Have I mentioned that I'm taking a Quick books class? And have I mentioned that school really isn't my thing? And have I mentioned that I still have half a dozen Whitney Award finalists to read? And have I mentioned that my husband is out of town this week? And have I mentioned I'm presenting at a writer's conference this weekend? And have I mentioned that I hate all holidays, even if the only thing I have to do is wear green and feel guilty that I'm not making corned beef?
Yeah, that's why this is a short post. BUT I am ever so grateful for everyone that entered and super excited to choose the winner . . . Becky Clayson!
Becky has been in my writing group for the last few years--remember her name cause you're going to see it on a book cover in the next couple years.
Becky, if you'll send me your address offline, I'll forward it to Covenant Communications.
And since I know the rest of you are just heartsick over not winning, you can buy it HERE.
Thanks again for playing.
Oh, and a BIG shout out thank you to everyone that's buying Lemon Tart. It's ranked #2 on Deseret Book's website! Wohooooooooo! Thank you, Thank you, Thank you for the great support!
Showing posts with label recipe. Show all posts
Showing posts with label recipe. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Worldwide Ward Cookbook GIVEAWAY
I still bow in reverence to Annette Lyon's amazing contest week, but there must be something in the water cause I'm gunna have one too. but don't forget to check out Annette's blog as well, just cause you win one doesn't disqualify you from winning another one.Sooooooo, you were all coveting my cookbook when I talked about it a couple weeks ago, weren't you? (the Baked Shrimp was DIVINE!) Well, of course you were coveting! If not for the fact that I have one already, I would covet it to. However, I have been given the opportunity to save you from your evil ways by offering one of you salvation through your very own copy. Covenant Communications has offered a free copy of the book to one of my delightful readers (that's you). To enter, however, you have to first read this:
“Confessions of a Chocoholic Cook” is a free cooking event in which community members will be taught simple but tasty chocolate recipes from "Worldwide Ward Cookbook."
The event will be held at the SCERA lobby (745 S. State St., Orem, UT) on Wednesday, March 18 @ 7 p.m.
Some of the recipes that will be taught and demonstrated include Chocolate Pancakes with Grandma's Syrup, Snickers Salad, “My Most Favorite Cake” and Fudge Cookies.
“Confessions of a Chocoholic Cook” is open to the general public, but those who want to attend must RSVP by March 16 by emailing covenantpromotions@gmail.com. (I don't know how to make that a hyperlink, sorry)
Seriously, have you ever had Snickers Salad? I have and it's amazing! This will be a totally awesome night and it's FREE!
Now that you're drooling all over your keyboard, or crying because you live a million miles away and can't afford a plane ticket, here's how you can enter the contest for a free copy of The Worldwide Ward Cookbook. I'll draw a winner on Monday the 16th by using random.org.
To enter, you have to tell me the most recent chocolate you've eaten. for me, it's the Fudge Pudding cake that my daughter and I made for FHE last night (and I had for breakfast . . . and lunch)--super yummy!
AND if you are planning to attend this event, you get entered twice. I will take you at your word because we all know where liars go :-)
Keep in mind that Deanna is still taking entries for her Worldwide Ward Christmas Cookbook, but there are only a few weeks left. Go HERE for details.
Friday, February 27, 2009
Worldwide Ward Cookbook
Several months ago I received an e-mail from an author I had met a time or two, Deanna Buxton, in regard to a new project she was working on. Deanna's previous books have been cookbooks--but with a twist. Instead of your run of mill cookbooks, Deanna's were focused on the concept of freezing meals that could be reheated and served on those days when you just did not have time to cook (which, let's face it, can easily be every day of the week). Her first book, Dinner is Ready, was an inspiration to me. You spend one day cooking, cooking, cooking, and then you freeze it all. She offers complete step by step instructions on how to organize your kitchen and time, then tells you how to convert family favorites to freezable meals--THEN had a whole bunch of tried and tested freezer recipes. I loved it and though I've admittedly fallen off the wagon, I do pick myself up once or twice a year and stock my freezer. It's a really brilliant concept. She's then followed up Dinner is Ready with Lunch is ready and Brunch is Ready, books that follow the same concept but address the specifics of those meals. NOW she also has software to accompany all the books so that you can adjust portions and create shopping lists on your computer.
