My Entertaining Season Begins

[SobaAddict70]

so tell us the story. please?

Soba

[Marlene]

Well since it may be food related, I guess I can. As dinner progressed, I noticed Don wasn't eating. I figured he noticed the lack of nutmeg and didn't like it. Then he got up and disappeared. I found him upstairs, dizzy and disoriented. I was ready to call the ambulance when he walked into a wall.

I thought perhaps it was exhaustion. He's been working flat out and was sick for about a month. Or maybe a stroke. Or an iron deficency or something. I gave him juice and put him to bed. My friends said they'd keep an ear on their phone in case I needed them to come watch the kids. I kept an all night vigil. i woke him up every few hours to make sure he could still function.

In the morning, he was better, but not 100% and he mentioned he had eaten at a fast food place earlier when he was running around and hadn't felt "quite right" since then. Maybe it was food poisioning. Or maybe it was the lack of nutmeg. In any event it was an interesting twist to a day that had gone wrong from the start.

[Dave the Cook]

My money's on the missing nutmeg. That'll teach you.

Thanks for the great tutorial on the onion. Or should I be thanking Don?

[Marlene]

My money's on the missing nutmeg. That'll teach you.

Thanks for the great tutorial on the onion. Or should I be thanking Don?

←

I agonized about the nugmeg or lack thereof all night.

No you should be thanking me. Don follows my instructions very well. (except for the onion in the bag thing.)

[snowangel]

Nothing like a party when everything that leads up to it goes wrong! I probably shouldn't mention the sick kid I was holding who barfed into soup one late afternoon before a party...

Marlene, I'd have loved nothing more than to come and hold your hand, eat your nutmeg-less lagasgne and clean up you damned kitchen.

[Marlene]

So I have one more main event to cook for. New Year's Eve. We'll be having an open house on NYE, so I'm starting to prep for that.

Some things I'll order and some I'll make.

Ordered things:

Shrimp Tray

Cheese tray

Roasted meats tray (turkey, beef, pork)

I'll make:

Honey garlic meatballs

Blue Cheese popovers

Cookies

mini butter tarts (now that I know how to make pastry, )

Brie in puff pastry

Assorted shortbreads, rum balls, and truffles.

A sweet hot mustard sauce and a horseradish sauce

I have a pecan pie, so I could warm that slightly and slice

Mulled wine

I need one more hot dish. I have two chafing dishes. Make ahead stuff is good.

I also need a dipping sauce to accompany the pork. I'm thinking a soy-ginger type sauce.

The floor is open for recommendations on a hot dish, and a sauce. And of course, I haven't started cooking yet, so menu changes are possible if someone suggests something particularly yummy!

[Jake]

So I have one more main event to cook for.  New Year's Eve.  We'll be having an open house on NYE, so I'm starting to prep for that.

Some things I'll order and some I'll make.

Ordered things:

Shrimp Tray

Cheese tray

Roasted meats tray (turkey, beef, pork)

I'll make:

Honey garlic meatballs

Blue Cheese popovers

Cookies

mini butter tarts (now that I know how to make pastry,  )

Brie in puff pastry

Assorted shortbreads, rum balls, and truffles.

A sweet hot mustard sauce and a horseradish sauce

I have a pecan pie, so I could warm that slightly and slice

Mulled wine

I need one more hot dish.  I have two chafing dishes.  Make ahead stuff is good.

I also need a dipping sauce to accompany the pork.  I'm thinking a soy-ginger type sauce.

The floor is open for recommendations on a hot dish, and a sauce.   And of course, I haven't started cooking yet, so menu changes are possible if someone suggests something particularly yummy!

←

Umm, how about gumbo? I understand you do a fabulous one!

[Marlene]

Umm, how about gumbo?  I understand you do a fabulous one!     

←

Ha. No gumbo. At least not for this.

[Varmint]

Gee, I'd say you need something Southern, like hoppin' john!!! Although that's really a New Year's Day food (and it isn't conducive to a heavy hors d'oeuvre setting).

How about some Asian-barbecued chicken wings or "riblets"? You bake them in advance and reheat that day. Pretty simple to make, but a bit messy. I can find a recipe somewhere.

Also, why not a soup? It can actually work well in this type of setting if you serve it in mugs. It's usually a hit in the middle of winter.

[Marlene]

Mmmmm, I like the sound of the Asian bbq'd riblets or wings. Recipe, please! Also, since we're going to have mulled wine, I figured I wouldn't need a soup. But it's something to think about.

[Varmint]

The recipe I've used comes from the Frog-Commissary Cookbook, which is at home. If anyone else has a copy and can get Marlene the ingredient list, plus a re-written summary of the procedure, that'd be great. Otherwise, Marlene, you may have to wait until the end of the day. The only "unusual" ingredient in the recipe is fermented black beans, but you can use other types of Chinese black beans. The sauce also has brown sugar, hoisin, garlic, horseradish, sesame oil, soy sauce, ketchup, mirin, chili paste, and other stuff. You marinate the wings overnight in the sauce, then bake them for awhile until the sauce gets very thick and dark. The flavor is sweet and hot and salty and rich. I love these things!

