Saturday, June 9, 2012

Impromptu Dinner Party

It always seems to be the evenings when I'm feeling the laziest (like, eating toast for dinner lazy) when unexpected company rolls into town.  I never turn down the opportunity for a dinner party, but I also despise going to the grocery store on Sunday nights.  Is it just my neighborhood, or does everyone have a massive swarm of people in their supermarket between 5-7pm on Sundays? The last time I was there during that time, there was no yogurt or peanut butter. What?! Insanity. I mean, they had the non-Greek yogurt, and the non-nautral peanut butter, but who eats those? Nobody, obviously.

Anyway here's a little tale of how we put together a fabulous Sunday supper with stuff that was laying around the house. 

`1. You may call this gross. I call it resourceful.  My SO and I went out to a French restaurant on Friday where we ordered a ginormous charcuterie and cheese platter. (Funny story, the ceiling of the restaurant caved in as we were eating. This is a tale for another time though).  We had a lot left over, so I cleaned it up, put it on a platter, and sliced up some baguette.  It looks pretty nice, and was definitely enough to share for an appetizer!

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2. I randomly picked up a handful of squash blossoms at the farmer's market the day before, but since we only had four, I decided to stuff them to make them a bit more filling. I used some goat cheese and wrapped it in a piece of basil from my little herb garden. Then I battered and fried the squash blossoms, and they were amazing! Sort of like a super classy cheese stick or jalapeƱo popper. 

Magic trick of the day… watch me turn a beautiful flower: 

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...Into fried, cheese stuffed food! AMERICA!

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3. From the freezer, we pulled some andouille, and a pork loin that we chopped in half (the other half was frozen for another day). The andouille went with some rainbow chard that had been sitting in the fridge all week, and it quite tasty. I'm not the biggest fan of greens, but if I hide them under a big pile of salted pork produce, I find them quite palatable. 

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I also had some snacking cherries that had been chilling out in the fridge for a few days, so I decided to use them to make a sauce for the pork loin. It sounds like a weird combination, but I used this:  cherries, red wine, cinnamon, and lime. It was pretty amazing! 

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4. Finally (and this is where I might have an unfair advantage for the impromptu dinner party), I pulled out a couple of frozen desserts I had been testing earlier that week. Everyone got a scoop of salted olive oil gelato and a scoop of NC strawberry ice cream.  

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Not bad for a thrown together Sunday supper! 

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