Valentine's Day Meal

Notice to all our Cool Dads: Sunday is Valentine's Day!! While we're not promoting expensive jewelry, overpriced floral bouquets, or stale boxes of chocolates; we do think it's important to celebrate the special person/people in your life. What better way to show your love than with a homecooked meal? Food is love, people!

We have an easy to follow (and affordable) menu guaranteed to show your loved ones how much you care... as well as your mad skills in the kitchen. 

Cool Dads Valentine's Day Menu

-Green Salad -Penne a la Vodka with Shrimp 
-Cheesy Garlic Dinner Rolls
-Dark Chocolate Panna Cotta

We've provided the step-by-step recipe directions below; as well as a timeline; to ensure all elements of your meal are completed at the same time. 


Penne a la Vodka with Shrimp
Recipe inspired by: Julia's Album

The name of this dish only sounds fancy; vodka sauce is incredibly easy to make, and the end result is a rich, creamy tomato sauce that pairs perfectly with shrimp and fresh Parmesan cheese. 
If your Valentine isn't a fan of shellfish, you can easily substitute cooked chicken, or omit meat all together. 
Also, if you're making this dish for the family, don't worry about the vodka; the alcohol burns off making it a family friendly meal. 

1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 medium onion, diced
4 garlic cloves, minced
14 oz canned tomatoes
3/4 cup vodka
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 teaspoon basil (if you have fresh basil - use more)
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1 cup mushrooms, sliced
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup half & half
3/4 teaspoon salt or more
8 oz penne pasta 

1 lb cooked shrimp, tails removed
Parmesan cheese, freshly grated

In a large skillet, saute onion and garlic in olive oil on medium heat, until onion softens.

Add tomatoes, vodka, crushed red pepper, basil, oregano - break tomatoes if necessary.

Bring the mixture to boil. Reduce to simmer and simmer, covered, occasionally stirring, for about 20 minutes or until sauce thickens. During the last 10 minutes, add mushrooms, and continue to simmer for 10 minutes.
While on low heat, add heavy cream and half & half to the sauce and stir
everything to ensure even consistency. Add 3/4 teaspoon of salt or more to season the sauce.

In the meantime, cook pasta according to package instructions. Rinse cooked pasta with cold water and drain (this stops pasta from cooking and prevents it from being too mushy). Add cooked and rinsed pasta and shrimp to the sauce. Reheat the sauce on low heat to heat everything through.
Serve each plate topped with freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Cheesy Garlic Dinner Rolls

Recipe courtesy of Tasty

1 can Pillsbury biscuit dough

3 tablespoons melted butter

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees. 

Cut each piece of biscuit dough into quarters and place in a medium sized bowl. 

Add the melted butter, garlic powder and mozzarella cheese; combine well with your (clean!!!) hands or a large spoon. 

Spray a muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray. Place 3 pieces of biscuit dough into each muffin tin.

Bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown. 

Let cool slightly before serving. 

Dark Chocolate Panna Cotta

The Wisconsin Test Kitchen attended a cooking class a few weeks ago; and one of the things we learned was how easy and delicious Panna Cotta can be. Panna cotta is a simple, Italian custard dish that can be made a variety of different ways. Since it's Valentine's Day, we opted for a chocolate version. 

2/3 cup skim milk, divided
2 teaspoons unflavored gelatin powder
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4.4 ounces dark chocolate (60% cacao), finely chopped
1½ cup plain, non-fat Greek yogurt
Topping (optional):
whipped cream
dark chocolate, coarsely chopped

Pour 1/4 cup of milk into a small bowl, and sprinkle the gelatin on top. When the gelatin softens, after about 10 minutes, stir the two together until combined.
In a medium saucepan bring to a gentle simmer the remaining milk, vanilla and sugar.

Add the gelatin, and whisk until the gelatin has fully dissolved into the hot milk.
Melt the chocolate in a bowl over simmering water. 

Pour the warm milk mixture into the chocolate. 

Stir until the chocolate has melted then stir in the Greek yogurt until fully combined.

Pour the final mixture into small glasses, bowls, or ramekins. Refrigerate for 3- 4 hours or overnight.

Serve the chocolate panna cotta with whipped cream, coarsely chopped chocolate and a sprig of fresh mint.

