May Challenge from Olive

I know that today is not officially May but since I am going to be out of town tomorrow raising money for Lupus, I thought I would go ahead and get my challenge underway. The challenge I bestow upon you is make a healthy family meal for less than $15. Since most of you only have two adults to actually feed this should be easy. I may have some obstacles but plan to make it as healthy as possible while staying under my limit. I think an account of the purchases and if possible the calorie count to verify healthiness. Good luck to all!

April Challenge - Sue Chef's Results

I was excited to see a risotto challenge issued as I love, love cooking risottos. They are not nearly as difficult as people make them out to be, and I lust after the rich, thick pasta-like rice result. So warming to the belly, and just a small serving amount fills you up!

Just a few days before, I enjoyed a wonderful risotta at one of my favorite Savannah restaurants - Garibaldi's - and two Sundays ago I attempted to replicate it at home. Sundays, more often than not, we grill out some steaks, so this seemed like a perfect time to pair a risotto with a good steak.

Here are the ingredients for the risotto - a Parmesan Pea Risotto....

You know the drill.....you gotta saute the onions in the butter, then add the risotto and brown up a bit, then start adding the liquid slowly, and only after the previous addition has been totally absorbed. All risottos need at least a half cup of wine, in my humble opinion.

And......here's the end result! A nice, creamy risotto with a healthy dose of peas and parmesan cheese added at the very end, paired with fresh asparagus (also covered in a little parmesan) and your favorite steak. I'll take this every Sunday night!

Now, on to the second challenge. I found a sparkling shiraz at our local wine store. It was a little expensive ($20) I thought, but couldn't wait to get home and try it. I put it in the frig to chill while I started dinner.

I did this challenge this past Sunday and looky here....steak again. I promise I didn't plan it this way. But, I was craving a black and bleu steak, and thought that a sparkling red would go nicely with this.
The end result? Well, Mr. and Mrs. Chef are not big fans of sparkling shiraz. The texture and pizazz of the wine just aren't for us. In fact, we struggled a bit to drink it through dinner. And, if you know me at all, you know that's a tough admission for me to make. I normally drink wine like it's water! I had high hopes for this one, but I just don't think it was for me. Next time, I'll stick to one of my favorite Cabs.

Can't wait for next month,

Sue

Betty Does Risotto & a BSD

Giada timed her risotto challenge perfectly with the arrival of my May issue of Cooking Light, as it had a whole feature on spring risottos and how to cook them perfectly. As I perused the risotto recipes in the issue, one immediately caught my eye, and I knew just what I had to do: make the bacon and wild mushroom risotto with baby spinach. Clearly, it was my destiny.

I scanned the ingredient list and decided to make a couple substitutions. Here is the recipe for your reference. Um, why type it here when Cooking Light has it online? I’m a busy girl.
http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1981765

Substitutions:
1. Make my own chicken stock? As if. Publix had the 32 oz. cartons of Swanson broth on sale for $2 this week. Sold.
2. My Publix does not carry a wide mushroom selection and I wasn’t about to go all Whole Foods on you girls. So I used one 3.5 oz. package of shitakes and 8 oz. of button mushrooms. The shitakes satisfied the “wild” quotient for me. By all means, find the creminis and oysters if you are so inclined.
3. I had Madeira wine, so I didn’t buy any. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize I had opened the Madeira wine in 2001, and that it had gone way bad. So I dumped it and used some Chardonnay instead. Why? Because it was open.

These substitutions in no way affected the outcome of my risotto. I followed the cooking instructions exactly, and after 25 minutes of constant stirring, found myself the beneficiary of a perfectly cooked, steaming bowl of absolute deliciousness. This stuff is culinary crack. I loved this recipe, and found it completely worth the total 1 hour of prep and cooking time. I just ate the leftovers for lunch, and they were just as good as they were last night.

