fresh tart

John and I shifted into high gear today, doing set up for tomorrow's party.  Plates and glassware are set out.  Food is assigned spots on the buffet table.  Flowers are arranged.  Fruit and nuts are scattered amongst the greens and pine cones (this year I chose kumquats, persimmons, and seckle pears - mostly because it's so fun to say all those words).  The actual centerpiece I got from Arts & Flowers and it turned out beautifully - they do seriously cool arrangements (I love Roger Beck too). Candles are distributed around various parts of the house, wood is in the fireplace; both await the touch of a match.  Beer is chilling in the garage; water, soda, and wine are ready to pour.

Despite a cold day, I was able to get my grill hot enough to put a good sear on both pork and beef tenderloin roasts (I'll serve them tomorrow cold, sliced, and garnished with mushrooms, chopped tomatoes, and fresh herbs). Tonight I'll bake the Almond Triangles (stay tuned for results).

Tomorrow we'll do the final straightening of the house, chop and prepare garnishes, slice the roasts, compose a cheese tray, set out bowls of cashew brittle and almonds, ice the beverages, light a million candles, get some good holiday tunes playing, and clean the kitchen of pretty much everything in preparation for the caterers to do their thing.  Somewhere in there I'll remember to get dressed and put on some party shoes.

Hope your holiday party plans are going well!  (We're going OUT for dinner tonight - Cafe Barbette, here we come!)

Ah, the glassware. Crystal flutes and goblets, mere hours ago filled and fragrant, cradled and kissed, now stand alone - a stark bouquet of dried red and gold in the morning light...

Sorry, got a little carried away there.

Suffice it to say, we had a party last night, woo hoo!  A dinner party - six of us total, few snacks, little meat-n-potatoes, sips of wine, chat and laughs, cheese and fruit, everyone toddled home and off to bed.  (You might have read about a few of those here before...)  But this party was different than our usual, a new trick for us old dogs - we didn't know our guests!  You see, our dinner was a silent auction item for a local school fundraiser that someone bid on and purchased.  (Thank you Pam Van Ert for coming up with the concept and setting it all up.)  How cool is it that someone actually paid to have dinner with John and me?  Very cool.  Very, very cool.

As are the two couples who joined us, Cindy & Ed Bennett and Liz & Mark Pihart.  I confess, I'd met Cindy & Liz, as we're all neighbors and such, but I hadn't met the boys and John had met no one.  With a "we eat anything" all-clear (yes!), I sat down earlier in the week to plan the menu.  I have to say, I had a blast thinking about what to serve and how to serve it.  A soup course?  Plated entree?  In the end, I decided that it would be most fun for everyone if I just did my usual - appetizers with drinks, buffet-style dinner, simple dessert.  I wanted to actually talk with our guests, so I made sure I wasn't standing out on the deck grilling while all the fun happened inside.  I chose uncomplicated dishes that have been successful in the past.  And I chose dishes I could prep in advance with just minor finishing (sweating over a hot stove in heels and jewelry, in front a group of people I've just met, uh no).  Here's how it all shook out:

Grilled bread with a platter of ricotta, tapenade, salami, roasted tomatoes, and olives
Grilled artichokes with mustard sauce
Prosecco, Pinot Noir, Fume Blanc

Herb-roasted beef tenderloin (garlic, rosemary, thyme)
Wild mushroom sauce
Mashed potatoes (sour cream, pecorino romano)
Swiss chard (pancetta, pine nuts, currants, balsamic)
Malbec, Grenache

Cheeses, brownies
Muscat

I spared our new friends from having their pictures on my blog - a first-timers' pass.  I also spared them from watching me photograph the food I was serving them - not exactly what they bid on, ha.  In the end, John and I had a complete blast.  Both couples are smart and funny, and gracious guests, and the whole night flew by, whoosh.  Bonus?  They're all four serious Foodies.  As in wild-asparagus-hunting, organic-vegetable-growing, whole-pig-roasting Foodies - love!

Sharing a meal with friends old and new...yeah, it's all good.

Whew, I made a big V-Day dnner for John and Nathan tonight, I'm slightly wiped.  And full.  But it was great fun to prep and they both enjoyed the din thoroughly, so totally worth the effort.  (The mess I made of the kitchen?  Um, I'm hoping my gift is that someone else cleans it up...?  UPDATE: John and Nathan did, thank you boys!)

