Cook-A-Thon

This past weekend I got to spend a lot of quality with some of my favorite women. It all began Saturday with a cooking marathon with my friend Sherri, who is a seriously good cook. She's very talented at throwing all kinds of food together to come up with some great dishes.

Sherri has a gluten sensitivity and has to be careful with her food choices, so it's not unusual to see her snacking on some strange health-nut type of food. Our ladies' Bible study group even teases her sometimes about eating all that "tree bark." In reality though, most of the things she's introduced me to have been pretty tasty. 

Since I've been trying to eat healthier, and wanting some more gluten-free meal ideas for when I want to invite Sherri to dinner, I emailed her one day a few weeks ago about getting together and cooking a few things as a team one afternoon. Shortly afterwards, she sent me back a message showing her enthusiasm about the whole idea and made a list of entrees, side dishes, and snack ideas for me to choose from. After I picked the ones that sounded the best to me, she sent the ingredient list and we were ready for our cooking date!

Saturday morning I headed to the grocery store to pick up everything, and boy was it harder than I thought. When you aren't sure where to look for some of these ingredients, it takes a lot longer than normal. There was lots of label checking and asking the people around me for help to make sure I got it right. It wasn't even just the gluten-free stuff that got me. Sherri also asked me to buy some white wine for one of the dishes and I had no idea how to buy wine. As I stood in the aisle looking lost, thankfully a woman with a little more knowledge than me walked by and guided me in the right direction. (**Sidenote: This was my first time buying wine and I was a little upset that I didn't get carded. I know I'm 30 now, but hey!)

I rushed back to the house so Dave could get Caleb to his team soccer pics on time and unloaded the groceries as Reid fussed and Hadley kept getting into the pantry. Then, the little ones and I headed over for Caleb's game, during which it started raining and lightening part way through. Taking things in stride, we ran for the car and we went back home for some lunch, which we were still having when my dear friend arrived ready to get cooking.

We began with a very simple concoction - pineapple sorbet. Sherri cut up a couple of pineapples and into her Ninja they went with a couple spoonfuls of sugar and some lemon juice. We blended them until they were frothy and then stored our mixture in the freezer for a yummy healthy dessert after dinner. 

Looks like she's having fun!

(Just a little FYI: If your kids are napping, avoid using a Ninja. Everyone was a little cranky later in the day as a result of rest time being cut short by this roaring contraption.)

Next, we moved on to making one of our sides - cauliflower in a cream sauce. We crumbled two heads of cauliflower and spread them on baking sheets, added some fresh garlic cloves on top, and baked them for 20 minutes (flipping half way through).

While those were in the oven, Sherri and I got to work on side number two - a pea, mushroom, and red pepper saute. I was excited about this dish because my sweet friend had made it for us on another occasion when I wasn't feeling well, so I already knew I liked it.

By her recommendation, we used cremini mushrooms, which she says has more flavor. They were easy to find, unlike some of the other things on my list, but they weren't pre-cut or washed like a few of the other varieties of mushrooms, so they took a little prep time. Though I know you are not supposed to rinse mushrooms because they absorb the water, I usually do it anyway because I'm funny about washing everything! Sherri didn't let me this time though; washing them off with a damp paper towel was all the cleaning these bad boys got. (I tried to keep my OCD side in check.)

As I put in the peas with some butter in a skillet and added the mushrooms, I realized something was missing from the recipe but couldn't quite put my finger on it and neither could she. I knew there was a third ingredient Sherri used when she made it before, but for the life of me wasn't sure what it was. Then, I got it! Red peppers!....Add it in, Sherri said, and so I did. A few lemon slices in the mix for flavor finished the recipe and voila! (You can add a little garlic too if you'd like.)

While Sherri had been working on cutting the pineapple earlier, it was my job to prep the chicken. Usually I just rinse it, throw a little salt and pepper to the thing, and in to the oven it goes. Not with Sherri! She made me get the thing as dried out as I could. Paper towel after paper towel I used but it still wasn't good enough. Finally, we put it into the fridge to dry a little more and came back to it when it was ready. 

She quartered a lemon and stuffed it inside with some fresh rosemary and garlic; then, she quartered another citrus, stuffing it under the arms and legs with a few more sprigs of rosemary. It was definitely a pretty looking chicken if I ever saw one, and it was ready for roasting. 

The chicken was kind of on the big side. We kept joking it was the size of Reid.

Sherri poured a little wine in the bottom of the roasting pan part way through, but there wasn't much more to do to the chicken, so onto the cream sauce we went. Some butter and milk with a little thyme, salt, and cornstarch over medium low heat simmered on the stove waiting to meet with all that roasted cauliflower and garlic...Mmmm!

This was even better the second day once it had been refrigerated and the sauce absorbed. I also melted some cheddar on it the second day, which Sherri would probably scold me about because we were supposed to be keeping it healthy...old habits die hard I guess.

Finally, it was finished! And, while I may not have all the fancy cooking tools Sherri was looking for in my kitchen, I did have some pretty serving dishes to make a nice presentation.

Dave definitely approved of our cook-a-thon fixins, and Caleb was pretty satisfied too. I was happy not only with the supper that evening, but that we had lots of leftovers to eat later in the week and even to freeze for use down the line.

After supper and our sorbet dessert (which was incredible), Sherri had a recipe for pretzel chocolate chip cookies for us to try too. I can't give you the all specific measurements this baking effort required because my creative friend kind of does her own thing, but I can tell you the list of  ingredients: gluten-free flour, gluten-free pretzels, mini chocolate chips, two eggs, vanilla (which we substituted maple syrup for), sugar, brown sugar, two sticks of butter, baking powder, salt, and caramel sauce to top it.

Caleb and Hadley got their turn with Miss Sherri for this portion of the evening. She taught Caleb how to crack an egg, let the kids scoop and pour the flour, and even allowed everyone to try their hands at the the mixer.

When the pretzels needed to be broken up, she asked Caleb if he had a toy hammer to use and I found a xylophone mallet for Hadley. Then, they smashed them to bits in a plastic baggie.

They never could quite get the consistency right for some reason, and when Caleb and I were scooping the dough on to the trays, I was a little worried the cookies might run together. Not surprisingly, that's exactly what happened, and Sherri laughed like crazy when she peaked in the oven to find this:

At least they tasted good!

I was already a bit wore out after that stressful grocery shopping trip, the quick unloading of bags and rushing off to soccer, and then fleeing Caleb's game as the storm swooped in. But, after being in the kitchen from about 2 pm - 9:30 pm, cooking and cleaning up, I was pooped! I could tell Sherri was hurting too as she held her aching low back. 

All day that girl kept suggesting we do this once a month, emphasizing that there will be lots to freeze and have for quick meals during the week, and it sure did sound good. But after how sore and tired we were when it was all done, I think we both agree that next time we may need to take it in stride and do a few easier dishes. That said, I definitely hope we have some more cook-a-thons in the near future.