Delicious Family Dinner

Tonight, Richard and I cooked dinner for our families. 

Richard and I love food. We love to watch food network, go to restaurants and eat great food, learn about food, and we love to cook, especially together. I especially love to cook with him because he is the one who first got me into food and cooking.

 Even though we've had basically a month of from school, we haven't really had much time to cook dinner together so when the chance came up to cook dinner today, we took it right away. This is what we made tonight - Grilled Garlic Artichokes, Candied Walnut Goat Cheese and Fruit Salad, Chicken with Morel Cream Sauce, Buttermilk Mashed Potatoes, Sautéed Beet Greens, and 24 Hour Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies. 

Richard came up with the menu, and everyone loved it. 

The potatoes and chicken are recipes from Ina Garten, and the artichokes, beet greens, and salad are our creations. The salad was something Richard came up with a few years ago and since then it has been one of his - and my - favorites. The recipe is included below.

The chocolate chip cookies are from a blog I follow called Taste Food Blog (the original recipe is here). We followed the recipe exactly except for half of the dough, instead of using semi-sweet chocolate chips, we substituted mini peanut butter chocolate cups that we got from Trader Joe's, which turned out great. (We also ate some of the cookie dough before the whole 24 hours was up... oops!)

Richard grilling artichokes

Morels

Salad

Beet Greens

Potatoes

Chicken

Cookies!!!

Everything was delicious and I had so much fun. Definitely my favorite way to spend the night :)

Candied Walnut, Goat Cheese, and Fruit Salad

Serves 6-8

2 bags spring mix lettuce

1/2 cup crumbled goat cheese

1/2 cup candied walnuts

handful of grapes

1 avocado, sliced

1/4 cup creamy balsamic dressing (I like Annie's)

Combine the lettuce and all toppings in a large bowl. Add the dressing. Cover the bowl with a lid (the top to a large pot or pan works well) and shake the bowl until the salad is tossed and all ingredients are combined. The avocado and goat cheese will give the dressing and salad an extra creaminess that is wonderful. Serve immediately (or the greens will wilt).

Enjoy!