Cooking Timeline

The Night Before

- Prepare Panna Cotta and refrigerate overnight.

- If you're serving white wine, champagne or beer, make sure it's in the fridge and chilling. 

An hour before dinner

- Prepare the dinner rolls, set off to the side.

-Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees  

- Make dinner salads. Use fresh lettuce (bagged is fine, just make sure you rinse) and salad toppings of your choice.

- Set the table. Light candles, use the nice china- go all out! It's a special occasion!

45 minutes before dinner

- Start preparing the pasta dish. 

- Once the sauce is set to simmer, start boiling water for the penne pasta.

20 minutes before dinner

- When the pasta sauce only has ten minutes left to simmer, put the dinner rolls in the oven to bake for 15 minutes. 

And there you have it! An easy to prepare, impressive Valentine's Dinner. Please let us know if you try these recipes, and what you think. We love our loyal readers; and we're proud to have you as our Valentines!

Stay Cool,
The Cool Dads Crew

Monday Meals: Turkey Tacos

Yep, this is pretty much life in the Wisconsin Test Kitchen. Tacos are our diet kryptonite. But last week we found a low-calorie, tasty and quick taco recipe the whole family loved. Low calorie, tasty and quick... that's like the trifecta of dinner awesome, right there! 

Juicy Turkey Tacos

Recipe courtesy of: Chili Pepper Madness

1 teaspoon olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
1 jalapeno pepper, chopped
12 ounces ground turkey
2 tablespoons taco seasoning
½ cup water
6 corn tortillas, lightly toasted
Fixings for toppings – we used fresh tomato, avocado, cheese and salsa


Heat a large pan to medium heat. Add olive oil and swirl.
Add onion, jalapeno pepper and ground turkey. Cook it all together about 8 minutes, or until the turkey is nearly cooked through.

Add taco seasoning and water. Stir. Reduce heat and allow to simmer about 10 minutes, until most of the moisture reduces and the flavorings thicken up. Leave just a bit of the liquid in the pan to keep the turkey nice and juicy and moist.

Serve onto toasted tortillas and top with your favorite fixings!

Notes from the Test Kitchen

-The recipe calls for a jalapeno; but the taco meat didn't turn out too spicy; SB took down two tacos without complaint.

-The extra step of letting the taco meat simmer with the water and taco seasoning really helped make the meat juicy and flavorful. These were some of the best tacos we've made! 

What are your favorite Taco Tuesday recipes? Any crazy toppings you love? Leave your ideas in the comments below!

Stay Cool,
The Cool Dads Crew

Football Friday: The Best Of Edition

It's almost Super Bowl Sunday! Yes, there's a game and half-time show and funny commercials; but we all know what everyone is most interested in... the food! We decided to compile a list of some of our most popular Football Friday blogs in order to make your game day snacking decisions easy.

One of our most iconic posts was Bachos; nachos made with bacon instead of tortilla chips. This was one of the smartest, tastiest recipes to even come out of the Wisconsin Test Kitchen. And so easy, we might be making it again this Sunday!

Still looking for more bacon? Try Bacon Dip. Because, well, bacon. 

Super Bowl Sunday isn't complete unless there's some kind of creamy dip, and buffalo chicken wings. Thankfully, we learned how to combine both of them into one delicious, satisfying dish. Try our Buffalo Chicken Wing Dip; and kill two appetizers with one chip. 

If you're looking to make sandwiches, we recommend our Melty Ham & Cheese Sliders. These ooey, gooey little sandwiches will feed a crowd of people, and use ingredients you probably have in your fridge right now!

If you're a crock pot fan, these Italian Beef Sandwiches are the bomb. Throw all your ingredients in the crock pot in the morning; and you'll have hot, tangy Italian Beef in time for kick off. 

Looking to make dessert? It's strange that this is one of our most popular blogs ever... but it speaks to the iconic nature of dessert snack food. Whip up a Twinkie Cake; and bask in the adoration of all your Super Bowl Sunday guests. 

We hope you've enjoyed our most recent Football Friday season; and we can't wait to start posting Family Friday meals: recipes designed to share with the whole family.

