Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Chinese Cooking Night #2...

This past Saturday evening, Joe and I had a Chinese food cooking night at our place. The "chefs" for the evening were Michele, Heather & Damon, Nancy & Brian, Jennifer, and Linda Marie.

Linda came over a little early to help with the initial prep work and surprised me with a brand new rice cooker! This is probably the ONLY kitchen appliance that I don't already own. I know, those of you who know me are shocked that I didn't already have one. ;)

These were the recipes for the night (two of them we already tried and knew were good):

Egg Flower Soup
Egg Rolls
Kung Pao Beef
Shrimp with Snow Peas
Almond Chicken

Linda and I did some of the initial prep work before everyone else showed up, so by the time everyone started arriving we had the meats cut up and already marinating. Considering we had nine people in the kitchen at one time, the timing of everything went VERY well and we actually had all the dishes prepped and ready to cook at the same time. Of course we had a little help with these chocolate covered coffee beans (yum) and lots of red wine!


Here's Nancy hard at work on the Almond Chicken recipe...


and Michele giving a quick lesson on how to roll an egg roll...


Oh, and Brian hamming it up for the camera...


After all our hard work, we were rewarded with a really tasty dinner! My favorites are still the soup and the kung pao beef (from our first cooking night). The almond chicken was also really good. I think if you want to plan your own cooking night, you can't go wrong with these three recipes. Here's the kung pao beef and the almond chicken...


Thank you to everyone who joined us...we had a great time! As you can see, Lucy was just exhausted by the end of the evening...

17 comments:

Lisa~~ said...

What a great evening, looks like lots of fun.

C's Mom said...

That post has made me VERY hungry. I may be driving off to (yes) Tommy Lee's carryout. Isn't that pathetic? My local Chinese restaurant is named after a rather swarthy rock star. What can I say, I'm starved!

jeanette said...

thanks for posting the recipes! i can't wait to try them..they look so delicious!

Joannah said...

Mmmm...

That looks tasty and fun! I love, love, love Chinese food.

Dawn and Dale said...

Wow!! That lookes like it was sooo much fun and yes...soooo yummy!!!

Jacquie said...

Man, that stuff looks good!

Susan said...

How fun! My kitchen gets overcrowded with 2 people in there :) Maybe some of my local peeps with bigger kitchens can host one for us (You know who you are and I know you read this blog :))

Glad you all had a good time...even Lucy.

Stephe said...

Awesome! I love your Dinner Events, they seem like a blast. I might have to get something like that started here!!!

P.S. Donna, I sent you an URGENT east coast panda email...(just want to make sure you get it!)

Thanks. See you SOON!!!!!!!

Middle-Aged Moi said...

Looks DELISH!!!!! Glad you had a good night. Hmmm.... I think I need to get some lunch, all that good food is making me hungry.....

Janet T.
tuiningatreasures.blogspot.com

4D said...

What a great idea! You have totally inspired me to have a night like that.

Keep smilin!

Polar Bear said...

Some friends are coming over for the Autumn Lantern Moon Festival and I have been trying to decide if I should try some Chinese dishes. This is giving me some inspiration.

It sounds and looks like it was a great party.

Kim M. said...

Yummy everything looks great!

Looks like Lucy had a great time.

Robin said...

I have to agree.. everything looks so YUMMY! What great friends!

Shannon said...

What a wonderful and tasty evening!

Elise said...

Looks delish!!! What a great idea...we will have to try this and thanks for the recipes!

t~ said...

What a delicious evening!

Nancy & Brian said...

Thank you for the wonderful evening. We really had a great time, the food was delicious and you were wonderful hosts!
Thanks again,
Nancy and Brian