~ Lynnette's Dinner 8 Results ~

Hello all!
I finally have time to fill you in on the Dinner 8 results!

So we decided to try a potentially delicious and difficult recipe, Lasagna Rolls.. Well, let me just say that this was HEAVEN!  I did not change a single thing in it.. I know, SHOCKING! lol! I was really excited when we selected this, and also a little intimidated, because it looked a little challenging. Let me tell you, this recipe was very well written!  

The filling was sooooo good! Well really, the entire thing was super delish! I could have eaten the entire dish!!! 

So if you haven't notice by now, I have a slight obsession with weird dessert names! lol! So when we selected the Spumoni cookies I was over the moon!
OH' MY WORD!!!

These were AMAZING! I will be making them again and again and again! Matter of fact, my loyal test subjects had about 8 after dinner alone!! :)  They were so pretty and so incredibly yummy!

Can't wait to see how Stacy's turned out!

~ Dinner 8 ~

Happy THURSDAY morning everyone!

Wow, it seems like an eternity since we last blogged.. I had mentioned earlier about how life gets in the way of our wicked cool project.. Well that was totally evident this week.. So, with that said, our apologies for lagging on posting Dinner 8!

Since we visited Mexico for our last dinner, Stacy and I thought it would be fun to take a dinner journey to ITALY! :)

We will be making Lasagna Rolls! I will warn you, this is an intermediate recipe.. Not that it should be super difficult, but that it does have many steps. :) But I'm sure it's bound to be very tasty! I mean, lasagna noodles, ricotta cheese, Parmesan cheese and mozzarella too?? YUMMY! My mouth is watering!

photo from foodnetwork.com

For this recipe you will need the following:

Sauce:
2 tablespoons unsalted butter

4 teaspoons all-purpose flour

1 1/4 cups whole milk

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper

Pinch ground nutmeg

Lasagna:

1 (15-ounce) container whole milk ricotta cheese

1 (10-ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed, squeezed dry

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan

3 ounces thinly sliced prosciutto, chopped

1 large egg, beaten to blend

3/4 teaspoon salt, plus more for salting water

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 to 2 tablespoons olive oil

12 uncooked lasagna noodles

2 cups marinara sauce

1 cup shredded mozzarella (about 4 ounces)

The link for the recipe can be found here: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/lasagna-rolls-recipe/index.html

For Dessert we will be making Spumoni Cookies! If you like pistachios and cherries, you are bound to enjoy these cookies!!

Spumoni Cookies photo by labellefood - Allrecipes.com member



For this recipe you will need:

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup butter, softened

1/4 cup white sugar

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 (3.4 ounce) package instant pistachio pudding mix

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 (16 ounce) package semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup chopped maraschino cherries

1/4 cup chopped pistachios

The link for the recipe can be found here: http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/spumoni-chocolate-chip-cookies/Detail.aspx

Can't wait to see the results and hear how everyone enjoyed these 2 recipes! :)

Lets get cookin'!

Stacy's Kitchen- Dinner 7 RESULTS

Hola Amigos! Yeah, that's about as much spanish as I know! lol! Even though I did live in San Antonio for 6 years and I did take 3 years of spanish in school... Hola is as good as it gets! So we will have to leave the spanish speaking stuff to Lynnette! haha! Well let's get to the Mexican Fiesta results and you do NOT want to miss out on these!!! =P

Lime Chicken Tacos

Recipe

Ohh my, you little chicken tacos really are a taste of home!! I dont know if you all know, but I just moved to NC from TX, and mexican food is the one thing I MISSSS oh so much! I was so thrilled that lynnette found this recipe and I could not wait to cook it!! Well I followed all the directions to a "t" at first minus the corn (ew, slightly creeps me out having corn in my chicken!)... then after about 4 hrs of cooking I started to shred the chicken and it looked EXTREMELY dry... and honestly I started having MAJOR doubts about how it was going to turn out. I even took about some more meat from the freezer for "back-up." lol. Before I gave up on this little guy, I decided to try and doctor it up... I put some chicken stock and 1/2 a package of taco seasoning with about 1/2 cup of the salsa. I also added some fresh chopped onion and a sprinkle of garlic and wine seasoning. The results were AMAZING!! The meat was so tender and juicy and had flavor enough to kill! It wasn't too over powering but I do like a spicy chicken taco so the extra spice did hit the spot! I actually put the shredded chicken on a romaine lettuce leaf, I like to call it a "lettuce boat," it makes a healthier option to a tortilla or taco shell. I did make tortillas and shells as well, just to try it on all three. Brian's vote was for the tortilla, but he said all 3 were YUMMY! My personal favorite was the chicken on the lettuce boat and I made some homemade jalapeno ranch sauce over top with some freshly shredded cheese. It was to DIE FOR!! ah so good!!!  



