New menu pick for week of May 31st

Since its grilling season here in Oklahoma, let's fix menu #30 pg. 129
5 Star Grilled Chicken Teriyaki
Fresh Vegetables with Vegetable Dill Dip
Raspberry Lemonade Cupcakes.
Happy cooking 😊

Jacki's Menu 49 Review

Due to a conflict we changed our cooking/eating day from Saturday to today. We all enjoyed the meal. I started preparing the breakfast casserole first thing and had it all ready to go in the crockpot by 10 am so we could eat at 2 pm. I cooked it on high for about 4 hours and 20 minutes. It was plenty done. I served tomatoes, salsa, sautéed mushrooms, green onions, and avocado for toppings. We also had some yummy asparagus from Dads garden which went really well with the eggs. Everyone seemed to really like it. I think diced green chiles would be a good addition to the crockpot mixture. The Banana Crumb Muffins were really good. I have made them before. I added chocolate chips to half of them. So tasty and easy to make. The citrus fruit salad made WAY more than 6 servings. I think it needed a bit more orange juice but it was good. Maybe my pineapple and cantaloupe were bigger than the recipe envisioned. Mother also contributed watermelon which was really good.  Fun recipes to make and a nice change to have breakfast foods for linner. Sorry about my blurry picture.

Rutter Kitchen- Menu #51

Here's our Buffalo Chicken Salad Sandwiches, Mom's Potato Salad & Cheesecake Chess Squares.  Dana started out making the dessert so that it could cool.  She followed the directions and said it was pretty simple to make.  I had prepped everything for the potato salad earlier in the day, so then we just had to assemble the ingredients and make the sauce.  For the sandwiches we used rotisserie chicken that I can get in the meat section at walmart.  Dana just combined all the ingredients and it was pretty simple also.  Now for our review :)

We used large croissant rolls for our sandwiches and also added some sliced cheese.  I found the mixture a little spicy but the bread really helped with that.  I think the two who liked the sandwiches the best were Dana and Brock.  Dana took some of the chicken salad home with her and she said that it was a lot better the next day.  I prefer my chicken salad not spicy :) The other guys didn't really care for the sandwiches.  The potato salad was pretty good.  If I made it again, I would cut back on the mustard.  We used red & yellow new potatoes and didn't peel them and that was really good.  We also used the diced dill pickle.  I would like to try a mixture of the sweet and dill next time.  I think that would be good.  Dana did a good job fixing the squares, but like Jacki I didn't think they were anything special.  I prefer simpler desserts that aren't so rich.  It was a fun menu to try, but I probably will only fix the potato salad again. 



New Menu

Hi Ladies! I am going to choose Menu 49 this week. It has some breakfast dishes that I will probably cook for dinner:) Hope you are having a nice long weekend!

Jacki's Menu 51 Review

We just finished enjoying a tasty Menu 51 meal. The Buffalo Chicken Salad Sandwiches were very good. A couple of folks in our group are not spicy food fans so I only added half of the hot sauce. It was still spicy but not bad. I used Louisiana Hot Sauce because that is what I had. I would like to try the Frank's because it gets really good reviews.  I followed the recipe as directed and had buns or homemade bread slices to serve the chicken salad on as well as lettuce, tomato, Swiss cheese slices, and avocado for toppings. I used canned chicken breast so it was super easy to make the filling. Some of the reviews I read said they used Blue Cheese dressing instead of Ranch and really liked it. 

The Mom's Potato Salad was very good. I cut the recipe in half because it made so much and used dill pickles instead of sweet. I ended up adding a little more mayo than called for. I cooked the potatoes whole in the microwave then cooled them in the fridge before peeling and dicing. Once that was done the recipe came together quickly. My Mom brought some delicious watermelon to add to the meal. 

The Cheesecake Chess Squares were good but nothing amazing. Very easy to make. We had some chocolate ice cream to make it more exciting.

Ribs & Porkchops!

I have two meals to review. First is Meal 7 with the pineapple grilled porkchops. I was a little dissapointed because I had everything ready to go but I couldn't get the grill to stay lit because it was really really windy! I ended up cooking the porkchops and pineapple in the oven and they were good but I think the grill would have been better.  I really like the crockpot vegetables. I added onion soup mix instead of italian since that is what I had. They turned out perfect and we ate them straight from the crockpot ( no broiling). I did make the dessert too but I probably messed it up because it was a bit of a gooey mess. Everyone still ate it and loved it though. Summer told me, "Just because it is ugly doesn't mean it doesn't taste good!" She was right;)

 Next the ribs. They were very good and I agree, much like the Our Best Bites one. I just broiled them at the end to with the bbq sauce. The corn muffins turned out great as well. We haven't tried the popcorn yet, but it looks very good!

