de-Intimidator: Food, Food, and More Food...and Drink

By an odd set of coincidences Wife and I ended up having three straight evenings entertaining at the end of last week.? One we hosted.? One we were guests. And one we were 'helping' guests.? I'm just going to focus on the first and last.

Last Thursday, I had a business colleague who wanted get together with our wives (who had never met).? I invited them over for dinner.? The colleague and I had a major planning session for a mutual client in the morning so I didn't have a whole lot of time to prepare.? So this is an example of how to make a nice meal with significantly less effort.

First Course - Charcoutrie

That's a French term for cured meats and is a traditional first course to meals both simple and nice.? I had a bunch of good stuff available - there was some cured sausage from France the daughter #3 had given me, some homemade pate in the freezer (it freezes well), and some cured Kentucky ham that another business colleague had recently sent me.? I got some pickled peppers, cornichons and olives from Whole Paychecks.? You can easily buy the equivalent meats there or other high end delis.

Second Course - Asparagus with Aioli

The Aioli was left over so I didn't have to make that.? I cooked the asparagus ahead of time and chilled it so not much work required there either.

Third Course - Homemade Pasta

OK this was a bit more grandiose as I made the pasta myself.? I don't consider it to be that difficult as now after some practice I can whip out a batch in about 45 minutes.? You could use bought pasta.? The key was the sauce.? I reduced two cans of beef broth with a teaspoon of ham base, some sherry wine, and some herbs to about 1/4.? I strained it and added a cup of cream and reduced it again to 1/3.? There's not a whole lot of work associated with reducing it other than stirring it once in a while.? It does take some time - around an hour - but it's all done ahead of time.? Homemade pasta cooks really fast, 2 minutes, so you're not gone long from the guests.

Fourth Course - Cheese

No pictures

Fifth Course - Dessert, A Granita Sampler

Wife has become the Granita Queen.? Granita is basically fruit that is pureed, mixed with water and sugar and allowed to freeze.? But periodically you scrape during the freezing process to get a very snow cone type of texture.? Very light, flavorful and refreshing.? Great after a big meal.? You could easily substitute purchased sorbet.

The point of this is that you can prepare a very nice, classy type meal without tons and tons of work if you are willing to buy good stuff and to present it in courses.

Saturday with Cabinet Lady and Dr. Debbie

Always fun getting together with them.? First course of business was to check out their latest addition, their chicken coop which they've added to their extensive garden and apiary.? I had been told by Wife that this had to be seen to be believed.? But I was hardly prepared for the...

Taj Ma Coop

Cabinet Lady then rolled out the cocktail of the evening - Whiskey Sours

Really well done.?

I marinated the pork chops and we grilled them along with little potatoes over the fire as well.

And Dr. Debbie made a Rhubarb-Strawberry Crumble for dessert.? It had nuts & coconut in the topping which I particularly liked.

A Note from the Garden

Harvested our first kohlrabi on Sunday

It was very good and I was able to use both the stem/bulb and the leaves in my soup that night.

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