*SAD (Single Awareness Day) Dinner*

First, sorry about my lack of posts. It has been a busy couple of weeks...actually, month. Going to San Fransisco, work, school, cooking, and other things coming up I couldn't dedicate my time that this blogs deserve. I actually started this post (and another post about San Fransisco, but more on that soon) several times, but either got interrupted or lack of dedication. But have no fear, yours truly is back, and this time, with a vengeance.

So as all you lucky couples know, this past weekend was Valentine's Day. What my friend and I decided to do was to cook dinner for ourselves to celebrate our "choice" to not have a date. If I keep saying that then I might actually believe it :P

So anywho, our dinner date soon turned into a threesome, which quickly turned into a quintet when her parents

also decided to join us. I didn't mind and thought more the merrier. This way I get to cook for even more people and show off my bad@$ culinary skillz.

The menu that we decided with was Chicken Linguini w/ Alfredo sauce, Polenta w/ Marinara and Mozzarella, garlic and Parmesan bread, some steamed veggies and some wine. For dessert we had a chocolate fondue with strawberries, bananas, and angel food cake as dippables. All-in-all a pretty "romantic" dinner for five.

I was responsible for the pasta and dessert, one of which I have made many times and one that I did some research to make sure I knew what I was getting myself into. I'll let you decide which dish is which.

This is what the finished result looked like. I was very happy with the dinner. Hopefully, everyone else thought the same. What really caught me was the fondue. That turned out nomnomnommy!

It was basically like making a chocolate ganache. We used Hershey's chocolate bar, 2 milk and 1 dark. *Note-for any fondue do not use a chocolate with more than 68% cocoa* We set up a double boiler system. That's basically two pots, one on top of the other. In the bottom pan you want to have some water boiling and in the top pot (preferably a glass bowl) you want to cut up your chocolate and let the steam from the water melt it. In another pot you want to scald some heavy cream. Scalding is cooking liquid *almost* to the boiling point. Pour the heavy cream into the chocolate and mix away. Drop in 1-2 tablespoons of cold butter to give it a shine. You can also add in other flavors such as vanilla, some liqueur, or even hazelnut. The possibilities really are endless. As for dips, we used these three...

You could use whatever your heart desired to dunk into this chocolate goodness: marshmallows, pretzels, apples, graham crackers, oreos, brownies, cake, etc...

Melting Pot, eat your heart out!

*Breakfast, Risotto, & Calzones, Oh My...*

This update is purely about recipes. These recipes are dishes that I saw on Food Network (Giada and Robin Miller) and copied out of memory. Yup, strictly memory, no recipe following. Woot! But first...



I. Love. Breakfast. Byaawww!!!


Ok now on to the recipes...



Mushroom Risotto

5 cups chicken broth
handful of mushrooms (i used the cheapy pre-sliced packaged ones)
3 T butter
1/2 a shallot/or onion
3 cloves garlic
1/4 c white wine
1 cup rice
1/2 cup Asiago cheese (grated)
1/2 cup Romano cheese (grated)
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese (grated)
parsley
salt/pepper

Simmer mushrooms with chicken broth. Do not over boil. About 20-30 minutes

Meanwhile, melt butter and saute shallot/onion and garlic for about 5 minutes. Add rice and stir around to coat. Add wine and keep stirring. With a slotted ladle scoop out mushrooms and let excess liquid out. Add to rice mixture. When wine is almost all absorbed by rice add in chicken broth one ladle amount at a time. **You need to be constantly stirring and mixing the rice mixture with the liquid or else it will burn** Keep adding broth to rice every 5 minutes until gone. When mixture is bubbly and creamy (about 30 minutes) and rice is soft add in cheese. Add salt and pepper and sprinkle parsley. Word!



Chicken Alfredo Calzone

refrigerated pizza dough
EVOO
salt/pepper
chicken breast pieces, cubed
cumin
shallot
Alfredo Sauce
Parmesan cheese
parsley
garlic
Italian seasoning


Preheat oven to 400 degrees. I used the packet mix Alfredo Sauce mixture...soooo good NOM! So follow that for Alfredo sauce. I also used the Pillsbury pizza dough. Unroll that and flatten out. Drizzle EVOO, salt and pepper over.

Heat a pan to medium-high heat and cook the chicken. Season with salt, pepper, and cumin. Slice a shallot and add to chicken.

When sauce is done smother over the pizza dough and sprinkle chopped up garlic around pizza. Distribute chicken and shallots around one half of the pizza. Sprinkle Parmesan cheese modestly over pizza. Fold over half of the pizza and pinch the sides close with fingers or with fork. Drizzle top with evoo to brown it and sprinkle parsley and Italian Seasoning. Cut three slits on top to let steam out and to prevent it from blowing up in the oven. Bake for 9-13 minutes, until brown.


NOMNOMNOMNOMNOMNOMNOMNOMNOM to all you readers out there. Enjoy!