My Entertaining Season Begins

[Marlene]

Well of course I'm interested. Bring it on!

[Dave the Cook]

Pear-rosemary granita

1 bottle (750 ml) white wine (a dry riesling is nice here; sauvignon blanc works, too)

1 C pear juice

1/2 C sugar

2-3 sprigs fresh rosemary

zest of one lemon, in strips

Poire William

Bruise the rosemary by crumpling it in your fist. Put all the ingredients in a saucepan, and bring it to a boil (not too fast). Reduce heat and simmer for about ten minutes.

Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature.

Strain into a shallow pan and freeze. You need a pan big enough so that the liquid isn't more than about a half-inch deep.

When it's frozen (it will never get really solid), use a fork to scrape it into a texture sort of like a finely crushed sno-cone.

Use a disher to make a nice little ball of granita in a coupe, splash (gently) with Poire William, and garnish with a sprig of rosemary.

This will make six to eight small portions. I don't know why you couldn't substitute apple juice, if you can't find pear, or go half and half.

[Jake]

Marlene, are you putting the lovely little paper hats on the roast?   

We're all adults here (in age, anyway). Let's call them by their correct names, shall we? Panties.

←

Okay Marlene, will there be panties at the party?

[Behemoth]

For the first thing, I favour the smoked salmon. and for the second thing, definately I light salad of some sort.  Or skip the appetizer and do as Dave suggest by serving a sorbet inbetween courses.

Your dinner party sounds lovely

←

Thanks Marlene! Yes, I am also definitely leaning towards the salmon. The salad will have to wait until tomorrow, until I see what my supermarket has that looks good. Another possible is grilled endive with vinaigrette and sieved egg.

I love love love love love the idea of a pear and rosemary granita. Not for this crowd, but definitely one to put in my little idea book.

(edited for mucho typo)

Edited November 12, 2004 by Behemoth (log)

[Marlene]

Ok somebody help. I could not find ancho anywhere. What can I substitute for it?

[Dave the Cook]

Most decent chile powders contain a high percentage of ancho. Use one of those.

[Marlene]

chili powder I have. Thanks!

[Marlene]

Well, all in all, it was an interesting experiment. Keep in mind, I've never done one of these before. The men threw a curve into my timing, when they decided to take the kids to see a movie. That left Teresa and I to drink heavily and talk about life in general. She decided that we needed paper hats for the roast after all, so she made some:

You can see we we're already drinking

I made Dave's glaze and had to subsitute chili powder for ancho. It reduces to a pretty thick syrup, so I needed to thin it out a bit. The other thing I would suggest, which I didn't do, is to line your roasting pan with some foil. The glaze made a mess of the bottom of the pan.

Here's the naked roast:

In the end, I decided to stuff it as well. I made a simple bread stuffing, and stuffed the roast after I had roasted it unstuffed for an hour or so. Before stuffing, I made a large ball of tinfoil and put it in the centre of the roast.

Here's the finished roast:

And adorned with "hats"

What was interesting, was how unevenly it cooked. One side, in spots, was nearly raw, but the other side was perfectly cooked. You can see in this picture, hints of how pink it was in some places.

Added to this, we had glazed carrots, done in the slow cooker

And a tomato, onion and bleu cheese salad, with a balsamic vinigrete dressing.

Teresa brought a raspberry chocolate cheesecase, which she wimped out and bought!

I won't bore you with a repeat of the parisianne potatoes or the brie that I reprised for this dinner.

All in all, it was a sucess, although I had near panic fits with the rawness of some of the pork. I'm very glad this dinner was for friends and not for clients, that might have thought I was trying to poison them! I'm pretty sure that stuffing the roast half way through, skewed my cooking time. We've decided we'll try this once more to "perfect" the technique.

Sorry, Dave, I never got to the intermezzo

Next up.......The major party is this weekend.

[woodburner]

Yuppers,

That is a mighty fine looking roast Marlene, nicely carmelized exterior, perfect color interior.

Wishing I was there.

woodburner

[Marlene]

Thanks! I deliberately didn't take pics of the raw pork The glaze was truly awesome though. Both in looks and in taste.

[woodburner]

Sounds like the uneveness in the pork is an equipment problem. Possibly rotating the roast half way thourgh the cooking time might help next time. Your using a convection oven, are you not?

woodburner

[Marlene]

Two things. I did rotate the roast pan halfway through, and I was not using convection because I had tin foil in the oven. For some reason, convection does not like aluminum foil.

[Jake]

Marlene, your dinner looked wonderful and pork should be pink! If it seems to rare, look blankly at your guests and ask how much they've had to drink.

P.S. Rum & Coke or Rye with the Benson & Hedges while making the hats???

[Marlene]

Marlene, your dinner looked wonderful and pork should be pink!  If it seems to rare, look blankly at your guests and ask how much they've had to drink.     

P.S.  Rum & Coke or Rye with the Benson & Hedges while making the hats???

←

Rye and coke. Canadian Club. Maybe that's why the hats looked funny!

[maggiethecat]

I think you and Theresa did a fab job with the panties! A little CC? Pfui.

The pictures are just glorious. I love stuffing in all its forms, and I was hoping you'd Just Do It. And you did. Props to Dave for the glaze.

