And This is Ladies Night

by Lauren @ Eat, Drink, and Be Hopeful on September 2, 2010

My girlfriends and I try to get together every other week to chat, hang out, and eat great food. But we have brought ladies night to a whole new level. Each month we are getting together at someone’s house and cooking dinner together. Not only are we cooking together, but we are applying themes to each dinner party.

We started our tradition at my house last Friday. We chose an Italian theme to begin since I was sent a Macaroni Grill Frozen Entrée to review through My Blog Spark, and I thought this would be a great chance to try it out!

I wanted this night to be special and made sure to add special touches to everything. I set the table with a carafe of Perrier with lemon, a carafe of still water with rosemary, and a carafe of olive oil for bread dipping. This olive oil carafe was sent to me by Xcell along with the awesome seasonings I used in the olive oil. I thought it was adorable and perfect for this Italian themed get together.


We started the night out with fresh Italian bread and olive oil dippers. I had one dish with Garlic Gold and Dean Jacobs garlic & sea salt seasoning, one dish with Dean Jacobs rosemary and garlic seasoning, and one dish with balsamic vinegar.



Everyone was supposed to bring their ingredients and cook at my house, but since it was going to be pretty late by the time everyone got here we decided to make this time more like a pot luck. So each of my friends brought something to share. We had mini salad caprese bites, flatbread pizzas, veggies and dip, pita chips with spinach and artichoke dip, The Macaroni Grill Basil Parmesan Chicken, and Tiramisu for dessert! It was quite a spread.






We all had a little bit of everything, and enjoyed some good wine my friend brought back from Italy.


I wish I took this picture before I put the dressing on the caprese bites. It ruined my pic. You live and you learn! :-/



A special thanks to My Blog Spark for sending me the Macaroni Grill Frozen Entrée to review. It is super easy to make and takes no time at all. I’m all about the quick and easy. I mean look at the 2 step directions!

However, I’m wasn’t that impressed with the nutrition facts.

The entree is pretty high in fat, calories, and sodium. On the plus side it is also high in protein. The ingredient list is not as bad as I thought it could be so I’m ok with that. The pasta itself was ok. It didn’t taste home made or like the restaurant version, but what do you expect from a frozen meal? It tasted like your typical frozen Italian meal. The flavors were all blended together, and it mainly just tastes like pasta with cheese and broccoli. It wasn’t horrible, but I wouldn’t go back to the store and buy one myself.

All the other food we made was delicious though. I loved the bite sized mini caprese bites my friend Kelly made. And I have to say my pizza’s were pretty good too. I did mess up half the dough so I substituted pita bread for the dough on 2 of them. All in all it was a fun Italian night!

Do you have themed dinner parties? What was your favorite theme?

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Summer Corn Hash

by Lauren @ Eat, Drink, and Be Hopeful on August 31, 2010

Last night I found myself making dinner for one as Chris had plans of his own. I love being able to just throw a few things together for myself and call it a meal.  And that is exactly what I did last night.  I ate my dinner out on my deck by myself just enjoying the sounds of the birds and nothing else.  Pure Bliss.

Summer Corn Hash

It all started with 2 ears of fresh corn from the farmers market. I cut the corn off the cob and added it to a large pot with a few sprays of olive oil.

Then I added to the pot 1 green pepper and 1 diced yellow pepper along with diced vidalia onion.

After cooking the veggies over medium heat for about 15 minutes I added 1/2 a diced yellow tomato and 2 diced roasted red peppers.

Seasoning included Garlic Gold, salt, pepper, and fresh basil at the end.  Very simple since there was already so much going on in the dish.  I finished cooking the dish for about 10 more minutes.  The smells in my kitchen were incredible.  The air was filled with sweet corn, zesty tomatoes, and smoky roasted red peppers. I could have easily eaten this as my entire meal, but decided I needed some protein.  I made a veggie burger sandwich on the side with some hummus and organic spinach on an Arnold Multi-Grain Sandwich Thin.

I also roasted up some mini eggplants I picked up at the farmers market.  The lady who sold them to me recommended that I just cut them in half, coat with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and roast them.  They were soft, chewy, and delicious.

I definitely enjoyed the entire meal, but the star was the corn hash.

There are so many things I could see paired with recipe.

Crab, scallops, flank steak, ravioli, or better yet-crab ravioli with a light cream sauce.  You could even use it on a salad like I did today for lunch!  A little spinach, tuna, and corn hash.  The possibilities are endless!

There are so many variations to this dish, but this is the way I made it last night, and thought it was definitely worth noting on the blog.  Try it out for yourself, and let me know what you think!


Summer Corn Hash

Serves 4

Ingredients:

  • 2 ears of corn
  • 1 green pepper
  • 1 yellow pepper
  • 1/2 C diced vidalia onion
  • 1 C diced yellow tomato
  • 2 diced roasted red peppers
  • 1/4C fresh basil chopped
  • 1 Tbs olive oil

Directions:

First cut the corn off the cobs and add to a pot with 1/2 Tbs olive oil.  Dice up the green pepper, yellow pepper, and onion and add to the pot as well.  Set on medium heat and cook for about 15 minutes.

While vegetables are cooking down dice the yellow tomato and roasted red peppers.  Add them to the mix with the other 1/2 Tbs of olive oil and cook for another 10 minutes.  Add basil, salt, pepper, and Garlic Gold to taste and serve warm.

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