Sunday, March 27, 2016

Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade Dinner

For tonight's dinner we had a carb overload with Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade!




For dinner, we had "Ahh Venice" Pizza, Snake Breadsticks with Olive Oil from Galilee, an Italian Pantone Roll, "You Chose Poorly" Cocktail, and I-E-H-O-V-A Cookies.  Yum!!




"Ahh Venice" Pizza

Ingredients:
Bertolli Pizza Crush
Creme Fraiche
Mozzarella, shredded
Proscuitto
Cranberries

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees
Spread the Creme Fraiche over the pizza crust and cover with desired toppings
Cook for 10-12 minutes or until cheese is melted





Snake Breadsticks with Olive Oil from Galilee

I used crescent rolls and cut them lengthwise then I rolled them up and shaped them like snakes.  For the olive oil mix, I mixed balsamic vinegar with olive oil that came in our Try The World box from Galilee.  It seemed appropriate for this dinner! 






Italian Pantone Roll
This sweet roll is another item we got in our Try The World box.  It was pretty tasty!





"You Chose Poorly" Cocktail
I found this recipe here and adapted it!

Ingredients:
1/2 shot of Whiskey
1/2 shot of Tequila
Fill glass with Champagne




I-E-H-O-V-A Cookies
"In Latin Jehovah begins with an I"



I had some extra cookie dough leftover so I made some camel cookies!




Overall, we had a great dinner!  And then promptly went to bed because of all the bread!  


Monday, March 14, 2016

Seinfeld Dinner

After completing Seinfeld, we had our own little Festivus celebration!



While we didn't do the feats of strength or the airing of the grievances, we still had a fabulous Festivus Celebration, we had The Soup Nazi's Mulligatawny Soup, The BIG Salad, Marble Rye Bread, a Junior Mint Martini, and George's Fancy Snickers Bar.






The Soup Nazi's Mulligatawny Soup
I'm just gonna throw this out as the best soup recipe we have made for the blog and maybe ever!  I found this recipe here and we changed it just a bit.

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons of butter
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 ribs of celery, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
2 bay leaves
4 teaspoons of yellow curry powder
1 large chicken breast cut into large chunks
2 cups of chicken stock
2 cups of water
1.5 teaspoons of kosher salt
1/4 cup of uncooked white rice
2 apples, cored, peeled, and chopped
1/4 cup of heavy whipping cream
chives as garnish

Directions:
1. Heat butter and olive oil on medium high heat in a large pot.
2. Add onions, celery, and carrots and cook for five minutes until they begin to soften.
3. Add bay leaves and curry powder and mix together.
4. Add chicken, chicken stock, water and salt to the pot and mix together
5. Bring to a simmer and reduce the heat.  Cover and cook for 20 minutes. 
6. Remove chicken (if fully cooked) and shred the chicken.
7. Add rice and chopped apples to the soup. 
8. Bring to a simmer and reduce heat.  Cover and cook for 15 minutes.
9. Once the rice is cooked, add the chicken back to the pot and heat for a few more minutes.  
10. Stir in heavy whipping cream
11. Serve with chives and enjoy!







The BIG Salad
I found this recipe here and made it into our big salad with a few changes.

Ingredients:
6 cups of spinach
2 green apples
1/2 cup of walnuts
1/3 cup of Feta cheese, crumbled
1/3 cup of dried cranberries

*combine in a big bowl and mix together

Dressing ingredients:
1 cup of apple juice
4 Tablespoons of apple cider vinegar
2 Tablespoons of honey
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/4 teaspoon of black pepper
1/4 cups of olive oil

*whisk together ingredients and drizzle over salad as you serve








Marble Rye Bread
*We actually couldn't actually find Marble Rye bread because the people in front of us got the last loaf and we had to settle for regular rye. 








The Junior Mint Martini 
We found the recipe here and adapted it a tad based on what we already had.

Ingredients:
1.25 oz of Whipped Vodka
1/4 oz of Peppermint schnapps
1/4 oz of White creme de cacao
1/2 oz Simple syrup
1 oz of Club soda

*combine all ingredients and stir.  Serve with a Junior Mint

** With only a little bit left of my pregnancy, I just had the Junior Mint







George's Fancy Snickers Bar
As George did when he worked for the Yankees, we ate it with a knife and fork.






And as an homage to Kramer, we had a little fusili statue like the ones Kramer makes of celebrities!





Festivus!  A Celebration for the Rest of Us!



Sunday, March 6, 2016

Downton Abbey Dinner

To commemorate the end of Downton Abbey, Tim and I had high tea! I can't believe the show is over!  






