Cookbook Club - Chrissy Teigen's Cravings Cookbook

Vancity Girlfriends got together for our very first Cookbook Club with Chrissy Teigen's Cravings Cookbook.  Everyone chose one dish from the cookbook to prepare and bring to the potluck.  Then we discussed our dishes and of course ate them all up.  What a delicious way to have a book club!  

1. Secretly Spicy Deviled Eggs - These were a great appetizer to start the party off right.  Delicious deviled eggs that have a bit of zing!  They also look pretty on a plate.

2.  Creamy Potato Salad with Bacon - The bacon really makes this salad taste great!  The trick with bacon is to bake your bacon on a baking sheet in the over instead of frying it.  Super creamy and delicious!  Perfect for picnics!

 3.  Roasted Cauliflower, Feta and Orzo Salad - This was a lighter healthy tasting salad and so simple to make.  We thought it would pair nicely with roasted chicken or lemon pepper chicken.  

4.  Yellow Cake Baked Oatmeal - This one's under breakfast and it is superb for breakfast or dessert!  Oatmeal for dessert!  Yes because this one has cake baked with it.  Top it off with vanilla ice cream for a warm dessert with a cool topping.  Surprisingly versatile! 

Chrissy Teigen's Cravings Cookbook Club was success and we were able to taste four delicious recipes from her cookbook.  We loved reading Chrissy Teigen's cooking tales and stories.  For more on Cravings Cookbook, check out Coupon Chef.  I can't wait for the next Cookbook Club! 

Subscription Box Sunday - White Willow Box (April Unboxing)

Dear Vancity Girlfriends,

Our White Willow April Box arrived and we unboxed it!  It was a celebratory occasion.  The box is beautifully designed and I love their motto that is inside the box "Unveil your Surprises".  It is like a wedding in a box.  Everything is pretty and classic.  Carolyn said it's like Pier 1 in a box, now I don't go to Pier 1 enough to know what that means, but let's take a look inside April's White Willow Box.

 1.  Classic Double Pearl Earrings by Cherrypick - classy double sided pearl earrings.  These were in the sneak peak for April's box which led me to actually purchase my first White Willow subscription box and boy, am I glad I did.  Classic and beautiful.

 2.  Natural Foaming Face Wash (Unscented) by Consonant Skincare - I love natural products and this is an award winning cleaner so I'm excited to start using it.  I am a big fan of foaming face cleansers so this one will work itself into my daily routine.  

3.  Gluten Free Artisan Vanilla Bean Cake Mix by NextJen - Such a fancy name for a cake mix.  On my bucket list I want to bake something gluten free so this will help me do just that.  

4.  Earl Grey Imperial Tea Sachets by Harney & Sons Master Tea Blenders - With the Gluten Free Vanilla Bean Cake Mix and the Earl Grey Imperial Cake, I can follow the recipe that was provided in the box to make a Gluten Free London Fog Cake.  Such a brilliant idea!  

5.  Honey Absolute White Soleil Candle by D.L & Co. - You'll have to watch our Vancity Girlfriends YouTube White Willow Unboxing to see this candle.  It already has gone to its new home in Carolyn's elegant wash closet ;)

Overall we loved how this box is curated and put together.  It is done with such beauty and elegance.  It was worth the $48.50 that I spent for the gift box (one time box which includes shipping and taxes).  We loved it so much we are both considering getting a subscription to this one.  Subscriptions are monthly, 3 months, 6 months or 12 months and range from $32-35/month plus shipping.  It's like opening up a box that is as beautiful and elegant as a wedding.  Impressive!

Stagette Party: Aphrodisiac Cooking Class at Kitchen Riddles

Dear Vancity Girlfriends,

When you think of getting married and the stagette, you may not think of cooking classes, but that is exactly what we did for my girlfriend's stagette!  It was called the Aphrodisiac Cooking Class which was a private class just for the nine of us.  

Chef Morgan and Chef Tony took care of us for the evening and we started the night tasting their fresh foccacia bread which was orgasmic.  It was freshly baked that evening and the bread melted in our mouths.  We had that with our choice of white or red wine.  

Then we gathered for our Aphrodisiac Cooking Class which is perfect for bridal showers, bridal parties, girl's night out, birthday parties, or stagettes.  There was a large table with enough space for everyone and the ingredients in the middle.  The chef who was teaching that dish was at the front and first he taught us knife techniques and how to chop the ingredients before we cooked.  It was better than watching the Food Network because it's in person.  Yay!  

We prepared and then learned how to cook each step of the three course meal.  The appetizer was crab cakes with arugula which were so delicious probably because of they were "real" crab cakes (no imitation crab meat here).  Instead there was a bowl full of cooked soft shell crab.  We learned how to plate our dishes too before we brought them to the dining area to enjoy!  Throughout the evening there were cocktails and unlimited wine for us to refill our wine glasses.  The chefs were patient and funny and let us be a little wild and crazy!  After all we were there for a stagette, not a cooking class, and it was a beautiful blend of both.  

Our main entree was Prosciutto Awakening which was a prosciutto wrapped chicken breast that is seared and served with a mixture of white and cremini mushrooms sauteed with asparagus and risotto.  An elegant plate indeed.  

