Rhode Island Nesties
1. The host generally provides one of the main dishes, plates, silverware, napkins, and glasses.
2. If you are a guest, ask the host what to bring. The host may have food categories divided among the guests such as bread, salad, appetizer, main dish, side dish, dessert, and beverage.
3. Arrive on time. Do not inconvenience the other guests by making them wait for you and your dish to arrive.
4. Bring the appropriate serving utensil for your dish. The host may not have the utensil or have enough serving utensils for everyone's dish.
5. Unless you have an unusual serving dish and utensil, it is best to tape your name to both for easy identification. Have your name attached is helpful if you forget to take your dish home.
6. The dish should be ready to serve and kept at the appropriate temperature until placed on the table. If bringing hot food, keep it hot until it is placed on the table and bring a hot plate to protect the table surface. If bringing cold food, keep it cold until ready to serve.
7. When at the buffet line, only take a small portion of each item to taste. Part of the fun of a potluck is to sample everyone's dish.
8. Help the host with clean up. If everyone helps with clean up, it will get done in a fraction of the time with little effort on everyone's part.
9. If your dish has leftovers, then take them home unless you would like to offer it to the host. Do not take someone else's leftovers.
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
The club is open
This week we're sharing potluck recipes. What do you bring when you're invited to a potluck? It can be any course. Or perhaps you saw a recipe lately that you thought would be great for a potluck event! We want it!!!!
We always want our Featured Cookie's recipes. She's already posted them and as always, she's outdone herself. Thanks Erin!
1/27 - Amanda (LoveOfMyLife)2/3 - Kreepy
Pot Luck Etiquette Advice1. The host generally provides one of the main dishes, plates, silverware, napkins, and glasses.
2. If you are a guest, ask the host what to bring. The host may have food categories divided among the guests such as bread, salad, appetizer, main dish, side dish, dessert, and beverage.
3. Arrive on time. Do not inconvenience the other guests by making them wait for you and your dish to arrive.
4. Bring the appropriate serving utensil for your dish. The host may not have the utensil or have enough serving utensils for everyone's dish.
5. Unless you have an unusual serving dish and utensil, it is best to tape your name to both for easy identification. Have your name attached is helpful if you forget to take your dish home.
6. The dish should be ready to serve and kept at the appropriate temperature until placed on the table. If bringing hot food, keep it hot until it is placed on the table and bring a hot plate to protect the table surface. If bringing cold food, keep it cold until ready to serve.
7. When at the buffet line, only take a small portion of each item to taste. Part of the fun of a potluck is to sample everyone's dish.
8. Help the host with clean up. If everyone helps with clean up, it will get done in a fraction of the time with little effort on everyone's part.
9. If your dish has leftovers, then take them home unless you would like to offer it to the host. Do not take someone else's leftovers.
10. Show appreciation. Let everyone know how much you enjoyed their dish and thank them.
And for some stupid reason I can't post a picture right now....so....please refer to a previous club post for our logo. Or my sig...whatever you want!!
Pam - Mom to Tyler David 10/23/94, Tristan Hal 3/11/06, Melinda Rose 7/22/07
Re: The club is open
i'm not sure if these have been shared yet, but they are our new favorite cookies! from savorysweetlife.com
Alice?s Chocolate Chip CookiesMakes approx. 45-48 cookies using a sm-med 2tbl. cookie scoopINGREDIENTS:1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter, softened1/2 cup sugar1 1/2 cup packed brown sugar2 eggs2 tsp. vanilla extract2 3/4 cups (12 oz) all-purpose flour *If at all possible, please weigh the flour3/4 tsp. smallish-medium coarse sea salt *please do not use table salt, the sea salt gives the cookies a nice flavor and hints of texture. If you only have table salt, use 1/2 tsp. *When using sea salt, you will get small crunchy flecks of salt when you bite into the cookie. If you do not like this taste, go with 1/2 teaspoon of table salt.1 tsp. baking soda1 1/2 tsp. baking powder2 1/4 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips *I realized grocery stores sell bags of chocolate chips in 12 oz bags but this recipe really needs every last chip. Otherwise you?ll get cookies with only a few chips in each one and this recipe requires lots of chocolate to bulk the cookie up. You?ll need about 1 1/2 bags.DIRECTIONS:Preheat oven to 360 degrees. Cream butter, sugar, and brown sugar until it is nice and fluffy (approx. 3 minutes on medium-high speed on a K-5). Add both eggs and vanilla and beat for an additional 2 minutes. Add baking soda, baking powder, salt, and flour until cookie batter is fully incorporated. Finally add chocolate chips until well distributed. The cookie batter should be somewhat thick. Drop about 2 tablespoons of dough or use a medium cookie scoop and plop the batter onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 12-14 minutes until the edges are nice and golden brown. Remove from heat and allow the cookies to stay on the cookie sheet for an additional 2 minutes. Pick up the parchment paper with the cookies still on top and transfer to a cool non-porous surface. Allow the cookies to cool on the paper for at least 3 minutes before serving. Enjoy!
