Cook Club: Week 5

This week I went back to making more than one new recipe.  If you're going to go through the hassle of making a new recipe on the weekend, you might as well make more than one, says I.

First, I made dessert.  Mostly because dessert needs to set.  I made two this week; both from the Hershey's Best Loved Recipes cookbook.  First recipe:  Chocolate Mousse for Two.  The recipe took maybe about 20 minutes to make, and it was easy.  The only problem I had with the outcome is that the texture was more pudding, less mousse.  The flavor was wonderful, though, so I'll try it again.  4/5 with one star being removed because of the consistency.  Second Recipe:  Peanut Butter Chocolate "Fudge".  How could you go wrong? Peanut Butter chips, Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips and a can of Sweetened Condensed Milk.  Super easy to make and decent fudge-like consistency.  The only main problem was that it didn't really have a good peanut butter or chocolate flavor - it was much more of a plain 'sweet' flavor.  While Shawn didn't like it, I thought it was alright, and the coworkers seemed to love it. (no pictures - I'm apparently really bad at taking photos of dessert...though in my defense, the mousse was served in pint glasses even though they were less than half full.  I didn't have any photos of the fudge because it only looked nice when I had cut it all up into pieces and put them on a plate for my coworkers).  3/5 - I'd make it again, but it's most definitely not Shawn's favorite.

Second we started in on the Roasted Carrots from the Cook's Country Cookbook.  I went off-recipe and used baby carrots instead of the normal carrots like the recipe required.  While the carrots weren't necessarily roasted (the problem with using baby carrots per the recipe), they did taste good - sweet, but not too sweet.  Also not cooked to mush - my biggest complaint with cooked carrots.  4/5 - I'll do this recipe again, but maybe use real carrots instead to see if I like it better.

Finally, we made the Lemon Chicken which came from a recipe my Aunt gave me when I graduated from college (she had given me a nice Caphalon pan, a cookbook, a set of her favorite recipes and a bunch of Penzey's spices).  Shawn called the chicken, "chicken nuggets with lemon sauce."  Shawn wasn't much of a fan because he's not a fan of lemon flavor, but I liked them.  I'd have these again, but I'd add some veg and maybe some rice.  3.5/5

Served with Pillsbury Crescent Rolls since i wasn't positive that they'd go well with rice.