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Dinner Date: Rachel and Sam

15 Apr

I have no idea if I’m allowed to use their names, but ask for forgiveness, not permission, right? :)

Tonight we’re having dinner with Sam and Rachel, and I’m really excited! Yes, because Rachel is my best friend from my days at Reed. But also because Sam has not seen Paul’s condo, and we haven’t done dinner just the four of us in (literally) maybe never?!

So, what’s for dinner you ask? Pace yourselves:

 

Artichokes: With melted butter and maybe a yogurty garlic dipping sauce?

Pork Loin: This one is from here, but mine will have herbs with lavendar (sp?) and be oven roasted, covered to keep the steam inside.

Roasted green beans: These look good, from here, but again, I won’t use a recipe, just see what is in the spice rack!

I’ll also do a tomato, avocado and ???? salad (not sure what else I want to put in there…..) as a starter.

Rach and Sam are bringing the wine, bread and ice cream.

Ice cream will go with this:

Yes, that is microwave chocolate cake. This pic is a good one from here.

And if you want the “recipe”, here’s the one I use:

5 Minute Chocolate Cake Recipe

4 tablespoons flour
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons oil
A small splash of vanilla extract
1 large coffee mug

Add dry ingredients to mug, and mix well.

Add the egg and mix thoroughly. Pour in the milk and oil and mix well. Add the vanilla extract, and mix again.

Put your mug in the microwave and cook for 3 minutes at 1000 watts (high). The cake will rise over the top of the mug, but don’t be alarmed! Allow to cool a little, and tip out onto a plate if desired. Enjoy!

Dinner Date: Tonight=Delancey Family Dinner

17 Nov

Okay, as you know from a couple of posts ago, tonight I am going to Delancey’s first Family Dinner. I am really excited to be attending. And so glad that a spot opened up! (I was bummed when I was wait listed, seriously, I already went through college once in life, and that application process was enough to last me a lifetime). But someone cancelled which means these two are going with bells on!:

and

Many pictures with my crappy camera will be taken, and if Molly and Brandon allow it, I’ll even take a quick video to share with all of you out there in the interwebs.

Dinner Date: Dinner experience at Delancey

12 Nov

I’m so excited.

Next Tuesday, I’m going here:

To sit here:

And see this:

And this:

And eat with her:

Who you remember from this:

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And I can’t wait to finally taste the culinary stylings of them:

and

(all Delancey pictures from Molly’s blog, Orangette)

Oh yeah, we’re eating this:

Duo of local oysters –
Kumamoto, with cucumber, lemon, and ginger
Pacific, with Banyuls mignonette

Wood oven-roasted local mussels with caramelized shallot, bacon, beer, and majoram, served with rustic toasts and housemade sea salt butter

Braised rabbit with potato, carrot, fennel, and truffle

Heirloom apple tart with honey ice cream

And I can’t wait to share the experience with you all, so keep your eyes peeled for a post-dinner date update.

-Siir’

Dinner Date: Goat Cheese Strata

29 Oct

This morning, my boss sent over a great recipe that her friend brought to dinner last night at her house.

She said, “Okay, so we had some guest over last night and they brought an appetizer that was AMAZING!  Dina swears that it’s easy to do and can be done mostly in advance. It was so good, that I’m passing this recipe on to you.”

I’m going to make this for my pumpking gutting get together this weekend at the house. I will take pictures, but no promises it’s going to turn out good! (although I’m sure the taste will be great no matter what!)

Goat Cheese Strata

Cut very top off head of garlic, drizzle with olive oil and wrap in foil, bake in oven at 400 for one hour until soft.

Ingredients: 
1/2lb. cream cheese @ room temp
1/2lb. goat cheese @ room temp
Salt and pepper
1/2C. sundried tomato pesto
1/3C. basil pesto

How to make:
1. Mix the cheeses together well, divide evenly into three mixing bowls.
2. In first bowl, squeeze the roasted garlic and mix well with the cheese blend adding salt and pepper to taste.
3. In the second bowl, add the sun dried tomatoes and salt and pepper to taste.
4. In the third bowl, mix the basil pesto and add salt (*careful not to overdo if your pesto already is well salted) and pepper.
5. In a 3 cup ramekin/bowl/small cassarole, line with dampened cheese cloth. Spoon basil mix onto bottom and smooth with spatula.
6. Next, put the roasted garlic on top of the basil layer and smooth with a spatula, followed by the tomato layer.
7. Fold excess cloth over the strata. Refrigerate at least one hour…better at 2 or 3 hours.
8. To serve, unfold the cloth and invert onto platter, carefully peel cloth off the cheese….serve with crackers, bread, bagels, pita, or veggies.
***makes three cups

Dinner Date: Eggplant Parm reinvented

15 Oct

So off we went last night to our friends, Marissa and Akash, house, for a much needed catch up.

They provided a fabulous dinner, home, precious puppy and beautiful siblings, which you’ll see below, and we provided stories, wine, and a rustic, quick apple tart I literally threw together in less than an hour (you’ll see that post coming up later today).

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Marissa is Italian, and decided to venture into the unknown, cooking a new recipe for Eggplant Parm from her Mario Batali cookbook….of course, like me, she changed the recipe a bit to what was available to her (good job, Mariss!) and the result was FLAWLESS.

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She served it with a great green bean dish that had crushed almonds (I think) and a tangy balsamic wash, and of course, the requisite garlic bread (mmmm, breaaaaaaaaaaad).  There was so much eggplant, Paul went back for seconds.

The eggplant was so meaty, and really held its shape well, even through the baking. It was very light on the bread crumbs and was not fried, so it was healthy and light, but totally satisfying.

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Did she follow the recipe? Sort of, yes. Did it take her a lot of time? More time than throwing together some frozen chicken would, but I don’t think she was scrambling too hard (or at least she didn’t look like it!)

Thank you to the entire family: Akash, Marissa, Amit, and Nina, for having us over. We just adore you all! (and Dino too!)

Have any of you used a Mario Batali recipe? What about your own Eggplant Parm – do you have a recipe that just can’t be beat?

Dinner Date: Eggplant Parm

14 Oct

Hello and happy Wednesday afternoon!

I’m headed to a dear friend’s house for dinner tonight. She’s Italian and is making Eggplant Parm from scratch. WHAT?!?!?! It should be de.lish.

eggplant parm

This tasty picture will take you to a winning recipe on www.Food52.com, a great project and informative collaboration site. We’ll talk more about this later. For now, proceed with drooling.

I’ll be back tomorrow with a review of Marissa’s Eggplant Parm and some pictures to boot!

Do you have any Eggplant or Chicken Parm tips or tricks? Let me know!

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