Admittedly, I was nervous making dinner for them (Mary is an awesome cook and... let's just say they're all accustomed to... quality cooking...) Therefore, with no further adeau, I started researching recipes with the help of my good friends, BettyCrocker.com and Cooks.com. So I began! ..at 3pm. Dinner was to be expected at 6:45pm, but hey - I'm a newbie at this dinner thing, so I figured I needed to get my ducks in a row before anything boiled over... or burned... or caught the house on fire.
First up was some delicioso chocolate cupcakes with chocolate chip cream cheese filling and cream cheese frosting, a favorite of mine that I first tasted in Miracle Mountain Ranch's kitchen. (Props to Sarah and Connie for the intro to those sweet thangs!!) Following is the recipe straight from Cooks.com
| CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES WITH CREAM CHEESE FILLING | |
 1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour 1/2 tsp. baking powder 1/2 tsp. baking soda 1/4 c. unsweetened cocoa 1 c. sugar 1/2 tsp. salt 1 c. water 1 tsp. vanilla 6 tbsp. oil FILLING: 4 oz. softened cream cheese 2 tbsp. beaten egg 6 tbsp. sugar 1/2 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips (mini morsels work best) 1. In bowl; mix flour, baking powder, and soda, cocoa, sugar and salt.2. Measure water, add oil and vanilla. Pour into bowl and stir well. 3. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line or grease muffin pan. Fill to 1/2 full only. 4. Combine cream cheese, egg, sugar and chocolate chips. Put 1 tablespoon of filling in center of each cup. 5. Cover filling with remaining batter and bake for 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted in cake part only comes out clean, remove from pan immediately and cool on rack. (Makes 16.) Icing not recommended. | |
So I made these first because I knew these could be made ahead of time. We had leftover cream cheese frosting from Julie and Tyler's wedding, so I used it, but the recipe can also be found on Cooks.com
| BIG DADDY'S CREAM CHEESE FROSTING | |
| 1 ½ (12 oz) packages cream cheese 1/4 plus 1/8 cup butter (1 ½ sticks), softened 3 cups confectioners' sugar few drops vanilla extract or rum ¼ - ½ cup chopped pecans (optional). | |
Alrighty, and for the main course, we had Chicken Parmesan over Angel Hair spaghetti, fresh asparagus from the garden (roasted parm asparagus - what else would I make?!), and some garlic butter toast. The chicken parm recipe is from About.com actually (http://southernfood.about.com/od/chickenbreastrecipes/r/bl61230j.htm)
This is an easy dinner to prepare, and it's relatively low in fat if you use the lower amounts of cheese. If you're short on time, use seasoned fine dry bread crumbs and a little Parmesan for the coating.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup soft fine bread crumbs
- 1/4 to 1/3 cup Parmesan cheese, fresh shredded
- 1/4 teaspoon dried leaf basil
- 1 teaspoon dried parsley flakes
- dash pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 4 chicken breast halves
- 1 large egg
- 2 tablespoons milk
- 1 jar (16 ounces) spaghetti sauce or marinara
- 1/2 to 1 cup shredded Mozzarella cheese
- hot cooked pasta, drained
Preparation:
Line a baking sheet with foil; spray with olive oil spray or nonstick cooking spray. Heat oven to 350°.
In a food processor, grind crumbs, Parmesan, basil, parsley, and a dash of pepper and 1/4 teaspoon salt until fine. Pour into a plate or shallow bowl.
Pound chicken lightly to flatten evenly.
Beat egg with the milk in a shallow bowl.
Dip chicken pieces in egg mixture then coat with crumb mixture. Arrange the chicken pieces on the baking sheet. Bake for 30 minutes, or until juices run clear when pierced with a fork.
In an 11x7-inch baking dish, pour about 1/3 of the spaghetti sauce. Arrange the cooked chicken on the sauce; pour remaining sauce over chicken. Sprinkle with Mozzarella cheese. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes longer, or until bubbly and cheese is melted.
Serve over hot cooked and drained pasta or noodles.
For the asparagus, you can see my recipe that I always use! And the toast was just a melted garlic butter blend over some split dinner rolls we had that needed to be used. Popped those babies in the toatser oven and we were ready to go in 5 minutes!
So after doing a balancing act with the oven, trying to get everything out at the same time, dinner was ready at 6:45. We had plenty left over and everyone was full to the brim!
Dave got to do clean up (much to his dismay), but we good natuedly helped him a little bit before Dan and I headed out to the screened in tent in Mary's garden (bugspray in hand).
It was a fun night! (The cupcakes were a HUGE hit.)
When it got dark, Dan and I trooped inside to watch American Idol (down to the final 4! -Haley needs an attitude adjustment. She's a bit persnickety. Sad day that James was voted off... They're all sooo good!) And then me and Dan hit the trail and ran a couple miles (after which it felt like someone took a vise to my insides .. NOT a fun feeling).
We then had a great night talking to Ken and Mary til late.
God is good to give us both the bounty of earth and the bounty of relationships. This makes me more motivated to really share with people the Gospel - the good news! Life with God is not always easy (like last night was), but it sure is GOOD, and he gives us these great time together. His love for us is so great.
Til next time!
Love,
Em
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