Dinner Party

When I decided that I should combine my love of eating (and hence my love of cooking) with my love for writing, the obvious decision was to jump into the over-saturated market of cooking blogs already established.  I certainly have no delusions of grandeur that this blog will suddenly become a world-renowned cooking blog.  In fact, I expect the exact opposite.  I'm just a young man that has learned enough about cooking to be usually successful while only slightly dangerous in the kitchen.  With that said, I hope that this blog can help other aspiring chefs realize that even Iron Chef Morimoto started out learning his way through the kitchen.

In order to kick-off the blog, I figured that the best idea was to try out several recipes I had been sitting on for quite awhile.  The bottle of 2004 Chateau Rouget from Pomerol that I brought back from my holiday vacation abroad was also just itching to be opened.  I invited a few close friends to be my taste-testers with the incentive of a good French wine, and our dinner party was all set.  And thus began my adventures in the kitchen.

Before I get into each individual dish, let me lay-out the spread (I may or may not have gotten a little carried away).  For appetizers, we had a sampling of 4 hors d'oeuvres: roasted eggplant, stuffed mushrooms, bruschetta, and buffet meatballs.  Following appetizers, we opened the Chateau Rouget to go with Chicken Saltimbocca, which I served with rice and the gravy it cooked in.  For dessert, I whipped up Oreo Cheesecake Cupcakes.  I'm not sure any of us ate anything else for two days after our dinner party; I made way too much food.

I will post each recipe individually in the next few days following this post, but for now, I wanted to just talk about how I handled cooking dinner for 6 people, especially when I was making 10 different things.  To start, when I was planning what to make, I selected the Oreo Cheesecake Cupcakes because I would make them the night before and let it refrigerate all day (it needed at least 4 hours).  I also picked out the recipes for the Chicken Saltimbocca and the Buffet Meatballs that utilized my two crock pots so I could prep those in the morning and then cook the other recipes while those simmered away.  The stuffed mushrooms were easy to prep early (about an hour early), and then they just needed to go into the toaster oven 15 minutes before serving time.  The roasted eggplant and bruschetta could go in the oven at the same temperature on two different baking sheets, which rounded out my kitchen line-up.

I definitely recommend taking into account the prep/cook times and the amount of attention needed when you're selecting recipes for a dinner party like this.  Having dessert already prepared, the main course and one appetizer prepared and simmering all day in a slow-cooker, and hors d'oeuvres that needed the same temperature in the oven made the stress of cooking melt away.

If you plan to serve several courses, I also suggest planning an hour between courses.  I served appetizers at 7 pm, and we ate and conversed for about 30 minutes, when I returned to the kitchen to prepare the salads, rice, and croissants that would go with the Chicken Saltimbocca.  We ate our main course around 8 pm, and while it sounds like a large wait between courses, it seemed very natural for a social gathering while giving me the time I needed to both enjoy the hors d'oeuvres and still finish the last minute touches on the main course.

All in all, I have to say my manly adventures in the kitchen are off to a great start.