The actual menu looks like this (...):
$30 per person
$18 per person
It's cheese heavy, but not a cheese dinner...
Price per person $14
So, as per usual when I do pizzas, I will do some old favorites as well as just looking around and seeing what I can do that is new and exciting - maybe - We'll be looking at around $10 - $12 per person and it will be Sunday the 22nd.
Bring your own meat!, or other accompaniment (or let me know what it is you want me to buy). The idea comes from the idea that I had some pretty delicious ribs at this last dinner, and seeing as it is summer a barbecue would be pretty fun. I would like to do it in a park a little earlier in the evening and bring a cooler full of beer - of course, but I need the ingredients as early in the day as possible so that I can decide what it is I need to do with them. So if you can't come early and hang out and or cook with me, tell me what meat or accompaniment you want to bring and I'll pick it up and make it in advance. There were requests for a particular park, but I don't remember which one, so remind me or argue about where it should be amongst yourselves and we'll try and do it there. I claim pork ribs as my meat, so you guys can come up with your own ideas and let me know.
So I lied. Dress nice. I'm going to do three desserts, because as I remember now that I'm looking back over my notes I had some pretty neat ideas; I also had been doing some reading on sorbets and entertaining the idea of getting an ice cream maker - since I'm no longer doing that I'll let loose with a ridiculous amount of frozen confections. What I lied about was that the Pears Melba that we had were the last of the pears for the season - unless they stop selling them outright I will try to make one of the desserts a pear one: suitably epic for a season finale. This is a transitional time from spring to summer, the rain and foul weather has dragged on for too long, hopefully it will be clear but not too hot which will make the slightly heavier more decadent dishes not too overwhelming and lend to lighter more summer friendly dishes as well. What I have planned is relatively expensive - there's caviar involved - but is highly rewarding to experience; if the general consensuses is that it's too expensive don't hesitate to let me know, I can probably trim it down a bit. I just don't want to.
$25 per person if we have twelve people.
I promised last time I would keep the price a bit lower so here it is:
$10 per person
Formal Wear!
I was at work today, and a group of people were talking about the tapas that we serve, mainly about the hummus ravioli; ultimately the only reason they didn't order them, I think, is because you can buy ravioli in the supermarket for much less. At first I thought it was pretty silly, but then I thought along what I assume was their train of thought - which is that ravioli is ravioli and it's all more or less the same. In my mind I started to list all of the different things that I could think to stuff ravioli with, which ultimately led me to this dinners dessert which I had struggled with earlier and still could not figure out for the life of me. So a big thanks to the group of Indians that didn't understand what makes ravioli unique and delicious in so many different ways: creativity.
Yes, this is largely a dinner of meats - hopefully very delicious meats that we finally get to celebrate the passing of Lent with, albeit somewhat belatedly. I promise that the next one will be somewhat cheaper, but everyone was begging for the cheese dinner (yes,I know - I over exaggerate) and this was the logical follow up for Lent so I'm following through with it.
($18 per person)
So I haven't put a whole lot of thought into this dinner - but then again I don't really need to... which is why I've taken so long to post this.
I'm going to guess about $20-$25 per person including wine
($14 per person)
you will note that dinners have been switched to Wednesday; as nobody really protested moving dinner back to Wednesday come March, I'm doing it... watch me.
This one is slightly more expensive than the last one - but not too much I think, I will find that unholy balance eventually
($17 per person)
In keeping with season (and some people's religion - which is part of the season -- not that you need a particular season for fish), there is again no meat, so:
Yes, we will be eating so much meat come April 5th...
($13 per person)
First order of business is: Zhu-Zhu wants dinner on Wednesday now instead of Monday - so if a majority of people are available for a Wednesday dinner I can move it, otherwise it stays at Monday - and if nobody lets me know about their availability it stays at Monday.
Second order of business: I want to do some interesting things with this dinner, so if anyone has access to at least a 30cc syringe with a relatively large needle that would be nice - otherwise I'll go out and find one myself.
I'm not sure of the price on this dinner yet - I'm going to guess that this will actually run somewhere around $27 per person (give or take, I'll find out exactly as I do the shopping). There are eight courses, but they are very small - Very Small - VERY SMALL; also most of them will be primarily prepared in advance - so dinner moves at the rate in which you eat, so if you want/need to leave earlier then eat a little faster.
So, formal wear; why not?
Yes, it might look familiar, but pared down - remember, the portions are small and to a large extent prepared beforehand so we should easily be able to finish by 11pm (maybe).
If you want to invite a friend under the guise of sampling the fine art of molecular gastronomy, now would be the time to do so...
I had to flip a coin anyways, so it's option #1
Option #1 ($12 per person)
Option #2 ($14 per person)
($15 per person)
So, winding down from the Big Night Italian dinner I'm going to do some more rustic Italian for the next casual dinner. Since my pig heads didn't come on time we will be having that as a carryover from the last meal.
($15 per person)
Tell your friends there will be lots of food to go around - I can probably serve 15-20 people pretty easily.
This is a tentative menu, I just want everyone to have the heads-up for what's going to be happening. I'm not sure of the price just yet, but with the change of pacing that I just enacted I would say for this sort of feast plan to spend about $40-$50 on food and wine, it's all going to be together and I will get a bit more wine than usual. Plan ahead, bring a friend, have fun - that sort of stuff. I need to know pretty accurately how many people I will be serving otherwise my fridge won't be able to fit all the left-overs.
For those of you who are afraid of the course listings let me demonstrate how they will work: The Porchetta di Testa (since I have to buy a whole head) will be thinly sliced (as in paper thin) and garnished with capers and very small pieces of shaved cheese - you will take what you want from the plate, and no more, the Fritatta will also be quite small - think of it as a Hors d'oeuvre, Seafood risotto will be on a plate and you will take what you need, the fish will come in a similar size to this last dinner, the Timpano is presented as a whole and sliced to desire as is the Florentine roast pork, the deserts will be very small. You will be able to take as small a portion as you want and return for more if you want - these are not formal courses and their overall richness (in other words the amount of fat involved in making them) is not even going to stand up to the past two dinners. Also, you will be able to put nearly all of the savory courses on your plate at one time, so you should be able to draw a good conclusion for how much you need before you start eating.
Because of all the work that I put into the last two dinners (which were nothing less than ridiculous, on all counts) I have decided to take it easy for the next dinner. There will be a new system to the dinners, so once monthly will be a formal dinner - since everyone seems to like the idea of dressing their best, and on the off weeks will be simpler fare and attire.
I have to give a special thanks to The Cheese Cellar for their generous donation of sliced truffles for the Salmon course when they found out that place that I was planning to get whole truffles in fact did not have them; that was definitely a high point in the meal for me.
For this meal there is no vote, I have decided to be a little ridiculous and do:
