Help with a nice dinner?!
Help with a nice dinner?
I want to make my Boyfriend a real nice dinner, I cant afford anything Exensive. but still want to cook something Nice thats better then plain old spagettie, any suggestions??
I dont mind if it takes time to cook either.
THANKS!!
Answers:
I hope you like this:
CHICKEN WITH WHITE SAUCE
1 2-1/2 to 3-pound chicken, cut into serving pieces
5 tablespoons butter
1 bunch scallions, chopped, including 2 inches of the green tops
1/2 pound mushrooms, quartered
2 cups chicken broth
1/2 cup dry sherry
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
2 tablespoons flour
1 cup light cream
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh tarragon or 1 teaspoon dried tarragon
1/3 cup chopped walnuts
Dry the chicken thoroughly with paper towels. In a large, heavy skillet heat 3 tablespoons of the butter over moderate heat. Add the chicken, skin side down, and saute, turning to brown evenly on all sides. Remove to a plate and set aside.
Add the scallions and mushrooms to the skillet and cook until the vegetables are lightly browned, stirring frequently. Return the chicken to the skillet. Add the broth, sherry, and salt and pepper. Cover and simmer until tender.
Transfer the chicken and vegetables to a serving platter and keep warm. Reserve the cooking liquid in the skillet.
In a small saucepan melt the remaining 2 tablespoons butter over low heat. Add the flour and cook 3 or 4 minutes, stirring constantly. Gradually add the cream and the reserved cooking liquid from the chicken, stirring constantly with a wire whisk. Simmer until the sauce is smooth, thickened, and hot. Stir in the tarragon and walnuts, taste for seasoning, and pour over the chicken. Serve with buttered noodles and buttered green peas or asparagus tips.
Source(s):
cooks.com
Lasagna. Ravioli.
Here's a great recipe site that I use all the time.
http://allrecipes.com/
also, check out Cambell's site too
http://www.campbellkitchen.com/...
it's amazing what you can do with a can of soup, chicken and green beans...not pricy, easy to make stuff. I'm sure your boyfriend will enjoy anything you make for him. Good luck! :)
Here's a nice dinner menu with recipes.
French Onion Soup
Preparation Time: 30 minutes or less Cooking Time: 1 - 2 hours Serves: 4
Category: Dinner Sub-Category: Soup Cuisine: French
Visual Recipe Submitted By: afoodyear
Submitter's Website: http://www.afoodyear.com Click On Images To Enlarge
Ingredients:
2 large yellow sweet onions, halved and sliced
2 large red onions, halved and sliced
3 tablespoons butter
3 cups low-sodium beef broth
1 cup dry white wine
1 ounce cognac
1 bay leaf
4 sprigs thyme
4 slices bread
4 ounces gruyere or swiss cheese
1 ounce parmesan cheese
salt and pepper
Step 1:
Peel and half the onions, then slice.
Step 2:
Melt a tablespoon of butter in a large skillet over medium heat, then add all of the onions, alternating with the remaining butter and a pinch of salt so the onions release their moisture.
Step 3:
Cover and cook the onions until they are well caramelized and reduced considerably. This will take about an hour. Stir occasionally.
Step 4:
Once onions have reduced, stir in white wine and cognac and raise heat enough to bring to a boil. Add the bay leaf and thyme and reduce to a simmer.
Step 5:
Meanwhile, cut circles out of the bread, tracing around an ovenproof bowl or dish that you will bake the soup in.
Step 6:
Place the bread circles on a baking sheet and toast them directly under the oven broiler.
Step 7:
Grate the cheese!
Step 8:
Remove the bay leaf and thyme sprigs and divide the onion soup into bowls, top with a bread circle and a portion of the cheese. Put the bowls on the baking sheet and set under the broiler just until the cheese has melted. Serve immediately.
Mediterranean Style Marinated Chicken
Preparation Time: 3+ hours Cooking Time: 30 minutes - 1 hour Serves: 3
Category: Dinner Sub-Category: Chicken Cuisine: Mediterranean
Visual Recipe Submitted By: Max Kawaky
Click On Images To Enlarge
Ingredients:
1 large ziploc (or other tough resealable) plastic bag
6 boneless thighs (or breasts if you prefer, thighs are much moister which I prefer)
16-18 Pimentoed green olives
8 Dried figs
4 cloves of garlic
Fresh cilantro
Dried basil (I couldn't find any so I ended up using oregano instead, I think I might actually like it better with oregano than basil)
Balsamic vinegar
Olive oil
Brown sugar
Salt
Pepper (preferably fresh ground)
3/4 cup of chicken broth
Step 1:
Now we start the preparation. First, slice and dice the olives into nice little chunks like so:
Step 2:
Dump 'em into the bag.
