Dinner at Eight, or Was that Five

Karen asked our niece and all the nephews over to the house for dinner on Sunday. We decided to cook a few appetizers and not have a dinner. That way it would be more casual.

We had no idea just how casual it was going to be. Tara came over early to help us cook. Our brilliant lawyer is totally unsure of her cooking ability. She is capable of doing anything she sets her mind to, but I like her company and enjoyed the time cooking together so we can pretend that cooking is hard.

The menu we selected was huge. Look, 12 items. What were we thinking?

• Proscuitto Wraps (I failed wrapping proscuitto around arugula, gruyere and apple. Gabriella took over and they were beautiful.)
• White Bean and Aritchoke Dip (Tara and Karen made this)
• Roquefort Dip (Tara and Karen made this, too. Late add and the easiest thing of the evening.)
• Cheddar - Cayenne Coins (I made these. Karen said they were too salty, but I liked them. The Cayenne was good.)
• Crudities - (Tara helped with the prep on these vegetables.)
• Savory Palmiers - (Tara made these. They use puff pastry. If you can cook with puff pastry, you can do anything, right?)
• Mini-Clafoutis - (like little quiches. You could add any herbs, cheeses or stuff to the batter when it's in the pan. We added MANY different things, thereby complicating this menu even more. But they were all good.)
• Stuffed Mushrooms - (Karen and Tara made this. Stuffed with pancetta and sage. I was so happy everyone doesn't eat mushrooms so I could snag one of these.)
• Tri-color Polenta Cups - (what a fiasco. Trina got stuck with cutting up the sheet of polenta. Not worth all that effort, and we have a ton left.)
• Chicken Satays - (Great. Karen made the peanut butter dipping sauce and broiled these at the last minute. That was the 7:00 finale.)
• Spicy Mediterranean Meatballs - (lots of interesting spices in a tomato/vinegar sauce. Good.)
• Bite-sized Ginger Cupcakes - (wonderful ginger flavor. They went well with the lemon ice.)
• Lemon Ice - (Fabulous)

Then Karen had invited half the people for 5:00 and the other half for 6:00. It didn't matter, because we were cooking until 7:00. Everyone ate as it came out of the oven. These are a great group of people. It didn't matter and all the women helped. We had a lot of fun talking and tasting. I'd emptied my wine cooler when I left Pasadena. We drank some of it with dinner. They were kind enough to leave one bottle for us to consume later in the week.

Peter, on the left of the picture above, made the best lemon ice with Karen's new ice cream maker. Gabriella is a wonderful woman who is dating my nephew, Chris. They make a great couple.

Eric has been going for walks every day. We almost killed him yesterday. He went for a long walk and then we sent him out to get cake flour for the mini-cupcakes. Today he checked if we needed anything before going for his walk. He bought a puzzle. Karen finally settled down long enough to help work it with him. She is the movingest person I know. The puzzle should be done tonight.