Serendipitous Lady: Date Night Dinner

Due to one thing or another mainly work we’ve moved a lot. Anyhow this leaves us with no babysitter occasionally we are lucky and a family member travels over to give us a night out, but that won’t be for a while and I fancied a night out. That was when ‘Date Night’ was born. We made our kitchen the restaurant and jointly decided what meal we should have once the kids were asleep in bed. The theme was to be Italian food and only 2 courses otherwise we’d be up all night… although one of us usually does that with youngest watching Toy Story at 2am. So on Friday we chose our recipes and unlike me I did all the preparation in the daytime on Saturday, go me!

So it’s Saturday night, the kids are in bed, dog walked and we’re ready. For starter I made Mushroom Crostini for this you need:

400g chopped mixed mushrooms

8tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil, & little for drizzling

2 Garlic cloves 1 peeled, 1 chopped

1 tsp of chopped red chillies

1tbsp of fresh marjoram (dry can be used)

Salt & pepper to taste

Ciabatta bread cut into inch thick slices

For the Crostini: Toast the ciabatta bread, then cut the peeled garlic clove in two and rub this over the ciabatta and drizzle with oil.

For the mushroom topping: Fry the oil, add the chopped garlic and chilli cook for one minute then add mushroom stir for 3-4 minutes until cooked then add marjoram and finally the salt & pepper and serve over the crostini

For the main we decided on Nigella’s Lamb Cutlets with Mint, Chilli & Golden Potatoes. Recipe here http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/lamb_cutlets_with_mint_16788 but rather than on a bed of rocket we did greens. A large handful of both Cavalo nero and spinach (any greens will work) 3 garlic cloves peel in a large saucepan of water, cook and drain squish garlic and mix it all together and squeeze over the juice of half a lemon. It tastes beautiful.