Walk in the Glow of Each Other's Majestic Presence

Mostly for my own reference, here are notes, thoughts and recipe links for last night's tasting menu:

( Details Behind the Cut )

Overall, I was very pleased with this meal. I liked the way that certain flavors echoed in other courses--the mint from the chicken salad recalled by the garnish on the chamomile sorbet, the beef fat flavor in the onion soup echoed in the short ribs, the pears with the cake recalling the initial pear-ginger sorbet, etc. It also feels like I'm getting the hang of quantities--everyone was certainly full by the end of this meal, but it wasn't some kind of Herculean exercise in bloating. And we have remarkably few leftovers, considering.

I want to give a special shout out to muffyjo and heliopsis, who served as designated diners after two of our original guests were striken by stomach flu. It was a marvelous, casual evening and so fun to share all my cooking adventures with you.

Dinner tonight included five new recipes:

( #83 Grapefruit-Ginger-Basil Sorbet )

( #84 Tuna and Avocado in Ponzu Sauce )

( #85 Chili-Cocoa Rubbed Pork Loin with Mango Salsa )

( #86 Earl Grey Sorbet )

( #87 Red-Wine Poached Pear Crisp )

For the Fourth of July gathering we regularly attend, we decided to bring three things:

( #67 Watermelon Lemonade )

( #68 Grilled Asparagus )

( #69 Curried Tuna Lettuce Wraps )

I decided to host my family for Easter dinner today--any excuse for new recipes!

( #34 Herb-Stuffed Boneless Leg of Lamb )

( #35 Leg of Lamb Stuffed with Wild Mushrooms and Greens )

( #36 Greek Style Potatoes )

( #37 Green Beans with Feta Cheese )

( #38 Baklava )

The latter was served with the Oatmeal Carrot Cookies from Friday night and deliciously creamy homemade vanilla ice cream, courtesy of muffyjo. She also showed up bright and early this morning to take the savory cheesecake over to her house for baking. For the many of you who've expressed interest, the recipe for that is here. She also did yeoman work cleaning up.

Anne & G. brought a huge salad (and another guest, Divia) and heliopsis brought biscuits and sartorial splendor to the occasion. bex77 brought beautiful blue hydrangeas and took Alice off for the morning while we were in last-minute prep frenzy.

Special mention also goes to my father, who sat and picked thyme off the stalks for about two hours yesterday. He picked more thyme than I needed--about a cupful--which was just amazing and luxurious!

And many thanks to bookly who dropped by yesterday, all unsuspecting, and ended up snapping all the beans for a meal she couldn't even stay to eat.

Lastly, Jason continues to be my hero--he helped so much all around the edges and listening to me talk out the various decisions and then entertained Alice all evening after our guests had left so that I could get a much-needed nap.

I love making big meals for the family, but it's especially nice for it to be such a joint effort.

We had a really lovely evening with about a dozen friends. We opened the twelve bottles of wine we needed to try and shared them around and people had really interesting and very different reactions to them (Quote of the Evening: "I'm going hmn, notes of honey...and she's going 'NASTY!'"). We had a reasonable amount of nosh (enough that there was a little bit left in the end and not so much that we'll be shoveling our way out from under it for the next week) and my first trifle ever was a success! Alice was a shameless beggar-child, but played nice with various folk and went to sleep right on time, without protest. Many stories were told and snuggling was had and clean-up was minimal.

So I'll definitely have to do that again!

Coming into the weekend Alice and I were getting pretty tired of being on our own, but fortunately the reinforcements arrived on Thursday in the form of my cousin, Ashley, and her boyfriend, Alex. We had a fun dinner at Mifune and I got to hear about some of Alex' adventures as a set designer for movies and television. Unfortunately, something Alex and Alice ate (we suspect the beef) did not go down well and they both had rough nights. Avert your eyes now if bodily effluvia is a squick factor.

( Gag Line )

On Friday A&A went off for a day of wandering Harvard Square and Newbury Street and dinner with bex77 and audioboy. Alice and I had a hard day--even before the previous night's adventures she had been off her feed for a few days and mealtimes have become major exercises in patience. But we survived and A&A came back about the time that muffyjo was arriving for pizza and laundry and we ended up playing Trivial Pursuit. I shamelessly won and when Alex wanted to play again I suggested that I just dump my pieces and we keep going...and I won again.

When I woke up on Saturday, Jason was home and in bed with me and all was right with the world. He looked after Alice all day, while A&A went off to spend the rest of their visit with Anne & George. I puttered around and finally managed to get some traction on a task I've started three times previously and then we joined dpolicar and earthling177 for dinner at Alfresco, which everyone had been praising to the skies. The food was reasonably good, but they were overrun and the service suffered to the point of Jason not only being served the wrong entree, but never being brought the correct one. The waitress was fairly nonchalant about the whole thing until I asked her to take the wrong entree off the bill and then the owner came and made sufficiently effusive apologies that we came out thinking we probably will go back, but maybe on a Tuesday. From there we went to celebrate hotpoint's birthday at his lovely home and I gorged myself on cannoli. Most exciting of all, Alice took her first unsupported step before realizing what she'd done and sitting down. Now the trouble really starts!

Today I did a big run to Whole Foods and then came home and cleared enough stuff out of the fridge to make room for the groceries and made lunch before setting to work on dinner. I made a quadruple batch of Hungarian mushroom soup. I think that's the largest I've ever done and chopping seventy mushrooms reminded me why I don't do that more often. I did remember to use my snorkel mask for the onions this time, which is a major win. I got a nap and then the hordes (Anne, George, Ashley, Alex, Mom and Dad) descended upon us and we had a very pleasant evening, dining on soup and bread and the wonderful salamis that Jason had brought home from Salumi. Unfortunately, something hit Jason really hard a few minutes into dinner (possibly the clam chowder he'd had for lunch) and he's spent the rest of the evening Very Unhappy™. After dessert (ice cream and brownies--I tried wattleseed for the first time!) everyone else left and I spent some time with Alice before getting her to bed right at ten. muffyjo called on her way home from NJ to say that her car's problems had piled up to the point that she'd like me to meet her at our dealership, so she could leave the car there without stopping again. So I got to see her for a few minutes and hear about her weekend adventures.

And tomorrow I get to have rehearsal again!

Last night the fabulous muffyjo volunteered to hang out with Alice while we went to see Spiderman 3 at the IMAX in Natick. As self-indulgent summer effects blockbusters go, I'll take Pirates over this, but it was fun to see Spidey webslinging his way around the city on the big, big screen. Overall, I think I'd like this franchise better if Tobey Maguire did a thing for me, but J. always enjoys Kristen Dunst and I'm willing to indulge him.

Tonight I made tilapia with balsamic butter sauce, thyme mashed potatoes and sauteed fiddleheads in honor of our guests, ironpoet and alfie1981. Alice was in a sleepy mood, so we were able to have a nice, grown-up meal together. And whoa, balsamic butter sauce! I might make it just to have on toast.

Last night we joined gdaniels and the lovely msarty for one last Restaurant Week dinner at Dalya's in Bedford. ( Read more... )

Tonight we took advantage of the 20% off special at Scutra with tcb and goat. ( Read more... )

ceelove and starphire joined us for dinner tonight, together with their adorable tot, and let me experiment on them.

( Mushroom Stroganoff and Baked Bs )

Thanks for being willing test subjects and excellent company!

Tonight hotpoint and Becky Eaton joined us to try out 29 Newbury. ( ... )