Next slice the dried figs in half:
Step 3:
Add to the bag.
Now, grab a good bit of cilantro and chop it up. You'll need two tablespoons of the minced cilantro and it loses a lot of volume once you start chopping. The amount in the picture is about 1 1/4 tablespoons.
Step 4:
Add the 2 tbsp of cilantro to the bag.
Next it's time for the garlic. Grab four cloves (NOT heads), proceed to take the skin off like so:
And for the love of god, don't hit the knife too hard, it only takes one firm strike with the heel of your hand, you don't have to drive the knife through the cutting board and into the counter. Also, if you hold the knife so that it is not parallel to your cutting surface the garlic will have a tendency to shoot out from under and ricochet off random stuff in your kitchen.
Step 5:
After you have your 4 cloves with no skin left, proceed to mince them like so:
Step 6:
Slide the garlic into the bag with the growing marinade.
Now add 2 teaspoons of the dried basil (or oregano in my case). This ingredient is pretty hard to screw up, and any standard Italian/Mediterranean herb mix will do just fine.
Step 7:
Next we sweeten it up a little bit with 3 tablespoons of brown sugar:
Step 8:
Time for the liquids - 2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar; if your vinegar is especially strong go with 1 1/2 tablespoons as it's easy to overpower this dish with too much vinegar.
Step 9:
And then 2 teaspoons of olive oil:
Step 10:
Next add about 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1/4 teaspoon of fresh ground pepper.
Now that we have all the ingredients for the marinade in the ziploc bag, close it up and shake it around to mix up the contents. Then reopen it and add the chicken thighs (make sure to trim any excess fat beforehand). Close it back up, but make sure to keep a bit of air in there (i.e. don't close it like you're going to be sticking this in the freezer and don't want the chicken to get freezerburn). Shake the bag around once more to distribute the marinade over the chicken.
Step 11:
Now, try and find a spot in your hopefully crowded fridge for the marinade to sit. It took me almost 10 minutes of rearranging stuff to get a nice flat spot.
So, now we let the marinade sit for 4 to 4 1/2 hours in the fridge. Make sure to check in once every 45 minutes to hour and shake around the bag some more, flip it over, redistribute the contents, etc.
Step 12:
Okay, so the four hours is up. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit (177 celsius for you non-yanks). Pull the chicken out of the fridge, open the bag and dump the entire contents into a pyrex or other baking dish. Now add the 3/4 cup of chicken broth that you've been wondering what to do with for four hours. Put this in your preheated oven and let it cook for 30-40 minutes. For reference, I forgot to preheat my oven and just cooked it at 375 instead and the thinner pieces were slightly overcooked at 36 minutes when I pulled it out of the oven.
Step 13:
After you take the chicken out of the oven strain off all the excess chicken broth/fat/etc. leaving only the chicken and marinade ingredients. I've found the best method for this to be a slotted spoon.
Step 14:
Add on whatever sides you feel like. Tonight I opted for last night's leftover pesto linguine and some sauteed vegetables. Usually I serve this dish with rice pilaf or coos coos for the full Mediterranean/Middle East dish but I got lazy tonight.
Apple Cranberry Crisp
A great dessert for winter holidays.
Prep Time :
Cook Time : 35min
Type of Prep : Bake
Cuisine : U.S. Regional
Occasion : Christmas, Thanksgiving, Winter
INGREDIENTS:
Filling:
6 tart apples, peeled, cored, and sliced
1 1/4 cups chopped cranberries
1/3 cup granulated sugar
.
Topping:
3/4 cup rolled oats
1/3 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup cold butter, cut in small pieces
1/2 cup chopped pecans
PREPARATION:
Mix filling ingredients together; spoon into a lightly buttered 11x7x2-inch baking dish.
In a mixing bowl, combine oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, and flour. Cut in cold butter until coarse crumbs form. Stir in chopped pecans. Sprinkle topping over fruit. Bake at 375° for about 30 to 35 minutes, or until topping is browned and fruit is bubbly.
chicken, gravy, stuffing, mashed potatoes, french peas (with onions and white wine)
Eggplant Parmesan
Toasted bread slices with Brushetta
Fudge cake with fresh cherries.
Go to www.bettycrocker.com for real good suggestions. I use this website a lot.