Re-Visited: Cooking Club #14

[Original post date Dec. 2011. --Updated 4/7/15: original separate content, with updated photos and/or more details, if available.]


---> Cooking Club is coming up soon, and now that I'm blogging, I want to share these moments but I thought I should play catch-up first. So without further ado, here (and in more posts to come) is what we've been up to. Enjoy!

#14 August: Special Diet

The Menu:
       Appetizers
Green Stuffed Appetizer Shells (Vegetarian)
Barbecued Baguettes (Vegetarian)
Party Stuffed Pinwheels (Vegetarian)
       Main Course
Italian Zucchini Pie (Vegetarian)
       Side
Coleslaw (Sugar Free)
       Dessert
Vegan Cupcakes

Jessica had the theme for this month. Lately, we had been talking about trying more vegan and gluten-free recipes because some of our family members have special diets. However, the ingredients for "special diets" can be quite on the expensive side. And when you're on a tight budget, it's not the easiest to do. Hence the reason most of us chose to go vegetarian for this month's menu. [Isn't it amazing what a few years can do? These ingredients are nowhere near as expensive now. Awesome.]

I was excited to skim through my vegetarian recipes, hungry to try something new. After much consideration, I chose the Italian Zucchini Pie, out of The 1,000 Best Recipes.

My husband and I have been on a huge zucchini kick lately. I've used it shredded, fried, baked, in patty form and, Mr. B's personal favorite, Zucchini Chips (<--- find this recipe here).

Zucchini and cheese in a pie, yes please. It sounded delicious. It looked delicious. It smelled delicious. The filling was delicious...the crust...was a little hard.

I'd make this again in a heart beat, but with a different crust recipe.

Italian Zucchini Pie
*adapted from The 1,000 Best Recipes

Serves 6

2 1/2 c flour
1/2 tsp salt + 1/4 tsp
1/3 c olive oil
1 egg, beaten + 3 eggs & 1 egg, lightly beaten for glaze
3-4 Tbsp iced water
1 1/4 lb zucchini, grated
5 oz provolone cheese, grated
4 oz cottage cheese
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp finely chopped basil
pinch of nutmeg

In a large bowl, mix flour and salt and make a well. Combine oil and beaten egg, and almost all of the water and add to flour. Mix until mixture comes together in beads, adding more water if needed. Gather into a ball, wrap in plastic and chill 30 minutes.

Preheat oven 400 degrees. Heat a baking sheet. Grease a 7" pie dish. Toss zucchini with 1/4 tsp salt and place in colander for 30 minutes to drain. Squeeze out any excess liquid with your hands. Place in a large bowl and add cheeses, 3 eggs, garlic, basil and nutmeg. Season well and mix thoroughly.

Roll out 2/3 of the pastry until large enough to line base and side of pie dish. Spoon zucchini filling into pastry shell and level surface. Brush exposed rim of dough with lightly beaten egg. Roll out remaining dough to make a lid. Cover filling with it, pressing edges together firmly. Trim edges. Crimp rim. Prick top all over with a skewer and brush with egg.

Bake on hot sheet for 50 minutes or until golden.

My other favorite this month was Jenny's Coleslaw. I usually like my coleslaw a little thicker and not as sweet, but I found it to be quite tasty.

[Oh, and if you couldn't tell by now, I forgot my camera. I don't have any of the other tasty dishes. Fail.]

*I hope you enjoyed these Cooking Club snippets. I've finally caught up! I hope these themes, and even Cooking Club itself, inspire you to gather with your friends and family in the kitchen, and make sweet moments (and delicious food) of your own.

**I've only included the recipes to the dishes I made. Only because I'm unsure of where everyone got theirs...and hey, we gotta give credit where credit is due. If you have any questions about the other dishes, I'll ask the other members where they got their recipes and pass it along!

Check out our previous meetings!
Cooking Club #1-4
Cooking Club #5-8
Cooking Club #9-12
Cooking Club #13

With Love and God Bless,
Brindi

Dessert of the Month

It's been quite awhile since I shared a "Dessert of the Month" post with y'all. I have a fabulous one for you to sink your sweet tooth into today. Daddy sure enjoyed it.

