Last night I broke the cardinal rule of hosting dinner parties. Not just once either. Twice.
The cardinal rule is "never make for guests a recipe you haven't tried before." I've been known to play a bit fast and loose with that rule in the past, but last night I threw all caution to the winds. Not only did I make two recipes I'd never tried before, but I launched into two whole types of cuisine I'd never attempted before: risotto and souffle. Both dishes, I'd been warned, are fraught with peril.
And it turned out fine. Great, in fact. For our main course, we had pumpkin and wild rocket risotto, topped with parmesan and toasted pine nuts. (I used the mystery squash from last week's vegetable box. Thanks to Rachel for finding out its proper name -- Hokkaido squash). It was delish, and not that hard -- you just have to stir it for a really long time. Then we had chocolate souffle for dessert. I was a little nervous about this one, and it was a great feeling to look through the oven door and see that they'd actually started to rise. Anthony said it was the nicest dessert I'd ever made for him. And that wasn't the first time I've heard my husband raving about souffle. Clearly this is a type of cuisine I really need to master.
Which brings me to my post-D.Phil. Bucket List. When I wasn't reading cases, typing furiously, or chasing up references, I've spent the last few months dreaming about all the things I'd do when I had free time again. Now I've crossed off #1 -- make souffle. Here are some of other items:
Resume Latin
Read Paradise Lost
Learn about wine
And others I can't remember at the moment...
We've already started working on #2. Anthony decided he wanted to join me, so we've been reviewing our Latin together every day. Yesterday he wrote "Antonius Lauram amat" on the whiteboard in our dining room.
3 comments:
the phrase bucket list has always been weird to me. i never know what it means when someone says it. when i saw it as your title i had no idea what to expect. but it sounds like a good thing to have.
the cooking sounds very cool. i'd love to learn to how make a souffle.
good luck with the latin and paradise lost. i need to resume french but i'd be shocked if it happened.
and i fully support learning about wine. something i need to do more of. i also recommend learning more about beer, whiskey, and coffee. :-D
Glad the souffle turned out so well. I think it's a lot easier than it sounds and then everybody is like "oh that's soooo fabulous!" Rather a nice situation if you ask me. :) I was right about the squash!!??? That's crazy. I had no idea. :) I would really like to try more risotto.
Latin huh? well, if you enjoy it, great! I got the wine book I was telling you about a few days ago and am looking forward to reading it at the beach.
Sirius -- go watch "The Bucket List" (Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson) and the phrase will make sense. It will probably even become part of your vocabulary!
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