Weekend Evaluation: the long weekend was not long enough

The past couple of years we've had people over for Gretchen's birthday.  I usually try to take a dish or ingredient that she's really liked over the past year and put some kind of creative spin on it.  This time I started with the short rib croquette and worked backwards, and went with a German-leaning menu again (after the Alsatian/Germanic food last year: tarte flambe/sweet potato spaetzle).

Although I wanted the food to be good, I also really want to make sure I can hang out when we have friends over.  The past couple of times we've had people over I feel like I spend too much time in the kitchen, and I think from that standpoint dinner was a success. 

The food was okay, definitely not great, but scaling to larger quantities is not something I'm used to.  So to feel like things weren't horrible and my planning was good; it went okay.


Since we had all week off, I'm including two weekends, I just didn't have time to finish the post last week.  We're also coming up on the end of the normal CSA share - the final share is this week- and then the winter share starts.  Get ready for rutabaga.

Weekend Evaluation: This Guy's Got Like...a Plan

It seemed like a pretty relaxed weekend for cooking, even though I made sausage.  

That usually becomes a big production, but it seemed to go pretty well. It's all about working in steps; I try to find time before work or after dinner to season or grind/emulsify the meat mixture; not having to do everything all at once is the key to making it not seem like so much work.

Overall, the whole thing ran pretty efficiently; dinners weren't outstanding but okay.  How's that for a compelling read....6 out of 10....boring.