March Dinner Party Trina10:51 AM 0 comments

This past week has been a little busy-ish.

• Our girls' basketball team finished their post-season with a strong showing in the sweet-sixteen round of the state tournament.  
• I planned a beach vacation for spring break.  
• I ate a few Milky Ways and later discovered gluten-containing ingredients in those stupid candy bars.  
• I decided to apply to begin my Specialist degree with Liberty University to hopefully be holding the degree by this time next year.  
• I experienced infuriating terror as the tornado sirens went off while covering a soccer game because the referee is an individual I cannot describe without dipping into my collection of the profane.  
• And, we hosted our dinner party of the month.

This month's dinner party was completely planned, then cancelled, then postponed, then rescheduled to be an impromptu let's-see-what-we've-got-in-the-fridge evening.  Which of course means it was a total success.  Thank God for bacon.

The menu included pretzel-crusted chicken, fresh steamed carrots, and baked potatoes with Crystal Light peach tea to drink.  For dessert, I whipped up homemade graham crackers (courtesy of Jules Shephard's pre-made mix) to make s'mores in the fireplace with my recent find: food-safe fire logs.

Our guests were Mike, Jen, Andie, and Charlotte of the Jones family.  

Food was served with almost perfect timing (just seconds upon their arrival), nothing was under-cooked or over-cooked, and because they didn't hold back the compliments, I'll go ahead and share the recipe for the chicken here, but I stole it from another blog, Taming of the {celiac} Sprue.  It also pairs well with cheesy sides (potatoes au gratin, macaroni and cheese) and green vegetables (salad, broccoli, green beans).

Pretzel-Crusted Chicken Breasts (serves 4)

(I doubled this recipe last night, adequately fed everyone, and had leftovers for lunch today)

Ingredients

8 oz bag of pretzels, crushed (Glutino is gluten free)
1 - 2 tablespoons bacon bits (make sure to use real bacon)
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/2 tablespoon dried parsley
1 egg
1/2 cup ginger ale (Canada Dry is gluten free)
1/3 cup all-purpose flour (Jules' is gluten free)
1 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
2 boneless, skinless, chicken breasts, sliced into strips

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line a 9x13 baking dish with parchment paper or coat with cooking oil.  
2. Mix pretzels, bacon bits, parmesan, and parsley in a large bowl and set beside the baking dish.
3. Whisk remaining ingredients in another large bowl until smooth and thickened.  Set beside dry ingredients.
4. Dip chicken strips into wet mixture so they are fully coated, roll in pretzel mixture for a generous breading, and set into baking dish.
5. Bake at 350 degrees for 40-50 minutes.

Yum.