Holiday Dinner Parties

Well, this week it is simply a selfish column. I, as you know, love to have dinner parties. I wanted to share with you the one we recently had.  Here is the menu: homemade cheese ball and crackers, Mike’s Jamaican squash soup, leafy greens with pear, Mike’s curried lamb, braised Cornish hen with white wine sauce, buttered baby carrots, sauteed stemmed broccoli, wild rice with sliced almonds and portabella mushrooms, mini corn muffins, steamed carrot cake with fresh blackberries and raspberry brandy syrup, topped with fresh brandy whipped cream.
I wanted to address three of these items. Why? Because it was easy and fun and I actually made two items I have never made before. One of them was a mistake that turned out!

What makes dinner parties fun is keeping them small, something I am not real good at doing, but I am learning. What has to happen, I guess, is I just have to have more of them, and frequently. 

When I have a dinner party, what I like to do is send the menu out to everyone. If there is something they do not like, I want to know ahead of time. It is a night that I want everyone to enjoy with food. I also try to remember what things my guest won’t eat. I just make sure I offer them something they will have that fits in with the menu. For instance, one of my friends will not eat bell peppers and another does not like mushrooms. I LOVE both of these items. So if I am making an Italian meal, I make sure that when I make my sauce I have some set aside that I can add to the items they each like.

Because I had so much food for this particular dinner party, I thought it best not to have heavy appetizers. I had just recently for the FIRST TIME made a cheese ball! Ah, I know you are thinking what planet have I been living on up here for 32 years and never made a cheese ball? Hmmm, I was wondering the same thing. I called my friend Cindy B and asked her if she might have a recipe in her cookbook, “Summer’s Memories,” which I had at home, and yes she did. Yippee for me. She told me it was quick and easy. Man, she was not kidding. I had that cheese ball together in a heartbeat. Thanks Cindy B. I have her recipe below with my changes.

The other thing that I try to be aware of is what I am serving for the meat portion.  I am probably the most picky about it. I am not a big lamb fan, but I will eat steak. I like any kind of poultry and I assume that most people do, so I thought having that as a second choice for our guest would work. I wanted to do something a little more exciting than chicken so I went with Cornish hens. The beauty of this is that I only needed four hens. I thought that they would add something a little more special to the meal like Mike’s lamb did.

First I cut them in half. I then cut each half down into breast, thigh, leg, and I left the wing on the breast. I braised all the meat, putting on a very heavy rub of kosher salt, Spanish paprika, and fresh parsley. Before placing a hen in the pan to braise, I added some pressed garlic to the olive oil on low heat, to infuse into the oil. When I braised the hen I took the garlic out of the pan, and when I took the hen out of the pan I placed it on a cookie sheet to go into the oven. I made sure to reserve the oil and drippings from the hens. I also put the pressed garlic I had taken out back into the pan. The lovely hens were then covered with tinfoil and placed in a 250 degree oven to bake nice and slow for about two and half hours, the slower the better. I then made a lovely sauce in the pan of drippings with white wine! Yummy! This was poured over the hen after it was plated. So easy!

Last, but of course never unimportant, was the dessert. I am NOT a baker! NOT NOT and did I say NOT?!  There are about four things I make that I enjoy baking, and because I like doing it they turn out. Carrot cake is one of those items.  Now, I am not going to give you a recipe for carrot cake. Any kind you make I am sure would be wonderful.

However, this time I made a mistake when I made it. I did not pay attention to what I was doing when I put it into the oven. It was one of the best mistakes I have made in a while, really. What did I do, well, I forgot I had a pan full of water in the oven. Let me tell you what a tasty surprise, STEAMED CARROT CAKE! It was one of the heaviest cakes I have ever made in my life. The first thing I wanted to do was throw it out and start over, but instead I yelled for Mike to come and taste it first. Okay, yes, I yelled and he said, “tastes good.” That was all I needed to keep it. I decided that serving it warm with fresh fruit would be the ticket and also making sure that the fruit was made with a little brandy would not hurt. The guests loved it.

So those are my three AH HA moments in the kitchen. I love it. I look forward to more of them. I would love to hear what yours are. Come on, I know you have them too. So below is Cindy’s Cheese Ball Recipe.

Cheese Ball

Courtesy of Diane Wieland (Cindy Belohlavek’s friend)

Ingredients:
2-8 oz light cream cheese
2 cups (8oz) sharp cheddar cheese
1 Tbs chopped pimento
1 Tbs green bell pepper
1 Tbs chopped onion
2 tsp lemon juice
Dash cayenne pepper

Directions:
Mix all of the above ingredients. Refrigerate at least two hours. Shape into a ball just before serving and roll in finely chopped pecans. Yield: one 1 pound cheese ball. I did not use the one tablespoon of green bell pepper. I added two tablespoons of Deb’s Jalapeño Pesto instead. I also did not add the nuts to the ball. Because of time I just made it into a ball before I put it in the fridge.

Enjoy and eat well, and of course, as always, be safe. Merry Christmas!

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