Menu for this week....

Menu 51! Thought this looked tasty. Very spring time! Happy Cookin!!!!

Jacki's Review of Menu 43

Today we enjoyed menu 43 and it was delicious!  The Fall-off-the-Bone BBQ Ribs were so good. I used 3 pounds of ribs (I think they were pork loin ribs, extra meaty) and cooked them on high for 8 hours. They were indeed falling off the bone. I used pineapple orange juice instead of pineapple because that is what the store had and it was fine. I used Sweet Baby Rays Original BBQ sauce because it just doesn't get any better. I broiled mine like Tarin did for a few minutes. This recipe is similar to the one we made for the first Our Best Bites cookbook. Very easy and turned out great. The cornbread was also very good. I made mine in a pan instead of muffins. They turn out less dry that way. I slightly undercooked it and it was nice and moist. The Twix Caramel Popcorn was the most time consuming of all the recipes. But, oh-so-tasty! It actually tasted the best before the Twix and chocolate were added. The chocolate was too thick to drizzle on so was rather clumpy. It was still good but next time I would make it without. Addictive either way. I meant to make 1/4th batch but ended up making half a batch - dangerous. :). We had baked potato, fresh fruit salad and garden fresh asparagus to go along with our meal and everything was yummy.

Tarin's Menu 43

 I was pretty happy with all of the recipes. I had the Elders over for dinner last night so it was a great opportunity to cook for them :) The ribs had a good flavor. I ended up using the Sweet Baby Ray's Sweet 'n Spicy BBQ sauce instead of the Famous Dave's and it was really tender and tasty. The only other thing I did differently was broiled it instead of grilling it.

I was out of muffin cups so I cooked the cornbread in my pie tin and it was okay. it was moist and Doug enjoyed the taste, but it wasn't cakey and sweet enough for my Southern liking :)

So the popcorn was good, but it makes a TON. Seriously it was a lot, it was messy, and I ended up packaging it off for my Visiting Teachees this month AND sending a whole container into Doug's office on top of what we all at as dessert. It was yummy and sweet, but you couldn't eat too much of it. If I was making it for the family I might have cut the recipe in 1/3. Also I thought that the twix bars were still just a bit too big cut just in half so I cut them in thirds and they were the perfect size. 

Jacki's Review of Menu 37

This was a menu from a few weeks ago that I didn't make because I was sick so I made it yesterday for Mother's Day. I had to make a few changes because we have afternoon church and we wanted to eat right afterwards. I made the Homemade Bread Bowls in the morning. I was a little worried they wouldn't turn out after reading the directions since it only calls for one rising. I looked at the comments section of their blog and several people commented the recipe didn't turn out for them but several also said it did. So I made it as directed and they turned out great. I was envisioning them to be a bit bigger but they were fine and everyone seemed to get plenty full with the portion of soup it held. They had a good flavor too. The Creamy Chicken Chili had a really good flavor. I mixed it all up minus the sour cream and cream and put it in the crockpot on low while I was at church and then added those when I got home before serving. Really tasty. I used chicken thighs instead of breast because that is what I had in the freezer and that turned out well. I served some chopped avocado and grated cheese for optional toppings. The Slow Cooker Rocky Road Chocolate Fondue was so good I wanted to just drink it but I controlled myself. :). Since I was going to be gone and I knew the man of the house would not stir the chocolate mixture every 30 minutes as directed I just put it all in a glass bowl and melted it in the microwave and then mixed in the cream after I got home from church. I then kept it warm in a little crockpot my mom had. We dipped strawberries, graham crackers, marshmallows, and bananas in the fondue - so yummy! Pineapple and grapes would be good too I think. Another fun menu to make and eat! I would definitely make all of these recipes again.

New Menu :)

Since I'm currently sitting in 8 inches of snow my hankering for summer has never been greater. So let's go with Menu 43 because really what says summer more than ribs? 

Jacki's Review of menu 7

Today we had menu 7 with my parents and oh my goodness, Audrey was correct. It was soooo Good! The Grilled Pineapple Pork Chops were ridiculously yummy. I started marinating them last night so they had a full 19 hours in the marinade. Richard grilled them and did an excellent job. They were moist, flavorful and tender. And, I don't really even care for pork chops usually. I used the canned pineapple and they grilled up great and had excellent flavor. They paired well with the pork chops.  The Slow Cooker Roasted Vegetables were so tasty too. I started them out in the slow cooker on high but after about 3.5 hours I switched them to the oven at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes so we could eat sooner (the potatoes were not quite done). All of the vegetables were done but not too soft or mushy and so good. We had some corn on the cob and homemade bread to go along with the meal. The Nutty Caramel bars did not disappoint either. We had some vanilla ice cream with them. I followed Dana's suggestion to not spread out the chocolate chips to make for a prettier presentation. Everything on the menu was easy to prepare and I will definitely make it all again. The other 3 tasters were not oohing and aaahing as much as I was about the meal but I could tell they liked it too:)

