Daily Prompt:

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dance, dinner party, music, postaday2014

What are your earliest and fondest memories of dance?

My parents came over to the United States in 1967, a couple of months before I was born. I don’t know where my mother found the courage to leave her entire family while very pregnant with her first child to come to the United States, not speaking the language, but she found it. I know that my great aunt (Tantine Georgette) was a source of great comfort and introduced my parents to many of her friends, that was a huge help. It was those friends that became my mother’s best friends for the years down the road. My father was a very outgoing and easy going person, so for him it wasn’t such a traumatic move, but for my mother, I can barely imagine how it must have felt, I do know that my Tantine Georgette was a lifeline and the friends that she introduced into my parent’s universe made our lives wonderful because they were all French and it made our little circle feel as if France was always nearby.

My parents and their friends had the best dinner parties and after all of the food was eaten, the party moved away from the dinner table and onto the dance floor, which at whoever’s house the party was held at, was inevitably the living room. The records were sorted out and out came the samba, the rhumba, the tango, the waltz and the slow dances and even though these were my earliest memories of dance and music; it doesn’t mean that I was a bystander, I was out in the middle of the dance floor and getting my first dance lessons from my father and my father’s friends.

I especially loved dancing with my father, he always sang to the Platter’s, “Only You” was one of his favorite’s as was “The Great Pretender”, that was another one. When he taught me the tango, he always hummed to the beat while we danced and that helped me keep count with him without actually counting, his sounds kept the steps and the music in time, all in my head, it felt right and I didn’t have to think about it, just follow my father.

I miss those days.

Change in the menu

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audience, dinner party, menu, postaday2012

Yesterday I wrote my post speaking about the menu that I was expecting for the dinner party that my cousin Didier and his wife were throwing for us band of young cousins; I arrived at Didier’s, kissed everyone hello and Didier said that I had made a few errors in my post describing the menu. I laughed because ever since I arrived in France, my cousins have been reading my blog and they aren’t shy in their comments. I think that having my cousins reading my blog and getting interested in what I have to say is a huge compliment and makes for great conversations. Didier’s one sentence about my post was a gift for writing a new post, so here is an editorial correction of yesterday’s post.

First I have to say that Vivianne outdid herself in the kitchen, everything was faites maison, or homemade, and was delicious. For starters, at the aperitif or before dinner drinks, Vivianne served us, on several plates, these tiny little bowls, each one contained a different hor d’oeuvre, one was a tiny cubed salad of cantaloupe, cucumber and cheese, the cubes were tiny, tiny and the vinaigrette was light, it was so good and refreshing, the manual labor involved in that tiny salad was impressive. There was also a light presentation of smoked salmon over a herbed creme fraiche that was very good, there was also an Asian version of a tartare of salmon with a sauce, that was light and elegant as well.I almost forgot my favorite, I am a huge fan of the foie gras and breast of duck.Vivianne made a terrine of smoked breast of duck and homemade foie gras, she sliced the terrine very thinly and put them on small toast rounds, it was to die for, if I could have, I would have eaten much more than I did, but it isn’t good manners to hog a plate all to oneself, so I shared, begrudgingly.

After all that, we went to the table and the entrée or appetizer wasn’t the famous cantaloupe and prosciutto, it was a tomato and buffalo mozzarella salad with basil, nice and light, perfect start before the famous kebabs. Leon, he who must be mentioned as much as possible lest he pout again at being left out of the conversation, he got a plate of cantaloupe and prosciutto as a joke, it was quite funny, he complains about everything, so Vivianne teased him quite a bit last night. The desserts after the kebab, salad and cheese course, I have to mention all the food we had before the desserts to give you an idea of how stuffed I felt by the time dessert was put on the table. Now if it had been ice cream, I could have said no thank you, I am so full, there isn’t any more room in my little belly, but these were homemade by our hostess with the mostest; I could not in good conscience refuse. She had made two tarts, one a simple apple tart and the other was an apricot tart with a beautiful custard filling, how do you say no, you can’t and they were delicious. When we all said good-bye, I made sure to compliment the chef, Vivianne, profusely because she had put a lot of work and time, we were twelve for dinner so it was a lot of preparation. I know that when I spend all that time and energy cooking it really makes me happy to hear all good things afterwards.

