dinner dealings

paul and i had a dinner party with jenny and christina…the menu: twice baked potatoes, breaded parmesan chicken, salad, and éclairs =D

ps. if you don’t already, hover your mouse over jump pics before clicking to the rest of the entry!

from another angle, so you can see the height

first bake the potatoes, cool, then slice in half

scoop out the insides, mix with lots of goodness i.e. of the butter, sour cream, milk persuasion...but don't overmix or it'll become gluey

bacon bits ♥

paul taking care of the chicken

first dip in egg

then a delectable mix of breadcrumbs, parmesan cheese, and...other stuff, probably. parsley?

then it's ready to bake!

main courses after baking. the potato skins have been restuffed and sprinkled with cheese and MORE bacon bits, yumyum. unfortunately though, my cheese, instead of melting into a nice gooey mush, kinda hardened and crusted instead...D:

jenny's contribution to the meal...ahhh, 1906...what a good year...XD

the meal, with bought spinach salad with balsamic vinaigrette<?> dressing and feta cheese and nuts and cranberries. also terrible serving/presentation all round because i was lazy XD;; but the food was ok. the chicken was really good, mmm. crispy yet tender and warm...

éclair dough, ready for piping

haha you can def' tell which one was the first one i tried to do without piping XD;; although i tried to hide it

the cream filling...which turned out grainy and not like my beautiful cream puff filling D:

the baked choux pastry. why does it look so cracked and uneven ;__;

cut in half and filled liberally

glazing the top by spooning chocolate over unceremoniously...

the end. ok i'm quite ashamed to put this pic of my failed éclairs up, because in retrospect i should probably have DIPPED the tops into the chocolate to make the coating more even instead of trying to spread it over the pastry, or something...it also looks funky because we ended up putting a second layer of chocolate after the first one had hardened which explains the color difference and gloppiness and ugliness ;__; and they also didn't taste that nice because of the filling. sighhh. one day. one day, i will master these choux pastry desserts D:

and there you have it. my terrible cooking skills, exposed. now, aren’t you glad you don’t eat dinner at my house when i cook? XD;;