Girls Night!!!

I have a group of friends that gets together about once a month for a girls night.  Now, "girls night" is one of those events that could be anything from this.....

....to this......

I would say our girls night falls somewhere in between.


The topics of conversation at girls night vary from parenting advice to Macedonian weddings.  But the one topic that is consistently covered is food.  So today I am going to share with you two dishes that I devoured at last month's girls night.  And I mean, I seriously devoured these.  Like the kind of devoured, where I am fairly certain when I got up to get my 5th helping, the girls were shooting one another glances and thinking we need to cover the topic of "bring a dish to pass" etiquette at next month's girls night.



FRUIT & CHEESE ORZO

• 1 12oz box orzo
• 2 teaspoons chopped garlic 
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 1/3 cups chopped baby spinach
• ½ cup crumbled ricotta salata or feta cheese 
• ½ cup dried cranberries
• 1/3 cup toasted pine nuts

1.  In saucepan, cook orzo according to package directions and drain.
2.  Cook garlic and thyme in olive oil on medium heat for 30 seconds. Remove from heat.
3.  Add orzo and last 4 ingredients. Season with pepper, if you choose.


This is the recipe as it was written.  We all agreed on girls night that you always add extra garlic, fresh herbs, and feta.  And seriously, when do you get a room full of women to agree on anything?  Add extra. 


This orzo salad is amazing the next day for lunch.  I know this because when nobody was looking, I threw the leftovers in a bowl and stuck it in my purse.  

This next dish is a chickpea cucumber salad.  It was incredibly delish and equally amazing for lunch the next day.  My minis devoured it and I think my puppy enjoyed a bite or two as well.


Chickpea Cucumber Salad

• 1 can of chickpeas/garbanzo beans
• 1 large seedless cucumber, peeled and chopped into small chunks
• large bunch of fresh flat leaf parsley, chopped small
• feta cheese, chunked
• olive oil
• rice wine vinegar
• 1 tbsp dijon mustard
• Toasted pine nuts
• salt to taste

1.  Rinse canned beans. 

2.  Combine all ingredients.

3.  Add olive oil, vinegar, mustard and salt to taste.

4.  Crumble feta (add a lot, make it nice and creamy).

5.  Mix well.

She noted on the recipe, I don’t measure the dressing portion just add until I like the taste. I almost always double the recipe because it keeps so nice in the fridge.

There you go.  Girls night done right.  Throw in some cocktails and great conversation and it's a total success.  

Love Fest

Wowzer!  On a scale of 1-10, this past weekend was a 10.  We spent most of the weekend outside, working in the yard.  My tiny mini planted her own herb garden, which she will most likely have completely drowned by next weekend.

My tiny mini woke up on Saturday morning, very distraught because she needed a moroccan oil treatment.  So, we did that and then she and I went to listen to my favorite pastor give a girl power sermon.  Sunday, my tiny mini and I spent some time shopping where I found the perfect pair of shoes (and I had a coupon!) and my mini found 5 bottles of "hanitizer" that she had to have.

My boy minis spent the weekend doing this.

They alternated between frisbee, baseball, hocky, football, and golf.  But, you get the idea.

On Saturday night, I was the luckiest girl in town because I got to dress up and have a night out with the three amazing men in my life.  My tiny mini stayed with her grandparents, where I am sure she coaxed them into many things, perhaps even another moroccan oil treament.

My incredibly handsome hubby, Mr. McGhee, spent all day Sunday staining our mini's swingset and installing my raised garden beds.  I came home from a wonderful shopping trip, to see my Mr. McGhee working very hard on the swingset, while my two boy minis were running around playing baseball.  I looked at my tiny mini, who was wearing her skinny jeans and boots, and realized, "hot damn, the people I share my life with are pretty amazing."  Do you ever have those moments, when you are just overwhelmed with this sense of love for your family and feel the urge to do something to show them how much you love them?  Well, that was me yesterday, I had this sudden need to show these people how much I adore them and I realized there was only one way to do that.

Avocado french fries.

That's right.  Avocado french fries, people!!!!!

• Oil For Frying
• 2 Avocados
• 2 Eggs, beaten
• 1 and 1/3 Cup Bread Crumbs
• 1 Teaspoon Lemon Pepper
• 1/2 Teaspoon Salt
• 1/4 Teaspoon Cumin
• 5 Tablespoons Mayonnaise
• 3 Tablespoons Fresh Cilantro, chopped
• Juice from 1/2 of Lemon

1.   In a medium-sized bowl, mix together the bread crumbs, lemon pepper, salt and cumin. Set it aside. 

2.  Cut the avocados in half and then slice them vertically into 4 inch by 1 inch wedges. Set them aside. 

3.  Heat the vegetable oil to 335 degrees Fahrenheit in a large frying pan, adding enough oil so that the oil is about 3 to four inches deep.  (If your oil starts smoking, you have heated your oil too hot).

4.  Dredge the avocado slices in the breadcrumb mixture, then in the egg mixture, then in the breadcrumb mixture again. 

5.  Place them in the hot oil and fry them for about 2-3 minutes, or until golden brown. 

6.  Remove them with a slotted spoon or tongs, and set them on a plate lined with paper towels to absorb the excess oil. 

7.  Allow them to dry for 10 minutes, then transfer them to a serving tray and serve them immediately with the Cilantro Lemon Dipping Sauce.

8.      For the Cilantro Lemon Dipping Sauce, place the mayonnaise, cilantro, and lemon juice in a blender and mix until smooth and creamy in texture.

Prepare your eggs and breadcrumb mixture.  

Slice and scoop out your avocado.

Dredge each slice in breadcrumbs....

....then eggs.....

.....then breadcrumbs again.

Fry for a few minutes.

Serve with cilantro lime dressing.

These were fun and tasty!  My tiny mini loves avocados, but for some reason she didn't love these.  She did however love the dressing.  Probably because I lied and told her it was ranch.  

I also made my mini's favorite salad ever, pasta salad.  Pasta salad is always a hit, and you really can't mess it up.  I boiled some vegetable pasta and threw in some peppers, tomato (yellow cherry--proof that God wants kids to eat tomatoes), onion, olives, cheese chunks, and pepperoni (yes, the pepperoni is probably considered processed).  I drizzled it with some balsamic dressing.  To make the dressing, I chopped up a shallot, a few cloves of garlic and added some olive oil, balsamic and black pepper.  

The pasta salad was a massive hit.  Mr McGhee loved it.  The minis loved it.  I love them.  It was a total love fest.