Adventure #6: Baked Penne with Chicken, Broccoli, and Mozzarella

            This past weekend Garrett and I went on our toughest adventure yet! Not only was it the hardest challenge that we’ve faced, it was also the most expensive and the most time consuming. However, above all that, adventure #6 was the most rewarding. This is what happened when we made baked penne with chicken, broccoli, and mozzarella.

            Garrett and I set off on this adventure in good spirits. We planned to purchase the ingredients and be home and cooking within an hour. However, that all fell apart with step one, shopping.

The list of ingredients was rather lengthy, which is why this adventure was so expensive. Although we had many of the items already, we still needed to purchase several more. The complete list of ingredients is as follows

 Topping:

¾ cup bread crumbs (store-bought or homemade)
2 tablespoons butter, melted

Filling:

1 bunch broccoli (about 1 ½ pounds), stalks cut off, florets trimmed into 1-inch pieces
12 ounces penne pasta
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, minced
6 medium garlic cloves, finely minced or pressed through a garlic press
1 teaspoon dried thyme
¼ cup all-purpose flour
2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper
1 ½ pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts, trimmed and cut into bite-size pieces
3 ounces smoked mozzarella, shredded
8 ounce jar oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, drained and chopped into pieces
 

            Step one posed several problems, but I’ll just mention a few. First of all, we could not find smoked mozzarella, so we had to go back and forth between the cheese section and the deli. This alone caused a slight delay in our one hour timeframe. Next, neither one of us had any idea what a garlic clove was or where to find it. I’ll admit that we had to call my mother on this one, causing yet another delay. Finally, we had the challenge of finding the sun-dried tomatoes. We scanned the aisle containing every other type of tomato for several minutes before giving up and deciding that we would have to ask someone for assistance. It was by luck alone that Garrett spotted the jar of tomatoes on our way up to the deli, saving a little time but not enough for us to make our deadline.

            By the time we checked out and drove home, we had been gone for an hour and a half. Nevertheless, we were still in good spirits. We laid the groceries out on the counter and gathered the rest of the ingredients in order to begin step two, cooking.

            Garrett and I split the work, so I began by cooking the broccoli and spaghetti while Garrett cut up the chicken and chopped the onion. Once completed, we set those ingredients aside so that we could tackle the garlic cloves. We were both pretty surprised to find that there were numerous cloves in one piece of garlic. Naturally, my dainty hands were better suited for peeling the cloves, so I did that while Garrett minced them.

            The next step was to basically combine all of the ingredients except for the topping into a large pot. We did this together, waited for the chicken to cook, poured the combination into a greased pan, topped it with the breadcrumbs, and placed it in the oven to bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes.

 

 

 

 

            By this point, the house already smelled heavenly, but when the golden brown dish came out of the oven, the smell was even stronger. To top it all off, the dish tasted wonderful! In fact, Garrett thought it tasted like a gourmet meal. Needless to say, we were beyond proud of ourselves. Adventure #6 was a huge success and boosted our confidence for the next challenge.

 

What should we make next?

 

Find the complete recipe for baked penne with chicken, broccoli, and mozzarella here http://www.melskitchencafe.com/2011/01/baked-penne-with-chicken-broccoli-and-smoked-mozzarella.html.

Adventure #5: Chocolate Chip Lava Cookies

            Over the weekend Garrett and I reunited in the kitchen and completed adventure #5. Garrett thought that I was entirely too successful without him in the previous adventure, so when he suggested that we bake another dessert, I agreed. My hope was that this dessert would prove to be as fun and simple as the last and would therefore boost Garrett’s confidence. Together, we baked chocolate chip lava cookies, and they turned out great!

            In order to complete our adventure, we had to first accomplish step one, shopping. This shopping experience was the easiest by far. We already had almost all of the ingredients needed to make the cookies. In fact, we were only lacking two, so we set off for the store in search of chocolate chips and vanilla ice cream.

We arrived at the grocery store, quickly found the items we needed, and checked out. I should note, however, that there was one minor dilemma with this task. As poor college students, spending almost six dollars on ice cream simply could not be justified, so we had to weigh our options and settle for the cheapest brand, Always Save. It was after the decision was made that we checked out and headed home where we embarked on step two, baking.

First, we preheated the oven to 350 degrees. We then gathered all of the ingredients needed which include the following:

 ½ cup (1 stick) butter, softened

½ cup light brown sugar, packed
½ cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
½ tablespoon vanilla extract
1 ¾ cups all purpose flour
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 bag milk chocolate chips

I began combining several of the ingredients in order to make the dough while Garrett worked on melting the chocolate chips. I was very skeptical of the method used to melt the chocolate chips, which included placing them in a Ziploc bag and microwaving them. I thought that the bag would melt in the microwave along with the chocolate, but Garrett assured me that only the chocolate would melt, not the bag.

            When the dough and chocolate were ready, we flattened individual pieces and placed them in a muffin tin. We added the melted chocolate to each cookie and then topped them with another cookie. We then placed the cookies in the oven and baked them for 20 minutes.

 

 

            The timer soon sounded, and we removed the cookies from the oven. We let them cool for several minutes and then we each had our own chocolate chip lava cookie topped with vanilla ice cream. The batch consisted of ten cookies of which Garrett, my mother, and I each got one while my brother got seven! Needless to say, they were delicious!

            Adventure #5 was completed successfully, proving that Garrett and I are exceptional bakers. We still have a lot of room for improvement when it comes to cooking though, so we won’t be baking another dessert anytime soon. What should our next adventure be?

