And the WINNER is....Jenna

No, not me. The "other Jenna."      

This is probably why I have been delinquent in updating the blog. I will admit it. We are only two contests in and I am already sick and tired of defeat. But I will put on my big girl pants and celebrate Jenna's win for a truly beautiful and delicious apple pie.

This round of the AACC challenge was definitely better structured because we had more judges (thank you Julie, Jaime and Nick) which helped a lot. AJ, Jenna and Tim all created a variation of apple pie and I, being the odd man out, made a peach crumble pie. So obviously the odds were already a little against me. Tim led me to believe he was going to make a lemon meringue pie, but changed his mind at the last minute. Instead he showed up with this......

He probably should have stuck with the lemon meringue. This was supposed to be an apple pie with a
walnut crumble on top, but Tim burned the pie and then did not let it rest so it really crumbled (and not in the good way). As I am writing this, I am thankful Tim rarely uses the Internet and probably does not bother to read this blog. :)

I took a little more time with my placement of peaches this time to try and even out the ratio of peach to crumble topping.

AJ chose to make a carmel apple pie with not only a crumble, but a lattice, too! He definitely won for the pie that was most technically advanced. It was delicious. Both Julie and I voted for his creation (everyone else voted for Jenna's -- I had to vote for my husband's this time to avoid another guilt trip). I particularly enjoyed the cinnamon graham cracker topping AJ topped the pie with. And his homemade whipped cream was to die for. We all voted he would win that contest should there every be one! Here is his pie prior to baking....

     

And here is the pie post baking....

Jenna also made a very traditional apple pie with a lattice crust, as well. She used two variations of apples which incorporated both a sweet and tart taste (I believe she used Granny Smith and Red Delicious). Her crust was light and flaky....as Martha Stewart would say "Its a good thing."

Her lattice was so perfect and tight that it actually
resembles a crumble...it looked like a piece of art.

She rightfully deserved the trophy for the best pie. The contest was so inspiring that our guest judges all decided they want in on the next challenge. After going around the table for every one's suggestion for the next one....we decide on meatloaf. This makes me a little nervous because AJ makes a mean meatloaf, but I am not scared. I think I have found the winning recipe for this one.

We have also incorporated a blind taste test into our AACC meetings....much like the do in Hell's Kitchen each contestant is blind folded and fed four different foods/ingredients and we have to write down what we think it was we ate. It can be raw or cooked. Jenna M. chose the ingredients for this first time and she picked very challenging stuff. Two of the four I had never even tasted before so, of course, I found this to be unfair. Just kidding.....it was tough. Only Geoff and AJ got 3 out of the 4 correct. They were 1) Bamboo Shoot 2) Mashed Peas (it was really baby food and this is the only one I got right!) 3) Tofu and 4) SPAM!

AJ got Spam right and my respect for him lessened just a little. GROSS! Thankfully, my mother never tried to feed me that crap growing up. Thank you Mom!

This was a great addition and Julie volunteered to provide the ingredients for the next meeting....this will be interesting -- I already know it. This is the part I might be scared about.

After all the excitement Tim passed the trophy onto his sister.

But first, I had to take his photo with the hardware to prove he won the first time (we did not have the trophy in time for his win).

And finally an AACC group photo, but we will have to take a new one when we gather again for the meatloaf challenge, but 3 more smiles will join the ever growing and popular club. What can I say? We are trendsetters!

And CONGRATS again Jenna for your Advanced Apple Pie Awesomeness!



AACC Field Trip

Tim scored some tickets to a Diamondbacks game and was kind enough to treat the "Club" to an evening at the diamond. However, because we are a cooking club, we had to do something on the trip related to cooking so we went to sushi prior to the game.

This is Tim's new find and he patrons the establishment, at least, twice a week. It is obvious he is there a lot because the hostess definitely loves her some Tim. It is called Makado and it is located in Chandler. We were there early so it was pretty quite, but sitting at the sushi bar with us was Nick Eason, who plays defensive end for the Cardinals. I really had no idea who the hell he was until I asked his name. I mean, it was obvious he was a football player because he was huge. He was more then huge.....a giant, really. So I had to take a picture with him (totally embarrassing AJ, but whatevs).

