Sunday, January 24, 2010

January 2010 - Crock Pot Challenge

Crock Pot Challenge - The speediest Cooking Club ever!

Everything, and I mean everything, needed to be made using a crock pot. Hence the speed and ease of this cooking club. And by speed I mean, the time it took us to eat.

Great fun! Let's go see.
All the different pots. Gotta love Heidi's old school rectangle one.
And leading with Heidi, she prepared a warm and cozy mulled wine.
For our appetizer, Christiana prepared a sweet and savory, sausage, cabbage and apple dish. So good, the indigents really complemented each other.
Tina prepared a wonderful Thai inspired soup. Tina makes wonderful soups. We also discussed how we all need to get a immersion blender.
Ashley made these awesome pulled pork sandwiches, which she marinated in root beer. She also made her own barbecue sauce and a tasty cabbage salad that was added to the sandwiches.

I made a macaroni and cheese inspired by Paula Dean. I wasn't too impressed with how it turned it out-wasn't happy with the texture.
Bonnie made a vegan Jambalaya. She served it over rice and added tofu sausage, which was quite impressive. Very comforting.

In fact, everything was very comforting. Given the rain and cold we have been having this was the perfect theme for the season. Good pickin Bonnie!
And what I believe to be a cardinal sin, there was no dessert. I believe this is the first ever CC without a dessert. Gasp! Unfortunately, Janet bailed the day of, due to a sick kid and Bonnie claimed she didn't have enough time to prepare a proper dessert in a crock pot. We made due with the tasty mulled wine, but I'm sure this will be something we do not soon forget. And I'm sure there will be some continued controversy over this faux pas.

Anyway, we sped through this CC because there was very little prep.

We discussed options for our next meeting and came up with a great theme that Ashley will host - A Sex and The City theme. This is sure to be fabulous.
Also, Bonnie showed off her NKOTB dance. Yes, that would be Jordon there on the TV.
We ended the evening with some of us going to a wine bar in the WC and hearing many "Bonnie" stories.
Good Times!