Cook Club: Week 2

Last weekend (the 13th), Shawn's mom called and asked if, for his dad's birthday, they could come over to the house and we'd make something for them (instead of going to a restaurant).  Shawn agreed and thus began "Cook Club with Bob and Elsie."

Since Bob is diabetic, we try to have protein and vegetable laden meals while keeping it light on the carbs.  So we opted to forgo the dinner rolls in the main meal and save the carbs for desert.

Menu:
Leg of Lamb on the grill (recipes? we don't need no stinking recipes)
Provencal Gratin (from How to Boil Water)
Quinoa Stuffed Sweet Potatoes (from Sprouts Newsletter)
Orange Flavored Chocolate Mousse (from Fresh)

Notes for Provencal Gratin:
Very bland - It really needs more garlic, thyme, salt and pepper and more cheese.  For the amount of prep time, I'd rather just make long slices of squash and cook on the grill.  Of course, if we weren't making something on the grill, then this would be the next best thing, but again, I'd change up the spices and add more cheese. I will admit that I did add an extra squash and two extra tomatoes to the mix (I forgot to tell Elsie not to chop up everything).  2/5

Notes for Quinoa Stuffed Sweet Potatoes:
I thought this recipe sounded kinda ick - Kale? Cranberries? all on top of a sweet potato?!  But it was delicious.  Other than the problem of only needing one, maybe two kale leaves and having to have pine nuts on hand, it's relatively easy to make and it tastes good. 5/5

Again with the fuzzy. You can see how bland the gratin is from here...

Orange Flavored Chocolate Mousse:

I have a thing against 'fake food' (okay, not really because I'll eat lemonade pie like no one's business*) - I'll use the full fat versions of food unless the low fat version is an actual food item as well (so using neufchatel cheese in place of cream cheese is fine, but using no fat salad dressing is just wrong). I feel the same way about Frozen Whipped Topping (aka CoolWhip).  If you're going to use frozen spun oil, you might as well use the full fat version.  But this chocolate mousse recipe uses the no fat version, so we'll use that.  THIS time.  I made the first mistake of actually buying Reduced Fat Oreo knock-offs (called WhoNu cookies) instead of buying the pre-crumbed version that's in the cooking isle.  Then I didn't have the right sized spring-form pan, so the mousse is squatter than it ought to be.  The recipe calls for a shot glass of Grand Marnier, zest of one orange and the juice from that orange.  The mousse was, shall we say, very orangey.  I'd probably cut back on the liquor, and maybe the zest as well.  I'd also prefer to use real whipped cream the next time around though I don't know if it would be able to hold up in the fridge.  And now that I'm thinking about it, why not make the mousses individual sized...may be easier to put them in a cup instead of in a spring form pan. 2/5

I forgot to take a picture last night, so here is a picture from today.  A problem with eating left overs of this mousse - it gets a skin on the cut edges...which is kinda ick-tastic.  Maybe I should cover it with clingwrap or something...