Dexter Themed Night!

Our favorite premium cable show came back on, and like any good pseudo soap-opera Dexter the last season had a killer (pun  intended) ending, and we were dorkily giddy over watching the first two episodes So we decided a fitting theme for this week would be blood. Kinda gross at first consideration, but of course we didn't eat raw meat or anything crazy, we just made red foods, silly.

Pepperoni and Tomato Grilled Cheese

- Bread slices of your choice

- Harvarti with Jalapenos

- Sharp Cheddar

- Pepperoni slices

- 1 slicing tomato

- Butter to coat bread

Directions:  Assemble ingredients on buttered bread and grill like standard grilled cheese in cast-iron pan until golden brown and melted.

Oh, me, oh, my. So spicy, toasty and delicious!

Roasted Tomato Basil Soup

• -3 pounds ripe plum tomatoes, cut in half lengthwise
• -1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons good olive oil
•  -tablespoon kosher salt
• -1 1/2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
• -2 cups chopped yellow onions (2 onions)
• -6 garlic cloves, minced
• -2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• -1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• -1 (28-ounce) canned plum tomatoes, with their juice
• -4 cups fresh basil leaves, packed
• -1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
• -1 quart chicken stock or water

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Toss together the tomatoes, 1/4 cup olive oil, salt, and pepper. Spread the tomatoes in 1 layer on a baking sheet and roast for 45 minutes.

In an 8-quart stockpot over medium heat, saute the onions and garlic with 2 tablespoons of olive oil, the butter, and red pepper flakes for 10 minutes, until the onions start to brown. Add the canned tomatoes, basil, thyme, and chicken stock. Add the oven-roasted tomatoes, including the liquid on the baking sheet. Bring to a boil and simmer uncovered for 40 minutes. Pass through a food mill fitted with the coarsest blade. Taste for seasonings. Serve hot or cold. *Recipe by Ina Gartner

Can't go wrong with good ole' tomato soup! Sure beats the pants of tin-flavored Campbell's!

Bomb Bloody Mary's

• -3 cups tomato juice
• -3 tablespoons lemon juice
• -3 tablespoons lime juice
• -1 tablespoon prepared horseradish
• -1 tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce, or to taste
• -1 teaspoon minced garlic
• -3/4 teaspoon hot sauce, or to taste (recommended: Tabasco)
• -3/4 teaspoon salt
• -1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• - 1 shot Vodka per drink
• -String Cheese
• -Pickles
• -Celery
• -Beef Sticks
• - Green olives ( if you're not Sabrina) =)

Directions:

In a blender combine the tomato juice, lemon juice, lime juice, horseradish, Worcestershire sauce, garlic, and hot sauce and process until smooth. Transfer to a glass container and add salt and black pepper, to taste. Refrigerate until thoroughly chilled, at least 2 hours and up to overnight.

When ready to serve, fill each glass with ice.

Almost a meal in themselves, these beastly beauties were delicious ( albeit super filling) accompaniment to our "blood" themed meal. And making your own mix is easy and saves upwards of 900 mg of sodium in a glass. Save yourself the sausage fingers! This turned out to  be one of the best meals we've done in a while.

Next week: Pizza party!!

Tonight's menu: Chicken Wild Rice Soup, Popovers and Spring Green, Wasabi Almonds and Craisin Salad

There are three main elements that are of the essense when planning a Girl's Dinner Night:

#1: A good menu. Every week after our satisfying and amazing dinner, we chat about what to make the next week. In the two years we've been doing this, we've only had a few duplicates. But not because we're not super creative ladies, because we wanted quiche again or pizza. Who doesn't, right?

#2: Everyone brings a dish that fits the theme, and you take turns doing the main courses to fit whomever has the most time or ambition each week. Or a very bustling social calender, etc. etc.  You also rotate houses, for a change of scenery, or a premium cable show's availability, for example.

