Culinary Chefs in the making...

This weekend was kinda busy! After working both Saturday and Sunday and visiting the parade of homes with Brian I am worn out. However we made some time Saturday night to cook a new recipe we have never made together. Now Brian and I have cooked together quite often but now we have decided to try to cook one new recipe a week together. We think it will be fun to try new things and it is an activity we both enjoy and we get to spend time together. It is a win win situation!

So last night we made:

Beef Brisket w/homemade Italian BBQ sauce
Red Potato and Tomato Salad
Oven Roasted Corn w/homemade garlic butter

We also had dessert but there will be a separate post for that!

Our meal was wonderful! A definite first success we think! It only took us about 1.5 hours once we started preparing everything. Please note though that Brian cooked the beef brisket from 9:30 AM - 3:30 PM and then brought it over to my house so we could make everything else. Here are the pics and recipes:

Beef Brisket - there really isn't a recipe per say for this. Brian used a spice rub we bought up in Moultrie at Calico Crafts last November.

Italian Balsamic BBQ sauce

Ingredient's
1 cup balsamic vinegar
3/4 cup ketchup
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tbl spoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tbl spoon Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
Combine all the ingredients in a small saucepan (see pic above)and stir until all the ingredients are incorporated and smooth. Simmer over medium heat until reduced by 1/3, about 15-20 minutes.

Here is a pic of my baby stirring the BBQ sauce:

Yes, he is wearing a Proud to be AWESOME shirt! I think he is super adorable. He will probably say that I am getting sappy again (like in our first post) lol...

Red Potato and Tomato Salad
Ingredients
1 pound baby red potatoes, halved or quartered
1 pint (2 cups) cherry tomatoes, halved
3 scallions, thinly sliced
1 small can of lindsey sliced black olives
1/3 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
2 tbl spoons of capers, rinsed and drained
1 tbl spoon chopped fresh thyme leaves
1/4 cup of extra-virgin olive oil
1 large lemon, zested
salt and pepper
Directions - boil potatoes until tender and drain in a colander - allowing to dry (about 5 min). In a serving bowl, add the potatoes and all other ingredients sans salt and pepper and toss gently until coated. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Refrigerate for 1 hour and gently toss again before serving.

Oven Roasted Corn
Use four ears of fresh corn
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place corn husks directly on the oven rack and roast for 30 minutes or until corn is soft. Peal down husks and serve. Be careful - it is hot!!! Or you can be like me and just cut the corn off the cob. Even though I don't have braces any longer (and haven't had them for about 13 years) I still like to cut my corn off the cob.

Garlic Butter
1 stick of butter
2 cloves of garlic
salt and pepper to taste
This is real simple to make. You take the butter and microwave it for a 30 seconds to soften it a little. While that is happening peel and make a paste out of the garlic. To make a paste chop it very small then put salt on top of it to cover it completely. Then press down on it with the back of the knife and chop it more until it is a paste. After you have the paste and the soft butter combine them with a little more salt and pepper to the taste and enjoy.

Pics of our wonderful dinner:



We had so much fun cooking! We are looking forward to making many many more wonderful dinners and will keep you updated with those here! We have been searching the web for different recipe options and currently the Food Network is one of our favorites!

I will be sure to make a post on our dessert soon! Hope everyone had a great weekend!