Recipes from Valentine's Day Dinner

So last night's lasagna and chocolate cherry cake was pretty good, if I do say so myself. Not a bad meal for a last-minute deal. Thought I would take a minute and post the recipes so you can try it at home. The best part of the cake is the marshmallow icing, so that recipe is down below. The lasagna recipe is slightly different than the one I've used previously, but still pretty basic; I used one from All Recipes as a foundation and played with it a little -- you'll see my notes on where I made adjustments. Until next time!

Melted Ice Cream Cake
Serves 16
Preparation Time: 5 to 7 minutes
Baking Time: 38 to 42 minutes
Assembly Time: 10 minutes

vegetable oil spray for misting the pan
flour for dusting the pan
1 package (18.25 ounces) plain white cake mix
2 cups melted ice cream, your choice of flavor - use one pint of Ben & Jerry's or other premium without a lot of air mixed in
3 large eggs

1. Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Lightly mist a 12-cup Bundt pan with vegetable oil spray, then dust with flour. Shake out the excess flour. Set the pan aside (I used two 8" pans instead).

3. Place the cake mix, melted ice cream, and eggs in a large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed for 1 minute. Stop the machine and scrape down the sides of the bowl with the rubber spatula. Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat 2 minutes more, scraping the sides down again if needed. The batter should look thick and well blended. Pour the batter into the prepared pan, smoothing the top with the rubber spatula.

4. Place the pan in the oven.

5. Bake the cake until it springs back when lightly pressed with your finger and just starts to pull away from the sides of the pan, 38 to 42 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and place it on a wire rack to cool for 20 minutes. Run a long, sharp knife around the edge of the cake and invert it onto a small rack, then invert it again onto a second rack so that the cake is right side up to complete cooling, 30 minutes more. NOTE: For two 8" pans, bake for 30 minutes - 35 is too long!

6. Meanwhile prepare the Chocolate Marshmallow Frosting, or another frosting that would go well with the flavor of the ice cream in the cake. Place the cake on a serving platter and frost the top of the cake with clean, smooth strokes.

Chocolate Marshmallow Frosting

2 cups confectioners' sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
6 large marshmallows
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. Sift the sugar and cocoa powder together into a large mixing bowl. Set aside.

2. Place the marshmallows, butter, and milk in a medium-size heavy saucepan over low heat. Stir until the marshmallows are melted, 3 to 4 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat. Pour the confectioners' sugar and cocoa mixture over the marshmallow mixture. Add the vanilla and stir until the frosting is smooth and satiny.

3. Use at once to frost the top of the cake. NOTE: the icing sets up immediately, so you kind of have to be quick.


Basic Lasagna

INGREDIENTS

1 pound lean ground beef -- I used sweet Italian sausage
1 (32 ounce) jar spaghetti sauce -- I used 1 1/2 cans of Hunts 4-cheese spaghetti sauce
32 ounces cottage cheese -- I substituted part-skim ricotta cheese
3 cups shredded mozzarella cheese -- I used Italian pizza blend
2 eggs
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese -- I used the same Italian pizza blend
2 teaspoons dried parsley
salt to taste
ground black pepper to taste
9 lasagna noodles
1/2 cup water

1. In a large skillet over medium heat brown the ground beef. Drain the grease. Add spaghetti sauce and simmer for 5 minutes.

2. In a large bowl, mix together the cottage cheese, 2 cups of the mozzarella cheese, eggs, half of the grated Parmesan cheese, dried parsley, salt and ground black pepper.

3. To assemble, in the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish evenly spread 3/4 cup of the sauce mixture. Cover with 3 uncooked lasagna noodles, 1 3/4 cup of the cheese mixture, and 1/4 cup sauce. Repeat layers twice. Top with 3 noodles, remaining sauce, remaining mozzarella and Parmesan cheese. Add 1/2 water to the edges of the pan. Cover with aluminum foil.

4. Bake in a preheated 350 degree F(175 degrees C) oven for 45 minutes. Uncover and bake an additional 10 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

NOTE: I made mine ahead of time and stuck it in the fridge until right before baking, so I didn't add the water to the edges of the pan -- the noodles had softened up a bit while sitting. I also didn't cover it while baking, which leads to that lovely burnt cheese texture that Rodger loves so much!

Dusting off the place

OK, folks, here's the deal: One of my New Year's Resolutions (yes, it's still early, but still...) is to keep in touch with friends better. Which means cranking up Dinner Club on a regular rotation. We end up having so much fun no matter where we meet or what's on the menu, and it really does come down to just getting together and catching up with everyone. So, let's be sure we don't get too far along down the calendar without having a group get-together in 2009, m'kay? And I really want to document it better, with recipes for when we are cooking and photos, reviews and such when we go out. So, help a girl out, will ya?

Ideas for the January meeting? I know we've talked about going back to Edelweiss, and I think Rodger & Irene had an idea for another place. Let's get started with some planning, why don't we?

