Amy's Cooking Adventures: August 2015

Sunday, August 30, 2015

Bacon Wrapped BBQ Cheddar Dogs #SecretRecipeClub

Well hello there. Yes, I am here with my 4^th Secret Recipe Club post this month (see the first, second, & third here)! In SRC members are secretly assigned another blog, make something delicious from that blog and post on reveal day!

Today is a pretty special SRC day! Since there are 5 Mondays this month, we’re bringing you a SRC Tailgating special! We’re crossing our usual group lines and revealing mouthwatering tailgating recipes to get you all ready for football season!

For this special reveal, I was assigned Kelly’s blog, Wildflour’s Cottage Kitchen.

Kelly is a stay at home wife with years of amazing kitchen and publishing experience! In fact, we’re both Taste of Home Field Editors! Kelly was also just assigned my blog for the reveal earlier this month and totally improved on my recipe for Pesto Meatball Subs!

Kelly has so many amazing recipes on her blog – I was absolutely drooling as I searched for the perfect tailgating treat. And it didn’t take long until I found Cheese Filled Bacon Wrapped Game Day Barbecue Beefdogs. It was all over from there! I adore making Bacon Wrapped Beer Brats and couldn’t wait to try it out with hot dogs, cheddar and BBQ sauce!

Loaded Skillet Potatoes

If you’re following me on Instagram, you might have seen this picture from when I dug up my potato plants.

That’s 10 pounds of potatoes! We’re a meat & potatoes kind of family, so that is absolutely fantastic!

Dude & Spud love crispy skillet potatoes (I’ve convinced them that they’re just like French fries) and I love me some baked potatoes, so I came up with a sort of hybrid dish that everyone could enjoy (plus I didn’t have to turn on the oven when it was 95 degrees!)

Crockpot Spicy Dr. Pepper Pulled Pork

I love using the crockpot this time of year! It’s such a great way to cook those yummy roasts without heating up the house!

Today’s recipe is a super delicious, slightly sweet, a little bit spicy pulled pork! After cooking all day with the Dr. Pepper and spices, the pork is so flavorful and tender!

Easy Chicken Parmesan

Okay.

So this isn’t *really* chicken parmesan.

It was just some leftover pasta I was trying to reinvigorate, so I added chicken to the top and called it chicken parmesan to make my kids eat it. I wasn’t planning on blogging it at all.

Then my boys took their first bites as I finished preparing the salad and Spud exclaimed, “Mom! This is so yummy! You have to blog it!”

Well, how couldn’t I blog it with an endorsement like that?!?

Salted Caramel Pretzel Chocolate Cake Mix Cookies

Can a person have too many cookie recipes?

No. No, I don’t think so.

Especially when they’re mega easy and involve chocolate and salted caramel.

There’s really no down side to these cookies. Come on, you deserve a cookies today, right?

Frozen Dark Hot Chocolate

I’m back for another Secret Recipe Club Reveal today! Earlier today an SOS went out to help out a fellow group C member who couldn’t post tonight, so here I am!

Today, I was assigned Sashi’s blog, Get Off the Couch and Cook. She may seem familiar, because I jumped in to help back in January and made her delicious Chicken BLT. Sashi’s goal is to make homemade foods (without processed products) in the time it takes to order a pizza.

We’re just coming off a heat wave, so I chose to make a cool sweet treat! Today’s recipe is an amazing frozen hot chocolate! It uses all those yummy hot chocolate ingredients, but blended with ice for all of the flavor and none of the heat! Spud in particular was ecstatic about this recipe! I could barely keep him out of the photo!

Homemade Tomato Sauce

Dude is back in action again today with Kids in the Kitchen! He was watching Disney Junior the other day and found an amazing homemade tomato sauce he absolutely had to try!

I’ve made tomato sauce from scratch before (here and here) and while delicious, neither recipe quite hit the mark when it came to the smoothness and thickness I’m accustomed to with jarred pasta sauce.

This sauce did it.

I realized the key is to really let that liquid reduce down and to puree instead of trying to just mush up the tomatoes with a spoon.

