So Kool or Not Kool? Pasta with Pesto Cream Sauce

So Kool or Not Kool? Kool
Picky eaters opinion: Ehhhhh, either way
Will it make the future chef's menu? Absolutely!

I love pasta! I have had pesto sauce before, but I have never made it on my own. Therefore, I was super excited to try this recipe. So excited that in fact, I forgot to take any pictures. I did have to make a few adjustments to the recipe based on the ingredients that I had at home. We do not eat pine nuts so I excluded that from the recipe and I did not have Parmesan cheese, so I used mozzarella cheese and goat cheese instead. I had already been to the store once, or I probably would have returned to get the Parmesan cheese. I do like to try her recipes as original as possible the first time around. Then, if necessary, I will make any adjustments to the recipe for our family. This recipe did go together with absolute and total ease. First, throw the basil in the food processor (which if you don't know by now, I absolutely adore my new food processor), add garlic, pine nuts (which we didn't use), olive oil, and cheese. Blend until creamy. My food processor did not get this as creamy as I would like, so I did have to transfer it to the blender and repeat as needed. In the meantime, cook the noodles on the stove top. I did that at the same time I was mixing the butter and heavy cream on the stove top also. Once that Mixture got hot, add the pesto sauce and lightly simmer until smooth. That is when I added my goat cheese. Then, drain the noodles and toss them together and throw in some tomatoes… Pretty good :-). We will definitely try this again, and may even try to use the recipe a little more the way she originally wrote it!

So Kool or Not Kool? Bananas Foster

So Kool or Not Kool?  So Kool... especially with ice cream
Picky Eater's Opinion?  Kool
Will it make the Future Chef's Menu?  Definitely!

This was one of my picks.  I love the months when I get to pick the recipe.  I love her recipes so much that I often pick them when I am at home by myself and not choosing for the cooking club.  I also love desserts, so this month I picked two recipes (in case someone didn't choose one, then we had an extra).  Both of mine were chosen:  the steakhouse pizza was a bust in our house, but the bananas foster was fabulous.

 Melting butter is pretty easy and then adding the wonderful flavor of brown sugar... YUM!!!

 Heavy cream is added...

 Now, add the bananas and cover them with the sweet syrup of cream and brown sugar. 

This was one of the main things I was looking forward to trying.  I have never done it before and seeing it in the picture may be difficult.  Add the dark rum to the mixture and then light it on fire to burn it off.  This went off much easier than I thought, and I had the time to get a picture.  Clearly, I need to work on my photography skills, but the cooking skill went just fine!

We put the bananas foster over the ice cream and it was QUITE delightful.  I will definitely make this again.  It was not near as difficult as I thought it might be when I chose the recipe.

Eat it fast, because the hot bananas cause the ice cream to melt very quickly. 

So Kool or Not Kool? Steakhouse Pizza

So Kool or Not Kool?  Not really Kool

Picky Eater's Opinion?  Not my favorite

Will it Make the Future Chef's Menu?    An emphatic NO.

This recipe was a two part recipe.  First, the pizza crust, which was amazing and I will definitely be making it again in bigger batches so I can freeze some and always  have a pizza crust when I need one.  The pizza sauce was good and had a little bit of tang to it, which was nice.

 

The steak and the onions were also very good and a nice change for us as we don't usually have steak pizza.

I would potentially make this again, but without the steak sauce.  We used A1, which is the steak sauce that we use (when we use any), but it just left a funky flavor on it as far as we were concerned.  As I said though, the good news was that we did get a fabulous, quick and easy recipe for pizza dough that seems to freeze well.  We will DEFINITELY use that recipe again. 

Bottom line, not my favorite. 

So Kool or not Kool? Chocolate Mint Brownie Bites

So Kool or Not Kool:  Kool, but not my favorite dessert for sure

Picky Eater's Opinion:  Either way

Will it make the Future Chef's Menu?  Probably not, even though it was good, it wasn't my favorite

These Mint Chocolate Brownie Bites were
pretty easy to make and I love a chance to use my Kitchen Aid Mixer.  The down side of this recipe is that many of the ingredients are not things that I would typically use in another recipe, even with baking.  I typically have most baking ingredients on hand, because those people that know me well, know how much I love sweets.  In fact, I believe it should be served before the rest of the meal.   The chocolate was easy to work with because it is melted in the microwave instead of on a double boiler on the stove top.   That made me pretty happy two, because I don't have

a double boiler and have to juggle two pan

pans to get it to work and often I get very hot water splashed on me, so the microwave part made me happy!  All of the ingredients end up together in the mixer and it does not take long at all.  The longest part of the process was dipping the little guys into the chocolate and sprinkling the mints on top of them at the end of the process.  I took these to share at a work function and the general impression was good.  They do have a strong Andes mint flavor, but if you like mint, these are quite tasty.

So Kool or Not Kool? Spinach and Mushroom Quesadillas

So Kool or Not Kool?  SO Kool
Picky Eater's Opinion? Much better than I thought
Future Chef's Menu?  Heck yeah... (Exact words :) )

The recipe for Spinach and Mushroom Quesadillas was insanely delicious. The mushrooms were cooked in butter, sherry, salt and pepper on the stove top.  These were the most delicious mushrooms I have ever eaten.  I am a frequent mushroom eater, but I was eating these plain and they were tasty.  

Look closely at these delicious mushrooms (in case I haven't mentioned how great they are yet).  The deeper they are in color, the more flavor they have. 

Once you are done cooking the mushrooms, you throw a little bit more sherry into the pan and then wilt the spinach.  This is my first time cooking with sherry, but it will NOT be my last.  Then, assemble the quesadilla with the mushroom, spinach, and goat cheese.  Grill them on the grill and prepare yourself for the deliciousness that is to follow.  I will be making these again... maybe tomorrow night :) 

Drowning in work ...

Well… Here it is, the beginning of October, and I haven't blogged any of my sweet as pie recipes since the end of July. That doesn't mean I haven't made them, I just haven't had the time to blog them. School started back :-( then, I went to Ohio for a week with my grandparents… I went to West Virginia with my in-laws… I had the consignment sale… And then, there is this big work project… All of those things together meant something had to give. For the time being, it was blogging. I hope to get things caught back up and you can look for several Sweet as Pie posts here within the next week or so. Also coming soon, pictures of my sister nice trip to the Big Apple, pictures of the boys trip to the Wayne county fair, and videos (hopefully?!?!) of Hunter learning to ride his bike with no training wheels.