Anyway, the sushi was delicious and the happy hour prices are a steal. AJ and I filled up pretty quickly and towards the end of our sushi extravaganza Tim ordered 4 pieces of Uni. Uni, for those of you who do not know is basically sea urchin. He tells me I am going to try it and I tell him there is no way. As much as I love sushi, I also know that I still have a texture issue with some seafood and I have to imagine this will fall into that category.

He won't leave me alone. AJ tries it. Swallows a quarter of the piece and quickly sucks down the remainder of his beer. So I try and just as I figured, it totally grosses me out and I spit it out into a napkin (while gagging at the same time). You can laugh, I won't be offended. Uni is nasty and I cannot believe people eat this crap! Sick. Even as I sit here and write about it, I want to throw up. UGH!

Thankfully, I had enough beer to wash the taste out of my mouth and we decide to get the hell out of there before Tim get order anything else!

We had a great time at the game -- the seats were awesome and allowed us a very different perspective of the field, which I thoroughly enjoyed. We could not stay for the whole game because AJ had a fantasy draft to get home to, but they won the game. I credit their win to our attendance, of course. It was a great evening minus the Uni. Thank Timothy!

TV inspires dinner

Once again, while watching TV we were inspired to try our hand at a new dish. Of course, when I say "we" I mean AJ.

We recently switched from COX Communications back to DirectTV, mainly for football, but we have acquired many other fabulous new channels. One such channel is the Cooking Network. Like we really need to add more shows to our obsessive culinary line-up, but what the hell? The cool thing about this network is it airs past shows and episodes from Food Network. One such show featured Giada enjoying traveling through, what else? FOOD!

She was exploring Jackson Hole, WY and entered into a little saloon-looking dump (from the outside). However, this was far from a hole in the wall. This was a fancy, but rustic Italian eatery and she ordered a dish called Braciole. Much like my last name, the pronunciation of the word is nothing like how it is spelled. Nonetheless, this dish looked amazing. I actually think AJ might have stopped breathing for a short period of time. As soon as the show was over, he was in on the computer searching for a recipe. He quickly found a Giada recipe....hard to fathom, right? Sure.

This dish is typically prepared using flank steak, but AJ substitute that for a pork tenderloin because that is what we had in the freezer. Hey....you got to make it work sometimes.

He sliced the tenderloin in half without cutting all the way through. Stuffed it with mushrooms, Italian bread crumbs, garlic, fresh parm, and a little salt & pepper. It resembled a dry rub when he applied it. Then using butcher's twine secured the tenderloin into a log.

Next he put together the mixture of a dry white wine, EVOO and marinara sauce. He added the Braciole to the mixture and browned it for about 8 minutes and then stuck it in the oven. While the Braciole was in the oven we ate our salads with my favorite homemade dressing (from previous blog eatery). For the sides, we did the snap pea and fennel salad again because it is totally awesome and we served some warmed rosemary bread. We did not want to serve too much food because on the menu for dessert was my trial attempt at the peach pie.

I highly recommend this dish. It was so flavorful and the meat was super tender. There is no reason to set a knife out when setting the table for this one. It was even better warmed up the next day because the meat has absorbed even more of the sauce.

If you are interested in this recipe, click here. http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/braciole-recipe/index.html. You will not be disappointed, I promise.

We finished the evening with a warm slice of the peach pie and because I am so damn impressed with myself, I am going to post another picture of it for you.

My First Time...

Baking a homemade pie! Wow....you people are dirty! I cannot believe you would think I would write about that in my cooking blog!

I decided if I really want to win the upcoming homemade fruit pie challenge, I needed to do a trial run. I have been doing my homework for the past few weeks and decided on a very basic Martha Stewart pie crust. I also decided to follow one of Martha's recipes for the filling of the pie. What can I say? I do love me some Martha (plus, AJ always calls me Martha Jr.).

The pie crust created the perfect opportunity for me to try out the new food processor that my mom gave AJ for Christmas. We had been so busy with everything wedding related earlier in the year, we had yet to pull it out of the box. I have quickly fallen in love with it though. I will have to name it (my Kitchen-Aid is named McMixer in honor of Grey's).