And, I promise, it's purely coincidental that this post and my last post both involve delicious sweet treats centered around my father. Yes, he is the chocoholic in the family. Mr. B's step-dad is a huge sweets fan, as well. It's a father thing in our family.

For Father's Day last year, I made the two of them a healthier decadent Frozen Reese's Peanut Butter Pie, which just so happened to be a "Dessert of the Month" post. [Side note: I'm more of a special-treat-on-special-occasions kind of person if you haven't gathered that yet. Mainly because if I have a tasty treat in the house, I'm the only one eating it. And I will eat it. Unless I take it over to friends and family or demand for somebody to come and save me from myself.] Anyhoo, I thought since last year I made a frozen pie and it went over so well, why not just make the same thing. It can be the new Special Father's Day Dessert Tradition. But you know me. I like to try new things.

I chose to stay with the pie and frozen theme, thinking this Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream Pie looked good enough to attempt this past weekend. For the first time in quite awhile, I actually followed the recipe. I know, big GASP. My only alterations to this dessert were the use of light brown sugar instead of dark (because that's what was in my pantry), and I cut back on the amount of sugar by half (so it wasn't too sweet). Other than that I did everything to a tee. I made the edible cookie dough, the homemade crust, and the ice cream-like filling. It's a combo of cream cheese and Cool Whip, so it's not really ice cream, which Mr. B had to point out to me. Apparently, I gave him false information when I told him it was an ice cream pie. It was more cheesecake-y, which he does not like. Daddy isn't a fan either, but the chocolate chips, Oreo crust, and cookie dough pieces made up for it. The construction of the pie was easy and didn't take long at all. Once the cookie dough balls are formed, put them in the freezer to chill while you make the crust, and then put the crust in the freezer to chill while you make the filling. By that time everything will be cold enough to assemble. It's the waiting for the finished product to freeze that's the hard part. I recommend making this the night before, that way you're sleeping instead of checking the freezer every five minutes to see if it's ready to eat.

Overall, I'd say this pie was a success. I definitely enjoyed it more than I thought I would have; it's creamy, cheesecake-y, sweet, and who doesn't enjoy chunks of cookie dough? I think a graham cracker crust would work just as well if it's what you have on hand. However, it didn't get the late-night text this-is-the-best-pie-I've-ever-had review like last year's pie. Maybe I'll revisit that famous pie for our next family dinner....

Visit this link for the recipe!

With Love and God Bless,
Brindi

Dessert of the Month

This may come as a huge shock, it was to me anyway, but I have not made a dessert in quite awhile. A few weeks ago I attempted a couple of batches of homemade ice cream, only to fail because my ice cream mixer bowl wasn't as chilled as it should have been (read: Mr. B keeps turning the freezer down to "save" on electricity). However, I was able to salvage the icy, clumpy mixtures by turning them into milkshakes. Waste not, want not. YUM.

This past weekend was Father's Day, and my hubby and I were treating my daddy to the best and biggest steak in his life. We were taking him to Henry Waghner's, a small German-American Pub located near my college Alma mater. And these steaks are ridiculous. I could.not.wait. Yet, I knew I couldn't have Daddy up without treating him to one of my homemade desserts. There's only two rules I must follow when making my father a dessert: 1) chocolate must be involved, and 2) the sweeter the better. (Daddy has a very strong sweet tooth.)

But I wanted to make something new, because y'all know that's how I roll. I love trying new recipes. So I skimmed through my cookbooks, realizing I wanted something simple, cold, and with peanut butter. (Because peanut butter and chocolate is a must.) I remembered one of my favorite bloggers, Katie at Dashing Dish, often features frozen pies and her recipes are on the healthier side. Once there I immediately knew which pie I was making: the Frozen Reese's Peanut Butter Pie. Absolutely. Annnnd I had all of the ingredients except for the mini Reese Cups. An easy fix.