#3: An earnest desire to forget about the work week, and or bitch about it a bit, and drink a beer or glass of wine with your delightful friends. Your cooking improves, your social skills improve, and you have a 65% less chance of going postal at work because you're feeling much more grounded after a night of Thai food and cheesecake. Hey, it's science folks, I can't make these statistics up.

 Dinner night is fun, and we proclaim every week we're so excited for next week's creations. We've also been saying that our dinner night's are very worthy of a blog, so we've finally started one.

This week's menu consisted of Chicken Wild Rice Soup, Popovers and a Spring Green and Crasin salad that is an awesome side dish. It was perfect timing, because the day ended up chilly, and soup and bread were just what the doctor ordered.

Main Course: By Kala

 

Chicken Wild Rice Soup

-2 cups cooked chicken, diced

-2 cups wild rice, cooked ( u use a crock pot and it cooks very well within 2 hours)

-3 cups chicken stock

-1 medium onion, chopped

-2/3 cup flour

-1 cup cream of mushroom soup

-3 cups milk

-2 cups swiss cheese, shredded

-1 cup diced carrots

-1 cup diced celery

-2 bay leaves

- 1/4 cup parsley

 

-Directions: In a large  soup pot melt butter over medium heat. Add onion, celery and bay leaf, and cook until onion is translucent, about 7 minutes. Add chicken, mushroom soup  and carrots and cook another 5 minutes. Add wild rice and broth, and cook 15 minutes, do not boil. In a small pan heat milk until warm and whisk in flour, after combined stir into soup and cook another 10 minutes, stirring often. reduce heat to low and stir in swiss cheese, salt, pepper and parsley before serving.

 

 

Hearty wild rice soup is the best on a chilly day. It reminds you that winter and fall aren't so bad, because hey, there's soup!

 

 

 

Meaty chunks of chicken and  wild rice and a creamy cheesy base, this is my favorite wild rice soup recipe I've ever made, and I've tried a lot of them

 

 

 

Side Dish #1:By Sabrina

 

Popovers:

 



Popovers are a delicious and easy flaky delight you can make from ingredients which are common household staples:

 

-3 Eggs

-1 Cup flour

-1 Cup milk (2% or whole work best)

-1/4 tsp salt
-1 tablespoon melted butter

-2 tablespoons chilled butter.

 

*If you do not have a popover pan, you can use a muffin tin, - they just turn out smaller and slightly more dense.(and will make 12 instead of 6)  If your popover pan is not non-stick, make sure to spray with some PAM or grease. 

 

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425.

Once oven is warm, place the pan (empty) in the oven for about 2 minutes to warm. 

Mix together all ingredients except for the chilled butter.

Cut the chilled butter into 6 even pieces.

Remove pan from oven and place each pad of butter in each one of the cups.  Place pan back in oven for about a minute or until butter bubbles.

Pour the batter in the popover cups (about 1/2 full for each one).

Bake at 425 for 20 minutes

After 20 minutes REDUCE HEAT TO 325.  Bake an additional 15-20 minutes. 

 

 

This is us being impatient and peeking at the popovers... Hurry up!!!

 



 

These hollow goodies can be served with a pat of butter inside which melts all around the center of the roll, or experiment and stuff them with other treats (like cheese!) Or marshmallows, or ice cream, or jelly... We came up with several hundred things that would be good inside popovers.

 

Side dish #2: By Stephanie

 

Spring Greens Salad with Craisins and Wasabi Almonds

(3 servings)

 

- 3 cups spring greens

-  1/2 cup chopped red onion

-1/2 cup blue cheese

-1/2 cup craisins

-1/2 cup wasabi almonds

- raspberry viniagrette

Directions: distrubute ingredients evenly  over three plates and add dressing to taste.

 



 

 

An awesome, flavorful accompaniment to a hearty fall meal. In the immortal words of girl's dinner night, "We win!" it was a successful and delicious dinner night.

 

Next week's menu: Brinner, it's what's for dinner! Homemade pancakes, Breakfast fries, Mimosa's, and probably something else... Stay tuned!