dinner for four

Last night- all of the hard work and effort in the back yard truly paid off. We had our friends Natalie and Jesse over for dinner. We served dinner on the screened in porch. It was drizzling rain while the steaks were being cooked. It made it seem like a cool fall night. We ate and chatted while listening to the rain and music from XM radio. The menu included:

New York strip steaks
shrimp skewers
twice baked potatoes
buttered mushrooms
yeast rolls
Oreo and fudge ice cream cake

Natalie made the super yummy ice cream cake. Here is the recipe. I highly recommend trying it out if you are entertaining this summer.

Oreo and fudge ice cream cake

1/2 cup hot fudge ice cream topping, warmed
1 tub of cool whip, thawed and divided
1 (4oz) package of chocolate instant pudding mix
8 Oreo cookies, chopped
12 vanilla ice cream sandwiches- unwrapped

Pour fudge topping in a medium bowl and add 1 cup of the cool whip. Stir with a wire whisk until blended. Add dry pudding mix. Stir for 2 minutes. Stir in chopped cookies.
Layer ice cream sandwiches and whipped topping mixture like lasagna. Cover top and sides with remaining cool whip and garnish with Oreos. Freeze for at least 4 hours.

The dessert was so rich and so good that we should have skipped dinner all together and just had dessert. It was truly that yummy! After dinner we played a game and watched TV. It was all in all a fun evening with good friends and good food.