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Family Dinner
Sep. 12th, 2009 08:07 pmI almost never win anything, but much to my surprise, I discovered that I'd won a blog contest that I don't even think I knew I entered. The prize was a catered dinner from Susie's Supper Club, a delivery service in Brooklyn that makes meals intended to be gourmet and appeal to both parents and their kids. They don't deliver to Westchester though, so I had to drive to their (not usually open to the public) kitchen in the industrial end of East Williamsburg. In the rain. And when I got in front of the place, I skidded into the curb and punctured my front tire. It wasn't a bad place to stop and wait for AAA, and the good part about being in East Williamsburg is that about every third storefront is a chop shop or used parts store, so it didn't take long to get a new tire. I got back home in time to meet Rhys' school bus, but barely.
We invited three families--friends of mine with kids about Rhys' age that he likes. The food was very good. There was an excellent mild chicken tikka with rice and baby carrots --real ones with a bit of the green on, not the drilled kind. There was a beef bourguignon made with cream instead of wine, with fettuccine and long thin haricots verts. And there was a totally serviceable if not stellar lasagna, with garlic bread made out of adorable mini baguettes and broccoli. All the vegetables were just barely cooked, with butter and salt and pepper, and were excellent even after reheating. Oh, and there were homemade chocoalte chip cookies and double fudge brownies. And because I am insane, and our CSA has pretty much been 75% tomatoes for weeks, I made a tomato, mozzarella, and basil salad too.
The adults were pretty impressed with the food. None of the kids ate much, so I really don't know if the food was not as kid friendly as claimed, or if the kids were just excited to have a big late night playdate with the adults not paying much attention to them and didn't want to interrupt it by eating. I think the latter, if only because I couldn't sell the chocolate chip cookies much more successfully than the chicken to them.
I hadn't really had a party, even a small one, in forever. And three families was just the right size for me in the house, even though we had a lot of extra food. I find it really stressful to set this kind of thing up, but I do enjoy it. I should remember to try more often.
We invited three families--friends of mine with kids about Rhys' age that he likes. The food was very good. There was an excellent mild chicken tikka with rice and baby carrots --real ones with a bit of the green on, not the drilled kind. There was a beef bourguignon made with cream instead of wine, with fettuccine and long thin haricots verts. And there was a totally serviceable if not stellar lasagna, with garlic bread made out of adorable mini baguettes and broccoli. All the vegetables were just barely cooked, with butter and salt and pepper, and were excellent even after reheating. Oh, and there were homemade chocoalte chip cookies and double fudge brownies. And because I am insane, and our CSA has pretty much been 75% tomatoes for weeks, I made a tomato, mozzarella, and basil salad too.
The adults were pretty impressed with the food. None of the kids ate much, so I really don't know if the food was not as kid friendly as claimed, or if the kids were just excited to have a big late night playdate with the adults not paying much attention to them and didn't want to interrupt it by eating. I think the latter, if only because I couldn't sell the chocolate chip cookies much more successfully than the chicken to them.
I hadn't really had a party, even a small one, in forever. And three families was just the right size for me in the house, even though we had a lot of extra food. I find it really stressful to set this kind of thing up, but I do enjoy it. I should remember to try more often.
