I think I’ve mentioned before that I basically throw dinner parties because I want to be at a dinner party. Is there any better way to spend time with people you love than eating, drinking, talking and laughing indulgently for hours on end? Not for me.
However, that wasn’t the only motive behind the “Girls’ NIght In”-themed dinner I hosted a couple of months back. I wanted to create and shoot something bigger and more special than I could have pulled off without a team, so I enlisted the help of my best friends in the first ever collaboration on le sauce! Steph and Sue were my co-hosts and James agreed to shoot the process while my hands were full cooking–there’s even video, which I will share with you whenever I finish editing!
The idea behind the theme was not to make something precious or pretty, it was to create a menu full of the foods women tend to appreciate. For instance, I think it’s usually my girlfriends and I who want to order from a cheese board at the end of a meal, and we have a deep, deep appreciation for butter, don’t you think? Sue, Steph and I tested and tweaked recipes for weeks, and hosted some of our closest girlfriends for dinner as James ran for the hills politely excused himself from the house. The results were even better than I’d hoped and we all had a great time, probably no one more than the hosts. Steph is now a pro-pasta-maker and Sue can safely say she has exhausted the ways, natural and non, to create the reddest red velvet cake. I had an amazing time working with my best friends.
I’m excited to finally share the recipes from Girls’ Night In with you all this week! Look for them every day. The only two I won’t be bringing you are the recipes that are not le sauce originals: for the pasta dough we followed Lidia Bastianich’s recipe, from Lidia’s Family Table, and Cook’s Illustrated’s red velvet cake recipe.
For now, the Girls’ NIght In menu and a few pictures I took that night. Enjoy!
The menu…
girls’ night in
chevre, gouda & chive popovers
roasted garlic and eggplant marrow with marsala, chutney & tamarind sauce – baguette
spinach, scallion, organic egg yolk homemade ravioli, brown butter mushrooms & leek cream
cheese course: comté – beemster – blue d’auvergne – pears, quince jelly – fig crackers
red velvet cake
cava – riesling – pinot noir – late harvest riesling – espresso