As I applaud my culinary genius for tackling risotto, and thank Giada for bringing this recipe into my life, it’s only prudent that I reflect on what technique I think made the recipe a success. I think the key to perfectly cooked risotto is to keep the rice going at a medium heat in a Dutch oven exactly as the recipe instructs. The wide surface area of my beloved red Le Crueset Dutch oven (this is seriously a great investment and is my FAVE kitchen item) gave the rice a lot of contact with the heat. The constant stirring assured that that the grains didn’t rest too long on direct heat. Cooking in on medium kept my cooking time to about 25 minutes, which was ideal, because my arms got tired and my wine glass got, well, empty.

Speaking of wine, while I think a pinot noir pairing would have been sublime, I enjoyed my risotto last night with the last bit of my chosen BSD, which I paired the night before with a dish of shrimp and feta cheese over vermicelli. To my delight, I did find a sparkling shiraz at Total Wine; Paringa from Australia for a nice price of $12/bottle. Mr. Focker said it was good for a “carbonated wine” (um-kay...) and I enjoyed it as well. But it wasn't superior to prosecco for me – prosecco will always be my favorite BSD. Mmmm...I might need to make another trip to Total Wine!

April Risotto and BSD Challenge Results from Olive

For April's challenge I picked a mushroom risotto recipe to attempt. The ingredients are:

1/2 cup boiling water

1/2 oz dried porcini mushrooms

3 1/4 cups water

1 can (14 1/2 oz) chicken or vegetable broth

2 tbls butter

1 lbs sliced white mushrooms

1 1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp ground black pepper

pinch dried thyme

1 tbls olive oil

1 small chopped onion

2 cups Arborio rice

1/2 cup dry white wine

1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

2 tbls chopped fresh parsley

Pour the boiling water over the dried porcini mushrooms and let stand for 30 minutes.

Remove the mushrooms, rinse to remove grit then chop.

Strain mushroom liquid through a sieve lined with a paper towel. (Yes, I do have a sieve).

In a sauce pan heat water, broth and mushroom liquid to a boil then simmer covered.

In a pan melt butter over med heat. Add white mushrooms, 1/2 tsp salt, pepper and thyme.

Cook mushrooms until tender and liquid has evaporated (about 10 min) then stir in porcini and transfer to a bowl.

In the pan heat oil over med heat, add onions and cook for about 5 min.

Add rice and remaining salt and cook, stirring frequently until the rice grains are opaque.

Add wine and cook until all liquid has been absorbed.

Add 1/2 cup simmering broth to rice stirring until absorbed.

Continue adding broth until rice is tender but still firm (about 25 min).

Stir in mushroom mix, Parmesan and parsley and heat through.

I also had the hubby grill up some delicious shrimp and thank goodness because the rice was still a bit crunchy. The hubby liked the flavor and tried it the next day to see if it softened up a bit (it hadn't). I am not a good rice cooker anyway so I did not expect a miracle.

I sent the hubby also to pick up the sparkling wine which took a few phone calls and asking employees for him to find what he was looking for. The wine he picked was kind of sweet but not a desert wine. It was actually really good and I would most likely have him get it again.

March Challenge #4 Results and fishing trip from Hell

Ok so I am probably breaking The Cook Club Rules by posting a March challenge in April but since I am the only mom with two kids....thus far...I think I deserve an exception. Plus the fishing trip that went along with the challenge is too freaking funny not to share. Please note: Indecent photos follows.

March Challenge #4 Results Wine and Food Recipe

I have to say that I have not been a huge fan of the Food Network's host Sandra Lee. However, while at the festival in Miami with the other Cook Club girls we got a interesting insight of the host. Sandra would pull two people on stage to shake and dance while her helper had them make drinks. While the audience members were making drinks, Sandra was making her own concoction. On stage Sandra made a bloody mary that had soo much Vodka that it was almost clear. While drinking the strong drink, she did not even make a face! And I was impressed.
So this Easter weekend when the Hubby decided that a fishing trip would be a good family outing, I knew what I had to do. Pack the vodka and the bloody mary mix. After our trip, I am glad I brought the reinforcements so that I did not have to take out my frustration on my family and could drink myself into oblivion.

The fishing trip from hell started out pretty well. The Hubby had bought Baby Girl a new pink princess fishing pole which we tested out out casting and reeling in Friday night. Once at the lake, the Hubby had the task of setting up every one's poles because frankly I am useless. Once he got Baby Girls' pole ready we put it in the water and soon after she caught her first fish ever. Though she did not want to touch it, she was very proud of herself.

