Last night I felt very grown-up. We've had friends over before and done casual get-togethers here and there throughout the year, but yesterday we hosted what felt like our first very own grown-up dinner party for another couple we're friends with.
We decided we don't do enough things with other couples, so we invited Claire and her husband Adam over for dinner. I set the table properly (you'd be proud mom), and we had a lovely salad, homemade wheat rolls, gnocchi with butternut squash, kale, mushrooms (on the side, of course), and lots of cream and cheese. Pineapple upsidedown cake for dessert.
I was a little worried about everything, for one reason or another. First of all, dinner was set for 6:30pm and Jon worked that day till 6:00, so I'd be preparing on my own for the most part. Luckily, because he is the wonderful husband that he is, he cut both the butternut squashes for me before he left for work, which saved me tons of time trying to battle with those beasts. (Seriously, those things are ridiculously hard to cut up.) Then, I thought I only worked till 3:00 that day, which would have left plenty of time for the bread dough to rise (takes 2 1/2+ hours to rise), but I realized that morning that I actually worked till 4:00. This completely threw off my bread plan. Here's how a panicked me accomplished dinner preparations upon arrival at home.
4:15- arrive home and quickly threw dough together to start rising
4:30- Make cake batter, adding a little extra pineapple juice as I remember my last cake turning out a tad dry
5:00- put cake in oven and start making gnocchi. This proved unusually challenging for a couple of reasons. First of all, I had never 'blanched' anything before and had to quickly figure out how to blanch the kale. Secondly, the gnocchi proved to be a bit problematic. We decided to double the recipe as we (incorrectly) assumed one batch wouldn't be enough. This became tricky due to our lack of pots and pans...Long story short, between boiling the gnocchi, blanching the kale, frying the onions, herbs and mushrooms, and dividing the dish into two separate cooking pots (as there wasn't enough room for all the gnocchi in one pot), we used nearly every dish in the house.
6:00 Jon arrives home and helps me transfer and maneuver things around to make use of needed pots and pans and then quickly starts whipping up the salad.
6:05 A very gooey cake is removed from oven, I hope it solidifies. Jon shoos me upstairs to change clothes before guest arrive.
6:20 I dash back downstairs and finish the salad
6:25 Bread dough, with about an hour of rising left to do, is quickly formed into rolls and apologetically shoved in the oven
6:40 Guests arrive with drinks, luckily a few minutes late as dinner is nearly but not quite ready
6:50 Twelve very large, sadly un-browned, but nicely cooked rolls are removed from oven and gnocchi is inserted, for breadcrumbs and Parmesan topping to brown.
7:00-10:30 dinner is served and happily enjoyed! Delightful conversation takes place throughout the evening, tea and cake are enjoyed later on, and a rousing round of Catchphrase concludes this delightful evening.
We decided we don't do enough things with other couples, so we invited Claire and her husband Adam over for dinner. I set the table properly (you'd be proud mom), and we had a lovely salad, homemade wheat rolls, gnocchi with butternut squash, kale, mushrooms (on the side, of course), and lots of cream and cheese. Pineapple upsidedown cake for dessert.
I was a little worried about everything, for one reason or another. First of all, dinner was set for 6:30pm and Jon worked that day till 6:00, so I'd be preparing on my own for the most part. Luckily, because he is the wonderful husband that he is, he cut both the butternut squashes for me before he left for work, which saved me tons of time trying to battle with those beasts. (Seriously, those things are ridiculously hard to cut up.) Then, I thought I only worked till 3:00 that day, which would have left plenty of time for the bread dough to rise (takes 2 1/2+ hours to rise), but I realized that morning that I actually worked till 4:00. This completely threw off my bread plan. Here's how a panicked me accomplished dinner preparations upon arrival at home.
4:15- arrive home and quickly threw dough together to start rising
4:30- Make cake batter, adding a little extra pineapple juice as I remember my last cake turning out a tad dry
5:00- put cake in oven and start making gnocchi. This proved unusually challenging for a couple of reasons. First of all, I had never 'blanched' anything before and had to quickly figure out how to blanch the kale. Secondly, the gnocchi proved to be a bit problematic. We decided to double the recipe as we (incorrectly) assumed one batch wouldn't be enough. This became tricky due to our lack of pots and pans...Long story short, between boiling the gnocchi, blanching the kale, frying the onions, herbs and mushrooms, and dividing the dish into two separate cooking pots (as there wasn't enough room for all the gnocchi in one pot), we used nearly every dish in the house.
6:00 Jon arrives home and helps me transfer and maneuver things around to make use of needed pots and pans and then quickly starts whipping up the salad.
6:05 A very gooey cake is removed from oven, I hope it solidifies. Jon shoos me upstairs to change clothes before guest arrive.
6:20 I dash back downstairs and finish the salad
6:25 Bread dough, with about an hour of rising left to do, is quickly formed into rolls and apologetically shoved in the oven
6:40 Guests arrive with drinks, luckily a few minutes late as dinner is nearly but not quite ready
6:50 Twelve very large, sadly un-browned, but nicely cooked rolls are removed from oven and gnocchi is inserted, for breadcrumbs and Parmesan topping to brown.
7:00-10:30 dinner is served and happily enjoyed! Delightful conversation takes place throughout the evening, tea and cake are enjoyed later on, and a rousing round of Catchphrase concludes this delightful evening.
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