Special Father's Day Dinner...Take 2!

So we had a wonderful Father's Day weekend celebrating our dads. But there was one dad who was kind of left out and that was my hubby, the new dad. Not that we meant to leave him out but with all we had going on this weekend in Louisiana and celebrating and visiting our own dads, we decided to do our own little Father's Day celebration once we got back to Houston. Something special like a nice dinner....just for him.

I imagined myself with a fabulous apron on, wine poured, music playing and just channeling my inner Julia Child. Well, things don't always go exactly as planned when you have a baby. My fancy dreams of all THREE of us sitting down to a fancy dinner while Collins smacked happily on the food I had freshly prepared for her went out the window. Instead, dinner was not even ready by the time Collins was ready to eat. I was not wearing a fabulous apron and there wasn't any music playing except for our little angel crying! Our focus turned to her trying hard to get her to like the food but in ended in tears and her spitting it ALL out. Not to mention, our dog barking like crazy at something outside was enough for us to go mad. It was a chaotic mess and there was nothing fancy about it. Our dinner was turned off...to be continued until Collins was fed, bathed and asleep. We finally made it through, wiping sweet potatoes of everything and Collins went down to bed. Not exactly as planned.

Okay, special Father's Day dinner(minus the baby at this point)...take 2. So it ended up that our dinner turned out a little differently and in its own perfect way. After our little cherub went to sleep, we poured ourselves a glass of wine and got to work in the kitchen. Yes, Jason helped prepare his own Father's Day dinner but you don't turn down help at 8:30 pm to prepare dinner. So we ended up cooking together just like the old days. Music on, wine poured, talking about this and that all while cooking. We haven't done that together in um...maybe a year. But with a new job and new baby, cooking together is a luxury so we were long overdue. And God knew it too. I can't help but thing our special dinner played out the way He meant it to be. We enjoyed ourselves thoroughly feeling like we had the best quality time in a longgggggg time.

What did I....I mean, we, prepare? BBQ Shrimp over Smoked Gruyere Grits with cornbread(the man LOVES cornbread while I am a french bread kind of girl) and salad. For dessert? S'mores Bars. And he was happy as a little clam. Score one for the wife:) See below for these recipes. Oh, and ALL incredibly easy. Thank God, since we didn't even start cooking until 8:30!!

Barbecue Shrimp

1 lemon, cut into wedges

1/2 cup butter, melted

1/2 cup ketchup

1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce

2 garlic cloves, chopped

1 bay leaf

1.5 Tbsp. Old Bay Seasoning

1/2 tsp. dried rosemary leaves

1/2 tsp. dried thyme

2 lb. unpeeled, large raw shrimp (Okay, so my hubby used to work for a wonderful and favorite restaurant in Natchitoches, La called Mama's. They served BBQ shrimp and it was loved by all! At the restaurant, the shrimp was unpeeled as well so this is the way we have always seen it served. But, if you don't want to get your hands messy during dinner, just go ahead and buy peeled shrimp. It won't hurt a thing!)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place shrimp in a 13x9 inch pan spreading them out. Stir together all other ingredients and then pour over the shrimp. Bake for 35 minutes, stirring every once and a while. Serve with fresh lemon wedges and over grits. This will serve 4 people easily. You can even prepare ahead of time! Woo hoo!



Smoked Gruyere Grits

3 cups chicken broth

1 cup milk (Fat free worked perfectly but any other percent would as well)

1 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. pepper

1 cup uncooked instant grits

4 oz. smoked Gruyere grits shredded(feel free to use any smoked cheese but you want the smoked flavor!)

1.5 Tbsp. butter

Bring first 4 ingredients to a boil in medium saucepan over medium high heat. Gradually whisk in grits. Cover, reduce heat to medium low, and simmer, whisking occasionally for 5 minutes or until thickened. Stir in cheese and butter until it is all nice and melted.

S'mores Bars

1/2 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup sugar

1 large egg

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 1/3 cups all purpose flour

3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

4 (1.5 oz) milk chocolate bars

1 small jar marshmallow creme

Preheat oven to 350. Spray an 8 inch baking pan with nonstick spray. In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy. Add egg and vanilla; beat until combined. In a small bowl, combine flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking powder and salt. Add to butter mixture, and beat until combined. Press half of dough in bottom of prepared pan. Place chocolate bars on top of dough. I used 2 XL chocolate bars and they seriously fit like a glove! Spread marshmallow creme on top of the chocolate.

Finally, spread the remaining graham cracker dough on top of the creme. Bake for 30 minutes. Enjoy!

Special Father's Day dinner? Accomplished and done but not how I intentionally pictured it in my head. But I liked the Plan B:) This is in honor of you, Mamou! I love you!

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