And I most struck with the loveliness of that bowl of carrots. I don't think we give the ever-available, reliable, inexpensive carrot the respect it deserves.

Avid for the details of The Big Party....

[Marlene]

Pfui Maggie? I love doing carrots that way. Throw them in the slow cooker and I don't have to worry about them until it's time to eat. An added sidebenefit is Ryan really likes them that way.

I keep saying it,but the glaze was awesome.

Next, the finalized menu for the party etc.

[DonFCA]

As a regular recipient of Marlene's 'experiments', I can attest to the fact that they are always delicious!

[Marlene]

As a regular recipient of Marlene's 'experiments', I can attest to the fact that they are always delicious!

←

And that voice my friends, is the "late to the party" (I got him signed up here weeks ago), but always avid supporter of my egullet endeavours, my husband.

(we're both sitting at the kitchen counter with our dueling laptops.)

eGullet, say hello to Don.

[Dave the Cook]

Hi, Don!

[Dave the Cook]

Pfui Maggie?   I love doing carrots that way.  Throw them in the slow cooker and I don't have to worry about them until it's time to eat.  An added sidebenefit is Ryan really likes them that way.

I keep saying it,but the glaze was awesome. 

Next, the finalized menu for the party etc.

←

A few more details on the carrots, please?

And I'm glad the glaze worked out. The roast looks awesome. A little pink (almost) never hurt anyone.

[Marlene]

Baby carrots, throw them into the slow cooker with a little water, brown sugar,honey and butter. Stir them up. Set slow cooker to 4 hours. Done. Sprinkle with parsley.

No, it was a lot pink in spots.

[DonFCA]

Hi, Don!

←

Thanks for the warm welcome! This is my first visit to the site so I am still finding my way around (with help from Marlene, of course).

Marlene tells me there is another pig-picking in the works, so we will have to coordinate getting some beer again.

Don

[maggiethecat]

You are so welcome, Don. Not only for your innate talents and attributes, but for being the consort of the ineffable Marlene. Please chime in at every possible opportunity.

[Marlene]

I just keep telling him, he reaps all the culinary benefits from my participation here

Ok, the big party is just a few days away, so here's the final menu:

Hors D'oeuvres

Asiago, procuitto cheese twists

Mini corn bread muffins with jalapeno chicken salad

Teriyake beef roulade

puff pursew with smoked mozzarella and chicken

Main Buffet

Rolls and butter

Mandarin Almond Salad

Brocoli salad with Sesame ginger dressing

Prime Rib (you had to know, I'd end up with this )

Tortellini in cream sauce (vegetarian dish)

Green Beans Almonidine

Basmati Rice with onion

Dessert

Crepes (suzette, rasperry, romanoff or fresh fruit) These will be made to order at the time of serving

Domestic and Imported cheese tray

Coffee and Tea

The caterers are supplying everything this year, froms staff to glasses, cutlery, plates and chafing dishes etc, to decorations. The house is decorated for Christmas, but the catering package comes with a decor that includes a waterfall, fresh flowers,lights etc. This I have to see.

All the rentals will be delivered here the day before, and Saturday, I'll get spend the day at the hairdressers, instead of running around in a panic.

so here's a question:

I have a pretty well stocked bar, but I'm wondering if there are any things I should be sure to have on hand? In particular, since I don't drink it, which gin would be the best to have on hand for martini's? I'm pretty sure we have some sort of pedestrian brand.

[snowangel]

First of the birthday luncheons for my mom is done. It was wonderful. It was perfect (I will be doing two more). We have matched the guests perfectly.

So, I served mini-quiches (baked in phyllo in muffin tins) -- lorraine and spinach feta, popovers and a spinach and strawberry salad (strawberries I picked locally last summer and mascerated in a raspberry vinegarette -- rapsberry vinegar from home-picked raspberries). I debated for a while on an appetizer, but one of my mom's friends called and said she was bringing sugar smoked salmon from Russ Kendall's in Knife River. Pinot Grigio for all. Special hit were the popovers. Everyone loved them but couldn't remember the last time they had them.

Diana, Peter and I made the quiches the night before, chilled them on the deck, fridged overnight and reheated when the popovers were in the oven and I lowered the temp.

Dessert was peach pie (pie filling made from Colorado peaches in August and frozen).

The only problem was that my vaccuum blew it's belt in the am, and only about 1' into the vaccuuming, so I had to vaccuum the sun rooom and living room with the shop vac, and couldn't find the thing that makes it easier to vaccuum the floor.

Oh, wait. The other snafu. As I set lunch on the table, Heidi's teacher called, and she was throwing up. So, I ran to get Heidi, got her home, laying quietly (on a few towels) and movie on (Gone With The Wind -- she's loves the beginning of that one), just in time for presents and dessert.

My mother was touched by the outpourings of love and expression, and everyone had a wonderful time. I think they were very surprised that there were so few people for her 70th, until they realized what I am doing -- making sure that she gets to celebrate with special folks, a few at a time so that she can actually spend time with them.

Off to check on the patient.

Edited to add: I also gave party favors, ala party for a kid. I made beaded star ornaments. Suitable for a christmas tree of hanging in a window. They were all very touched.

Edited November 19, 2004 by snowangel (log)