However, I can't help it. I like putting my own twists on recipes, making them my own, using what I have on hand. It's one of the reasons I love being in the kitchen. Glancing at the recipe, I instantly knew my alterations. She has a love of baking with Stevia, a no calorie sugar replacement. I do, too, yet I can't stand the odd aftertaste Stevia often gives to desserts. I've made many desserts with Stevia and I'm just not fond of its taste. I have baking Stevia on hand and I still find ways to use it...just not so much at one time. Soooo....here are my adjustments:

• 8 oz Neufchatel cream cheese (1/3 less fat than regular)
• creamy peanut butter (of course)
• for the 1/2 c Stevia called for, I used a scant 1/4 c of Stevia + 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• I used a plain graham cracker crust instead of Oreo (because I want a stronger peanut butter flavor than chocolate)
• for 1/4 c skim milk, I used 1/4 c unsweetened almond milk
• for the 3 Tbsp of chocolate syrup, I used 2 Tbsp hot fudge (mixed in the batter)
• and crushed mini Reese Cups only for the topping (when sliced, I then decorated each piece with a drizzle of melted fudge and peanut butter to make it pretty)

Blend until smooth, scoop mixture into crust, top, and chill for at least 6 hours, and TA DA!!!!! A beautiful, decadent, and healthier dessert! And Daddy never even noticed the missing sugar. I like to think it was the focus on the peanut butter flavor, the secret serving of vanilla extract, and the creaminess from the Cool Whip. I actually preferred to serve this straight from the freezer instead of letting it sit for 15 minutes. Straight out of the freezer it's more like ice cream. Delicioso.

Nutritional Information (my version): 243 calories, 11 fat, 11 sugar, 7 protein, 2 fiber
(My version is 28 calories more, but my calculation includes the crumbled Reese Cups on top...not sure if Katie's does...just in case you wanted to know specifics!)

Welp, Daddy went home (and since he has a two-hour drive and it was quite humid out) and couldn't take the leftovers, which meant I was stuck in a house with half a pie that I knew Mr. B wouldn't touch. What's a girl to do? All that peanut butter. All that cold creaminess. PLUS, I still have an almost full bag of mini Reese Cups in the fridge! It was calling my name every time I walked into the kitchen, "Brindi, there's peanut butter goodness in here!" Yes, I'm here! Ummm, yeah, thankfully my mother-in-law was stopping by and I gave the rest of the pie to her to give to my step father-in-law so he could share in this Father's Day dessert (his sweet tooth almost rivals Daddy's, but not quite).

At 8:30 last night I get a phone call from him telling me it was the best pie he's had in his life.

Like I say, it's the little things that make my blessed life so sweet.


*Stop by Dashing Dish for the original recipe!

With Love and God Bless,
Brindi

A Lemonade Party

In June my friends and I had our Lemonade Party. We chose this particular beverage because an iced cold tall glass, with a nice pucker of course, is absolutely necessary on hot summer days. And let me tell you, we've had more hot days than my lemonade-making hands can keep up with.

That glass is full of summer refreshment. Isn't it just B-E-A-utiful?

Above is a picture of our glorious spread. We had lime tortilla chips with guacamole and sour cream, blackberries, crackers, and lemon blueberry cream cheese cookies (these weren't the best, so I'm passing on sharing the recipe. If you're in desperate need of a blueberry cookie, check out my favorite cookies in the world: Almond Blueberry Cookies).

These cookies had a hunk of cream cheese in the center. It was a mess trying to put the cheese in...the dough kept softening (quickly) no matter how long I kept it in the fridge. I lost my patience, so some of them had cream cheese and others didn't. They were my surprise cookies.

We also had various flavors of ice cream and this awesome Lemonade Stand Pie.

Jenny definitely brought the talk of the party. It had the perfect pucker. It was delicious. I will be making it soon.

I have a particular bond with the above picture.

Because tragedy struck, I no longer have my Paula Deen Lemonade Glass (that I bought at her store last year when we vacationed in Georgia). Somehow, towards the end of our party, it slipped out of my hands and shattered on the hardwood floor. I only had a few ice cubes left (so thankfully there was no staining or spillage), and I was sitting on the floor, so the glass was literally no more than 6" from the floor.

I have no idea how this incident happened and I pretty much just stared in shock at the mess for a good minute before reacting. Holding in my tears I helped clean up the broken pieces. Ai yi yi.

Can't have anything nice.