For dessert we had a Chocolate Lava cake served with chantilly cream and pomegranates.  This was an amazing 3 course meal and I was so excited that I could recreate these dishes from memory.  That is the beauty of the culinary arts.  Not only was it was tipsy fun stagette, we learned a lot about cooking fundamentals....that says a lot that I can remember that after drinking at least 4 glasses of wine throughout the night.   What a memorable night!  

Kitchen Riddles in Burnaby:  https://kitchenriddles.com/cooking-classes/

Subscription Boxes: Foodie Pages Chef's Box

Hi Vancity Girlfriends,

I love coupons so when I saw a coupon for $10 off a $50 order of Holiday boxes or Chef's boxes at Foodie Pages I couldn't resist.  Now I've been watching Foodie Pages awhile back when I first discovered it but back then I was so overwhelmed by the beauty subscription boxes that I didn't think any other type of box. 

However as time passed Canadian Subscription Boxes have gone through their ups and downs in trying to stay alive.  I have discovered that the formerly Canadian Snackbox has merged with the American Healthy Surprises so we come across high shipping rates for Canadians and snacks from American companies.  I LOVED Snackbox but did not like Healthy Surprises at all.  Chef Butler which was another Canadian company who shipped ingredients to make a meal to Canadians is no longer accepting new subscriptions or gifts as they are winding down and out of business.  

I want to support Canadian companies so with the $10 off coupon, I decided to

try Foodie Page's Chef's Box.  With the coupon, it is essentially getting a break on the shipping to B.C.  Chef Brian Skinner chose the selection for the November Chef's Box from Foodie Pages which includes three recipes and six local small batch ingredients.  The menu of Buckwheat Blueberry Pancakes, Honey & Fresh Cheese Canapés, and Honey Baked Apples with Ricotta & Vanilla won me over.  I'm quite excited about opening this box with an expected arrival date of Dec 10th.  I know, I still have to wait a month, but isn't anticipation the fun part?  Mouth watering and healthy! 

How do you save money and order the Chef's Box?
1.  Go to Foodie Pages website
2.   Click on "Shop Boxes" at top menu link and "Monthly Clubs" from the drop down menu
3.  Choose the "1 Month" and Click "Add to Cart"
4.  Click "Proceed to checkout"
5.  Use Promo Code:  SMALLBATCH before November 15th, 2014.  

It's just that easy!  Or come back in December to see me open my Chef's Box.  

Cooking: Well Fed Studio Meal Assembly Classes

Dear Vancity Girlfriends,

I love cooking and having homemade meals that are healthy and easy to make.  I've watched cooking shows such as Jamie Oliver's 15 minutes meals and Gordan Ramsey's Best Restaurants to see how to go from home made comfort food to gourmet restaurant meals.  

However even every foodie loving chef has to take a break once in a while so when my girlfriend suggested that we attend North Vancouver's Well Fed Studio and meal assembly class, it didn't take me long to say "Yes!".  So Vancity Girlfriends went to our first meal assembly class on October 15th.  

Well Fed Meal Assembly class is where we "assemble" or "put together" eight dinners that will feed 4-6 people each.  There is a menu that you pre-order from before you attend the class and you can double order the dishes that you like.  There are snacks and drinks (even white wine) served during the two hours of the class.  I had never heard of this idea before but the class sold out so we were lucky that we signed up early.

The cost of the meal assembly class for your eight meals is $238 per person.  The hardest part for me was making space in my apartment sized freezer for the meals.  

When I arrived at the class, they already had our first tray of ingredients all ready for us and our own individual recipe books with our names on them.  Everyone did the recipes that they each choose in the order of their recipe book.  All the ingredients were wrapped in different bags for the different meals that you chose.  Even though initially I thought that meal assembly would be easier than cooking, it was still a LOT of work.  We were busy assembling the meals during the entire two hours.  Everyone else seemed to know what to do and had been there before.  Since it was our first time we had some catching up to do but Carolyn was on a roll and got to work right away as I was sipping on my wine ;)  

The recipe book provided instructions on how to assemble the meal.  Put the ingredients in different ziploc bags, add the spices, pack it all together in ziploc bags or containers and then slap cooking instructions on it.  Most of the ingredients would be in the bags but the staple ingredients and fresh herbs were in the middle of the table for everyone to use and share. 

With the stuffed chicken breasts, we had to put the stuffing and tie the breasts before we put them in containers to freeze at home.  I really liked the fact that most of the recipes that I choose were intended to be put in large ziploc bags because that saved a lot of freezer space for me.  I also liked that since we were assembling the food, I could choose which meals I wanted to separate into smaller portion sizes.  It was work but the good news is that I didn't have to do any chopping, or dish washing.  All of the shopping and preparation was done for me and I didn't need to buy a bunch of different spices that I might only use once or twice.  A few of the recipes such as Chicken Tikka Masala and Beef Tangine had over 10 spices in the recipes.  

Overall we both liked the meal assembly class and it was a great idea to try it out.  Now we just need to actually thaw and cook the recipes at home to see what they taste like!  

Well Fed Meal Assembly Class Website