13 Cooks in Our Kitchen

Last Thursday evening our kitchen at the bed and breakfast was filled with lots of laughter, fellowship and fun as the first night for our new small groups Bible study gathered.  There were 13 gals who signed up for the Women to Women Mentoring/Cooking class.  We are doing a 7-week nurturing program based on the book Apples of Gold by Betty Huezenga. 

I was so pleased at how many older women are taking their Titus 2 verse to heart and are willing to be mentors to the younger women.  The younger women are eager to learn not only lessons regarding kindness, loving your husband and children, hospitality and more but they were very excited about the cooking part of the evening.

I had decided to have the first class be on "comfort food" and thought of fried chicken and mashed potatoes.  My husband loves to cook and added his own thoughts as to what he thought I should teach.  By the time we had the menu done, I was taking the fried chicken to the next level by offering Norwegian Chicken, then decided to show not just one way to prepare potatoes but three, and I even threw in homemade Thousand Island Dressing and Ranch. 

We started the evening out fixing bruchetta that had olive oil slathered on both sides, baked for 20 minutes and the fresh garlic rubbed over the tops.  Then we put carmelized onions and mushrooms over the bruchetta.  Yum, it was a great appetizer and had to tide everyone over until their study was done.

The gals not only learned how to make garlic mashed potatoes but homemade french fries and stuffed potatoe skins.  Now one of the secrets  to good mashed potatoes is that you put in about 6 cloves of garlic while cooking them and then after you drain  the water off you put back on the heat to pull out any excess water.  DO NOT mash with an electric mixer....not good.  Just use  the old fashion masher.

The homemade fries also have a few secrets to be great.  After cutting the fries into the correct size, rinse repeatedly to get all of the starch out.  Then drain and let totally dry on paper towels.  Coat potatoes with about 2 teaspoons of olive oil, sprinkle with some Sea Salt and bake on aluminum foil in a 350 oven for 30-35 minutes. 

The potatoe skins were microwaved for about 6 minutes then cut in two.  Scoop out the potatoe, mix with sour cream, butter, Johnnies Seasoning salt, and minced green onions.  Refill the potatoe skins and place those in oven for about 25-30 minutes.

Meanwhile we had the chicken frying, added a can of cream of mushroom and a can of cream of chicken soup, about 1/2 container of sour cream, salt and pepper and covered the chicken to slowly simmer for about 1 hour.  You can also put this in a crock pot in the morning and be greeted by the wonderful smells when arriving home after a long day. 

Green salad with red and yellow bell peppers and the homemade dressings were put on the tables to complete this meal.  As all these dear women sat together to enjoy the feast it was evident that this was a comfort food meal being shared by new friends. I am excited for our next class which will be "Italian Night".  Stay tuned for the recipes for homemade lazagna, marinated greens, homemade bread and other goodies.