Raccoon and Lobster

A spur of the moment decision to have people over sudden turned into a full on dinner with and we finally put the place mats and new dining room table to use. All told it was just over three hours from issuing invites to being ready for guests and that included a trip to the grocery store. Sadly the hectic schedule left very little time for food photography and so most of the pictures below are post-dinner recreations with cold, congealed food. Tempting, right?

For a last minute dinner party with an overly ambitious menu, I think it came out okay. The puff pastry had been left to thaw for too long and didn’t crisp up very well and I made the beet pasta too wet and cooked it for slightly too long. The sourdough had a better crumb than the first loaf but the crust was a little on the chewy side. Still, people seemed to enjoy themselves. Brownie waffles earn forgiveness for many sins.

The menu:

Appetizer
Corn and Red Pepper Cheese Tart on Puff Pastry & Homemade Sourdough

Entree
Beet Fettuccine with Chicken and Crimini Mushrooms in a  Goat Cheese Cream Sauce

Dessert
Brownie Waffles and Vanilla Ice Cream

One guest brought red wine and another brought homemade Meyer lemon curd, both of which we put to good use.

Recipes and ideas shameless stolen from Kayotic Kitchen, Just Braise and Ceramic Canvas and then perverted into mere shadows of their former selves. The corn and red pepper tart had more egg and pepper and no mustard or cream, the goat cheese cream sauce had added white wine and proportions for everything were tinkered with all over the place. Diced raw tomatoes sprinkled over the cream sauce were a nice addition and helped cut the heaviness of the sauce. And fyi beet pasta tastes almost exactly like regular pasta, it just has an awesome hot pink hue.