Soooooo, she e-mailed Me year or so ago, and many other people, asking for recipes--specifically international type recipes. She wanted to put together a ward cookbook, but from people all over the world. For my part, I have never lived anywhere but Utah (carrot-raisin salad anyone?)--however my husband served his mission in the Philippines and I spent many years looking for the perfect Chicken Adobo recipe--not Mexican Adobo, Filipino adobo. We'd found a Filipino restaurant at one time, where I'd tried chicken adobo and liked it, but then the restaurant went out of business (boo hoo) and so I took up the gauntlet and was very happy when I found what we both felt was a pert-near perfect recipe. I submitted it, they accepted it, and now the BOOK IS OUT! I got my complimentary copy yesterday and have the next two weeks of recipes planned out. I am so dang excited to try things like Baked Shrimp and Brunch Rolls.
My contribution to the Worldwide Ward Cookbook is on page 71--so if you are a cook book lover, especially the ward and community type cook books that have everyone's favorites, this is quite likely something you will drool over. Click on the links to be taken to websites where you can order it online, or look for it at your local LDS book retailer.
AND Deanna's now accepting recipes for a Worldwide Ward Christmas cookbook, to submit your favorite recipe and story about how it enhances your Christmas traditions, go HERE.
Tuesday, December 09, 2008
Feeding a crowd with roaster ovens
I was in charge of the food for last weeks' RS dinner, and spent a ton of time googling all over the web to find instructions on how to make the meal work. I didn't want the typical pot luck or ham dinner, but creativity can be a butt-kicker since most meals for a crowd on the Internet use commercial kitchens and cooking equipment meant for mass production. It worked out reasonably well and so in the spirit of paying it back I decided to post what I did here so that the next time someone was also goggling the how to, they might find this blog and get some answers, or at least idea starters for their own meal. All the cooked items were done in 18 quart roaster ovens--which is something I was able to beg and borrow from enough neighbors to make it work.
Salad:
Mock olive garden salad dressing x 4
15 heads of iceberg lettuce
1 #10 can of olives
4 standard size boxes of croutons
15 sliced tomatoes; slices cut in half
Mock Olive Garden Salad Dressing (I think I found this at Recipe Czar a year or so ago)
1/2 cup white wine vinegar
1/3 cup water
1/3 cup vegetable oil (I used Canola)
1/4 cup corn syrup
2 1/2 T. grated Romano cheese (I used an Italian hard cheese blend)
2 T. dry pectin
2 T. egg Beaters
1 1/4 tsp. Salt
1 tsp. Lemon Juice
1/2 tsp. Garlic
1/4 tsp. Parsley (I used dried)
pinch of Oregano
pinch of red pepper flakes.
Combine everything in a blender, mix on low speed for 30 seconds. Chill 1 hour.
**For this dinner I made the dressing a couple days before and stored in the fridge. A couple hours before the dinner I cored and rinsed the heads of lettuce and put them, cored side down, in big bowls of ice water to keep the lettuce cold and crispy. We then broke them into LARGE bowls, added dressing and tossed well. We put on a plate with 4 olives (we could have done up to 6), 5 croutons (just the right number), and one slice of tomato, sliced in half.
**WHAT I WISH I'D DONE: is drained the lettuce after breaking it into the bowls. The tight leaves held on to a lot of water which made the salad a little wet. Simply putting it in a colander and letting it drain for a couple minutes would have made a difference. I also wish I'd bought more tomatoes because I love them and we had to go kinda skimpy. I have to say I did not get many specific compliments on the salad. Not sure why since people are more kind than honest and I didn't get much specific feedback on it. But, it's just the salad, most people don't think about complimenting it anyway. I myself didn't get any as we ran out so I can't gauge it.
Main Dish:
Crock Pot Chicken Cordon Bleu x 10
Crock Pot Chicken Cordon Bleu (From my wonderful Friend Erin Klingler)
10 chicken tenders
20 slices of deli style ham (can use lunch meat type)
10 slices Swiss cheese (can use another type of white cheese)
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 cup sour cream
1/2 soup can of milk
1/2 tsp. dry mustard powder (can use prepared mustard in a pinch)
Make sauce by combining soup, sour cream, milk, and mustard powder. Mix well and set aside.
