Variety is the spice of life...

One of the things I love most about cooking is the ability to add one or two ingredients to an already perfect recipe and suddenly a new fabulous meal has been created. Tonight I added chicken to the yummy corn black bean dip I spoke about in my previous blog and it became a great salad.

Ingredients:

frozen white corn form Trader Joes

1/2 chopped yellow, orange and red bell pepper

8-10 chopped cherry tomatoes

2 diced avacadoes

1/2 chopped red onion

1/2 cup chopped cilantro

1 can of black beans drained

5 cooked chicken breast tenders cut into small pieces

I added olive oil and apple cider vinegar as a dressing.

It made a great summer salad.

Our 2009-2010 lunch club resumes again in 2 weeks. I cannot wait to have lunch at Julie's. SHe always makes the best meals, and I leave there with a full tummy. Plus, Julie is a great friend of mine who always makes me laugh. So not only is my tummy full, but I have laughed throughout the two hour lunch. What a great way to spend the afternoon!

Hope the school year has started off well for everyone. Enjoy Labor Day Weekend. Go on a few fun day trips and get the heck out of town!!!

Until next time,

Carrie

Summer vacation is almost over...

I am just going to say it. Where has the summer gone? Seriously, where?

I spent countless hours watching my kids swim. I drank a few tasty drinks along the way. And of course I enjoyed all the flavors of summer.

Of course it was my goal to post bi-monthly postings of great summer treats. But here I sit, at midnight and its the last week of summer vacation, trying to cram in one posting before Labor Day Weekend.

Briefly, I had a lot of fun at various gatherings and have so many great ideas for the perfect summer lunch or dinner.

In June, the swim season kicks into high gear with Wednesday night swim meets. What this really means is tables of kid food, tables of adult food and lots of margaritas to go around.

Our group of 8 or so families has been putting together buffets for a few years now and its really fun to try everyones apetizers and salads. One of my favorite summer salads to make is corn salad. As well as being served at the pool, I have made it for lunch club (May 2006) and many other gatherings.

Here is the recipe I use:

6-8 ears of fresh white corn shucked

1 red onion

1/2 basket of cherry tomatoes

1 chopped red bell pepper

1/2 cup chopped cilantro

2 chopped avacadoes

1 chopped nectarine or peach

*chopped bacon (optional) or

*cubed chicken breasts (optional)

2 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp apple cider vinegar

Saute the corn in butter and ground pepper for a minute-just enough time to bring out the taste, but not enough time to cook it. Remove from heat and add the corn to all other ingredients. Add the oil and vinegar, mix, chill and serve.

In July, along with three other lovely ladies I helped to host a party benefitting our kids elementary school. The party theme was Flip Flops Lemon Drops. Michelle kindly offered her home with a gorgeous backyard for the party. We offered our "ladies only" guests pedicures by the pool, lemondrop martinis, tasty apetizers, then a full "spa like" lunch. As a takeaway gift the ladies received a pair of Havainas Flip Flops and a beach towel. We served the following delights at the party.

Guacamole in wonton cups. Easy Easy and so pretty to look at. This was Laura's creation. She cooked the wontons in mini cupcake tins. Then after the wontons were cooled she placed spoonfuls of guacamole in each then topped with a little tomato salsa. So good!

We also had an easy corn and bean dip. This recipe was given to me by my friend Katy. She promised me it would be a crowd pleaser and she did not disappoint.

Here are the ingredients an recipe for it. All items purchased at Trader Joes.

Frozen white corn in the bag

Trio of bell peppers (red, orange and yellow) 2/3 chopped from each

2 chopped avacadoes

1 can of black beans drained

1 chopped red onion

chopped cilantro to taste

hot sauce to taste

2 tbsp. of rice wine vinegar

Mix all the vegetables together. The frozen corn keeps the dip cool. Serve with tortilla dippers. (also from Trader Joes)

For lunch we served croissant sandwiches, Santa Rosa Valley Salad*, chinese chicken salad and fruit.

