Day 3: Holiday Dinner Party

Last night I had a small gathering for my mom's birthday, Becky & Thierry, Megan & Pat and my parents all came over to celebrate.  We had a great time and I hope everyone enjoyed the food.

Menu

Appetizers
Assorted Cheeses and Crackers
Marinated Olives
Meatballs

Main Course
Arugula Orange Salad with Pomegranate White Wine Vinaigrette
Beef Tenderloin
Pan-Seared Scallops with Black Grapes and Almonds
Mashed Parsnips and Potatoes
Roasted Asparagus

Dessert
Chocolate Cake

My sister Becky brought the appetizers; the cheese tray consisted of Midnight Moon, 15 Year Aged Cheddar and Camembert.  The meatballs are a great appetizer and are super easy to make. You take a 12 oz. bottle of chili sauce and a 12 oz jar of grape jelly and heat them in a pan on low (stirring frequently) until combined.  You then take a package of frozen cocktail meatballs and add them to the mixture, coating them evenly.  You can either continue to cook then in the pot or move them to a crock pot to heat them through.



Arugula Orange Salad with Pomegranate
White Wine Vinaigrette

 I have made this salad for Christmas a couple of times and I absolutely love it.  Not only does it look great on a plate because of all the colors but it tastes great. The only thing that is rather time consuming is de-seeding the pomegranate, it's also quite messy.  In case you have never cut a pomegranate before this link has very helpful instructions with how to cut and de-seed a pomegranate.

The beef tenderloin was prepared the same way I have made it in the past; check out the post called Good Food, Great Friends from July for the details on how to make the marinade.  I have also made the Scallops before, although since Champagne grapes are not in season this time of year I had to go with the Black grapes. I didn't photograph them last night but you can check out my post called Pan-Seared Scallops with Champagne Grapes from August when I made them for the first time.  The only thing I was disappointed about with this recipe last night was the coloring of the sauce; it was a purple-gray.  I can only assume this was from the different type of grape I used.  The scallops still had great flavor.



Mashed Parsnip and Potato

 I found the mashed parsnip and potato recipe on the food network website; it's a Tyler Florence recipe.  Any recipe I have ever made of his has been delicious so I figured I couldn't go wrong with this, and I was right, it was delicious.  I ended up making this a couple hours ahead of time and then moved it to a casserole dish with a lid.  About 45 minutes before dinner I put it in the oven to heat it back through. It turned out great.  One note I would make is to be sure the parsnips are really tender when you start mashing as I had a couple pieces I had to pull out because they wouldn't mash. I didn't have a food mill so I handed mashed them and then used a hand mixer.

As far as the asparagus goes I placed them in a single layer on a baking sheet. I drizzled the asparagus with olive oil and seasoned them with salt and pepper.  Place in oven on 475 for about 15 minutes.

My sister, Megan, brought the cake...it was divine.  She got it a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting from Standard Market; we will definitely be getting some bakery items from there in the future.  I let Stella have a couple small licks of the frosting last night and she must have really like it because today she was pointing at the counter saying "pie" over and over again until I gave her a little lick. 

Happy Birthday Mom!  I hope you had a great night!



This meal was rated 3.5 asparagus spears