Special dinners

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rickell

Senior Cook
Joined
Mar 31, 2006
Messages
384
Location
Kansas City
i would think a thread like this has been started before but we have
many new members and i thought it would be interesting. when you
are wanting to make a special dinner for your family or friends. maybe
sunday dinner? what do you make?

if it was just my hubby and me i would either go for grilled steak, grilled
asparagus, baked potatoe and rolls or the same sides with a prime rib
for the meat.

now if the kids were eating with us it would be turkey, mashed potatoes,
gravy, corn, green beans, rolls. or pasta with meat sauce and garlic toast
 
a special dinner (that we haven't made in a while, come to think of it) for dw and i would be a freshly made authentic ceaser salad; fried softshell crab or lump crabcake appy; and steamed lobsters with lots of ghee, with a big honkin' hunk o' grilled filet mignon alongside. garlic mashed, and evoo sauteed french string beans.
 
Geez, now mine sounds lame, Buckytom.

Add filet, lobsters, blue crabs and mashed potatos to mine! :LOL: ...and some fois gras. :pig:
 
Thyme Roasted Garlic in Olive Oil Served on Melba Rounds
Portobello Mushroom Soup
Caesar Salad with Baguette Slices
Crespelle alla Fiorentina*
Oreo Cookie Cheesecake
Kona Coffee
Love this meal. The * is thin crepes stuffed with ricotta and spinach, topped in a bechamel and tomato sauce and baked with parmesan cheese. The house smells heavenly when this meal is cooking. Yum!:chef:
 
That would depend on who was dining...

For this time of year I would start with a homemade ravioli, stuffed with either chestnuts, pumpkin or squash...served with a vanilla rum/cream sauce with either sage or rosemary garnish.

I'd follow with grilled 'flesh' of some sort, either lamb chops or veal chops. I would serve that with carmelized beets and shallots , and sauce the meat with a demi-glaze.

My next course would be a salad of combined temperatures. On a bed of greens (and here it would depend on what looked best at the market) that had been lightly tossed with pear vinegar and olive oil, I would lay sauteed, warm apple slices, top that with a goat cheese rillete, and garnish with candied pecans.

Dessert would likely be something warm, as well, such as white chocolate bread pudding with a brandy sauce, served with cognac.



I think I know what I'm making for dinner on Saturday night...:wub:
 
I think for us... it would be anything that we cook together. Paul's a great cook but he's so busy that we hardly ever get to spend time in the kitchen together anymore. So, even poached eggs in them morning become special if he's in there helping out.
 
as we hit fall and cooler weather I'm thinking the perfect roast chicken...savory stuffing...roasted in the pan bottom along with the birds would be root and bulb veggies...onion garlic fennel carrots parsnips turnips and fingerling potatoes wrapped in bacon, sprigs of fresh thyme basted once with dry white wine, the rest with drippings. pan gravy made with drippings and stock and roux

alongside this bounty needs to be roasted tomatoes and sauteed dark leafy greens with garlic

accompany with whole wheat baggette and fine wines

ok I'm drooling.
 
oh man robo, i'm right there with ya.

now I know what i'm making soon. i crave a roast boid!
 
For a romantic dinner for two:

Pan-fried Foie Gras with sweet balsamic reduction and wilted greens
Beef tenderloin baked in salt crust, served with homemade demi-glace and topped with home-made chicken liver pate slice
Butterflied tiger prawns with garlic, butter, lemon
Truffle Mushroom Risotto
Asparagus gratin
Panna Cotta with caramelized sugar glaze

My mouth is watering now.... This will be my menu for the next special occasion!
 
It really depends on who I'm cooking for.... and possibly on the occasion. If we're having friends over for dinner then I usually go for some sort of Italian food. I actually concocted a delightful little sun-dried tomato alfredo sauce the other day, that I think I will reserve for special occasions because it was very rich and full of flavor and I could see myself being easily addicted to it. I prefer penne pasta normally, and I like to include some sort of grilled or seared chicken or seafood. If seafood I usually go with shrimp instead of scallops because the scallops we get aren't exactly the best, unless I'm looking to purchase sushi-grade seafood, which I dont do.

For my parents I might roll out a several-course tour of Middle-Eastern and Asian foods, because we're all into that.

