Monday, July 7, 2008

Foodie Frenzy

Ok...it's crunch time. This coming Friday night is "Garden Party". It's the seventh year that we've done a progressive dinner/ garden party with two other couples. The first year we all nearly killed ourselves making our gardens beautiful...we set pretty tables in our gardens and made delicious food. The next year we declared it was going to be "all about the food".

It's possible to do it all, the garden, the table settings, the pressed linens, the flowers...and of course the food! But in order to do it all this middle aged woman needs a whole bottle of ibuprophen (or vicodin) and a week to recover. Martha Stewart has staff, I don't...nor do my friends. Hence the unanimous decision that Garden Parties would be all about the food. I'm still working on the garden but not in a frenzy, the frenzy is in the kitchen!

One couple does cocktails and appetizers, another does main course and then it's dessert at the last garden, every year we rotate - last year I did dessert and this year I'm back to appetizers...woohooo...my favorite! The menu is always a secret so I can't post about what I'm making until after the event. Speaking of menus, the photo is a menu from a dinner party I did last year for moms birthday, I love making menus...it's fun for the guests and it's a great way to keep track of what I made over the years. Last year I made a dessert menu but the font was really fine so a photo wasn't possible. Here's what I served to my guests.

GARDEN PARTY
Dessert Menu
July 14, 2007
Raspberry Bellinis
Roasted Peach Sorbet
served on
Pistachio Waves
with
Fresh Okanogan Peach Slices
Dark Chocolate Lime Souffle
with
Whipped Lime Cream, Raspberry Coulis
and
Fresh Local Berries
Banyuls Rimage, France 2003
Espresso
Frennch Roast
Okay folks, I'm off to the kitchen...it's time to do some prep cooking!
* bloggers note* why won't blogger let me put spaces in my menu so it's easier to read? grrrr

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

spaces? p and /p inside brackets. Whatever is between the two p's is a paragraph. If you didn't understand that, send me an email amd I'll try to be more illustrative.

Dinner sounds lovely.
I have a group of friends and I who do something similar, but monthly, and much more casual. The rule is, we HAVE to make something we've never cooked before, and we always have a theme. Our July theme is beach and we're eating at the beach!

Diane Mandy said...

There will be pictures, right?

jkluginbill said...

I love hearing about the garden parties. :) They sound delightfully yummy! Have fun!

Tami said...

Can't wait, but we have to because I have 5 zillion things to do yet...

Carletta said...

A gardener, a photographer, and now a cook - what don't you do! :)
Sounds delicious.
Diane asked first - pictures to follow we hope.