Planning a 7 course tasting menu…

We had our friends from DC, David & Arthur, over for dinner last night. As soon as they accepted my invitation, I started planning the menu. I’ve cooked regular dinner for them before and wanted to try something different.

I’ve wanted to serve a tasting menu for a long time, thinking there is no time like the present. Plus, I got to do it in my updated kitchen. They were the first people to see it in person.

I wanted the menu to be progressive, building from course to course. The cuisine was going to be Italian since it was my favorite thing to cook. Different items started popping into my head, so I got out my cooking composition pad and started menu planning.

I can still see my dad sitting at our kitchen table, leafing through his cookbooks whenever he was planning a gourmet dinner for friends. He had a notebook to make his shopping list while picking out recipes, just like I do. My dad was way ahead of his time, culinarily speaking, and he didn’t even know it. His friends raved about his food.

My dad mise en platzed all of his ingredients and prepped them the night before or the morning of the dinner party. I loved watching his prep and cook. He always had on music and whistled along to the songs. I always have music on when I cook; I just don’t whistle.

The sad thing for me was watching him cook, serve and eat with his friends; I never got to eat or try any of it. Why would a 9-year-old want to try gourmet food was probably their thinking.

One thing for sure, he was thrilled and “on” whenever he was hosting a dinner party. He hosted it; my mother was happy to sit and watch, talk and smoke cigarettes all night. When my mother was happy, everyone was happy.

Cooking is in my blood; my biological siblings love to cook as well. One of my brothers is a chef. My other brother Dan does all the shopping and cooking for his family. My sister Jen loves to cook and menu plans weekly, just like I do. We are constantly sending each other recipes we make.

Learning to menu plan, mise en platz, and entertain came from my adopted father. His mother, Mema, loved to cook and entertain as well. My love of cooking and entertaining is a combination of nurture vs nature in every sense of the word.

When I start planning a menu, I write down several choices, knowing I will weed out an option or two. Below the menu, I create a shopping list of ingredients I need for the menu. In a new column, I write down tasks within a timeline of items I can make or prep ahead and what I have to finish that night.

Next, I visualize what type of serving vessels I want to use for each course. For this tasting menu, I used lots of small white dishes that I save for dinners such as this one.

Here is the menu from last night:

~ Marinated assorted olives and cubed provolone cheese
~ Cold shrimp scampi on Chinese spoons
~ Creamy parsnip soup garnished with fried parsnips served in espresso cups
~ Crostini with whipped ricotta, blistered tomatoes, & basil with a balsamic glaze.
~ Italian stuffed mushrooms
~ Mini eggplant stacks
~ Kaluha brownie and cheesecake trifles in a glass

I do the shopping a few days ahead. I also get out the serving pieces and dishes I will be using. Then I prep things that can be prepped ahead—doing all of these days before can make the evening of entertaining stress-free and enjoyable. I can cook and entertain on the fly and have pulled some good meals out of my ass.

We had such a fun evening with the guys next door; I am glad they were the first people I got to cook for in the new kitchen. Cooking in front of people makes me happy; watching them eat makes me happier!

This morning, I went online in search of dinner ideas. I am in a winter-time cooking rut. The slowly braised meats, stew, and soups are getting old. All I can think about now is cooking and grilling in my outdoor kitchen. I can’t wait to continue my lessons in smoking meats and bbq. I was starting to understand the principals last year. I can admit nothing that I made on the smoker was anything good—goals for this bbq season.

Everything seems easier to me when the weather gets warm. The food is fresh, the prep is less, and I don’t have to put on winter boots and dredge through the snow on the deck to get to our grill as I had to the other night. I love being barefoot and not being cold while I am grilling.

It’s been so cold some nights I’ve grilled this winter that the serving platter I was using for the finished meat was frozen, or I had nowhere to put it down because all the countertops were covered in ice and snow. I have to leave the platter in the house until I can pull the meat off the grill. I took my boots off to get it and put them back on to get the meat. Ugh!

Today the sun is shining, and it’s 52 degrees here in Vermont. I planned on making either Sweet & Sour or Mongolian Chicken Meatballs with Jasmine Rice and Garlic Sesame Snap Peas, but that can wait for tomorrow night. The grill is calling my name, so I pulled pork tenderloin out of the freezer and will make that instead.

It’s back into production tomorrow, and it’s going to be another big one since orders have been flying in all weekend. It’s supposed to be in the ’50s, but rainy with flood watches on Tuesday and Wednesday. Today is definitely a grilling day! ☀️