Dinner Diva's Goes to Charleston

I finally remembered to snap a couple quick pictures from my phone of our dinner this month (although I missed the appetizers). Rightly fitting that I finally got around to writing about our trip to Charleston and our favorite cooking classes there that I should also write about our dinner group. Last month was my turn to host so I decided to pick the theme of Charleston, inspired by our trip of course. For our meal this month we had:

• Michele brought her version of fried green tomato to start us off 
• Watermelon, Feta & Arugula Salad
• Cornbread from SNOB (my favorite restaurant) 
• Crispy fried fish with low country pickles 
• Spring pea gold rice pirlau 
• Janet brought Strawberry Shortcakes - my favorite! 

I was running way behind this time when the girls got here. Not going to lie it turned into a bit of a team effort trying to get everything to the table in a timely manor. Everything turned out delicious, just as good as at our class. The pickles really complete the fish dish. And you'd be surprised at how well the watermelon goes with the arugula. Another really fun time, although as usual we had tons of food, if I ever make that rice or cornbread again, note to self it feeds a small army!

Next month we're doing baby themed food in honor of Janet's upcoming arrival! 

All American Cooking

Our last Dinner Diva's group was actually back in May, but I'm just catching up finally (shocker, I know) . Last month it was Gina's turn to host and she chose to do "All American BBQ" in honor of the summer quickly approaching (at that time anyway). Michele started us off with some great vegetable fritters that I loved using some of the delicious typical summer produce in them. Then as usual Gina had a fantastic menu from pulled pork, to coleslaw, corn on the cob, baked beans and more! The pulled pork was awesome, I absolutely loved it. I think she said it was a Pioneer Woman recipe. If I ever decide to make pulled pork I plan to get the recipe, and I am not a pulled pork person.

I was in charge of dessert this month. When Janet pinned a recipe for apple pie cookies I saw them and knew that would be perfect, what's more American than apple pie, and better yet a mini version, because who is going to eat the rest of the pie once we had our slices that night, I knew I wasn't. These cookies were a little tricky to make and def very messy. I rushed a little bit and it was my first time making a lattice top, so I had no expertise there, but taste wise they turned out great! (Not the most appetizing pictures, but as usual I was in a rush). It was a fun little twist on apple pie and everyone enjoyed them!

Apple Pie Cookies
Source: Oh Bite It
Serving Size: 6-8 good sized Pie Cookies:

1 Box of frozen Pillsbury Pie Crust (2 sheets per box)
Approx. 1 Can of Apple Pie Filling (just enough for a thin layer)
Approx. 1 Cup of Caramel Sauce (just enough for a light coating)
1 Egg (for egg-wash)
2 tbsp. Cinnamon/Sugar
1 tbsp. Nutmeg
Flour just for sprinkling
A round cookie cutter (any size you like - I used the bottom of a glass)

Lay out a sheet of Pie Crust, sprinkle it with some flour and slightly roll it out, just to increase its surface area. Pour some of the Caramel Sauce (Just enough to coat the crust) onto the crust and evenly spread it around, creating a thin layer of caramel. Coarsely chop the Apple Pie Filling into small pieces. Top the caramel layer  with a layer of the chopped up Apple Pie Filling, making sure not to add too much pie filling. Roll out the second sheet of Pie Crust the same size as the first sheet, and slice it into strips. Create a lattice crust (just like on a pie) for the top of the pie filling (create your lattice on top of the actual filling, as if it were a pie!). Dip your cookie cutter into some egg wash and cut out your Pie Cookies. Brush the tops of them with some egg wash and sprinkle them with the Cinnamon Sugar and Nutmeg. Place them onto a baking sheet and bake them at 350 degrees for approx. 20-25 minutes, until they’re golden and firm. Let them cool just a little.

St Patty's Day Feasts

I had two big corned beef and cabbage celebrations this year. The first was for our Dinner Diva's theme at Janet's house and the second was our annual celebration at Mom's. We were supposed to meet in February and do a Valentine's Day theme but inclement wether had other plans for us so we pushed it out to March instead. Since a Valentine's Day theme no longer made sense we decided to do St. Patrick's Day food in its place.

