Sweetheart Dinner

[Bean208]

Each year myself and a group of friends organize and put on what we call the Sweetheart Dinner for our church. We pretty much take over the church and turn it into a restaurant for the evening. This year we even had a harpist providing the music for the evening! We charge $28 per couple and that includes: appetizer, soup, salad, choice of dinner, dessert, and this year a 5x7 picture of you and your sweetheart! If we have money left over we use it to buy something new for the church kitchen and if we don't....well then it is a nice ministry allowing people in our congregation who couldn't normally do an evening out have a special night! This year I was mainly in charge of choosing the menu and then along with another friend cook the whole meal!! We served 60 people this year so the stress level was HIGH as I have never in my life done such a thing!!! We served Italian "Nachos", Italian Wedding Soup, then a choice of Pasta Primivera or Chicken Pomodoro with Roasted Parmesean Potatoes and sauteed green beans and for dessert cheesecake (we cheated and bought this!) with a coice of topping!! Here is how the chicken and Italian Nachos turned out!

 

[Andy M.]

Looks better than the average church dinner. Congratulations.

 

[stassie]

Brilliant! We do something similar at our Church, and I co-ordinate it. I'm looking for recipes at the moment - so your post was very timely!

Any chance you could post recipes for the two mains?

Can you recall what you've cooked in previous years?

I've only done one so far - last year. We had eighty guests, but we only offered an entree, mains and dessert. Last year we did smoked chicken pasta or kumara, pumpkin and chickpea tagine with couscous for the mains. We (just!) managed to cope with about 80% of the guests ordering the pasta!

 

[Bean208]

Chicken Pomodoro (makes 2 servings)
4 chicken cutlets
2 T. vegetable oil
1/4 cup vodka
1/2 cup chicken broth
2 T. fresh lemon juice
1/ cup tomatoes, chopped
2 T. heavy cream
1/3 cup scallions, minced

Season chicken with salt and pepper and dust with flour. Saute cutlets in oil and then transfer to platter. Deglaze pan with vodka, cooking vodka until almost gone. Add broth and lemon juice and return chicken to pan cooking for 1 minute on each side. Remove chicken from pan finish sauce with tomatoes and cream. Heat sauce through and pour over chicken. Garnish with scallions.

Pasta Primavera
8 ounces uncooked linguine
1 T olive oil
1 cup broccoli flowerets
1 cup cauliflowerets
2 medium carrots thinly sliced (1 cup)
1 cup frozen green peas
1 small onion, chopped (1/4 cup)
Alfredo Sauce (see below)
1 T. parmesan cheese

Cook linguine as directed. While linguine is cooking heat oil and cook veggies 6 to 8 minutes, stirring frequently until crisp-tender. Make Alfredo Sauce and stir into veggies. Drain pasta and stir into veggie mixture. Sprinkle with cheese.

The Chicken Pomodoro recipe I found in a Cuisine at Home magazine and the pasta was from Betty Crocker. Last year we served the same pasta and Pinwheel Steaks (also from Cuisine at Home). If you would like that recipe let me know and I can send it along....it is longer than these two!!