Dinner Night

Not long after I started dating the King, I met his "dinner night" friends.  Every week there are anywhere from 5-8 of us and we each take turns cooking.  Occasionally, we go out to eat too.  Everyone tends to go all out on their dinner night.  This means I am guaranteed one delicious meal (with side dishes and dessert!) once a week. As if this could not get any better, the company is excellent as well.  We discuss everything from the latest Bachelorette (the guys feign interest in this subject, but typically get involved anyway) to whether or not a top sheet is necessary (NECESSARY!).

It gives me an excuse to set the table like this:

It's more impressive when there is food on the plates and the glasses are filled.  Unfortunately, I was too busy enjoying the company to take a picture of that...

I put on some Mongo Santamaria to set the latin-esque mood and placed a pitcher of this on the table:

That is really a picture of some of the leftover fruit.  Again, I forgot to get a picture of the actual sangria!  So this is my leftover liquor-soaked-fruit in a glass of seltzer water.  Still yummy, even wine-less.  The original wine-filled version was light and fruity.  

While I was busy setting a mood, the King was downstairs firing up the grill.  This meal was extremely well received and looked a little something like this (only a little though, as these are the leftovers):

Here's a close-up:

It's grilled mojo pork tenderloin with salsa verde on a bed of black beans and rice served with grilled veggies on the side.  Salsa verde really MADE this dish.  To end this meal right, I served the rest of my Brownie Chunk and Chocolate Chip Cookies with vanilla ice-cream.

I really enjoyed this meal because it was delicious, AND I didn't spend the whole night in the kitchen!

White Sangria

• 1/3 cup of brandy
• 1/3 cup of peach schnapps
• 1 1/2 Tablespoons of sugar
• 2 (750 milliliters) Rioja white wine, chilled
• 1 lemon thinly sliced
• 1 small navel orange, quartered and sliced up
• 1 green apple, quartered and sliced up
• 1 ripe mango, diced
• 1 (12 oz.) bottle of sparkling water

1.  Combine the sugar, brandy, and peach schnapps in a pitcher and stir to mix in the sugar.

2.  Add both bottles of wine and the fruit and chill 2 hours until chilled.

3.  Add the sparkling water just before serving.

Mojo Marinade 

(I put this on the veggies, but it would work to make a pork tenderloin mojo too)

• Pinch of oregano
• Pinch of red pepper flakes
• 2 garlic cloves, pressed
• 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
• Juice of 1 lime
• Juice of 1 orange
• Soy sauce
• Brown sugar

1.  Mix all ingredients together and marinate away (veggies, pork, fish, etc.!).