[Marlene]

I can wait. The only thing I don't have is chili paste, and the beans, but I can get those things, (although I may have to make a chili paste never have seen such a thing in a store. They sound awesome!

[Varmint]

Here's the recipe, as adapted from Steven Poses Frog-Commissary Cookbook:

1/4 c Chinese fermented black beans (if you can't find em, get the paste)

1/2 c soy sauce

1/4 c sesame oil

1/4 c unseasoned rice vinegar

1/2 c brown sugar

1/4 c molasses

2/3 c hoisin sauce

1/4 c horseradish

1/4 c Dijon mustard

1 T minced garlic (or more to taste)

1/2 c ketchup

OPTIONAL: Hot pepper flakes or paste to taste

4 lb chicken wings

Combine all the ingredients except the wings, then add wings and marinate in fridge overnight.

Oven at 400F. Bake wings and sauce in single layer on foil-lined baking sheet for 45-60 minutes, basting occasionally, turning once.

The wings will turn a dark, reddish-brown color.

[Marlene]

Many thanks! These look great!

Now a nice dipping sauce for the cold roast pork?

[lovebenton0]

Dean, is that really the oven at 400 F?

Just checkin' . . .

Baked for 45 to 60 minutes we do essentially the same wings at 300 F.

[Marlene]

A quick question here. A tour of the local grocery stores did not produce a single bit of chinese fermented black beans or paste.

I did however find a fairly thick black bean sauce - one with and one without garlic. I assume these will do?

And Dean, when you posted the actual recipe there's no mirin or chili paste correct?

I got a mess of wings, I'm ready.

[Varmint]

No mirin, just the rice vinegar. And you add the pepper flakes to taste, rather than the paste.

As far as the black beans are concerned, they're important, but not essential. Use what you found, without the garlic. The fermented beans add salt, earthiness and a bit of sourness to the dish.

And I checked the cookbook, and it is 400F. But going longer and slower should also work.

Have fun!

[Marlene]

Thanks Dean! Does that book also have a recipe for a soy-ginger type of dipping sauce?

[Varmint]

No soy/ginger sauce in that book. Sorry. I'd think there's plenty of recipes for that type of sauce available.

The book does have a spicy peanut dipping sauce, though!

[Marlene]

No soy/ginger sauce in that book.  Sorry.  I'd think there's plenty of recipes for that type of sauce available.

The book does have a spicy peanut dipping sauce, though!

←

I haven't been able to find one if there is, and I can't tell you how many cookbooks I own

Spicy peanut dipping sauce?

[Marlene]

So today was prep day for tomorrow's open house.

I made honey garlic meatballs

Making the sauce

ready for baking

After baking

There's three dishes of these, totalling about 84 meatballs. Now all I need to do with these is reheat them gently at 200 degrees, covered for about 45 minutes, then into the chafing dish.

I marinated Dean's chicken wings:

I'll bake these first thing in the morning, then reheat and put them in the second chafing dish.

Next I made 4 dozen chocolate chip cookies

Then build the base for the nacho dip

made the cheeseball

and finally, made butter tarts:

I really tried to make these using my own pastry. Really I did.

But I kept having trouble with the dough, I don't have proper tartlet pans and the dough kept tearing on me when I tried to use muffin pans. Realizing I had about sixty of the damn things to make, and I still had 40 or so wine glasses to wash, I gave up, and used frozen tart shells.

I've begun to set up the buffet table. I have the chafing dishes out, the serving plates I'm going to use, the plates, napkins, forks etc and my coffee urn.

Tomorrow, I'll bake the wings, start the mulled wine in the slow cooker, finish building the nacho dip. I can't make the blue cheese pop overs until I'm ready to serve them, and I'll be doing a brie in puff pastry as well.

I've kept this to simple stuff that I know how to make, so I could do it all ahead of time. Which is a good thing, since Don got called to Washington tonight, and will be walking in the door here as the party is about to start. Ryan will arrive around 5 and begin to set up the downstairs as he is "hosting" the kids party.

Oh, and I still need to go buy more white wine tomorrow and a few other assorted things and pick up the trays I've ordered.

[kayswv]

Could someone please tell me where to find the discussion on Dave's Molten Potatoes? Have seen it referenced several times but can't find the discussion where the recipe is and potential problems. Thanks, Kay

[Marlene]

Could someone please tell me where to find the discussion on Dave's Molten Potatoes? Have seen it referenced several times but can't find the discussion where the recipe is and potential problems. Thanks, Kay

←

Here you go. Dave's Molten Mashers

[kayswv]

Thanks Marlene. Kay

[Marlene]

It was a great night. As much fun as this was though, it was a lot of work coming on top of two weeks of non stop cooking. Next year, we're going to New York.

Setting up the buffets. The dessert table. Mygirlfriend brought two more desserts but they hadn't arrived when I took this picture:

The main buffet:

The wings and meatballs were a huge hit.

I ordered three trays from Bruno's and they did a lovely job with them.

Shrimp tray

Roasted Meats tray (beef, pork and turkey)

Cheese tray

Cheeseball

That's it. I'm done. I may never cook again. In fact, we're going out for dinner tonight. It's been a wonderful holiday season though. Good thing I have a treadmill

Don

and I

Wish you all a Happy New Year and a year full of wonderful food with friends and family.