Hawaiian Grill Couples Night

For the meat: I bought a fatty chuck roast and had the butcher thinly slice. Then marinated in mo bettah teriyaki sauce for 24 hours. Grill to liking and serve over sticky or brown rice. 

I also got boneless skinless chicken thighs and marinated them for 24 hrs in the teriyaki sauce. Grill, serve over rice.

Kimberly's Steak (in a Cast Iron) Dinner

Portobello Mushroom cap appies

* 1/2 cup Basil, fresh, chopped plus extra for garnish after baking

* 1/2 cup Cherry tomatoes, halved, or regular tomato diced

* 4 Portobello mushroom caps, large

* Salt and pepper

* 3 tbsp Olive oil, extra virgin

* 2 cups Mozzarella

* Optional balsamic vinegar

Wash mushroom caps. Make 4 rings out of aluminum foil, place on baking sheet. Place mushroom caps on foil rings, it lifts them off the baking sheet so they roast evenly and don’t become soggy. Drizzle Portobello caps with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Top each with mozzarella, then tomato and a sprinkling of basil. Add more mozzarella if desired.

Bake at 375 for 20-25 minutes, until mushrooms have softened and cheese has melted. Garnish with more basil and serve immediately. Can drizzle with balsamic vinegar ;)

Puff Pastry & Brie appy

* 1 sheet puff pastry, thawed

* 7-8 ounces Brie

* 2 tablespoons raspberry jam

* 1 1/2 tablespoons brown sugar

* 1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1. Lightly grease a 24-cup mini muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray and set aside. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F

2. Dust the counter with a light coating of flour and gently press the sheet of puff pastry out with your hands until it is about 12X12 and an even thickness.

3. Using a pizza cutter wheel, cut the puff pastry into 25 equal pieces (five strips one way, five strips the other way). Press one square lightly into each muffin cup.

4. Bake the puff pastry for about 8-9 minutes until lightly golden and puffed up.

5. Remove from the oven and using the bottom of a spoon or spatula (or your finger), press the pastry down in the middle so it is no longer puffed up.

6. Cut the Brie into 24 1/2-inch or so cubes.

7. Divide the raspberry jam evenly among the pastry cups

8. Place a piece of Brie on top of the jam.

9. Mix together the brown sugar and Dijon and sprinkle evenly over the cheese. Return to the oven for about 4-6 minutes to let the cheese melt (watch carefully so the puff pastry doesn't burn).

These are delightful warm or room temp. I have used raspberry/peach jam and they are delicious.

Strawberry Spinach Salad

Dressing:

* 1/4 cup olive oil

* 1/4 cup canola oil

* 2/3 cup diced fresh strawberries

* 2 1/2 Tbsp red wine vinegar

* 2 Tbsp honey

* 2 Tbsp granulated sugar

* 1 1/2 tsp dijon mustard

* 1/4 tsp salt

* 2 tsp poppy seeds

Blend all ingredients dressing ingredients except poppy seeds. Pour into a jar and stir in poppy seeds, cover and store in refrigerator.

Salad:

* 10 oz baby spinach

* 12 oz fresh strawberries, sliced (about 2 cups)

* 1 pint fresh raspberries (about 1 1/2 cups)

* 2/3 cup dried cranberries (optional if you don't want to add all three)

* 2 medium avocados, peeled, cored and diced (semi-firm but ripe)

Toss all together, top with dressing, then the best part….

* cinnamon toasted almond slivers and

* 5 oz feta cheese

I have also swapped out the raspberries for diced fresh mango and left the craisins off. The variations are delicious.

Cherry Tomato Asparagus Salad

1 pound asparagus, trimmed and halved

6 cups halved cherry, grape, and pear tomatoes in varied colors

1 ripe avocado, cut into cubes

1 cup sliced basil leaves

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

2 teaspoons lemon juice

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1/2 cup crumbled gorgonzola cheese

1. Wash and snap off woody end of asparagus. It will naturally snap at the border of the woody and the tender part of the asparagus. Boil asparagus in a large pot of salted water for 2 minutes. Drain and rinse with cold water to shock it to keep its bright green color.

