another guy's cooking night

I hadn't cooked for matt and eric in awhile, so tonight I alleviated that situation. Like always, matt and i go to the store and he lets me meander and grab whatever I need and goes to fetch things if I ask him to. And then he pays. And buys booze. And somehow is still TOTALLY grateful to me for coming over to cook. It's like my playtime. So fun.

The menu for the evening was chicken and dumplings, parmesan-bread crumb green beans, scalloped potatoes and red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese icing. Is as follows:



bam!


bing!


wham!

pow!


chicken and dumplings was easy, and my favorite kind of cooking. started with sauteeing an onion, a carrot, a rib of celery, a potato, and five cloves of garlic in a good amount of browning bacon rendering its glorious fat and saltiness into those homely little veggies. salt and pepper. of course. Then I was like "shit i forgot to add flour to thicken" so i did and all was fine.then the chicken breasts, cubed. easy enough. 1/3 a palmful or so of poultry seasoning...like 1/2 tsp. more s & p. a bay leaf. Then a quart of chicken stock. Simmer. Then a super wild secret cheat - pillsbury grands biscuits torn up into little pieces as the dumplings! Steam for about 20 minutes like that!




The cream cheese icing is my standby - 3 cups powdered sugar, 1/4 cup butter, 1 or 2 tsp vanilla and 8oz of cream cheese...and then cream, whole milk, or half and half to thin it out. Topped with crumbled Oreos because I saw no sprinkles in their bachelor pad, and that was just unacceptable.



zip!


zing!


They were very happy. There were a couple of guests, who were also very happy. Talked to Matt about the Tudors, which was unashamedly scintillating. I love being able to really talk about history with someone...in forms both accurate, and entertainingly HBO modified.