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



Becky's Baby Shower

I actually wrote this last night but didn't post it until now so I could get the remaining recipes on here.

Today we had my sister's baby shower, Becky is due on Christmas Eve and is expecting a baby boy! A couple of months ago when my mom first started planning the shower I told her I would make all of the food rather than hiring a caterer.  This all seemed like a great idea until a few weeks ago when I found out I needed to be in Los Angeles for work Tuesday through Thursday of this week.  When I first told my mom that I was going to be out of town her face was priceless, but everything worked out great.  I was off yesterday so we did most of the cooking then and I had a lot of help from my mom, sisters and my brother's fiancée.

One of the most important things we tried to do was make as much as we could ahead of time.  The shower began at noon so we didn't have a whole lot of extra time in the morning to prepare things.

Menu
Appetizers
Assorted Fine Cheeses, Nuts and Crackers
Marinated Olives
Pumpkin stuffed with Garlic Herb Cheese Dip

Main Course
Asian Pear and Spring Green Salad
Roasted Beet and Arugula Salad with Orange Vinaigrette
Pickled Shrimp with Lemon Chive Aioli
Rustic Tomato & Mozzarella Tart
Goat Cheese, Leek and Mushroom Tart
Beef Tenderloin Sandwiches with Caramelized Onions

Dessert
Apple Cake
Pumpkin Bars
Sweet Mandie B's Mini Cupcakes

Beverages
Bloody Marys
Pomegranate Mimosas
Red and White Wine
Grapefruit Izze drinks for the pregnant lady

The mom-to-be





View of the Cheese Tray

The cheeses included: Manchego, Goat Gouda, 8 year Cheddar and 12 month Mimolette
Marcona Almonds, Honey Roasted Almonds, Dried Cranberries, Red Grapes
Brie with Cranberries
Pumpkin Stuffed with Garlic Herb Cheese Dip


Another view of the appetizers












Marinated Olives
I purchased a container of pitted kalamata olives and green olives stuffed with garlic cloves.  Combine both types of olives in a bowl and drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with chopped fresh parsley, cracked ground pepper and a dash of red pepper flakes.

Pumpkin Stuffed with Garlic Herb Cheese Dip
Clean out the inside of a pie pumpkin.  In a bowl combine 8 oz cream cheese, a package of the Garlic & Herbs Alouette cheese, 1 egg, 1/2 teaspoon of Italian seasonings and 1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder. Mix well.  Pour the cheese mixture into the pumpkin. Place on a cookie sheet with the top of the pumpkin next to it. Cover and tent with foil. Cook on 350 degrees for 45 minutes, remove the foil and then cook for another 15 minutes. Be sure not to have too thick of a pumpkin.  You can see a picture of the pumpkin in the second photo of the appetizers.  We served the tip with the flat pretzel chips.

Asian Pear Salad with Spring Greens
I used the vinaigrette from the recipe I made a few weeks ago, Asian Pear and Arugula Salad with Goat Cheese, however today I just made a salad with spring greens and sliced Asian pears.  I made the vinaigrette yesterday and just stored it overnight in the fridge. Today we sliced the pears and stored them separately until we were ready to use them.  Be sure as you slice the pears to squeeze some fresh lemon juice over them so they don't begin to brown. About 10 minutes before we were ready to eat I tossed the greens and pears with the dressing. 

Roasted Beets with Arugula and Orange Vinaigrette
I used this recipe, Roasted Beets with Orange and Herbed Goat Cheese  as the inspiration for the salad we made.  I actually had intended on putting goat cheese on the salad today but completely forgot to add it.  However, I don't even think it was needed, the salad turned out great without it.

The red beets were roasted on 400 degrees for about an hour. Bake in a oven safe dish and put about 1/4-1/2 inch of water on bottom of pan. We had about 18 beets. Cover with foil while roasting. Reserve the juices.  We peeled them once they cooled and then stored them overnight in the fridge.  I followed the directions in the recipe to cook the golden beets, however I only used 3 extra large beets.  Due to the size of the beets they ended up cooking for a little over an hour. You know they are done when you can easily pierce them with a fork. These were also peeled once they cooled off. 
I squeezed the juice from the roasted orange along with the roasted garlic into a mixing bowl.  Add to the bowl the following and whisk together, 1/2 cup of olive oil, 1 1/2 teaspoons of crushed garlic, 1 1/2 cup of fresh squeezed orange juice, 1/2 cup of the reserved juice from roasting the beets. Season with a dash of salt and fresh ground pepper.  Zest of 1 orange. Add chopped fresh tarragon and chives. Store overnight in fridge.

