Dinner With Friends II

The second installment of dinner with friends was held this weekend, and amid full bellies and some livers working overtime, I deem the night yet another success. Planning it is half the fun, as we get to think of which groups of our friends will hit it off nicely, or, even better, which groups who would never normally be in the same room together in the first place, would create the most interesting dynamic. All of our friends rock anyway, so you can pretty much plug in seven or eight people together and a good time is all but guaranteed.

And so it was last Saturday when we had the Hauns, the Pardos and Brother Rian over for din-din. We started with some appetizers in the form of Rian’s quesadillas, some brie and crackers, and a rosemary-infused, oven-roasted mixed nuts ensemble.

The main course was especially dandy. The Hauns brought this over

Those bad fuckers are gruyere au gratin potatoes. Yeah, they were as good as they look. We all could have had a plate of that and called it a night. The main entrée was braciole (from “The Sopranos” cookbook), sort of a flat sirloin wrapped meat roll, akin to a form of rouladen.
You pound the flat meat and sprinkle rosemary, chopped garlic and parmesan, roll them up like snausages and tie with kitchen string;

brown them on all sides for about two minutes in a pan with olive oil and chopped garlic, and then put into a pot with about four cans of tomato puree mixed with fresh basil leaves. Those stew for about two hours. Serve with ziti.

We sat down with the braciole, the potatoes, roasted vegetables, some wine and, of course, the sort of keen organic chemistry that comes with a fine meal among great friends.

And what meal would be complete without some dessert?

The Pardos brought the dates, but Steve stole the show with his bet-you-I-can-eat-this-whole-brownie-off-the-plate-with-no-hands-in-one-shot routine.

Which, of course, prompts him to ask “Do I have something stuck in my teeth?”

Again, another successful dinner party with some of the people we care about the most. Kerry and I are lucky in that we could have six or seven people over in this fashion, once a month, and it would take us two years to get through the folks we really admire and respect. It can be a fun challenge coming up with the guest lineup and the menu (big ups to Kerry for taking care of that, and trusting me with the main dish).