Lay ham out on counter so that two slices overlap one another, you should have 10 2-slice portions. Place a slice of swish cheese in the center of each ham portion. Roll chicken tender in ham and cheese, place seam side down in the bottom of a crock pot. Cover with sauce. Cook 4 hours on high or 8 hours on low--do not stir. Serve over rice or noodles.
**A couple ladies in the ward met me at the church around noon and we did a mass production of the recipe. They laid out ham and cheese and I made sauce. We covered each layer with the sauce before adding the second layer and fit 50 chicken rolls in each roaster oven--2 layers. We then cooked it at 300 for about 5 hours. I had bought 7 bags of chicken tenders at Costco, and only used four. The serving size was listed at 4 oz., but a chicken tender is only about 2 oz. The cooking time was just right and the chicken turned out very well. I was able to turn it down to 200 for the last hour and a half because the chicken was fully cooked.
**WHAT I WISH I'D DONE: I miscalculated the ham and only ended up with one slice per chicken roll. This did not stay wrapped around the chicken as well, but it was still yummy. I also worried I wouldn't have enough soup and sour cream so I thinned out the sauce a little while making it. This was not good as the sauce was runnier than it should have been. It was still okay, and no one knew what it was SUPPOSED to be like, but I wish I hadn't cheaped out and had a thicker sauce. Ironically, I had both soup and sour cream left over. I got lots of rave reviews for the chicken and will definitely do it again should I get asked to do this again.
Rice
7 3.2 lb. containers of Organic Harvest Medley Wild Rice mix from Costco
2 containers of Chicken Stock from Costco.
I followed the water ratio on the back of the package to mix up the rice and can't remember how much I put in each roaster, but it was close to 18 cups of rice and 36 cups of water per roaster, adding 1/2 the chicken stock to the water of each of 2 roaster ovens. I then cooked it at varying temperatures for just over 2 hours. We served about 3/4 of a cup of this on the plate next to the chicken. We had nearly 1/2 a roaster oven worth of rice left over--this was the only item we had excess of.
WHAT I WISH I"D DONE: This was the most frustrating portion of the dinner and caused me a great deal of stress--the result was somewhat blah. I had worried that the chicken stock would be too strong so I ended up only using 1/2 a container per roaster instead of of a full one and the rice was bland. I should have used the whole thing of stock and then tasted it to see if it needed more salt. Also, I needed another hour for the rice. It turned out okay, but was a little too chewy and BARELY finished in time. 30 minutes before the dinner it was still swimming in the water and I had to turn the roasters up as high as they would go. I really should have experimented with this at home first. People said it was good and they took a lot of the left overs, but I was not pleased with it. Another option I had read about online was to make the rice ahead of time, store it in the freezer and then simply heat up. This would have been a pretty good idea. I could have frozen it in the roaster oven insert covered with foil quite easily and played with it more during the cooking process to get it just right, then heated it up over a few hours on low, fluffing the rice as I went. Being as I was frantically working on several aspects of dinner meant that I did not give it the attention I think would have benefited it greatly.
Vegetables
4 bags frozen California Blend Veggies from Sam's Club (broccoli, cauliflower, carrots)
1 bag frozen green beans
Rosemary Veggie Marinade x 5
Rosemary Veggie Marinade (From my good Friend Anne)
1/3 cup olive oil
3 TBSP lemon juice
3 cloves garlic
1 tsp. rosemary
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
Mix 6 ingredients well, drizzle over veggies (fresh or frozen) and bake at 450 for 30 minutes.
*I made the marinade the morning of the dinner. That night, we combined 2 bags of California blend and 1/2 bag of green beans in 2 roaster ovens, and drizzled 1/2 the total marinade over each pan, tossing to coat the veggies as well as we could. Then we set the roasters to 400 and let them cook for an hour and a half. They turned out fragrant and yummy and were a nice change to the typical canned green beans that are often used at these types of dinners.