This was Janet's first time making (and I think also having) corned beef and cabbage. I have to say she did an incredible job! It was absolutely delicious, so good in fact I told my mom she needs to use this recipe for going forward for the corned beef we make on the stove. It simmered for 6 hours in Guinness and beef broth and it gave it such flavor. She also chopped and sauteed the cabbage with onions which I loved as well!

For the rest of our St. Patty's day dinner, I brought a Guinness and Cheddar dip for the appetizer. I had thought about bringing like a hot ruben dip, which did look really good, but since we were having more corned beef for dinner, I opted against it. The next best thing I could come up with was a Guinness dip. It was tasty, I don't know that I would rush out to go make it again, but it was festive and worked for the occasion. Finally for dessert Michele brought a potato cake. Have you ever heard of potato in a cake before? Well I certainly hadn't! I was expecting something savory versus sweet, but turns out you mash the potato finely into grounds and use it almost as flour. It actually tasted very good and you never would have known it was made from potatoes in a cake!

If you ever find yourself in need of a corned beef & cabbage recipe, I highly recommend the one Janet used. I know we'll be using this one next year when Mom makes it!

Corned Beef & Cabbage by Melissa D'Arabian 
Source: Food Network

5 pounds corned beef
5 garlic cloves, lightly smashed
10 peppercorns
4 sprigs fresh thyme
2 bay leaves
12 ounces stout (recommended: Guinness)
1 cup beef broth or stock
Water, for simmering
4 yellow onions, cut into wedges, plus 1 medium yellow or sweet onion, sliced
2 parsnips, peeled and cut into large chunks
3 carrots, peeled and cut into large chunks
6 medium red potatoes, scrubbed
1 medium head green cabbage, cut into quarters, core removed
4 tablespoons butter

Rinse the corned beef and put it into a large Dutch oven or heavy soup pot. Make a bouquet garni with the garlic, peppercorns, thyme and bay leaves and add to the pot. Stir in the stout, stock and enough water to cover the beef by 2 inches. Bring to a boil over medium heat, then reduce the heat to a gentle simmer and cook for 4 hours, covered, stirring occasionally.

After 4 hours, add the onion wedges, parsnips, and carrots, and cook for a 1/2 hour. Add the potatoes and the cabbage wedges and continue cooking until the cabbage is tender, but not limp, about 20 minutes. Remove the cabbage to a plate and allow the corned beef and other vegetables to continue cooking until the meat is tender.

In a separate large saute pan, heat 4 tablespoons butter over medium heat. Add the sliced onion, and a pinch of salt and saute until tender and beginning to brown, about 8 to 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, slice the cabbage thinly, gently pressing with a paper towel to remove excess water. Add the cabbage to the onion mixture and toss to coat well with the butter. Cook over medium heat until the cabbage begins to brown.

Remove the meat to a cutting board and slice. Serve at the table with all the vegetables piled onto a serving tray and the sliced meat onto another tray with some of the broth poured over the meat.

Combing Two Loves

One of the things I missed writing about during my blog hiatus was our Dinner Diva's evenings! When I last left off it was my turn to host for January. I wanted to come up with a creative theme versus just doing a country, or color, or ingredient, something like that. What I came up with was, "Recipes from/or Inspired by a Book." Since I love to read and so many books either have food as the central theme or the setting inspires recipes or themes I thought this would be perfect. Of course I had no particular book or recipes in mind when I selected this theme.

Turns out it was slightly harder to come up with recipe ideas that I originally thought it would be. I read a ton of books, like Slim to None, a cute romantic comedy that had a recipe after most chapters, or Life from Scratch, which centered around a cooking blogger, but nothing really stuck me to make for my big dinner. I tried to look for recipes from books like The Twilight series, Hunger Games, The Help and so many others. After some extensive googling, here is what I ended up coming up with for my menu (from what I remember anyway):

• Italian Green Salad Inspired by Eat, Pray, Love 
• Leek & Potato Tart with Gruyere from Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
• Southern Style Collard Greens from The Help
• Rosemary Orange Chicken from The Hunger Games
  This is what Katniss eats when she has lunch with Cinna. She describes it with great detail in the book: Chicken and chunks of oranges cooked in a creamy sauce laid on a bed of pearly white grain, tiny green peas and onions... I try to imagine assembling this meal myself back home. Chickens are too expensive, but I could make do with a wild turkey. I'd need to shoot a second turkey to trade for an orange. Goat's milk would have to substitute for cream. We can grow peas in the garden. I'd have to get wild onions from the woods. 

