Lovely people, lovely evening...

Last fall, maybe around November, Charles was out walking up the street on his bear adventure with our neighbor's boy, Forrest. Another neighbor from further up the hill stopped and introduced himself to Charles. He wanted to welcome us to the area and tell Charles that his wife thought our chihuahuas were cute. They both agreed that we should all get together sometime. When Charles told me this, I started to bug him to call our neighbors. And then pester him... What month is this? March? My powers of persuasion must be failing, because that took WAY too long for him to call and set up an evening. Well, tonight was finally the night. We had the Dietrich's over for supper and spent a lovely 4 hours eating and chatting! They are such a nice couple. They are so similar to us in the "dogs-as-children" catagory-only big difference is that their Pumpkin is a Pomeraian.

I made a pretty yummy supper of Deviled Chicken (Tofu for Charles and me), Potatoes Dauphine, Roasted Green Beans and the very ugly, but oh-so-yummy, Stickey Banana Bread Pudding with Whipped Cream. I sometimes have trouble with stuff dripping out of pans onto the bottom of the gas oven. When that happens smoke fills the house and I have to turn off the oven, remove the racks, let it cool down and clean it out. The pudding bubbled over and caused quite a bit of trouble this afternoon. The house filled with smoke and thankfully we were able to open up doors and windows to clear most of it out before our company arrived. That stuff is so delicious that it was worth all the smoke! I'm gonna share two of my recipes from tonight. Hope you enjoy!

Deviled Chicken (or Tofu, or Seitan, or Tempeh)

¼ cup EVOO, plus more for drizzling
4 cloves garlic, grated
2 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
2 tbsp. spicy brown or Dijon mustard
1 tbsp. sweet smoked paprika
1 tbsp. hot pepper sauce
Salt & pepper
½ cup balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp. brown sugar
2 to 2 ½ lbs. skinless, boneless chicken breasts or thighs
2 springs rosemary, leaves stripped and chopped

Combine all the ingredients up to chicken (or what you like). Set aside 1/4 cup of marinade and place the chicken in the remaining liquid for at least 1/2 hour. Grill chicken in a bit of EVOO until done. Sprinkle with rosemary for garnish.

*Note: If you are using tofu, I like to slice extra firm tofu into about 1/4" slices. I add some olive oil (and in between the batches) to a non-stick pan and grill the heck out of 'em! I like the chared bit, so I let them grill until the edges get browned. I put a lid over the pan because this sauce in the olive oil will spatter.


Sticky Banana Bread Pudding

1 cup oil
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 ½ cups mashed ripe bananas
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 ½ cups Bisquick
1 cup nuts (almonds)
Pinch of cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Oil and flour large baking pan.
Mix all ingredients together and pour into pan. Top with Brown Sugar topping (below) and bake for about 1 hour until center is set.

Brown Sugar Topping

Brown sugar
Butter, softened

Mix together equal parts and crumble on top of banana mixture.

(I cannot begin to tell you how yucky this looks while baking. It will bubble up in the pan, so make sure it is a deep one. Once it is done, it looks like a burnt and deflated mess. But I PROMISE you that it is really good! Kim Brandimore and I goofed on an original recipe and this was the result. Honestly good!)