The Dinner of August 11th

Confession. We had no idea what we were going to fix for this dinner until about 2pm on Saturday. Well, not entirely true… it had been over 100° F every day for the last week, so I had wanted to make some Tomato Consumme like I had a few weeks ago as a nice refreshing start to the evening. Beyond that it was completely up in the air. So while I made our consumme early Saturday afternoon we all sat down and came up with the following:

• Cold Tomato Consomme with Basil Flowers
• Beet Carpaccio with Truffle Crème Fraîche and Arugula
• Herbed Squash with Black Pepper Fettuccine and Mascarpone
• Pâté
• Lemon Granité
• Onions stuffed with Chantrelles, Roasted Red Pepper and Rice
• Plum, Walnut and Fennel Pork Roulade with a Spicy Plum Sauce and Braised Brussel Sprouts
• Nectarine Upside-Down Cake

I had to leave early after the pâté was served, but was left packing the makings for the stuff onions and a promise of roulade and cake for Sunday. Thankfully the promise was fulfilled and I enjoyed three helpings of the Roulade and two slices of cake!

Today is also the day that I finish up the orange bitters that I started making nearly a month ago. The final steps are done and it’s now time to whip something up, and I’m thinking a taste test of my bitters vs. Angostura would be a good start. Manhattans? Yes please!