25 in 2025 -- Try a New Food -- BBQ Chicken Quinoa Bowl

 Menasha Library has been doing a cooking series for over a year now. I've always been interested but the timing never worked and they filled up quickly. To ensure more people can participate, they now limit you one cooking class per series. Danielle mentioned the ancient grain one and we decided to try the Quinoa bowls. I managed to sign us up but Janis missed out. I knew I should have signed her up.

I never had quinoa before. and I was ready for this adventure. It sounds like something I might like and wasn't too scary or out of my comfort zone. I was actually excited for this cooking adventure. I liked BBQ chicken so I wasn't worried about the rest of it. I probably should have been....

When Menasha Library did their renovation last year, they put in individual cooking stations on wheels that is essentially a complete stocked kitchen in terms of gadgets and things. Plus there is a huge prep area but only one sink. This made prepping and cooking so much easier.

To get started, we prepped the quinoa by putting it in a water and getting it to a boil. Once it was boiling we turned down the heat and let it cook for 15 minutes.

While we waited for the quinoa to cook, we prepped the rest of the bowl ingredients. This included red cabbage, red onion, cherry tomatoes, avocados, and jalapenos. Since I probably shouldn't use sharp kitchen knifes, Danielle took care of chopping and dicing. Besides she was way more efficient and neater than I would ever be. We also had black beans and frozen corn.

The chicken was pre-cooked for us in a pressure cooker. We just had to shred it. That was my job. At least I could feel productive.

Then it was time to assembly our bowl. Danielle wanted to mix all the ingredients together which was fine as long as she left the  avocado out. I am not wiling to figure out if I am allergic to avocados or white chocolate. She was fine with that.

Finally it was time to taste our creation. Despite being full of things I don't eat, it was really good. The quinoa tasted like brown rice to me. I would totally have it again but I don't think I could convince the hubby to eat it. 

Once we enjoyed our meal, it was time to pack up the leftovers. It does make a lot. We also washed our dishes and move our stations back where they are stored when not in use. It was definitely a great way to teach people to cook.

We are already planning on our next cooking adventure at Menasha Library. It will be in fall. Janis has her eye on a stir fry class in May but we will see if we get in.

I am glad my local libraries encourage cooking and learning about different foods and cultures. Libraries have some of the best (free) programs around. 

Stay tuned to see what other new foods I try this year. 

7330. Make a homemade ice cream sandwich

 After going to Legendairy, I decided I could probably make the same thing at home for less cost. All an ice cream sandwich is 2 cookies and some ice cream. 

The better the ice cream and cookies, the more expensive it is going to be. Sure I could have used Chips Ahoy and Great Value Ice Cream but I felt soft, bigger cookies would work better. I went with Pepperidge Farm Captiva Dark Chocolate cookies. You could also use homemade cookies. For ice cream, I went with Haagen Dazs Mint Chocolate Chip. 

It was super easy to make. 

1. Put a cookie in a bowl, plate, or cookie sheet. 

2. Add a few scoops of ice cream. The more ice cream you add the thicker it will be. I stuck with about 3.

3. Top with another cookie.

4. Freeze to let ice cream set. This is optional and I did not do this.

5. Enjoy.

My ice cream sandwich was really good. I was initially slightly disturbed that the ice cream was not green but it tasted amazing. It is nice treat once in a while. Since I was using Pepperidge Farm cookies and Haagen Dazs, it definitely would not be an every night treat otherwise I'd be out of cookies quickly.

Sometimes homemade is better. 

Adventures in Cooking: Soft Molasses Cookie Monkey Bread

 When making cookies for Christmas, I always double the recipe. I doubled the soft molasses cookies and just didn't get a chance to bake them before Stacy came up for cookie baking. We started to roll them in sugar and half way through Stacy mentioned she didn't need any as no one really eats them. Okay now I have a double batch of soft molasses cookies that my family really only needs a single batch. They make that many cookies. 

As the we piled the rolled dough on a cookie sheet to put on more sheets as they came out of the oven, Stacy mentioned it looked like monkey bread. And a brain child was born. She was like I would if we could make cookie dough monkey bread. After a google search, it looked like we could. Someone else tried it but sliced the dough but we wanted to keep the monkey bread idea and be able to pull about the dough balls.

We decided to go for it. We finished rolling all the dough into balls and sugar. Then I dug out my Bundt pan and we put the dough balls in the pan. 

Not knowing really how long to bake, we just kept an eye on it. Once it was golden brown and starting to pull away from the pan, we took it out of oven. I would guess it was about 20-30 minutes.

I decided to serve it at cookie baking on Friday. I covered it with foil and let it sit on top of my refrigerator for the week. Then I heated it back up in the oven for about 5-10 minutes.

I flipped it out of the pan and as you can see the dough started to bake together instead of staying separate like in monkey bread.

Once I flipped it over, it was a bit easier to pull apart. You definitely could pull off bits of cookie.

Erin said it tasted like pure brown sugar. Danielle said it wasn't bad. I thought it was a tad underbaked.

I decided this might work but it definitely needs to be made the same day. It might work best with sugar cookie or peanut butter cookie dough. Stacy and I decided it definitely a possibility but needs more tweaking. Maybe we will find the secret to monkey bread cookies or we will just make oddly shaped cookies.