Apple Whiskey Turkey Meatballs with Bourbon Whiskey BBQ Sauce:  Heather & Eric


Heather & Eric not only cooked with apples, but took the theme to another level by making you "bob" (luckily, with a toothpick) for the meatballs out of the crock pot :)

We also got to sample the apples that Heather & Eric soaked in Bourbon for several days before making them into meatballs - wow those were strong!!!

These meatballs are amazing and have already become a go-to potluck recipe for both me and my mom!

Recipe:

http://insidebrucrewlife.com/2013/01/apple-whiskey-chicken-meatballs/

Ingredients

• 1 pound ground chicken
• 1 cup shredded parmesan cheese
• 1/2 cup shredded apples
• 1/2 cup plain breadcrumbs
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1 teaspoon diced garlic
• 1 egg
• 1 Tablespoon dried parsley flakes
• 1/2 cup Open Pit Apple Whiskey barbecue sauce

Instructions

1. Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and mix very well. Shape the meat mixture into 24 good sized meatballs. Place on a baking sheet that has been sprayed with non stick spray.
2. Bake the meatballs for 20 minutes at 400* Remove from oven and place in a crock pot. Add the barbecue sauce and stir. Keep warm. Refrigerate leftovers

Notes

Feel free to use more or less barbecue sauce according to your taste.

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/16115/bourbon-whiskey-bbq-sauce/

"This is a barbecue sauce recipe using Kentucky bourbon whiskey. For best results, refrigerate for a day or two, allowing the flavors to blend."

Ingredients

• 1/2 onion, minced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 3/4 cup bourbon whiskey
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/2 tablespoon salt
• 2 cups ketchup

• 1/4 cup tomato paste
• 1/3 cup cider vinegar
• 2 tablespoons liquid smoke flavoring
• 1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/3 teaspoon hot pepper sauce, or to taste

Directions

1. In a large skillet over medium heat, combine the onion, garlic, and whiskey. Simmer for 10 minutes, or until onion is translucent. Mix in the ground black pepper, salt, ketchup, tomato paste, vinegar, liquid smoke, Worcestershire sauce, brown sugar, and hot pepper sauce.
2. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer for 20 minutes. Run sauce through a strainer if you prefer a smooth sauce.

Mascarpone & Dark Chocolate Cream in White Chocolate Cups Plus a Surprise Visit!:  Heather & Eric

We finished off our evening with a beautifully crafted Italian dessert masterpiece - Mascarpone and Dark Chocolate Cream in White Chocolate Cups - made by Heather and Eric.  In the words of the Mafia, "these were f***ing beautiful!"

We also got a surprise visit from Tony who had some bad luck and was found "swimming with the fishies".

The night finished with some awesome Mafia impersonations done by the gang :)

Recipes:

Chicken Chow Mein, Pork Fried Rice, and Ginger Garlic Green Beans:  Heather & Eric

The main course was exactly what you would expect at a fancy restaurant in Chinatown!  Not only was the table set with Chinese fans, chopsticks, and authentic Chinese zodiac paper place mats, beautiful Chinese lanterns also hung from the ceiling above the table.

All of the flavors blended together wonderfully, but there was something extra special about the pork in the fried rice.  Since Chinatown was originally scheduled in January and had to be postponed until March, the pork got extra marinating time in the freezer and it turned out wonderfully!

Some of us got a bit creative with our dinner plates, knowing the prettiest plate would get its picture taken :)










Recipes:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/ginger-garlic-green-beans-354956

http://www.recipetineats.com/chicken-chow-mein/

http://thewoksoflife.com/2014/10/classic-pork-fried-rice/

Eternal Kiss:  Heather & Eric

As the sun finished setting, the vampires made their way to Ann & Jason's to gather for their suck-u-lent feast. Heather & Eric arrived, blood thirsty, and ready to make their Eternal Kiss cocktail.

As stated on the recipe website - Wrap your lips around this juicy drink, and enjoy the devil's dark embrace!  This ginger liqueur in this drink was amazing and these were sucked down quickly!!!

After several of these, it was time for some blood - so we drank our share of bloody beers - Silver Bullet (aka Coors Light) mixed with Clamato and/or Blood Mary Mix!

