Dinner Party!

On Saturday night I had the pleasure of hosting my very first "field" dinner (i.e dinner on our back lawn) in honor of Graham's 29th birthday. I dream of making these dinner parties a regular occurrence when we own a "farm" someday. But I must admit I was quite pleased with how our little backyard turned into an outdoor oasis in the meantime.

The birthday boy requested a Franco-Italian 5-course meal and his Mrs happily jumped at the opportunity to make it fancy and special. When our guest arrived, we lounged on the patio and nibbled on an antipasti of salami, pecorino romano, parmesan, crackers, marinated artichokes and assorted olives along with glasses of a chilled Italian Prosecco and Raspberry Lime-infused water.

Graham's been dreaming of hanging white lights in our backyard for years and we finally made it happen. The ambiance they created was perfect!

  We have beautiful friends (as the following pictures illustrate). And we felt so blessed to have these very special people gather to honor Graham. Jaymie and Aleah are pictured below (Justin & Eli, we missed you!)

Britta & Jon

Jeremy & Rachel

Isla & Olivia. Amazingly enough, there were 6 kids present at the party but we managed to get them all to sleep by the end of the night - they filled every nook and cranny of our little place!

Jason & Earecka (sorry Ben & Oliver - you guys must not have slowed down long enough for me to get a picture!)

Once (most of) the kids were in bed, we began the sit-down portion of the evening with an appetizer: Pinot Grigio-Steamed Mussels with Garlic Toasts (my first time cooking mussels!) Graham picked out a delicious white wine that the our lovely sommelier Jason poured for us (2011 Les Pouches Saumur Blanc).

 For a little added excitement, each guest found a little slip of paper under their chair on which was written a unique sentence that they were to casually incorporate into the conversation at some point in the evening. This proved to be both challenging and quite hilarious!

Next I served a Roasted Beet Salad with Toasted Pistachios, Blue Cheese Cream and Walnut Vinaigrette (along with glasses of 2010 Briccontondo Barbera). I'd never made this recipe before but I must say the combination of blue cheese and beets was divine!

Because I worked during the day on Saturday, Graham prepared the majority of our main dish: Braised Beef Short Ribs with Wine & Cream, Roasted Mushrooms and Polenta rounds. This course was paired with a 2009 Incanto Vino Nobile de Montepulciano and a 2010 Sainte-Croix Syrah-Merlot.

 We finished with cups of decaffeinated espresso and Molten Chocolate Lava Cakes with Vanilla Ice Cream and Harvold Farm Raspberries. 

The meal was leisurely and we stayed outside the whole time. The party wrapped up just before midnight when our guests gathered up their sleeping kids and headed out. I'm already dreaming up my next opportunity to do this again...