Rutter's Kitchen-Asian Lettuce Wraps,Quick & Easy Noodle Stir-Fry & Strawberry-Lemon Butter Cookies

 Here's Dana working on the filling for the wraps.

 Here's Ashley working on some stir-fried rice from their previous cookbook.

 They sure have been working hard getting the noodle stir fry ready also :)

 Dana fixed the cookie dough and got them all cooked up.

 Here's the cookies before she added the glaze.

 Our meal is all ready to go, I forgot to take a picture of the meal plated up ;)

 Cookies ready to eat!

 Johnny got to try the meal first. 

Here's some of us slow eaters finishing up.  Everyone liked the food and thought that there were good flavors.  The women liked the meal more than the guys, so we probably won't be fixing them too often.  We followed the recipes for all the dishes, but did add a few more veggies to the Noodle stir-fry.  My favorite dish was the Noodle stir-fry and the cookies.  The flavors in the cookies were really good.  I did like how the lemon was used in the cookies.  Much better than in the Tortellini dish ;)  These were real fun dishes to cook, so I hope that you all have a chance to try them. 

Leslee's Sweet and Sour Chicken

This recipe was very tasty! I followed the directions exactly and added broccoli, peppers, and snap peas. After I cooked it, I let it sit for a while with the lid on which seemed to finish cooking the broccoli. I served it over brown rice.  I liked the sauce and it could easily be used in all sorts of stirfrys! 

I also made the quick and easy noodles. We all enjoyed those, especially Summer. I used corn spaghetti noodles and also added some grilled chicken. This is something I will make again! 

Tarin's Beef Enchilada's and Pao de Quejio

Since I'm on vacation this week I decided to go ahead and cook my recipes the week before. Which actually turned out perfect. Here in the Denver mission we often get missionaries who are waiting on visas before they go international and for the last transfer we've had an Elder here who has been anxiously waiting to move on down to Brazil which is great since that is also where Doug went on his mission. Unfortunately his visa didn't come through yet so he's here for another 6 weeks :( To help cheer him up we surprised him with a Brazilian dinner and it was a hit! We did the enchiladas, rice, black beans, pao de quejio, and Brazilian lemonade.

So enchilada's aren't really Brazilian, but I used them anyway. They were good, they cooked up really nicely. The biggest problem was that they were WAY too spicy. I mean I love spice, but these were almost too much. (Also another big difference between Mexican and Brazilian food--Brazilians use almost no spice in their dishes.) Luckily we had the rice and black beans to help calm down the spicy bites.

Next was the pao de quejio and if you've ever had these before at a restaurant like Tucanos or Rodizio, you know that they are the best part of the meal. Well these were hands down 100% spot on. I even used a normal muffin tin and after cooking them for 15 minutes they were done perfectly--so if you use the smaller pan you might want to cut down the cooking time. The recipe made 9 or 10 large ones. We will definitely be making these again!

New Recipes!

This week I jumped ahead and choose the:

Pao de Quejio, pg. 208

Beef Enchiladas with Red Sauce, pg 221

Enjoy!

Jenny's Sweet & Sour Chicken

I made the sweet and sour chicken earlier this week.  It was really pretty with the bright green vegetables.  We liked it.  It had a mild nice flavor.  I wish I would have reread Jacki's review before I made it because I agree that the broccoli needed to cook longer than what the recommended.  When I was making it the sauce thickened up like they said it would, but as soon as I took it off the heat it loosened up and was pretty runny.  I wish it would have stayed more thickened.  Maybe I just didn't cook it quite long enough.  But overall it was a easy and good meal.  I haven't gotten to this week's recipes yet, but they look yummy!  I'm excited to give them a try.

Rutter's Kitchen-Cheesy Tortellini Spinach Bake & Easy Vanilla Cupcakes

 Ashley is fixing the Tortellini Bake & Dana is working on the cupcakes and frosting.

 Here's the Tortellini Bake fresh out of the oven.

 Here's our meal ready to serve up!

 Cupcakes all baked up.

 Dana's masterpiece :)

 Dana followed the recipe for the Buttercream Frosting.  She made the recipe and then took half of it and made it the chocolate version.  Then she swirled the frosting on the cupcake :)

 Here's one that I did with just the plain buttercream frosting and some sprinkles.

