Archive for the ‘Recipes’ Category

Entertaining New Friends…

Posted in Food, Recipes on Tuesday, 16 October, 2007| 8 Comments »

…with thoughts of old friends.

Last Friday, FM and I hosted a dinner for several new friends but as I prepared the menu, I spent most of my time thinking of old friends. If you’re a military spouse like me, I’m sure you have your fair share of “unit” cookbooks. For this dinner, I used three recipes from the “Food That’s Too Too Good” cookbook by the 2-2 IN spouses who I spent time with in Germany. So thank you to Heidi S.(Artichoke Dip), Joy M. (Spinach Dip) and Nancy N. (Apple Crisp) for your yummy recipes which I used on Friday.

Throughout the week leading up to Friday, I was having visions of cooking grandeur and wanted to make something special and impressive. I poured over a couple of Martha Stewart magazines looking for recipes and settled on one new addition to a tried and true dinner repertoire: Sweet Potato Cannelloni. The dish is labor intensive but can be made the day before which is always a hit with me ~ the less I have to do the day of, the better. The dish consists of blanched sweet potato slices wrapped around sweet potato puree with diced apples and shaved parmesan cheese. It’s healthy, too, with each serving providing 10 grams of protein and 4 grams of fiber.

To say it was a “hit” is an understatement! Everyone raved about it ~ so much so that at first I thought they were putting me on about how yummy it was.  I was hoping to link the recipe but I couldn’t find it on the Martha website. Perhaps because it was in the October 2007 issue and won’t be on the site until after the magazine is sold.  If you’re interested in making this dish, let me know and I’ll scan then e-mail the recipe to you.

It’s well worth the effort and would make a nice addition to any Thanksgiving meal.

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Dining Out and Other Fun times

Posted in Miscellaneous, Recipes on Tuesday, 8 May, 2007| 5 Comments »

A Dining Out is army speak for a formal dinner which includes spouses (or girlfriends/boyfriends). A Dining In refers to a formal dinner which excludes spouses/girlfriends/boyfirends. The University of GUam ROTC cadets put on a very nice Dining Out this past Friday. Since I’m usually the one planning events, FM kept warning me that the evening might be a little clunky since it was the first time for most of the cadets to organize a formal event. There were a couple of minor hiccups but, on the whole, it was a really great evening. 

Since this was only my second formal here and, no one at this dinner had seen any of my dresses, I wasn’t worried about what I was going to wear. At about three on the day of the event, I tried on the three formal dresses I was thinking about wearing. Uh oh, two of them were decidedly SNUG!  A not so subtle clue that I’m going to have to put a stop to eating the “cupcakes” we’ve been buying at the commissary bakery.

Speaking of cupcakes, I made some for the gift shop volunteers last Tuesday. Unfortunately, I ended up eating 5, yes FIVE, of the leftover cupcakes in one day. Is it any wonder I’ve got a few extra inches on the hips 🙂  I was responsible for the side dish at the gift shop today and took in a VERY healthy dish. I got lots of compliments on it and several requests for the recipe. Here it is if you’d like to give it a try:

Brown Rice Italian Medley (from Mahatma Rice Recipes):

  • 1 cup brown rice
  • 1 tablespoon oil
  • 8 oz of asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1 inch pieces (about 2 cups)
  • 1/2 cup each, red and yellow pepper, diced
  • 1/4 cup pine nuts
  • salt and pepper ( a pinch each)
  • 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, shredded (optional)

Prepare rice according to package directions. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add asparagus and peppers. Saute for 5 minutes or until crisp but tender. Stir in pine nuts and cooked rice. Heat through. Season with salt and pepper. Top with Parmesan cheese (optional). Very yummy.

Enjoy!

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