an ice cream scoop, drop cookies onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for 11 minutes.

Salad Night

We are outdated obviously! So just because the blog is behind doesn't mean you can't come to our upcoming Cooking Night on Tuesday: Fruit!

Here is a video clip of Chef Ramsay making his super simple salad--I brought it to share last time.

Other recipes coming soon...

Notes from Enrichment--Crock Pots

Thank you to everyone who made the crock pot recipes!

Recipes to be posted soon:
Lynette Mills' Mud Pie (yum!!!)
Verlene Green's Rice Pudding
Lee Fleming's Apple Sauce

Other notes:

Successful flavor combos:

Russian Dressing
Apricot Jam
Dried Onion

Lipton Beefy Onion Mix (powdered)

BBQ Sauce

Chile Powder
Cumin
Chicken

Dry Italian Dressing Mix
Cream Cheese
Chicken

Sour Cream
Cream of Chicken
Chicken
Grated Parmesan

Favorite Recipes (hopefully to be posted soon!)

Creamy Italian Chicken (Katie Erb)
Pot Roast (Verlene Green)
Enchiladas (Lyndsi Stock)
Chili (Jo Nebeker)
Show You Chicken (Kaitlin DiMartini)
Green Chile Soup (Brandy Tuutau)
Salsa (Holly Yates)

No-Knead Bread

Adapted from Jim Lahey, Sullivan Street Bakery
NYTimes.com 11/8/06

Time: About 1½ hours plus 14 to 20 hours’ rising

3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
¼ teaspoon instant yeast
1¼ teaspoons salt
1 5/8 cups water
(Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed.)

1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.

2. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.

3. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.

4. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.
Yield: One 1½-pound loaf.

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This is much easier than it looks! Takes a little planning ahead to make this but is sooo worth it. My white Pyrex dish isn't quite 6-quarts, so I just cut the fully risen dough in half and make two loaves to prevent the bread from popping the lid off. Baking it covered makes the crust so incredibly crunchy while the inside is soft-- yum!

What a Crock!!!

Hola hermanas of the GV Chefs!! Our next meeting is on April 21st and the theme is slow cooker recipes. So easy peasy, just get up in the morning and throw some random stuff into your crock pot so we can taste your creative creations by evening time.

Also I am going to go ahead and throw the themes out there for the rest of the year:

May: Green Salads
June: Fruit (should we narrow it down?)
No cooking for July or August due to busy summers!
September: Pastas
October: Pumpkin
November: Cookies
No cooking club in December because of the holidays but hopefully the cookies we make in November will last through until the end of the year!

Any other topics you would like to see?