Dinner for Five at Eight

For me:  “At a dinner party one should eat wisely but not too well, and talk well but not too wisely.”
                       - W. Somerset Maugham

For G:  "The best number for a dinner party is two - myself and a damn good head waiter."
                       - Nubar Gulbenkian (British oil tycoon and bon vivant, 1896-1972)

Last night we had friends over for dinner.  Not a big deal in most people’s lives.  But as you may have gathered from these pages, my darling G (whom I’m thinking about re-naming “Notorious G” for this blog – I don’t know, I just like the sound of it) is not one of your more social creatures.  We go where we need to go, do what we need to do…but for the sake of understatement, let’s just say that the word “party”, whether it refers to an event taking place on our turf or on someone else’s, does not strike joy into his heart.  “Dinner” is a fine word, as long as it refers to food that I’ve cooked for our own consumption in the privacy of our home. 

But there was no getting around it.  In the first place, I actually am a rather social creature.  And I do like to cook for people.  In the second place, we went to Nathalie and Josh’s for dinner a few weeks ago, and we were having them back over.  We’d had a good time at their house, and either a good time would be had at ours as well, or I was going to poach, pickle, batter and deep-fry myself in frustration.  It turned out that another friend was in town, the dashing Betty from San Francisco, and I invited her to come too. 

So that made three guests.  Five of us for dinner, in total.  No biggie, you say -- after all, read those food blogs out there.  Everyone’s always chatting about having had 8 people drop by unexpectedly on a work night, which impelled them to whip up such-and-such a little marvel with the stuff they had on hand.  Not to say that I couldn’t handle an impromptu soiree, but this particular one was planned. Truthfully, I was excited about our little dinner party, since it’s a bit of a rarity.  The down side was that we had to clean the house: rather a major undertaking since we’re both pack-rats, not fabulously well-organized, have too much stuff, and don’t love to clean.  Look, I enjoy cooking, okay?  Not everyone can be good at everything. 

I kept going back and forth about what I was going to make.  Nathalie had dropped a broad hint about wanting lamb, something I’m always happy to comply with, since I love lamb.  But Betty had once mentioned, long ago, that she hated lamb and never ate it.  I must have filed that away in the “what to make for a dinner party when Betty comes over” compartment of my brain since I remembered it.  Well, no solution here except to make lamb and something else, the something else being chicken.  Chicken is always the perfect fall-back choice on the multiple entrée menu. 

Although toying with thoughts of an Indian menu, based on Deb’s post of Saag Gosht, I eventually went with a vaguely Moroccan theme – Middle-Eastern food of any kind being one of my favorite things to cook.  I made baba ganoush, ruining my stove burners in the process of properly charring the eggplant, but it did come out with that great smoky taste.  And we had some matbucha, purchased at Fairway – a sort of Moroccan salsa.  A little veg platter, nice olives, and a hunk of Manchego cheese (I know it didn’t really fit in with the theme, but I had it in the house, and Spain is near Morocco) rounded out the pre-dining segment of the evening quite nicely. 

I made a lamb dish loosely based on Nigella’s lamb shank stew, which she seasons with a large quantity of cinnamon, as well as ginger, nutmeg, honey, and Marsala wine, among other things.  It’s a delicious dish, but slightly too sweet for me.  So I cut way back on the cinnamon and honey, added a fair amount of cumin, some delicious and addictive Turkish seasoning from Penzey’s, lots more garlic, a dash of tomato paste and some extra veg – carrots, green beans and zucchini.  I also used lamb shoulder instead of shank, since that was what looked good in the market.  It came out spicy, mellow, and mysterious.  Rich, complex flavors:  just a hint of sweetness, and a slightly smoky bite that heightened the lamb.  Exactly what I wanted for my dinner party. 

As for the spiced chicken, that cut-up bird marinated for 24 hours in Meyer lemon juice and rind, cilantro, garlic, olive oil, Bed of Roses spice blend and some Zatar, and then roasted to crispy goodness in a hot oven (I’ll post recipes separately, since this post is already a bit on the windy side). Couscous and my favorite quick salad of cucumbers, tomatoes, scallions and Greek yogurt completed Round II.   

