Three dinners, No pictures

We've hosted several dinners lately that I wanted to document. They were all different and all successful. Not much beats good food and good company.

Dinner 1

The Scene: Two of my best girlfriends and their families. Six adults and 6 monkeys kids. The four oldest girls played nicely together and the babies got cuddled.

The Menu:

Appetizers
Bread & oils for dipping
Pruciutta wrapped asparagus
olives, cocktail onions & marcona almonds

Dinner
Grilled salmon a la Wayne
Fennel, pear & walnut salad
Black Japonica rice

Dessert
Cheesecake & fresh berries

The salmon was the real deal. Wayne grilled it perfectly, and one of my friends still says it was the best salmon she ever had. The cheesecake I had made before, and it was good, but I need to remember it needs to be prepared the day before to allow for proper cooling and setting.

Fennel, Pear & Walnut Salad

Spring Greens or Spinach
Pear, sliced
Fennel, slice the bulb and add a little bit of the chopped greens
Walnuts
Blue Cheese
Shallots, sliced thinly
Toss with equal parts oil & balsamic. (I used some fancy Hazelnut oil and Espresso Balsamic)

Dinner 2

The Scene: Wayne mentioned at 2 pm that Todd may be coming over that evening just to visit, and I texted back to ask if he would like to have dinner with us. No response, so at 5 I fed Pippy, and at 530 Wayne calls to say that, yes, dinner would be great for him Todd, and should he invite Todd's wife Dini too? Oh, well sure, I guess!

Last Minute Spread:
Jalepeno popper stuffed chicken breasts
Red pepper lentil bake
Tossed salad
Homemade bread

Todd and Dini are so easy going that we had  great time and I didn't have any issues putting together something last minute.

Last Minute Jalapeno Popper Stuffed Chicken

Pull chicken breasts out of freezer and defrost in microwave until you can make a cut in it horizontally. Mix cream cheese, cheddar cheese, and chopped jalapenos together in a bowl. Stuff chicken with the mixture. Dip breasts into beaten egg, then bread crumbs. (mix the bread crumbs with some taco seasoning to add some pizzaz.) Bake for about an hour.

Dinner 3

The Scene: We invited Jayce & Tanner and their parents over for dinner since we hadn't seen them in a while. Penelope loved having her boys back around and it was a lovely evening.

Menu

Appetizer
Cheesy pull apart bread
Smoked salmon cucumber bites

Dinner
Casserole-style Chicken Cordon Bleu
Mashed potatoes
Fresh steamed green beans

Dessert
Brownies & Ice Cream

The pull apart bread looked delicious and ooey gooey on Pinterest, and people devoured it, but I probably wouldn't make it again. It's just not my thing. The Smoked Salmon bites were basically a slice of cucumber, topped with a dollop of dill cream cheese, topped with a bit of smoked salmon. It was fine, but we felt it needed a cracker. Next time I would chop the cucumber and mix it in with the cream cheese, and put it all on a cracker. Either way, these are very pretty and fancy looking.

Wayne said the H word about a delicious salad, so we skipped it. Cori introduced me to the casserole-style chicken cordon bleu; It's basically a layer of chicken, layer of ham, layer of Swiss cheese, topped with a cream sauce and bread crumbs. It turned out amazing. I thought the menu as a whole went together very well, especially for adults & kids eating together.