I just posted this to my website. There are about 8 pictures there, too.
FWIW.
-Barb
Monday, March 20, 2006
On Saturday at 11:00 I invited good friends over for dinner at 6:00. We
haven't seen them in a long time and I'd managed to keep the dining
table clear for nearly a week and didn't want to waste the opportunity
to feed someone else there. :-) Besides, the silver and china needed
to be used.
I initially planned the menu based on what was in-house: Wild rice
soup, pot roast, carrots, potatoes and gravy, broccoli, coleslaw,
rolls/bread, dessert. I discovered then that I had no 'real' wild rice
in house drat! I usually have at least one pound on hand. Substitute
chicken tortilla soup for wild rice. I'd make the bread and decided
that I'd make a chocolate bundt cake I haven't made in years, too. It's
a relatively low-fat cake and won second place at the State Fair the
year I entered it there. I decided to bag the broccoli since that
family was well-represented by the coleslaw. And just for the helluva
it, I opted for Kasha Varnishkes instead of potatoes seems I've read
that that is a common accompaniment to a pot roast in some Jewish
households. Besides, I wanted to finish the kasha and get those
bow-ties out of the pantry cabinet. :-)
I needed a trip to the supermarket, to the local Hispanic market, and to
the food co-op for an avocado, some chihuahua cheese, and
Dutch-processed cocoa. Planning my route and weighing it against time
available, I decided to hit Cub first. There, I bought the cheese for
the soup, a bunch of daffs for the table, and a couple other things
corn torts for the soup. I bagged the co-op stop and used regular cocoa
in the cake instead. No Dutched cocoa at Cub. Cub's avocadoes were
like rocks so I hoped to find a decent one in the Hispanic market. I'd
bought the Chihuahua cheese at the Hidalgo market a couple weeks ago --
$5 for a package. Cub had it for $4.69, so I picked it up there. When
I stopped at Hidalgo, I found an avocado and checked the cheese again.
Guess what! The chihuahua they sell is a 14 ounce package for $5. What
I bought at Cub was a 9 ounce package. I'll remember that.
I think I started first on the bread. I used my Italian bread recipe
and made half into rolls that I sprinkled heavily with some Penzeys
Salad Sprinkle to which I added some caraway, poppyseed, and coarse sea
salt. A nice topping for bread. They rolls were awesome!
I browned (more like burned) some onions in Mom's aluminum roaster,
peeled a boatload of carrots, and then browned the meat. I stuck some
garlic slivers into pockets I sliced in the roast, arranged all in the
roaster, added a cup of bouillon, and stuck it in the oven, covered, at
300 degrees at about 2:45 p.m. Low and slow until 6:00.
I made the cake and got that in and out of the oven before the meat went
in. It was perfect.
I sliced some cuke, red onion, and green pepper to add to the packaged
cabbage for slaw. The secret family recipe (Jimmy's Cole Slaw Dressing)
would be mixed with the cabbage later.
I made the soup and prepared the cheese cubes and the avocado chunks for
it so they would be ready when I needed them. I added a bit of leftover
deli chicken to each bowl at serving time; I would pour the boiling soup
over the cheese, avocado, and chicken in each soup cup.
Instead of a tablecloth, I used placemats that Rob's beloved great-Aunt
Jo gave us about 35 years ago or so. She wove them herself at the San
Francisco Senior Center where she was a regular participant in their
craft activities. Aunt Jo ruled!
Figure that everything went about as well as I would hope. Some pics
are below. When it was dinner time, I was too busy getting things on
the table and then eating it to take many pictures. And it's been
suggested by one of the foodies that some food pics posted (though he
didn't mention mine specifically) have been mediocre and uninspiring and
why would anyone take a picture of "ordinary" food anyway? I have my
reasons for doing what I do here, ok. You don't like it, don't look.
I showered at 5:30. The Jo/e/s arrived at 6:15 I'd phoned and changed
the time. The brought a wonderful bottle of a St. Emilion red wine that
they enjoyed with dinner. The table was set with the china and silver
and flowers. And all three of them wanted to hang out in the kitchen!
Oh, did I mention that Rob had been hanging out in the kitchen with me
while I was trying to do three things at once (normally, I'm quite adept
at that) in prepping for this? He wanted to chat and I wanted him TO GO
SOMEWHERE ELSE! But I didn't say so because he gets wounded easily and
I didn't want him to feel rejected. <cough> Anyway, Rob cracked a
bottle of the Slovakian Riesling my dear friend Victor gave me for my
birthday last summer, and we sat in the living room and visited for a
few minutes and drank that. No hors d'oeuvres. I flunked that course.
Cut to the chase. Dinner was swell. The gravy was thin and almost
sweet from the carrots. The beef was tender. The soup was wonderful!
I love the Chihuahua cheese it gets soft a gooshy but maintains its
shape when it is. The avocado was acceptable. The chocolate cake was
great. Joseph complimented the coffee and I laughed because I don't do
anything fancy or use anything but Folger's from the supermarket.
These are fine folks we know and it was a treat to have an evening
together. Joe entertained us with hunting stories he's from Missouri,
still has a charming accent, and explained how [censored] Cheney could have
shot his hunting pal and why he should not have.
I need to prepare for the delivery of my new stove, but maybe I'll post
the recipes later probably separately.
Thanks for looking.
-Barb
--
-Barb
<www.jamlady.eboard.com> Updated 3-17-2006, The $400K Condo in the
'Hood
"If it's not worth doing to excess, it's not worth doing at all."