And, um, #gopanthers #keeppounding

Stay Cool,
The Cool Dads Crew

Monday Meals: Super Simple Beans & Rice

The Test Kitchens have taken to something called batch cooking: spending the weekends cooking a large batch of something, and eating it throughout the week. The Wisconsin Test Kitchen does this with soups and stews, and the Arkansas Test Kitchen just did it with a rotisserie chicken. Side note: if you're looking for an easy way to cook a chicken, check out our What a Crock post, that details how to cook a whole chicken in the crock pot. Easy peasy.

But one of the problems with batch cooking is you get a little bored with your food by mid-week. The Arkansas Test Kitchen fought off food boredom by pairing beans and rice with their chicken; and turning it into tacos!

Super Simple Beans and Rice
Courtesy of Graceful Little Honey Bee

2 cups cooked rice (you can use either brown or white)
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed (we recommend using a good quality black bean)
1 can corn, drained
1 medium onion, diced
1 bell pepper, diced (optional)
1 – 2 cups cooked chicken, shredded
¼ cup shredded cheddar cheese (we used more than this, see the Test Kitchen notes below)
Salt and pepper to taste
Taco or fajita seasoning to taste
Flour tortillas
Salsa (optional)
Sour Cream (optional)
Other taco toppings you enjoy

1. Saute the onion and pepper (if using)

2. Add the black beans, corn, chicken and spices (salt, pepper and taco or fajita seasoning) and warm through 

3. Add the cooked rice to the mixture, and combine well.

4. Warm the tortillas in the microwave (read the directions on the back)

5. Place a few spoonfuls of the bean and rice mixture in the warmed tortilla

6. Top with shredded cheese, salsa, sour cream or any other toppings you would like.

Notes from the Test Kitchen

1. Use good quality black beans; otherwise you get hard, tasteless beans, and no one wants to eat that.
2. Use your imagination on toppings; the sky is the limit! Avocado, black olives, lettuce and fresh tomato are all delicious options.
3. You could even use the rice and beans with tortilla chips, and make nachos.  

Does your kitchen batch cook? What are some recipes you like to make in bulk? Leave your comments in the notes section below!

Stay Cool,
The Cool Dads Crew

Football Friday: Pizza Boats

We don't know about you, but we're obsessed with those Tasty and Buzzfeed food videos filling up Facebook these days. In case you haven't seen them, it's a video of how to prepare some kind of delicious recipe (Oreo truffles, Beef Wellington, taco shells made out of cheese); and it's done in such a way that leaves you hungry and thinking, "Yeah! I could make that!"

The Wisconsin Test Kitchen saw a Tasty video for Pizza Boats; and we had to give it a try. It was, dare we say... Tasty! If you want to see the video for yourself, here you go:

If you want written directions; we've got those too.

1 baguette (we went with Angelic Bakehouse baguettes). One of our Cool Dads works there, so we need to show some brand loyalty and love
shredded mozzarella cheese
pepperoni
pizza sauce
pizza toppings of choice

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees

Hollow out the inside of your baguette; leave about an inch on either side of the baguette, but remove the inside. 

Line the bottom with a thin layer of mozzarella cheese. Resist the urge to load it up... you have plenty of other toppings that need to fit inside.

Drizzle a thin layer of pizza sauce on top of the cheese.

Repeat layers; and then lay pepperoni on top of the bread, and tuck inside the bread: sealing all that pizza goodness in there.

Bake for 25 minutes.

We baked one pizza boat traditionally according to the directions, but then we jazzed the next one up. Instead of pizza sauce, we used pesto. Instead of pepperoni we added green pepper and black olives. 

This was a fun, different take on pizza that we all enjoyed. This is also the perfect appetizer to serve on game day. It's easy to make, customizable, and easier to hold than a whole slice of pizza. The Wisconsin Test Kitchen loved this one- just look at these happy faces!

We'll be back next week with some Super Bowl favorites.

Stay Cool,
The Cool Dads Crew

Weight Loss Wednesday: Tuscan Chicken Soup

We're almost done with the first month of 2016. How are your resolutions panning out? Are you actively counting calories, or watching your fat intake? Are you moving more? Maybe working towards running a 5 or 10K? 

If you're curious how Doug from the Arkansas Test Kitchen is doing, check out his fitness blog: Blood Sweat and Gears for updates on his progress. The Wisconsin Test Kitchen is focused on training for a 10K in March; and Kevin just registered for Tough Mudder in October. It's been almost a year since his spinal fusion surgery; and he's ready to get back to running and fitness again.

