Romantic Dinner (but not too romantic)

A few weeks ago our town had their Jr/Sr Prom. My oldest was a Jr attendant (no, I am not proud, he was a Homecoming attendant also!). He is a junior. He was taking a lovely young lady to the dance and wanted to do something special before the dance. I know in many areas, the kids go out to dinner first. This is a bit of a problem here, we only have fast food, somehow a tux and Mickey Ds just don't go together.

We offered to fix dinner for them. The decision was made to serve it in the man cave (aka garage), now I don't know how well tuxes and gowns go in a garage either. So, I did my best to "fancy it up" for the kids.

I had a roll of gossamer left over from an event a few years ago. I drug it out, then, what to do? With help from the guys and a ladder, we draped the gossamer to form a "tent" if you will, using the tracks for the garage door to drape across.  We then draped a swag of gossamer across the door and strung little white lights in in.

 

 
 
 


 

Please keep in mind, this looked much better when the sun went down and the overhead lights were off.  Against the door we had two tables, one was for drink refills and dessert. The other was a salad bar. We also served poor man's prime rib. (more on that in a minute).  You can find gossamer as well as table coverings and just about any thing else you need for decorating here: http://www.stumpsparty.com/.

For the table, I already had the table cloths, and chair covers. Everything else I pretty much had too, left over from previous events.

I used lace disposable placemats, the tableware and plates were also disposable, and can be found on amazon.com, as can the chair covers, etc. The glasses were real, lol and from my kitchen. Tea glasses were also on the table at meal time. Carafes of tea and water were both available on the serving table for refills.

The menu was Prime Rib (fake), salad bar and baked potato. To make the prime, we get a large sirloin roast from a local butcher. Rub it down with Prime Rib seasoning, and smoke it all day. We use hickory in the smoker - but not too much, you want a little flavor not to eat a burning tree. We spritz the meat with apple juice during cooking and use the juice in the water reservoir for a bit more flavor. We prefer medium so we smoke @ 250 - 300 allowing 30 - to 35 minutes per pound. The only way to tell for sure it is safely done is by using a meat thermometer, we shoot for 160 internal temp, be sure to let it rest for at least 20 minutes to reabsorb all those good juices before slicing.

 

 

I always serve this with a horseradish sauce. I add a quart of heavy cream to the mixer and beat till fluffy (don't overbeat or you end up with butter!). I then fold in a couple of jars of ground horseradish, a cup or two of sour cream and a pinch of salt.

 

Then for dessert, YUM!

 

 

 

 The recipe came from here: http://sabbyinsuburbia.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2011-05-30T20%3A38%3A00-05%3A00&max-results=7

 

My changes? I used an extra large tub of Cool Whip instead of the whipping cream, and for the pudding I used 2 small boxes of vanilla instant pudding made according to the package directions, except that I added a healthy splash of vanilla bean paste. After the kids left we got all the left overs, and we enjoyed them - especially the strawberry trifle.