Like most people, Chef Brian needed a well deserved night off from our rapidly growing habitual evening. To keep the tradition of our Sunday fun day, our group decided to challenge our own cooking abilities.
NOTE- For all of you out there that are interested in creating your own Mystery Basket evening, this is a more realistic approach to it; being that everyone cannot be blessed with a gourmet chef in their circle of friends!
So, here is our idea for an unfortunate evening without the talented Mr. Brian Lynch.
1. Everyone goes grocery shopping individually (like usual)
2. We all meet up at one of our houses (it’s fun to fluctuate between houses, this way it makes it easier on the hosts/hostesses.
3. All the food is placed in a central location (again, like usual)
Now here is where we’ll change things up a bit! We came up with a few different ideas on how to go about the evening!
A. Everyone in the group who is interested in creating a dish will pick out of a hat with numbers. (Obviously, we will know how many people are cooking before writing out how many numbers we will need)
B. Whoever is chosen first will go to the table, and chose the items that they want to use for their dish. They will then cook their meal, and serve it as the first entree.
C. The proceeding members will follow in numerical order.
OR
A. Everyone in the group who is interested in creating a dish will crowd around the grocery filled table, and discuss ideas on what each member would like to cook, and the items they will need.
B. After ideas are cultivated, each member will take turns creating the dish of their choice, and serve it.
Note- To keep the kitchen free of chaos, it works best by allowing each member to take turns cooking their dish individually.
We went with the second option...it seemed less restrictive. This evenings non-chefs were Johanns Gammel, Daryn Gluck, Jennifer Aldahondo, and Michele Keller. The four of us gathered around the table to see what we had to work with and we all began to formulate ideas, all the while realizing how difficult we make it for our Chef, Brian! We really tried to think about what goes well together and Johanns began to get excited about the shrimp dish he had in mind and he quickly grabbed the bottle of tequila (along with a few other ingredients) and went into the kitchen to begin the festivities. Although, we tried to use all the ingredients, something did get left behind...the poor eggplant was forgotten.
1st Course:
Prepared by Johanns Gammel
Tequila chicken and shrimp stir-fry over baguettes. Dish served with a cilantro, garlic, and chili pesto sauce.
2nd Course:
Prepared by Daryn Gluck
Tri-colored rotini pasta salad with a Jalapeno Ranch dressing. Salad contains pepperoni, Cheddar cheese, Monterrey jack cheese, chick peas, red, green, yellow, and orange bell peppers, sun dried tomatoes, and black olives.
3rd Course:
Prepared by Jennifer Aldahondo
Baked mango salsa lamb and shrimp, served with quinoa and red peppers. Dish is marinated with Dragon Rub™ (Asian seasoning), salt, garlic, and cilantro, with mango salsa poured evenly over dish.
4th Course:
Prepared by Michele Keller
Panko crusted chicken strips served with a peanut, honey dipping sauce. Sauce is made with honey, peanut butter, soy sauce, hot chili sauce, sesame oil, rice vinegar, and garnished with scallions.
5th Course:
Prepared by Johanns Gammel
Whole wheat penne with a tomato, pepperoni, anchovy, garlic cream sauce.
6th Course:
Prepared by Michele Keller and Johanns Gammel
Top round steak stir fried with red, yellow, orange, and green peppers, broccoli, and cauliflower. Dish is marinated in white wine, soy sauce, lemon zest, and rice vinegar, and seasoned with Dragon Rub™, salt, and pepper. Served with brown rice seasoned with cardamom, cinnamon, and bay leaves.
Desserts:
Prepared by Daryn Gluck, Jennifer Aldahondo, and Joy Gammel
Chocolate covered strawberries
Sliced bananas and cranberry chunks drizzled with dark chocolate