After pulsing the ingredients together for the crust, I shaped it into a disc, covered it in saran wrap and put it in the fridge for about 3 hours. The recipe calls for the dough to chill for, at least, an hour. You could even make this the night before if you were running short on time.

The filling was an easy decision because I love peaches. Costco has a smoking deal on peaches right now and it provides enough for two pies worth. The filling is super easy -- 8 cups of peaches, some light brown sugar and a little flour and set aside to allow peaches to sort of suck the dry ingredients up.

The crumble consisted of rolled oats, flour, light brown sugar and butter. This would be fun to make with kids because it requires you to mix with your hands in order to create a good consistency.

I decided to use the thumb squeeze technique for the actual border of the pie crust. I like the rustic look of this over other methods. Once in the pie dish, dump the peaches in and then even disperse the crumble.

The pie was in the oven for about 1 hour and 10 minutes. And definitely attracted attention.

I served the pie after enjoying a beautiful meal AJ created ( I will blog about that next) for his mom (Julie), her boyfriend (Ken) and his son, Jack. For the first time ever making a pie, I was pleased with the results. As was Jack, he had two pieces.

I think I have a pretty strong chance of taking down the competition with this one. Cross your fingers for me. I want that damn trophy and prove AJ and Tim wrong. They told me the only time I was going to be in possession of the award was when I opened the box it was shipped in! Jerks.

What do you think of my pie?

Scallops

Scallops. Another one of Gordon Ramsey's staple menu items. Each week he yells and screams about over-cooked, under-cooked or raw scallops. So, of course, this inspires AJ to make scallops for dinner. However, anytime AJ can find a way to incorporate bacon into a dish, you can bet he does.

Again, I think AJ proved himself worthy to be on a cooking show. The scallops were perfectly seared and not the least bit chewy. Although, there were some technical difficulties with the toothpicks. I blame the crappy Kroger brand though. If I blamed AJ, I would not have been fed.

Paired with the scallops were roasted baby red potatoes drizzled with a little EVOO and sprinkled with some grated cheese.

We had also picked up some type of speciality artisan bread from Trader Joe's, but I honestly cannot remember what it was. I seem to recall little from this evening. Cutting back on the drinking during the week makes me hit the vino a little harder during the weekend which sometimes results in some memory issues.

On that note.....I have no more to add to this post.

Egg-licious!

Up until the age of 30, there was only one way I would even consider eating my eggs....scrambled. Boring, right? What can I say? I am a creature of habit. Or as some would say Type A. Whatever.

So imagine my surprise when after being inspired by Food Network segments and my new Executive Director, Ken, I decided to try a fried egg on a burger. When I told AJ I wanted to do this, he told me I had read his mind. This is why we are so good for each other -- always thinking about food!

Lately we have been using ground turkey for our burger meat, but this new adventure definitely called for ground chuck roast meat. Again, being a former butcher's daughter, I was taught from an early age to avoid pre-packaged burger meat. Unless, you are serving a small army, then you cannot go wrong with Costco's ground beef.  In this case, it was only the best for Mr. and Mrs. Blusiewicz on this Friday night.

I have only attempted cooking a fried egg twice for AJ, but I decided I wanted to be in charge of this part so I sent AJ out to the grill. One of the eggs turned out perfectly and the other one suffered a slightly damaged egg yolk. It still held up well during the cooking process, but did not quite have that perfect ooze affect when you cut into the burger that I hoped for. AJ, being the wonderful husband he is, took the less than perfect fried egg and topped the burger off with some sauteed mushrooms.

     

I decided to not top my burger with the mushrooms because I really wanted to have the full fried egg experience. When I sliced through the middle of the burger, the egg drizzled down just enough to coat the burger meat, but not enough to soak the toasted bun. This made me very happy. There is nothing I hate more than soggy buns!

It was a simple meal, but people are right...a fried egg on a burger is awesome. We tried it the other night on a turkey burger, as well, and still yummy! I think this dish may quickly become our Friday night meal of choice. A fried egg burger with a beer is the best way to end a long week of work! EGGLICIOUS!