Foodie Party of the Year

Can you see where the candle came from?

Ah. Tomorrow is the big 2-9. I'm now on the official luge to 30. Not just downhill anymore. Luge. Rumors abound that the 30s rock, so I'm feeling positive about the whole thing.

To recognize the 2-9, I opted for a Foodie Feast. Or maybe the 2-9 was just a proper excuse to do one anyway. Luckily, I am surrounded by foodie friends here, so we banded together to maximize our powers. Tapas, we decided. The intricately planned menu was as follows:

• Roasted red pepper tapenade w/ basil, garlic and balsamic on crostini
• Herb and goat cheese stuffed cremini mushrooms
• Chicken satay with peanut sauce
• Vietnamese spring rolls (pork, veggie & shrimp)
• Chicken, Pork & Beef tamales
• Brie baked in filo with pecans and cranberries on crostini
• Prosciutto-wrapped melon balls and shrimp
• Southern Comfort punch
• Coconut cake with vanilla buttercream and fresh toasted coconut
• Peets French Roast with Longevity brand condensed milk

A couple of issues:

1. You would be surprised (the word for me is "stunned") at how hard it was to get quality ingredients in this area for the above dishes, even though none of our ingredients were particularly exotic. We went to 4 stores before we found creminis that could pass our stringent quality litmus test and were large enough to render them stuffable. Pathetic. The shopping process, which should only take and hour or two, took damn near 5 hours and covered close to 40 miles.

We're 6 1/2 hours in at this point. Gettin' a little weird.

2. Coconut cake was a challenge from the get-go and we can only blame ourselves ("let's use ultra fine cake flour!", "lets make our own shredded coconut!", "let's use the cooked buttercream recipe. How hard could it be?").

a)

b)_____________________________c)
a) Johnny goes after fresh, unsweetened coconut. b) it doesn't go quiiiiite
as planned, looking more like crab bait than coconut meat. c) OK...fresh
coconut FAIL. Time for a "well-stocked Asian market."

Cake-related frustrations peaked at assembly time, when we a) discovered a small pocket of uncooked dough on two of the layers, prompting a re-entry into the oven and subsequent drying out of those layers, b) experienced confusion as to exactly how to return the refrigerated buttercream to smooth spreadability while avoiding the inherent danger of "chunkiness", and c) struggled to spread the buttercream that was thenceforth refusing to STICK to the cake. GAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!!

Who can tell that this cake was the bane of
my existence?? It looks so tasty and innocent.

This, among other timing issues, forced us to be frantically cooking at the last minute while guests arrived and milled about. Guests arrived at about 7 and it was about 8:30 before everything made it to the table and we de-aproned. Once that happened, the products were greeted by many an "ooh", "ah", and "mmm."

I feel especially proud because our friend Ro is about to embark on her first long-term TV gig and subsequently can't eat ANYTHING fun for the next 3 months. Just egg whites and vegetables. Lame lame lame. Her tiny self polished off a whole slice of wonder cake. At least we sent her off properly.

Food Fans (clockwise): Casey, Tanya, Johnny, Jillian, Alex,
Me, Ro, Julia & Kif

Much to my amazement, by 1:00 am, you'd never know that any of this had happened. The house was, once again, spotless. God love foodie friends Tanya & Johnny, whose superpowers in the kitchen are unsurpassed.

Finishing off the last of the Southern Comfort Punch.
Waste not, want not!