Happy Birthday, Happy Father's Day

My dad has the special distinction of celebrating his birthday on or around Father's Day.  When we were kids, we had such a hard time coming up with what to get him for both occasions.  I remember very distinctly getting my dad a pair of gardening gloves when I was 9.  I thought this was the perfect gift and he, being a professional landscaper, found it amusing.  I was not so amused at his amusement - I was heartbroken that he didn't like my gift (I now know that it was strange,akin to giving a vacuum cleaner to your mom for Mother's Day).  Many years have passed and I have gotten a little better at figuring out what makes a great gift.  Part of what makes a great gift, is a great meal.  So I decided to make dinner and invite Dad over for a Dad's day/birthday celebration.

The recipe for last night (Penne with Sausage, Artichokes, and Sun-dried Tomatoes) was from Giada's Family Dinners by Giada De Laurentis.  I have rarely used this cookbook because Drew is not so much on the pasta.  I LOVE pasta and so I have to have a relationship with it at arms length or Drew will not be able to get his arms around me.  But, hey, we were celebrating, so why not? 
After going to the store to shop for this pasta, I was unable to procure artichokes as prescribed in the recipe (it calls for frozen), so I decided to use some asparagus we already had on hand.  I also did not use white wine in the recipe, I just used more chicken broth. 

The resulting pasta was very good, very flavorful.  Delicious.  I took two servings (I told you I LOVE pasta).  Dad really liked it too, which was the goal for the night. 

Happy Birthday, Dad!  Happy Father's Day!  So thankful you are my dad and my friend - the relationship we have is something special, something unique, and something I cherish!  God bless you this year!

Italian Feast

We had my parents and an old friend over for dinner the other night and I went all out on the menu.  I have been intrigued by a recent Bon Appetit article about meatballs from different parts of the world.  So I tried one of the recipes.  The name is really long and I can't remember it, but it was the Italian version of Spaghetti and Meatballs.

The process, though somewhat time consuming, was very straightforward and the results were tasty.  I don't think I let the sauce thicken enough before serving, so the texture was off (my cooking fault, not the recipe).  The meatballs were very flavorful and tender.  I enjoyed them very much. 
Obviously, I made pasta to go with the meatballs and tossed a simple salad with green onion and roasted asparagus.  I also made the French bread mentioned in a previous post. 
And for dessert, by request from Dad...a pumpkin cheesecake.  This is his favorite dessert that I make...this time it could have been a little better, but it did taste right. 
I think I must have been off in the texture department the other day...hmmm.  Oh, well.
We had a great time at dinner and played a new game called Things.  Lots of fun, lots of laughs.  Thanks for the fun evening!

Halloween menu making

My usual Thursdays with Morgan post will have to wait until tomorrow morning so I can get pictures of what we made.  So I will discuss our dinner for the evening. 
We are not so much on the Halloween thing, but I do have to say I grew up celebrating Halloween with trick or treating and pumpkin carving.  I figure as long and you stick with the safe stuff, it can be pretty fun.  By fun, I mean, you can make stuff in the kitchen and get into theme dinners.  Thus, tonight's dinner was one (yes, I said one) of our Halloween theme dinners for the week. On the menu tonight:  Pepperoni Pizza Pasta, Spooky Salad, and Witches Brew (for dessert).  I also served "blood" as the drink for dinner.

The Pepperoni Pizza Pasta was a recipe I found on a package of Harry and David Halloween shapes pasta.  I found this about a month ago and this menu was born.  The prep for this goes pretty quickly and I was able to make the salad while the pasta cooked.  The recipe has mozzarella chese thrown in at the end to make it look like "spider webs."  Pretty cool effect, overall and not to bad taste wise.  It is nice because you can use your favorite pasta sauce for this recipe.  I was already thinking you could to the same thing with a white sauce and salami.

The spooky salad was just a regular salad with really strangely torn lettuce and a green "finger sticking out of the center.  Nothing great or different, just something to go with the pasta. 

And to many eye rolls and strange looks, I served "blood" to drink with dinner. 

I made this a couple of weeks ago and I thought it looked like blood, so it went on the menu.  What is it?  Crystal Light fruit punch stirred into a glass of water with lots of ice.  The ice creates the coagulated look.  What do you think?  I mean besides that I am insane...what do you think?

We had a great dinner and enjoyed conversation with Morgan.  Our conversation took us many places, but one of our favorites was into the mind of a wookie.  Who knew?

Two for one, what a great deal!

So, I have a little problem "working" on the long weekends.  I do enjoy the break.  But I did cook last night and tonight, so I am going to let you in on a little deal: two reviews, one post! 
Last night we had Moroccan-Spiced Apricot Chicken with Couscous from Pampered Chef 29 Minutes to Dinner.  By the way, the dinners are, as promised, less than 29 minutes to cook.  As always, I did a couple of modifications.  For the couscous, I used regular couscous and omitted the almonds and apricots (both Drew and I are disturbed, for the most part, by fruit in savory items).  We are large couscous fans in this house and this was wonderful.  I can take my regular couscous and my Pampered Chef spices and make any flavor combination I desire.  This discovery has made me really happy (it doesn't take much).  The chicken was incredibly flavorful and easy to make.  I made it in one of my pans, instead of pulling out the George Foreman, but had good results.  I really need to get another one of the thermometers that I like.  I am really frustrated not having it, while trying new recipes. 

Somedays, you discover new things about your spouse that you did not know before.   Yesterday, I half-discovered something about Drew.  I cannot call it a full discovery because he would probably say it was not true and it is mainly my conjecture (you will have to read the comment I know he will post).  What was this discovery/conjecture?  Drew does not like dark meat.  There I said it.  He did not like the texture of the chicken.  This led me to question all previous attempts to make chicken thighs (catalogued in my brain), which led to this conclusion:  He prefers it if it is slow cooked or cut up and then cooked.  Both of these are acceptable, but he does not prefer his chicken thigh to be whole and boneless.  You can psycho-analyze him according to your own parameters, I will just be sure to fit within his in the future.

On to tonight...
We had a late dinner, because I went to Ralph's for Triple Coupons before the end of the grocery ad week and saved a really, really good amount of money!!  Then I came home and got started on the Zesty Ravioli Skillet from Pampered Chef's Seasons Best Cookbook.  Quick review: Good flavors.  Like the spinach.  Great for a busy weeknight meal.  Drew says, "it was too pasta-y, not that that is a word."  This review from my husband is to be expected.  We have pasta about once or twice a month, because it is not his favorite.  This is proof that God gives us someone to balance out our weaknesses.  If He gave me a pasta lover, I would be the size of a barn.  If He gave Drew someone else...well, I don't know how I balance him out on that one. I enjoyed my pasta and have some leftovers for lunches.