9 years ago 0

Ladies Dinner

April 4, 2017
ByGil

Several years ago my wife and her friends started a ladies dinner, for young professional women. It’s a group of close to 10-15 women who are all amazingly successful and come together to talk and support each other. I was lucky enough to cook for them and that is really one of the big starting points for what I have been doing lately and gave me the confidence to cook for bigger groups. I was asked to cook for another one of these dinners and was happy to accept the challenge.

So I am a huge fan of the cheese board, honestly I would devour them all day and night if I could. So I have been taking more and more time in creating good cheese boards. I wont get into how to make it aside from be creative, I am a huge fan of the stinky cheese family, so I always include blue cheese, on my board, I will also include olives and pickles and usually some sort of meats, my advice be creative, there are hundreds of types of cheese and salami’s so don’t be scared to try them all.

Now for the salad I went with a simple caprese salad fresh basil, heirloom tomatoes and good fresh mozzarella cheese, I also make my own basil oil, this is very simple, basil, oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper blended and then sprinkled on the salad.

Now for the main course I went with a simple chicken and pasta dish, as you can tell I have become a big fan of lemon and capers so I went with a chicken and lemon capers dish. First I get the chicken breast and pound them down to make them as thin as possible. I have all purpose flour ready and place the chicken breast in the flour then I season both sides of the breast with salt and pepper, I put them in the fridge until they are ready to cook. Now this meal was timed out pretty good, as the salad was plated I had already got the water ready for the angel hair pasta. Angel hair pasta is great but it can dry out quickly so I had the water ready to go and was waiting until the salad was done being eaten before I even put the pasta in. While the ladies were eating there salad I got the chicken going, I used two pans I put some olive oil in and some fresh lemon juice in the pan. I use a teaspoon of butter as i cook the chicken breast now since the chicken is so thin it will cook fast, two minutes on each side and you are all done. When the chicken is going on before I flip it I will put the angel hair pasta in. Now I have cut shallots and have the capers and lemon slices ready to go after the chicken is cooked, I use the same pans and put the shallots, capers, and lemon slices into the pan and use 12 oz can of chicken stock, and a tablespoon of butter. I take the chicken breast out of the pan and place them on a cooking sheet and put it in the oven just to stay warm the oven is only at 200 degrees as I’m not cooking the chicken just keeping it warm. Now the pasta is done usually in five minutes, I take it out of the pot and drain it put it on the serving dish, I take half the sauce that I have made with the chicken stock and pour it over the pasta. I take the chicken out of the oven, and place it on a separate serving plate and pour the rest of the sauce on top of it and put some fresh lemon slices on top. You are ready to go at this time, I made some asparagus to go along with this meal as I have been told that you always need three food groups on the plate, so I went with asparagus simply made just roasted in the pan with a little butter and lemon juice.

I am very grateful for the opportunity to get to cook for this amazing group of women and always will remember and be thankful for the chance to cook for them.

Ingredients for party of 12