Trifle

I should learn to read directions.

Ok, I should learn to read directions, better.

I made a lovely trifle, that did not look very lovely because the recipe said to finely chop 1/2 of a graham cracker. I finely chopped 1/2 of the total amount of graham crackers called for in the recipe, oops. I looked at the picture and the amount of finely chopped graham crackers in my bowl, it didn't look right, but I did not re-read the recipe, no I continued on.

I layered the entire trifle, including the finely chopped graham cracker on top, that is waaaay too much. So if you can picture an entire sleeve of graham crackers finely chopped and then dumped onto the top of the layers, it was not pretty, but it tasted pretty good.

This was my first ever trifle and other than my inability to read, I think that it went very well. I will of course have to repeat this recipe. (This is also why I make sure I have tried a recipe before I will ever make it at a show.) My husband waited a day or two before he actually was willing to eat it, and then he found out it tasted much better than it looked, but the truth of the matter is that a trifle is supposed to look good.

Tomorrow I am making a carbonara pizza recipe. As a side note, they new pring cookbooks and products become available as of March 1, so I will be trying some of those out as a preview.

Steak for Dinner

I made a nice London Broil this evening on my Large bar pan just under the broiler. I love the fact that the stone continues to cook the meat a bit after I pull it out of the oven. Of course, sometimes I forget and end up overcooking the meat.

I also made rice tonight. I do not own the Pampered Chef Rice Cooker, but I am told it is wonderful. I have been blessed with the rice gene, so I am very good at making perfect rice on the stove-top. I don't know why I have no problem with this and so many others struggle with it, but that is why they make rice cookers, to make sure we can all have excellent rice all the time.

I also had a nice little salad with just lettuce, a bit of grated cheese and some fresh bacon bits. I served this in my Simple Additions bowls.

Even if I don't make a Pampered Chef recipe everyday, I do think that I use at least one of their products every day. As I have menitoned I was a customer for a long time before I became a consultant.

Update on Loaded Baked Potato Chowder
We are now on the third day of eating the chowder and today it is the perfect consistency of chowder. Again I will say that the chowder has a great flavor, but was just too "milky" on the first day and just a bit to "milky" on the second day, but now it is perfect.

I am assuming you plan to cook the soup and serve it in less than 3 days time, so I would possibly recommend changing one of the cups of milk to half and half or light cream, or just reducing the total amount of the milk.

I will let you know when I attempt this recipe again. It may be soon, I have a lot of potatos, they were on sale at the market.

Loaded Baked Potato Chowder

I made this recipe last night and it tastes great. It was easy to make and only took about 30 minutes, since it is made in the microwave. The problem I had was with the consitency, it is too milky. The recipe calls for 3 1/2 cups of milk, but the next time I make it I will definetly use less.

I did let it rest overnight and had it again for lunch today and it was less milky, but still too much to make it feel like "chowder." I also added bacon crumbs to the top for my lunch today, it was recommended as an option at the bottom of the recipe, that was even better. So the next time I will make sure to put the bacon bits and possibly grate a bit of cheese right on top for flavor and to finish it off.

Of course my favorite product that I used in this recipe is the rotary cheese grater. I was a pampered chef customer for many years before I became a consultant and I had never bought the cheese grater, and when I finally did I wondered how I had ever lived without it, and the new rotary cheese grater is a great improvement over the original. Of course I love cheese, so this just makes another great way to enjoy my favorite food.

Artichoke Bread Bowl

Yesterday for my superbowl party I made the Artichoke Bread Bowl. The directions were clear and my bowl came out beautifully, but the dip was too lemony. The recipe calls for 2 tablespoons of lemon and that is just too much, it made the roof of my mouth sensitive. I think that I will have to try the recipe again very soon so that I can see if recucing the lemon still leaves a good flavor to the dip, or if it seems lacking without the full amount of lemon.

One of my favorite products was used for this, it is the citrus press. Also the culprit of the perhaps too strong lemon.

Tonight I am planning to make the loaded bake potato soup, in the Deep Covered Baker, and in the microwave.

See you tomorrow.

South of the Border Meatloaf

I made the "South of the Border Meatloaf" recipe from Pampered Chef last night and it was wonderful. It is a meatloaf with a good flavor, but not spicy, and it is made in the microwave, so it is also fast.

I love Pampered Chef, but sometimes the recipes are more effort than I want to put into a dish, but I found this to be super easy and came out perfect.

I served the meatloaf with plain white rice and some of the juices from the meatloaf slid right over and flavored that rice right up.

When I stored the leftovers, I put both the rice and the meatloaf in the same container so when I heat it up the flavors will mix together again.

If you want to get a copy of the recipe you can go to www.pamperedchef.biz/cookingwithlori