Romaine Lettuce for the "lettuce boats"




Crunchy taco and lettuce boat taco



Lettuce Boat- My Fav!




Traditional Soft taco- Brian's fav

So needless to say, this dinner was a major HIT at this house!! It is so easy to make it cater to your tastebuds and change it up! I highly highly recommend making this! Just try it with some chicken stock so it doesnt dry up!

Rating: actual recipe I am only giving it a "B" because it was icky until I doctored it up... wayy too dry! But definitely try it with some modifications! :)



 Sopapilla Cheesecake Pie

Recipe

Oh my goodness gracious! This is by far the yummiest thing we have cooked!! My pic looks a little crazed due to me being so impatient while it was cooling! It tasted like a cinnamon sugar gooey yummy pastry with a oh so delicious cheesecake surprise! If you looove cheesecake you MUST try this! I actually halved the recipe and found the no seam crescent rolls so it made it suuuuper easy to put in the dish! It is the easiest recipe and by far the yummiest we have made thus far! Try it! Try it! TRY  IT! It truly is a no fuss, easy peasy, yummy-licious recipe!

Rating: A++++ Delish! 

~ Lynnette's Dinner 7 Results ~

Los buenos amigos por la noche! a.k.a. Good evening friends!! :)

I am very excited to post my results for Dinner 7! Let me get right to it...

Lime Chicken Tacos

As you can probably guess I did make a few changes..  Due to not realizing what time in the day it was, I went ahead and precooked the chicken in a skillet with lime juice, chicken stock and a dash of chili powder. Once it was completely cooked I put it in the crockpot and let it do it's thing. :)  I was about to scrap this recipe because I was not happy about having to shred the chicken.. I mean so much so, that I pretty much complained the entire time until my knight in abu's came and finished the job for me! :) Thanks Ry! :)

Let me tell you these were simply maravillosa!! They were so full of flavor!

Now for dessert..

The Sopapillia Cheescake Pie was AMAZING! HOLY COW!!! 

I mean one of the easiest most completely DELISH recipes ever!!! This one is going in my dessert arsenal for SURE!!! :)  I made one change, and that was that I added 1/4 cup white sugar and 1/4 cup brown sugar.. SO YUMMY!!!  If you only try one dessert that we have suggested so far.. TRY THIS ONE!!! :)

Can't wait  to see how Stacy's turned out!! If you tried Dinner 7, let us know! :)

After such an amazing dinner my tummy is full and so I'm going to take a siesta! :) 

Keep an eye out for Dinner 8!!

~ Dinner 7 Menu ~

Hola amigos!
Bet you can't guess what the "theme" will be for Dinner 7... Oh' yeah, we are headed south of the border!! :) 
For Dinner 7 we will be making Lime Chicken Tacos and a Sopapilla Cheesecake Pie! A cool twist on Sopapillas.. Stacy and I both think it will be much easier too! :) Or at least we hope it will be!

We selected Lime Chicken Tacos, because not only did it look good,  you cook it in you CROCK POT!! Yes, that's right.. Break it out again! We do love our crock pots and we like to get good use out of them when the weather is very "Texasy" (you know.. heater in the morning, a/c in the afternoon, heater in the evening kind of weather) :)

For Chicken Lime Tacos you will need:

1-1/2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts

3 tablespoons lime juice

1 tablespoon chili powder

1 cup frozen corn

1 cup chunky salsa

12 flour tortillas (6 inches), warmed

Sour cream, shredded cheddar cheese and shredded lettuce, optional

Here is the link to the recipe:

http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Lime-Chicken-Tacos

For dessert we wanted to do something fairly easy, but with a Mexican twist.. and then we came across this recipe.. It does look fairly simple, but lets hope the flavors are AWESOME! :) I'm guessing that with over 12,000 people saving it as a favorite recipe, it won't disappoint!

For the Sopapilla Cheesecake Pie you will need:



Sopapilla Cheesecake Pie photo by LatinaCook - Allrecipes member



2(8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened

1 cup white sugar

1 teaspoon Mexican vanilla extract

2 (8 ounce) cans refrigerated crescent rolls

3/4 cup white sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 cup butter, room temperature

1/4 cup honey

***PLEASE NOTE: that this makes a LARGE dessert.. so think about halving the ingredients if you are planning to make it for a small group.

