Since Emma arrived, Jose has done the bulk of the everyday cooking around here. I know he sometimes gets tired of it, but it has been a HUGE help in keeping my stress at reasonable levels as I stubbornly insist on continuing my attempts to “do it all.” I could go on, but point being: I have a wonderful husband, and I haven’t done much cooking lately.
But this month’s recipe club was on Wednesday and Valentine’s Day was Thursday. And since I had a 6 a.m. meeting Wednesday morning, it gave me plenty of time to head home by mid-afternoon and do some cooking!
The theme for recipe club was “salads” so at first, I decided to make a really easy broccoli salad that my mom has made at holidays in the past. But then I was reading another blog and she mentioned a Smitten Kitchen recipe for broccoli salad/slaw…and coincidentally, my mom gave us the Smitten Kitchen cookbook for Christmas! (The recipe on her website and the one in her cookbook only have very minor differences.)
The broccoli slaw was really easy (especially since I used my food processor to slice up the broccoli) and really tasty. In fact, every single salad at recipe club was something I’d make again — and though everything at recipe club is usually pretty good, I’m not sure there’s ever been a month where I saved every single recipe for future use. Success!
Since I had time, I also decided to make a cake for Valentine’s Day. I chose this Mexican Chocolate Cake with Mascarpone Frosting because 1) Jose is a fan of chocolate + cinnamon and 2) it just sounded good! The cake turned out good — not as much cinnamon flavor as I was hoping, but it was still a good chocolate cake with a bit of a kick at the end from some cayenne pepper. The frosting was REALLY good — thicker than plain old whipped cream, but lighter than buttercream or traditional cream cheese frosting. I find that while buttercream is rich and creamy, I often prefer airier stuff that’s not quite as sweet.
Broccoli salad. Mexican chocolate cake. Mascarpone Frosting. All good. Make them!
How many people are in your recipe club? Do you just get together and trade recipes and try them? I am curious because I think it might be fun to start one 🙂 Also do you trade off houses or have it at the same place every time?
We have 5 or 6 core people and a few others who participate less frequently. The hosts rotate from house to house, and whoever is hosting picks the theme (and provides beverages). Everyone makes a dish and brings it, along with copies of the recipe. And we all eat! 🙂
We’ve had lots of different themes: salads, desserts, pumpkin, eggs, crock pot, tropical fruit, under 30 minutes, breakfast for dinner, appetizers…those are just some that I thought of off the top of my head.