I'm so mad, once again I forgot to take pictures of our lovely dinner. I had set the table using books as the centerpiece. It was nothing fancy but still cute for the effect. The Leek & Potato Tart turned out pretty good, it was really easy to make since you used pre-made biscuits as the pie crust. The collard greens were another experiment. We all tried them, they were ok, but really not my thing. The recipe makes an obscene amount and I only made a third of what it called for, I can't even imagine if I made the full recipe, it must feed an entire Baptist Church! Good thing I have a Mother that LOVES collard greens, in the freezer they went and home to Mom who enjoyed them.

The chicken though was another adventure all together. The recipe requires you to sauté the chicken on the stovetop and then put it in the oven. Well, while I was transferring my chicken to the oven part of the juice spilled out into the hot oven and caused it to smoke up, so there went the oven! It stunk and couldn't be used till we did a self cleaning, but at least the chicken turned out ok even without going in the oven.

For the rest of our dinner the girls brought over "I don't want Earl's Baby Pie" from Waitress. Although I thought this was just a movie and not a book, but Gina was stuck for ideas. Technically though I never actually got through reading The Help, I only saw the movie so I cheated there too. For dessert, Janet brought over one of her own creations based on a scene from 50 Shades of Grey. I have yet to read those books, I doubt I ever will, but her and Gina loved them. Aside from spilling the juice from the chicken in the oven it was another great night, maybe next time I'll get it right, I think last time I hosted, I accidentally cooked a knife in the pan with the pork loin!

Dinner Diva's Goes to China

This month's Dinner Diva's theme was pretty easy, the theme was Chinese Food. I don't think I've ever really made Chinese food at home before, since it's so easy to just get take out. Turns out it was another great theme, as always! This month it was Gina's turn to host, for the main course she made delicious chicken and broccoli with mushrooms, and fantastic homemade fried rice, which was really cute. She was so cute in setting the table to match the theme and even put out the fried noodles, duck sauce and everyone got a fortune cookie.

Michele was on appetizers and made an awesome scallion pancakes and even brought some edamme along too, although we're not sure if those are really Chinese. I had a difficult time getting the edamme out of the shell, I blame it on user error. But I did pick up a bag at Trader Joe's the other day since they were a great snack. Michele put some sesame oil and Cajun seasoning on them for some extra flavor!

I was up for dessert this month, I had no idea what a traditional Chinese dessert was but then I remembered Chinese Almond Cookies. We usually don't do cookies but these were perfect. I even learned that almond cookies symbolize coins and will be sure to bring you good fortune. Everyone absolutely loved these cookies, and they were SUPER easy to make. I think these will be making another appearance in the future. I loved the almond flavor, it also gave me an excuse to finally use some of the almond flour I bought at Trader Joe's and never used.

Chinese Almond Cookies Recipe
Source: My Recipes

1 cup (1/2 lb.) butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon almond extract (I used closer to a teaspoon)
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (I used half white flour, half almond flour)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 large egg yolk
1 tablespoon milk
1/3 cup blanched whole almonds
2 tablespoons sesame seeds

In a large bowl, with an electric mixer on medium speed, beat butter and sugar until smooth. Add whole egg and almond extract and beat until well blended. Stir or beat in flour and baking powder until well blended. Cover bowl and chill until dough is firm, about 1 hour. Shape dough into 1-inch balls, flatten each slightly, and place each about 1 inch apart on buttered or cooking parchment-lined 12- by 15-inch baking sheets. In a small bowl, beat egg yolk with milk to blend. Brush cookies lightly with egg mixture; discard any remaining. Press an almond into the center of each cookie and sprinkle each with about 1/8 teaspoon sesame seeds. Bake cookies in a 325° oven until lightly browned, 15 to 20 minutes; if baking more than one pan at a time, switch pan positions halfway through baking. Let cookies cool on sheets for 5 minutes, then use a wide spatula to transfer to racks to cool completely.

