My dinner party on Saturday night was an absolute blast! Lots of laughing and happy screaming.
Now I can tell you about the near catastrophes that only my husband, my glam best friend, one other good friend, and my mother know about before. The menu: sauteed duck breast over roasted baby vegetables, then roasted turkey breast (disks that alternated with parsley mashed potatoes), a broccoli/grape tomato salad garnished with toasted matzo crumbs and fresh horseradish, matzo farfel (matzo broken into a 1/4 inch dice) with wild mushrooms (it comes out a bit like a wild mushroom risotto and the techniques is the same), and sliced Persian cucumbers with sea salt. With a carrot cake and a chocolate almond torte for dessert.
Passover baking is not so easy as one cannot use flour. Flourless chocolate tortes are always good options but usually I make my signature dessert-chocolate fondue with fruit or pound cake to dip. However, since I had so many days off I was willing to give baking a try this year. Have I ever mentioned just how much I dislike baking? Too much exact sicence in it. I chose a chocolate walnut torte and a carrot cake, also based on nut flour. Every Passover cake recipe starts out with separate 1000 eggs (!). I separated the 5 eggs and added the 2 whole eggs to the yolks, I put the bowl near the outlet, which is not on the counter I am most comfortable working on, then looked at the recipe, measured the next ingredients and promptly dumped them into the bowl in front of me. Continued reading the directions only to realize I just dumped all the extra ingredients into the whites but I was supposed to mix them into the yolks. OY. I had to run to the deli to buy more eggs. I started again and it was all fine, the batter for the carrot cake was pretty good so I stuck the pans in the oven. I washed all my equipment and started on the chocolate. I separated 6 eggs but very carefully put each ingredient where it was supposed to go. I also beat these eggs with the mixer my mom gave me the day before as she somehow had an extra. All was going well. Until, I was about to beat the egg whites. No whirring beaters. I checked the outlet, the plug, that the beaters were in the machine correctly. Nothing. I called my husband downstairs to see if he could get it to work. Nothing. I grabbed a fork and started mixing. My husband thought I was crazy that should run out and buy a new mixer. But I'd have to drive clear across town, to Macy's or Bed Bath and Beyond spend time finding one then drive all the way home again-by the time I did all that I could be finished beating. Yes, my arm and wrist hurt and I would have been happier had I a whisk. I called my Mom who agreed with my H. I called friends so I could chatter while beating to lessen the pain in my wrist and arm. I'm left handed and tried giving my left arm a rest by using my right, but I couldn't get the motions right. I know there were meringues and cakes with beaten eggs long before there was electricity so I just kept beating. And eventually I was done. When I finally served both the carrot cake was underdone and the chocolate cake was a bit overdone. See why I really really HATE to bake!?!???!!
I set the table and that gave me much joy, as it always does. See below for lots of pictures.
On Sat morning (and please know that by now, all the kosher for Passover stores were closed as it was Sabbath) I defrosted the turkey breast and went about my cooking and cleaning. I ran to the supermarket for some last minute vegetables and lo and behold saw a mixer for $6.74!!!!
I made all the hors d'ouevres to use then get the food processor out of the way early in the day. I enjoyed making all the side dishes too. About 5 on Sat I put the turkey in the oven, when I took it out and let it cool to start slicing it is the first time I realized I wasn't going to have enough. This has NEVER happened to me before. I always have way too much food and frankly I prefer it that way. I panicked for a minute and cut some slices in 1/2 getting 10 but I had a 11 people. How horrible would it look if everyone took 1 piece and then there was nothing left??? I remembered I had a few pieces of roast chicken left over so I planned to heat that up and tell my husband not to eat turkey. I'm a quasi vegetarian so no problem with me not eating it. I had to leave to pick up my glam BF and while I was waiting him to emerge I called a good friend and told her the story. She panicked with me for a second but had a fabulous idea-trim the left over, raw duck breasts into circles and add them to the turkey, telling my husband and GBF to take the duck pieces. On the way back with my BF in the car I revealed all to him and he was happy to help as he much prefers duck to turkey. I'm quite relieved to say, I had enough turkey on the platter to serve everyone with 2 tiny pieces left over. My husband ate chicken, which he prefers but my glam BF got to eat turkey which he says he liked a lot. Whew! 2 adorable friends at the last 2 pieces! (I'm so releived there were seconds! And, as my cousin said at the end of her Seder last week, "it's wonderful to have one thing not to have to find a place for in the refrigerator").
Eventually, everything worked out, everyone had much fun and I enjoyed myself immensly.
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