We sliced all of the beets and stored them in a zip lock bag overnight.  Today we placed the sliced beets on a platter and then drizzled them with some of the vinaigrette. I also sprinkled some additional fresh tarragon over the beets.  About 10 minutes before I was ready to serve the salad I mixed a container of baby arugula and some of the vinaigrette in a separate bowl.  I then spread the arugula over the top of the beets. I didn't use all of the vinaigrette on the salad.

Pickled Shrimp with Lemon Chive Aioli
I found this recipe on-line when I was in search of menu items for the shower. It looked delicious, but I was a little nervous about making it for a crowd since I had never had it before.  But I went for it and I am so glad that I did.  So yesterday we sliced the lemons and red onion and stored them separately in zip lock bags.  We doubled the recipe.  We mixed the pickling sauce and stored it in a mason jar overnight.  Rather than making fresh shrimp this morning, we bought 6 lbs of frozen tail on shrimp that were already cooked. This morning we just defrosted them under cold water and the placed them on paper towels to dry.  About 2 hours prior to the shower we mixed the shrimp, lemon slices, red onion and the pickling sauce together in a serving bowl. We also made the aioli yesterday and stored it in the fridge overnight.

We made two types of tarts, a Goat Cheese, Leek and Mushroom Tart and a Rustic Tomato Mozzarella Tart.  Both of these recipes were from Williams-Sonoma.  For the Goat Cheese, Leek and Mushroom Tart we made the Leek, Goat Cheese Creme Fraiche mixture yesterday and then refrigerated it until this morning.  We also sauteed the mushrooms ahead of time and then stored them in the fridge overnight.  Today we made assembled and made the tarts so that they were finished right before we were ready to serve them.  We did take both the leek mixture and the mushrooms out of the fridge and brought them to room temperature before assembling the tarts.

For the tomato tart the only thing we were able to do yesterday was slice the tomatoes.  We simply stored them in a zip lock bag overnight.  We made 3 of the tomato tarts and 2 of the Leek and Mushroom Tarts.

Last but not least, the Beef Tenderloin Sandwiches.  I have made this recipe in the past; you can find the details on my post from July called Good Food, Great Friends. This post contains the recipes for the Beef Tenderloin, the Dijon Horseradish Sauce and Caramelized Onions.  We increased the recipe significantly since we made 15 lbs of tenderloin.  The beef was in the marinade for approximately 3 hours before we grilled it.  We grilled the tenderloins yesterday, stored them in the fridge overnight and then reheated them in the oven about two hours before the shower.  We sliced the meat ahead of time so that we could assemble the sandwiches.  We also made the caramelized onions yesterday and then re-heated them in the oven while the meat was being heated. The Dijon Horseradish sauce can also be made the night before as long as it is refrigerated.  We doubled the recipe for the sauce.

To prepare the sandwiches we used dinner rolls and potato rolls. (As you can see in the photo one of the potato rolls really stood out).  We added 2 slices of beef and some of the caramelized onions to each sandwich.  We left the Dijon Horseradish Sauce out in a bowl for people to add themselves. We also had additional caramelized onions out on the buffet.

You will have to excuse some of the photos as I didn't have my good camera with me.  I hope everyone who attended the shower enjoyed all of the food.  Somehow I didn't get pictures of any of the desserts. But they were delish.  I am going to have to post the apple cake recipe at a later date.  The pumpkin bars were absolutely divine.  My mom made them and used the Paula Deen Pumpkin Bar recipe, I was shocked when I saw that there was only a half of cup of butter in the frosting. 

Congratulations to Becky and Thierry! I can't wait to meet the little guy!

Good Food, Great Friends...

Last night one of my best friends from college visited us with her family; I haven’t seen them since February 2010 so it was great to catch up.  They live in Texas now so we don’t get to see each other too frequently but it’s always great when we do get together.  Her daughters are older than S, 4 years and 20 months; it was fun to watch them play with her.  S was very interested in what they were doing; she spent most of the evening crawling around trying to keep up with them.

Menu

Appetizers

Brie, Fig Preserves, La Quercia Prosciutto, Dried Cranberries and Crackers

Main Course

Beef Tenderloin Sandwiches with a Dijon Horseradish Sauce and Caramelized Onions

Crab Stuffed Mushrooms

Grilled Asparagus

Garlic and Rosemary Potatoes

Fruit Salad

Beef Tenderloin Marinade

The marinade recipe is one that my mom received from a friend of hers when they lived up in Wisconsin.

