Dinner with Friends, and more…

Last night, Wyatt and I had the blessing of having my best friend and her fiance over for dinner. It was our first time cooking for others in our little apartment (other than breakfast or dessert of something small like that) and I admit I was a little nervous because we don’t really have an open kitchen so it’s hard to talk to people while we’re cooking. Still, it was super fun to have them over for good conversation and good food.

(Is it wrong for me to call my own food good like that? I don’t think so…)

We had burgers topped with blue cheese butter (that I made), bacon, lettuce, and tomatoes, twice baked potatoes, and baked zucchini fries. (You’ve seen several of these recipes before, so I’m not going to worry about pictures and recipes, except for this one.)

Pumpkin cupcakes with maple cream cheese frosting. Oh. My. Yum.

I used the last of my fresh pumpkin I roasted (read about that adventure here) instead of the canned puree that the recipe calls for. And I didn’t use toffee bits to top them, I used a little pumpkin cookie mix I had leftover from the crust of the four layer pumpkin dessert I made and some pumpkin pie spice. I also substituted the ginger and nutmeg with pumpkin pie spice.

And I admit I used canned cream cheese frosting and added, real maple syrup (more than it called for), vanilla, and a pinch of salt to make my frosting. I wanted to make the real stuff, but I already had the cream cheese frosting and I wanted to get it out of my cabinet. Don’t judge me.

Also, I used my little mini cupcake maker I got last year from Christmas.

How cute, right?

It makes the cupcakes a bit more dense, but still pretty good.

They take only a few minutes to bake, but you have to check them because they don't cook evenly.

But they are super yummy when they come out. And hot. Watch out, they’ll burn you.

Like little muffins, but cake.

And I got to use my pretty serving platter. Liz, my best friend, said they looked like something from Martha Stewart. I don’t know about that, but it made me feel good, none the less.

YUM. YUM. YUM.

Needless to say, I’ll be making these again. Maybe for my family for thanksgiving, if they’re lucky.

Oh, and in case you haven’t had enough of Halloween yet, I wanted to show you some more pictures of our Halloween parties.

Here’s my friend Liz and her fiance. At Halloween party number 1.

They’re Jack and Sally from Nightmare before Christmas.

At party number 2, Drew Woolery, our host, had a photo booth set up. So there were tons of crazy awesome pictures. Here’s some to share with you guys. (Thanks, Drew, for letting me post your photos!)

Good times with good friends.

It was a fun time.

I like the Ms. Frizzle outfit. Nice!

Perhaps a bit too much fun for the little one…

Poor thing! All those shirtless guys!

There was lots of creative costumes.

Mr. and Mrs. Pacman.

And of course, your newlyweds…

Our clue characters made another appearance.

Anyway, I have more stuff to share with you guys, so be on the lookout for more posts to come soon!

Don’t forget about the opportunity to ask us questions (Yes, US, Wyatt said he would answer questions, too!) so we can all get to know each other better!

Dinner with my guys, or rather my guy, and a famous guy who has no idea I exist, much less admire him.

Usually, when we go to bed, I try to ask Wyatt what he wants for dinner the next day. His response is normally noncommital. But the other night, he says, out of the blue, you should make a burger with an egg on top.

Um…Yum. Ok!

So the next day, as I’m working on my laptop in the living room and listening to Food Network in the background, guess who comes on?

Hint: It’s one of my favorite chefs. I’m a tad obsessed with watching him cook whenever possible. He’s on my list of famous people I’d like to one day meet…

Anyone know?

It’s Michael Symon! (With a mixer like mine!–only his is red…)P.S. Thanks Yumsugar.com for the photo…

Anyway, so he’s on Paula Dean’s show, and what do they make? His Lola burger. It’s a burger, made with bacon and eggs on top.

I’d say that was as much motivation as I needed. Both Wyatt AND Michael wanted me to make it. That’s enough for me!

 

So I got to work. Now, no offense to Michael, but I have to cook to please Hubs, so I didn’t follow his recipe exactly.

Here’s how I did it.

 1 lb ground beef

4 tsp Worcestershire sauce

2 tsp chopped chives

1 tsp dried parsley

1 Tbsp chopped onions (fresh or dried)

Mix together and form 4 loose patties. Cook in a preheated skillet until brown, or desired level of doneness.

In a skillet, cook 4 slices of bacon, set aside grease.

When burgers are close to done, butter and toast 4 hamburger buns.

Using the skillet from the bacon, fry 4 eggs, leaving the yolk runny.

Create your burgers with the toppings of your choice. 

(I’m sure Michael’s pickled onions and spicy ketchup would be fantastic, but I didn’t have the ingredients to make those. Maybe next time.)

 

The onions in these make them smell fantastic while they're cooking. And they taste great too, with having to eat a big slice of onion of the top. Best of both worlds.

I’ve never been this creative with my cooking before, though I guess I’ve never cooked this much before. I think I need to have company soon, so I can cook for them! Though it’s fun to cook for two because we get to be a lot more creative. It’s all trial and error. And there’s a lot less pressure, than say, cooking for the in-laws. Or my grandparents.

 

My bacon looks lonely in the pan. (I only made 2 since we were only going to eat 2 burgers that night.)

 

I also had the idea to try a totally new zucchini recipe. (Translation: I have a lot of zucchini again and need new ways to cook it so I started experimenting.)

I started by slicing off a few thin slices from my very large zucchini. Then, since of course I’m not going to waste it, I had Wyatt wrap the rest up with saran wrap, which he doesn’t get along with very well, so that might not have been the best job for him…

Then I cooked them for a few minutes in olive oil, seasoning with salt, pepper, and lemon pepper seasoning.

You don't want to cook them too long, or they will get mushy. Just a few minutes on each side is plenty.

Then I transferred them to a baking dish, added some feta and mozzarella cheese and a little more lemon pepper seasoning on top. I then cooked them in the oven at 450 degrees (I was also baking some fries) for about ten minutes, or until the edges started to crisp up a bit.

I know, my baking dish is huge. But I don't have a smaller one! (Actually, I do, but it's still in the box because it wouldn't fit in my cabinet! Darn that small kitchen!

All in all, the meal turned out great, thanks of course to my inspiration from Wyatt and Michael.

Yum. Need I say more?

And the best part of dinner?

When Wyatt squished his bun down on his hamburger so he could fit it in his mouth, he popped the yolk open and it squirted across our coffee table, much to his dismay.

Of course, that didn’t stop him from enjoying his eggy, bacon, burger…

Yes, that's my hubs, dipping his burger into egg on the coffee table. I'm such a proud wife!

Ah well, he cleaned it up later.

Such a fun night!