For high tea, we had Cucumber Sandwiches, Deviled Eggs, English Tea, Raspberry and White Chocolate Chip Scones! What a dainty dinner! 







Cucumber Sandwiches
I found the recipe here for these tea sandwiches and adapted it (as we did not need 32 sandwiches.) 

Ingredients:
2oz of cream cheese
1/4 cup of mayonnaise
1/2 a cucumber, diced
1/4  teaspoon of garlic powder
1/8 teaspoon of salt
1/4 teaspoon of pepper
Fresh dill
4 slices of white bread

Directions:
1. In a bowl, mix cream cheese and mayo.  Then add garlic powder, salt, pepper, dill, and diced cucumber.
2. Spread mixture on sandwiches
3. Cut the crusts off of the sandwich and cut in half diagonally.
4.  Serve with dill as a garnish





Deviled Eggs
I found this recipe here and modified it.   Actually, deviled eggs aren't as hard to make as they may seem. 

Ingredients:
6 eggs
2 tablespoons of mayonnaise
1.5 teaspoons of Dijon Mustard
1 teaspoon of vinegar
A pinch of salt
A pinch of cayenne pepper
Paprika 

Directions:
1. Place eggs in a large pot water.  Bring to a boil and cover, then lower heat to a simmer and cook for 15 minutes.
2. Fill a bowl with cold water and when eggs are done cooking, use tongs and transfer one at a time to the cold water. 
3.  Once cool, peel eggs and cut each in half lengthwise.
4. Remove yolks, place in a bowl and mash with a fork.
5. Add mayonnaise, mustard, vinegar, salt and cayenne pepper.  Blend with a mixer until smooth.
6.  Spoon mixture into a large ziplock bag and snip off one corner.  Pipe yolk mixture into empty egg whites.
7.  Sprinkle with paprika and serve. 







English Tea
I got this English Tea in our Try the World box and it was super tasty!





Raspberry and White Chocolate Scones
I got a scone mix from my mother-in-law that I finally got to bust out! They are pretty tasty and you just have to add water!




Farewell Downton Abbey!  It's been great!

Tuesday, March 1, 2016

Portlandia Dinner

We had a Portlandia dinner tonight and it was a lot of fun!  It was also extremely healthy!  I felt like a total Portlandia hipster buying beets at the natural food store in town.





We had Colin, The Local Chicken, "Is it beets?" Salad, The Celery Salesman's Celery, "We Can Pickle That" Pickles, Portland's Milk Advisory Board Milk, and Nina's Cacao Chocolate Bar.






Colin, The Local Chicken
Tim and I have used this amazing recipe before from this cookbook!  We did change it a bit.

Ingredients:
1/4 cup of butter
2 Boneless chicken breasts
1/2 cup of vegetable broth
1 tablespoon of fresh dill 
1 tablespoon of lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon of salt

Directions:
1. Melt butter in a skillet over medium-high heat and cook chicken for about six minutes (turning once) until light brown.
2. Mix broth, dill, lemon juice and salt in a small bowl and pour over the chicken
3. Turn heat up to boiling, then reduce heat to low and simmer for 15 minutes.  
4.  Remove the chicken once cooked and heat the sauce to boiling.  And boil for about 3 minutes until reduced by half and pour over the chicken. 








"Is It Beets?" Salad 
I found the recipe here and tweaked it. 

Ingredients:

Beets: 
4 beets
1 tablespoon of olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
2 cloves of garlic, chopped

Vinaigrette 
1/4 cup of red wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon of Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/4 teaspoon of sugar
1/2 cup of olive oil

Salad
4 cups of spinach 
4 ounces of feta cheese
1/2 cup of walnuts 

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees and cut the tops off of each beet
2. Create a bowl out of foil and place beets inside, drizzle with olive oil and add garlic, salt and pepper. 
3. Lightly seal foil and place on a baking sheet.
4. Cook in the oven until tender for about 50 minutes. 
5. While beets are roasting make the vinaigrette by mixing vinegar, mustard, salt, sugar, and oil together. 
6.  Mix spinach, feta cheese, and walnuts in serving bowl.
7. Once beets are cooked and cool, cut into small chunks and peel the beets.
8. Serve with vinaigrette on the side. 

Believe it or not, I didn't hate the beets.  I am a famous beet hater but this didn't suck.  







The Celery Salesman's Celery






"We Can Pickle That" Pickles






Portland's Milk Advisory Board Milk






Nina's Cacao Chocolate Bar





We had a fun time re-watching some of our favorite episodes!  We had
to include a bird on the table!







(PUT A BIRD ON IT!)