How to Cook for Six Hungry Adults

 When we were in Cleveland the other weekend, we all decided that it would be cheaper/easier/more fun to cook our dinner on Saturday as opposed to going out to eat. We were definitely right! Here’s a look at our delicious, fun, and easy creations.

We did have an adorable baby to stare at all weekend, so it was really hard to focus on making a list and actually go to the store!

We started off with lasagna. Who doesn’t love homemade lasagna? Cheesy, gooey, goodness.

  

Oh, and another pan without meat for good measure. Well, another pan because Suzi is an amazing friend and wanted the meatless eater (me) to be able to enjoy her awesome lasagna! Plus, she prefers meatless lasagna anyway…unless she was just saying that to make me feel better… :)

 

Sam whipped up some crazy-delicious seafood stuffed mushrooms. Butter, shrimp, crab, celery, spices.

 

Mix, mix, mix…

 

Clean and fill the portobellos…

  

And voila!! They were rich, filling, and absolutely delicious!

Kat worked on making cream puffs. Seriously, could this dinner get any more decadent? She whipped up the simple recipe, and they came out of the oven golden brown and perfect!

The puffs were filled with homemade whipped cream and drizzled with melted chocolate. These were seriously amazing. The dough was rich and eggy, and I could have eaten the entire pan myself. I think we all could have eaten a pan ourselves.

An awesome find of the weekend was thanks to Ohio’s slightly more lenient liquor laws…alcohol infused whipped cream! These are not available in PA (no surprise there), so it was an exciting treat. They were way stronger than expected. Still delicious though. At 30 proof, they are about the same strength as drinking Parrot Bay straight. On our next trip to Ohio, I’m definitely trying the raspberry flavor!

By the way, these were not used in the cream puffs. Good idea though……

What was my job, you ask? I had the unfortunate task of eating the cream puff innards (gotta make room for the cream!) with the leftover homemade whipped cream. Oh darn!

I also made pudding shots, but they were sadly disgusting and ended up never setting up.

It was a wonderful dinner, and we had the pleasure of feasting on leftovers for the rest of the weekend. Awesome!

Does anyone have any advice on taking pictures with point and shoots? I never use the flash, so I obviously get a lot of blurry pictures. Along with being blurry, the pictures just seem so…blahh sometimes. Should I try out the flash? Let me know your thoughts!

The Brew Kettle – Strongsville, OH

Aren’t weekends amazing? I spent last weekend in Cleveland with five (plus a baby) of my greatest friends. A visit to The Brew Kettle was one of the fantastic highlights of our weekend.

The Brew Kettle is a restaurant, bar, and brewery, and you can also make your own beer or wine there! The inside is very large. The picture below was just one side of the restaurant, which means it is great for large groups!

Their draft list is fantastic. There was so much to choose from, and I could have spent hours there sampling the different beers.

 

I finally settled on the New Holland Dragon’s Milk. This was a really great beer! The gentlemen of the table said it was too sweet, but I (who doesn’t normally like sweet beers) still thought it was tasty. It was fruity, chocolaty, and warm.

We took a peek in the back room, which is where people can brew their own beer. The air was rich with the smell of beer, and people sampled different beers as they learned about the brewing process. It looked like a lot of fun. Definitely a treat for locals though, unless you are able to return weeks later to retrieve your beer.

  

We waited quite a while for our food, but Tyler and Kat still looked happy!

 

So did Suzi, Sam, and Andy :)

 

The main star of the show slept soundly all during dinner…isn’t she beautiful? I’d probably be asleep too though if I was bundled up in layers of fleece!

 

The food was amazing – I ordered a sandwich which had one giant portobello mushroom, roasted red peppers, cheese, and basil mayo on a foccacia roll. It was as wonderful as it sounds. It also came with tangy coleslaw and perfectly steamed broccoli.

 

As you can tell, Andy really enjoyed his Buddha burger, which had two 1/2 pound patties. Huge.

We really had a fantastic weekend! Suzi and Sam are always such wonderful hosts (along with being wonderful friends)…and cuddling with a two month old all weekend wasn’t so bad either!