Dinner Party

One of the significant benefits of having a child doing degree work in the culinary arts is being treated to interesting new dining experiences. Jessica and her boyfriend, Mike, are staying with us for a few days, and they agreed to prepare a meal for us and a few good friends. Both are students at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, RI. They started yesterday with menu planning and continued today with shopping trips. At about 2PM, the preparations began for the actual dinner party, which was planned for about 6:30PM. They were really "on top of their game", because everything came together right on schedule and continued right through until about 10:30PM. It is probable that every pot, pan, appliance, burner, oven, and measuring utensil was in play at some point. There was much chopping, mincing, dicing, mixing, and so forth going on for hours.


Everything was wonderful, starting with sangria, hors d'oeuvres, and conversation in the back yard (on a beautiful summer evening). Then we moved to the table for the rest of the meal. Hors d'oeuvres consisted of proscuitto-wrapped melon and strawberries with balsamic glaze and maple-glazed scallops wrapped in bacon. The appetizer/first course was a goat cheese souffle served over baby greens with a pear balsamic vinagrette. For the entree, we had pan-seared tuna steak with lentil succotash and baby bok choy. Dessert was a lemon burdino (kind of a custard/cake combination). There were several excellent wines to choose from as well of both red and white varieties. Good friends and excellent food--what could be better? I suppose that would be the chance to feel such pride in knowing that your own children made all of this possible. We just sat back and enjoyed the experience.


At the end of the day, after being on their feet for hours and chopping, whipping, and what have you, both of our chefs were rather worn out. Kathie brought out the big gun (a serious vibrating massage machine) to give each of them a bit of relief. As I write this, each of them has now crashed and burned or is on the verge of same. As for us, contented sleep also beckons.