All in all this was a hit for the whole family.

Here’s Dude:

We picked fresh tomatoes and basil from our garden. NOW THAT'S FRESH!

Classic French Croissants #CooktheBooksClub

It’s time for the next Cook the Books Club selection. In Cook the Books Club, participants read the selected book and then whip up something delicious inspired by the text.

This month book is hosted by Rachel at The Crispy Cook. She chose Yes Chef by Marcus Samuelsson. I’ve seen a bit of Marcus Samuelsson on a few Food Network shows I watch, but I never knew much about him.

In the beginning of the memoir, I was hooked. He certainly led a fascinating life. It begins with the death of his mother in Ethiopia and adoption by a family in Sweden and continues through this childhood and how his love of cooking was sparked.

Then we move on to his single ambition to be a famous chef and that’s where the book starts to drag on and on and on for me. You can read my full review on GoodReads.

But foodies never fear! There is tons of food inspiration in this one! I strongly considered making a Swedish dish, since that was Marcus Samuelsson’s beginnings and a large part of his adult career as well. I specifically had my sights set on Swedish Meatballs, since my recipe uses canned soup and I’d love to try a recipe from scratch.

But, I wanted to push myself a bit further and try something a bit more ambitious. Throughout the memoir, Samuelsson was very focused on France. It was like he couldn’t be a “real” chef unless he studied in France.

So I decided to make the ultimate French pastry: Croissants.

Parmesan Asparagus Breadsticks #SecretRecipeClub

It’s Secret Recipe Club Day…again! Only this time it’s with my own group instead of a rescue!

This month I was assigned Flavors by Four. Flavors by Four is a blog run by Nicole and Susan, and mother-daughter team! They both love cooking and baking and sharing recipes!

There were so many delicious choices on the blog! I reaaaaally wanted to make their Kit Kat Cake, but I didn’t have anywhere to take a cake (I usually like to share cake so I don’t eat it all myself!) A close second was the recipe for Pesto Pasta Salad. And I’ll be honest. That one is totally going to happen. My boys absolutely love pesto!

In the end, I ended up making Parmesan Asparagus Breadsticks. I absolutely love asparagus and I eat it constantly when it’s in season! I loved these!! I started eating them fresh out of the oven and they were gone lickety split! Hubs and I couldn’t get enough, and even Dude had a few!

Thank you, Susan & Nicole, for a great new way to enjoy my asparagus!

BBQ Beer Can Chicken #FoodNFlix

Today’s recipe is a nod to August: Osage County, this month’s Food ‘n Flix pick.

In Food ‘n Flix, participants watch the selected movie (there’s still time to join in!) and make something delicious inspired by the film. This month’s movie is hosted by Debra at Eliot's Eats.

As I was hunting down a copy of the movie, I happened to notice that it is actually a play. Which was available in digital format form my library while the DVD was checked out.

So I read the play first.

*Shudder*

Yeah, not a fan. I don’t need to be reading about that kind of dysfunction for fun – the news is depressing enough. You can see my whole review on GoodReads.

The movie was slightly better than the book, but only because I’ve never really enjoyed reading plays (I prefer to watch a play on stage or read a novel). It’s just as despicable as the text version, so at least I was prepared.

The only saving grace is that there is plenty of food inspiration. The characters are frequently eating or drinking something. I very nearly went with a cocktail of some sort, but a cocktail seemed a bit classy for the Osage County crowd. So I trashed things up a bit with beer can chicken.

Tropical Pork Pineapple Kebabs #SecretRecipeClub

It’s Group A’s Secret Recipe Club reveal today!

Sadly, one of our new SRC members, Selma from Selma’s Table, passed away before she was able to participate in the reveal. You can read more about Selma from those who knew her on this tribute.

Because of this tragedy, Bean from Without Adornment was left out of last week’s reveal, so I’m jumping in with Group A to help out!

Bean is a chemical engineer whose faith guides her to be who God intended, without adornment. What a wonderful sentiment!

Bean is also a gluten free and very often allergen free (egg, dairy, & gluten) blogger, with a decent amount of vegan recipes as well!