Project Food Blog: Challenge #3

Hot diggity!  I never thought I would even make it past Challenge #1, and here I am, at Challenge #3!  All thanks go out to you guys!  Without your votes, I wouldn't be here, and I GREATLY GREATLY appreciate the love!

Challenge #3 is as follows:

"You'll be asked to channel new and exotic flavors for a luxurious dinner party menu. Voters will pick which feast they'd like to RSVP to." 

One thing I love about cooking, is the end result of feeding people.  So naturally, I love to have people come over and eat!  And of course, my co-workers, jumped right on the bandwagon to come on over!

I blogged earlier this week that my favorite season was now upon us - the fall!  And so it's truly the fall season that inspired this menu.  I wanted to bring out something that my guests would enjoy, and would be new to them.  Turns out, 3 of my guests had NEVER had duck before, so that just made this main course all the more perfect!

 

The first course was just a group appetizer:  Carmelized Onion Dip w/ House Made Pita Chips.  I love the simplicity of this and it allowed for the guests to "share" and converse with eachother before the other courses rolled out.

Second course was a simple salad of Arugula, Baby Greens, and Watercress.  Topped with freshly sliced strawberries, goat cheese, and a raspberry vinaigrette.  It was a nice refreshing salad that brightened up the palette and had a great depth of flavor. 

Main course was the entree of Roasted Duck Breasts with a Pomegranate-Chile sauce.  Served with a brown rice pilaf that included golden raisins, dried apricots, and walnuts.  There was also a side of sauteed swiss chard.  The "Duck Virgins" said that they really enjoyed their first experience with duck and one of them even said that duck may be their new favorite!  Score!

 

The fourth and final course was the dessert:  Pumpkin Cheesecake w/ Caramel Bourbon Sauce & freshly made Whipped Cream.  This was a perfect night cap to end the dinner.  The cheesecake was thin and light, with an Oreo crust that matched perfectly with the pumpkin cheesecake layer.

At the end of the dinner, I asked everyone what their favorite course of the meal was, and it was a unanimous vote that the Duck definitely reigned supreme.  I'm glad, because personally, it was my favorite as well!

I want to thank my awesome sister, Frances, for decorating our back deck, also!  She did such a great job and really made it look elegant and classy!  My guests were awesome and at the end of the day, all you need are great friends and great food to have an amazing time!

 If you guys dug the menu and found yourself drooling the whole time, please please please, don't hesitate to vote for my entry in Challenge #3 of Project Food Blog (you can either click the link or check out the right sidebar to vote!)!  And thank you thank you SOOOO much for getting me this far!  You guys are awesome!

Eggplant Dip

Well... I think Karma has finally come and bitten me in the ass.  Two of my very favorite things are now broken. #1... Andy.  We were playing a slightly competitive game of tennis on Monday afternoon, and he went to charge the ball and ended up smack dab on the pavement instead.  He had reconstructive surgery on his ACL a few years ago and he thinks he may have just jarred something loose or whathaveyou.  But he's looked like a poor puppy dog ever since.  He's on crutches and everything.  However, today he did say that it was starting to feel better, although he's still going to gingerly nurse it.  Crossing my fingers he gets better soon, because honestly, I hate walking the dogs and doing more chores than I have to.  (I'll do them if I have to, but seriously, Andy babies me too much so I'm used to living a cushier life, hehe).

And #2... probably more heartbreaking than #1, although it's a pretty close call... my camera lense.  Yup, I went a whole year without dropping my camera, losing it, having a dog eat it, etc... But yesterday, of all days... Andy came home and set his crutches down on the computer desk, they slid, and knocked into my camera, that was on it's tripod, and the lense went face first into the wooden floor.  While nothing shattered, something is essentially jarred loose and my lense will not function.  (insert VERY sad face here).  And no, I'm not mad at Andy.  Like I said, he's a cripple, and it wasn't intentional, and I partly blame myself.  Mainly because the camera was set up on the LEFT side of the computer, where it NEVER is.  And it's usually sitting on the RIGHT side of the computer, and if it had been there, we wouldn't be having this sad conversation.  So no one truly is to blame, and my heart breaks mainly because Andy felt like a pile of crap after he did it, but I can't be mad... because honestly... it gave me an excuse to order a macro lense.  Which I should receive on Friday... so all is well.

But anyway, on a normal Wednesday, I would have a lovely photo of the array of goodies we received in our CSA, but no, blame Andy for a pictureless CSA today.  (Hehe... just kidding Andy... I love you!)

But what we did end up getting in our CSA is exciting, so just let your imagination make a picture for you:

- 2 lbs. potatoes
- 2 lbs. pears
- 2 lbs. black apples (more black apples, yay!)
- 3 sweet dumpling squashes
- 2 delicata squashes
- 1/2 lb. okra

So any ideas of what to do with this bounty?  Let me hear it!

Oh, and I suppose you guys want a recipe!  Eggplant is one of those things... you either love it or you hate it... or you just don't understand it.  I fall in to the latter category.  The only thing I know how to use eggplant in is eggplant parmesan.  But there's only so much eggplant parmesan one can have before getting bored.  So this dip, which can be eaten with tortilla, pita, whatever kinda chips you want!  It's tasty and refreshing, and definitely a different way of using up that eggplant!

Ingredients:

1 small eggplant
3 garlic cloves (still in skins, if possible)
salt and pepper to taste
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon sesame seeds
juice from 1 lemon

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Wrap the eggplant in aluminum foil.  Set the eggplant and garlic cloves on a baking sheet and bake for 30 to 45 minutes, or until eggplant and garlic cloves have softened.  The garlic may be done before the eggplant, so just take it out when you see fit.

Let eggplant cool for just a moment, or until you can safely touch it.  Carefully peel off skin and add eggplant to a medium bowl.  Push out garlic from skins and add to bowl as well.

Mix in salt, pepper, olive oil, sesame seeds, and lemon juice.  Using a potato masher, mash ingredients together until well combined.  If you like your dip a bit smoother, you can even use an immersion blender instead of a potato masher.  But me, I like the texture of having a few chunks in the dip, so I stuck with the masher.

Serve with your choice of chips and enjoy!

Andy isn't one to like eggplant, but he said this dip was pretty solid!  Seriously, if I hadn't made this myself,  I don't think I would have known it was even eggplant dip!  So if you're looking for something different to munch on or make use of your eggplants, this might be a winner for you!