I've got to type up the recipe I threw together last night for chili. It came out pretty good, although I think I'm going to tweak it a bit still...
In the meantime, here's the image for the club!
since this is better the next day and easily reheated, i would definitely bring it to a potluck or serve from the crock pot if i were hosting. this is a little more work than lesa's recipe but it's sofucking good that i don't mind the extra effort. i highly recommend keeping it in the fridge for 2-3 days to let the rub soak in.
Slow Cooker Pulled Pork
Spice Rub:
1 tablespoon ground black pepper
1-2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
2 tablespoons chili powder
2 tablespoons ground cumin
2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
1 tablespoon dried oregano
4 tablespoons paprika
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1 tablespoon ground white pepper
1 tablespoon salt
1 (6-8 pound) bone-in pork shoulder
? teaspoon liquid smoke (optional)
2 cups barbecue sauce
1. Mix all spice rub ingredients in small bowl.
2. Massage spice rub into meat. Wrap tightly in double layer of plastic wrap; refrigerate for at least 3 hours. (For stronger flavor, the roast can be refrigerated for up to 3 days.)
3. Unwrap roast and place it in slow cooker liner. Add liquid smoke, if using, and ? cup water (or beer). Turn slow cooker to low and cook for 8-10 hours, until meat is fork-tender.
4. Transfer roast to cutting board; discard liquid in liner. ?Pull? by tearing meat into thin shreds with two forks or your fingers. Discard fat.
5. Place shredded meat back in slow cooker liner; toss with 1 cup barbecue sauce, and heat on low for 30-60 minutes, until hot. Serve with additional barbecue sauce.
note: i've used ancho chili instead of cayenne to keep it from being too spicy, i also omitted the salt and didn't use the liquid smoke.
This Cocoa Chicken Chili is what I worked off for my chili last night - http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Community/Cocoa-Chicken-Chili -- will have to try it as written next time to compare!
Here's my tweaked version, made about 3qts... it was definitely spicy (the kind of heat that builds as you eat). I do think it would work at a potluck, maybe editing down the spice. The chicken shredded on its own during the cooking process, almost to a pulled-chicken consistency.
Chunky Chicken and Linguica Chili
1/2 pound pre-cooked chicken, cubed* (I used 4 thighs that I'd roasted earlier)
1 link Portuguese linguica (sausage), cubed
2 tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, diced
1 bunch scallions, diced (I just used the green part)
2-3 tsp garlic, minced
1 large green bell pepper, diced
1 15oz can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 15oz can pinto beans, drained and rinsed
1 15oz can cannellini (white) beans, drained and rinsed
3 10oz cans diced tomatoes with green chiles
3 tbsp brown sugar
1.5 tbsp cocoa-chile blend (I used McCormick's spice blend)
2 tbsp chile powder (I used 1 tbsp jalapeno powder + 1 tbsp chipotle powder)
1.5 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp salt
corn starch, as needed to thicken (I needed about 1-2 tsp to get it to the consistency we like)
Saut? the onion and linguica in 2 tbsp olive oil until onions are transparent. Add pre-cooked chicken, peppers, garlic and scallions and cook a few minutes more.
Stir in the kidney beans, pinto beans, cannellini beans, and tomatoes with green chiles. Season with brown sugar, cocoa-chile blend, chili powder, cumin and salt. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. If needed, add corn starch to thicken.
NOTE: if using raw chicken, add it at the beginning when cooking the onions and linguica, and cook until the chicken is no longer pink. Then add the other ingredients.