Man-Pleasing Chicken
I cannot say enough about this chicken. It is FANTASTIC. And easy. And has few ingredients. And really delicious. Highly recommended.
Mediterranean Chicken
I love lemon, garlic and olive oil together. So simple, so fragrant, very moist. Yum. Garnish with slices of lemon.
Orzo Salad (with special thanks to the bella Valeri Harper)
1 ½ cups orzo
¾ cup olive oil (divided ¼ cup, ½ cup)
9 oz. frozen artichoke hearts, thawed
½ cup chicken broth
1 large egg yolk
2 T white wine vinegar
1 t Dijon mustard
2 T minced fresh basil
2 oz. prosciutto minced
2 oz parmesan, grated fresh
2 T fresh lemon juice
¼ cup minced fresh parsley leaves
4 scallions minced
In a kettle of boiling salted water, cook orzo 7-8 minutes, or until al dente. Drain in a sieve and refresh under cold water. Drain orzo well and toss it with ¼ cup olive oil in bowl. In a saucepan simmer the artichokes in chicken broth until they are tender, drain well and add them to the orzo.
In a small bowl, whisk together egg yolk, the vinegar, mustard, salt and pepper to taste. Add ½ cup olive oil in a stream, whisking, until dressing is emulsified. Whisk in the minced basil and pour the dressing over the orzo mixture.
Add prosciutto, parmesan, lemon juice, parsley, scallions and toss.
I could live on this salad. The only thing we changed was to garnish it with peanuts.
Green salad
Romaine lettuce
Greens from Costco
Mini cucumbers
Mini peppers
The general idea with these rolls is to make a standard batch of dough (I used the very basic master recipe), and then make rolls instead of a loaf. Once the rolls have risen, you sprinkle flour over their tops, cut a "x" on the tops, then fill that top with caramelized onions.
We caramelized the onions with the following recipe:
3 T olive oil
2 lg. onions
1 t salt
1 T white vermouth
1 t white wine vinegar
2 T brown sugar
1 t dried thyme or oregano (we used a combination)
4 T water
Heat the oil, add the other ingredients and cook until fully caramelized. The recipe says 25 minutes, but we made such an expanded batch that it took much longer. The fragrance of onions caramelizing is heavenly, especially with the addition of vermouth.
Cobbler in a Jar
I used the frozen berries (raspberries, blueberries, blackberries) from Costco. We used the half-pint jars and then topped the cobbler with vanilla ice cream. The link above is one recipe option. We looked at several and I cannot remember which one we used.
Strawberry Lemonade
Beautiful color!
Iced Tea (using Iced Tea Syrup...not sure if this is the recipe used, but it is a good one.)
The hard working kitchen crew made this with mint, and it was fantastic.
We made as much as we could on the day before the rehearsal dinner, and then Carol and her angels took over and did the final steps and delivered a masterpiece. I am grateful beyond words to my dear friend. I can only hope that someday I will be able to serve her so willingly. Carol and Curt, you are my inspiration!
