DINNER CLUB RECAP: Sandra's

Tonight I decided it was the perfect drizzly winter weather for comfort food. I won't go into how I didn't have my mini bruschetta appetizers ready in time for my dinner club guests and ended up burning them later anyway. For our main course I made a white cheddar and pecorino Romano macaroni and cheese dish. I started with a béchamel and added white cheddar and pecorino Romano cheeses with salt, cayenne pepper and nutmeg. I quickly cooked some elbow macaroni for 3 minutes just until the outsides were cooked. Then I rinsed them and added them to the cheese sauce. Pour into a buttered casserole dish and top with a bit more grated pecorino Romano, grated white cheddar and the croutons which were just pieces of white bread with melted butter drizzled on top. Bake for 30 minutes and you have cheesy mac and cheese goodness. Our salad was organic baby arugula tossed with warm sautéed portabella mushrooms and topped with goat cheese and pine nuts. I dressed the salad with a bit of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. To make the salad I just sautéed shallots in olive oil and added sliced portabellas and cooked until they were soft. I tossed them with the arugula adding a pinch of salt, oil, balsamic vinegar, crumbled goat cheese and pine nuts. For dessert, I made a simple white cake with whipped vanilla frosting. Little 2 year old Claire was a big help in serving dessert. For some reason she thought it was John's birthday tonight so we went with it. : )