WHAT I WISH I'D DONE: I should have started the veggies at least an hour earlier. That much frozen food takes a while to heat up and toward the end I was worried and had to turn up the heat which scorched some of the veggies. I also would have made three more portions of the marinade so the flavor would have been stronger AND added another bag of California blend. We had EXACTLY enough, which is stress inducing when you get to the bottom of that final pan.
Rolls
We ordered 10 dozen rolls from Idle Isle Cafe, a local restaurant famous for their yummy rolls.
The total price for this dinner was about $350, and we fed about 115 people.
Overall, the meal was good and different. I should have given myself more time on the rice and the veggies, and I should have tried out everything at home before making it for such a large group. However, on a scale of one to ten I think I would give myself a pretty solid 6.75. It could have been better, but it could have been worse.
Salad:
Mock olive garden salad dressing x 4
15 heads of iceberg lettuce
1 #10 can of olives
4 standard size boxes of croutons
15 sliced tomatoes; slices cut in half
Mock Olive Garden Salad Dressing (I think I found this at Recipe Czar a year or so ago)
1/2 cup white wine vinegar
1/3 cup water
1/3 cup vegetable oil (I used Canola)
1/4 cup corn syrup
2 1/2 T. grated Romano cheese (I used an Italian hard cheese blend)
2 T. dry pectin
2 T. egg Beaters
1 1/4 tsp. Salt
1 tsp. Lemon Juice
1/2 tsp. Garlic
1/4 tsp. Parsley (I used dried)
pinch of Oregano
pinch of red pepper flakes.
Combine everything in a blender, mix on low speed for 30 seconds. Chill 1 hour.
**For this dinner I made the dressing a couple days before and stored in the fridge. A couple hours before the dinner I cored and rinsed the heads of lettuce and put them, cored side down, in big bowls of ice water to keep the lettuce cold and crispy. We then broke them into LARGE bowls, added dressing and tossed well. We put on a plate with 4 olives (we could have done up to 6), 5 croutons (just the right number), and one slice of tomato, sliced in half.
**WHAT I WISH I'D DONE: is drained the lettuce after breaking it into the bowls. The tight leaves held on to a lot of water which made the salad a little wet. Simply putting it in a colander and letting it drain for a couple minutes would have made a difference. I also wish I'd bought more tomatoes because I love them and we had to go kinda skimpy. I have to say I did not get many specific compliments on the salad. Not sure why since people are more kind than honest and I didn't get much specific feedback on it. But, it's just the salad, most people don't think about complimenting it anyway. I myself didn't get any as we ran out so I can't gauge it.
Main Dish:
Crock Pot Chicken Cordon Bleu x 10
Crock Pot Chicken Cordon Bleu (From my wonderful Friend Erin Klingler)
10 chicken tenders
20 slices of deli style ham (can use lunch meat type)
10 slices Swiss cheese (can use another type of white cheese)
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 cup sour cream
1/2 soup can of milk
1/2 tsp. dry mustard powder (can use prepared mustard in a pinch)
Make sauce by combining soup, sour cream, milk, and mustard powder. Mix well and set aside.
Lay ham out on counter so that two slices overlap one another, you should have 10 2-slice portions. Place a slice of swish cheese in the center of each ham portion. Roll chicken tender in ham and cheese, place seam side down in the bottom of a crock pot. Cover with sauce. Cook 4 hours on high or 8 hours on low--do not stir. Serve over rice or noodles.
**A couple ladies in the ward met me at the church around noon and we did a mass production of the recipe. They laid out ham and cheese and I made sauce. We covered each layer with the sauce before adding the second layer and fit 50 chicken rolls in each roaster oven--2 layers. We then cooked it at 300 for about 5 hours. I had bought 7 bags of chicken tenders at Costco, and only used four. The serving size was listed at 4 oz., but a chicken tender is only about 2 oz. The cooking time was just right and the chicken turned out very well. I was able to turn it down to 200 for the last hour and a half because the chicken was fully cooked.
