With the winter chill nipping at our noses, we all want to curl up with fuzzy blankets and hibernate until the first blades of green reappear in the spring. Well, since hibernating for human beans isn't an option, our friends started organizing potluck dinners. It scrapes us off our butts, and into the kitchen to concoct up something tasty to share with friends over a night of laughter, food and wine. The last potluck I didn't have a camera on me and I kicked myself cuz the spread was positively gourmet... I had lots of closet chefs hiding in our midst, so after missing taking pics of an amazingly delectable tower of roasted portabello-zucchini-bell peppers drizzled in a fancy balsamic reduction, marscopone studded double baked potato, ribs, fish and more, I remembered to toss my camera into my pans of food as I headed out the door.
I ran out of time to make a warm crab dip, so made do with a nice chunk of creamy herbed Boursin cheese and some Grissol toasts. Simple and yummmmy.
Val made a wicked yummy dip staring large chunks of shrimp... which was sadly diminished by the time I showed up at the potluck (my fault cuz I was late having to whip up a second batch of lemon curd.. more on that later).
Yuuuuum!!!
My boyfriend made these butter garlic skewered shrimp served with grilled cinnamon pineapple (not shown). Mmmm! Great job sweetheart!!!
the ENTREES
In the order the food came in on the counter packed full of tasty homemade entrees, first up was H and B's awesome Italian sausage-mushroom-tomatoey goodness pasta. Its positively dreamy comfort food!
Next was L's amazing potato crisps. Don't let the simplicity of sliced potatoes, olive oil and an oven fool you... I could. not. stop. eating. them. They were that good!!!
We also had a healthy helping of a multitude of roasted veges, liberally coated in some of the roasted beef au jus. Mmmm!
We also had the star of the evening, a yummy garlic studded sirloin roast. C did a great job carving it up!
the DESSERTS
Since the hostess had a sweet tooth, I whipped up two dessert tarts. Unfortunately I was in such a rush I swapped out salt instead of sugar so I had to remake a batch of lemon curd - salty preserved lemon wasn't the flavor profile I was shooting for. And anyone ever spent time whisking like a crazy person over a double boiler knows what's involved in making lemon curd. Next time I'll take my time lol! Anyways, whipped up th second batch of lemon curd, cooled the dickens out of it in an icebath and popped into baked tart shells cooling before topping with some fresh raspberries:
I had some roasted sweet potatoes kicking around, so I whipped up a catch of sweet potato pecan tarts, and in a moment of inspiration/panic as I was out of nugmeg, I decreased the amount of sugar and subbed out the liquid with Eggnog. Yup, you heard me, egg nog. My sweet potato pecan tarts just transformed into sweet potato pecan eggnog tarts!!
The creaminess and nutmeg really shown in these little tarts with a brown sugar topping. Luckily, I had lots of eggnog lovers in my circle of friends, so this twist worked out quite well!! Food was eaten, desserts lingered over, lots of laughter and with full content bellies, until next time!! :)
No comments:
Post a Comment