Week 34 Emeril Chicken Delmonico Caesar Salad and Caramelized Onion and Bacon Mushrooms

I liked the chicken it was like 1 big chicken nugget but had creole seasoning to give it a little kick depending on your level of heat. But I hated the mushroom sauce that went along with it the mushrooms gave of a poop smell which turned me off right away. The Caesar salad was good the dressing needed more Parmesan it was a little to acidic and earthy but that's cause we had half the amount of cheese in it so I now why I didn't taste as good. Lastly the bacon mushrooms were delicious they were earthy sweet and Bacon!!! Loved it.

Wow, What a difference a week makes. We went from an all time high to an all time low. This meal did not go too well. We had trouble with the recipe's. We had trouble with the ingredients. I know I was not on my A game.

The mushrooms turned out to not work too well. We took mushrooms that were dried and tried to wet them and then use them in the sauce. It didn't work. Carl thought they smelled like poop.

I did enjoy making the artichokes. That was fun to eat the meat of the leaves.

The chicken turned out to be ok. It was one of those things that was not too flavorful, but it wasn't terrible. It had and egg batter and then corn flakes on the outside. Lastly, we tried some Caesar salad, but we didn't buy enough of the Parmesan cheese. That didn't have enough flavor. I did learn that Caesar salad has anchovies in the dressing. Who would of thought.

Week 28 Bobby Flay Chipotle Chicken Tenders and Grilled Figs

David

Tonight's dinner was good. We enjoyed having Taryn over. She is back from school and she "said" she liked everything. Even the figs.

The idea Bobby Flay has is that he wanted to recreate a chicken wing that was a little more healthy for you. The sauce was yogurt based. It helped to tame the heat from the chipotle. The vegetables were simply broccoli and sweet potato grilled. The dessert was grilled figs with a special sauce on it. Carl will tell you more about the specifics on that.

Carl

Well since I'm given the "specifics" here we go. It was a recreation of a hot sauce so there was chipotle and vinegar definitely not a spoon licker. The other was a blue cheese yogurt sauce which had Greek yogurt (a thicker better yogurt). I thought the hot sauce was brilliant but the blue cheese was kinda oniony but i always love blue cheese. Also i really thick that chipotle in adobo should really be a staple in peoples houses it is smokey and hot it is a very favorite of mine. When i use it i usually add it to mayo and it makes a spicy zip to my samich or add it to sauces to kick it up a notch or if you puree it it would be good as a hot sauce kinda. Well on again the figs were supposed to be fresh but we could only find dried so we had to settle and they had a bit to much natural sugar to go on the grill and burnt easily which was not great so fresh is always better on the grill. Also the Creme Fraiche (crem-fresh) the easy way to say always gets pronounced (crem-free-achie) by my dad and that is not right. Well it is a cream cheese texture with a mellow sour cream flavor making a terrific base sauce. There was also orange and vanilla which were great. in all was not a total success nothing special.

Week 25 Rachel Ray Bacon-Wrapped Chicken with Red Wine Rice with Grapes and Swiss Chard

Dave

We have a story for you. Carl and I went to the grocery store on a Wednesday night. We got our chicken and many other supplies. The next day we go and look for the groceries. They are no where to be found. They ended up being right where we left them. In the trunk of the car! That car had been in the sun all day and the food was beginning to smell. UCK. Linda rescued us and went out and bought the food all over again. Woops. Another learning lesson for the Sladkey-Sladkey team.

The Red Wine Rice with Grapes was my favorite. I loved the grapes put in later after the rice was cooked. It really made a cool texture. I will put that recipe here.

Bring 1 and 3/4 cups of dry red wine to a boil with a bayleaf in it with some 1 tablespooon of Olive Oil. Stir in 1 cup of white rice and reduce to a simmer. Cover and cook for 15 minutes. Stir in 1 cup halved red seedless grapes and a little fresh parsely and let sit for 5 for minutes.

UMMMM. That was good.

Carl

The rice was OK I didn't love it it was kinda burnt on the bottom so not so appealing yo me. Also the Swiss card was bitter and not so great. Th chicken was my fav because it had a blue cheese and pecan filling and a bacon wrapping and a mustard gravy that mended well. not great my favorite.

Week 23 Rachel Ray BBQ Spiced Chicken, Salsa Salad, and Pumpkin-Chipotle Polenta

Carl

Yeah yeah we didn't do it in 30 minutes but we easily could have but we didn't do it in 75 like it is stated bellow by papa sladkey. But anyway the chicken was delicious had a sweet but suttle kick to it. Also we had a amazing polenta that had a chipotle pumpkin that I loved so creamy and a riveting kick that Perseid me to keep eating. Lastly the flop was the salad just to salsa to be salad and to salad to be salsa. Cant wait till next week!

David,

This was a hot meal. That meant that Carl and I were happy and Linda and Jamie were not so happy. Here is the problem. I thought the recipe for the polenta said 2 tablespoons of chipotle hot sauce and it said 2 teaspoons full. That made it hot.

The chicken had a little extra kick as well. All in all it was a good start to Rachel Ray.

Here are some facts about the night:

Daniel was out of town.

Jamie made the Guacamole

The meal was our fastest yet. We did Rachel Ray's 30 minute meal in about 75 minutes.

BBQ spiced Chicken

1 TBL Steak Seasoning

2 TBL Chilli powder

1/2 TBL ground cumin

1 TBL ground coriander

3 TBL dark brown sugar

Combine these with 1 TBL of Extra Virgin Olive Oil in a plastic bag.

Let marinade set in for 10 minutes.

Grill for 20 minutes.

Week 12 My Crazy Chicken

Carl

Well this week we had chocolate pots De' creme and my crazy noodles. We all enjoyed the noodles it had a kick but a great taste. Also the pots were extremely chocolate and very good. we had Chris and Dan both over (they're both cousins). The pots had a delicious creme texture and a rich sweet and some what bitter taste that complemented the noodle beautifully. Can't wait till next week!

David

This was my favorite meal for a while. The noodles were really good. They had a little spice in them and the ground chicken was excellent.

Ingredients: 1 lb ground chicken, 1/2 cup onions, 1/2 cup scallions, 1/2 cup of basil, 2 teaspoons of sugar, 2 tablespoons of lime juice, 8 oz of rice noodles, 1 tablespoon sambal. It was easy and I will definitely keep this recipe.

The dessert was excellent. It was chocolate custard like. This was a little harder to make, but really good.

We had some help today. Dan came and helped cut up some things as well as washed the dishes. Also you can see by the pictures, Chris Vitale joined us today. It was great to have you Chris and Dan.

Week 3 Middle East Meal

Carl:

This week was a very interesting week. A week of fun and wonderful ingredients and also our garbage disposal blew mango peel and water all of are kitchen.


One of are dishes was eggplant that was grilled and garnished with pomegranate and mint. We all didn't love the eggplant but were not an eggplant family eater but we loved the pomegranate. Also we had the chocolate mousse which was very heavy and left my sister lick the inside of the glass (she a chocolate lover times 10).

David

This was a fun day. We made a baked chicken dish that had a baste of yogurt, lemon zest, curry, and some spices. It was easy. We just basted it a few times with the sauce and it took about 50 minutes in the oven.

We certainly will remember this meal because of the extra clean up with the mango peel everywhere. I also enjoyed Carl trying to Zest his lemon again this week. He didn't cut himself. See the video. I loved the rice, mango, bean, cashew salad that was served with the chicken. It was awesome. I pretty much like anything with rice. This had a unique flavor and was served cold so was an interesting dish.

Here are the videos from the day.