Our dessert was so perfect and simple. Gelato! I love gelato. Erica bought a few fruity flavors and it was great.

*The Santa Rosa Valley Salad is from the Pasadena Junior League Cookbook-California Sizzles. (Page 99) This is a great cookbook. It was first printed in 1992. I purchased the book after its fourth printing in 1998. It is my food bible. I can provide the recipe if needed.

This was such a perfect day. The weather was in the mid 80's. The ladies relaxed and sat poolside and truly enjoyed themselves. And best of all, we made money for our kids school. I would happily host this party again next year.

Also in July, we had our friends Jill and Christian Pfeiffer over for dinner. The Pfeiffers are vegetarian, so when they come over I get to be creative with my cooking. How do I satisfy the meat lover husband of mine and provide a good meal for our guests? This time around I served a summer pasta with all the fresh vegi's I could think of, and finished it off with peach/blackberry cobbler.

The summer pasta was simple, tasty and satisfying.

Here is what I did:

8 chopped tomatoes

1 chopped yellow onion

3 minced garlic cloves

2 chopped zucchini

1 chopped yellow squash

1 chopped red bell pepper

I sauteed in olive oil the garlic and onion first. Then added the zucchini, squash and bell pepper. Finally I added the tomatoes. I let everything cook together until my sauce was created from all the juices. I served the vegetable ragout with linguine, and topped with shredded parmesan cheese.

The pasta was paired with a caesar salad.

I made a lot. The next night I added chicken to the dish for our leftovers.

The peach/blackberry cobbler is always a hit. This recipe also comes from California Sizzles (page 310). I added 1 basket of blackberries to the recipe. I also suggest to let it cool one hour before serving. Cover with foil after you take it out of the oven and let it thicken a bit. I served this at the September 2008 lunch club and I did not allow enough time for the cobbler to thicken. It was tasty, but runny. This time around, I really let it sit. It was still warm and tasted great with vanilla bean ice cream a la mode.

I am going to add some pictures from the summer parties. I hope you had a great summer and ate some great food.

Till next time,

Carrie

May Lunch Club in June

Hi Everyone,

Its been awhile since my last post. With swim season, baseball season and end of school keeping me and my three boys busy, it has been a difficult task to sit down and write about my favorite club. Ladies Lunch Club.

We got together this week at Jen's. It was an intimate group of 5. Then when Julie had to leave because her 4yr. old was not enjoying herself our little lunch became even smaller. But there is something to be said about the smaller groups. Our conversations are sometimes more livelier!

We really went off on some unusual tangents this week. As I mentioned before, our kids are growing up. The hot topic this month, I have to say was about how much we can we tell our kids about the opposite sex, about life, about growing up. At what age is the sex talk appropriate. 

As we agree everyone has to do what is right for them and for their family. It was enlightening. 

I loved the appetizer Jen served this month. She said it was a standard at all her family events. Aimee could attest to that since they are sister in-laws. 

Jen served blue cheese with crushed pecans. She purchased the cheese from Trader Joes and served it with apple slices and crackers. She also served candied pecans to put on the apple and cheese as a topping. Delicious! We must have stood around that table and ate 90% of it. 

For our lunch, Jen served caesar salad and spaghetti in a light red sauce with shrimp. Very good, simple and satisfying.

Aimee made the most delicious cake. It was the Cooking Light Lemon Pound Cake with Chambord glaze served with Chantilly creme and raspberries. Photos will be uploaded shortly.

As I mentioned this has been a crazy few weeks filled with activities, sports and parties. I love that in the middle of chaos I was able to put on a new top that I was dying to show off, apply some makeup and wear my jewelry and absolutely enjoy two hours of precious girl time. Thank you Jen for a great lunch and thank you girlfriends for great conversation!

I promise to add recipes, photos and favorite summer menus as the weeks go by. 

Carrie

Happy Cinco de Mayo

A few of my favorites to serve on this festive day or any day when the sun shines. Hope you celebrating this day with a Corona!

