Random

Tonight I made dinner for my book club. I've never put together such an incoherent menu before - but it was just all stuff I really wanted to eat, so that's what we had. And luckily, everyhting was good enough that the invitees were happy as well.

Le Menu
Twice Baked Goat Cheese Souffle
Ropa Vieja
Rhubarb Strawberry Pie

Seriously - there is no logic that you can draw to this menu.

I like a first course salad and this sounded good. It was actually pretty easy to do - if I hadn't been running extraordinarily late. But still, not that bad. It was all eaten - even by the folks who don't like goat cheese (2/7). The thing to remember about this one is when they say that the you bring the roux+milk to a 'boil', you have to remember that it's already practically a solid (so interpret 'boil' loosely).

I've been craving Ropa Vieja. And it's pretty easy - just a little time consuming. I braised in the morning while working. The rest of the stuff was just some (very) easy chopping and then throwing stuff together. Seriously, this is a cheap and easy dish (I served 7 (including seconds for most) and have left-overs (plenty of left overs)).

And every weekend, I drive by the farmers' market and say that I should stop and get rhubarb and strawberries. And I finally made the pie (though it was fresh direct (with not exactly the freshest rhubarb (I had to throw half out))) and it was fantastic!! I had to change from Elise's recipe a bit - I forgot tapioca (used 3T of cornstarch instead, someone in comments said 1T cornstarch + 1T flour wasn't enough, my mom suggested 6T (but I don't love cornstarch), so I compromised with about 3 (maybe closer to 4)), I forgot orange (no substitute) and used a Crisco crust instead of butter (I don't have a food processor, so the butter crust, while very appealing - seems impossible).

So, fabulous meal - just not really a Martha-type coherent menu. Everyone enjoyed though, so what else do you want.