Dinner and Cards

Last night we were having dinner with friends Gene and Betsy followed by a game of progressive rummy! So much has been going on lately that we had not had a dinner and card night for a long time! There were two challenges for the evening. The first challenge for was to come up with a vegetarian dinner; the second was to beat Betsy at cards!

Thinking about dinner I wanted to do something that I could prepare ahead, and that is pretty simple to make. So last night I hoped to win at cards and I made Manicotti!

Ingredients
For the stuffing:
2 Eggs
1 1/4 containers of Ricotta cheese
1 15 oz. frozen chopped spinach, thawed and the water squeezed out
2/3 cup of finely minced onion
1 tsp. garlic powder
3/4 tsp. black pepper
1 tsp. parsley flakes
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, shredded
1 cup grated Mozzarella

Manicotti Shells – uncooked
Tomato Basil Sauce – 24 oz. jar + cups of water
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1 1/2 cups Mozzarella

Beat the eggs until well blended. Add the ricotta and mix well with the eggs until the mixture no longer has lumps. Add the spinach, the onion and the spices. Combine. Then add in the cheese.

Manicotti filling

Everything is ready to go!

Next take the Manicotti shells and with your hands stuff the shells until tightly packed. Next mix the water and the sauce together, and add one cup to a 9×13 baking pan. Shake the pan from side to side to spread it out evenly. Lay the Manicotti in the pan. Cover with the remaining sauce and then sprinkle with the remaining cheese.

Ready to cook

I got this ready ahead of time and then set it in the refrigerator until I am ready to start cooking. When ready to bake, turn the oven on to 350 degrees and bake for 45-55 minutes. Remove from the oven and let it sit for about 5 minutes before serving.

I served dinner fresh steamed asparagus, and Texas toast.

Dinner is served!

We followed this with a salad.

Spring mix salad with raw sunflower seeds

After dinner we shared a Port wine with some really excellent chocolate!

Port and chocolate for dessert

Dinner was a hit!

We played progressive rummy

Card game

and I think someone was cheating!

Someone could be cheating

Needless to say I did not win. Betsy took the game again!

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Barb’s Salad

We needed to lighten things up a bit here as we had that marvelous bacon wrapped pork loin last night. So tonight I tried to lighten this up with a salad. I like lots of veges in a salad, and tonight’s salad was really good, plus I have enough left over for lunch tomorrow! Always looking forward!

Ingredients
3/4 of a good size head of Romaine lettuce
1 large tomato, cut into chunks
3 large crimini mushrooms, coarsely chopped
1 large carrot, sliced
1 thick slice of ham, cut into 1/4″ cubes
1 thick slice of turkey, cut into 1/4″ cubes
3 pieces of hearts of palm, sliced thinly
2 stalks of celery, sliced thinly
1 – 4″ piece of cucumber, cut into quarters then sliced
4 strips of cooked bacon, crumbled
2 hard cooked eggs, sliced
1 avacado, sliced
4 radishes, cut into sections for decoration, and eating of course!
1/8 cup of raw sunflower seeds
1 cup of cheddar cheese, grated

Start with the Romaine. Wash this well, and use a salad spinner to remove excess water.

Romaine lettuce cleaned and torn for the salad

Then lay out in sections the rest of the ingredients. I did a section of each of the ingredients, and placed the bacon in the center, leaving an open area for the radishes. After placing the eggs on the salad, I then sprinkled it with the sunflower seeds, and cheddar.

Finished salad!

Toss the salad with your favorite dressing and serve!

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