Dessert was practically a meal in itself.  I had Chocolate Trianon cake in the freezer (thanks Bakerina!).  I had adapted the velvety vanilla ice-cream recipe from Falling Cloudberries via Moira for our ice-cream machine (somehow that didn't get in the photo).   A fruit plate of sliced mangos, strawberries, raspberries and blackberries was quickly assembled.  And I’d stopped off earlier in the day at Beard Papa and picked up a six-pack of cream puffs.  When I spread this sybarite’s buffet in help-yourself fashion on the table, Betty suggested that we pay homage by dancing around the desserts, which we promptly did for several minutes. Marvin Gaye’s "Let’s Get It On" was playing at the time and we rocked on.  The song suddenly took on multiple layers of meaning; it was all about dessert ("...understand me sugar...don't you know how sweet and wonderful life can be?") and yet so much more.  By this time, of course, the wine was kicking in nicely.   G and Josh left the dancing to the women, preferring to catch the incriminating moment on video; blackmail is so much easier that way.   This is why in the photo that begins the post, you see only Betty (red shirt), Nathalie (brown shirt) and myself (wine-colored shirt).  And not the most flattering pics, at that.

Back to Nubar Gulbenkian and Somerset Maugham: No headwaiters were necessary (I flatter myself, I know, but I’m pretty sure that G would rather have me than even the best headwaiter as the other party in a party of two…)  We all ate well, although not particularly wisely, and we all talked a great deal, if not necessarily wisely OR well – but we laughed long and loudly, put away a fair amount of wine (Sancerre, Cotes du Rhone, a nice Cab Sauv, and a delicious Pinot Noir from Oregon’s Willamette Valley) and went to bed feeling good about ourselves and the world.  That’s all I ask, really.   

Comments

[Deb]

That sounded like a lovely party, and just the way a dinner party should be-- good friends, good food, good wine, good laughs, good conversationa and some incriminating video. My kind of fun!

[Moira]

Julie, everything sounds and looks gorgeous. What lucky friends to have the honour and pleasure of being fed by you!

[keiko]

Hi Julie - I'm glad you had a lovely time, your food just look gorgeous!

[Julie]

It really was a somewhat magic evening -- now when are you all coming for dinner?

[Bakerina]

Mmmmmm. Just reading this is making my hand tingle and my face feel all smiley. Julie, I can be there in about 20 minutes. :)

[Julie]

Jen, there's still some lamb left -- and there's Trianon and Vanilla ice-cream, at least for the next few minutes...

[Carol]

Julie, Oh how I wish I was there. I just got of the phone with Betty and she mentioned that you had a great site. I had no idea. Maybe one day I'll be back in NY and have the pleasure of eating in your beautiful home. See you Santa Fe.

[Betty]

dios mio, julie, you are truly a wonder to me. not only was i so lucky to be in the right place at the right time, but now my backside is posted in the first photo of this blog entry (which isn't particularly my best side...). I'm so thrilled to have been a participant at this food feast and will forever treasure the moment we women took to the kitchen floor to warm-up for the finale - the desserts!!!

[Julie]

Carol, thanks so much for stopping by. Can't wait for Santa Fe! How's baby Joaquim?

Oh Betty -- I'm so sorry about your back. I tried to find one of the three of us, and this was the best I could do. Trust me, there were many MORE shots that were far less flattering for all of us -- but you're right, your splendid and noble beauty is not evident. Perhaps it's just as well; I'd be deluged with hordes of guys trying to find out where you live...

[Ernie]

Julie,

Sounds like a great meal and great company. The best of both worlds.

[Julie]

hey Ernie -- the next dinner is you and the girls...for another "Feast from Feast"

[RisaG]

My husband is not a social creature either so I know what you are going through. I am altho' we don't have a lot of friends in our neighborhood. Most of our friends live in other states, or countries, unfortunately. So if I make anything at the house, it is small - to say the least.

I've been married to "Mr Unsocial" for 16 years. Can't believe it, but it's true. Every time I mention I want to have people over, he groans as if I am putting him in a torture chamber. He feels that his weekends are his own and that he wants to relax - he works hard all day and sometimes at night and wants to relax - or do his errands - he doesn't want to socialize. Well...too bad!

I do it mainly in the summer and at holiday or birthday times. I try not to do it any other time. He'll agree if it is a holiday or his birthday, or my birthday or our sons birthday. Otherwise, forget it. I'll get the look and the groans.

I enjoyed reading about your party. Sounds delicious and the pictures were making me salivate.

RisaG