Making Dinner with a Friend

My friend Darlene and I have been having SO much fun Skyping.  She is generally working on making beautiful cards and I am usually busy creating images for Shelly's Images.com.  Lately, we have both been busy doing some exciting work for Shelly's Images which we hope to be able to reveal very soon.

The problem with Skyping has been that we work all day in my studio and her cave and then we look up at the clock in a panic because the day has somehow FLOWN by and now we each have to figure out something to make our family for dinner. 

So we made a plan.  We decided that once a week we would plan something to make for dinner together while we are Skyping.  It was so fun to be "in Darlene's kitchen" with her.  Our only hiccup in the entire plan is that Darlene is an hour ahead of me in time zones.  So we need to find dishes that we can prep and that I can cover and refrigerate to cook just a little later.

This week our menu was "Man Pleasing Chicken".  This is a recipe that I found on pinterest.  We also decided to make oven roasted potatoes.  Darlene made steamed asparagus.  And I made steamed cauliflower.

Here is the recipe for "Man Pleasing Chicken"

• 1 package Chicken thighs- about 6
• 1/2 cup Dijon mustard
• 1/4 cup Maple syrup
• 1 Tablespoon Rice wine vinegar
• Fresh Rosemary (I used green onion and added before cooking)

1. Preheat oven to 450. Put a 1 1/2 pound package of chicken thighs into an oven-proof baking dish. Salt and pepper the thighs. Mix the mustard, syrup and vinegar in a separate bowl.  Pour your maple mustard mixture over them, turning the thighs in the mixture so they are fully coated.  I added some chopped green onion to the top of my chicken.  
2. Put the chicken thighs into the oven, and let them bake for 40 minutes or until a meat thermometer reads 155ºF. Baste the tops of the chicken with more sauce half way through. Let the chicken rest for 5 minutes before serving. Plate the chicken, making sure to spoon some extra sauce over the top. 
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This is such a fast recipe to prepare and it sure makes the kitchen smell amazing.  My family was waiting with plates in hand when the chicken came out of the oven.  The only change that I might consider is finding a way to tame the mustard flavor just a bit.  Maybe a few tablespoons of mayonnaise would temper the mustard.  The roasted potatoes that we made were made by coating potatoes in a bit of oil in a ziploc.  Sprinkle on one packet of Lipton Onion Soup mix and pour into a greased baking dish.  The potatoes take about the same amount of time to bake as the chicken so it worked out perfectly. I cut my potatoes and added oil and then sat them aside in the sealed ziploc until I was ready to put everything in the oven.  That worked just fine and is a trick I will definitely use again.

I can't wait to read Darlene's post to hear how her dinner went.  If you want to read Darlene's post about our Dinner Adventure just click here.