I made dinner for a new group of friends this weekend. My theme an all local dinner. I poured over recipes and shopped two farmers market collecting beautiful, fresh ingredients with plans for a really nice evening, like the last night we entertained.
It bombed. I went completely away from what I believe. The idea of letting fresh whole foods shine. I grossly overcooked the pork chops, over-seasoned the potatoes, over chilled the aoili for the asparagus so it came out in big thick blobs. Not to mention I nearly cut the end of my finger off! Somehow the focus turned from an enjoyable simple meal to how to stop Leslie’s finger from gushing blood!
It is a good thing I had some wonderful guests who were incredibly forgiving. This meal really upset me. The night before and the night after John and I ate the most incredible dinners. So here I have two couples that I want to get to know better, two couples I want to treat. I love to share goodness with those who are good to me. Normally feeding amazing food, is how I share goodness. Not only that but I lost sight of the goodness of simply prepared fresh food.
There were a couple redeeming moments, the wilted salad with roasted shallot balsamic dressing was quite good, although I forgot to get my favorite salad mix from La Villa Real farm. I’ll share the salad recipe later this week. Desert was very good, brown sugar and strawberry ice cream with crisp chocolate cookies.
So I am planning a repeat performance, and I will keep it simple. No complicated sauces, no over powering seasoning, just beautiful food prepared simply.