2. Mix dressing ingredients

3. Mix asparagus with remaining ingredients in a large bowl, stirring well to coat evenly with dressing.

4. Top with cheese and extra basil slices

I used this recipe for my dinner rolls. It's the only roll recipe I make now. http://howdoesshe.com/delicious-dinner-rolls/

Crock Pot Mashed Potatoes

* 5 lbs sierra gold , Yukon gold red potatoes, diced with peel

* 1 cup water

* ¼ to ½ cup butter, cut into chunks

* 1 ½ tsp salt

* 1 teaspoon ground black pepper

* 1 cup milk

This is the easiest way to make mashed potatoes; it is a one pot mess. Brown potatoes do not work as well as they are too starchy, you will end up with glue. The lighter skinned potatoes are perfect. Wash and dice potatoes, add everything in crock pot. Set to high and leave for 4 hours. Mix with hand mixer and season to taste with additional salt and pepper, can add additional milk or heavy cream to make them creamier.

There are so many variations to this; I have used chicken broth, cream cheese, minced garlic to flavor the potatoes as well. Sour cream, more salt and pepper and garlic salt are also fun to add to taste.

Steak – cast iron cooking

Thick cut steaks are the best for this method, about 1 ½ in thick. Rib Eye is awesome for this. (We have cooked various steak cuts and thicknesses this way, but do not do a thin steak this way.)

Make sure to bring your steaks to room temp first. Rub some Kosher Salt on each side of the steak. Pepper it if desired.

Preheat oven on broil 500deg. Heat your cast iron pan on your stove top until it's smoking hot. (It will smoke or set off fire alarms😀) Add a tablespoon or two of butter, slap your steak in, sear about 1 min per side then put pan in oven for 6 mins for medium rare, 8 mins for medium.

Take steak out of the pan and let rest for 5 mins.

Dessert

CHEESECAKE

Crust: 2 c graham crackers, crushed

6 TBSP sugar

6 TBSP butter

Filling: 4 8oz bricks cream cheese

1 c sugar

3 TBSP flour

1 TBSP vanilla

1 c sour cream

4 eggs

Layer combined graham mixture in bottom of 9" springform pan. (You can go bigger or smaller, you just need to adjust the baking time.) Pressing the crumbs firmly with your hand or a fork produces a solid, hard layer. Letting the crumbs lay loose produces a more crumbly layer.

Beat cream cheese until smooth. Add sugar, flour, vanilla, and sour cream and mix until combined. Add eggs one at a time to fully incorporate.

Bake at 325 for 1 hour and 10 minutes. Check on it at the 1 hour mark, if it is turning golden, the sides are set and the middle is slightly soft, you can take it out. Cheesecakes continue to bake while cooling. Overbaking will crack the cheesecake. Tastes the same though, it's just a looks thing! Completely cool before refrigerating, and do not cover it. Covering it during the cooling process will make it soggy.

Serve, or if you want to make the cheesecake stuffed strawberries - lighly mash the cheesecake up with your hands to distribute the crust in the filling. Wash and core large strawberries, stuff 'em, then dip in your favorite chocolate.

Rachel's Finger Lickin' Foods

Appetizers:

Cheddar Salami Poppers 

Dry Salami, Cheddar cheese/Pepperjack cheese, and black olive-all on a toothpick 

Main Dish:

Jonny’s Ribs

-Tear off layer on the outer wide of the bones to make meat more tender

-Let meat reach room temperature

-Rub the Rub on about an hour before cooking

-Grill

-Rub: TBA

Sides:

Blue Cheese Wedge Salad x’s by 3

Blue Cheese Dressing Ingredients:

1 cup light sour cream 

1/2 cup mayonnaise 

3 tablespoons buttermilk 

3 teaspoons red wine vinegar 

1/2 teaspoon worcestershire sauce 

1/4 teaspoon garlic salt 

1 1/2 teaspoons black pepper 

4 ounces blue cheese ( reserve a few chunks for garnish ) 

Salad Ingredients:

1 head iceberg lettuce, cored and cut into 4 wedges

8 slices of bacon, cooked, cooled and crumbled

1 1/2 cups cherry tomatoes

Instructions:

1. Add all of the dressing ingredients to a medium bowl and stir well to combine. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

2.  Place each lettuce wedge on a plate, drizzle with the blue cheese dressing and then sprinkle with crumbled bacon & tomatoes, and any reserved blue cheese chunks. Garnish with fresh crushed black pepper, to taste.

