This post is a week late, but it's a post that should be made anyway. Last weekend a challenge was thrown down, a gauntlet if you will. Of course, me being me, I had to accept the challenge. What was the challenge? Was it to provide some 70 people at a late night party with food? Of course not...I've done that before, that's no challenge! Was it instead to do that...and then cook for both Kat's family and my own for Mother's Day? Yeah...that's it, now you're speaking my language. Normally I do these things on my own, but this time I decided to enlist help. Menu design was easy, I'd done most of the recipes before, but I really wasn't looking forward to peeling 6 lbs of shrimp this time. A good friend of mine whom I was role playing with the night before made an unprecedented offer. She offered me slave labor in the form of her daughter and niece. How cool is that? The kids didn't even ask why they were peeling shrimp until about 4 lbs in.
On Saturday after running the NARAL Pro-Choice 5k "Run for your rights" (to which some obnoxious protesters showed up) and spending the early afternoon with Kat's new baby fish we put our noses to the grindstone. While Kat handled the tomato and basil mini-pizzas I tackled the rest of the menu. Saturday's menu...scallops wrapped in curry and brown sugar pressed bacon, cajun shrimp, the above mentioned pizzas and an 8 layer chocolate and peanut butter cake. Of course that isn't meant to feed everyone, and this particular event isn't really a dinner party, it starts at 9 pm and the hosts, the gracious Mistress Matisse and her partner Max supply vegetable, fruit and cheese trays along with the full complement of alcohol. Fast forward through the preparation (which leaves the entire house smelling like bacon in case you wondered), the transportation, entertaining our new friend and guest, the cooking and serving...and the completely innocent activities that would occur at this sort of party (maybe another time...) to the next morning...
Kat and I wake up. It's 10:30 in the morning which wouldn't be unusual if we hadn't gone to bed at 4 am and would be less unusual if we were in our own bed instead of in Matisse's spare bedroom. Hey...it was 4 am and I'd been cooking since noon! Max prepared us a wonderful breakfast of bacon, eggs, pancakes and fresh fruit. Since it was nearly noon I threw a few pizzas into the oven to round out the meal. We even got to see the traditional breakfast food that makes Matisse such an amazing professional, but we were sworn to secrecy. Sorry!
Once we got home we crashed for a little while and then cleaned the house, threw together a spicy sausage ragu pasta; a summer salad with feta, pears, pecans and cranberries; some leftovers from the night before for appetizers (the scallops had no chance of survival...but some of the other food made it through); some cheese from Amsterdam and several bottles of nice red wine. We topped all that off with the remnants of the chocolate cake and cherry pie with vanilla ice cream. Though smaller scale than the night before I'm pleased to say that Kat and I completely rocked our first interfamily dinner event. I think both sets of parents were a little amazed at the expanse of the affair. We even had to set up a spare table...our table is not meant to serve nine...
The weekend...totally a culinary success. Lots of fun too. Big thanks again to Kat and our underage child labor for their help. Big thanks too to the kitchen aid at the party and an even bigger thank you to the lovely people who kept us entertained when I was able to pull myself away from the oven. It's rare, but it does happen.
We'd be happy to share any of the recipes above, but here's one to get you started:
Bacon-wrapped scallops with a twist:
6 T brown sugar
1 T curry powder
1/2 tsp cayenne
14 jumbo scallops (not smaller bay scallops)
14 slices bacon
28 toothpicks
Mix spices together in a bowl and set aside.
Cut eat strip of bacon in half (NOT lengthwise). Cook the bacon until it's just started to brown around the edges but is still malleable. Set the bacon aside on paper towel covered plates to remove the grease. After the grease has been blotted off, cover one side of the bacon with the spice mixture.
Slice each scallop in half. Put one scallop half, cut side down, onto each strip of bacon. Wrap the bacon around it and secure with a toothpick.
Place as many scallops as desired onto a lightly-oiled broiler pan. Set pan in oven 4-5 inches away from a hot broiler. Cook for 6 minutes, turning once.
Repeat with remaining scallops and enjoy!
