Chinese Dinner Party

To celebrate my new home (where I can comfortably entertain) and my birthday (I keep getting older!), I had my siblings and two of my cousins over for a small dinner party that was big on the food. When my mom hosts parties, she's easily entertaining for 20+ people. I'm just starting to get in the swing of hostessing, but kept getting stuck on my mom's style of feeding LOTS of family and sending people home with leftovers. So when I had 5 guests, I still had a huge appetizer spread, a side, two main dishes, and a dessert for a Sunday evening party.

Appetizer Menu

Pork meatballs (with water chestnuts inside!)

Vegetable rolls in rice paper (which my siblings both said felt like a jellyfish even though neither of them have ever touched one, but they liked the rolls nonetheless)

Carrot sticks

Fruit - watermelon, raspberries, strawberries

Small bowl of sugar

Chunky peanut butter

Hummus

Chips and salsa (bought)

Chex mix

Dinner

White rice

Asparagus with freshly toasted sesame seeds

Ham fried rice (my siblings and I LOVE fried rice - I switched it up with adding ham rather than chicken this time)

Steak and bell peppers stir-fry (San-J sauces are the best!)

Dessert

Vegan gf chocolate cupcakes

I will admit that I went a little overboard on the appetizers, but everything worked out perfectly and there was enough food leftovers for two lunches for me and plenty of appetizers to make sure I was snacking throughout the week! When I was planning the menu, I chose a lot of things I could prep in advance. The fried rice and stir-fry were both "cook in five minutes" items, so I chopped and refrigerated my veggies in advance. I wrote down lists of what veggies went in what pan so I could start cooking without trying to remember what went where. Right before we were ready to eat, I heated up one wok and started adding food and then put my sister in charge of stirring it while I began the next. We plated everything on my fancy dishes and in some of the bowls she bought me for Christmas and we were set! I was a little disappointed that I still somehow remain the only one in the family who can use chopsticks despite our love for Chinese food. Being a courteous hostess, I set forks on the table so no one felt bad. But one of these days, I'm going to have to get chopsticks into my family's hands!

It was great to have my family in my new place. I think this was even the first time I properly cooked a meal from start to finish for my siblings. Normally when I'm home at my mom's, I'll contribute to one or two dishes, max. But here the whole meal was my responsibility. I enjoyed creating the menu and wondering what people will like, as well as show off some of my culinary chops (no, really, toasting sesame seeds just is turning a pan on, letting it warm up, and stirring around the seeds until they are toasted.) It was fun, it was rewarding, and I can't wait to do it again!

Sparkling Juice

For a bit of class without the booze, try serving juice in a whole new way!

Ingredients

Three limes

Two lemons

Juice - your favorite flavor will work

Sprite or 7-Up

Ice

Wash and thinly slice the limes and lemons. Place in freezer for several hours.

Right before serving, pour the juice with a "splash" of Sprite (about 1/2 - 1 cup for 6 servings) in a fancy pitcher. Add the frozen lime and lemon slices and ice. Stir. Serve in wine goblets. Whoever said wine goblets were reserved just for wine?

Caribbean Feast

For my mom's birthday this year, I treated her to a Caribbean feast! I slaved away all day in the kitchen. Um, I mean, I went shopping, made the salad and placed it in the fridge, did as much mise en plas as I could until my mom and sister came home from work and I could get the pans fired up and dinner on the table. All the recipes I used came from Modern Caribbean Cuisine by Wendy Rahamut and the entire meal was dairy, gluten and shrimp free. (This book is AMAZING for anyone looking to cook Caribbean food - LOTS of great recipes that are easy-to-follow and accessible.) My sister agreed to try fish as long as it wasn't shrimp, so the shrimp recipes all had to be placed aside for another time. Since this was a birthday dinner and I was left alone to my own devices, I went through the living room and cabinets and took out some of our fanciest dishes (including some that garnered the "Are those ours?" response from my sister) and washed out wine goblets. I set the dining room table with a tropical table cloth and hung an "Island Party" sign across the china cabinet. Since we eat with our eyes first, I was going to make sure this feast was gorgeous! My sister was in charge of making our frozen strawberry daiquiri mock-tails (can of frozen mix + water + ice + fun straw + tall glass = delicious!)

For our salad, we had tomatoes and avocados (with finely chopped green bell pepper, and onion with minced garlic coated with a olive oil, fresh lime juice, and sugar mixture, and garnished with chives and cilantro). Eating the salad (a bursting-with-delicious-flavors kind of dish) from a wine glass was fun! The glass was the perfect size for the job and it was very easy to see all the ingredients inside.

The main course was plantain-crusted tilapia over a rice dish. The rice was made with onion, celery, thyme, garlic, tomatoes, rice, chicken stock, and coconut milk. I'm a big fan of coconut milk - it is an easy way to add a creamy texture to a dairy free dish. And this wasn't even my substitution - it was written right into the recipe! (Non-American cuisines are a gold mine for gluten and dairy free recipes - the United States seems to sneak wheat and milk in everything!) I found plantain chips in the Mexican aisle at the grocery store and they were delicious to snack on while cooking and helped provide a fun flavor profile to the fish.

Dessert was grilled pineapple with brown sugar and rum. This literally spent three minutes in the broiler before it was done. In my family's traditional style - my mom and I had the dessert a few hours after dinner was finished and the dishes were washed.

I had a lot of fun making an event out of the meal and was proud to showcase some of my dicing and chopping skills. I even got my sister to try fish! My mom loved her birthday dinner and I loved being able to create and share such an elegant meal with my family.

Sweet Potato Night

I have come a long way in the past nine months.

