Supper Club Success

I think it went well overall. I was pleased with almost all the dishes with a few exceptions. They always say you shouldn't cook anything new when you are entertaining. I say if you can't experiment on your friends then who the hell can you experiment on??? Here's the frig beforehand with everything prepped..

Here's the table beforehand...

Appetizers

The cheddar-scallion toasts were yummy. I wanted something gooey-cheesy, but didn't feel like making my artichoke dip or baked stuffed camembert, which are my normal go-to rich, cheesy apps. The mozzarella, salami, tomato skewers were pretty good - I made a sherry vinagrette...I think I'll stick with balsamic next time. I wanted to try something new, but mixed with the mustard it was a little too strong. The avocado, crumbled bacon app was interesting but didn't look very good. I got the idea from an avocado-bacon-vinagrette salad, but I didn't want people to have to use plates and forks. I toasted some of the tortillas and used those as a base instead, but it didn't work for me. I think it was shapes - triangular tortillas and blobs of avocado. Didn't taste bad though.

Dinner

Black Beans with onions, garlic, and cumin were good. Basmati rice with chopped onion, red pepper, and zucchini was good. The Seafood saute marinated in tequila, cumin, shallot, garlic, and lime juice came out really tasty - I didn't dry off the scallops so they didn't sear like I would have liked, but they tasted ok - they should have been more carmelized. The avocado-mango salsa was yummy with it, but the avocado was mushy and not browned unfortunately, but it tasted good! The chicken, mushroom, asparagus dish was just ok. I just thought I needed some meat or bulk or something, but I probably could have skipped it altogether.

Drink & Dessert

The White Sangria was my favorite, as can be judged by the 5 glasses of it I drank followed by my eating a ton of the fruit at the bottom of the pitcher! It was equal parts rose wine, pineapple juice and apricot nectar, chopped pineapple and sliced oranges with 4 cinnamon sticks. Yummy. The chocolate mousse was the same I had made at Xmas, from Everyday Food, but with some added cinnamon in the mousse.

Late night by the time we cleaned up and I nursed Kelly. We sort of slept in if you call 815 good time. We went to an awesome diner in Lowell for breakfast and then picked up the kids. They had fun at their grandmothers and we're lounging around today while I avoid all I have to do for this week.