I decided to make a real guy's dinner, a total steakhouse spread - roasted beef tenderloin, sauteed mushrooms, creamed spinach, hashbrowns, and chocolate cake for dessert.  There's nothing like a tenderloin roast, easy and impressive, the perfect combination.  I'll confess, tenderloin doesn't do much for me (especially given the insane price) - NY strip is my steak, beefy and toothsome, the king of steaks.  But, the fam (and pretty much everyone but me) loves tenderloin, so I splurge for special occasions.  To boost its flavor, I give it a good rub with minced-to-a-paste garlic (forget garlic presses, they waste 1/2 of each clove, and it's easy to make a quick paste with a sharp knife and a generous sprinkle of coarse salt), mixed with a bit of olive oil and some dried herbs.  You can see in the pic that I cut a whole roast in half.  I usually roast the larger piece a bit longer, but if you're serving a group with a variety of doneness preferences, well there you go - the large side is still quite rare when the narrow has achieved medium.

If not for the cold, I would have thrown the roast on the grill, my favorite, simple method for achieving a good crust with a rosy interior.  But when it's less than 30 degrees outside - yes, it was cold in Minnesota today, strange, I know - my (gas) grill is too unpredictable. Fine if I'm griling say hot dogs or chicken breasts, but a tenderloin roast?  Uh, no.  So I instead popped the roast into a 450 degree oven (for 15 minutes), then turned it down to 375 degrees (for another 20-30 minutes, depending on desired doneness), then let it set up for 15 minutes while I made the hashbrowns and spinach.  Worked nicely.

Creamed spinach is a breeze to make, and not nearly as decadent as it sounds.  Saute a minced clove of garlic in a bit of butter, stir in the spinach, drizzle with a small amount of cream, and when the lot is wilted add a generous grating of Parmesan and fresh nutmeg.  Salt and pepper to finish.  Delicious.

And hashbrowns, also simple, especially if you've got a food processor (but a box grater does the trick as well, albeit a bit more slowly - watch your knuckles!).  I love a combination of russets and red potatoes (about 5-6 potatoes peeled, grated, with 1/2 tsp. of salt stirred in).  To get the classic steakhouse "cake" of hashbrown, press the potatoes into a bit of hot peanut oil, fry on one side until quite crisp, flip onto a plate, add a bit more oil to the pan, then slide the potatoes back into the pan until the other side is crisp.  My kids would be very happy if I made these every single day of the year.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Ah, the parties are over. In the last week, we've entertained almost 100 people (30 on Tuesday, 70 on Saturday), and I have to say, it all went off without a hitch. Whew! And both were really...FUN, which is the point of course. Reconnected with old friends, met a lot of new ones, ate good food, drank good wine, and in preparation, really got our house in order. Feeling good. Next big one: Thanksgiving, woo hoo!

I luckily didn't have to prepare food for 70, since Saturday's party format - parent party - had folks bring either an appetizer or dessert. You know what that means - WAY more food than everyone can eat, but lots of fun tasties to try! I did make a few things, to get the party rolling, including gougere (cheese pastry puffs), a platter of cold sliced beef tenderloin surrounded by couscous, and a plate of toasts topped with ricotta and roasted tomatoes (I'm into them lately, what can I say?). I was even able to take leftover ricotta and tomatoes, puree them together, and make a quick-n-lovely pasta for dinner last night. That's about as far I was willing to go with 1) prep, or 2) clean-up, no surprise there.

Today, back to reality. Few things to put away, but not much (thank you John and Nathan, my official clean-up crew; thank you also to my extremely polite guests, who tossed almost every plate and napkin and deposited every bit of glassware in the kitchen - if that's Minnesota Nice, I'll take it). The pool gets put to winter-sleep this week, so it's time to think about putting away patio and porch furniture. The lights and lanterns have come down. Flower and herb pots will soon be emptied (I've still got a few tomatoes coming in, although they are the obviously the very, very last). Yes, the parties are really over. Sniff.

Guess I'll just have to cheer myself by...going out for dinner with Kim & Suz! To celebrate Kim's birthday - Happy Birthday Maven of Mischief! Look out, True Thai, here we come!

Moderate it: there's nothing like hosting a huge party to get a good workout. I'm not kidding! I hauled around four cases of wine, 100 bottles of water, 80 lbs. of ice (up and downstairs a couple of times), furniture, trays of glassware (I rented wine glasses), not to mention all the groceries and trash. I felt it in my lower back, for sure!