Dinner Party (Part 1)

In the middle August, I decided to undertake the task of making a whole meal by myself.  There are four couples here in Salem that my parents are good friends with.  They often spend their Friday evenings together having dinner and playing cards.  Plans were made for everyone to come over with instructions not to bring anything to contribute to the meal.  This is especially difficult for my mom since she struggles with staying out of the kitchen when someone else is cooking, a trait she has passed on to me.  She was told that she could be my sous chef and do all of the mundane tasks like chopping and cutting, but nothing else.  Not wanting to do those tasks, she respectfully stayed out of the kitchen.


The menu consisted of a rhubarb glazed pork tenderloin, herb roasted potatoes, tomato and feta salad, roasted green beans, rolls with rosemary butter (Thank you Amy for the idea), a mixed berry shortcake and a mixed berry cheesecake.  I'll admit the rolls were not from scratch and the cheesecake was an absolute flop (no photos of the flopped cheesecake).  None of the recipes were originals, but I tweaked most of them to add my own twist to them.  


Here's some photos of the finished table:

The salad was not "baked, bubbled, or broiled," but it was my favorite thing on the menu that night and it was so pretty.  The lettuce, green onions and cucumbers came from my dad's garden and the heirloom tomatoes were from a local market.  It's a very simple recipe with garlic, olive oil, salt, pepper, and feta.  Toss, chill and enjoy!

The potatoes were super easy and just your basic roasted potatoes.  The herbs and potatoes came from the garden.  I used fresh thyme, fresh rosemary, salt, pepper and some olive oil.

I had planned to do really simple green beans, a little butter, salt and pepper, but the day before the dinner I found a recipe for roasted green beans in the local paper that sounded tasty.  I've made it a second time and tweaked the recipe even more than I did the first time.  The green beans and tomatoes came from the garden.  It also has bacon (yum) and slivered almonds.  The original recipe says to roast the beans and bacon together in the oven, but I felt that the bacon didn't keep crispy enough.  On the second attempt, I cooked the bacon separate from the beans.  I also roasted the tomatoes and toasted the almonds.  The beans were roasted in the oven at a very high temp.  Mix it all together a sprinkle with some fresh grated parmesan cheese.  I'm still perfecting the recipe, but all of the components together are super yummy!

Stay tuned for the rhubarb glazed pork tenderloin (super yummy) and mixed berry shortcake.  Also coming in the next few days attempt number 2 of the biscuits, purple mashed potatoes (!?!?!) and pumpkin butter.


Happy Cooking!