Back in February, Eliot and I hosted a dinner party for two of my friends. Our meal surrounded a bottle of vintage port I bought in Portugal while I studied abroad in Spain. I chose several tapas dishes and paella. Our friends would be bringing the dinner wine and dessert. I threw all of my energy into planning this (not that I had much energy at that point) and poured over Spanish recipes and made a shopping list in excel. The night before, I bought a loaf of bread, since many tapas are served on top of bread or the bread soaks up the sauce. The next morning, the bread was hard and I panicked. Chicago winters are bitterly cold and I lacked the energy to run to a grocery store. So I made some bread and even took pictures of it as it over doubled in size. With a whole Saturday to prepare for dinner, I even took pictures of some of the “presets” of the food. (Now, photographing my food is routine.) At the last minute, Eliot had to work until time to start cooking dinner so I needed to do some the prep work myself. We were both concerned about my ability to smash garlic gloves and marinate steak at the time. (I am pretty sure I managed to do it successfully; my cooking ability skyrocketed these past months.) During the dinner party, after eating some of my freshly baked bread and some other delicious food, I snuck away from the dinner table and vomited.

This past Friday, we hosted the same couple at my house. Eliot and I have become a huge fan of secret ingredient nights, where we focus on one food. (Remember tofu night where almost everything had to marinate or chill for an hour or two?) Our friends eagerly jumped at the idea and suggested sweet potatoes! The perfect fall dish! They would be bringing an appetizer and wine, Eliot would make the main course and I would handle dessert. And for fun, bread. This time around, things were done much more leisurely and the stove was not a flurry of activity (and dirty pots and pans.) They brought delicious spice-filled sweet potato latkes made with corn starch: finger foods that were quickly consumed. Eliot made a sweet potato shepherd’s pie that was smothered in goat cheese (two of us are lactose-intolerant but we can handle goat cheese without any problems). To make this safe for all, we used my frozen chicken stock, dairy-free butter and tablespoons of my gf baking flour mix for the recipe.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/turkey-sweet-potato-shepherds-pie-recipe/index.html

And me? I baked bread that used 1/3 cup of sweet potato puree and was garbanzo bean and brown rice flour based. The bread is very hearty. The first time I made it, I kneaded it one more time than recommended and had a very crumbly bread. This time, I followed instructions and the consistency was much better! I was not embarrassed to serve it to my gluten-loving guests. After all, I cannot imagine any sweet potato filled bread being considered light or fluffy.

When baking gluten free, there are two options: follow gf recipes or try a wheat-flour recipe and cross your fingers that your gf flours easily substitute. Because I unfortunately like challenges, I went with the later option and made this one: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/patrick-and-gina-neely/sweet-potato-pie-cookies-with-orange-glaze-recipe/index.html

I made the dough two nights before so I could bake a few test cookies and throw together another dessert if it turned out to be an epic failure. Thankfully, I was pleasantly shocked when the cookies turned out very well (and were fluffy – as cookies are supposed to be!) when I substituted my gf flour mix (as found in Cooking for Isaiah) one-for-one. They are very easy to make and the dough keeps well in the refrigerator. While we were sitting around chatting after dinner, I was able to sneak away to my kitchen and scoop the dough onto a cookie sheet. These cookies were winners! Everyone loved them.

Cooking with food intolerances or allergies can be challenging. I’m always impressed and amazed that my friends can be so accommodating and willing to try new foods. Our lactose-intolerant friend said he nearly forgot that he did not need to take a pill before eating (he is one of those lucky people who can take Lactaid before eating dairy) since everything would be dairy-free. Eliot was amazed that he could still have a cookie. And me? I was thrilled that I could eat everything in front of me worry-free. And keep it all in my stomach this time!

Battle Tofu

If you are going to learn to love a new food, it is best to turn to an expert. I needed to introduce tofu into my repertoire of foods and there is no better person for the job than a vegetarian! We not-so-creatively dubbed our dinner: Battle Tofu. Tofu was our secret ingredient and we gave ourselves the luxury of a week to plan and shop before creating a leisurely three-course meal that was dairy, tree nut, gluten and meat product free.

When cooking tofu, it seems like “let marinate for x hours” is standard. And with only one kitchen and (more importantly) one food processor between four chefs, we became creative in our prepping order and cooking method – including grilling, baking, frying, and chilling! Grilling in a city apartment is surprisingly easy thanks to my George Foreman grill! This is the easiest way to get grilled foods indoors. We had our spicy grilled kabobs as one of our appetizers. The tofu was sandwiched among red onions, Japanese eggplant, and mushrooms.

The second appetizer was fried firm tofu with sesame seeds with two different dipping sauces. We decided that the sauces together (one was peanut based and the other was made with plums) on the tofu was extremely reminiscent of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on a hot summer day. Tofu as bread? Who knew?

For the main course, we had oven baked tofu that was marinated with a peanut butter sauce. This was really good and the tofu was especially tender.

The first round of desert was served in old fashioned ice cream glasses – a food processor creation with silken tofu, mangos, fresh ginger, and egg whites. The recipe I followed called for crushed nuts on top, but this was a tree-nut-free day and I needed something with a crunch so I found an even more delicious alternative: crushed (gluten-free) ginger snaps!

One of the best parts was the final round of dessert: fudge. Vegan fudge. I had given up on fudge since I never thought I would be able to find it dairy-free since condensed milk is a pesky ingredient to substitute. But I should have known better: vegans would be the ones to creatively make fudge that can rival any traditionally made fudge. And it contains tofu! To all the vegans out there who create such delicious recipes: thank you!

This was an amazing meal with friends and I had a fantastic time creating and tasting tofu dishes. I did not even miss meat!