Dinner Divas Goes Rock

I know I've said it before but I'll say it again I really so lucky to have found such great friends, whether it's book club, my monthly dinner group, or friends from the gym or more, I really feel grateful that I've found such wonderful people here in Jersey. My monthly dinner group is no exception to that and I never would have thought that it would bring so much to my month, I really look forward to meeting up with the girls every month and trying new recipes and menu's. It's so much fun!

This month was another unique theme. The theme was to pick a recipe using a food or ingredient that is also in the name of a band or musician.  For example, Smashing Pumpkins, Blondie, Peaches and Herb
bananarama, Eminem, Black Eyed Peas, The Cranberries, you get the idea. Since there's four of us again I was only assigned to wine duty but I volunteered to bring the salad as well. Which was really easy to think of, Strawberry Fields salad, ok so technically not the name of a band, but it is the name of a song by the Beatles which was close enough.

For our meal this month we feasted on Korn chips made by Janet. I brought my Strawberry Fields salad. Michele made Pumpkin ravioli's, which were INCREDIBLE, I don't even like Pumpkin but I really want to make these again. She also made Meatloaf for the main course, of course after the band Meatloaf, that was an easy one, and yes there are bands out there named Screaming Broccoli and the Potatoes, I kid you not. And for dessert Gina made the most delicious Blondies, they had coconut in them which you know sold me. I was so happy with the way the salad turned out, I def want to make it again, here is the recipe I used:

Strawberry Fields Salad w/ Candied Pecans 
Spring mix or mesclun mix salad greens
Fresh baby spinach
Bleu cheese crumbles
Fresh strawberries
Candied pecans (recipe follows)
Red Onion
Trader Joe's Fat Free Balsamic Vinaigrette 

Sugared Pecans Recipe
Source: Simply Recipes

1 egg white
1 Tbsp water
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
8 oz pecans - about 2 cups
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Preheat oven to 300°F. Put sugar, cinnamon, salt, ground cloves, and ground nutmeg in a plastic bag, shake to mix. Put egg, water, and vanilla in a bowl. Beat until slightly foamy, add pecans and coat well. Lift pecans out of bowl with a slotted spoon and put into the bag of sugar and spices. Shake pecans in bag making sure they are well coated. Bake 30 minutes on a baking pan lined with silpat or lightly greased aluminum foil. 15 minutes into the baking, stir up the pecans with a fork. Let cool completely before serving. Makes about 2 cups.

Summer Time & Lemons

We managed to squeeze in our June Dinner Diva's night. Janet was ging to be leaving for Germany for the month so it was nice that we were able to get together before she left. It was just the three of us again as Gina is still out on 'maternity leave.' Maybe by August we'll be back to the 4 of us again. In any case we had a wonderful dinner at Janet's house this month.

For this month's theme Janet chose "Lemon & Lime." All of the dishes had to contain one of these citrus fruits in it. Which is perfect for the summer time, a refreshing juice. Michele and I traded, since she prefers to make appetizers versus baking which I don't mind at all. She started us off with these delicious zucchini fritters I guess you would call them, and they had a delicious sauce on top of them, it was like a yogurt sauce, that had the lemon it. I loved them, I saw a similar recipe on Skinny Taste (of course) I can't wait to make them myself, hopefully I'll have some of my own homegrown zucchini to use to make them with. I def want to get the recipe from her on what she used for the sauce, even though she said she made it using the wrong yogurt, it was still really good.

Everything Janet made for the main course was absolutely delicious as well. We had a cucumber and tomato salad, a shaved asparagus side, even a cold pasta salad with cucumbers as well and finally the most deliciously moist chicken I think I have ever had. To prepare the chicken it was butterflied which ensures that it cooks evenly, I never would have known what a difference this would make. The cold, raw shaved asparagus salad was also fantastic, I never would have known raw asparagus could be so good.

Finally for dessert I finished our meal with Skinny Honey Lemon Bars. I was originally going to make a coconut lime cake I had seen, but when these lemon bars were posted the week of our dinner I took it as a sign, and I'm glad I went with these bars. They were light and delicious, and overall pretty easy to make. I had wanted to take a picture of the bars I made with the leftovers but someone ate them before I could. Although he did report that he liked them. Next time I'll have to take a picture!

