Friday, September 11, 2009

Cooking Challenge - Week Five and Week Six

Cooking Challenge Week Five was Italian food. See this blog entry for the details on the food.

Looking at that past entry, I said that “The meal will be a bit calmer. The crowd from the first four weeks is ‘rotating out’ and my parents are joining Carlos and me for dinner.” That night’s crowd was one of the loudest yet – even with only four people. Both of my parents can get quite boisterous.

Carlos’s fresh basil plant was almost dead by the time Wednesday’s dinner came around. See the picture on the left. He bought it on Saturday. We need to figure out how not to kill a plant in five days!


Looking further at that past entry, I said, “After this meal, I am going to take a couple of weeks off, and then invite over some friends for dinner.” That didn’t happen either. Carlos and I decided to invite some of our friends over for Cooking Challenge Week Six, which we held last night. Our theme was French food.


Jason, Jason, and Julie came over. Here was our menu:

A salad (Arugula, tomatoes, and shredded cheese)

French Onion Soup – Carlos’s contribution. Go to his blog for his pictures and description. (As of 9/11/09 - He hasn't blogged about it yet.)

Poulet mettre en pot la tarte – My contribution. In English, that translates to Chicken Pot Pie, which I have wanted to make for awhile. Translating to French, I was able to shoehorn my dish into our French food night.

The recipe is taken from the cookbook Classic American Food Without Fuss. The recipe is quite long so I am not going to reproduce it here.

I can show you a picture of what I made though!



Julie and Jason S. brought over wine. Jason K. brought over some delicious bread. We finished with four types of Sorbet, left over from the Italian Cooking Challenge night.

I think everyone left full.

We had such fun last night that Carlos and I are going to go at least one more week, inviting the same crew over – plus Debbie and Bart, who both had to work last night. Then we may take a break. Eventually, we want to invite my old friends Steve (and his wife), Morgan, and Lloyd.

Carlos wants to make his Caprese Salad again. I am going to pick from page 67, 167, or 267 of this cookbook, one that Carlos gave me for my birthday this year. More details after next week’s dinner. I don’t want to spoil the surprise for those who both read my blog and are coming to dinner.

Until then…

Bon Appétit!

3 comments:

jason said...

Merci beaucoup too!
It was delicious. I was telling my mother about your culinary skills just tonight. She was impressed.

Unknown said...

A get hungry just reading this. We have to do some cooking together!

Unknown said...

We have basil taking over our garden right now. It needs full sun. Don't buy any; come on over and get as many plants as you need.