 

The full recipe for chocolate chip lava cookies can be found here http://www.kevinandamanda.com/whatsnew/new-recipes/chocolate-chip-lava-cookies.html 

 

Adventure #4: Pumpkin Coffee Cake

            For this week’s adventure, I had to fly solo because Garrett was out of town for the weekend. I was a little nervous about cooking by myself until I looked over the recipes we had already attempted and noticed that we had not made a dessert yet. I am a fairly decent baker, so I decided to play it safe and attempt to make pumpkin coffee cake, a perfect dessert for the fall season.

            I started adventure #4 by completing step 1, grocery shopping. For once, I was able to find everything on my list without a problem; I didn’t even have to ask an employee for help! My grocery list was fairly short and consisted of 1 can of pureed pumpkin, pumpkin pie spice, 1 box of yellow cake mix, walnuts, and heavy whipping cream.  The full list of ingredients for pumpkin coffee cake is as follows

⅓ cups water

1 can pureed pumpkin (15 oz)
2 whole eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1 box yellow cake mix
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup brown sugar, divided
½ cups flour
⅓ cups walnuts, chopped (I used pecans)
4 tablespoons butter, melted
¼ cups granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ cups heavy whipping cream
 

The fact that I already had many of the ingredients for pumpkin coffee cake may have given me an advantage, but I was proud that I successfully completed the first step in my solo mission. I left the grocery store feeling a great sense of achievement and was ready to conquer step 2, baking.

The recipe for pumpkin coffee cake was actually fun to follow! I began by mixing the first seven ingredients together in a large bowl and combining the next four ingredients in a smaller bowl. I poured the mixture from the large bowl into a pan and sprinkled the mixture from the smaller bowl on top. At this point, the cake was ready to bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes at 350.

Making the cake batter and baking the cake were easy tasks, but they were not the final step in the recipe. With the remaining ingredients, I had to make a glaze to go over the cake once it was done baking. I was nervous for this step because I had never made a glaze before. I read the instructions several times and finally decided to attempt to make the glaze. Much to my surprise, I completed it successfully!  (Yay, me!)

Around this time, the oven timer sounded, signaling that the cake was done. I removed it from the oven, poked holes in it with a fork, and covered it with the glaze. A warm, pumpkin and brown sugar aroma filled the house. I was extremely proud because the cake looked nearly picture perfect. However, my real sense of achievement set in when Garrett returned and tasted the cake, giving it not only his approval, but eating two pieces!  

 

 

 

Overall, adventure #4 was a success! However, cooking without my culinary partner in crime was not the same. I’ll be happy to have him back for adventure #5! What should we make?!

 

 

The full recipe for pumpkin coffee cake can be found here http://tastykitchen.com/blog/2011/10/pumpkin-coffee-cake/

Adventure #3: Oreo Pancakes

          
           This week, Garrett and I did what we do best; we waited until the last possible minute to start cooking. The recipe for this week was found on Pinterest yet again, and I’m starting to think that either we’re just really bad cooks or the people of Pinterest are out to get us. Nevertheless, this is what happened when we tried to make Oreo pancakes.

To put it lightly, adventure #3 was somewhat of a challenge. It started out the same as usual. We found a recipe on Pinterest and made a grocery list. We would have started cooking at a fairly decent time had our desire to see the new Clint Eastwood movie, Trouble with the Curve, not gotten in our way. (Worth it!)

We left the movie theater around 9 o’clock and went straight to Wal Mart to begin step 1, grocery shopping. Now is probably a good time to mention that Garrett and I are not vegans and unbeknownst to us, we were following a vegan recipe. Here are the ingredients for Oreo pancakes:

Pancakes:
½ cup non-dairy milk
½ cup flour
1.5 teaspoons baking powder
Scant ¼ cup dark chocolate cocoa powder (or regular)
Pink of salt
1 tablespoon sugar (or other sweetener)
1 tablespoon oil (canola)
½ teaspoon vanilla

Frosting Filling:
1.5 cups unsweetened coconut flakes
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
2-3 tablespoons coconut milk (or other non-dairy milk)
2-3 tablespoons powdered sugar (optional)

Per usual, there was one item on the list that posed a real problem for us. In this case, it was the coconut milk. We searched numerous aisles trying to find either the milk or an employee who could be of some assistance. It was by pure luck that the one aisle in which an employee could be found was also the aisle that housed the coconut milk.

Having paid for the groceries, we left Wal Mart and went home to begin step 2, cooking. It was at this point in the night that Garrett and I came to the conclusion that from now on we should read the recipe in full prior to choosing it. In the case of the braided spaghetti from adventure #1, we didn’t know that we had to thaw anything, and that caused a huge delay in the cooking process. In this case, we didn’t know that we needed to use a food processor, a key component for making the filling and an appliance that we did not have.

We decided that we would try and do our best with what we had, so I attempted to make the filling while Garrett prepared the pancakes. It was not until later that I discovered Garrett had set me up for failure. He claimed that he didn’t want to use the mixer, but really he knew the filling would be a disaster. (Cool, Garrett.)

This brings me back to the coconut milk. I do not recommend ever using it. The label was in another language, there were questionable chunks in it, and the stench it emanated was enough to make us gag.

 

  

As for the pancakes, Garrett did a good job of combining the ingredients. However, the batter was really thick and resembled brownie batter rather than pancake batter. We ended up with really thick pancakes that were not entirely cooked in the middle and a filling that was more like coconut flakes marinated in coconut milk and vanilla extract. (Gross!)

 

I’m not sure if we will ever choose another recipe from Pinterest, so we’re open to suggestions!

 

 

Find the full recipe for Oreo pancakes here http://minimalistbaker.com/oreo-cookie-pancakes/.