Baked Garlic Parmesan Potato Wedges 

Ingredients:

3-4 large russet potatoes, sliced into wedges

4 tablespoons olive oil

2 teaspoons salt

2 teaspoons garlic powder

2 teaspoons Italian seasoning

½ cup shredded parmesan cheese

optional: fresh parsley (or cilantro), ranch or blue cheese dressing for dipping

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 375. Lightly grease a large baking sheet and set aside.
2. Place potato wedges in a large bowl. Drizzle with olive oil and toss to coat.

In a small bowl whisk together salt, garlic powder, and Italian seasoning. Sprinkle potato wedges with the shredded cheese, tossing to coat, then sprinkle with the seasoning mixture.

3 Place potato wedges on prepared baking sheet in a single layer with skin-sides-down. Bake for 25-35 minutes until potatoes are fork-tender and golden. Sprinkle with freshly chopped parsley and dressing for dipping.

Chipotle Dipping Sauce x’s by 3

Ingredients

1 chipotle chile in adobo sauce plus 1 tsp. sauce (canned)

½ cup mayonnaise

⅓ cup plain Greek yogurt

¼ cup chopped cilantro

¼ tsp. ground cumin

¼ tsp. dried dill

Kosher salt, to taste

Instructions

Place all ingredients in a blender or food processor and puree until smooth about 2-3 minutes or until the mixture is nice and creamy. Pour into a jar or small bowl and refrigerate for up to 4 weeks. Be sure to keep it in the fridge! Enjoy!

Fresh Watermelon

Tutorial on how to cut it:

http://www.mamasaywhat.com/cutting-a-watermelon/  

Cucumber bites x’s by 3

INGREDIENTS

2 – Cucumbers

4 oz. – cream cheese softened

1 tbsp. – mayonnaise

3 tbsp. – light ranch

1 tbsp. – frozen or fresh dill

¼ tsp. – garlic salt

Black pepper for garnish

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Wash, peel and slice cucumber into half inch slices.

2. Combine softened cream cheese, mayo, and ranch. Mix it well until smooth in texture.

3. Add dill and garlic salt and mix just until combined.

4. Place all the topping into a piping bag with a star attachment and pipe out about a ¾ of a tbsp. into each prepared cucumber. If the topping has hard time to stick to cucumber pat dry the cucumber juice before piping.

5. Sprinkle with black pepper, serve and enjoy. This appetizers can be prepared several hour before serving, make sure to refrigerate until ready to serve.

Bacon Wrapped Asparagus x’s by 3

Ingredients

12 asparagus spears

 ½ package bacon

A little ghee or butter for frying

Instructions

1. Wash asparagus and cut 2 cm off the ends. Cut prosciutto strips into two halves, going lengthways, you should end up with 12 strips.
2. Place each prosciutto strip on a chopping board at a 45 degree angle. Place one of the asparagus spears on top of the meat, perpendicular to it. The tip of the asparagus should be lined up with the bottom of the prosciutto strip. Wrap the bottom end of bacon over the asparagus and holding the meat tight, start rolling the asparagus up. The bacon strip will wrap around the whole length of the spear because it’s on an angle. You can try a different wrapping method but I find this is a very quick to do it. Don’t worry if parts of the asparagus spears are not covered completely.

Heat some ghee/butter in a large, flat frying pan to sizzling hot. Fry wrapped asparagus spears for 1-2 minutes on each side or until bacon is brown and crispy.

Sixty-minute Rolls

Dissolve together – 

2 Tablespoons yeast

2/3 cup sugar

1            cup very warm water

In the meantime - 

3 cups scalded milk

2/3 cup butter (pace in warm milk to melt it)

(Cool to lukewarm, before adding yeast mixture to this)

Then add – 

4  eggs – well beaten

Add – 

8-10 cups of flour – (be sure to SIFT your flour – to make the rolls extra soft)

2 teaspoons salt

Mix all ingredients together well.  This will be quite sticky.  

Let rise 20 minutes.

Stir down.

Shape into rolls – adding just enough flour to be able to roll out the dough into a circle about 12-14 inches across.  Cut into wedges using a pizza cutter.  Roll into crescent rolls.

Let rise until double.

Bake at 350 degrees for 15+ minutes until golden brown.

