AND . . . . .she cooks again!

The Dinner Party~












A friend visited from St. Paul, MN recently. We had a dinner party at our house to welcome him back to Auburn - he and his family lived down the street from us for years and we are best of friends. We had a "Family - Trio" . . .three families that worked, studied, played, worshiped and lived in the neighborhood together. We miss that third leg of the stool a lot. We welcomed him with wide open arms and much love.

I was lucky enough to host the party - and made most of the food myself, from scratch.

My Internet friend from Seattle (I've met his wife and many friends - and I feel like I've met him as well) asked a few months back that all of his friends who cook to post their "from scratch" recipes with pictures. I'm posting the recipes from this party, For Darren~

When I make something from scratch, I have a routine: I Google the dish and I read lots of recipes from foodnetwork.com, cooks.com, allrecipes.com, recipesource.com, epicurous.com, cooking.com and any other source that comes up in Google. Then I take the highest rated recipes and blend them to take the best elements from each and "create" my own "from scratch" recipe. If it turns out well, I make a recipe card and keep it~ This night - everything was a keeper!

We started the night with a White Wine Sangria, Salsa, Chips and Corona with Limes.















White Wine Sangria
1 Navel Oranges
1 Lime
3 Cups Orange Juice
1/4 cup Rose's Sweetened Lime Juice
1 Bottle White Wine (as sweet or dry as you like it - but don't skimp)
1 16 oz bottle of Sprite

Slice the Orange in healthy 3/4 in. slices, then quarter the slices, reserve ends
Slice the Lime in 1/2 in. slices, then quarter the slices.
Place all slices in pitcher and squeeze juice from end pieces over slices.
Add remaining ingredients except Sprite and refrigerate.
When ready to serve, add Sprite.

Replace wine with Orange Juice and Sprite to your liking - to serve non-alcoholic version. I tied kitchen twine on the pitcher that had wine in it.

Salsa
1/2 cup each, finely chopped:
White Onion
Red Bell Pepper
Green Bell Pepper
Yellow Bell Pepper
Plum Tomatoes, and
1 Small Jalapeno

15 oz can Yellow Corn -drained
15 oz can Black Beans - drained and rinsed
3 Tbs. Taco Sauce

Mix well and refrigerate.
Add chopped fresh cilantro just before serving.

I slightly heated the chips in a pre-heated 350 degree oven to give them a "homemade" feel and taste.

Mexican Lasagna
serves 12

THE SAUCE:
1 1/2 pound of ground chuck
1/4 pound of Chorizo (Mexican Sausage) made into 1/8 inch balls
28 oz can of crushed tomatoes
28 oz can of tomato sauce
6 oz can of tomato paste
1/2 cup of water
2 packages of McCormick Taco seasoning
1 Tbs. ground cumin

THE CHEESE MIXTURE:
8 oz. pkg. Ricotta Cheese
12 oz. pkg. Sour Cream
1/2 cup grated Parmesan Cheese
1 Egg
2 Tbs. chopped Cilantro
Fresh Ground Pepper

Slices of Mozzarella Cheese
Grated Asiago Cheese
More chopped Cilantro

10 - 12 Burrito size Flour Tortillas cut into 1 inch strips

Brown the ground chuck in a large cast iron pot. Cook the Chorizo meat balls in a separate skillet until done - approximately 8 mins. Add all remaining meat sauce ingredients and meat balls to ground chuck in cast iron pot. Simmer for 20 mins. Cool.

In separate bowl, mix all cheese mixture ingredients well.

Spray large 9 X 13 or larger baking dish with non-stick spray

Layer as follows:

1/8 meat sauce
Flour Tortilla strips to cover
1/2 cheese sauce
Mozzarella Slices to cover
1/2 remaining meat sauce
Flour Tortillas strips to cover
remaining cheese sauce
Mozzarella slices to cover
Remaining meat sauce

Cover with foil and refrigerate two hours, but no more than 24 hours.

Bring to room temp.

Bake at 350 degrees for 45 mins, remove foil and continue baking for 15 mins. Remove from oven and sprinkle with grated Asiago cheese. Let set for 15 mins. Garnish with chopped cilantro.

Salad was simple - pre-packaged spring mix, sliced red onion, Mandarin oranges, roasted pecans and almonds and prepared corn bread croutons - choice of Italian, ranch, or balsamic vinaigrette dressing.

I did not take any pictures of the main course, salad, having dinner or the after laughs -- now I wish I had. I always get the feeling that it's staged when we take pictures and the evening loses its intimacy. The longer I blog and am on facebook - the more this changes. I like having the pictures and I like living in the moment. I can do both.

Tiramisu in Martini Glasses
serves eight

2 pkgs. petite lady fingers
(I found these at Kroger. They are not as crisp as most, but rather had a cake texture to them.)
1 cup International Coffee - Dark Mayan Chocolate - made extra strong and cooled
1 pkg. instant chocolate pudding prepared by package directions
1 eight oz. package mascarpone cheese at room temp.
8 oz. heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract4 Heath chocolate bars, crushed

Slightly moisten lady fingers with coffee and line sides of eight large martini glasses with them.
Mix chocolate pudding into room temp mascarpone cheese until well blended and spoon into glasses completely covering lady fingers.
Can be prepared to this point and refrigerated overnight.
Whip cream, powdered sugar and vanilla together until stiff and top each glass.
Top with crushed heath bars.

This recipe and photograph remind me of Sandra Lee. . . .I should have mentioned that at dinner. . . for a laugh.



It was a great night~ We all smiled and laughed. WE MISS YOU, TIM! and your family. Auburn just isn't the same without you.