More Than a Grain of Salt

Well, its been a while. Unfortunately I don't have that much to write about. I've spent the last month traveling almost non-stop. And then coming home on the weekends and collapsing. On the plus side, I have worked through about 1.5 years of backlog cooking magazines and pulled out the recipes I want to keep. Although I still haven't filed, categorized, or cross-referenced them as I would like. Where is my detail-oriented mother when I need her?

Of note, I had one of my good friends and on of T's co-workers over for dinner. The soup was terrible. Its actually a very lovely soup.....when it isn't overwhelmed with salt. Same issue with the pork, too much salt. I was really off my game. The saving grace of the meal was my sticky toffee pudding that my friend said was "so good I wanted to dive into it and eat my way out."

So while it wasn't a complete disaster, it wasn't much fun for me. The food wasn't great, and the company was strange. Not that either of them were actually strange, just a strange combination. I guess I'm not ready to be THE COMMANDER'S WIFE. It made me uncomfortable to realize, half way through the dinner, that everything I said was going to be repeated across the entire office. Sigh.

Well, since that experiment (both food and company) was a flop, in a "get back on the horse after you've been thrown off" sort of way I'm going to have T's deputy (not the one who is a flake, the one who isn't) and his wife for dinner. T proposed that I not do an overly complex meal.....which of course made me pout. In a rare moment of compromise, we collectively came up with the following menu:

Mini tarts of atichoke hearts and marscapone
Garden Salad with Raspberry Vinagrette
Turkey Breast Tournados (this is the new dish I'm trying) - Stuffed with Pancetta
Grilled Antipasta Vegetables
Fontina Cheese Sauce (for the Turkey, to approximate chicken cordon blu, and the Veggies)
Popovers
Apple Tart Tartin

So only 1 new dish, but I've never done a turkey break before, and it should look pretty if I can do it right. Plus T helped me put the menu together, so I think it will be good. And probably something they will like, as opposed to suffering through one of my creations. Speaking of which, I need to find someone like Greg to suffer through my creations. I won't ever get any better by making traditional food. I think its time for another cooking class.

Or perhaps some sleep...... I'm exhausted. I'm off to go dream of the best grilled cheese sandwich in the world (from Sesame).