But to end this party post on a positive note, here is Jenny's recipe to her mouth-watering pie. Enjoy!

Lemonade Stand Pie
*courtesy of my friend Jenny

1/2 c cold water
1/3 c lemonade-flavored drink mix
2 c vanilla ice cream, softened
8 oz whipped topping, thawed
1 graham cracker crust (6 oz)

In a large bowl, add water to drink mix; stir until mix is dissolved. Add ice cream. Beat with mixer until well blended.  Whisk in whipped topping. Freeze until mixture is thick enough to mound. Scoop into crust. Freeze 4 hours or until firm. Remove from freezer 15 minutes before serving.

*Ohhemmgee....is this pie amazingly good and simple!!!!

Make now. Thank me later.



With Love and God Bless,
Brindi

A Coffee Party

Remember the Tea Party? (You can read all about that glorious time here.) Well after that hit, my friends and I decided another beverage party was a must. And what do I like more than tea?

Coffee!

Cup of Joe.

Espresso.

Brew.

Cafe.

Jamocha.

Java.

Yes, the hot stuff. (Actually, oftentimes I prefer mine iced.)

Now, we did not have the elaborate coffee selections as we did the tea (cough, someone wasn't a coffee drinker, cough) but we still had plenty of options....including iced, flavored, strong, with cream, without cream, and with or without Bailey's. (God bless, Emilia....that stuff was delicious. I am not an alcohol consumer, per say, but I make exceptions for wine and Bailey's. In moderation though.)

Here was our little set-up. We had fruit, chips with guacamole and sour cream, an array of chocolates, pastries, and an espresso cheesecake ice cream pie.

And Jessica H. went all out with the mini appetizer-ware, which I found to be quite cute.

Of course, we all brought our favorite coffee-drinking mugs. Mine is the tall and skinny blue one....I love it because it holds a spoon. Great for stirring in one's Bailey's.

And now let me tell you about this fan-freaking-tastic ice cream pie that you must make as soon as you stop drooling over your keyboard.

It had espresso!!!

It had Starbucks Coffee Ice Cream!

It had cream cheese!

It had chocolate drizzle! (Which I'm now thinking would have been even more fan-freaking-tastic with caramel drizzle!)

Espresso Cheesecake Ice Cream Pie
*adapted from Espresso and Cream

1 graham cracker crust
2 pkgs softened Neufchatel cream cheese, 8 oz each
1/3 c powdered sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 c 1% milk or almond milk
1 pint Starbucks Coffee Ice Cream, softened
1 tsp instant espresso
Chocolate, for garnishing

With electric mixer, beat cream cheese until smooth. Add in sugar, vanilla, and milk, and beat until creamy. Add in ice cream and espresso and beat until smooth. Pour mixture into prepared crust and freeze at least 3-4 hours, or until completely firm and frozen. Garnish with chocolate drizzle before serving.



*YOU MUST MAKE THIS!!!!!

Next time, I'm making this with Starbucks Caramel Macchiato Ice Cream!


With Love and God Bless,
Brindi

Cooking Club #9 {Updated}

[Updated 9/29/14: original, but separate, content, with updated photos and/or more details, if available.]


---> Cooking Club is coming up soon, and now that I'm blogging, I want to share these moments but I thought I should play catch-up first. So without further ado, here (and in other posts) is what we've been up to. Enjoy!

#9 March: Place or City

The Menu:
        Main Course
Hungarian Chicken Goulash
Mandarin Chicken
Hawaiian Spare Ribs
         Side
Georgia Peach Carrots
        Dessert
Jerusalem Kadafe
Mississippi Mud Pie


It's that time again: Cooking Club!

This month I decided on a "place" theme. I thought it would be fun to explore a menu featuring various regions and cities. Sort of a twist on ethnic food. I wasn't sure how the other members would respond, but they seemed interested and excited. All-righty then. Let's get to it.

I decided to bring a taste of The South to our plates with Mississippi Mud Pie. I love Southern food. It is my absolute favorite. Seriously. Some people prefer Italian, Asian, or French cuisine. Not me. Give me some grits, fried pork chops, mashed potatoes, biscuits and gravy, soup beans and cornbread, chicken and dumplings, a pot full of green beans and bacon, and peach cobbler any day. (But, cough, in moderation of course, cough.)