Here is the link to the recipe:

http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/sopapilla-cheesecake-pie/Detail.aspx

Can't wait to see how both of these recipes turn out!! Come and try them with us and share your results too!!! :)

Vamos a cocinar! ~ Let's cook!

Stacy's Kitchen- Dinner 6 RESULTS

Hello cooking friends! I hope you all enjoyed your weekend and had a fantastic Super Bowl Sunday! As you can tell, I am late posting -again! lol! Well lets get to these yummy results!

Awesome Slow Cooker Pot Roast

Recipe

So I have a small confession to make.... this isnt my first time cooking this amazingly delicious pot roast! I had this at a friend's house about 4 years ago, and it was sooo good! I completely forgot about the recipe until about a year or so ago when I stumbled upon it again. I have made this ever since! It is just too good not to share with yall!!! I did modify one thing, and that is I substituted beef broth for the water... makes the flavor richer! I put carrots and red onion in it and served it with mashed potatoes. The juice makes an amazing gravy over mashed potatoes. You could do so many variation with this recipe! Most Definitely a KEEPER! Like I said, I replaced my pot roast recipe with this recipe awhile ago, and every person who has had it demands to know how you make it. It's easy, yummy, and completely worth trying!!!

Rating: A+

Cherry Cake Pudding

Recipe

Oh, Pioneer Woman, we are giving you another shot! The Pig cake wasn't the biggest hit, so I was very worried about this recipe! I do have to say I was pretty impressed with this! It was very very easy to make, and I had every ingredient in my pantry minus the cherries. I followed the recipe to a "t" and it came out great! I will say, it was extremely extremely sweet... pair this with vanilla ice cream to break up the sugary taste. I only had whipped cream and it didn't nearly break up the sweetness enough. I was only able to eat about 3-4 bites before having sugar overload, but it was definitely yummy. I will make this again, just with ice cream next time! 

Rating: B

I hope you all have been enjoying reading our journey on this crazy road of recipes! If yall have any suggestions on recipes for us to make, or if you would like us to do anything differently... please please please let us know! We LOVE feedback and we cant wait to hear what yall think!! :)



~ Lynnette's Dinner 6 Results ~

Howdy Howdy Ya'll!

So with Dinner 6 leftovers lingering in my refrigerator, I come to you with my results of this cooking session.. :)

Awesome Slow Cooker Potroast - This seriously was pretty dang awesome! :P I yet again made a few simple modifications..

I browned the roast in my dutch oven. Once it was completely crusted, I put it in the crock pot. Then added 2 cups of sliced baby portabello mushrooms  to the dutch oven add 2 tbsp of butter and then 1/2 cup beef stock.  I sauteed them until they looked completely cooked. I then added them to the crock pot as well! Yummy happy goodness going on in that crock pot For SURE! :)

This turned out really great! No wonder why over 180,000 people have saved it on Allrecipes.com! :)

Yup, that recipe is a keeper..


For Dessert we once again tried to conquer a recipe on Thepioneerwoman.com.
I decided to take this with me to a small Super Bowl Party. I made sure to get feedback from everyone who tried it!  And the verdict was pretty good! :)
Well by golly, this time we did it!!! 
The Cherry Cake Pudding was really good. It was a unique flavor, which is nice in a dessert. Well in this one it was...  :)

making the cherry reduction.. this is where smellivision really would come in handy...

Cherry Cake Pudding all ready for the big game.. and waiting to be topped with Vanilla Bean ice cream!

The cake wasn't overwhelmingly cherry. I did think that it could do with a little less pecans.. But I think that was due to my own error.. I measured them already chopped instead of measuring them whole and then chopping.. :) but is was good none the less.  It was very easy to follow and quick to make as well.

I also served it with Vanilla Bean ice cream as apposed to whipping cream. I believe it was a perfect compliment!

okay, I know, not the best beauty shot.. but come on, it was a super bowl party.. notice the plate ~ Go PACK! lol!

I would say that these two recipes were a success!  I will make both of them in the future!

Can't wait to hear Stacy's feedback as well! Keep an eye out for Dinner 7, coming soon!!

Happy Cooking!

~ Dinner 6 Menu ~

In our efforts of trying to stay on task.. We wanted to post the 2nd dinner for the week.. just in case you don't have plans for dinner already. :oD

For Dinner 6 We will be cooking:

 

Awesome Slow Cooker Potroast - I did not make that up! lol! That's what it's called!


Photo By Wanda - Allrecipes member

Now pay close attention to the ingredients list.. because you don't want to miss an item on this one....

