We had a great turnout for our November open house dinner last Saturday: 28 people! What a wonderful evening it was.

The food went over well and, of course, the conversation was the highlight. We are both really looking forward to next month’s open house dinner, and on the menu?Tapas!

I was far too busy finishing cooking everything that could not be done ahead of time on Friday so there are not too many pictures, although Belle did snap a few of me – I think she should have stuck to the food.

And on the menu:

Appetizers

* Smoked Salmon Mousse with Baguette Slices
* Mini Tortilla Quiches
* Spinach and Yogurt Dip with Caramelized Onion & Pita bread

Dinner

* Fava bean stew with crusty bread

* North African Shrimp (I just love this recipe – I’ll post it in the next few days)

* Crazy Rice (while not exactly Mediterranean – okay, so it’s from Brazil, so it’s not even close – we had to think of the children too!)

* Eggplant Salad, Country Style

* Chicken Salad with Tarragon, Pine Nuts & Raisins

* Beef and Rice Meatballs in a Yogurt-Tomato Sauce (unfortunately, we didn’t snap a picture of the sauce)

* Crisp Bitter Greens with Vinaigrette

Dessert

* Jamaican Rum Spiced Pumpkin Pie

The pie looks a lot better then the last time I made it, and the taste was still incredible. I still need to develop the touch or finesse for baking, though.

People also brought some entrées for the table. Joe brought a baked salmon and Chris brought lamb chops, both very delicious. And there were also a ton of really lovely desserts, including a wonderfully moist pear cake that Julie, Steve’s wife, made.

I really think I need to either take a food photography class or invite a top photographer to dinner every night. Yes, as it turns out, I just discovered that I know a very good photographer! Corby Chapin, one of my Aikido students. He is also a great cook himeslf, especially on the BBQ – a real barbecue master.

Or maybe the quality of the pictures might just be due to the fact that I dropped my camera a while back – it now no longer takes videos, only pictures. So I might need a new camera!

I’m looking forward to our next dinner. I’ve also been thinking that maybe once a month is not enough – we need to have more wonderful nights like our last Open House Dinner.

Thank you to everyone who came, put up with my cooking and made the night such a wonderful evening!

Belle’s note: We had a fabulous time, and the food was excellent. I was so busy enjoying myself, I forgot to take pictures of the appetizers – luckily Ward was thinking on his feet (while managing all the cooking, too!) and took a picture of the salmon mousse. The mini tortilla quiches were adorable looking and incredibly fun to eat – I think I’ll have to persuade Ward to make it again just so I can remember to take pictures of it!

The other thing is, even though he’s home for lunch, he never gets around to cooking lunch. We generally make do with leftovers, or eggs, or toast – not particularly inspiring.

But when he has the ingredients on hand, lunch is just as fabulous as dinner. Take today’s lunch, for instance; Ward had grabbed a pound of mussels yesterday but forgot to make them to go with last night’s dinner, so we had a lovely meal of mussels steamed in a white wine, garlic and herb broth (which he then rendered into a gorgeous garlicky good sauce!).

Mussels for Lunch!

And the Garlicky Good Sauce

So I’ve been appointed Chief Meal Planner; it’s my job to lounge around with a stack of cookbooks and cooking magazines, and decide on a handful of dinner menus and some lunch items. I know. It’s a tough job, but someone’s got to do it, right? I made the ultimate sacrifice and volunteered for duty.

Here’s what will be on our table this week (Ward has the job of deciding what he wants to cook on what days):

Menu 1

• Korean grilled short ribs
• fried bean sprouts with garlic
• spicy garlic and chive fried rice

Menu 2

• white beans with tomatoes, garlic and sage
• focaccia con apolle
• spinach with lemon and garlic

Menu 3

• Pollo Alla Diavola
• grilled mushroom caps with arugula butter
• spaghetti con zucchini

Menu 4

• Malaysian chicken satés
• beef satés with coriander
• vegetable salad with peanut dressing
• sesame noodles

Menu 5

• shrimp and white beans
• flat olive bread
• insalata misla con mele e noci (mixed salad with apple and nuts)

And our lunch choices this week will be:

• chickpea soup
• Roman gnocchi
• zucchini pie

I’ll be posting about different dishes from this list this week. Let’s hope our weekly dinner planning experiment goes well!

The shabu shabu was a huge hit, especially with the kids. There’s something about being able to cook your own food at the table that’s loads of fun. We bought an electric burner (so inexpensive! $12.99 …) and placed the pot of boiling broth on it in the center of the table:

You can have virtually anything in your shabu shabu, so tonight we opted for flank steak, tuna and tofu. The broth contained spinach and green onions, and we had two kinds of noodles.

I’ll post the recipe later this week. We will definitely do this again, probably with more seafood!

Sage Leaves on Top

Gorgeous & Saucy Layers

Delectable Shrimp in Spicy Sauce

Twice-Baked Stuffed Potatoes

On the menu tonight:

Rib Eye Marchand de Vins: lovely rare rib-eye steaks with a sauce made from a pan reduction of shallots, stock, thyme and a good red wine.

Corn Griddle Cakes: a simple corn pancake.

Rum-Glazed Plantains: Rum and brown sugar, grilled until the sugar caramelizes a little.

These three recipes were from The New Steak, by Cree LeFavour. The cooking times for the rib-eye seemed a bit off to us, especially since we like steak rare, so Ward adapted things somewhat.

We also had:

Arabian spinach: a quick stir-fry of spinach, onions, spices and chick peas. Perfect for our daughter who’s a vegetarian, and a great side dish for us. From The Ultimate Vegetarian Cookbook, by Roz Denny.

Twice-baked potatoes: the perfect baked potato, excellently seasoned with exactly the right amount of butter. From The Best Vegetable Recipes, from the editors of Cook’s Illustrated.

All in all, quite a nice meal. Maybe a little too much food on the plate, but we’re a very good household for leftovers, since we’ve got two teenagers!

Corn Griddle Cakes