Combine the following ingredients into a large zip lock bag:

¾ cup soy sauce

½ cup sugar

½ cup toasted sesame oil

¼ cup flour

1-2 cloves garlic, crushed

¼ teaspoon pepper

Add trimmed tenderloin to the marinade for 15-20 minutes. Be sure to move the bag around to make sure the marinade covers the entire tenderloin.  (I actually ended up leaving the meat in the marinade for about an hour)

Grill on indirect heat at about 425 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes or until the desired temperature on the meat is achieved.

We actually cooked the meat the night before and just threw it back on the grill for 5-7 minutes at about 400 degrees just before we were ready to eat.  On Tuesday, when we took the meat off the grill we let it rest on a plate and covered in it aluminum foil and let it cool down before putting it in the refrigerator.   I took the meat out of the refrigerator about 30 minutes before we put it back on the grill to bring it down to room temperature before we put it on the grill.

For the rolls, I just picked up a package of the Parker House Rolls from Trader Joe’s.

Caramelized Onions

Slice 2 medium to large Spanish onions

In a Dutch oven add 1-2 tablespoons of butter and 1 tablespoon of olive oil

Add the sliced onions, cook until the onions start to caramelize, stirring frequently.

I would say the total cook time was between 30-40 minutes

Salt and Pepper the onions and add a few pinches of thyme

Dijon Horseradish Sauce

I intended on following a recipe that I found on Epicurious for a Mustard Horseradish Sauce. When I started making this I just started adding things and tweaked it a bit.

2/3 cup of sour cream

¼ cup of Dijon Mustard

3 very full tablespoons on prepared horseradish

Fresh ground pepper, approximately 2 turns of the pepper mill

Thyme, approximately ½ tablespoon (I used dry because it was all I had but fresh would work too)

Mix the above ingredients together well and chill until ready to serve

Crab Stuffed Mushrooms

Remove the stem from cleaned cremini mushrooms. I bought an 8oz container of lump crab meat and followed the recipe for crab cakes off the back of it to use as the crab stuffing.  In a small bowl mix together,  ½ of a beaten egg, 1 tablespoon of mayonnaise, ½ tablespoon prepared mustard,  ½ teaspoon of dry mustard, ½ teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce, ½ teaspoon of Old Bay Seasoning, ¼ teaspoon of lemon juice. Add the crab to the mixture and then fold in 3/8 cup of bread crumbs, I used panko crumbs.  This makes more stuffing then you need for 8 mushrooms unless you have really large mushrooms.  I think next time I would add some additional old bay seasoning and maybe a small amount of chopped scallion or chives.

We grilled these in a cast iron pan for about 15 minutes.  I normally would have just placed this in the oven to cook them through and then put them under the broiler for a few seconds to get a little bit of crust to the top of them.  With it being near 100 degrees in the shade last night there was no way I was turning on the oven, so to the grill they went. 

Grilled Asparagus

Cut the tips off the bottom of the asparagus. Drizzle with olive oil, the juice of a half of lemon and kosher salt and fresh ground pepper. Grill for about 15 minutes on indirect heat and then finish them up for a minute or two on direct heat.

Garlic and Rosemary Potatoes

I used a mixture of petite Yukon gold and red potatoes.  In total I probably used slightly under 1 lb.  I just wash the potatoes well and leave the skin on.  Cut them in halves or quarters depending on the size of the potato, so that all the potatoes are generally a similar size.  In a large zip lock bag, add the potatoes, 2 (maybe slightly more) tablespoons of good olive oil, 3 large cloves of chopped garlic, 1 tablespoon of fresh rosemary chopped, 1 tablespoon of Montreal Steak Seasoning, 1 tablespoon of fresh parsley chopped, a couple dashes of dried thyme (fresh is better but I didn’t have any on hand). Shake all of the ingredients in the bag to coat the potatoes as evenly as possible.  Add a dash of salt and fresh ground pepper.

You can let the potatoes sit in the bag until you are ready to grill. To cook, remove the potatoes from the bag and wrap them in aluminum foil.  Be sure you have them wrapped well so that you don’t lose any while you are turning them on the grill.  The aluminum foil bags work great for this too.  Place on direct heat for about 45 minutes. Turn them every once in a while so that they cook evenly.

Fruit Salad

I put watermelon, cantaloupe, blueberries, strawberries and Kiwi in the fruit salad.  All fruit that Stella absolutely loves, which is good since I made a huge bowl of it.

Unfortunately we never made it to dessert. I had picked up Chocolate Lava Cakes and some Vanilla Ice Cream from Trader Joe’s for the adults. For the kiddies, I got Trader Joe’s mini ice cream cones.  By the time we finished dinner we were all stuffed and it was quickly approaching all of the kid’s bed times.  Lisa and Larry, next time you are in town I owe you dessert! 

This meal was rated 4.5 asparagus spears