Skinny Honey Lemon Bars (5 pt +)
Source & Photo: Skinny Taste

For the crust:
6 tbsp white whole wheat flour
6 tbsp all purpose flour
1/3 cup light brown sugar (not packed)
3 tbsp cornstarch
2 tsp grated lemon zest
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp kosher salt
4 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into bits and chilled
1 tbsp fat free Greek yogurt

For the filling:
1/2 cup honey
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 large egg white, lightly beaten
2 tbsp white whole wheat flour
1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
1 tsp grated lemon zest
5 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 tbsp powdered sugar, for dusting on top

Preheat the oven to 350° F. Prepare an 8-inch square pan by lightly spraying the inside of the pan with baking spray before lining it with 2 long sheets of aluminum foil folded to fit inside and placed perpendicular to each other in the pan.  This is so you can get the bars out after they are cooked, so don't skip this step.Cut the sheets long enough to hang over the sides to use as handles to lift out the baked lemon bars before cutting into squares.  Spray the inside of the foil lined pan with baking spray.

For the crust: In a food processor combine the flours, brown sugar, cornstarch, lemon zest, baking powder and salt and process until well combined.  Add the butter and yogurt to the flour mixture at once and pulse at least a dozen times before turning out into the prepared pan and pressing into an even layer. Bake until evenly browned about 20-22 minutes.  Cool the crust on a metal rack for at least 15 - 20 minutes.  Reduce the oven temperature to 325°F.

Prepare the filling by whisking together the eggs, honey, lemon zest, flour and the salt in a medium bowl. Stir in the lemon juice and pour over the cooled crust.  Bake until filling is set, about 22 minutes.  Cool completely before lifting the bars out of the pan with the foil.  Cut into 9 squares and dust with confectioners sugar.

Dinner Divas Goes to Boston

Well once again we had another wonderful "Dinner Diva's" evening filled with delicious food. This month it was my turn to host. Since I was hosting this also meant it was my turn to pick out the theme. I wanted to do something different that the girls have not done before, since they've been meeting for a long time before I joined the group there's been many themes that have already been done. My last theme was celebrity chefs, I chose Giada, that was also the dinner where I cooked the knife in with the pork tenderloin. I was determined not to do that again! For this month I decided to pick "Famous Food from a City," specifically Boston. Meaning the food should be something the city is known for or have the word Boston in the title. This was surely something the girls had not done before.

Our menu this month consisted of:

• Boston House Salad with homemade Blue cheese Dressing
• Boston Baked Beans
• Boston Baked "Schrod" - A Parker House tradition since 1906
• Roasted New Potatoes
• Green Vegetable
• Omni Parker House Rolls
• Appetizer - Michele - Boston Lettuce Wraps
• Dessert - Janet - Boston Cream Cupcakes

I'm happy to say that everything turned out great and there was no knife cooking this time. One of the great things about our little group or the intent is to try new things. I had a major cooking first yesterday as well, my first time using yeast. I made the homemade dough for the omni parker house rolls, which was really cool to see the dough rising and kneading it and it turned out perfectly, I was pretty proud of my dough, Mike seemed to enjoy the rolls the most, he's already requesting homemade pizza dough.

The Boston Baked Beans also turned out fabulous! We were smelling them all day. I was even outside with Rocky and the neighbor at one point and she was smelling them as well and commented how good it smells. The beans were by no means difficult to make, however it was time consuming. Since I only bought my beans that morning I did not have a chance to soak them overnight so I was only able to soak them for about 90 minutes, but it wasn't a problem at all. The beans essentially took from 11:30-6:30 in total. At one o'clock I then started simmering the beans which was about 2 hours, and then at three o'clock that was when it was time to put them in the oven with the bacon and sauce. At first I didn't realize the bacon went in raw and I was trying to cut it but you just layer it with the strips of bacon. Later when its done and you stir it the bacon pieces just break right up. One thing I will say is that this made a HUGE pot of beans. I would absolutely try cutting the recipe in half next time unless you want to feed your entire neighborhood, which I'm sure they'd enjoy because they were delicious!