Recipe:
http://www.rebelsmarket.com/blog/posts/cocktail-hour-8-vampire-inspired-cocktails

1.5 oz cherry juice
1.5 oz Cachaca
3/4 oz ginger liqueur
3/4 oz fresh lime juice
3/4 oz soda water

Combine Cachaca, ginger liqueur, cherry and lime juice in cocktail shaker.  Shake with ice and strain into glass.  Float soda water on top and garnish with lime zest!

Heather also took agave nectar and died it red with food coloring to line the inside edges of the glass.

Smoked Turkey, Smoked Gouda Mashed Potatoes, and Brussel Sprouts with Hickory Smoked Bacon:  Heather and Eric

Heather and Eric brought out all the stops with their beautiful old-fashioned smoker!  

And inside of this was an even more beautiful smoked turkey.  Talk about Thanksgiving dinner in July - yes please!

After brining the turkey for 2 days, they smoked it for 4 hours and the end result was nothing short of amazing.




To go with the turkey, they made smoked gouda mashed potatoes, well mostly smoked gouda with a few potatoes....

and cooked brussel sprouts in a a pan of delicious hickory smoked bacon!  Here's Eric putting the final touches on the brussel sprouts.

Dinner is served!

Recipes:

Brine Turkey
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/85839/out-of-this-world-turkey-brine/

Smoke Turkey
http://www.butterball.com/how-tos/smoke-a-turkey

Smoked Gouda Mashed Potatoes
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/smoked-gouda-mashed-potatoes-recipe.html

Brussel Sprouts with Hickory Smoked Bacon
http://www.panningtheglobe.com/2014/04/27/skillet-brussels-sprouts-bacon-sherry/

Smoked Blueberry Crumble:  Heather & Eric

Since this was our first 6-member Culinary Couples, we had agreed that "well.... I guess we don't need dessert....."  However, after we finished dinner, Heather told us that we had a "surprise guest" for the evening - and low and behold - she had made us dessert!  Thank goodness!!!! ;)

This dessert took the Smokin' theme to a whole new level - if you have thought about eating a campfire, this was it!  Absolutely ridiculous.

Recipe:
http://grillingwithrich.com/blueberry-crumble-done-on-the-smoker/

Mint Juleps:  Heather & Eric

What comes to mind when you think of the Kentucky Derby?  Nothing other than the classic Mint Julep!  These bourbon-based cocktails served in silver cups were just the "ticket"!

Heather & Eric made these Kentucky Derby staples sinfully easy to make by preparing the mint-infused simple syrup ahead of time.  That meant all we had to do was shave up some ice, pour in some bourbon, and garnish with a mint sprig - yes, I will have a second!

It was great to see all the Derby fashions come to life - the men cleaned up quite nicely and the women adorned themselves with great Derby hats!

 The Mint Juleps were such a hit - even the Derby horses enjoyed a few!!

We also had a great selection of Derby-inspired beers at our fingertips!

Recipe:
http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/classic-mint-julep-0

Ice Cream Wafflewiches:  Heather & Eric

Heather & Eric brought a cooler full of waffle ice cream sandwiches - Blue Belle Rocky Road ice cream sandwiched between two delicious waffles, half dipped in chocolate and nuts!

We found out the next day that Blue Belle had a recall due to listeria.  Good thing that same day there was an article published about the bacteria-fighting properties of maple syrup - our Kentucky Waffles saved us - good thing we had so many ;)

Recipe:
http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/ice-cream-wafflewiches/a49dcf13-0bc9-4360-b568-677fb663d14f

Crunchy Chutney Pork, Roasted Broccoli with Spicy Peanut Sauce, Quinoa, and Mixed Greens with Peanut Ginger Citrus Dressing:  Heather & Eric

Where would one find an assortment of peanut recipes to choose from?  The National Peanut Board, of course!  Heather & Eric made an amazing dinner from recipes found on this website. 

The peanut ginger citrus dressing was so good that we poured it on the quinoa as well!

