Sexy Six Sigma Dinner Party #1

It's a silly name, but some of my girlfriends from work and I (six of us) have started a monthly supper club. This was technically our second gathering, but since it is the first I am writing about lets go with #1. We had dinner together on Wednesday evening with grand plans to break in the Di Salvo's (AKA Bones and Gui Gui) new gorgeous patio. Well the Cleveland weather, in typical fashion, had other ideas, so we ate inside and admired what a beautiful new patio they put in - even soaking wet.

Bones is quite the hostess. We started the evening with delicious sangria. Here is her recipe, adapted from Bobby Flay or "Bobby Filet" as some may say ;)

Red Sangria

Ingredients
3/4 cup simple syrup, equal parts sugar and water
2 bottles red wine (Bones used their own homemade wine)
3/4 cup blackberry brandy
1/2 cup triple sec
3/4 cup orange juice
2 oranges, sliced into thin round
2 green apples, cored and sliced thin
2 lemons, sliced into thin rounds
1 pint blackberries

Directions
Boil water + pour over sugar to dissolve. Cool. Combine all ingredients in a large pitcher and refrigerate, covered, 2 hours or up to 2 days. Serve over ice.

Our first course was whole artichokes with olive oil, s&p, and olive oil. Bones found the largest artichokes I have ever seen. They were so good!

First course

The second course was rigatoni with Bones homemade red sauce and chicken cacciatore. The red sauce is a Di Salvo family recipe and the chicken recipe came from Giada De Laurentiis. To the left is Bean and the pasta.

I had been wanting to make an Ice Box Cake for awhile now and I thought a girls night would be the perfect occasion. The recipe(s) come from Smitten Kitchen. An Ice Box cake is when you layer cookies and whip cream into the shape of a cake. Then let it sit in the fridge overnight and the cookies begin to soak in the cream and soften. The next day the cake can be sliced like a real cake and the result was pure awesome. Here is the ice box cake recipe. If you can find the Nabisco Chocolate wafers that it calls for, this cake will take about 10 minutes to make. If you cannot (and I could not) than making your own wafer cookies with her recipe really isn't hard, just time consuming for the numerous batches. Above is Bones and the yummy yummy cake. The dinner party was big hit and I am eagerly awaiting our June date at Bean and G-Bone's house!

A little slice of heaven!