Celebrating Our Daughter's Birthday

Our family enjoys eating out for celebrations but this year for our daughter's birthday celebration I decided to do something special at home. I sent messages to the family telling everyone we would be having drinks and appetizers at 6:00 and a candlelight dinner at 7:00. Just a relaxed enjoyable evening at home enjoying family, good conversation, good food and celebrating our sweet daughter's birthday whom we all love very much. Now that our children are grown, we have great conversations on politics, religion and different world issues. I find their views very interesting and I am very proud of all of them. They are all critical thinkers and they ask probing questions. They keep me on my toes, which is good.

I need to get back on target. I'm writing to tell you about dinner not about how wonderful I think my children are.
The menu- Appetizers: Goat Cheese Dumplings with Roasted Red Pepper Vinaigrette
Shrimp cocktail
Mojitos


Entree: Chicken Parmesan
Fettuccine Alfredo
Tossed Salad with Italian Dressing

Dessert: Dark Chocolate Raspberry Mousse Cake

The goat cheese dumplings are wonderful and so is the roasted red pepper vinaigrette. The vinaigrette makes a wonderful salad dressing too. Another way you can eat these dumplings is to make a mixed green salad top with grilled chicken and dumplings and drizzle the vinaigrette over the top. My family loves shrimp cocktail so I couldn't bypass that.
Goat cheese dumplings - 1/4 cup diced dried tomatoes in oil, drained,
6 ounces of goat cheese
2-3 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
3 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
20 wonton wrappers
vegetable oil
Stir together first 6 ingredients in a medium bowl. Place 1 tablespoon of cheese mixture in the center of each wonton wrapper. Moisten wonton edges with water, fold in 2 opposite sides of filling, overlapping edges and pressing to seal. Pour oil to a depth of 3 inches into a heavy sauce pan, heat to 350 degrees. Fry dumplings in batches of 2 or 3 until golden brown. Do not overcook and drain of paper towel. Serve with Roasted Bell Pepper Vinaigrette.

Roasted Red Bell Pepper Vinaigrette-
2 large red bell peppers
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 cup vegetable oil

Place red bell pepper on an aluminum foil lined baking sheet. Broil 5 inches from heat for about 5 minutes on each side or until blistered. Then place in a zip top plastic bag and let stand 10 to 15 minutes to loosen skins. Peel bell peppers and discard seeds. Process bell peppers, vinegar and next 5 ingredients until smooth. Turn blender on high and add oil in a slow steady stream. Cover and chill, if desired. I left mine at room temperature.

I make a really good cocktail sauce.
1 Jar of Chili Sauce (Heinz)
juice of medium lemon
2-3 tablespoons of prepared horseradish (not creamy)
2-3 shakes of Worcestershire sauce
2-3 shakes of hot sauce (optional)
Mix well and chill.
I used to boil shrimp with shrimp boil and beer, no more. I saw Ina Garten bake shrimp and this is the best way to prepare it and it actually taste the best. Wash shrimp pat dry, place on baking sheet, salt and pepper to taste, drizzle with olive oil, mix with hands and bake at 400 for about 7 to 10 minutes or until shrimp is pink. Cool and serve with cocktail sauce.

If you are interested I used Bobby's Flays signature recipe for Mojitos. They were great!

This is the first time I have ever made chicken Parmesan. It was the census of our family that we like eggplant Parmesan better so I don't know that I will be making this again. But you can use this recipe and just substitute eggplant for the chicken.

Simple Tomato Sauce
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
1 large onion, diced
salt and pepper to taste
3-28 ounce cans crushed tomatoes
4-6 fresh basil leaves
2 dried bay leaves
4 tablespoons butter, unsalted
1 tablespoon of sugar

Heat oil over medium heat add onion and garlic and saute until soft and translucent about 2 minutes. Add celery and carrots and season with salt and pepper. Saute until vegetables are soft about 5 minutes. Add tomatoes, basil and bay leaves and cover and simmer on low heat for about 1 hour or until thick. Remove bay leaves and check seasoning. Add sauce a little at a time into blender and process until smooth. Let sauce cool or be sure and hold hand on top of blender if the sauce is hot. If sauce taste acidic add butter one tablespoon at a time until the acid taste has disappeared. This sauce will freeze up to 6 months.

