Housewarming Party--The Recap

Wow.

All in all, I'd have to declare last night's Dinner: Impossible to be a success. Every dish was completed, the food seemed good enough, and lots of friends got together, met each other, and had a good time.

Perhaps the biggest tragedy of the night--only a few pictures. About halfway into the process I got so focused on producing food that pictures never happenned. Depressing. So you'll just have to imagine.

Spinach Artichoke Dip/Pita Chips

This was the first thing to come out. Who would've thought that such a simple combination-- cream cheese, parmesan, spinach, garlic, artichokes, and sour cream--could turn out so fantastic? The warm combo of flavors is just one of my favorite tastes, and so filling! I swear, I could make a meal out of the dip alone. An early scare that the pita chips were burnt turned out to be a false one--they were garlicy and crispy and made me happy.

Sushi

Sushi ended up being my Moby Dick of the night. I grossly overestimated how much sushi I could roll in an hour. Add to that the new sushi rice recipe I used, which actually made the rice even stickier, and we had a disaster in the making. After about 5 rolls and 10 nigiri, I had to call it a night with the sushi, which meant I really only made it through half of what I was hoping/preparing for. It also meant there was a ton of leftover avocado.

But what did get produced went well--a shrimp tempura roll, a couple of rainbow rolls, some good old fashioned california rolls, even some carrot, avocado, and cucumber rolls. My discovery of a place that sells masago makes me endlessly happy. I never even had a chance to use my unagi sauce!

That being said, I think it's time to reserve sushi making for parties of 4-5 people. Because the sushi threw off my timing for the rest of the night and made everything else way more stressful than it needed to be.

Caesar Salad with Roasted Parmesan

Probably about as boring as it sounds. This was an addition for any vegetarians that might have come through, and it just didn't get the loving care or quality control that everything else I made got. Plus, it was the first thing out after the sushi, so really I was just trying to get through it to the more interesting stuff.

"I've understood everything you've done until now," Kevin noted as I wrapped a bottle of wine in aluminum foil. I was hoping to wrap the roasted parmesan in strips around the bottle of wine in a kind of corkscrew pattern and let it cool, then add it to the salad for an added presentation flair. I think I overcooked the parmesan, though, so it wouldn't hold its pattern after it cooled. So it just ended up being a regular old caesar salad. Thank goodness it wasn't more complex, though, because by this point I was already about a half hour behind schedule.

Cedar Plank Smoked Salmon

Definitely the home run of the night. I had never marinated the salmon before tossing it on the cedar planks, and that definitely had a huge impact. The salmon got about six hours of soaking in olive oil, butter, a generous helping of garlic, lemon juice, coriander, chili powder, cayenne, parsley, tarragon, fresh dill, garlic powder, sea salt, zest of lemon, and freshly ground pepper.

I also baked it at a lower temperature and over a longer period of time, which really gave the cedar plenty of time to infuse into the fish and provide a great backdrop of flavor and made the fish much softer on the inside. When it was almost done, it got a drizzle of high quality maple syrup to finish off the flavor. So. Good. I was surprised it turned out so well, since I wasn't working from a recipe at all and had never used this sauce before.

Of course, it's helpful to remind any guests that "smoked" salmon means there will be...well...smoke. So yes, we opened our share of windows.

I heard on more than one occasion last night "Best salmon I've ever had" and one "I hate salmon and this is great." So there was probably some exaggeration, but compliments never hurt!

Peach Strawberry Shortcake

At this point I was pretty drained. But the bulk of the hard work had been done, and people were still working on the salmon, so I knew I was still doing ok. I learned that heavy whipping cream can handle a little more vanilla extract and cocoa powder than I actually used, and I probably cooled the angel food cake was a bit too much, as it was something of a challenge to get out of the bundt pan. Unfortunately, I didn't have a chance to get a single bite of the angel food cake, so I have no idea how that one worked out. But maybe that's a good sign, since it was gone by the time I finished the cutting the Chocolate Yeast Bread.

Chocolate Yeast Bread

My new obsession. This bread is really the perfect light dessesrt. It's sweet, with a great aroma, but nowhere near as rich as a brownie or a cake. I made it a couple of weeks ago, and adjusted it just a bit to get it to rise more. I'm not a baker, so I can't take credit for this recipe. Try making it yourself!

Overall

Everything worked out. Thank goodness. And a shout out to Alyse, the only person I let into my kitchen to help out. She did manage to show up and help at JUST the right time. And much much love to everyone who came through. Thanks for the 16 bottles of wine (everyone one of which got consumed last night, haha) and the scattered other presents. You guys rock! I did manage to get one picture at the end of the night that is kind of telling of how everything ended up.