**WHAT I WISH I'D DONE: I miscalculated the ham and only ended up with one slice per chicken roll. This did not stay wrapped around the chicken as well, but it was still yummy. I also worried I wouldn't have enough soup and sour cream so I thinned out the sauce a little while making it. This was not good as the sauce was runnier than it should have been. It was still okay, and no one knew what it was SUPPOSED to be like, but I wish I hadn't cheaped out and had a thicker sauce. Ironically, I had both soup and sour cream left over. I got lots of rave reviews for the chicken and will definitely do it again should I get asked to do this again.
Rice
7 3.2 lb. containers of Organic Harvest Medley Wild Rice mix from Costco
2 containers of Chicken Stock from Costco.
I followed the water ratio on the back of the package to mix up the rice and can't remember how much I put in each roaster, but it was close to 18 cups of rice and 36 cups of water per roaster, adding 1/2 the chicken stock to the water of each of 2 roaster ovens. I then cooked it at varying temperatures for just over 2 hours. We served about 3/4 of a cup of this on the plate next to the chicken. We had nearly 1/2 a roaster oven worth of rice left over--this was the only item we had excess of.
WHAT I WISH I"D DONE: This was the most frustrating portion of the dinner and caused me a great deal of stress--the result was somewhat blah. I had worried that the chicken stock would be too strong so I ended up only using 1/2 a container per roaster instead of of a full one and the rice was bland. I should have used the whole thing of stock and then tasted it to see if it needed more salt. Also, I needed another hour for the rice. It turned out okay, but was a little too chewy and BARELY finished in time. 30 minutes before the dinner it was still swimming in the water and I had to turn the roasters up as high as they would go. I really should have experimented with this at home first. People said it was good and they took a lot of the left overs, but I was not pleased with it. Another option I had read about online was to make the rice ahead of time, store it in the freezer and then simply heat up. This would have been a pretty good idea. I could have frozen it in the roaster oven insert covered with foil quite easily and played with it more during the cooking process to get it just right, then heated it up over a few hours on low, fluffing the rice as I went. Being as I was frantically working on several aspects of dinner meant that I did not give it the attention I think would have benefited it greatly.
Vegetables
4 bags frozen California Blend Veggies from Sam's Club (broccoli, cauliflower, carrots)
1 bag frozen green beans
Rosemary Veggie Marinade x 5
Rosemary Veggie Marinade (From my good Friend Anne)
1/3 cup olive oil
3 TBSP lemon juice
3 cloves garlic
1 tsp. rosemary
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
Mix 6 ingredients well, drizzle over veggies (fresh or frozen) and bake at 450 for 30 minutes.
*I made the marinade the morning of the dinner. That night, we combined 2 bags of California blend and 1/2 bag of green beans in 2 roaster ovens, and drizzled 1/2 the total marinade over each pan, tossing to coat the veggies as well as we could. Then we set the roasters to 400 and let them cook for an hour and a half. They turned out fragrant and yummy and were a nice change to the typical canned green beans that are often used at these types of dinners.
WHAT I WISH I'D DONE: I should have started the veggies at least an hour earlier. That much frozen food takes a while to heat up and toward the end I was worried and had to turn up the heat which scorched some of the veggies. I also would have made three more portions of the marinade so the flavor would have been stronger AND added another bag of California blend. We had EXACTLY enough, which is stress inducing when you get to the bottom of that final pan.
Rolls
We ordered 10 dozen rolls from Idle Isle Cafe, a local restaurant famous for their yummy rolls.
The total price for this dinner was about $350, and we fed about 115 people.
Overall, the meal was good and different. I should have given myself more time on the rice and the veggies, and I should have tried out everything at home before making it for such a large group. However, on a scale of one to ten I think I would give myself a pretty solid 6.75. It could have been better, but it could have been worse.
Tuesday, July 01, 2008
This and That
So we got back on Saturday and we survived, although that last day of flying home about broke me. I love my kids, really, but dang was I tired of them by the time we got home. Funny thing about vacations, even in a different country where they speak a different language, you're eating out all the time, and having the time of your lives--the whining does not stop. We started all the kids out at 20 points, which they lost each time they were pills and gained back when they did something particularly appreciated. #1 came home with 5, #2 had 2, #3 and #4 will owe us for some time. But it was lots of fun and a great thing to share with our kids. However, I'm glad to be home too.