Take chicken breast and pound out to 1/4 inch thick. Salt and pepper to taste. Take 3bowls, one with flour, one with 2-3 eggs whisked with 2 tablespoons of water, last bowl seasoned bread crumbs with 1 cup of grated Parmesan cheese mix well. Take chicken breast and dredge both sides in flour, then egg mixture and finally bread crumbs. Make sure you cover both sides. Then place in a hot skillet with a couple of tablespoons of butter and olive oil. Cook each side about 4 minutes place chicken in a casserole dish with the bottom covered in the above tomato sauce (about 2-3 soup ladles). After chicken has been added to casserole dish add a little more tomato sauce, don't cover chicken just put a little around the sides. Crumble fresh mozzarella cheese of chicken. Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes until cheese has melted.

Fettuccine Alfredo
This is a recipe I have used for years. Very good and very fattening. You
will make a big difference in this recipe if you use freshly grated Parmesan cheese. This recipe is for four servings. I always double it for our family.
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup whipping cream
3/4 to 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
ground fresh pepper to taste
garnish with fresh chopped parsley
Combine butter and whipping cream is sauce pan. Cook over low heat until butter melts then add Parmesan cheese, pepper and parsley. Mix well and pour over hot fettuccine.

Tossed Salad
This salad is somewhat like Olive Garden.
Red leaf lettuce, purple cabbage, ringed purple onion, thin slices of carrot, sliced cucumber, and sliced pepperonicini peppers. Italian dressing and toss.

Always my favorite part of the dinner, DESSERT!

This was my first time to make this cake. On a new recipe, I always learn little tricks that will help me the next time. This cake is not for the faint of heart. There are several steps and it does take some time. I scanned the recipe when I was thinking of making it but didn't read in detail. So, I didn't realize until I was in the middle of making the cake that the mousse has to sit in the frig for 4 hours. I only had one 2x6 round cake pan, so that was a pain. I tried to find one on Friday but couldn't find one and didn't take the time to go to a speciality shop to find one. The cake taste wonderful and my husband said it was his favorite chocolate cake now. So here is the recipe.

2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/3 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder (I used Hersey's cocoa powder)
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.Grease and flour cake pan. 6x2. In a medium bowl combine flour, salt and baking soda.
In a large bowl cream butter and sugar. Add buttermilk, cocoa, oil, eggs, and vanilla extract. Beat until smooth. Reduce speed and gradually add flour mixture, beating just until moistened. Add boiling water and beat at medium speed until smooth. Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Take from oven let cake cook 10 minutes in pan, then carefully run a knife around the edge and remove cake from pan and continue to let it cool on rack.

Raspberry Mousse
2 tablespoons cold water
1 teaspoon unflavored gelatin
1/2 cup frozen raspberries, thawed
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon of raspberry liqueur (I left this out but later thought that you could use raspberry extract. It was still good without it.
1/2 cup of heavy whipping cream

In a small bowl combine water and gelatin, let stand 5 minutes then microwave for 1 minute. In the container of a blender, puree raspberries and lemon juice, strain, discarding seeds.

In a medium sauce pan, combine raspberry puree and sugar over medium heat. Stir occasionally until sugar dissolves about 5 minutes. Stir in raspberry liqueur and dissolved gelatin. Remove from heat and chill raspberry mixture for 2 hours. After mixture has chilled for 2 hours, in a medium bowl beat whipping cream until stiff peaks form. Add raspberry mixture and beat 1 minute, then chill 2 more hours.

Chocolate Ganache Icing
1 1/4 cups heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate morsels
In a medium sauce pan, combine cream, sugar, and corn syrup over medium heat, stirring until sugar dissolves. Add chocolate, stirring until melted. Cool slightly before use.

To assemble, spread Raspberry Mousse on top on one cake layer and top with another cake layer and repeat mousse. Pour Chocolate Ganache icing over top of cake allowing excess to run down and cover the sides. This is where it gets messy. That is really the only way to cover the sides. You have to scoop out the excess icing and then take a clean wet cloth and clean your cake plate. I garnished with fresh raspberries and my first rose from my rose bush as well as a lilac blossom. As you can see from the picture, my cake is leaning a little bit. My mousse didn't have time to set up completely so it was not as firm as it needed to be. That's why the layer slide a little. I loved the smaller layers and the look it gives.

You are probably thinking, that's a lot of work. Yes, it was but our daughter is worth it. As Oprah says, there is love in details and that is so true. After our last child left around 11:00, I hobbled back to bed with a feeling of satisfaction.
I'll post tomorrow some of the ideas for decorating. In getting dinner on the table, I forgot to take picture of the main course. I'm so terrible about pictures!!!!!