Let's talk about nutrition for a second. A lot of people give up before they even get started on healthy eating because they think the only thing they're allowed to eat is salads and chicken breasts. Not true. This time of year, soups are a great low-calorie, filling option. They're also a great way to incorporate more vegetables into your diet. Here's a soup recipe the Arkansas Test Kitchen tried out a few weeks back!

Tuscan Chicken Soup
Recipe courtesy of myrecipes.com/recipe/Tuscan-chicken-soup

1 cup chopped onion
2 tablespoon tomato paste
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 (15 ounce) can white beans (try finding cannellini beans)
1 (14 ounce) can fat free, low sodium chicken broth
1 (7 ounce) bottle roasted red bell peppers (try looking in the Italian section of your grocery store)
1 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs
3 garlic cloves minced
6 ounces package fresh baby spinach
8 teaspoons grated Parmesan cheese (try using fresh if you can)

1. Cut the red bell peppers in 1/2” pieces

2. Cut the chicken thighs into 1” pieces

3. Place the first nine ingredients into the slow cooker

4. Cover and cook on high for 1 hour

5. After 1 hour, turn heat to low and cook for an additional 3 hours

6. After 3 hours on low, stir in the spinach and cook for an additional 10 minutes

7. Ladle soup in a bowl and top with grated Parmesan Cheese

8. Enjoy with a piece of toasted bread

Notes from the Test Kitchen:
1. While preparing, it might look like there isn't enough liquid in the crock pot. Don't worry- there will be plenty by the time the soup is done.

2. Fire roasted tomatoes would add a great flavor to the soup if you'd prefer.

8 servings
Calories: 295 Fat: 4.7 Fiber: 8.6

Nutritional Information provided by www.caloriecount.com

Let us know how you're doing on your New Years Resolutions! Leave your updates in the comments below.

Stay Cool,
The Cool Dads Crew

Football Friday: The Lemon Edition

Today's blog is a little special- we want to peel back the curtain to show you what really happens in one of our test kitchens. 

Lemons. Kind of appropriate considering the two test kitchens don't have a team to root for in the playoffs any longer. But, you know what they say... when life hands you lemons- you cook stuff. Or make potent alcohol beverages. Whichever you'd prefer. 

So, here's how this all started. The Wisconsin Test Kitchen received a pound of Meyer lemons in one of their weekly deliveries from Door to Door Organics. Rebecca intended to use the lemons to make a birthday pie for Kevin; but life happened. He had to settle for pork roast, sweet potatoes and kale salad instead. Sad, right? 

The lemons continued to sit in the fridge for another week, and we forgot to use them. Fast forward to last weekend. We didn't want the lemons to go to waste, so we decided to investigate a few fun recipe ideas. 

First, we decided on Limoncello. For those that don't know- it's a refreshing lemon flavored beverage served cold. It's really delicious splashed into champagne or served cold on a hot day. We even bought 6 more Meyer lemons so we had the 10 needed for the recipe. 

Well, there was a slight problem. The limoncello recipe only called for the RINDS of the lemons... not the actual juice. So, we were stuck with TEN LEMONS, instead of the original four. Talk about a test kitchen fail...

Plan B: Lemon Bars! We made a pan of delicious, tart, lemon bars that we took to a wine tasting that evening, and even shared with our babysitters. But... the lemon bars only used 1/3 cup of lemon juice. We still had eight lemons left to use. AHHHHHH!!!!! 

Kevin couldn't take it anymore. He swore his hands were going to smell like lemons forever. So, he took matters into his own hands and looked online. Boom: Lemon Drop Moonshine! The recipe called for 2 cups of lemon juice, which we had after all our baking shenanigans. We were completely out of butter, flour, sugar and eggs... but we had plenty of lemon juice. 

For those that have watched Packer games with the Wisconsin Test Kitchen, you know it's customary to pass around a jar of shine after the Packers score a touchdown. We now have plenty of shine for the 2015-2016 Packers season! 

I mean seriously: look at that jug of shine! 
We hope you enjoyed this entertaining look behind the scenes of the test kitchen. We'll report back in a few months when the shine and limoncello are ready for consumption.

Stay Cool,
The Cool Dads Crew