Dinner for four
So today I discovered that my palate is not as sophistocated as I had thought and even though I know lots of fancy words and love to try new and old but new to me exciting recipes, I DO NOT LIKE PATE! its disgusting! So I had another dinner party tonight, I worked hard and kissi came over and helped me out alot! alot ALOT! plus I really just miss the closeness that we once had. We made Beef Wellington, Paula Deans version. With Oyster Pate. Ok, so oysters look like really old gross girly parts to me, so I was really really trying to keep an open mind but it was so hard. OMG the pate was green and looked like baby poo! ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww! I dint want to touch it much less eat it! so I ignored my personal feelings and tried to get past it. I made the wellington and it was beautiful.... with curly s's on top for decor. golden brown and the meat was a perfect rare. However I just couldnt get past the green gooey pate.
I also made fingerling potatoes that evidently made T feel like she was eating her fingers. Those were and easy fix tossed in olive oil and a lil garlic salt, onion powder and cracked black pepper, roasted in a cast iron skillet. I made braised red cabbage that reminded me of the german cabbage that I love so much but could never eat to much of cause it always gave me what we in the south call bubble gut. For desert Kissi made us one of his amazingly good (Cheesecake factory aint got nothing on him!) Cheesecakes! He used Cinnamon Grahem Crackers and a layer of Vanilla CheeseCake topped with a layer of chocolate cheesecake. MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I also massarated strawberries in brown sugar for a topping as well as made a strawberry glaze and since I had left over dough and strawberries. I threw together a strawberry tart.
Spent hrs getting the house up to par and setting a Perfect table with the items that I have to work with, Lola was a dream today, she spent a good portion of the day on the patio as well as in the kitchen with me. She loves to be in the kitchen when I cook and often will stand on her hind legs so she can watch me cooking. She is a strange pup! that is for sure! she loves veggies and gets really excited when she see's me going to my chopping block cause she loves to get the pieces that I dont need or use. Today her treasure was a few pieces of red cabbage from the outside as well as the end that it grows from. She took it all to the patio so she could chew and toss it around and throw the piece in the air and catch it with her mouth. She was really excited to get the heads of the strawberries too. She literly wolfed those down in seconds!!! Since we live in Colonial Grand, We usually have to leave door's open to cook since the fire alarms are so sensitive here that heating water will set them off. She chased the flies that were coming to the smell of the food cooking (I spend a good portion of my time in the kitchen covering things to ensure that those pesky flies dont get in my food!) Then, when the smoke detectors really started going I had to open the front door and she of course flew out in hopes of getting to run around a bit. One of my neighbors was walking by with a pizza and my girl didnt miss a beat chasing him down eyeing that pizza box!
He stopped as he realized she was coming to him and he smiled at her. She must of took that as a sign that she could have some cause she sprung up just as I reached out and grabbed her pulling her back safely from that pizza box of doom! she was pretty upset that I ruined her plan but she got over it pretty quickly when she realized I was locking her up in my room for the evening and not in hers! My room of course is a lot more amusing and has a lot more stuff for her to go through. So the evening went well and Kissi dressed wonderfully!
He looked quite handsome in his pin striped denim and his black button up with a dark denimish vest that included a blue buttoneer! WOW! he looked as adorable as I ever remember him looking. I was quite proud to be seen with him.
The food was rich and the company was great! I really had a great time today! T and netta both pulled up at the same time and they seemed to be really happy to see one another and they both were great sports for trying all the strange foods to their palates. I did request that everyone try everything and if they didnt like it they could leave it on their plates, but I did at least want them to try it and see if they would perhaps appreciate the flavors involved. So everyone learned what they liked and what they didnt as opposed to just trying to eat something that they couldnt appreciate.