Bachelor Night!

As I mentioned before the new season of the Bachelor starts tonight and we are starting back up our tradition of eating dinner and watching it with Elizabeth, Seth, Emily and Dowe. This week we are in charge of bringing the appetizer and dessert. For the appetizer I decided to go with a recipe out of the new Junior League cookbook that is a real winner and very easy. It is called ….. and is like the “grown up” version of the traditional hot artichoke dip. As for dessert, Emily’s birthday is tomorrow so I wanted to make a birthday cake. Since she is a chocolate fan I decided to go with the cover recipe off of a new cookbook that Russ’ Mom gave me recently for a Devil’s Food Cake with Bittersweet Chocolate Icing.

For the appetizer you mince the garlic and chop the artichoke hearts (I buy them already quartered, so that there is less chopping involved) and sun dried tomatoes. You then mix everything together with the mayonnaise (I use light) and feta. Then put it in a baking dish and let it bake for about 15 minutes at 375F. Serve it hot with crackers, bagel chips, pita chips etc. It is super simple and really yummy! If you are hosting any get togethers or going to any parties where you need to take an appetizer I highly recommend this one. It is a real crowd pleaser! (Nicole – You could make this one very easily.) Russ gives the dip a solid 9.

For the cake I decided to make the cake part yesterday and then make the icing tonight before we go. For the cake you start by letting the butter, eggs, and buttermilk all come to room temperature. (For the eggs you can put them in warm water for about 15 minutes to let them come to room temperature and the others I just let sit on the counter for a while.) While you are waiting on these you can go ahead and sift the flour, salt, and baking soda together. You can also

To make the icing you again let the butter come to room temperature. You then mix it with a rubber spatula in a bowl until it becomes the consistency of mayonnaise. Next you cut the unsweetened chocolate into small pieces and then put it in a bowl. Under the bowl with the chocolate you put a smaller bowl with hot water in it and let the chocolate slowly melt. Once melted you add the eggs to it one by one and then add the vanilla extract. It kind of freaked me out that the recipe called for raw eggs, but the author said that as long as you handle the eggs properly and buy them from a reputable source you should be fine. Russ also said that he has eaten plenty of cookie dough and batter before and has always been fine and I guess I have too. So, I got over the freak out and added confectioners sugar (that had been sifted) to the chocolate little by little until it is all mixed. Then I took part of the chocolate mixture to the butter and mixed them together. I then added the chocolate / butter mixture back to the rest of the chocolate mixture and mixed them all together. I then iced the cake by putting one layer on the cake stand and icing its top and placing the other layer on and icing the top and sides.

I thought the cake turned out pretty well. The cake part was moist and had a nice mild chocolate flavor to it. The icing I thought was fantastic with a wonderful bittersweet flavor to it. I really thought the icing outshone the cake part. Everyone loved it and gave it a 10, but Russ felt like the birthday cake I made for him is even better, so he gave tonight’s cake a 9.

Elizabeth and Seth were in charge of the entree and did marinated rib eye steaks. The marinade had a wonderful flavor to it! Emily and Dowe handled the vegetables doing corn on the cob and steamed broccoli with a yummy bernaise sauce. It paired really well with the steaks and the bernaise sauce make a fantastic finishing touch. It was a fun night with good friends and this season of the Bachelor looks like it is going to be very entertaining!

Hot Feta Cheese and Artichoke Dip, Tables of Content JLB
Serves 8

4 oz oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, drained and rinsed
1 (14 oz) can artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
8 oz feta cheese, crumbled
1 cup mayonnaise
2 garlic cloves, minced

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Pat the sun-dried tomatoes dry with a paper towel and chop. Combine the tomatoes, artichokes, cheese, mayonnaise, and garlic in a bowl and mix well. Spoon the artichoke mixture into a shallow 1 and 1/2 quart baking dish and bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until bubbly; do not overbake. Serve with bagel chips and / or thin plain crackers.

(Cake recipe will be posted soon.)