Dinner party for friends

I finally did it! I had my two dearest companions over for dinner last night for my first attempt at a small dinner party with me playing sole hostess and planner. This is something that I have been wanting/trying to do for some time now, and I was very happy to finally have the opportunity to do it. I think it went pretty well, I felt like I remembered all the important things and was organized and everything was tasty, so that was good. For appetizers I had some mixed nuts, fresh bing cherries, and some large black olives. I remembered to put out those things ahead along with cocktail napkins (yes, we have cocktail napkins now, it was very exciting). And I put out the wine, glasses, ID tags, and an opener. Then I had the things all set out on the table, I felt very prepared when they arrived. I was excited and nervous at the same time because I have fun planning and executing meals and it's something I do frequently, but I wanted it to be a good experience for my guests since they have me over a lot and I've never really been able to invite them back before. It seemed appropriate that it finally happened now that I am 21 because it somehow made me feel more official and mature so I could have an adult dinner party without feeling like a complete poser. I had to make something I knew would come out OK without too much work, so I chose the ever popular pork with apricot glaze from Everyday Food magazine. I tried two different dishes with it this time because getting the right sides is always an issue in terms of timing and using the oven or whatever. This time I made Emeril's four cheese macaroni to go with my dinner the night before. I knew it was a good recipe and I knew it would make a lot, so I figured I could heat it up again in the oven while the pork was sitting waiting to be cut. This worked out perfectly! There is still tons left, but I got it to room temperature and then popped it in the oven to warm up. I was hoping my guests wouldn't be disappointed that I was serving that as leftovers, but they were actually very enthusiastic about the macaroni and seemed quite happy to have it. The other side was another Barefoot Contessa recipe that I saw on her show the other day and printed out before it disappeared. It was very simple, I took french green beans, boiled them for 4 minutes, put them in ice water (blanching) and then set them aside while I cut up and roasted some variously colored peppers and a small red onion with olive oil and salt. The roasting only took 15 minutes, and as soon as they came out of the oven I was ready to put the pork in since it cooks so fast (in about 30 minutes or less). Right before you serve the beans you put more olive oil in a skillet and drop the beans in to warm them up. You mix in the roasted peppers and onion, and you are good to go. There were also some roasted apples. This was one of the better combinations I've had so far. The timing seemed to all come together, the flavors went well together and there was good variety too without much effort. I love it, I was so pleased that everything worked they way I could only hope it would. Also, my companions cleaned their plates, thus indicating that they must have liked it too.

For dessert I made another thing that I've been wanting to try for a long time. I made the almond cake recipe from Cooking For Mr. Latte (a book that I loved). Again, the Amateur Gourmet is responsible for originally turning me onto this recipe and saying again and again how good it is. Again, I felt that he was correct in his assessment that this is a very good cake. I had some pan issues, but aside from that, I thought the taste was delicious. Here is a link to where he posted the recipe. To go with it I wanted something more exotic, more simple, and less rich than caramel ice cream. I after my positive experience with olive oil ice cream during my birthday dinner I decided to try and make it at home. I used this recipe for Lemon Olive Oil Ice Cream. My olive oil wasn't DaVero brand, it was a different lemon one that I found at the farmer's market. I was pleased with it though. The lemon went nicely with the almond cake without overpowering it, and the lemon was less sweet than the caramel ice cream, so that helped with the cake. This is what it looked like:

I think it was a successful first attempt. I hope we can do it again someday. And there is a funny quote from the evening which was really just me momentarily mishearing a question. I was talking to John and I thought he said, "Do you have one of those springy things?" I was immediately flustered because I wasn't sure what kind of springy thing he could be refering to, and I was also positive that I probably didn't have one. I was concerned that it might be a problem, and then I realized that he had asked, "Do you want us to bring anything?" I don't know how I got it so wrong, but I thought it was funny because I was so nervous ahead of time.