Sound of Music Dinner

I am honored to be able to contribute as a guest to Katie and Tim’s Reel Fancy Dinners blog.  My closest friends and I get together roughly monthly at each other’s houses for an evening of fun, dinner and games. The month before this dinner, we went to Bozeman’s Ellen Theatre together to see Sound of Music on the big screen.  This month, it was my turn to host, and inspired by Tim and Katie, I decided to do a Sound of Music dinner with my friends.

For dinner we had "16 Going on 17" appetizer items (including jam and bread, lonely goatherd goat cheese and crackers), Schnitzel with Noodles, Warm Apple Strudel, and My First Champagne to drink.

16 Going on 17 Salad/Appetizer Items

There was a large platter with spinach leaves covered with blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, green grapes, red onion and pecan halves. (That’s 8 items). Then there were appetizer dishes with carrots, celery, “jam and bread”, lonely goatherd goat cheese and crackers, almonds and radishes. (8 more)  This was served with a raspberry vinaigrette.

The entrée was Schnitzel with Noodles from “My Favorite Things”.  The schnitzel recipe follows and I served that with buttered egg noodles.

From The Daring Gourmet, www.daringgourmet.com

Ingredients:

4 boneless pork chops (I used chops that were already sliced thin and also pounded them as below)

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

½ cup all purpose flour combined with 1 tsp. sale

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

¾ cup plain bread crumbs

Oil in pan for frying….enough so meat will “swim” in it

Place the pork chops between two sheets of plastic wrap and pound them until ¼ inch thick or thinner using the flat side of a meat tenderizer. Lightly season both sides with salt and pepper.

Place the flour, mixture, egg and bread crumbs in 3 separate shallow bowls. Dip the chops in the flour, the egg and the bread crumbs, coating both sides and all edges at each stage. Be careful not to press breadcrumbs into the meat. Gently shake off excess crumbs. Don’t let the schnitzel sit in the coating or they will not be as crispy once fried—fry immediately

Make sure cooking oil is hot enough at this point (about 330 degrees F) as you don’t want the schnitzel to sit around in the coating before frying.

Fry the schnitzel for about 2-3 minutes on both sides until a deep golden brown. Transfer briefly to plate lined with paper towels.

Serve immediately with slices of fresh lemon and parsley sprigs.

And don't forget the brown paper packages!

We shared glasses of “my first champagne”

Warm Apple Strudel

Recipe from Allrecipes.com

Ingredients:

1 Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored and coarsely shredded

3 Granny Smith apples, peeled cored and sliced

1 cup brown sugar

½ cup golden raisins

1 sheet frozen puff pastry, thawed

1 egg

¼ cup milk

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Place apples in a large bowl. Stir in brown sugar and golden raisins; set aside. Place puff pastry on baking sheet. Roll lightly with a rolling pin. Arrange apple filling down the middle of the pastry lengthwise. Fold the pastry lengthwise around the mixture. Seal edges of pastry by using a bit of water on your fingers, and rubbing the pastry edges together. Whisk egg and milk together and brush onto top of pastry.

Bake in preheated oven for 35-40 minutes, or until golden brown.

I realized at last minute I did not have raisins and used a mixture of craisins and dried cherries. Worked just fine.

My dear friends, Jan, Karen, Linda and Tam, came dressed as favorite characters. Yes, Tam stole the show as Mother Superior, complete with rosary beads and wrench from disabling the Nazi cars. We played a Sound of Music Trivia game which Jan won. Prizes for all were in “brown paper packages tied up with string.”  It was a night of such fun with a movie that is so dear to our hearts.

Thanks for letting me share this with you.   Love, Cindy (Tim’s mom)