Oh, and Happy New Year!!

Jambalaya recipe

We've sorely neglected this site lately, um, OK, we've neglected it since I started it, but now it's time to put it into use with the menus, recipe postings and such. Last night's meal included a semi-Cajun theme -- we wanted to do an Oscar night tonight, but with work and children and life, Saturday night plays better with the schedule. So even though R & I were AWOL, the rest of us punted and came up with this:

S & J -- appetizers and hosts -- she had a great spread of cajun crab dip, crackers, cheeses, olives, peppers and little quiches. We spent the first hour gathered around her great big ol' kitchen island continuing the bad movie discussions from last month and oohing and aahing over their little princess in her bunny ears.

Me -- entree -- I did jambalaya and boudin, mostly because my oven is still out of commission and I couldn't think of anything else that didn't require baking. I used the crockpot for the jambalaya, so it was easy (recipe below) and we nuked the boudin last minute before sitting down to dinner.

D & P -- drinks -- Hurricanes. Of course, to go with the cajunish theme. S found some extra rum for those who wanted them a bit stronger than usual.

A & R -- dessert -- mini-cupcake cheesecakes. Delish. I've got to get the recipe from her, but she said it was easy and quick. Chocolate chip cookie base in a little muffin/cupcake thingy, with the cheesecake layer, covered with caramel and chocolate chips. Good eating, I tell you!

The jambalaya came together very quickly, which was good, since I'd been on my feet most of the morning at the half-marathon. I had to just chop the pepper and onion, chop the sausage -- you could just slice it, but I wanted it in smaller bits -- and cube the chicken. I used breast pieces that were partially thawed, so they cut very quickly and easily. The hardest part was the shrimp at the end. I'd gotten raw in the shell, so I had to boil it quickly, then peel it and de-vein it before I could throw it in the crockpot about half an hour before we left our house.

The main entree last had most folks at the table wiping their brows. I think I overdid it with the cayenne pepper, since I can't handle a lot of heat in my food. But I was assured that it was spot on, and that it was just as spicy as they would have expected. We topped it off with a bit of file seasoning at the table, and that provided a nice touch. We paired it with boudin and a nice fresh batch of cornbread. No vegetables to speak of outside of the corn in the cornbread. And it was good! So without further adieu:

Jambalaya

• 1 lb Boneless chicken breasts; cut in 1" cubes
• 1 lb Smoked sausage; sliced
• 1 lb Shrimp; cooked
• 28 oz Crushed tomatoes
• 1 md Onion; chopped
• 1 Green pepper; chopped
• 1 c Chicken broth
• 1/2 c White wine
• 2 ts Oregano
• 2 ts Parsley
• 2 ts Cajun seasoning
• 1 ts Cayenne pepper
• 2 c Rice; cooked
  

Cut chicken and slice sausage. Chop onion and green pepper. Put all in slow cooker. Add remaining ingredients, except shrimp and rice. Cook in slow cooker on low for 6-8 hours. 30 minutes before eating, add cooked shrimp and cooked rice; allow to heat. Can be cooked on high for 3-4 hours instead.

well, then....

so while we're still excited about the concept, apparently the other couples we've invited are
(choose 1):

a) on vacation;
b) not returning emails;
c) not interested in eating food other people have prepared;
d) all of the above.

So, we may punt this month and revert back to our original plan of choosing a place for dinner and then pick up with the first inaugural Suburbia South Dinner Club in August. By then, everyone will be back from summer frolicking and we'll be ready to go. Maybe....

Suggestions?

The Rules of Dinner Club

1) You don't talk about Dinner Club. (Wait, sorry, wrong club)
2) Make sure to let everyone else know about allergies or aversions.
3) Host does nothing but get the house ready and decide on level of casualness.
4) Entrée family chooses the "theme" if wanted (esp for holidays), but this is not required.
5) The date for the next month will be chosen before leaving current month's dinner.
6) "Competitive cooking" will be encouraged but is not required.
7) Store-bought shortcuts are totally OK.
8) If you have to skip a month, we'll miss you, and probably talk about you, but no worries.
9) Don't stress - these are your friends.
10) Have fun!

Welcome to the Suburbia South Dinner Club!

I've set this up as the Home base for our new Suburbia South Dinner Club. The idea is this:

Friends are important. Few things are more relaxing and rejuvenating than spending a nice quiet evening with our closest friends. But, we all have crazy-busy schedules and finding time to reconnect is tough, to say the least.

So, we have Suburbia South Dinner Club. The three "Founding Families" each invited one another family to join our group for dinner one night a month. It can be fancy or casual, elaborate or simple. The important thing is that we MAKE the time to have some adult conversation and interactions with the friends we have, while making new ones in the process. Hosting duties are rotated, so between the six couples, each family has the group at their home twice a year. The other families supply the food, wine, desserts, whatever. It's low-stress and fun.

Stay tuned here for more details on the specifics of the first official gathering, Friday July 14.