12/16/11- Our First Friday Dinner as an ENGAGED couple

Zucchini Au Gratin
Olive Oil for sauteeing, plus some Veg oil for suateeing, and a tiny bit of butter
1 yellow onion, cut in 1/2 and sliced
3.5 zucchini, sliced 1/4-inch thick or so-ish
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground paprika
1 cup milk
bread crumbs
1.5 cup grated Gruyere

Add the olive oil to the pan and saute the onions. Cut the zucchini into about 1/4 inches and cover in Vegetable oil (John's idea). Add the zucchini to the onions and saute for a few more minutes (until they look soft). Add half the shredded gruyere, milk, paprika, salt and pepper and cook in the pan. Transfer to a casserole dish, adding the bread crumbs, a little butter and the rest of the cheese to the top and bake at 350 while you make the lamb, leaving it in for more time while your handsome fiance cleans the kitchen. If you don't have a handsome fiance, good luck figuring out how long this is :)

Rosemary and Sweet Potato Lamb
2 garlic cloves
Homemade sweet potato bread crumbs
Dried rosemary
olive oil
Safflower oil
lamb chops

Place the garlic, bread crumbs, and rosemary in a bowl with olive oil. Press into one side of the lamb chops and cook in the safflower oil. While cooking, add the mixture to the other side. Place in a casserole dish, and bake for clean up time.

Caramelized Bananas and Vanilla Ice Cream
bananas
brown sugar
butter

Caramelize and serve with ice cream.

Review of Grilled Cheese

A few weeks ago, we had grilled cheese and caramelized shallots.  The review is a little delayed, as was the dinner. The night of dinner we were busy building a photobooth for Jen and Tim's wedding.  Who knows? Maybe we can get more use out of it :)
The reused ingredient was shallots.

Dinner will be judged on the following:

• Homemade Skills
• Tastiness 
• Other things accomplished

Homemade Skills: A +
John made no knead bread.  The bread had to sit overnight and then took some more time the next day.  As soon as the bread came out of the oven (we were pretty darn hungry, it was really late) we chowed down a little.  The bread was excellent. We may have not been able to wait to eat before we took the picture.

Tastiness: B
The flavors of the grilled cheese were fantastic. It was a little hard to eat, the bread slices were a  little thick. The shallots were a little too much of the same and a strong flavor.

Other things accomplished: 110%
John and I with the amazing help of his parents finished the photobooth! Curtains, software, hardware and more came together, then back apart to be loaded into the truck.  It might have taken a little bit longer than the 15 minutes per curtain I anticipated and maybe a little more fabric then we actually bought, but overall it turned out great.

The finished set up product: