Moroccan supper for boys and moms

Every year my sons' high school has a mother-son dance. To attempt to take at least some of the dorkiness out of it, we always do a mother-son dinner on folding tables in our front yard beforehand, at which 40 dads plate the food and serve and clean up for their partners and kids. This year was great, partly because my family prepped so much of the food in advance.

We served Lemon Honey Wine Punch (for the moms), Pistachio Couscous and Moroccan Chicken Arugula Salad with Pita.

Here's how it went.

For the Lemon Honey Wine Punch, I combined 2 bottles of an inexpensive Spanish white wine with half a bottle of vodka, a can of Trader Joe's honey, four ziploc bags of frozen Meyer lemon juice, a whole lot of halved kumquats, and sliced blood oranges in a Sangria jar a day in advance. Right before the party, I added a liter of club soda and another of seven up. We served the punch over ice and it was very good on a hot Sacramento evening.

For the Pistachio Couscous, I cooked whole wheat couscous in chicken broth with added tabasco, rather than water. I chopped and blanched asparagus and carrots for color, adding them to the cooked couscous. For each large casserole pan, I ground up and added a bag of pistachio meat. I seasoned it with ground cardamom, garlic, salt and pepper. At the last minute I added chopped scallions and parsley.

For the Moroccan Chicken Arugula Salad, I boiled bagged, frozen chicken breasts (dirty little secret) and then shredded them and refrigerated them overnight in a dressing of meyer lemon juice (frozen from last season), garlic, salt, pepper, honey, white wine vinegar, orange juice, chicken broth, currants and raisons. I tossed the chicken and dressing the next day with arugula, mandarin orange sections, mint leaves and chives. I THINK that's it! It got a little crazy with additions to the chicken so I am not promising that is it exactly.

But the dishes went over well, even the boys cleaning their plates.