Here's our group enjoying the meal.  We thought everything was good, but found the lemon too strong for us in the Tortellini Bake.  I saw that other's felt the same way after reading reviews of this recipe.  We used a frozen version of the Cheese Tortellini and thought they tasted really good.  We did use bacon in the casserole instead of the pancetta, as that is what I had.    The cupcakes tasted really good.  We thought that they kind of tasted & had the texture like angel food cake.  We also had a tossed salad and garlic bread with our meal.  Maybe omitting the lemon zest would help with the strong lemon flavor ;)  

Tarin's Tortellini

So we had the tortellini for dinner last night and I liked it.

I cut out the extra salt and lemon. Also I didn't have any basil, but I think it was fine without it.

I liked the little kick from the red pepper, but I did use less.

The only other thing that I didn't like was that by the time we ate it I wanted it too be a little creamier, but I think that was our fault for letting it sit too long before eating (we had guests over and Doug wanted to show them the chickens before dinner).

We will definitely be making this again. It was a great size for company and we didn't have any leftovers!

Vanilla Cupcakes

Summer and I made the Vanilla Cupcakes with the Marshmallow frosting from the book for her dance recital. They turned out really tasty and the frosting was extra delicious if I do say so myself. I got a new dessert frosting tool for Christmas that I finally used for these and it made the frosting look professional:)

Jenny's Cheesy Tortellini Spinach Bake

 I made this recipe on Saturday night.  After reading Jacki's review I used a little less salt than called for.  And I left out the spicy red pepper :)  I didn't think the red pepper sounded like a good fit either.  Because of personal preference I used about half as much basil as what was called for.  I also didn't have quite enough of the lemon zest that was called for.  But besides tweaking the seasonings a bit I didn't change the recipe.

We all liked the recipe.  It went together quickly, which I appreciated!  And thanks to Jacki's review I was able tone down some of the flavors.  So the lemon wasn't super strong, but you would get a hint of it and it was a nice touch.  Even my kids ate it!  Avery was skeptical of the spinach, but it had so much cheese, sauce etc. that I told her she wouldn't even taste it.  She ended up really liking it.  James ate one bite, but then was done.  He's going through a picky phase right now.

Dane loved it!  I think leaving out the red pepper was the key!  And using less basil, in my humble opinion :)

Tonight I am making the sweet and sour chicken, from the week before.  So we will see how that goes.  I think it sounds yummy!

This weeks recipe.

Sorry this is late. I don't have a book yet and had to borrow Audrey's this morning. How about:

Asian Lettuce Wraps  pg. 32
Quick & Easy Noodle Stir-Fry pg. 34
Strawberry - Lemon Butter Cookies pg.  46

Jacki’s Cheesy Tortellini Spinach Bake

I made this a few nights ago for dinner and I thought it was ok.  I followed the directions but would do a few things differently next time.  I used 1/4 tsp of the red pepper flakes and it was too spicy.  I also used the lemon zest and lemon juice but for some reason it just didn’t “go” with this dish in my taste buds opinion.  I made the sauce and tasted it and felt it was a little bland so I added a few more sprinkles of salt and then added the cheese.  Well, the cheese was plenty salty in itself so the whole dish ended up being a bit too salty for my taste but that was my fault.  My white sauce was also a bit floury but I have never been very good at white sauces.   Next time I would omit the lemon, use less parmesan cheese and use only 1/8 tsp red pepper flakes.  I still need to make the cupcakes and the fruit mousse from last week – they both look good!

New Recipes for week of May 12th

How exciting that I'm one of the first to choose from the new cookbook! It was hard, but here are my choices.
Cheesy Tortellini Spinach Bake pg. 30
Easy Vanilla Cupcakes pg. 56
They suggest serving the pasta dish with a tossed salad and warm bread, which we will probably do.  Also, I'm not going to specify a frosting as they suggest choosing yourself how you want to frost and decorate the cupcake.  They have a lot of suggestions in their frosting section.  It will be fun to see what all of you choose to do.  Have fun :)

Jacki’s Sweet and Sour Chicken Stir-Fry

I made this recipe for dinner tonight and I thought it was quite tasty and flavorful.  I followed the recipe as directed.  It took  a lot longer than 3-5 minutes to get the broccoli done.  I ended up taking it out and cooking it in the microwave for a minute  because the onions and bell peppers were done way before the broccoli.  I served the stir fry over steamed brown rice and sprinkled it with sesame seeds and cashews.  I think next time I would use less chicken and more vegetables. 

