The Life of a Frazzled Dinner Party Hostess
Friday, April 11, 2008
I am an absolute nutter. I make no sense and choose to make stressful situations doubly difficult. I have a bad habit (or is it an addiction) to make ridiculously complex meals for my dinner party guests. It started as a labour of love back in September. On my last day in London before leaving for a month (during when Cassie would be moving to Germany and away from me forever) I decided to have Cassie and her boyfriend Brian (who was flying in that evening) 
over for dinner. I knew what Cassie loved and I wanted the dinner to be perfect so at 9AM I started baking bread. While it was rising on the counter (or was it resting?) I dashed off to the grocery store to buy supplies. Much to my dismay I could not find grape leaves so the figs stuffed with goat’s cheese and wrapped in grape leaves had to be amended to just be figs stuffed with goat’s cheese (broiled and then drizzled with honey). She loved them. She also loved my home-made honey mustard sauce on the chicken, my cheese breaded olives, and my mushrooms stuffed with gorgonzola cheese with a sage cream sauce. I invented the stuffed mushroom recipe based on one my favourite tapas dish at Café Felix, a restaurant from the city I went to college at. The meal was tasty but I was cooking for 10 hours straight. I was like a demented housewife.
My culinary suicide attempts don’t end there. I cooked an entire Thanksgiving dinner myself this year for an audience of Australian guests. I had never handled an entire bird (that still had feathers and other shocking bits) let alone stuff, dress, and roast it. It was my first time making mashed potatoes, believe it or not (they were lumpy) and although I was a ball of nerves trying to keep everything hot while my guests arrived late the dinner was a success. Similarly I decided the holiday dinner I cooked for Jon’s mum was as good of time as any to learn to cook pork. I have been lucky in my endeavours. When my boss came over I decided that my trusty NYTimes recipe for sun-dried tomato pasta would be ideal to impress someone who spent two years with a real Italian eating ‘proper’ pasta. My meal met her standards and I breathed a sigh of relief.
I recount these meals only to illustrate that my behaviour has precedence, a history. Last night we had Jon’s sister Faith and her boyfriend Alastair over for dinner. We had gone over to Faith’s a few weeks earlier and I really wanted to make them 
something nice. Because I am an ambitious hostess, I planned out a three course meal which included a home made pasta sauce that took four hours to roast in the oven. That is right, I spent four hours making my own pasta sauce and it was delicious. How could it not be with both steak and bacon in it?? It was like a glorified spag bol. The recipe was featured in this month’s Delicious Magazine and the front cover recipe looked so delicious that I bought it with my lunch money. That is right...I spend my lunch money on foodie magazines. I also made an onion tart and my standard spinach salad as well as pudding in my cute little red ramekins. For a ‘starter’ I did an adult take on the college standard ‘the Jello shot’ which was a great find on digg. Basically I hollowed out a delicious honey-dew melon and then filled the melon half with jello spiked with vodka. Once the jello set, I sliced up the melon halves into wedges for the individual portions. Although Alastiar was terribly sick and sat there shivering throughout the meal, I think (hope) they enjoyed it.
One large packet (6 oz) of Jell-o
16 oz boiling water
6 oz cold water
10 oz vodka
large fruit with decent rind
Pour jell-O packet into large bowl and add boiling water. Once the mixture is completely dissolved proceed with cold water and then vodka.
Remove the meat contents of the fruit. Be careful not to cut a hole straight through the rind. Fill the gutted fruit with the Jell-O mixture. Once filled, place in the fridge for a few hours. The alcohol can make the firming process of the gelatin take longer. Slice and serve.
Comments Widget