Once the Hubby took care of taking the fish off the hook and releasing it (because again, I am useless) and re-set her pole and laid her pole slightly in the water to set the remaining poles, a fish grabbed it and off it went into the water..lost forever. Baby Girl took the news well but does expect to get another one in the near future.

After the Hubby had untangles and unsnagged every one's pole at least two time, we hit a log and lost the plug in the boat. Water started poring in the boat. Fortunately, we were close to shore and was able to pull up and pull the boat on shore. When the Hubby went to see what size plug we needed to "make" a new plug, he stepped on the the edge of the shore and the bottom fell out. Before I knew it, Hubby was up to his waste in the lake and was only able to catch himself with his elbow and had to crawl his way back up on shore. His brand new phone he got a day before was in his pocket along with his wallet. I dried off the phone and thankfully, it did not get damaged. Since he was covered in mud he had to take his pants off to clean them off.

Fortunately the Hubby was able to find a stick to use as a plug and we were on our way. Needless to say there were no other fish caught that day.

We decided since it is spring break to let the kids run around on the "beach" (as we referred to it the Poor Man's beach). The kids ran around and jumped and swam in the water and had a great time.

After our eventful trip we decided to splurge on a dinner out and picked up some Thai food. On the way home the Hubby asked where his wallet was and after a phone call, we found out that we had in fact left it at the restaurant just to end out wonderful day!!

Our Redneck Ride

April Challenge #2: BSD Pairing

I'm a little late posting my challenge because Baby Focker has been under the weather. When Baby Focker is sick, that means Betty is stressed, and that she really could use a glass of wine, or two.
Ah, wine. Wine definitley should not be neglected in our challenges. After all, it was the other half of the South Beach Wine and Food festival. And since our wine pairing session with Mark Oldman, I’ve been thinking about BSDs, or bubbly stunt doubles. For Sue Scheff's (and any other readers we may have aquired) benefit, a BSD is any sparkling wine besides Champagne, such as an Italian prosecco, an Australian sparkling shiraz, or a sparking rose. In our wine tasting session, we tried these wines with sushi, but the great thing about a BSD is that it goes with almost anything. Your challenge this month is to find yourself a BSD. You get bonus points if you find a sparkling shiraz – I’ve searched a few wine stores in Atlanta and wine.com, and it seems a little hard to come by. Once you select your BSD, then it’s your destiny to pair it with a complementary appetizer, dish, or dessert of your choice. You can try a new recipe, an old standby, keep it simple with antipasti and cheese, or even pair it with some risotto, imagine that! Have fun with your BSD pairing, and cheers!

April Challenge Rollout from Giada BeKiddingme

Believe it or not, April is already here! As much fun as we had with the March challenges, the ladies all came to a concensus yesterday that four challenges is a bit too ambitious for all of us working mommies. Cooking is fun but hard to squeeze in some days so we wanted to change the structure of the Cook Club to make it a little easier to manage. Therefore Betty Focker and I will challenge in the even months and Olive Oyl and Sue Scheff will take the odds.

To make it a little more interesting, we started a monthly poll that will give 1 chef each month some bragging rights. You can choose which chef wins based on how many challenges they completed, how well their dishes appeared to turn out, or if you just found their witty commentary to be most entertaining. It's whatever, just be sure to vote!

So let's get this month started with my challenge: Risotto from scratch!

I am a passionate follower of Chef Gordon Ramsay. So much so that my husband thinks he is my celebrity crush. Maybe he is, I'll never tell! Let's just say I love his ability to be so direct with people. I wish more people in life would just tell you what they are really thinking rather than trying to sugar coat everything. Anyway, I digress. If you've watched him, you've heard about the qualities that comprise a perfect risotto. It is one of the first things he teaches his chefs and it is something I've never made at home before. Considering how intimidating Ramsay can be, I think making a risotto from scratch is quite a challenge and I look forward to trying it out this month. Luckily, none of us will have to have Chef Ramsay taste it!

Can't wait to see what type of risotto you choose and how it turns out.

Smoochies!
Giada