2 (10.75 ounce) cans condensed cream of mushroom soup

1 (1 ounce) package dry onion soup mix

1 1/4 cups water

5 1/2 pounds pot roast

seriously.. I was a little stressed and overwhelmed with the shopping list! lol~~ Totally just kidding!
Here is the link to the recipe:
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Awesome-Slow-Cooker-Pot-Roast/Detail.aspx


For dessert we are going back to The Pioneer Woman's website to try to tackle yet another of her recipes..
We are going to make Cherry Cake Pudding!! Hello, can you say YUUUMMMOOO??

I'm pretty excited for this one, and am seriously hoping it turns out 100 times better than the Pig Cake. 
My tip would be to read the ENTIRE recipe before starting it.. this is a great idea to do for any recipe that you are attempting to make. :)



Photo by ThePioneerWoman

Here is what you'll need:
For the Cake:
1 cup Sugar
2 Tablespoons Butter, Softened
1 whole Egg
1 cup All-purpose Flour
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
⅛ teaspoons Salt
½ cups Whole Milk
1 can (15 Ounces) Cherries In Syrup (NOT Cherry Pie Filling) Drained, Juice Reserved
½ cups Pecans, Finely Chopped

photo by The Pioneer Woman - These are the Cherries she recommends!

For the Sauce
1 cup Juice From Cherries (add Water To Make 1 Cup If Necessary)
1 cup Sugar
1 Tablespoon All-purpose Flour
1 Tablespoon Butter
½ teaspoons Vanilla Extract
Unsweetened Freshly Whipped Cream

You can find the recipe here:
http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2011/01/cherry-cake-pudding/

Okay.. so the recipe for the dessert totally makes up for the fact that the main dinner is sooo easy. But we both thought it would be fun to do! :)

Hope everything turns out great! Can't wait to see the results!
Happy Cooking!

Stacy's Kitchen- Dinner 5 RESULTS

Happy Saturday Everyone! I know, I know... we were completely slacking this week, but Life happens and you just have to roll with the punches sometimes! :)  I was so excited to make these two recipes! Which involved the most underappreciated veggie, CABBAGE, which truly is yummy in every way! Trust me, add cabbage to any veggie stew or soup and the results will AMAZE you! So lets get to the results....

Cabbage Patch Stew

 Recipe

First off, how stinkin (no pun intended) adorable is the name?! The stew was AH-MAZING! If you had Brian's reaction, when he saw me cut up almost an entire head of cabbage, you most likely are not thrilled about this recipe. I put cabbage in almost every tomato based soup I cook, and he loves it... however he did not know it was cabbage until the other night when I cooked this! lol! He was like "ewwww... cabbage is so gross." Well honey dear, you love cabbage and dont even know it! So trust me, try it and you will love it! I did do a few minor changes to cater more towards B's and my tasters. I omitted the beans, added chucks of potato, used 1 can beef broth, and 1 can water. I then added some "better than bouillon" chicken (about a tsp or so... just taste it) and I followed the rest of the recipe. The results were soooooo Good! It has been cold and rainy here lately in NC, so this stew hit the spot for sure!

This is the bouillon I live by!  It truly makes allllll the difference in the world! It's a little more pricey, if you're military the commisary does normally carry it for cheaper, and if you're like the rest of us- look at kroger, heb, or your local grocery store... you can always ask to see if they carry it! It's worth it... trust me!

We ate it will some buttered bread and it was YUMMMMO!

Rating: A

PIG CAKE

Recipe

Pig cake, you cant help but just gravitate towards the sound of that dessert! ha! Maybe, you can... either way, we took on this Pioneer Woman's recipe. First off, let me first tell you how you MUST MUST check out her website. It's awesome!! 

This recipe started off Amazing! The batter was YUMMY-LICIOUS! As you can tell from my experience with the Whoopie Pies extravaganza, eating the batter and tasting the dough are my FAVORITE things to do when I cook desserts. This recipe had a super yummy batter... I definitely licked the spoon! The cake itself came out amazing! You couldnt even taste the oranges in the cake, it just made it extremely extremely moist. However, the topping, I cant say the same for. When i was making it, I first had the hardest time figuring out the measurements. The way Pioneer Woman has it set up is she goes through  all the steps with the corresponding pictures (which i love btw) and then the actual breakdown of the measurements is at the bottom. Well dont pull a "Stacy" and try to squint your eyes really hard at the picture trying to figure out the size of the measuring cup by looking at the picture... and yes, I did that! So needless to say my topping was GROSS! It was very very thin, so I kept adding powder sugar... big mistake yuck! I did put the topping on ONE slice of the yummy cake and it was pretty nasty. I ended up just putting a vanilla whipped frosting on  it and it was good! I will most definitely be making the "CAKE" again, but will leave the topping off and will just frost it with normal icing. We had couples game night last night, and they all LOVED the cake!