Rutter Chicks

Lil late posting. This is the stir fry and fruit mousse. It was sooo good. The stir fry was easy. Audrey marinated the chicken ahead of time. Then it was just a lil chopping and mixing together. Audrey made the mousse ahead of time as well. We had raspberry. Ashley made the topping. It was different but very yummy.

Pasta with Tomato Cream Sauce and more

I have made several of the recipes lately but have not been very good about taking pictures of them! I did remember for the Pasta and Tomato Cream Sauce though:) This was a tasty dish although nothing too special about it. I substitute the cream for milk with no problems.

I recently made the tequila chicken using the water substitution as well. I thought the marinade was a little to watery so next time I would add much less.  It made some tasty chicken and we ate it sliced up in tacos. When I made the malted chocolate chip cookies I could not find any malted milk when I was shopping so I used powdered milk. Not sure if that is at all the same but it worked. Sean said they were very good! Last week I also tried out the lemon blueberry pancakes. I made these gluten free so I had to make a few changes but tried to keep most of the ingredients in there. They turned out really tasty and we all enjoyed them! A fun twist for our way to often breakfast for dinner nights:) 

New Cookbook and New Recipes

I'm excited to do the honors of choosing the first recipes from the new cook book.  Lets do Sweet and Sour Chicken Stir-Fry on page 36 and Fruit Mousse on page 42.  I plan to try these out tonight so I will let you know how they go.

Rutter's Kitchen- Drip Beef & Brie-Stuffed Mushrooms

 Here's the meat all cooked up

 Mushrooms fresh out of the oven

 Meat & onions ready to serve

Dinner is served!

 Most everyone really liked these two recipes.  I fixed the beef dish as it had to be started earlier in the day.  Very easy and such good flavor with the peperoncinis.  I followed the recipe as written and used a few more pounds of beef as we were feeding some hungry guys! Dana fixed the mushrooms and they turned out really tasty.  She also followed the recipe for them. They taste best fresh out of the oven! The brie cheese really melted good and had a nice mild flavor.  Ashley had to work late, but also helped out with finishing up both dishes.  I think that we will be fixing these two recipes again :)

Jacki’s Chicken Tortilla Soup and Lemon Blueberry Pancakes

I made both of the recipes this week and thought they were delicious.  It was a cold and rainy day earlier this week so the soup was perfect.  I did make a few changes though.  I cut the recipe in half  but used the whole can of Rotel so it was nice and spicy.  I didn’t have any bell peppers so I just omitted them.  I added a can of hominy because I wanted the soup to be thick and hearty.  It was so good and flavorful.  I liked the cornmeal thickening and the corn tortilla strips in it.  I topped the soup with chopped cilantro and diced avocado – perfect! 

Last night I made the Lemon Blueberry Pancakes.  I don’t know if it was because I was really hungry or what but I thought these were soooo good and I am not a big pancake person.  My husband even liked them and that is saying something :).  I made my own cake flour by measuring out 1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour, taking out three tablespoons of it and replacing with 3 tablespoons of cornstarch.  Then I sifted the mixture 5 times.  (thanks, Google).  I didn’t have any evaporated milk so I used 2%. I also used frozen blueberries.  I didn’t thaw them out – just dumped them in frozen.  So good!!

Rutter Chick Kitchen

Dinner was sooo easy and everyone loved it. Audrey said the chicken was easy to prepare and cook. She pre-made it. We worked together to make the soup, lots of chopping but easy.

This will definitely be something we will make again. Also, Since we are getting 40 degree weather....a record in history for flurries in Tulsa.....soup was a good choice for us. 

As a for dessert, we made brownies with English toffee in the batter and homemade ice cream!!! Oh yea!!!