October 22 is School Woods official birthday – at least it’s the date of the very first dinner I put on there in 2006. For School Woods 6th, I put on a Sunday Supper. Fifteen diners, and a lovely time had by all. I think I liked the chicken filo rolls better than the veg – the broccoli ones seemed a little mushy – but I only had a few bites of each – really only an edge of the crusty, seeped filling of the chicken, and I ate about 1/4 of a leftover broccoli while I was cleaning up. The corn tomato soup suffered a bit of scope creep – the parsnips insisted on asserting their personalities as much as the tomatoes & corn. The focaccia was one of the best I’ve ever made, thank you Carol Field. I make the focaccia from Liguria, with white wine & olive oil, and weighed the flour using one of my favorite kitchen appliances, my nifty scale, that was an Xmas gift in 2010; 2011 was immersion blender that I have been putting to good use on apple-cranberry sauce, recently. Also thanks last minute inspiration to top the focaccia with the fresh rosemary from the market. To go with, for appetizers, I roasted the 3 giant red peppers I got in my Tipi box, and sliced them into strips and tossed with lime juice and garlic, and thawed out a carton of caponata. Another good last minute idea was making the goat cheese & mascarpone & pesto into a little torta. I was sure I shot it on Sunday evening, when it was new and pretty with olive oil drizzled over and pepper ground on top, but no, only got the 2-day old leftovers. I switched the dessert from baked apples with créme Anglaise to trifle – with brandied pear sauce, the above-mentioned cranberry-apple sauce, & créme, and whipped cream. I made one trifle in my footed trifle bowl, and another in a new fluted glass square baking dish I bought at the co-op on Saturday (missing my board discount …) I took a picture of the round trifle layers, but didn’t really get it to pose for its closeup until it was leftovers, too.
Speaking of leftovers, pretty manageable – Stephen & Belinda showed up to eat at just the right moment. I gave Max a container of kale salad, and ate it for lunch myself on Monday, and finally tossed the last bit that was mostly soggy breadcrumbs and raisins last night. I am going to make the soup into stock with the chicken bones. The leftover squash will become a filo-wrapped appetizer, squash cigars, for the next party. I’m arranging the last of the chicken & broccoli rolls I hope attractively in the fridge, on the chance that Al will eat them next time he stops by.
I took the day off today for mental health, so I’m writing still in pajamas past 10:00 a.m., hair unbrushed. My plan is to catch up here, then go grocery shopping for this weekend’s cooking – brunch on Sunday and apps for a party that I can’t talk about yet. It’s raining, so I don’t have to rake leaves – happy, tho guilty about that – we have the most leaves in our yard of anyone on the block. And in the afternoon, call on my book accounts for Local Foods Journal.
