Someone brought their "A" Game...

It's always a treat for me to go over someone else's home for dinner since I tend to throw a lot of dinner parties myself but tonight's meal might make my top 10 list for 2011 so far.  I was lucky enough to be a guest at Denise and Ray's house for an AMAZING summer dinner!!!!  For those of you that don't know Denise and Ray, they are absolutely wonderful people, a lot of fun to be around and friends of ours that not for a moment would I ever consider anything less then family.  Denise and Ray are both fantastic cooks, have a true love for eating a good meal and when you go to their home you better come with an empty stomach because their meals can best be described as multi-course, restaurant quality, deliciousness...let's just say they did not disappoint tonight.  

We started off with a garden salad with lettuces picked from Ray's garden that was assembled inside of a homemade, crisp parmesan cup.  As you can see from the photo below, I was so into eating the salad that I forgot about taking a picture until it was almost all gone but hopefully you get the idea of the parmesan crisp (and obviously you can see that the almost empty bowl was a sure sign of success).  

Ray then fired up the grill for the main course that was cooked entirely outside on the barbecue.  Maybe I'm just in the midst of my love affair with summer but there is something about cooking on the grill that makes food taste so wonderful!!!  The main course was a grilled veal chop stuffed with proscuitto and gruyere topped with some homemade roasted red peppers that was so frickin phenomenal that I basically took no prisoners on that nice chop and left the bone dry (Deanna it's a very good thing we worked out this morning).  It was accompanied with some delicious sides of grilled parmesan zucchini, grilled vidalia onions and roasted potatoes.  

I know you are probably full just reading this but I promise you that when you saw the dessert that Denise made, you would find some room to enjoy this...it's a mixed berry shortcake served up in the trifle bowl so all of the flavors blended together that was the perfect finish for a meal that screamed summer!!!!!!

So even though I can't take an ounce of credit for cooking any of this fabulous meal, I feel like it's my due diligence to share with you a recipe that you can make at home in hopes of re-creating some of it for guests of your own.  Denise was lucky enough to share with me the super easy recipe for the parmesan cups that will make any of us look like rockstar chefs.  It can't get much easier then this -  Pre-heat your oven to 375 degrees.  Pack freshly shaved parmesan cheese into a 1/4 measuring cup (you want it to be pretty tight) and dump the mound onto a parchment lined baking sheet.  Using your fingers,  spread it out into a 5 inch circle and then repeat the process so you have 4 circles on the baking sheet (it is important that you do not crowd the pan so they have enough room to bake without touching each other).  Bake for 8-10 minutes until they are a warm golden hue.  Once they come out of the oven, carefully pull one off with a spatula and using a muffin pan shape it into a cup size.  If you don't have a muffin pan handy, you can totally use a glass or small bowl to help guide the shape along or if you are going for a rustic casual look just break the circle apart for some crunchy croutons to throw in your salad.