Easter dinner!!!!!

For Thanksgiving, I wanted to have a faux-pre-Thanksgiving invite-over-all-my-friends-and-cook-all-day-together-then-stuff-our-face extravaganza, but it just didn't work out. So, since Thanksgiving, I planned to have a GIANT EASTER DINNER!!! This idea was growing in my mind for 4 months, and on Sunday it came to fruition :)

For 15 people, I picked up a 10 pound fully-cooked ham, so no one would die from it being undercooked. There were scalloped potatoes made with 8 pounds of potatoes, 1.5 pounds of cheese and a half gallon of milk! Wow! The original recipe is below. I also made about 8 sweet potatoes, 4 pounds of green beans, 3 pounds of asparagus, and 2 batches of homemade rolls! INTENSE. I cooked all Saturday night and half the day on Sunday. I am still recovering from all the cooking, if you can imagine!

Seriously, other people brought stuff too, and I had enough leftovers for another party on Wednesday. Do not use the above guidelines for your own easter dinner, unless you plan on having 30 people over :P

Also, this event was so overwhelming that I couldn't manage any pictures. I am still overwhelmed. Seriously.

The recipes!!!!.

Scalloped potatoes, taken from "Where's Mom Now that I Need Her"
4 potatoes cooked, peeled and sliced
3 T salad oil
3 T cornstarch
1 t salt
1/4 t paprika
1/4 t prepared mustard
3 cups milk
2 cups cheese, grated

Layer potatoes in greased caserole dish. In a saucepan, combine oil, cornstarch, salt, paprika, mustard and milk. Stirring constantly bring to a boil. Remove from heat and add cheese. Stir until melted. Pour over potatoes. Bake at 350 F for 35 minutes.

For the candied sweet potatoes, I caramelized 1/2 cup butter, 1 cup brown sugar and 1/2 cup orange juice in a pan then let the cooked and peeled sweet potatoes ooze in there for awhile before keeping them warm in the oven.

I boiled fresh green beans before coating them with olive oil and garlic. In the stress of the moment I forgot salt and pepper :(

For the asparagus, I made balsamic butter sauce.

And I doubled this recipe for rolls.

Time for grilling!!!

This is what I had for dinner last week:
It was glorious :D Grilled NY Strip served medium, garlic mashed potatoes, grilled asparagus, onions that caramelized for over an hour, grilled veggie kabobs made with cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, squash, onion, red, yellow AND green peppers, zucchini and red onions and a bottle of red wine :D And then in case that wasn't enough, we had root beer floats for dessert. Every meal should be so good. Now that it's spring, they probably will be :D

There were no leftovers because we are champions.

Penne a la Vodka

Woo! Tonight, I made penne a la vodka! I consulted with various recipes, but the end recipe was my own :)

28 oz can of crushed tomatoes (mine didn't have any salted added - so use less salt if your's does)
about 1/2 cup of heavy cream
1/3 cup vodka
1/4 lb prosciutto
3-4 teaspoons crushed garlic
1/8 cup chopped onion
olive oil
kosher salt
pepper
red pepper flakes
basil
~1 pound of penne

Saute the garlic and onion and some salt in a generous amount of olive oil. Add the crushed tomatoes, more salt, pepper, basil and let it simmer for about 15 minutes. Adjust seasoning so it tastes good. Saute the prosciutto in some more garlic and olive oil and then add it to the sauce. Add the cream and mix it up. Add the vodka and mix it again. Let it simmer for about 10 minutes. Then eat it over pasta. Sprinkle with parmesan.

Also, you might be able to tell, but the amounts are what I think I used (except the can of tomatoes, that's solid!), adjust accordingly. Mmmmmm :D

Thai Red Curry!

Tonight I hosted dinner and made some Thai red curry with chicken! This recipe is extremely adjustable. Here's what I did:

Sauce/broth:
2 cans of coconut milk
4 Tbsp brown sugar
3 Tbsp red curry paste
1 Tbsp fish sauce (gross!)
1/2 cup veggie or chicken broth

Add ins:
1 pound of chicken, cut into strips
small can of sliced bamboo shoots (like a panda!!)
snow peas
1 red pepper, sliced
half an onion, cooked partially

Make the broth mixture and cook for awhile until throughly mixed. Taste and adjust :) Then add the chicken and onions and cook it til the chicken is done. At the end, add the veggies and cook it more until the veggies are done. Serve with salad, jasmine rice, and Turkey Hill Mango Duetto (!!!!) for dessert.

I actually added 1 cup of broth and it made the sauce too thin :( And, I only added 2 Tbsp of curry paste, and wished it were a bit spicier. Next time, it will be awesome, but today, it was only mediocre. Other ideas for veggies to add: broccoli, carrots, green beans....anything you think would taste good, probably will. Very easy easy to make too!

Instant dinner!

Tonight, I managed to make a complete meal in less than an hour....and not destroy my kitchen in the process! The menu consisted of:

Penne with homemade tomato sauce
Italian sausage
Garlic bread

The Sauce
1 28 oz jar of crushed tomatoes (I use the kind that are unsalted and unseasoned)
1.5t crushed garlic
half an onion, chopped and sauteed in some olive oil with the garlic
salt, pepper, dried basil to taste

Mix it up and simmer it for a half hour or so....and you've got some delicious sauce :)

The Sausage
I got some italian sausage from the grocery store, but it was made by a local sausage man:

Logan Sausage,
4116 Wheeler Ave.,
Alexandria;
703-212-6677;
He makes : Italian (10 varieties), bratwurst, country, kielbasa, andouille, butifarra (Catalan), chorizo, Salvadoran, Argentine, Guatemalan and Colombian) and chicken.

That's all the info I could dig up, but I think I will seek out the shop sometime because the sausage was good and it seemed to be lower in fat than the regular sausage

The Bread
The garlic bread was a baguette from the Caboose Bakery sliced in half length wise and spread with a mixture of butter, olive oil, salt and garlic and baked at 350 degrees for a little while.

Doesn't he look happy?