Gourmet Dinner

Happy Oscar Sunday everyone!

My good friend Vicky just turned 40. I threw her a party last week and prior to that, Vicky had invited Scott and I to join her and her husband and another couple to a gourmet dinner. She won it at a silent auction knowing she wanted it for her birthday celebration. When she forwarded me the menu I was giddy!!

The menu:
Appetizer:  Tomato-Cheese Torte and Asparagus Wrapped in Prosciutto
Soup:  Roasted Garlic and Basil Tomato Soup
Salad:  Caprese
Intermezzo:  Cabernet Ice with mint
Pasta:  Sausage & Clam Puttanesca with Linguine
Entree:  Beef Tenderloin on Balsamic glazed Arugula
Dessert:  Tiramisu

We began with the appetizers around the fireplace. I'll be honest, that could have been it for me. The basil... the garlic... the sun dried tomatoes. My kind of heaven. Let me interject something. I have learned my birth father is Italian. How much? Not sure. I'm going with full so I can legitimately blame my love of Italian flavor and my spirited personality on that. So, I'm half Italian and happy to claim it. Now, back to the food.

We ate our soup and then the salad, a twist on a caprese with grape tomatoes, basil and petite mozzarella balls on small skewers. After all of this garlicky flavor we had our pallete cleanser, the intermezzo as she called it. It felt like dessert and I could have stopped there (again). But my favorite course was the sausage and clam puttanesca with linguine, amazing!

Here comes the funny part. When Laurie, our hostess, sent her husband John back with my knife and then didn't take Scott's he says, "You need this for your steak." Scott leans over and says, "Did he really say steak?" Honestly I thought he said snake, which was more frightful than the idea that was true, which was we had more to eat. In all of my maturity I said, "No way, I'm gonna barf." Seriously, this is way more food than humanly possible to eat... but I did it. Scott got more food from me on the tenderloin course, I was literally at my limit.

This brings me to dessert, the item on the menu that got me the most giddy. Tiramisu. Want to know a secret? I saw her Pioneer Woman cookbook, mentioned I love it. I told Laurie that making  Tiramisu intimidates me and she said, "I got this from the Pioneer Woman." Really? I must give it a shot then.

We all went home fat and happy, literally. Sometimes nights like this are just so worth the weight... I mean wait.

I better run to put my final touches on event number three of this crazy busy weekend! And the Oscar goes to...