Boston Baked Beans
Source: All Recipes

2 cups navy beans
1/2 pound bacon (uncooked)
1 onion, finely diced
3 tablespoons molasses
2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon dry mustard
1/2 cup ketchup
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup brown sugar

Soak beans overnight in cold water. Simmer the beans in the same water until tender, approximately 1 to 2 hours. Drain and reserve the liquid. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Arrange the beans in a 2 quart bean pot or casserole dish by placing a portion of the beans in the bottom of dish, and layering them with bacon and onion. In a saucepan, combine molasses, salt, pepper, dry mustard, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce and brown sugar. Bring the mixture to a boil and pour over beans. Pour in just enough of the reserved bean water to cover the beans. Cover the dish with a lid or aluminum foil. Bake for 3 to 4 hours in the preheated oven, until beans are tender. Remove the lid about halfway through cooking, and add more liquid if necessary to prevent the beans from getting too dry.

Dinner Diva's Goes Swedish

I love all the theme's that our dinner group comes up with since it is never the same thing and it's all on the hostess to select her theme for that month. For this month Janet selected Swedish cuisine and I was on appetizers. Of course the first thing that comes to mind is Swedish Meatballs! I actually couldn't find anything else that I was inspired to make so I went with the meatballs. I've never actually had the Swedish meatballs they serve at Ikea, the last time we were there Mike didn't let me get any so I can't attest to those one, but I can attest to my Aunt Susan's Swedish Meatballs, which she makes every year on Christmas Eve. When I asked Mom for her recipe I thought it got cut off because there really wasn't much to it. So I improvised and basically mixed together a combination of several different recipes I read online. The end result actually turned out pretty good and I would make them again. This is how I think I made them, or the best I can remember....

Swedish Meatballs 
Source: A Rachel Original/Aunt Susan

Meatballs
1 lb. Chop Meat
1/2 cup bread crumbs
2 tablespoons Ketchup
1/4 - 1/2 cup milk (I used 2%)
1 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1/2 small onion chopped
1 tsp olive oil

Sauce
1 container/can Brown Gravy
1 cup beef broth
couple tablespoons sour cream (optional)

Preheat oven to 400F. Combine the bread crumbs and skim milk in a large mixing bowl, starting with 1/4 cup. Let sit for 5 minutes, or until the bread has soaked up the milk, add more as needed. Sautee the onion in olive oil.  Add the onion, egg, chop meat, ketchup and salt. Use your hards to very gently mix the ingredients. Put into 1/4 cup to measure out and cut that in half (so 1/8th of a cup) and roll into a ball for each meatball. Arrange the meatballs on a baking sheet, being sure that the balls don’t touch each other. Bake for 15 minutes. Roll the balls over so that a different side is touching the sheet and bake for another 15 minutes. While the meatballs are baking, start your sauce, simmer the brown gravy and whisk in beef broth. Add meatballs when cooked and simmer until meatballs are coated nicely in sauce. Add sour cream (optional, I threw it in since I had some on hand).

The meatballs were a big hit for our Swedish dinner, I think there were only about 5 left over. And for the main event we started off with homemade Swedish cucumber salad, which I loved, I adore cucumbers and Janet even made her own homemade rye bread. Janet also made this incredible "Swedish" lasagna that her uncle makes at his restaurant in Sweden, now this lasagna is not for those that are counting their calories when you hear the amount of cheese in this thing but it was delicious. The primary cheese in the lasagna was gouda!!! Which I love since my trip to Russia in high school when they made me spaghetti with gouda, I need to pick some gouda up on my next trip to Trader Joe's. And even though she forgot to peel the apples before she made the apple pie for dessert, Michelle's Swedish apple pie was delicious, I really liked the twist on it. That was nothing compared to me cooking a knife with the pork tenderloin last month!

Dinner Diva's

It's funny where life takes you, when you first meet someone you may never expect where life will take that relationship in years to come, and how people and come and go from your life. That is how it is with my now friend Michele. I first met Michele when I was about 13 and we went away for my 'cousin' Jennifer's sweet 16 on a big extended family cruise and Jennifer had brought Michele along with her. At the time I was the younger cousin that looked up to the girls and tagged along with them. Years passed and I never saw Michele again until at Jennifer's wedding, 3 1/2 years ago when we were sitting at the same time. When we reconnected we realized we were now living just 20 minutes apart from one another and we exchanged information to try and get together sometime. I actually owe discovering what a blog was to Michele, who introduced my to hers, and I started this blog as a direct result of our conversation at the wedding.