As I've said before, I'm not really a chocolate kind of gal. I prefer my desserts to be fruity and cheesecake-y. (word?) But when I do choose chocolate, it's usually in the form of dark chocolate or ice cream. Yet, for some reason, when I came across this CHOCOLATE pie, it looked so delicious with the chocolate bottom and creamy whipped topping, I just knew I was making this southern classic. Yum.

As I melted my chocolate it looked much like a ganache. I [originally] baked my made-from-scratch pie crust (this is an area I'm a little challenged in...pie crusts...grrr) in a cake pan because I forgot my pie pan at home. [However, these updated pictures show a prettier pie crust in a pie pan.] It shrunk a little but I was impressed with how it turned out. Then I poured my yummy chocolate into the pie shell and baked it off.

Then I whipped up some cream and plopped it right on top and served it to a hungry crowd.

I remembered, as I scooped up the last bite, that I completely forgot the chocolate curls. Oh no! So much for presentation....

Original picture from Cooking Club...without the chocolate curls.

Isn't that the most boring pie you've ever seen? It looked so pretty and appetizing in the picture. I was so mad! My dish was ruined.

Don't get me wrong, it still tasted good. But it could have been so much better! [Like this one I made the other day. Look at how appetizing it is!]

Everyone laughed about how distraught I was, acting like it was the end of the world or something. But I take so much pride in making my dishes look good. I mean, we all know we eat with our eyes. Ugh....you can bet that won't happen again. We laughed it off, and now it's a running joke.....making sure no one forgot anything before we dig in. But everything turned out great, and some of my other menu favorites included:

Kelly's Georgia Peach Carrots (another Southern item!)

and Angelica's Mandarin Chicken.

The one interesting dish was Jenny's Jerusalem Kadafe. I guess this is what they have as a dessert over there. It was a couscous dish with lots of cheese. Definitely interesting and I'm still not sure how I liked it. One bite I'd think, this is quite tasty, and the next I'd think, yeah I'm not a fan. Hmmm...

Mississippi Mud Pie
*adapted from The Chocolate and Coffee Bible

Serves 8

1 1/2 c flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c butter
3 Tbsp iced water ( or more if needed)
3 oz  dark chocolate, broken + 4 oz chocolate, shaved
1/4 c coconut oil
3 Tbsp light corn syrup
3 eggs, beaten
scant 2/3 c light brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 c whipping cream

Preheat oven 425 degrees. Sift flour and salt into a mixing bowl. Rub in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle in water, 1 Tbsp at a time, and toss mixture lightly with your fingers until the dough forms into a ball. On lightly floured surface, roll out dough and line a 9" tart pan. Ease dough into pan and do not stretch. With thumbs, make fluted edges. Using a fork, prick bottom and sides of dough. Bake 10-15 minutes, until lightly browned. Cool on wire rack.

In a heatproof bowl set over a pot of barely simmering water, melt 3 oz of chocolate with coconut oil and corn syrup. Remove bowl from heat and stir in eggs, sugar and extract. Mix well. Lower oven temperature to 350 degrees. Pour chocolate mixture into pie shell. Bake 35-40 minutes, until filling is set. Cool in pan on wire rack. Whip cream into soft peaks. Spread over top of pie. Decorate with chocolate shavings, or curls. Don't forget the curls.

*I hope you enjoyed these Cooking Club snippets. There are more to come as I try to play catch-up before this month's meeting. I hope these themes, and even Cooking Club itself, inspire you to gather with your friends and family in the kitchen, and make sweet moments (and delicious food) of your own.

**I've only included the recipes to the dishes I made. Only because I'm unsure of where everyone got theirs...and hey, we gotta give credit where credit is due. If you have questions about the other dishes, I'll ask the other members where they got their recipes and pass it along!


Check out our previous meetings!
Cooking Club #1-4
Cooking Club #5-8

[Update: Finally, better photos of the Mississippi Mud Pie! It's definitely decadent and delicious, even with my healthy coconut oil substitution.]

What's your favorite cuisine?

With Love and God Bless,
Brindi