Dinner Party Review

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dinner party, postaday2012

The dinner party was very nice, our guests were absolutely delightful and the food turned out to be edible. Actually, the food was good, the husband did an excellent job cooking the duck and the escargots and the sauces came out good as well. The conversation was so easy, I didn’t know them that well but the conversation flowed freely without any awkward silences at all. I felt so comfortable with them that when it came to be dessert time, Judy unveiled her homemade cake and it was a layered strawberry buttercream layered cake, it was a beautiful sight to behold, I unfortunately am extremely allergic to strawberries and I had to tell them because I didn’t know what else to do. If I hadn’t said anything about my allergies I would have seemed rude refusing to have a slice of her cake. Judy said “oh no, I asked your husband if you had any food allergies.” I started laughing and I turned to my husband and said “why do you want to do me in for, I thought that we were happily married?” He felt stupid and tried to put it on me, saying that he thought that I would have simply refused, I said to him “oh yes, that would have been a lot more polite” I swear, husband just admit that you forgot something, it’s okay. The dinner went on as smoothly as before without a lull in the conversation. They left at 11:30, the time passed so quickly, I could have sworn that it was only 10:00, the sign of an excellent evening is when you don’t notice the time flying by. I cleaned up as much as I could, that really means as much as the dishwasher could handle, I’ll tackle the rest tomorrow. It was a lot of fun.

Dinner party tomorrow, Yikes!

Tags

cooking, dinner party, postaday2012, shopping

My husband informed me earlier in the week that he had invited a couple for Saturday night. Okay, that’s fine I know them, not very well but enough to know that they are both kind and warm people. We brainstorm on a menu which is fairly low maintenance, a nice change of pace considering the last few dinners that I have cooked with my mother, she got into a complicated cooking phase for the past six months. Tomorrow’s menu will be the following: the appetizer will be escargots Duglaire, a cream based sauce flavored with a reduction of sautéed garlic, shallots, white wine vinegar and white wine, once it has been reduced to a syrupy consistency then you add the cream and a spoonful of tomato sauce and then you add the escargots. When we serve the escargots with the sauce and a sprinkling of fresh chopped tomatoes on top.

We will then proceed to the main course, pan seared breast of duck served with a porcini/chanterelle mushroom cream sauce. The breast of duck is easy, all that needs to be done to the breasts, is scoring of the layer of skin covering the fat on the breast, so that when you put the duck in the pan to sear it skin side down, you render all the fat out that you can reuse later for sautéing the baby potatoes to a golden crispy delight. The mushroom cream sauce is similar to the other cream sauce above, you saute onions until translucent, while you soak the dried mushrooms in hot water until they reconstitute, after which you add white wine and then a tiny bit of white wine vinegar and the strained mushroom liquor, same as before, you reduce the wine, the vinegar and the mushroom liquor after which you add the cream and the mushrooms. When the plates are up for serving, you take a breast which has been resting for 5 minutes and you slice it on the angle like a steak, I’m going to cook the breasts to medium-rare and serve the mushroom sauce alongside it and I’ll spoon the sautéed baby potatoes(in duck fat!) next to the duck slices. Which brings me to the vegetables, I’m going to make my new favorite vegetable side dish. A simple sautéing of onions, kale, spinach and toasted hazelnuts. The way I described it on the screen is exactly how you prepare it, you toast the hazelnuts, don’t scorch them! and put them aside for now. You then saute the onions, kale and spinach, salt and pepper it and then add the toasted hazelnuts and you are done. It is so extremely good, that I secretly hope the guests don’t go crazy for it as I do so that I have more leftovers, bad hostess, bad hostess.

I was originally going to make the dessert but the nice lady called to confirm and she said that they were going to bring dessert. Which makes this dinner party infinitely easier for me, even though part of me was disappointed to not have to make dessert. I was intending to make either a Paris Brest or a Galette aux Rois, in honor of the day of Epiphany. The Galette aux Rois is the traditional cake that is made to celebrate the feast of kings where, within the almond pastry cream you put a fava bean and whoever gets i,t is the king of the feast. The Paris Best was an idea just because since it is circular, it looks like a crown. Either way both desserts would have involved tricky dough and tricky pastry cream with the traditional flavorings of nuts, that I do not need to concern myself with. If I feel that bereft from lack of baking I can always make a pastry sometime during the week and maybe surprise my friends with a slice or two.

And by the way, my vacuum broke just today, earlier this evening towards the tail end of the vacuum loop of the house. So early tomorrow morning I must drive down to pick up fresh bread and a new vacuum so that I can finish cleaning the house. It should be a very nice evening and I am looking forward to the time in the kitchen making special treats.