Easy Summer Dinner Party

Hello, dear readers- I've missed you too!

Tonight I'm having my community group from church over for swimming and supper. I want to keep it simple because, well, I'm human and lazy and not a masochist, I need to keep it cheap because I'm a student working part time right now, but most importantly I want to make it absolutely delicious because I'm a chef, which means the expectations of my cooking are already high, and also I have an innate desire to show off a little.

Now that I've assembled the ingredients for my menu and I'm getting ready to put them together, I thought I'd take a moment to share my recipes, in case any of y'all plan to put on a summer shindig sometime soon.

For dinner, I've decided to make "Summer spaghetti", my own take on something I had at a friends' house one time. For dessert, I'm making a fresh Peach Crostata. If you want to know how to make these items the recipes are listed below. The total money I spent for 8-10 people was about $25. I made the invitation BYOB so cokes and wine will come with the guests.

You'll need:

• Angel Hair pasta or spaghetti for however many guests you'll be feeding
• 1 qt Chicken Broth (I use the lower sodium kind because there is too dadgum much salt in EVERYTHING these days)
• 2 lemons, juice & zest (zest them first!)
• 2-3 tbsp fresh Parsley, chopped
• minced garlic
• grated parmesan (I buy the cheapest off-brand stuff, they're mostly the same when you're cooking it into the dish, and half the price!)
• Asparagus, broccoli or summer squash like zuccini (as much or as little as you want)
• chicken (about 1 breast for 2 or 3 people, depending on the size of the breast)
• grape or cherry tomatoes, halved or quartered

First, tenderize the chicken. If you have a fancy tenderizing hammer, awesome. If you don't, do what I do- cover the chicken with a piece of plastic wrap and use a rolling pin or heavy recipe book. You're just beating the tar out of the meat, it's not exactly a scientific procedure. 

Next, place the chicken into a well greased skillet or onto a stove-top griddle or outdoor grill. keep the heat medium/lowish so that the chicken cooks all the way through before the outside of the chicken dries out. You'll know it's done either when you stick it with a meat thermometer and it reads at LEAST 165 degrees, or when you cut it with a small knife, right in the center, and there is no pink to be seen.

MEANWHILE, Place a pot on the stove, and pour the chicken stock into it. Add the lemon juice (strained) and lemon zest. Now add your pasta and turn on the burner. Let the pasta cook in the liquid, covered for the first 10 min and then uncover it and let the pasta absorb it as it boils until it's fully cooked.

While the pasta is cooking, flip over your chicken to ensure that it's cooked evenly on both sides. Take the chopped parsley, 2tbsp parmesan and 1-2 tbsp garlic (depends on how much garlic you like), combine them and stir them into the pasta.

Place your vegetables onto the grille or into a skillet or saute pan. You'll want to pre-chop the broccoli or summer squash, but leave the asparagus whole for cooking and then chop it up after you take it off the grill. 

Chop up your chicken breast into bite-sized pieces and add the chicken and vegetables to your pasta, stir it in over a low heat. Leave the whole combination on the heat for a few minutes, then take it off the heat and stir in the tomatoes (raw). Serve!

Peach Crostada:

• Flaky Pie dough- if you would like a recipe, let me know. They do sell it at the store in the freezer section, which is ok (not great), or you can use most flaky pie crust recipes.
• Peaches- for a 9" crostata, about 7 peaches will suffice.
• 1-2 tbsp sugar
• 1 dash ground nutmeg (fresh is best!)
• 1 egg white
• some Turbinado sugar if you want (not necessary!)

Peel the peaches and slice them into thin slices, about 1/4" wide.

Toss them in a bowl with the sugar and nutmeg. (Save the Turbinado sugar!)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

Roll out the pie dough into a circle about 14" in diameter (no need to be perfect).

Fold it up and lay it out onto parchment paper on a flat cookie sheet. 

Pile the peaches in the center of the dough circle with a 3" radius around the edge, then carefully fold up the sides of the dough all the way around, fanning the overlaps (ideally in the same direction for aesthetics).

Take a strip of Aluminum foil and wrap it gently around the outside to hold the crust in place, leaving the top open.

Bake for 25-35 min or until the peach filling begins to boil.

Allow to cool a bit, remove the foil and brush the outside with the egg white, then coat the outside with the turbinado sugar.

Put the Crostata back into the oven for 2 more minutes, to make the sugar stick.

For a summer dish, a peach crostata is ideally served at room temperature, but if it is still warm from the oven when you serve it, that's ok- it might be just perfect with some vanilla ice cream!