Good Food, Good Wine, Good Friends: What Are You Cooking?

This year, I've cultivated somewhat of a passion for cooking, so I took it upon myself to make a good sunday dinner for my roommates as well as my blogger audience. I listened to Van Morrison while I made the appetizer, to Bob Dylan while I did the main course, and Third Eye Blind for dessert, all leading to an amazingly delicious meal of spinach dip, Greek Pastitsio, and molten chocolate cakes. These are some of my signature dishes so I've really been trying to perfect the way I produce them in the honest hope that I will know each of these recipes like my own name (which I still forget sometimes...). 

Anyway, aside from my faulty attention span, I have some pictures of tonight's process along with some helpful hints that may benefit you in your own cooking endeavors. So let me know what you think and Bon Apetit!

I started with the spinach dip...

1/2 cup of parmesan cheese..yum!

A can of artichoke hearts w/ half a package of frozen spinach.

Throw it all together...

....1/2 cup of sour cream, 2 eight oz. blocks of cream cheese, w/ the artichokes, spinach, and cheese...

Mix it all up and...

Voila! Stick it in the oven at 350 degrees for thirty-five minutes and you will have the most delicious spinach dip that your tongue will ever touch! 

Now for the Greek Pastitsio! (The meat filling requires 2 pounds of meat, a can of tomato sauce, 1/2 cup of olive oil, 1/2 cup of white wine, 1/2 tablespoons of cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice, with three tablespoons of parsley, then 3-4 tablespoons of breadcrumbs.)

I loved the colors in this picture. The parsley leaves add so much flavor to the meat along with an appealing decorative touch- the one in the middle looks like a volcano!

The chef.

I put some extra bread crumbs in the meat to absorb all of the extra tomato sauce, wine, and olive oil. Bread crumbs are always a great way to get rid of any extra fluid in your meat. (I just realized how dirty that sounded...)

Now here's the pasta! ..mixed with butter and parmesan cheese!

You carefully add a layer of pasta to the pan.

Then a layer of meat!

Spread it evenly...

Then another layer of pasta...too bad I ran out...

just kidding!

Once you've layered the pasta and meat precisely, the Bechamel topping is your next priority. I hate making Bechamel sauce simply because it requires so much time, but once the process is complete, you'll be thankful to have such a savory, rich sauce to go with your meal.

So creamy!

Then top the pastitsio off with a layer of Bechamel sauce, sprinkle it with Parmesan, and stick it in the oven at 350 degrees for 45 minutes! 

Now onto my lava cakes-This is my makeshift double boiler for the chocolate cakes. Remember: whenever you melt chocolate, always place a pan over top of another pan of boiling water. Chocolate burns very easily and this strategy decreases that probability.

Just keep stirring, just keep stirring...(This mix has a 4 tablespoons of butter, 8oz packet of semi-sweet chocolate, 1/2 cup of sugar, 1/2 cup of flour, and three eggs.)

Then pour the mix in a muffin pan, put it in the oven at 400 degrees for eight minutes, then you will have the yummiest, ooey-gooiest molten chocolate cakes on the planet!!

The mix! So, so, so good!

My roommate Heather sneaking a bite of the pastitsio!

YUM.

My chocolate cakes were, clearly, very ooey-gooey...but still tasted delicious!!!

Now I challenge you, boy or girl, to try your hand at cooking. You may not be as bad as you think and, once you get the hang of it, you will develop an appreciation for cooking you probably didn't even know you had, trust me! And, as always, thank you so much for reading!!

P.S. This dish, especially the pastitsio, goes best with a white wine, like Chardonnay or Pinot Grigio.