Friday Night Entertaining

Friday night we had Uncle Boo-Boo and Auntie Lauren over for dinner. I cooked a traditional corned beef and cabbage meal, roasted potatoes with bacon, and Giada's apple crostata. A meal which would usually take me about 2 hours to prepare instead was spread out over 5 hours of intermittent cooking. "Oh, he's sleeping...I'll prep the dough." "OK, he's in a good mood, I'll put him down and cut the cabbage." In the end, the meal was worth it (hate to toot my own horn, but toooot toot!). The crostata came out delicious though deceptively easy to make, and the corned beef tender and salty, just the way I like my meats. It felt good to be able to entertain again, even if there's now more planning and effort involved.

For the crostata recipe, click here. The only changes I made were the addition of lemon zest and cinnamon to the apples, and I omitted the almonds because I didn't have any.

I told Joe we need to entertain on Friday nights more often. It makes the weekend seem longer.

The chef in me is saying two words: I'm back.