For the fiancee's parents I might take a French approach to some Mexican food (she comes from a large Mexican family). They love their traditional mexican food, but her mom is also very into rich foods, and I think it could be fun combining the two.

For our wedding, the fiancee and I have decided we would like to do an evening wedding, with lots of great wine and champagne, and a smorgasbord of desserts for our guests; nothing savory. We think that way it will be easier to keep the mood light and fun, and offer a fun little twist to your average wedding. I'd like to make a variety of cheesecakes, and maybe some Tiramisu ( though I'll need to practice that one first), creme brulee, a wide variety of ice creams and sorbets, fresh fruits, and lots more. I'm going to have a TON of fun doing the food for our wedding. Who knows, maybe I'll even manage to slip in a few of my own creations.
 
college cook your wedding sounds creative i am sure all will turn out great.
what about adding a fountain of chocolate with all types of goodies
to dip?
 
When's the wedding? Sounds like the kind of event I would really enjoy. It reminds me of an annual cookie party I used to have at Christmastime. I spent weeks making all sorts of candies and cookies, many of which were easily kept in the freezer. I think the last one I had, I had about 50 different varieties of candies and cookies made up of about 4,000 pieces.

You might want to add lots of different fun cookies to your food list. They make great "carrying around" food and guests could taste as little or as much as they want.
 
If it is just me and hubby anything goes. If I have guests with mixed tastes my fall-back is roasted chicken with a pierced lemon in the cavity and branches of herbs. With that I either make a rice pilaf or couscous, a big salad dressed with olive oil and vinegar, and some kind of green vegetable. I'm not a baker, so if I cant get someone else to make the desert it's ice cream with a liquer sprinkled over it, or a trifle made with angel food cake, frozen berries and whipped cream, or purchased cheesecake (I know the baker, but before I moved here, yes, Sarah did it).
 
Our Sunday dinner is a special occasion, often it braised pork braciole (I use Tyler Florence's recipe and substitute a butterflied pork roast for the flank steak) with fresh pasta (has to be Fresh) and great bread. Yumm!
 
DH is coming home for four days one Friday.....I have been planning for a week already what I am going to feed him!

It depends on time of year, and where we are and what sort of mood we are in. This time I want good special food that reminds him why he got married! I also am looking at what is in season here, and steering away from Italian food as he is getting that all the time. I also have a different prerequisit now that ar visits are few and brief, and that is that it is not to time consuming.

When we are living together I don't mind spending hurs putting something just right and healthy and special together, or we enjoy cooking toether a lot too - but four days this month.....I want to spend them with him, not in the kitchen. So Friday will be baking day, and apart from that I am looking at things that taste excellent but don't require loads of prep. I don't mind how long things are in the oven for.
 
buckytom,

Sure, its a recipe that I modified to my family's tastes. Instead of doing it with small individual style rolls, its done as a whole roast (you have to truss it) and then sliced at the table. It just melts in your mouth!

Stuffing:
2C. Italian cubed bread
1C. milk
1/4 C. chopped Italian parsely
1/2C. grated pecorino romano cheese
2 minced garlic cloves
1/2 lb. chopped salami or capicola
1/2 C. pine nuts
1/2 C. plump raisins


Roast:
olive oil
black pepper
4 lb. pork loin

Soak bread cubes in milk. Add remaining stuffing ingredients. Mixture will be moist enough (no need to add egg).

Butterfly your pork roast and flatten to 1/2 inch thickness with mallet. Drizzle olive oil over top side of flattened roast and then sprinkle with black pepper. Press stuffing over roast leaving 1/2 inch around edges. Roll up like a spiral and truss with kitchen twine.

Brown the trussed roast in olive oil, then add to your favorite marinara sauce (enough to cover the roast about 1/2 to 2/3 of the way up) in a dutch oven. Roast in the oven at 325 degrees for 3-4 hours (uncovered). Some of the raisins leak out into the sauce during cooking and sweetens it up just a little, so if you add sugar or carrots to your marinara to sweeten tart tomatoes, you might want to allow for that. This dish is incredibly flavorful.

Serve with a good Chianti.
 
Last edited:
Half Baked said:
Geez, now mine sounds lame, Buckytom...
Not even remotely so, Half Baked! It sounds inviting and unpretentious. In short -- perfect!
 
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