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Dinner Date Ideas
Mai-Kero
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So my girl friend wants me to cook her dinner at my place for a dinner-and-a-movie type affair.
Does anyone have any suggestions for a poorish college student? I'm not super-experienced at cooking but I watch Good Eats all the time and I try not to be retarded. I've got a bottle of white wine, so whatever goes with that. Also, for desert I'd like to make something chocolaty.
Does anyone have any suggestions for a poorish college student? I'm not super-experienced at cooking but I watch Good Eats all the time and I try not to be retarded. I've got a bottle of white wine, so whatever goes with that. Also, for desert I'd like to make something chocolaty.
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I don't know much about making deserts to be honest, but good ol' Chocolate Pudding with a little whip cream on top and a cherry is easy enough to make.
http://southernfood.about.com/od/chocolatedesserts/r/blbb450.htm
it takes about a minute to make, and about an hour to chill enough to eat -- super easy and really tasty
she'd whip it up, pour it into a half a dozen champagne glasses, and refrigerate
looks way fancier than it is
Chicken parmesan is braindead-easy (chicken breasts, dip in italian salad dressing, then dip in italian flavored breadcrumbs, then bake at... 425 i think? then just cover in sauce & put cheese on top when fully cooked and melt the cheese)
Dessert I'm not great at, though store-bought brownie mix (duncan hines or ghiardelli! pillsbury is terrible) is also very very easy and insanely delicious
Get those refrigerated packs of stuffed ravioli at your local grocery store. The brand I get is Pasta Prima, and usually runs ~3 for a package that feeds two easily. But instead of cooking them per instructions, instead heat up a pan with some olive oil thinly covering the bottom, lay in the pasta when it's hot, flip when they're crispy golden brown on one side, take out when they're the same on the other. Pat the grease off with paper towels, sprinkle on the added package of cheese and herbs, and set on a plate. You can toss up a little Caesar salad with it if you'd like (cheap option: those salads-in-a-bag aren't bad if you get 'em fresh and use them fresh), maybe buy a baguette at the bakery, serve is with a small dish of black vinegar / olive oil at a 50/50 dose for dipping. Voila. Oh, and I prefer the mushroom and thyme stuffed ravioli, but get what sounds good. And I tried this with the same brand's torillinis: doesn't work. Too little surface area. Maybe if you had a deep fryer, but all I got were very hard sausage-stuffed won tons. Which may or may not appeal to some.
3DS FC: 4699-5714-8940 Playing Pokemon, add me! Ho, SATAN!
1/2 cup milk
1 3/4 cups sugar
4 tbs cocoa powder
1 stick of butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups oats
1/2 cup peanut butter
Put milk, cocoa, sugar, and butter in sauce pan and bring to a boil. Once it's at a rapid boil, boil for 1.5 to 2 minutes, then remove from heat.
Stir in peanut butter and vanilla, then stir in oats. Put spoonfuls on wax paper and let set for about an hour.
Takes about 15 minutes to make and are so good.
This is what I do:
Brush chicken with melted butter, then season with salt and pepper all over.
Heat oven to 375.
Roast chicken on its side (wing up) for 20 minutes. Rotate to other side and roast for another 20 minutes. Rotate breast side up until a thermometer inserted in the breast reads 160 and the thigh reads 165-170. Take out, let rest 20 minutes, and carve.
Serve with whatever green vegetable you want to make and some rice or roasted potatoes. If you do roasted potatoes you can just throw them in the bottom of the roasting pan the first time you rotate the chicken.
I can usually just eyeball it so I don't have firm measurements, but you can tailor it to whatever it is you like to eat anyway. Here's how I roll:
STEP 1: In a sauce pan, combine equal amounts of white wine and chicken broth. I use about 1/3 - 2/5ths a bottle of wine and an equal amount of chicken broth when making risotto, ymmv. Bring to a boil and then back it down to a low heat to keep it warm with as little volume-loss to evaporation as possible.
Step 2: coat the bottom of a frying pan with a little extra-virgin olive oil and a pat of butter (I prefer unsalted). On low heat, melt butter slowly while adding a garlic, salt, black pepper. Make sure you heat it on low so you don't scorch the butter. Once butter melts, saute one handful onion shallots (chopped) and one handful mushrooms (sliced) on head until mushrooms are browned. Add a handful of green peas and chopped asparagus.
Step 3: add enough risotto so that the whole mess (combined with the veggies) fills about 2/5ths to 1/2 of the pan. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE AT LEAST HALF THE VOLUME OF THE PAN REMAINING because otherwise this thing is going to expand beyond what the pan can contain. A little goes a long way with risotto, this shit is filling.
Step 4: Stir the rice in the pan with the oil/butter to brown the rice. Basically each grain should have a thin coat of oil/butter and be warm to the touch.
Step 5: Laddle in enough of the wine/broth to submerge the rice/veggie mixture. Simmer and stir slowly so the rice can absorb the moisture. Continue laddling in broth as it's absorbed to keep the mixture wet--don't let the risotto dry out.
Step 6: You'll know you're close to being done when the risotto reaches a creamy consistency--it's close to the saturation point when this happens. Take a few of the grains out and test them by biting into them. They should be soft. It takes a while to get to this point, though--be ready to baby-sit your dish or ten minutes.
Step 7: Once it's creamy and the risotto is soft, stop adding liquid. Add a fist-full of fresh-grated parmesean cheese, salt and pepper to taste. Plate. I like to serve it with baked chicken tenders that I've coated with heavy cream and parmesean cheese. Serve with the rest of the white wine not used in step 1.
