Holiday Dinner No. 1

night John and I hosted the first of two 2009 Christmas dinner parties at our house. Having a dinner party on a Friday after work is always a little bit challenging given the time restraint, so planning the menu required a little creativity. I recently purchased Ina Garten's Barefoot in Paris cookbook which I LOVE and I've been eyeing the Roasted Pork Loin with Green Peppercorn Sauce recipe. I concluded it would be perfect for a crowd, would require minimal prep time and would make for a nice presentation. You can find the recipe here.

Alongside the pork, my mother suggested a recipe she'd found with my Pesca-tarian sister in mind- a Butternut Squash and Kale Bread Pudding. (She's a vegetarian that eats fish and shellfish, finding vegetarian main dishes packed with extra protein is tricky.) I'd never made anything like it before, I was very intrigued. Besides what's not to love about butternut squash and what's not to love about bread pudding- surely the combination would be a success. Sure enough, it worked very nicely as a fall side dish. A starch and veggie in one too- which saved me some additional preparation.

I was having 6 guests for dinner. I tasked them with appetizers and wine so we started with a selection of salami and cheeses that they'd brought. I wanted to make a festive cocktail to kick off the night as well. After all it was a Friday and who doesn't look forward to a chilled cocktail after a long work week?? I perused some recipes on Epicurious.com and settled on a Lemon-Basil Vodka Gimlet. Y-U-M-M-Y! I made the syrup earlier in the day (I halved the recipe as it was written) and then mixed the syrup, lemon juice, and vodka before serving. I topped them off with a splash of club soda and a basil leaf. The basil flavor was subtle yet added a little something special. I ended up trying one with gin too and I actually think I might have liked it a little better. I'm not typically a gin drinker (I ran out of vodka at the end) but the lemon and soda really mellowed the flavor and the basil worked nicely in there as well.

While my guests were finishing up cocktails and opening the wines- my pork was ready to come out of the oven. While it rested, I made green peppercorn sauce right in the roasting pan over the stove. (I followed Ina's recipe exactly- because her dishes are perfection.) We had a bit of an issue with the pork roast unfortunately- we had a really hard time finding the joint into which we could cut to separate the chops. I was really looking forward to serving the chops on the bone- the presentation is so elegant. However in the interest of time, my best slicing knife and eating hot food- John decided to cut the loin off of the rib bones before slicing into individual chops. We had difficulty finding the joint where you can slice through the bone holding all of the ribs in place to separate them. The inner ribs (quite a bit larger than the ends) were cooked to perfection- an ideal medium temperature. The outer, smaller chops were on the dry side...boo. Fortunately a generous dousing of the green peppercorn sauce (and the gimlet cocktail starter) helped disguise that fact!

I assembled the bread pudding as soon as I got home from work. (I actually roasted my butternut squash and cleaned my kale in advance that morning.) I baked the casserole before the pork and then put it back in the oven at 350 to rewarm as soon as the pork came out. Per the other reader's reviews/suggestions, I made a few changes to the bread pudding recipe:

*used whole milk instead of half and half

*added 5 cloves of minced garlic in with the shallot before sauteeing the kale

*used half gruyere and half cheddar cheese

*tossed a generous tablespoon of chopped fresh sage and 5 or 6 springs of fresh thyme with the squash before roasting

*added three springs of fresh thyme leaves to the milk mixture before soaking the bread

*used slightly less bread (approx 8 cups)

*added 2 extra eggs to the custard

Having enjoyed great company, delicious wine and a tasty meal- we were missing only one thing... dessert. I called upon an old family favorite recipe- Kentucky Derby Pie. I used my grandmother's recipe (simple made even simpler by way of a Pillsbury unroll-and-bake pie crust.) I blind-baked the pie shell at 350 for about 8 minutes just until it started to puff but was not yet starting to turn golden brown.

Meanwhile, in a bowl, I whisked together the filling:

2 eggs, slightly beaten 1 cup sugar ¼ cup flour 1 stick butter, melted and cooled 1 cup pecans 1 cup chocolate chips 1 tsp vanilla1 T Bourbon

I transferred the filling into the shell and placed back into the oven for 40 minutes. Luckily I checked on it around 30 minutes and noticed that the shell was slightly over-brown so I threw my aluminum pie shield thingy over it (you can cover loosely with tin foil if you don't have one of these). I later realized that I'd really over cooked the whole pie slightly. It still tasted delicious however the consistency was almost cookie-like. It's really supposed to have a goo-factor to it. I whipped some fresh cream to serve over top of the eight, fairly large slices, and there wasn't a single bite left at the end of the meal...I guess you could say it was a hit!