Monday, June 15, 2009

“Good Food, Good Life” Dinner Night

Nicole - A couple years ago at work every employee received a copy of the Nestle Cookbook, and I have to admit that it had been collecting dust on my bookshelf. I’m not sure why since I eat quite a few Nestle products, and it was time to crack the book open and give some recipes a try. I am sure that after the disastrous Juicy Juice Mango soup at last summer’s fruit dinner night the Foxy Ladies may have had some reservations, but how could we go wrong with “hundreds of triple-tested, easy recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert from the largest food company in the world!” (Disclosure: three of the four Foxy Foodies work for Nestle)

Corn Chowder

Heather – This was an easy corn chowder recipe and turned out delicious. I wasn’t sure about how the evaporated milk would make it taste but you really couldn’t tell the difference and it was much healthier than a version made with half-and-half or cream. The fresh rosemary is a must!



K: Thumbs up - really tasty!
N: Thumbs up
R: Thumbs up
H: Thumbs up.

Baked Pesto Chicken

Kristin - This recipe was simple and delicious. The key to it was smoothering the chicken with pesto. I topped it with tomatoes (generously!) and mozzarella cheese. A good quick week night meal.



K: Thumbs up
N: Thumbs up – easy and yummy!
R: Thumbs up - yes, great weeknight meal.
H: Thumbs up.

Broccoli Pesto Angel Hair

Nicole - The reviews on the meals.com website all raved about this recipe (mostly 5 star's), so I'm not exactly sure how we ended up with a so-so dish. Were our expectations too high since we liked everything else so much? Was it just too healthy, a la Cooking Light? I would give it a try again just to see if I can get better results.

K: Thumbs sideways- While it was a healthy version, I’ve actually made much better with spinach before.
N: Thumbs sideways – sauce was okay.
R: Thumbs sideways - I think I’d just go with pesto pasta and skip the broccoli. ;)
H: Thumbs up.

Raisin Bread Pudding

Rissa - Raisin Bread Pudding sounds fancy to me...in the sense that it’s hard to pull off my most fave restaurant editions. Nicole had a great idea to buy Hawaiian bread instead of just regular french bread. That is key. And soaking the bread pieces in evap milk for as long as you can is probably another good idea (I guess the only watch out would be to ensure it’s not tooooo soggy, but is that possible?). Add in all the spices and raisins, throw it in a pan, and you’re done! Only complaint or just a difference from the restaurants is that I need some rum sauce on top. But it was still very, very tasty and I would make again.



K: Thumbs sideways- slightly dry but overall good flavor
N: Thumbs up! Bread pudding is one my favorite desserts and this did not disappoint.
R: Thumbs up.
H: Thumbs up.

“Kir Royale”

Nicole - There was no real recipe for this one, we just filled champagne flutes halfway with Prosecco, and then added about an equal amout of Juicy Juice Berry. My friend who works on Juicy Juice had said that the product is a great mixer, and she was right!


K: Thumbs up- gotta love the bubbly
N: Thumbs up – it is hard for me not to like a bubbly drink.
R: Thumbs up
H: Thumbs up! So delicious and easy

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Back to Basics, Barefoot Style (February Dinner Night)

Just a few years ago, I didn’t appreciate the Food Network much. I hardly watched it and certainly didn’t know many of the famous chefs. Then one birthday, Heather bought me a Barefoot Contessa cookbook that changed my life. J I remember her mentioning that she’s known for her home cooking and that is right up my alley! After trying one recipe out of the book, I was hooked. Since then, I have made quite a few things, watched her show, researched her online, etc. The only thing left was to plan a dinner night around the ones I hadn’t made! Almost everything I’ve made has come out terrific and this night was no different.

Pesto Pea Salad



This salad was very simple to make and turned out tasty. We actually used Buitoni pesto, instead of making our own and it still turned out good. I thought initially that the pesto would be clumpy but it was actually a nice smooth compliment to the salad. Just mix up the ingredients and you’re good to go! A good summer picnic salad.

K: Thumbs up
N: Thumbs up
R: Thumbs sideways.
H: Thumbs up – I was surprised I liked this. It didn’t sound as appealing as it tasted.


Mexican Tortilla Soup


I had big expectations for this soup because of the raving reviews it gets. After we put it together, I could see why! It is critical to get bone-in chicken breasts. I usually would not bother, but it was the best and most simple piece of chicken ever. The rest of the soup was pretty easy and full of fresh veggies (good way to use up leftover cucumber!). I wondered what it would be like to add fresh corn tortillas instead of just topping the soup with chips at the end, and it resulted in an amazing thickened, fresh and tasty Mexican Tortilla Soup. Wonder what it would be like if I had the patience to make my own broth?

K: Thumbs up- one of my favorite soups ever!
N: Thumbs up
R: Thumbs up!
H: Thumbs up.


Chicken Picatta with Angel Hair Pasta


I remember thinking that this looked like an easy dish to make but it was a little misleading. You just have to set-up an assembly line so that you can easily dip the chicken into the flour mixture, dunk it in the egg bath, and then sprinkle it in the bread crumbs. As always, it was tough to get all the bread crumbs to stick to the entire piece of chicken. All in all, this turned out pretty delicious.

K: Thumbs up- this turned out good, though I prefer my picatta with capers.
N: Thumbs up.
R: Thumbs up - I liked the lemon added to this.
H: Thumbs sideways – This was pretty good, just not sure that it would be made again in my kitchen.


Garlic and Herb Tomatoes



When I first saw this recipe I had never heard of grape tomatoes being cooked on the stove, but after tasting the dish my response was “Wow!”. The dish was very simple and delicious, and a great side for the meal. I imagine that any leftovers would make a great tomato salad if served cold.

K: Thumbs up- can never go wrong with sauteed tomatoes
N: Thumbs up
R: Thumbs sideways. I liked it but I guess the night had overwhelming flavor!
H: Thumbs up – so simple and delicious!

One Bowl Chocolate Cake



My roommate made this recipe and made it look so easy for how delicious it tasted! It was extremely moist and full of chocolate, but not overwhelmingly so. I imagine the boiling water helped somewhere with that? It was very, very tasty and thinking of it now makes me want to make it again…soon!

K: Thumbs up
N: Thumbs up
R: Thumbs way up.
H: Thumbs up – Again, I was surprised I liked this because I’m not a big fan of chocolate anything.


Chocolate Cookie Buttercream Frosting

Another roommate specialty of the night. It’s meant for cookies, so she doubled the recipe and softened it with powdered sugar and milk to make it less thick. Very yum and looked terrific on the cake.

K: Thumbs up- the frosting wasn’t too rich which I loved.
N: Thumbs up
R: Thumbs sideways - not sure if I would know how to adjust it as well as Jessalyn did!!
H:Thumbs up.