Cooking Club, Take Two

I celebrated St. Patrick's Day with our second monthly cooking club. Although we planned on having 4 families participate, Whitney had to leave at the last minute to be with her newborn neice. Jenny, Adina and I had a great time and I think we got a lot done. My meals for the month are:

Chimichangas - We tried Adina's leftovers last month and they were really yummy. I did use Southwestern salsa in mine, which may or may not be favorable to the Folken family tastebuds. We'll see. This recipe made 20, which is enough for 5 meals for us.

Macaroni & Cheese - This was a crockpot meal, and it bombed in my opinion. I served it tonight with the leftovers, but it was not up to our Kraft Macaroni & Cheese standards. We prefer firm pasta and non-soupy texture and this receipe did not fulfill all our hopes and dreams. However, I guess not everyone thought it was bad because some of it got eaten! :) I think the recipe can be altered to accomodate our preferences and maybe the kids will eat the leftovers (they aren't picky).

Manicotti - I have never in my life made Manicotti and didn't even know you could make it at home until a few years ago when Kathy Hult made me some (I grew up under a rock). Anyway, I had a lot of fun making this and stuffing the shells. I kept one of these unfrozen and will serve it for lunch tomorrow. Yum!

Pizza - I bought enough fixings to make 4 pizzas, since I know we'll have one every week. Virginia (who I met at the first cooking club) suggested that I make the dough and roll it, and then put the toppings on the night of preparation. I used a borrowed dough machine to knead the dough and then I spread out 4 pieces by hand and rolled them (with waxed paper inbetween). It took awhile, but it was 40% of my meals! I bagged them and put them with the rest of my stuff to take home. When we got home and I opened my cooler, I realized the dough had risen and my freezer bags were all puffed up. (We stayed at the Caskey's house for supper and playtime after cooking.) I opened the bags, smushed the dough down, shut the bags, and threw them in the freezer. I hope this doesn't effect the end result.

All in all we had another great time with the cooking club. I felt things went smoother for me this time, especially because I was trying a lot of new things. I will continue to post comments as we try new meals. :)