Dinner Party!!

It's the start of a New Year, still

can't believe its come

and gone that quickly. And such a

cold start here.

In the 20's but it feels like its only

6 degrees today.

Tonight, -7, BRRRRRRRR!!!

But last night, my dinner

party turned out

wonderful!

Everyone seemed to have thoroughly

enjoyed their dinner.

I made Coq Au Vin, for the first time!

Started out with cooking

the bacon first:

Getting the fat off the bacon before

searing the chicken.

Don't worry, I had a lid ready this time

for all the splattering....LOL

After cooking the chicken, I then seared

the onions:

It smelled so good.

The Chicken in the meantime rested

before entering it back

into the pot:

Now time to remove all the yummy

stuff off the bottom of

the pan, with some red wine, MMMM:

Cooking off the alcohol, scraping up the

bottom of the pan,

You need all that flavoring throughout.

Got out a seperate pot

to start cooking everything together:

Poured the red wine broth then into

the pot to begin simmering:

Now its starting to really smell

good around here.

Tasted the broth, added a little

more salt and pepper.

I'm so used to cooking with alot

of spices. Not hot spicy,

just alot of different

herbs, spices.

The French though, cook with

Salt, pepper, an herb or two

fresh garlic, and onion.

That's pretty much it.

They'll add wine to most of their

dishes and broth.

They want you to taste the meat

and vegetables and

not hide that with too many

spices.

So I had to make myself stick to

the recipe. I may have

added a little more salt or pepper,

a garlic clove extra,

but mainly stuck with the recipe.

When I took the chicken out

it took on this pretty

color:

Now the recipe has you leave the meat

on the bone, but my DH

does not enjoy eating meat off the bone,

it isn't pleasant to him..HEHE,

and I was expecting

12-14 people for dinner and for some

reason, I didn't get more

meat. So I panicked, and thought I had

to do something,

I guess I should take the meat off the

bone!

Some of them had more meat than others

so, by doing this, I actually

doubled the meat

amount.

I made all this the night before, as well

as a homemade chocolate

cake, which I forgot

to take pictures of after icing it, sorry.

I heated the red wine sauce

and thickened it

with a butter and flour paste.

Added the meat back into

sauce along with

the seared onions.

We sauteed some mushrooms.

Let the meat cook

in the sauce.

This is different than the recipe.

She has you serve the

meat on the plate

and the sauce seperately.

But instead,

I made a well in the middle of the

mashed potatoes,

added the meat with sauce in

the middle,

topped it with parsley and

added the mushrooms

around it.

I was so proud of this dish...

my friend, Becky and

my cousin,

Jessica were my helpers, last

night.

They did some chopping, set the

table.

I plated and garnished and had

them set it out before

everyone sat down.

This dinner was made for 8 full-

time ministers in our

congregation.

They came over for some encouragement

from a couple of our elders

and to be pampered

with a nice dinner.

Just to show

we appreciate their hard work and

sacrifices.

I had a lot of fun doing this for them.

So when they walked into

the dining room

we had it set up for them

and we had another table

it was alot of fun.

We then had coffee and my chocolate

cake.

Played games, laughed and just enjoyed

each others company.

It turned out

really nice, and there are leftovers,

YEA!

So take the time out to cook a special

meal for someone

to make them feel special for a day.

They'll love it

and you'll love doing it for them, too.