Sunday Dinner

One of my co-workers ran a half marathon that was in our town yesterday morning.  He ran it last year too, so I went back to that blog post to look at the pictures, and realized that yesterday last year, our temps were 80 degrees!

Um, while I was waiting for the first runners to come by?  It was 23 degrees and windy.  You can see just how hilly this course is, and while they go down this hill in the beginning of the race, they have to run up it for the last 2 miles of the race.

The first two runners were at the 2 mile mark at about 11 minutes in – crazy fast!

There has to be at least 1200 runners in this race.  From when the first runners came by, until the last ones it was about 30 minutes of a sea of people.

I saw my co-worker at the last second, so I never got a picture of his face – he’s  fast runner!  He’s the one in the tie die t-shirt.

I took this guys picture because of his funky tights, and didn’t realize what his shirt said until I downloaded it yesterday.  I need to find out who this is so I can send him this picture!

When I got back home, Tony was already working on my Sunday breakfast.  He ended up making me savory french toast – made with sriracha and some cheddar cheese, and some smoked bacon.

I was then Bizzy in my Kitchen!  I made all five of my SIL’s lunches.  Then I made a pot of Cincinnati chili for the week.  Next I made two loaves of Artisan bread.  Then I made a batch of 36 dinner rolls – with the hopes of using some of those rolls for lunch and breakfast this week.  Then I made five mini apple pies – I was unstoppable!

I also made some garlic crisps to go with my appetizer.  I am sure I’ve mentioned it here somewhere before, but I buy the day old loaves of bread at Jimmy John’s for .49 cents a loaf.  I cut it thin, brush the pieces with a mixture of olive oil, Italian seasoning and garlic, and bake at 350 for about 10 minutes.  Keep an eye on it though, because it can go from perfect to burnt in a matter of a minute.  I got all those crostini for .49 cents!

Served with Merck’s port wine cheese – that cheese is so fricken good!

I also made a broccoli gratin on the side for our side dish – I just doubled this recipe and used 1.5 cups of sharp cheddar cheese.

Since I always make artisan bread, I decided to go out of my comfort zone and make soft, fluffy dinner rolls.  The recipe I found was straight forward.  Mix the dough, let it rise 1.5 hours, roll into 36 rolls, let rise another hour.  Brush with butter and bake for 25-30 minutes.  Look at how good hers came out!

Don’t you want to take a huge bite out of those!  Here’s how mine turned out:

They never really rose much after the second hour.  I topped some with sesame seeds and some with poppy seeds.

The verdict? They tasted like mini loaves of bread.   They were dense, not fluffy or soft at all.  Although her recipe called for using either oil or butter, and I chose oil – maybe that was the difference?  Have you ever been able to make a soft dinner roll – what’s your secret?

Thanks goodness the Artisan bread turned out, and the mini apple pies.

We ended up doing a beef roast on the gas grill.  It was 4 pounds, so it took about 2 hours – we started it out high – around 400 degrees for the first 15 minutes, then brought the temperature down to 200 degrees.  The magic number for medium rare meat – 125!  Take it off and then let the meat rest for at least 15 minutes.

It was cooked to perfection.  And I realized I never took another picture the rest of the night!  Just enjoyed the company at our Sunday Dinner while eating at the dining room table – love it!  Thanks for coming over Jody, Chris and Sean!

As I type this, it is snowing.  Spring in Chicagoland – when are you going to get here?!

Time to get my shit together for the day.  What was the highlight of your weekend?  Make it a great day!