Last night, amidst all the homework terror that this week has brought, my roommate and I were able to set aside some to time to relax that was centered around my personal favorite: food.
We invited over a very special guest for the occasion. He is basically the biggest reason why our Emmy-winning show was successful. Our technical adviser and good friend, “I.M.” (for confidentiality). We drew up a menu a few weeks ago, and K made each of us a place card at the table.
On the menu:
I was put in charge of the chicken. Orginally, I was going to make Papa Bender’s Chicken Marsala (because really, who can go wrong with a P.Benda recipe, right?), but couldn’t find any cooking wine at the grocery store. So I settled on this instead:
White wine marinade for $1.00? Priceless.
I started out by sticking the chicken breast tenderloins in a bag of whole wheat bread crumbs. Once they were pretty much covered, I cooked them in a pan on the stove for about 2 minutes per side, just to get them slightly cooked. The pan had 1 tbsp. olive oil and 1 clove garlic for extra flavor.
Once they were slightly cooked, I quickly pulled them out of the pan and set them aside in an cooking spray greased baking dish for later. To the remaining pan “juices,” I added 1/2 cup water, 1 packet white wine marinade and 1 tbsp. whipped butter. Stir together, and you’ve got yourself a really easy sauce!
I poured the sauce over the chicken tenderloins in the baking dish.
I then put the cover on the baking dish and placed the chicken in the oven at 400* for 20-25 minutes. Check the chicken for doneness and take out of the oven when it’s white on the inside!
At the same time, my roomie was making the asparagus recipe.
As well as the brown rice …
We also picked up a French baguette fresh from Whole Foods. My roomie cut it up into slices and put it in a heart-shaped tin from Valentine’s Day. It was so warm and doughy!
Once everything was ready, our guest arrived! It was great timing. We each took our own portions and then sat down at the table to enjoy our meal. I had a POM spritzer to drink. I will do a more formal review of POM Wonderful soon, but let’s just say I really love this drink!
We spent almost 2 hours at the table talking about anything and everything. I rarely get to enjoy a meal as much as I enjoyed this one. The chicken turned out tender and moist - I highly recommend that $1.00 marinade! K’s asparagus, tomatoes and brown rice turned out juicy and flavorful as well. We had no complaints and were actually very impressed with ourselves. Who knew I had it in me to be so gourmet?!
Then came the highlight of the evening: dessert. As part of our get together, I.M. volunteered to bring us a baked goodie. He certainly didn’t disappoint us with Chocolate-Peanut Butter Chip Cookies!
There are so many words to describe these cookies: chewy, doughy, chocolate and peanut butter-filled to name a few. I.M. has said he will send us the recipe, and I can’t wait!
The cookies had so many layers to them! I had to get a picture for you all 
Look at how dense it is! You can see the peanut butter chip on the right side. There were so many chips in every bite, I thought I’d gone to heaven 
Honestly, just look at it! I’m drooling all over again. It was truly a dinner that catered to all of the senses, and I felt very content afterward.
Question
Have you ever had your own dinner party? If so, what did the menu feature, and how did it turn out? Would you do it again?
After last night, my answer is a big Y-E-S.
Happy Saturday, everyone! I’ll be back soon with more food and bag tag fun!
Blog hugs,
Last night, amidst all the homework terror that this week has brought, my roommate and I were able to set aside some to time to relax that was centered around my personal favorite: food.
We invited over a very special guest for the occasion. He is basically the biggest reason why our Emmy-winning show was successful. Our technical adviser and good friend, “I.M.” (for confidentiality). We drew up a menu a few weeks ago, and K made each of us a place card at the table.
On the menu:
I was put in charge of the chicken. Orginally, I was going to make Papa Bender’s Chicken Marsala (because really, who can go wrong with a P.Benda recipe, right?), but couldn’t find any cooking wine at the grocery store. So I settled on this instead:
White wine marinade for $1.00? Priceless.
I started out by sticking the chicken breast tenderloins in a bag of whole wheat bread crumbs. Once they were pretty much covered, I cooked them in a pan on the stove for about 2 minutes per side, just to get them slightly cooked. The pan had 1 tbsp. olive oil and 1 clove garlic for extra flavor.
Once they were slightly cooked, I quickly pulled them out of the pan and set them aside in an cooking spray greased baking dish for later. To the remaining pan “juices,” I added 1/2 cup water, 1 packet white wine marinade and 1 tbsp. whipped butter. Stir together, and you’ve got yourself a really easy sauce!
I poured the sauce over the chicken tenderloins in the baking dish.
I then put the cover on the baking dish and placed the chicken in the oven at 400* for 20-25 minutes. Check the chicken for doneness and take out of the oven when it’s white on the inside!
At the same time, my roomie was making the asparagus recipe.
As well as the brown rice …
We also picked up a French baguette fresh from Whole Foods. My roomie cut it up into slices and put it in a heart-shaped tin from Valentine’s Day. It was so warm and doughy!
Once everything was ready, our guest arrived! It was great timing. We each took our own portions and then sat down at the table to enjoy our meal. I had a POM spritzer to drink. I will do a more formal review of POM Wonderful soon, but let’s just say I really love this drink!
We spent almost 2 hours at the table talking about anything and everything. I rarely get to enjoy a meal as much as I enjoyed this one. The chicken turned out tender and moist - I highly recommend that $1.00 marinade! K’s asparagus, tomatoes and brown rice turned out juicy and flavorful as well. We had no complaints and were actually very impressed with ourselves. Who knew I had it in me to be so gourmet?!
Then came the highlight of the evening: dessert. As part of our get together, I.M. volunteered to bring us a baked goodie. He certainly didn’t disappoint us with Chocolate-Peanut Butter Chip Cookies!
There are so many words to describe these cookies: chewy, doughy, chocolate and peanut butter-filled to name a few. I.M. has said he will send us the recipe, and I can’t wait!
The cookies had so many layers to them! I had to get a picture for you all
Look at how dense it is! You can see the peanut butter chip on the right side. There were so many chips in every bite, I thought I’d gone to heaven
Honestly, just look at it! I’m drooling all over again. It was truly a dinner that catered to all of the senses, and I felt very content afterward.
Question
Have you ever had your own dinner party? If so, what did the menu feature, and how did it turn out? Would you do it again?
After last night, my answer is a big Y-E-S.
Happy Saturday, everyone! I’ll be back soon with more food and bag tag fun!
Blog hugs,