Mother's Day - May Dinner Party Trina10:35 PM 0 comments

In the words of Po, the dragon warrior (yes, we watched some Kung Fu Panda this weekend), this Mother's Day was AWESOME.

And that's just the beginning.

No, I didn't get everything on my wishlist that I posted earlier.  For one, we're not rich enough.  Two, it rained all day.  Didn't matter though.  We had a great day anyway.

This morning, I got to sleep in till 8:30am (woo!) and had a lovely blueberry muffin breakfast (Fallon helped me prepare the night before) with some strawberries and juice.  I used Jules' recipe, but added some brown sugar since my bananas weren't quite ripe enough.

Mr. Almeda didn't get his time off request approved, so he had to go to work.  This of course meant that Fallon and I could soak up some major mommy-and-me time with no interruptions.  Most of our day was spent inside reading books, watching tv, and lounging about in general.  Until Fallon happened to look out the window and said, "Mommy!  There's a turtle outside!"

Of course, my initial reaction was, "No there's not."  But there was.  Right outside of our window, a cute little turtle.

Thankfully, the rain had stopped momentarily, so we headed outside to take a closer look.

There may or may not have been some serious coaxing and bribery going on to get her to touch, and then actually pick up the turtle, but she did it, and therefore made me proud.

The turtle's name, you ask?  Gloria.

I had also taken the liberty of inviting the in-laws over for dinner (what better date for our May dinner party?) so we could honor Emmanuel's mom.  This may have been the most stressful party so far, not knowing what exactly his parents liked to eat, but it all worked out just fine, I think.

Our Menu

(+ recipes to prepare 6-8 servings)

Mixed green salad 

Buy this from Whole Foods pre-made.  ;-)

Salt & Pepper Chicken Wings

Ingredients

1 bag frozen chicken wing pieces (plain)
San-J low-sodium gluten-free soy sauce
Sea salt
Montreal steak seasoning
Lemon pepper seasoning
Black pepper

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil, and set a wire rack on top.
3. In a large bowl, toss chicken wings with soy sauce until well-coated.  Place wings on rack in a single later so that they do not touch each other.
4. Top wings with seasonings to taste (go light on the salt, it's already in the soy sauce and the steak seasoning).
5. Place in oven and bake at 425 degrees for 30 minutes.
6. Turn wings, add seasonings again, and bake for an additional 30 minutes.

Teriyaki-Ginger Chicken Wings

Ingredients

1 bag frozen chicken wing pieces (plain)
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup San-J low-sodium gluten-free soy sauce
1/2 cup roasted garlic rice vinegar
1-inch piece of fresh ginger, grated
Zest of 1/2 orange
Sea salt
Black pepper

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Place chicken wings in a roasting pan in a single layer and season with salt and pepper.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 10 - 15 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, combine honey, soy sauce, rice vinegar, ginger, and orange zest in a medium bowl (I just used the measuring cup and added it all in).  Stir until honey is completely dissolved.  Set aside half of the mixture to use a dipping sauce.
5. Remove wings from oven, turn, and brush generously with sauce.  Return to oven and bake for 20 minutes.
6. Turn wings once again, brush with remaining sauce, and bake for an additional 30 minutes.

Roasted Potatoes

Ingredients

1 3-lb bag of baby red potatoes
Sesame oil
Olive oil
Sea salt
Black pepper
Basil

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Wash and quarter potatoes.  Place in a large bowl.  Drizzle with sesame oil and olive oil, and toss to coat.
3. Add in salt, pepper, and basil to taste.
4. Place in a 9x13 casserole dish and bake for 45 minutes.

Roasted Asparagus

Ingredients

1 bundle of fresh asparagus
Olive oil
Sea salt
Black pepper
Grated parmesan cheese

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Toss asparagus with olive oil in a large bowl.
3. Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil and arrange asparagus in a single layer.
4. Top with salt, pepper, and cheese to taste.
5. Bake for 10-15 minutes.

To cap off my Mother's Day, I did receive a very nice necklace and earring set of freshwater pearls in purple to represent Fallon's birthstone.

Did I mention that today was awesome?