I took my Isagenix stuff with me and did about one shake a day as a meal replacement; we were lucky in that we had a blender in our rental place. I weighed myself the morning after we got back and had only gained 1.2 pounds even though we ate out 2 meals a day and I wasn't living as if I were on a 'diet'. I was quite pleased with that. In a couple days I'll be starting their maintenance program and I'm looking forward to that; it will be interesting to see if I'm able to maintain and still feel the balance mental stuff I've appreciated.
I managed to write 25 pages using my beloved Alphasmart, I read 4 novels, got a tan, napped nearly every day and didn't wear make-up for a week. It was awesome.
Last night I made my kid's favorite dinner--Taco Salad--a unique meal in that they ALL like it and it's full of good stuff like veggies and beans they that they usually don't like. It's an easy thing to make a 'base' for that keeps in the fridge and can be mixed with the lettace, dressing, and chips at the last minute. I thought I'd share it with you guys for no particular reason.
Nonna Mae's Taco Salad
1 lb hamburger--drained
1 packet taco seasoning
1/4 cup water
1 green pepper, diced
1 can olives, sliced
1 can beans (any type, not seasoned) drained
1 can corn (optional)
chopped cilantro (optional)
sliced mushrooms (optional)
3 chopped tomatoes (optional)
1/2 bottle Catalina salad dressing
1 bag iceberg lettuce mix or the equivalent of head lettuce
1/2 back Nacho Doritos crushed (can use other types of corn chips, doritos are out favorite)
Brown hamburger, add seasoning and water, mix well. Add green pepper, olives, beans, corn, cilantro, mushrooms & tomatoes. Mix well. This is your base and can be refrigerated and used as needed. When ready to serve, mix base with lettuce and dressing, mix well. Add chips last and serve. Keep in mind that the chips will go soggy relatively fast (about an hour or two), so add them just before serving. If your base is still warm when you mix it with the lettuce, the lettuce will lose some of it's crispness, which is why this works really well do to the base ahead of time then cool before mixing together. The base freezes well, just leave out the olives, mushrooms, and tomatoes until serving.
Hope everyone is having a great summer.
I took my Isagenix stuff with me and did about one shake a day as a meal replacement; we were lucky in that we had a blender in our rental place. I weighed myself the morning after we got back and had only gained 1.2 pounds even though we ate out 2 meals a day and I wasn't living as if I were on a 'diet'. I was quite pleased with that. In a couple days I'll be starting their maintenance program and I'm looking forward to that; it will be interesting to see if I'm able to maintain and still feel the balance mental stuff I've appreciated.
I managed to write 25 pages using my beloved Alphasmart, I read 4 novels, got a tan, napped nearly every day and didn't wear make-up for a week. It was awesome.
Last night I made my kid's favorite dinner--Taco Salad--a unique meal in that they ALL like it and it's full of good stuff like veggies and beans they that they usually don't like. It's an easy thing to make a 'base' for that keeps in the fridge and can be mixed with the lettace, dressing, and chips at the last minute. I thought I'd share it with you guys for no particular reason.
Nonna Mae's Taco Salad
1 lb hamburger--drained
1 packet taco seasoning
1/4 cup water
1 green pepper, diced
1 can olives, sliced
1 can beans (any type, not seasoned) drained
1 can corn (optional)
chopped cilantro (optional)
sliced mushrooms (optional)
3 chopped tomatoes (optional)
1/2 bottle Catalina salad dressing
1 bag iceberg lettuce mix or the equivalent of head lettuce
1/2 back Nacho Doritos crushed (can use other types of corn chips, doritos are out favorite)
Brown hamburger, add seasoning and water, mix well. Add green pepper, olives, beans, corn, cilantro, mushrooms & tomatoes. Mix well. This is your base and can be refrigerated and used as needed. When ready to serve, mix base with lettuce and dressing, mix well. Add chips last and serve. Keep in mind that the chips will go soggy relatively fast (about an hour or two), so add them just before serving. If your base is still warm when you mix it with the lettuce, the lettuce will lose some of it's crispness, which is why this works really well do to the base ahead of time then cool before mixing together. The base freezes well, just leave out the olives, mushrooms, and tomatoes until serving.
Hope everyone is having a great summer.
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