Mother's Day Dinner

We were thrilled to host my parents this weekend.  I literally could not wait for them to check out our new house and to celebrate mother's day in Raleigh.

Saturday night Bailey, Josh & I prepared dinner.  I have to say - it was delicious and I recommend any of these three recipes.  They were especially complementary together.

#1 The Main Course:

This has become one of our favorite ways to cook fish -- easy & not at all fishy tasting!  I will admit, I love fish, but most of the time I end up getting grossed out by it at home.  Not when it's prepared this way -- I shocked Josh the first time by actually going back for seconds and it hasn't disappointed since.

Most of the time it's marinating I do it so the skin is up and fleshy part of the meat is face down. 

 Then Josh grills it in little "pan" made of aluminum foil -- that way the dressing stays on it while it's cooking to really lock in the flavor.  Could this get any easier?

#2 Green Veggie that even Mr. Meat & Potatoes will eat:

I tweaked this recipe I found on Pinterest a tiny bit.

-The following is based on 1 lb. of brussels sprouts.

-Substituted pancetta for bacon (asked for a 1/3 lb. thick slices in HT deli)

-Used a full shallot

-Used half a Peroni as my beer

All the men at dinner -- Josh, my dad and Jason -- all initially turned up their noses and begged for asparagus.  Josh actually tried several and my dad & Jason both went back for seconds.  We'll call that a success.  I loved them and will be making them for whoever will eat them.

#3 Starch for the guys who doubted side #2

Au gratin potatoes -- always a hit.  Recipe in a previous post here.  Not healthy, but oh so worth it for a rare treat.

#4 Bite Sized Dessert (lovingly made by Bailey!):

1 roll sugar cookie dough (we used Pillsbury)

1 lemon

1 jar lemon curd (found with jelly)

1 t. almond extract (optional)

whipped topping of your choice

This family loves almond extract so Bailey had the genius idea to add one teaspoon of almond extract to the softened roll of cookie dough.

Then you press the cookie dough into a pre-greased mini muffin tin.  We baked as instructed for about 20 min.  One tip: halfway through turn the tin around -- a few of ours got a little browner than we'd like in the back.

After the cookie came out of the oven Bailey immediately used my All Clad Tablespoon to push down into them and make sure the hole hadn't filled in while it was baking.

Let the cookies cool completely and right before serving spoon in the lemon curd.  (Bailey thought the lemon curd was a little too sweet, so she squeezed fresh lemon juice into it prior to filling).  Then top with whipped cream and serve immediately.

Another delicious and easy recipe that we'll make again!

Sunday we at brunch with my family at Porter's (really reasonable and good -- I forget about it sometimes!) then we headed to the Ottos for Mother's Day dinner.

Jean's boys showered her with pink flowers.

Hope you had a wonderful weekend and showered all the mamas in your life with love.  Josh and I sure are blessed!  We love you BC & Jean!

XO,

Whit