Recipes:

Crunchy Chutney Pork:
http://nationalpeanutboard.org/recipe/small-bites/crunchy-chutney-pork/

Roasted Broccoli with Spicy Peanut Sauce:
http://nationalpeanutboard.org/recipe/small-bites/spicy-peanut-sauce/

The broccoli was roasted with a little olive oil, salt & pepper

Mixed Greens with Peanut Ginger Citrus Dressing:
http://nationalpeanutboard.org/recipe/whats-for-dinner/peanut-ginger-citrus-dressing-with-salad/

The salad was mixed greens, snacking peppers, and red onion

Martinis:  Heather & Eric

What do you drink when you want to be fancy?  Martinis of course!  We felt very sophisticated with our choice of gin or vodka, dirty or Gibson, dry or wet, but all served straight up, shaken not stirred!

Poor Heather & Eric may have had a few too many drinks the night before our Culinary Couples dinner, nothing like making martinis with a hangover!  HA!

For those of us that preferred a little more sweetness to our drink, we also had the option of Cosmopolitans - still fancy in their fancy glasses!

Beer selection included Stella Artois and Dos Equis, because who other than the most interesting man in the world drinks Dos Equis!

Recipe:

It was basically a make your own martini bar with selections of vodka, gin, vermouth, olives, and olive juice.

Bloody Marys, et al:  Katie, Denis, Heather & Eric

What better way to start your day than with a healthy, vegetable filled salad!  Even though we were having breakfast for dinner, we still wanted to make sure we got our share of nutrition!  Katie & Denis brought an amazing home-made Bloody Mary mix complete with celery stir sticks!

This round of Culinary Couples, we had a joint effort on drinks and appetizers, which resulted in the most delicious and satisfying drinketizer you can imagine!  To garnish the Bloody Marys, Heather & Eric brought an array of appetizing treats... from bacon & meatball sliders on jalapeno focaccia, to your choice of three different stuffed olives (garlic, blue cheese, jalapeno), to pickle spears, celery, artichoke hearts, and fresh cilantro, the choices were unlimited!

After we filled up on our drinketizers, we had an array of Breakfast Beers to choose from including Fresh Squeezed IPA and Coffee Stouts!

Recipes:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/emerils-bloody-mary-mix-recipe2.html

Reindeer Cookies & Peppermint Bark:  Heather & Eric

The creativity continued as Heather & Eric unveiled their Christmas dessert - if you thought you had trouble eating the snowman, good luck with these adorable reindeer!

Jason picked the "special" one! 











To finish the night, we sipped our feuerzengenbowle and Christmas beers by the fire.  Merry Christmas to all and to all a goodnight!

Recipes:

Reindeer Cookies: 

Nutter butter cookies

White cake frosting

M & M's regular

pretzels

Separate the nutter butter cookies

put a dab of cake frosting at top and bottom

break pretzels into pieces that resemble antlers

push pretzels into frosting at the top and put back together the 2 sides of the cookie

dab frosting for 2 eyes and a nose

put m & m's on the frosting

Peppermint Bark: 

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/almost-famous-peppermint-bark-recipe.html

Body Buffet:  Heather & Eric

Never thought you'd enjoy eating a human body from a buffet?  There's nothing like seeing the heart, kidneys, intestines, and ribs all waiting for your eager taste-buds!  This was a truly spooky display!

And to go along with our body buffet, there was brain salad and pickled onions... quite the freaky feast!

Most Creative Dinner:  Culinary Couples Year Two


Recipes:

Team Margaritas:  Heather & Eric

In a house divided, it's very important to show your true colors.  And that's exactly what Heather & Eric's team-inspired margaritas brought to the tailgate!  The blue hue of the margarita was garnished with your choice of football orange slices or football lime slices.  (Let's go Broncos!)

Unfortunately, we quicly learned that when orange and blue are mixed, it does make green..... okay go Seahawks!

 Recipe:
2 ounces of tequila
1 ounce of blue curacao
1 ounce of sweet & sour
Oranges, cut in fourths and scored with laces
Limes, cut in fourths and scored with laces

Mix all ingredients and garnish with your choice of football fruit!

French Brie Cheese Appetizer:  Heather & Eric

Heather and Eric delighted us with a warm brie cheese appetizer - a wheel of brie sliced in half and filled with Apricot or Fig preserves wrapped in a puff pastery and baked in the oven.  This mouth-watering concoction was served with French bread and apples.

And here's the friendly French mime named Heather who baked this fresh for us when we docked in Nice!

2nd Place Winner:  Culinary Couples Year Two - Best Appetizer!

Recipe:
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/brie-cheese-appetizer/