Dinner Group - Take 2

Last night we had the second get together of our dinner group.  I was in charge of appetizers and made traditional sweet and sour meatballs.

I had a recipe for "Blue Sky Potatoes" that I clipped from (I think) Southern Living a few months ago and thought this would be the perfect time to try it out.  I have no idea why this dish is called "Sky Blue Potatoes".

The recipe called for red potatoes but I couldn't find them here and used new potatoes instead. First I cut the potatoes in half, tossed in olive oil and roasted until the skins were crisp. 

Very carefully, I scooped out the insides of the potatoes and combined the insides with sour cream, crumbled blue cheese, chopped parsley, chopped red onion and crumbled bacon.  The recipe called for one cup of crumbled blue cheese but since it has such a strong flavor (and not everyone is a fan), I only used 1/2 cup.  

The potato skins were then re-filled and garnished with more parsley and crumbled bacon. The new potatoes were definitely too small to use for this recipe - the filling was very heavy and potato skins were not sturdy enough to hold it well.  The recipe turned out very well otherwise but I wouldn't make it again unless I could find red potatoes. 

 

 

The photo below is so gross.  This is the amount of fat I collected after cooking the meatballs and the bacon.  I was shocked at how much there was.  

For dinner, our hosts served spicy red enchiladas, milder green enchiladas, coconut lime rice and black bean & corn salsa.  For dessert, we had "blondies" and homemade apple crisp with vanilla ice cream. I love having friends that can cook and bake well! Beverages included wine, beer and margaritas. Everything was delicious and it was so much fun to see our friends and catch up with them before we all go our separate ways for the summer.  Although we all live in Nichada (not more than 1 mile - MAX - from each other) and our kids go to ISB together, I rarely see these friends while I am out and about.  During baseball and basketball season we see each other a lot because we each (four couples) have one son about the same age and we end up either on the same basketball/baseball team or playing against each other.  Other than that, our paths just never cross.  

We did not make it over to Ko Kret this weekend as we had planned.  Yesterday was busy with basketball, running errands and cooking for the dinner group.  We went to Mass downtown this morning and thought we would go to Ko Kret in the afternoon. However, the minute we got home from Mass, I walked upstairs and crawled into bed for a 2 hour nap.  I cannot take late nights at all and need to catch up on my sleep ASAP or I end up sick.  

Christopher had a great day of basketball yesterday and his team won their game with a score of 43-25.   I overheard the opposing team's coach tell his players at halftime that "you guys still haven't found an answer for Chris".  When he is "on", he plays amazingly well but when he is "off", he really should just warm the bench.  There is no in-between for him.  Fortunately, the "on" days outnumber the "off" days which makes our home a very happy place! 

Have a great Sunday!