Carrie's 2 minute Guacamole
My husband Mike gave my guacamole this name when he timed me one afternoon. Its easy, tasty and always is a crowd pleaser.

3-4 avacados smashed and clumpy
any salsa you prefer-I like Trader Joes Chunky Salsa
real lime juice-not from the plastic fruit shaped juice container-use the real thing.
pepper to taste.

Thats all you need - mix it together and serve.

Red Sauce Enchiladas
2 full chicken breasts (you can make this easy for yourself and buy a rotisserie chicken) shredded
flour tortillas
chopped yellow onion
1 small can green chiles
fresh corn from the cob
shredded cheese, I buy the pre-schredded mexican variety. Trader Joes sells it.
nonfat plain yogurt
lowfat sour cream
1 can red enchilada sauce

mix sour cream and yogurt, add chiles, onion and corn. Add chicken to the mixture.
dip tortillas in the red sauce
fill the enchiladas, add cheese, roll them up. Place enchiladas in oven safe caserole dish. Add cheese and extra red sauce to top.

Cook at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. or until cheese is bubbly and enchiladas are cooked through.

This amount of chicken, tortillas and filling should yield about 12 enchilada's.

Add avacado for topping.

The what and how of LLC

Ladies Lunch Club was created in April 1998. Eleven years ago. I love it. Our current group is comprised of 8 ladies living in Danville and Alamo. We are working moms and stay at home moms. We have known eachother as far back as elementary school and as little as a few years.
We get together once a month and enjoy a full yummy lunch for two hours. No kids, no husbands. Just us. Its typically the highlight of my week.

I am Carrie and I have been a proud member of LLC for ten years. It started as a group of newly married and for some newly moms who wanted to share time and good food.
The rules are simple and hold strong to this day. Choose your month, send out the invitation, prepare, cook and serve. When you are the hostess, you do it all.
We sent out invitations and we prepared our menus days ahead. We set beautiful tables with fresh cut flowers and displayed our new china and crystal. Tami and Debbie had experience with LLC. They are sisters and their mother still had a group going of her own.
Our group has changed a lot over the years. No more printed invitations for one. We now use evite.
Some girls have moved away and we have added others. What I love most about the group is that we are never judged. We are happy to be there and enjoy the time.

Christy hosted today. It was raining pretty hard so it was my last chance for awhile to put on the suede boots and black sweater dress. I was so tired that I figured if I dress up I might wake up.
Six of us were there today. Four regular LLC members and two guests. As the host, you can invite guests to lunch club. Christy did a great job. She served Ina Gartens Canneloni. So good!
We also had a delicious salad with strawberries, walnuts, feta and spinich. Before everyone else showed up we nibbled on hummus and crackers. I loved how Christy served the hummus. Seems simple but she made it look good. She drizzled olive oil and paprika on it, then added a few pinenuts.

Anyhow, the best of LLC is the food and conversation. Today I felt like I was a little out of sorts (could be the exhaustion!) I just kept talking and talking and I think half the time I made no sense. It was nice to hear that an old roommate from my SF days is getting married and the funny memories about some of our crazy sorority sisters was hilarious. I am convinced that the character you had in highschool and college carries on throughout life. You grow up and mature but you are the person you are. My friend Jill is great at remembering the hilarious moments of college days. We have each had the friend that loved to control all situations. The friend that had a collection of close friends and that collection seemed to change quite often. I wonder if those girls are still controlling their husbands, children and close girlfriends today-almost twenty years later. Most likely, yes. I prefer to spend what little free time I have with easygoing people I can laugh with.

I am going to serve hummus with olive oil, paprika and pinenuts next time. And for dessert I will get creative like Christy and serve ice cream with chocolate sauce and crumbled thin mint girl scout cookies. If we don't serve them to friends, we end up eating those cookies alone!

Till next time-I am signing off to do the dishes and watch mindless TV.


Goodnight-