Anatomy of a Dinner Party: a day in the life of a hospitalityaholic
 

October, 2009

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Odds and Ends

Thursday, October 1st, 2009

This weather makes me want to cook and blog. Yesterday was particularly busy. Two requests to meet for lunch next week. One lunch date will be with Tami at Running With Tweezers and the other will be with Denise Jackson, a totally fab art dealer. The week’s lunches will start Monday with my dear friend Holly and her sister, Aimee, who is in town for the U2 concert. Busy calendar! I also received a request to borrow my crockpot by a friend who is feeding a crowd that will be helping to clean up our neighborhood on Saturday. The other request came from my friend Dawn, who was looking for a recipe she and her sweet daughter could make for the bake sale at school. I suggested Pumpkin Bread. Dawn agreed that would fit the bill.

Also, I picked up a boodle of apples on our way out of Sky Valley last week and you have got to see the size of these babies – they are gigantic! Look at this one next to a regular apple.

They will be featured in tonight’s dessert – blueberry (also from our trip) and apple crisp. Don’t you love a fruit crisp? All fruity and streusely, hot from the oven, topped with vanilla ice cream? I swear, my tummy just rumbled as I was typing.

And you, dear reader, will have all the deets by tomorrow.

Happy Thursday!

xoxo, Patti

Beef Bourguignon – The Final Product

Thursday, October 1st, 2009

As promised, here are the photos of the BB I finally finished last night. It took over 3 hours to cook, but it was delicious. It was the perfect dish to celebrate my 1,000 hit. As I said previously, this recipe was from Ina Garten. Hopefully, that link will work. Here are some pics of our dinner.

Here it is, finishing on the stovetop, with the addition of butter and flour to thicken it up:

My mother’s old dutch oven was so big I had to take a rack out of the oven to make it fit. I love using my mama’s kitchen equipment, it makes everything taste better.

Dinner all plated and ready to eat!

And the celebratory champagne, along with those adorable red flutes I picked up at the mountain flea market.

All in all, if you are considering making this dish, fear not – it is not difficult, but you do need to allot enough time to let it cook. I found that starting it one night and finishing it the next is perfect. It also gives you a ton more time on the second night to fiddle around with sides or just enjoy some wine.

Eric and I both ate plenty, and there was a bundle of leftovers. I just popped it into the freezer for a carefree night of cooking in the future.

Tonight – crab and pea risotto along with Tiger Woods PGA Wii Golf with Miss DeVore. It’s de rigueur!

xoxo, Patti