Girl Dinner and The Holiday

It's December and husband's birthday.  He tries to get away with a few buddies for a much anticipated golf week.

This means I get to take a week off of cooking and rest up for our upcoming family visits over the holidays.

My daughter found out he was going to be gone and she said, "Mom, we should make a girl dinner!"

I had no idea what she was referring to.  After a full explanation and photos from her Instagram feed...I needed no convincing.

We decided on her childhood classic favorite - Dino Buddies Chicken Nuggets and Bob Evans Macaroni and Cheese, served in a wine glass of course.  We must keep things classy!

We paired our girl dinner with The Holiday, one of my favorite movies, and Pessimist, now one of my new favorite wines...the perfect combination for girls night in.  Cheers and Happy Holidays!

Grilled Avocados with Black Beans, Roasted Corn, and Tomato...Good-Bye Summer

Backyard goals!!

My favorite day of the year is the day we pull all our deck furniture out of storage.  I get to pretend I am the owner of a resort and set up the grounds for summertime.  Six months of new Pinterest ideas all coming to fruition.  Today however is not that day. 

Today is my least favorite day of the year...

• Turn off sprinklers
• Drain fountain
• Cover roses
• Take outdoor furniture to storage
• Winterize lawn mower and take to storage
• Cover and secure Traeger and BBQ island
• Pull flowers from flowerbed
• Pull out remaining vegetables from garden
• Empty outdoor flower pots
• Cover and secure fire pit
• Rake up fall leaves
• Seven trips to the recycling center with all the landscape debris

Not only is today a very strenuous and hard working day, it is very sad to say good-bye to summer once again.

To cheer myself up and give the grill one last hurrah before it goes into hibernation, we made these amazing grilled avocados. 

Best news is that I can also make these during the winter (when I am building summer idea boards), on my cooktop cast iron grill pan.

Grilled Avocados with Black Beans, Roasted Corn, and Tomato

3 avocados

2 small tomatoes

1 cup (from 15.5 oz) can cumin and chili spices black beans, drained and rinsed

1 cup Trader Joe's Frozen Roasted Corn, thawed

1 lime

1 Tbl olive oil

Set grill to medium.  Finely chop the tomatoes and mix with black beans, roasted corn, salt, and pepper.  Juice the lime and stir half the lime juice into the vegetable mixture. Set aside.

Half and pit each avocado.  Brush cut side with the olive oil and remaining lime juice.  Season with salt and pepper.  Place avocados cut side down on grill and cook 3 minutes until grill marks appear.

Transfer avocados to serving plates.  Top each avocado with the vegetable mix.  Serve with blue corn tortilla chips.

 

Molly's Birthday, Triple Chocolate Bundt Cake, and Zinfandel Dark Chocolate Ganache

 

Every year near the end of summer our neighborhood puts on a block party.  One of the organizers had an idea to do a raffle for prizes and asked if anyone wanted to donate to the raffle for giveaways.  

During this same week (which I am fully convinced was not a coincidence), I was reading about the Parable of the Great Banquet.  It went into detail about showing hospitality to strangers and invites a broader approach to who is invited to gatherings, beyond just close friends and family.  Also, emphasizes not forgetting to show hospitality to strangers, even acknowledging that some have unknowingly entertained angels.

I conferred with my husband and suggested that we donate to the raffle a wine pairing dinner for 10 people.  He thought it would be a great idea and an opportunity to meet new neighbors.

We were not able to attend the block party and to be very honest I completely for got about our donation...until the voicemail.

Three months later we were out of town traveling and I received a voicemail from an unknown caller...Molly.

I called Molly back.  She was the winner of our wine pairing raffle prize.  Molly was ecstatic.  I learned that her birthday was coming up and she wanted to have a birthday party in our wine room.  I think I was more excited that Molly.

We talked extensively about her food tastes and if there were any allergies to be respectively of with her and her friends.  She just said, "Surprise me."

We gave Molly the full royal treatment that she deserved.  We put together a wonderful menu complete with paired wines served at every course.

Wolfgang Puck's Mushroom Soup

Roy's Braised Beef Short Ribs

Triple Chocolate Bundt Cake with

Zinfandel Dark Chocolate Ganache

Triple Chocolate Bundt Cake

1 (15.25 ounce) package devil's food cake mix

1 (5.9 ounce) package instant chocolate pudding mix

1 cup sour cream

1 cup canola oil

1/2 cup water

4 large eggs

2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Generously grease a 12-cup Bundt pan.

Mix together cake mix, pudding mix, sour cream, oil, water, and eggs in a large bowl until well-blended. 

Stir in the chocolate chips.

Pour batter in the prepared Bundt pan.

Bake in preheated oven until top is springy to the touch and a sharp knife inserted into center of cake comes out clean, approximately 50-55 minutes.

Cook cake thoroughly in the pan for a leas 2 hours before inverting it onto a plate.  

Zinfandel Dark Chocolate Ganache

3/4 cup heavy cream

3/4 cup favorite Zinfandel wine

1-1/2 Tbl unsweetened natural or Dutch-process cocoa powder

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 (four-ounce) Ghirardelli semi-sweet chocolate bars, coarsely chopped

1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature

1/8 tsp salt

Whisk the heavy cream, wine, cocoa powder, and sugar together in a small saucepan over medium heat.  Once simmering, allow it to simmer for 5-6 minutes.  Stir occasionally.  Remove from heat, stir in the chocolate, butter, and salt. 

Allow to cool for a few minutes before using as a thin ganache.  The ganache will thicken as it cools.  Put in refrigerator, if wanting to use for frosting.

Cover and store leftover ganache in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.  To thin out again, reheat in the microwave for 10-20 seconds.