Rating:

(Cake) = A

(Topping) = D-

Thank you for all being patient with us this week with the responses! :)

~ Lynnette's Dinner 5 Results ~

Sorry for the delay in results and postings.. Life gets in the way sometimes.. but all is well and here we go:


My Dinner 5 results..
I haven't been so excited to make a soup in such a long time! I love love love cabbage, and even though it does tend to leave a lingering stench (even after you've eaten it - lol) we hardly ever cook with it. So in our efforts to make it cool to cook cabbage again, we selected the Cabbage Patch Stew.

before it had cooked all night.. :)

the next morning! YUM!

I changed a lot in this recipe! ahah.. not really but the primary way of cooking it was changed..

I started off with 2 lbs of hamburger browned with the celery and onion.  While that was cooking away I sliced the veggies and opened all the required cans.. I then emptied them all into my crock pot.. Yup, MY CROCKPOT!!!! :) I started the soup at like 9 at night (we had a function for Bean's school) and let it cook all night, and all the next day!! :) Instead of beef stock I used chicken stock and seasoned with a table spoon of beef bullion granules.

I served it with a topping of shredded parmesan cheese and a sweet cornbread.. It was wonderful. Very yummy and comforting too! I will make it again for sure!

Now I wish I was as excited about the Pig Cake results as I was about making it. My results will be pretty short on this one.... 

I made it to exact detail of the recipe.. but I did not care for this dessert.. Ryan and our friend Kurt liked it.. or at least said they really did like it.. But I found that the topping was plain ol' weird.. and I really did NOT like the canned pineapple in the topping. To me it was lacking.. like maybe cream cheese would have thickened it up a bit and given it a bit more flavor.. :o\ Very disappointing.. 
I will not be making this one again.. Sad, because I had high hopes for the Pig Cake..

~ Dinner 5 Menu ~

Happy Tuesday Everyone!!

For Dinner 5 we were keeping the weather forecasts in mind.. Thinking that something warming and yummo would be a great idea.. We also wanted to make something with a very under appreciated veggie: CABBAGE!! :)  Well after brainstorming to come up with an idea, we found a great recipe from www.tasteofhome.com.  I hope you guys love cabbage as much as Stacy and I do!  Get your air fresheners ready, it's bound to be a stinky kinda love going on in the kitchen for this meal!

We will be making Cabbage Patch Stew!!
My stomach is rumbling as I type! :)


1970's picture courtesy of tasteof home.com

For this recipe, you will need:

• 1-1/2 pounds lean ground beef (90% lean)
• 4 celery ribs, chopped
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 7 cups chopped cabbage
• 2 cans (16 ounces each) kidney beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 can (28 ounces) Hunt’s® Original Diced Tomatoes, undrained
• 3 cups beef broth
• 1 can (15 ounces) Hunt’s® Tomato Sauce
• 2 medium carrots, chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• Pepper to taste

Here is the link for the recipe : http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/Cabbage-Patch-Stew

Now see, doesn't that just look deelish!! :) Get ready for a belly full of warm hearty Cabbage Patch Stew!

Okay on to dessert... 

Now, mind you.. while skyping last night we spent a good amount of our time on an amazing site: www.thepioneerewoman.com. Now when we picked this dessert, I just about DIED when I saw the name of it.. I sent the link to Stacy and couldn't help but giggle waiting for her response.. this is where I happened to ventured upon a dessert called Pig Cake! I love it! I was soo excited when Stacy loved it too!!! :)

Pig Cake, photo by thepioneerwoman.com

I can't wait to make this! Partly because it's called Pig cake and partly because it looks soo yummy~

Here is what you will need:

yellow cake mix

a can of mandarin oranges

a stick of margarine or butter

four eggs

vanilla extract

vanilla pudding mix

powdered sugar

Cool Whip

a can of crushed pineapple

I know.. sounds daunting doesn't it! lol! This is a much simpler recipe than the Red Velvet Whoopie pies!

Here is the link to the recipe: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2011/01/pig-cake/

Lets get ready to get this dinner on the stove and in the oven!! :)

Can't wait to hear the feedback and tips and tricks for these recipes!

Happy Cooking!!