2015 Solstice Party menu and reflections

Solstice menu

  • Cheese straws FRIDAY – the usual – made two kinds – one straight up and one with three kinds of cheese – the straight up ones were better
  • Spicy almond MONDAY – big success – cumin, chili; rosemary lemon and sriracha honey – have to figure out how to keep the honey ones from sticking
  • Olives buy friday
  • Crudites and homemade hummus buy friday
  • Homemade crackers and cheese buy friday
  • Slices of persimmon wrapped in prosciutto with lemon buy friday- remember the squeeze of lime
  • Baby pork tacos with homemade carnitas and picked onion ONION FRIDAY. Best carnitas ever. double cook – roast the shoulder and then strip and cook down with half can adobo and tomato on very low and stir every fifteen minutes until dried out and starting to crunch up
  • Baby veggie tacos with rice cheese beans BEANS FRIDAY – beans were fantastic – huge handful of herbs from garden plus adobo. (rosemary, sage, bay, curry plant)
  • Sous vide roast beef on endive spears SOUS VIDE FRIDAY – didn’t go so well – over seared the beef – came out overdone
  • Baked fried beaded tofu with spicy chili sauce buy friday – bland – needs serious spice addition in the marinade – much more than I did
  • Baked fried chicken with spicy chili sauce buy friday
  • Broccoli rabe with xo sauce buybfriday – did brussel sprouts instead. just keep frying and stirring  – first thing that was completely finished 
  • Veggie samosas FRIDAY – the BEST. Used my gf sourdough bread dough, make with more flour, roll out thin circles, stuffed with cooked potato, leek, kale, garam masala and lime pickle and chill, then fry in v shallow oil on medium in pan until brown all sides
  • Winter salad buy friday
  • Trifle FRIDAY – skipped
  • Maybe big Olive oil citrus cake – upside down olive oil satsuma mandarin – needed a lot more caramel and fruit on the upside down part