Hostess with the Mostest

One of the best things about my time in Chicago was the number of amazing chefs who invited me to dinner parties in their homes, usually with The New Oregonian as my date. Cocktails before dinner, multiple courses, tables set with linens and fresh flowers, decadent desserts, great conversation, and new people across the table every week…there's no way around it: I got spoiled. In my corporate studio apartment, I wasn't able to reciprocate, so I'm trying to make up for it from afar here in our H-Town pad. The first dinner party experiment was Wednesday night, because the best way I could think of to spend my day off was to be in the kitchen all afternoon long. Seriously. I don't know when cooking stopped being stressful and miserable for me and started being satisfying and enjoyable, but Wednesday I was all about the menu planning and the cleaning (with lots of help from CM, of course) and the chopping and the roasting and the serving.

It wasn't as fancy as some dinner parties, but if I may say so myself, I think the night was a great success. Forthwith, the details:

The Guest List
The newly affianced BrandNewMiniCooperGirl and The Trainer
CaliBoy
Broadway Baby
(And me and CameraMan, obvs)

The Menu
Aviation Cocktails before dinner
Beet Salad with Goat Cheese and Dill (I roasted the beets myself! They were slippery.)
Cranberry Parker House Rolls
Chicken and Basil Roulades
Asparagus (that I forgot to serve—oops)
Ben & Jerry's with hot fudge sauce (courtesy of BNMCGirl)

The Aftermath
Ummm... it's possible there was some wine to go with the aforementioned menu. Which may have resulted in many many animal impressions and general hilarity. Which may have been caught on video by (who else?) CameraMan. Which I would love to upload, as soon as I figure out how to do that.