Desserts 

Cookies and Cream Dream Fudge 

Ingredients

1½ cups granulated sugar

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces

⅓ cup evaporated milk

1 cup white chocolate chips

1 cup marshmallow fluff

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup coarse Oreo crumbs

½ cup chopped Oreo pieces

Instructions

1. Line an 8x8 inch pan with parchment paper and lightly spray with cooking spray. Set aside!

2.  In a large saucepan, combine sugar, butter, and milk. Once the butter has melted, bring to a boil and stir constantly for 5 minutes.

3. Remove from heat and stir in marshmallow fluff, chocolate chips, and vanilla. It will be thick. Lastly stir in coarse oreo crumbs until incorporated. Spread in the prepared pan and garnish the top with the chopped oreo pieces. Let cool until firm and cut into small squares.

White Chocolate Caramel Pecan Fudge

Yield: approximately (36) 1-inch pieces 

3 cups white chocolate chips 

14 ounces sweetened condensed milk 

4 tablespoons butter 

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract 

1 cup chopped pecans 

1/2 cup room temperature caramel sauce 

Combine the chocolate chips, the milk, and the butter in a medium size glass bowl and heat in the microwave for 90 seconds. Stir to combine and heat another 15 seconds. Stir and heat an additional 15 seconds, only if needed. There will still be a few pieces of unmelted chocolate in the bowl. 

Stir until mostly smooth with just a few flecks of unmelted chocolate. Add the extract and pecans and stir to combine. Scoop onto a parchment lined tray. Spread with a spatula to approximately 1-inch thickness. Drizzle with caramel sauce. Lightly swirl the caramel into the fudge with a knife or the end of the spatula. Chill until ready to serve. Slice into 1-inch squares and store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to a week. Enjoy!

S’mores Fudge

INGREDIENTS

1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk

3 cups semisweet chocolate chips

2 tablespoons butter

4 graham crackers, broken into small pieces

1 and ½ cups mini marshmallows

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Line an 8x8 baking pan with aluminum foil or parchment paper, making sure to leave some overhang for easy removal and set aside.
2. Heat a medium saucepan over low-medium heat (you may also use a double boiler for this step as well). Add the sweetened condensed milk, chocolate chips, and butter and stir well until the mixture is completely melted and smooth. Remove from the heat and set aside for a few minutes.
3. Add the graham cracker pieces to the mixture and stir well to combine. Gently fold in the mini marshmallows until just combined, making sure not to over mix.
4. Scoop the mixture into the prepared pan and gently smooth it out. If you prefer large pieces of marshmallows in the fudge, scoop half of the mixture into the prepared pan and smooth it out, sprinkle a small handful of mini marshmallows on top, add the rest of the fudge on top, and smooth it out.
5. Transfer to the refrigerater and refrigerate for at least 3 hours or until the fudge is solid enough to cut.
6. Remove from the refrigerator and cut into small pieces.

NOTES

Fudge may be stored in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to one week.

Amy's French Cooking night

Appetizer-

Asparagus Fontina Tart
*Just reduce the first baking time to 8-10 minutes, that is plenty of time to brown the pastry.

 Main-

Croque Monsieur-  Watch carefully at the end that you don't broil them too long- they burn quick!  I think 3.5 min is perfect!

Beef Burgundy (or Beef Bourguignon as Julia Child says it!)  I recommend watching "America's Test Kitchen," the episode where they make this recipe can be found on Netflix!
-You can buy a large bottle of Burgundy wine at the Bountiful Wine shop for around $7
-Salt Pork can be found in packages in most any grocery store by the ham/Canadian bacon products
-I found dried Porcini mushrooms and frozen pearl onions at the Fresh Market in Kaysville (I would   think other Fresh Market's carry it as well - but Smith's doesn't have it)
-you can use more than 4 lbs. of roast in the recipe (Costco sells them 2 to a pack and I cooked all of it)

Braised Red Potatoes-

Dessert-

Julia Child's famous Chocolate and Almond Cake (or Reine De Saba) ***REDUCE cooking time to just 18-19 min.  She doubled the frosting and I personally think it unnecessary (so half it).  Also you can substitute 1/2 tsp Rum extract for the 2TBSP of Rum
I found cake flour at Harmon's