Posted on May 18, 2007 @ 10:19 PM | 4 comments
On Saturday after running the NARAL Pro-Choice 5k "Run for your rights" (to which some obnoxious protesters showed up) and spending the early afternoon with Kat's new baby fish we put our noses to the grindstone. While Kat handled the tomato and basil mini-pizzas I tackled the rest of the menu. Saturday's menu...scallops wrapped in curry and brown sugar pressed bacon, cajun shrimp, the above mentioned pizzas and an 8 layer chocolate and peanut butter cake. Of course that isn't meant to feed everyone, and this particular event isn't really a dinner party, it starts at 9 pm and the hosts, the gracious Mistress Matisse and her partner Max supply vegetable, fruit and cheese trays along with the full complement of alcohol. Fast forward through the preparation (which leaves the entire house smelling like bacon in case you wondered), the transportation, entertaining our new friend and guest, the cooking and serving...and the completely innocent activities that would occur at this sort of party (maybe another time...) to the next morning...
Kat and I wake up. It's 10:30 in the morning which wouldn't be unusual if we hadn't gone to bed at 4 am and would be less unusual if we were in our own bed instead of in Matisse's spare bedroom. Hey...it was 4 am and I'd been cooking since noon! Max prepared us a wonderful breakfast of bacon, eggs, pancakes and fresh fruit. Since it was nearly noon I threw a few pizzas into the oven to round out the meal. We even got to see the traditional breakfast food that makes Matisse such an amazing professional, but we were sworn to secrecy. Sorry!
Once we got home we crashed for a little while and then cleaned the house, threw together a spicy sausage ragu pasta; a summer salad with feta, pears, pecans and cranberries; some leftovers from the night before for appetizers (the scallops had no chance of survival...but some of the other food made it through); some cheese from Amsterdam and several bottles of nice red wine. We topped all that off with the remnants of the chocolate cake and cherry pie with vanilla ice cream. Though smaller scale than the night before I'm pleased to say that Kat and I completely rocked our first interfamily dinner event. I think both sets of parents were a little amazed at the expanse of the affair. We even had to set up a spare table...our table is not meant to serve nine...
The weekend...totally a culinary success. Lots of fun too. Big thanks again to Kat and our underage child labor for their help. Big thanks too to the kitchen aid at the party and an even bigger thank you to the lovely people who kept us entertained when I was able to pull myself away from the oven. It's rare, but it does happen.
We'd be happy to share any of the recipes above, but here's one to get you started:
Bacon-wrapped scallops with a twist:
6 T brown sugar
1 T curry powder
1/2 tsp cayenne
14 jumbo scallops (not smaller bay scallops)
14 slices bacon
28 toothpicks
Mix spices together in a bowl and set aside.
Cut eat strip of bacon in half (NOT lengthwise). Cook the bacon until it's just started to brown around the edges but is still malleable. Set the bacon aside on paper towel covered plates to remove the grease. After the grease has been blotted off, cover one side of the bacon with the spice mixture.
Slice each scallop in half. Put one scallop half, cut side down, onto each strip of bacon. Wrap the bacon around it and secure with a toothpick.
Place as many scallops as desired onto a lightly-oiled broiler pan. Set pan in oven 4-5 inches away from a hot broiler. Cook for 6 minutes, turning once.
Repeat with remaining scallops and enjoy!
Posted on May 18, 2007 @ 10:19 PM | 4 comments
Comments:
Does the scallop sit spice-up or spice-down on the bacon?
By 
inkandpen, at
6:12 PM, May 19, 2007
The spiced side of the bacon faces the scallops, so the outside that you end up holding is just bacon and toothpick...the spices are safely nested against the scallop.
By Justin, at
10:03 PM, May 19, 2007
Come to michigan and make them for me, please!
...on second thought, I want to come out there and have them at one of THOSE parties. :o)
By sometrouble, at
8:10 PM, May 21, 2007
Peeling shrimp builds character. Swabbie is still sharing the story with friends and relatives. ("OMG! Raw shrimp is so gross!")
Your catering, as always, kicked ass! Please to send the spicy sausage ragu recipe.:)
By 
, at
6:39 PM, May 28, 2007
