What's a easy, but good meal to cook with your loved one, also dessert?!
Answers: I'm 16 he's 17, If that helps.
Pasta is a wonderful and easy meal to cook together in which you can use any fresh veggies that you like. Very romantic. Keep it simple. For dessert, pick up something yummy from a local bakery. You'll have put so much energy into cooking the meal that doing a dessert too might be pushing it a little if you don't cook too often. If you really wanted to, you could do a simple cobbler or crisp or something.
That's sweet! How about a nice stew? And while it's simmering, bake some cookies.
Beef Stew with Dumplings
PREP TIME 20 Min
COOK TIME 2 Hrs
READY IN 2 Hrs 20 Min
yield: 5 servings
INGREDIENTS
* 1 1/2 pounds cubed beef stew meat
* 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
* 1/4 cup butter
* 1 cup sliced onion
* 2 cloves garlic, minced
* 2 cups water
* 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1/8 teaspoon pepper
* 1 bay leaf
* 2 cups cubed potatoes
* 1 1/2 cups diced carrots
* 1 cup sliced celery
* 1/2 cup chopped green pepper
* 1 cup sliced fresh mushrooms
* 1 1/2 cups biscuit baking mix
* 1/2 cup milk
* 3 tablespoons butter, melted
DIRECTIONS
1. In a bowl, toss cubed beef with flour to coat.
2. Heat 4 tablespoons butter in a heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Place flour in a bag or bowl, and add beef cubes. Toss to coat with flour. Place coated cubes in the skillet and fry until well-browned on all sides; remove from pan and set aside.
3. Cook onion and garlic in same pan until tender. Return meat to pan with water, parsley, salt, pepper, and bay leaf. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer 1 hour, stirring occasionally and adding more water if needed. Stir in potatoes, carrots, celery, and green pepper, and continue cooking another 15 minutes. Remove the bay leaf, and stir in mushrooms.
4. In a small bowl, mix together baking mix, 3 tablespoons melted butter, and milk until just blended. Drop dough by the tablespoonful into stew. Simmer, uncovered, approximately 10 minutes. Cover, and simmer 10 minutes more, or until dumplings are cooked through, but not dry.
White Chocolate, Chocolate Cookies
"The reverse Chocolate Chip cookie. Rich dark chocolate with white chocolate chips."
PREP TIME 25 Min
COOK TIME 10 Min
READY IN 35 Min
Original recipe yield: 3 dozen
INGREDIENTS
* 1 cup unsalted butter
* 1 cup white sugar
* 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
* 2 eggs
* 1 1/4 cups unsweetened cocoa powder
* 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
* 2 teaspoons baking soda
* 2 cups white chocolate chips
DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar and white sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well with each addition. Combine the cocoa, flour, and baking soda, gradually stir into the creamed mixture. Finally, fold in white chocolate chips. Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto the prepared cookie sheets.
3. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, until puffy but still soft. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.
Steak
Baked Potato with all the fixings
Salad
Angel Food cake with sliced strawberries
Grill the steak; scrub the potatoes and poke some holes in both sides with a fork to prevent them from exploding & making the mother of all messes inside your oven or microwave, & start cooking them; tear up some leafy greens (iceberg lettuce, romaine, escarole, spinach - whatever you prefer), add some cut up tomatoes, mushrooms, green peppers, cucumbers - whatever you like in your salad dressing and serve with dressing on the side; buy an angel food cake & some strawberries at the store and slice up the strawberries, sprinkle some sugar on them to bring out the juices, after dinner spoon the strawberries over a slice of the cake. You can go also choose to serve vanilla ice cream with this or instead of the cake. I just figured the cake would be better since the steak & potatoes were kind of heavy, and the angel food would be lighter than a lot of other desserts.
I would say a pasta dish too! I like making a chunky like tomato sauce with linguini. I use a fresh tomato chopped up, with 2 garlic cloves chopped and half an onion chopped. Saute in a pan with olive oil until vegetables are tender. Then add about a teaspoon of dried basil and a dash of salt and pepper. Cook your linguini to al dente (will show on box). Toss with sauce. You could make garlic bread and then for dessert get fresh fruit like strawberries, banana, and pineapple and dip in melted chocolate and hot caramel. I hope this helps and I hope you have a wonderful meal and time together! By the way, I think it's great that you want to cook together being 16! I wish more teens your age would do that! Good luck!
You didn't say whether this was a "private" meal, but, given your ages, as long as it's served at your parents' house, with at least one of them chaperoning, even if discreetly, then I'm sure he'll appreciate whatever you serve him. BTW, family atmospheres are the best indicators of how well your beau is going to fit in, if it ever comes to that! Good luck!
LoL! How can we be friends if I can't email you!