I really like entertaining. I love the challenge of figuring out a menu that fits my skills, the food preferences of my guests, and the season. It makes me happy when friends are gathered around happily chowing down and chatting away. There’s that wonderful alchemy that happens when you combine good food and good company, and that is what I hope for in a dinner party.
This weekend that’s exactly what I got. I hadn’t had people over for a meal in ages. Seriously, I think it had been many months. Yikes! I definitely hope to host dinner parties much more frequently in the months ahead. I often host casual dinner gatherings; we might even eat in the living room with plates on our laps. But this time, maybe because it had been so long since I worked the hostessing mojo, I just couldn’t resist putting a little more polish on the evening. So I set up an improvised table (a long piece of plywood over two small tables) in the tiny outdoor space behind my apartment) and decorated it with pink hydrangeas and real linens. It was simple and elegant without being formal. And a heck of a lot cooler than sitting inside that evening!
That’s what we had for dinner. I didn’t take pictures of the appetizer, artichoke fritters from Tyler Florence’s Dinner at My Place, we ate in the kitchen before sitting down to dinner. They were labor intensive, but tasty. What you see on the plate there is a salad of fennel, green beans, and radishes, pork tenderloin with fresh cherry and chile salsa, and grits with garlic scapes and goat cheese. Everything turned out well, but I was most proud of the pork, since I rarely cook meat. That cherry salsa was a sweet-savory delight, and it was also lovely over the Finnish frying cheese that I grilled for the vegetarian in the group.
For dessert we had a trifle with peaches, almond sponge cake, and whipped cream. I had intended to have an amaretto flavored custard in the trifle, but I totally failed in the process of making the custard and it didn’t seem necessary enough to warrant using another 9 eggs. The trifle was yummy without it, but one of these days I am going to make custard, darn it!
I had a blast cooking for a few of my friends, and I hope I’ll have more of these dinner party menus to post soon.
How beautiful! And those grits look wicked. Can I get the recipe? (Don’t tell me there isn’t one, I am a New Englander and helpless in the face of grits.)
Well, I can at least tell you how to make it, though calling it a recipe is a stretch. I followed the package directions (2 and 1/4 cups boiling water to 1/2 cup grits, if memory serves, but I doubled the quantities, since I was serving 8), let that cook for about 5 minutes, stirred in chopped garlic scapes (3-4 scapes), cooked about 8-10 minutes more (until grits were thick and no longer grainy), then stirred in a couple tablespoons of butter and about 4 ounces of goat cheese. One of the hardest parts was finding actual grits, since I didn’t want to substitute polenta for some reason. If you, too, want actual white corn grits, your best bet is to look in the hot breakfast cereal section at a regular supermarket. I had no luck at Whole Foods, but Stop and Shop had Quaker grits in the breakfast aisle. Go figure.
So yummy! The trifle looks delicious! I love that peaches are finally in season! Thanks for sharing! I’m new to blogging and love that there is a foodie community! If you have time, please check out my blog: http://shecooksandheeats.wordpress.com/. And of course! Any advice would be great 🙂
I am a novice blogger myself, so I don’t have any real advice other than to read other blogs for inspiration and cook/write about things you love. Thanks for stopping by and commenting! I will definitely check out your blog.
What beautiful photos — of beautiful people and beautiful food! Wish we could’ve been there.
Aw, thanks! It would be lovely to have you over for dinner! We’ll have to arrange that sometime. 🙂