Date Night - Dinner for Friends

I enjoy making dinner.  I especially enjoy trying new things.  I even love it more when I have willing guinea pigs that will try whatever I make.  I left some things at our friends' house and they wanted to bring them back to us.  I said let's just make it a dinner date.  I'll cook, what do you want?  Our friend, Nai said Italian.  I don't cook very much Italian so I was going through books and recipes to figure out what I wanted to make.  Then it hit me.  I am going to make risotto.  Super scary right? Who in the hell makes risotto for their first time for other people?  This girl, right here.  I read numerous amounts of tips and watch a whole bunch of YouTube videos and I felt like I was ready to go.

I went to the store and bought all my ingredients for the risotto.  I decided to try a clam risotto.  But first I thought maybe I'll make something I know will be delicious and that could possibly be my saving grace.  So I made a Baked Gouda Mac n Cheese.  I'm not going to lie.  It is super decadent but amazingly delicious.  If it was healthy and had less calories, I'd eat it every day and be happy.

Find recipe here.

Then came the risotto.  I have to say I was pretty impressed with myself because the texture of the risotto was perfect.  That was the part I was most worried about.  I should have been more worried about taste!  It was good but a little clammy tasting.  I didn't think clams in the shell would be enough so I added clam meat.  I think that is where I went wrong.  I should have just stuck with clams in the shell.  I also need to work on my presentation skills.  It wasn't super pretty.

Thanks Nai, Daniel and especially Som for being this inspiring chef's guinea pigs.  :)

~Sothea