Serve with steamed veg, or garlic mashed, some rice of your favorite flavour, etc. Some salad never hurts and it's crazy easy to do, plus you have some dressing already that goes with the meal, but go light with it since it's in the chicken already.
Dessert ideas above this post are all great. Philly cream cheese also has an idiot proof cheesecake recipe in it (buy 1 pkg for the recipe, and 2 more of the no name stuff to save some cash if you like). Only catch there is that you need a springform pan, but cheesecake has had awesome results for me a lot in the past.
I have a date tonight (3rd date :winky:) and I told her that I was going to pick her up at 9 with a bottle of red wine and go grocery shopping together and go back to her place and make something nice. The way I said it probably sounded very manly and confident, but honestly I have no idea what I'm going to make.
I'm not a great cook, the best stuff I can make is spaghetti meat sauces, stir frys, and chicken/rice casseroles with a soup base. I really like that mousse recipe linked above, and I've already printed it out.
I need some ideas for an entree. I don't know her that well yet and only know that she's allergic to seafood and is not a vegetarian.
http://www.goonswithspoons.com/
I'd keep it bookmarked, because it has recipies for pretty much everthing you need!
Maybe something like this before the main meal, good because you can eat it together instead of 2 different plates.
I'd recommend a browse through foodtv.ca or epicurious.com. When I need a new idea I go there first. Also, keep 30 bucks on hand in case something goes horribly wrong (it won't) and you need to order in. I always do this when I have guests over for dinner just in case.
For red wine, and an early date situation, I'd stick with what you know and do the pasta with meat sauce. Put a nice salad on the side. Impress her by making home made strawberry balsamic salad dressing:
Put some (~1 tsp for 2 servings) of strawberry jam in a small cup or bowl. (Try to avoid stuff with whole fruit, because those won't break down and will only get in the way.) Add about an equal amount of balsamic vinegar. Don't worry about the exact proportions- it'll turn out a little sweeter or vinegary one way or the other- you can smell and adjust, but that could look weird. Stir with a fork (not enough volume for a whisk) and watch in amazement as the jam breaks down. Add olive oil (about as much as the jam and vinegar amounts combined, maybe a little more) and stir vigorously to combine. Pour over greens. Do not defile this dressing by pouring it on iceberg lettuce. Get some nice greens. (I like the field greens mixes, a little goat or blue cheese, some walnuts, some very thin sliced red onion, salt, pepper and this dressing, myself.)
edit- try this at home once before the date night, just so you know how it goes.
What does your girlfriend like to eat?
One of the problems is that I think I'm going to be cooking at her place so I don't know what I have to work with. I have to just assume the basics of cookie sheets, sauce pans, pots, and frying pans. I also can't rely on supply items that I can't buy fresh.
This is 9pm tonight btw.
These limitations are actually what will make this challenge enjoyable for me. This way I'm forced to make something fresh and healthy.
It's only the 3rd date and I didn't get that much out of her other than allergies. Of course I can always ASK, and do have the advantage of doing the shopping with her, but I need to be prepared. I want to go into this with a plan and look confident in what I'm doing. The goal here is to be a man and not have her baby me along. I want to avoid the whole "oh hun, I don't know. What do YOU want to do?" thing. I've been there, girls get tired of that quick.
I've gotten good feedback on my pasta primavera which was stolen from Giada on the Food Network.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/pasta-primavera-recipe/index.html
The worst part is the prep work since you have to julienne all the veggies. Total cook time is about 20 minutes.
That was me. Glad you liked it. I can't believe how damn good that broccoli is. And it looks like a pro chef made it too as it comes out amazing in color and flavor.
Ask her friends. You'll get bonus points with the girl and her friends if you go to the effort of learning how to make one of her favorite dishes as a surprise.
Well now I just have to try it. Everyone talking about how good this broccoli is.
Might make that tonight.
Dinner date went great at first. I stuck with what I knew and made a pasta with meat sauce from ground turkey and turkey sausage.
Then she said she was tired and told me to go home. Then she dumped me over Facebook.
It sucks, but I don't need any more advice. I already know what to do, I need to find something to occupy me and move on. We weren't close enough that I was torn from the emotional loss, but it is a huge hit on my confidence. Oh well.
/fury
No joke, I mean really, who does that?
Exmello: sucks, but consider it a cheap lesson learned.
I kind of lol'ed a little bit. :oops: Mainly because the thing is, dude, you shouldn't let this hurt your confidence. I mean, do you really want to date the sort of person who would dump a guy via Facebook in the first place? Dante would have devoted an entire chapter of Inferno to the circle of Hell reserved for people who dump other people via Facebook or text message if only he hadn't been born before mankind discovered electricity.
Is there something that might have happened here to piss her off? I mean she invited you to her place to make her food.
/confuseded
The guy who got dumped isn't the OP with the girlfriend. It was a dude re-using a similar thread for advice about his third date.
This. I guess she made up her mind mid-date. She told me that I was cute, funny, cool to be around but she just didn't feel that I was the right one for her. I actually thanked her for being honest even it was over Facebook. There's nothing worse than a passive-aggressive break up where someone just stops talking to you.
She suggested being friends and I just said no, that's too weird. I deleted her number, contacts online and went out drinking with my buddies. I actually feel pretty good about the whole thing.
The only thing now is to get myself back out there. I only mentioned that it's a confidence hit because this was the first time I actually was dating someone and thinking it was going somewhere in 2.5 years. Hopefully the next one isn't too far off, I at least know what I'm doing now.
also, her loss for not getting to eat that mousse, stuff is killer
Well, be sure to practice cooking a little bit between now and the next dinner date.
Especially if you are in the habit of eating food from time to time. Knowing how to cook is a great skill on the dating market, but it's also pretty helpful in everyday life, too.