Girls Night Out with Kenmore Live Studios & the Mominatrix

A couple of weeks ago I hung out in downtown Chicago with a bunch of awesome mommy bloggers, the Mominatrix, and Kenmore. I had no idea the the Kenmore Live Studio even existed, but I am so glad that I know now! We had good food, good drinks, and a lot of fun. We had the great pleasure of eating the wonderful creations of Chef Nick Lacasse, and drinks from Mixologist Charles Joly. You can catch them at the The Drawing Room if you would like to sample their creations for yourself!

They were even extra awesome and they shared the recipes with us, which I will paste below. I would totally LOVE to make that meal one day, although I’m sure that it won’t be quite the same. 🙂

Diver Scallops with truffled parsnip puree, asparagus, and yuzu kumquat gastrique

Chef Nick Lacasse of The Drawing room, spring 2010

Ingredients:

2 # dry pack scallops
3T truffle oil
3# parsnips
1 bunch asparagus
1 pint kumquats
½ cup white balsamic vinegar
½ cup raw sugar
Juice of ½ lemon
1 T yuzu juice

Method:

Peel, and rough chop the parsnips, simmer until very soft in salted water, reserve 1 cup of cooking liquid. In blender, puree parsnips with truffle oil, and cooking liquid as needed, set aside.

Trim bottoms off the asparagus, and Blanch in salted water for 2 minutes, then shock in ice water for 3 minutes. Drain, set aside. Before plate up, toss asparagus with evoo, salt and pepper, and roast on a sheet pan in a hot oven for 5 min.

Cut The kumquats in quarters, remove the seeds. Place the seeded kumquats in a pot with the raw sugar, and the vinegar, slowly bring to a simmer. When kumquats are transluscent, check balance, and seasoning. Add lemon juice and yuzu juice, set aside.

Sear the Scallops. In a ripping hot pan, with 2T oil, carefully place the( seasoned with salt and pepper) scallops in the pan…don’t crowd the pan with too many at one time, or they will steam, not sear. About 3 inches between each scallop in the pan is fine , about 2 minutes per side.

Plate up: Place the parsnip puree down on the plate, and top with asparagus and the sautéed scallops. Garnish with kumquat gastrique, and chopped fresh herbs….ENJOY!

The drinks were extra yummy! The first was the Mominatrix Cocktail:

Mominatrix Cocktail

1.5oz Cabana Cachaca
¼ Hum Botanical Spirit
½ Domaine de Canton ginger liqueur
¾ oz fresh lemon juice
½ oz simple syrup (1:1 ratio, raw sugar: water)

Prep: Combine all ingredients in mixing glass. Add ice and shake well to chill and dilute. Stain into chilled cocktail glass. Use a vegetable peeler or channel knife to cut garnish from orange, misting top of cocktail with oil. Place decoratively in glass

Then came the El Corazon. YUM!

El Corazon

1.5 oz Milagro Silver tequila
¾ oz St. Germain elderflower liqueur
3 drops rose water
¼ oz agave nectar
¾ oz fresh lemon juice

Roll with 1oz Rose Cava

Prep: Combine tequila, St. Germain, rose water, agave and lemon in mixing glass. Add ice and shake well. Pour in Cava and roll together to combine. Strain into chilled cocktail glass. Cut garnish from lemon using vegetable peeler or channel knife. Mist top of drink with oils and place decoratively in glass

We got extra awesome swag too!! I have deemed it the “best swag ever”… this consisted of our choice of either Kenmore Elite Stand Mixer, or a Portable Induction Cooktop. I chose the mixer! I have always wanted one of those. 🙂 I plan to use it this week to make a cake!

We also got an awesome certificate for an overnight sleepover party at the Embassy Suites! It is an American Girl package and I am going to save it for next year for my girls 8th birthday party.

Lastly, everyone received a copy of the Mominatrix book, Mominatrix’s Guide to Sex. I haven’t read it yet, but I will! We can always use some tips to spice things up. 🙂 I will touch on it a bit in a new section of my blog coming up… “Juicy Reviews!”

Anyway, I had an AWESOME TIME!! Great company, great food, great drinks. And the studio is a beautiful, beautiful place!!

I forgot! Check out the awesome video that the Kenmore folks produced. They had cameras all over the place!

EDIT: Why do I keep forgetting the great stuff?? Besides the awesome swag that we got, one lucky blogger won her choice of appliances!! Brandy won! Her washer (or dryer – I forget which) had just stopped working the day before!