The timing just never seemed to work out with getting together, mostly on my end I must admit, with graduate school, the wedding, and the puppy, there never seemed to be a good time, until recently, when things have certainly calmed down. Michele invited me to join her monthly dinner group. They call the group, "Dinner Diva's." Every month the girls get together and rotate houses, the host is the one responsible for the main portion of the meal, and the other girls rotate bringing the appetizer, dessert, and the wine. And there is a monthly theme, usually a cuisine, country or region, last month was "California Fresh" and before that was "Southern Cooking."

This month it was my turn to host the event and even a snow storm couldn't stop us (although it almost did). Since the girls have been doing this for quite some time they were running out of new themes to try, having exhausted all the typical ones, so I decided to make my theme "Celebrity Chefs," specifically Giada De Laurentis, who I love, and also have a cookbook of hers that I had yet to use. Although later I figured out that all of my recipes in my cookbook were also online, so much for that one. My menu for the evening was as follows:

• Pomegranate & Cranberry Bellini's
• Mixed Salad (Insalata Mista)
• Tuscan White Bean & Garlic Soup
• Roasted Pork Loin with Roasted Garlic Vinaigrette
• Broiled zucchini and potatoes with parmesan crust

Janet also brought along Giada's, Apple and Onion Confit Crostini as the appetizer (which were delicious). I think the biggest hit of the evening had to be the Tuscan White Bean & Garlic Soup, which was delicious. I don't make a lot of soups so this one was a nice treat and was perfect for the snowy day we were having. I was pleasantly surprised at how easy this soup was to make, and also how fantastic it smelled in the kitchen. I used light cream for mine, since that is what I could find in the small size in the supermarket and to save some calories. When I put the recipe into the Weight Watchers recipe calculator (using the light cream) it came out to be 7 points for a bowl (at 5 servings total), which was worth it to me for this delicious, creamy soup. 

Tuscan White Bean & Garlic Soup
Source: Food Network Giada De Laurentis

2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 shallots, chopped
1 sage leaf
2 (15-ounce) cans cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
4 cloves garlic, cut in 1/2
1/2 cup cream* (I used light)
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Place a medium, heavy soup pot over medium heat. Add the butter, olive oil, and shallot. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the shallots are softened, about 5 minutes. Add the sage and beans and stir to combine. Add the stock and bring the mixture to a simmer. Add the garlic and simmer until the garlic is softened, about 10 minutes. Pour the soup into a large bowl. Carefully ladle 1/3 to 1/2 of the soup into a blender and puree until smooth. Be careful to hold the top of the blender tightly, as hot liquids expand when they are blended. Pour the blended soup back into the soup pan. Puree the remaining soup. Once all the soup is blended and back in the soup pan, add the cream and the pepper Keep warm, covered, over very low heat.

I'm so happy that Michele invited me to participate in their dinner group and that the girls welcomed me with big arms right away. I really look forward to our monthly dinner group, it's been so much fun to get together with them and I love trying out making new recipes and also seeing what delicious things the other girls whip up as well.

Cooking has certainly been a learning experience for me. This time for example, I forgot to season the pork with salt and pepper before I roasted it. I also got another little surprise when I was checking on the roast, I literally left a knife in the roasting pan with the pork, when I went to check on it I saw the melted handle and knife blade in the pan, that was quite a surprise, at least I didn't set anything on fire though.

I'm also really bad at figuring out what cuts of meat I need to buy. Like when I made my pot roast last month I bought the wrong cut, this time I also bought a pork tenderloin instead of a loin, who knew there was a difference. Maybe one day I'll figure out my meat cuts, in the meantime the girls didn't seem to mind my lack of salt and pepper, or the melted knife, or the wrong loin, but that's what friends do, Mike on the other hand is another story..... Can't wait for next months already, we're doing Swedish at Janet's house and I'm bringing the appetizer, Swedish Meatballs sound good to me!