Au Revoir

 

Our neighbors are moving only across town but I'm still fairly devastated. In all the years I've lived in New York, I've never been so close to folks down the hall where we have each other over to our respective apartments for dinner constantly, rap on our doors just to say hi (or return borrowed plates and glasses!) or go out to dinner together and eat, eat, eat! Needless to say it was requisite to give them a proper send-off so I composed a dinner reflecting both of their backgrounds. G is from Mexico City (with a touch of French) and S is British. My thoughts simmered as I wondered how to combine the two influences while setting the table a day in advance. Don't you love the Cherry Brandy rose bouquet?

I began to assemble a simple relish tray in my mind composed of sausages, pickles and bleu cheese we had on hand to get things started. Baby helped me roll up these adorable napkin nests from Perfect Table Settings by Denise Vivaldo. Naturally we placed carved wooden birds on them.


Pork Pies from the British import shop Myers of Keswick in the heart of the West Village were a must as the anchor for dinner, both standard and pungent Stilton-stuffed varieties.

 

Goya Spanish yellow saffron rice was a wonderful side. I added in sliced chorizo sauteed in Bonne Maman apricot preserves (I thought of it as a nod to classic British apricot and lamb pie).

Heinz baked beans in tomato sauce was out of the can and also from Myers of Keswick.

Noting G's French heritage, I also made Green Beans Almondine!

Plated!

S & G also brought over a sizable Pandoro via Pasticceria Perbellini Ernesto in Bovolone, Italy--sort of a spongy bread-like cake with essences of rum, orange and vanilla. It was perfect to go with our Haagen-Dazs dulce de leche ice cream and British Curly Wurly candy bars!

Farewell, dear friends. Although you will not be across the hall from Baby and me, you will always be in our hearts--and we'll see you back here soon and now, across town!



Tonight's Menu
Appetizers
Relish Tray
D'Artagnan Venison and Pork Sausages
Saltines
Pepperoni
Sour Dill Pickles
Point Reyes Cheese

Entree and Sides
Pork Pies
Green Beans Almondine
Spanish Rice with Apricot Chorizo
Dulce de Leche Ice Cream and Curly Wurly Candy Bars
Pandoro

Sountrack: Fun personal party mix with Blondie, The B-52's, Hugo Montenegro, R.E.M. and Henry Mancini!

Weenie Roast

Tim Burton's wondrous film Frankenweenie arrived in the mail from Netflix so I had a movie night in mind. Our friend had given us ceramic t.v. dinner trays and naturally it occurred to me, "What else to do but make our own t.v. dinners--with weenies!"

I set out ketchup, relish, Dijon mustard and A. Bauer's Mustard with horseradish, an old brand that was somehow unfamiliar to me but turned out to be really great. Mustard with horseradish! As Baby is dutifully reducing, I grilled 98% fat free Hebrew National beef franks in vegetable oil and then grilled Arnold's whole wheat sandwich thins (only 100 calories!) for the buns. Bird's Eye white and yellow corn was steamed in a microwaveable bag for five minutes while all this grilling was going on. Heinz no-fat vegetarian beans simmered in a small pot with a spoonful of the horseradish mustard and a dose of Stubb's hickory liquid smoke. The whole shebang took less than 10 minutes! We put Weight Watchers fat-free cheese on our buns before slathering them with our condiments and added forkfuls of fresh sauerkraut from a local butcher shop on our weenies. Chocolate covered animal crackers for dessert, in the center compartment, of course, was our one unbridled indulgence.

Et voila! Here was dinner before we sat in front of the t.v. and watched Frankenweenie! By the way, I just loved it.