Jacki and Nika's Menu 11 Review

I was visiting at Nika's home last week and I whipped up this easy meal one night for dinner. Everyone seemed to like it. I did not get around to making the Almond Joy cookies though so I still need to make those for review.  The Cheesy Artichoke Bread was simple enough and very tasty. Somehow I forgot to put the sour cream in but it was still good. The Slow Cooker Creamy Spaghetti was very easy and made a lot. I found it to be just a tad salty so I would probably omit the sausage or sub with ground beef next time and use low sodium chicken broth. We used fettuccini pasta because that is what was in the pantry and it worked great. I have never cooked pasta in a slow cooker so this was fun to try.

Rutter Kitchen- Menu #7

 

We got together last night to cook Menu #7, Grilled Pineapple Pork Chops, Roasted Vegetables & Nutty Caramel Bars.  I got the pork chops in the marinade that morning so they would hopefully have good flavor by that evening.  Dana cooked the Bars that afternoon at her place and she has already posted about them.  That evening Dana prepped the veggies and got them in the oven, while we got our charcoal going.  We chose to roast the veggies in the oven, as we were concerned that the veggies would get kind of soggy in the slow cooker.  We look forward to reading your reviews or comments as to how the slow cooker worked for some of you.  Dana cut up the pineapple as we chose to use a fresh pineapple to grill instead of the canned.  A heads up about using fresh pineapple.  If you do that you need to buy some pineapple juice as you need that for the marinade.  It didn't take long to grill the meat & pineapple and that was nice.  It was a combined effort in the grilling.  Doug got the charcoal going, then Dana and Ashley started grilling the meat and Brett came and took it over so they wouldn't have to do it :)

Now for our review- We really liked everything!  The meat had really good flavor and the fresh grilled pineapple really added to the meal.  We also think that the canned pineapple might tend to fall apart as its cooked on the grill, so I'm interested to see how it turned out for the rest of you.  The oven roasted veggies were really tasty and so easy to fix.  The Bars were very tasty but sooo rich.  We fixed homemade ice cream to go with it and that was good also.  I will say that this is one of my favorite menu's from this book.  I think we all plan on fixing this menu again :) 

Dessert Bars....Rutter Cook Night

We decided to roast our veggies instead of the crock pot this week. So since we were using the oven for the veggies, I made the dessert at my house during the day.
This dessert was SO EASY to make. I think it took me like 15 min to get it all in the pan. I think we all really enjoyed it. It's rich!!!! Saying that, it was still amazing. Audrey made homemade ice cream and they complemented the bars well. The ONLY thing I would change about this recipe would be smoothing out the chocolate morsels. I think it would have been prettier to just keep them looking like morsels. That is totally up to likes and dislikes though. Hope everyone enjoy this as much as we did!!!

New menu pick for week of May 3rd.

Ashley has chosen Menu #7 pg. 26

Grilled Pineapple Pork Chops
Slow Cooker Roasted Vegetables
Nutty Caramel Bars

This will be a nice warm weather meal.
Happy cooking :)

Rutter Kitchen- Menu # 13

 

We got together Monday night to cook.  I precooked the ground beef so it would go quicker that night.  When Dana got there she started in on the Baked Apple Pie Egg Rolls.  She followed the recipe using granny smith apples.  It was pretty simple to do.  She had a couple extra egg rolls, so she just used cinnamon sugar on them and rolled them up and baked them also.  Then she started in on the Korean Beef and Rice.  Since I had already precooked the beef, she put it in the skillet and just went on from there.  Very simple! We didn't do the red pepper flakes as we had little ones trying the meal.  When Ashley got there she started in on the Ambrosia Fruit Salad.  Such a nice fruit salad.  We followed the recipe, but didn't add the marshmallows and coconut.  We let people add those when we were ready to eat as not everyone in our family likes them.  Now for our review :)  The Beef and Rice actually tasted pretty good.  It was a different kind of dish.  We served it with rice and the diced green onions as suggested.  We added some more soy sauce and also some hot sauce when we ate it and it tasted alright.  I think it would be better with thin sliced beef.  Maybe this is a play on dirty rice.  We liked the fruit salad.  If I fix it again, I will probably skip the yogurt and just use the juices from the cans.  Other than that, it was really good.  The little apple pie rolls were good and kind of fun to make.  I think that I still prefer the regular pie crust, but I think these would be fun to make for a change or with your family.  It was a fun menu to try :)