Playing Catch Up

I'm pretty sure I've missed a week or twelve (no, not that many) in my cookbook-a-week challenge. So, this week I played catch up by making 3 recipes out of two different books. First up: Weber's Real Grilling. This book was a Christmas gift from Brooke & Bryan. Usually we just use it as a reference for how we're supposed to grill a certain kind of meat or veggie, but they have all kinds of tasty recipes in there too. Last year Drew made me a cake on the grill for my birthday. He's so sweet. :) I chose Shredded BBQ Chicken Sandwiches and Basil Parmesan Corn on the Cob.

Big Fabulous Plate:
On the "Playing Catch Up" Theme, Kylie came over for dinner! I hadn't seen her in... like a really long time. So we got to play catch up over dinner. She brought with her Asian Cole Slaw and organic wine! She knows me so well. :) Both were delicious. Can everyone see how I've all but destroyed our kitchen table? This is why we can't have nice things.

The chicken was fine, but probably would have been better had I just used Gate's sauce or something rather than trying to make my own. The corn was kind of meh. But I think maybe it was the corn and not the recipe, which included basil from my back yard! It might have been slightly overcooked as well. We win some we lose some.

Ari spent most of the evening with his head in Kylie's lap, demonstrating why we never have people over:

Next up! While I lived with Kylie she taught me all about the wonders of the crock pot. She used to make the best stuff in there! Kylie, Sam, Blair, and I used to have Thursday Night Family Dinners where we'd make a huge meal and watch the OC. This often times involved the crock pot, but always involved dessert. So I pulled out my copy of Fix-It and Forget-It: Feasting with Your Slow Cooker.


The recipe: Chocolate Pudding Cake. Did you know you can make a cake in your crock pot?! Me neither, but you can. And it is good:

There's also a "light" version of this cookbook that I'm definitely going to have to try. Because this one is the opposite of light. I'm sure everything in there is delish, but light it is not. Heavy is a good word. Heavy and delish.

Oh, and the stuff they say about organic wine: totally true. It kicked my ass. And I loved every second of it.