Before the summer began I was determined to have a fancy dinner party for my birthday. I expressed my idea several times to my family and was generally given a “yeah, sure…” response. Eventually I wore everyone down and made them see the greatness that was my idea of having a classy summer dinner party.
The only catch was it couldn’t just be a party for my birthday (wah wah) and instead had to be a combination of our annual Bastille Day party and my fancy dinner party. No problem with me! I was so excited to get started on the planning. We spent a few family meetings coming up with the perfect guest list and trying to focus in on a French inspired menu. The task proved to be challenging from the start, picking a guest list of interesting and inspiring folks was the easy part, it was the menu that proved to take much longer to commit to.
We wanted to focus on seasonal food but at the same time try to highlight some of the dishes or flavors that have come to represent the Provence region of France. I found myself visiting websites and flipping through several French cookbooks in order to find the dishes that had to be on the menu. What was I thinking?!?! I am not a French trained chef and I wouldn’t say I spend most of my time making French inspired dishes. I was starting to feel some pressure.
Thankfully I had my mom by my side in the kitchen and she was the best sous chef a girl could ask for. She assured me that everything would work out and we even did a few test runs just to make sure the food would not disappoint. A big thanks to the hubby and dad for eating those dishes and giving honest feedback.
So the night was finally upon us. The food was coming together in the kitchen and the house was starting to fill with the intoxicating smells of France. We were getting closer to show time and then the sky opened up and decided to pour buckets of rain. AGH! Even though we had a tent (a tent of epic proportions) there was still the whole idea of sitting in a rain storm trying to enjoy a summer meal. We decided to plow through and pray that skies would clear and the rain would cease. With some minor adjustments to the cocktail hour, we were able to hold out for the rain to subside.
As it rained our guests were able to enjoy a wide variety of French wines (price of admission for our guests, hehe) and bites including my French Onion Tarts, Prosciutto wrapped Asparagus, and an assortment of pates and cheese. The rest of the meal flowed beautifully and we hope everyone enjoyed eating as much as we enjoyed making.
1st Course – Beet Salad on Baby Arugula with candied Walnuts, Goat Cheese (not pictured) and a Honey Vinaigrette
Main Course – Provencal Potatoes, Stuffed Flounder with a bread crumb topping, herbed Lamb Chops, and our version of Ratatouille (not pictured because I am an idiot).
We finished the meal in true French fashion with a beautiful cheese board accompanied by fruits, nuts and fresh local honey. Unfortunately by this point in the meal I had enough wine and spirits to completely forget about taking a picture to capture the moment, you’ll just have to believe me when I say it was wonderful!
The night was exactly what we hoped for and rain aside, it still turned out the way we hoped it would. I want to personally thank all of our friends and family who helped make the night perfect and for sticking it out through the wind in the rain in order to get a little taste of France in our backyard.
It was a magical evening, good conversation,wonderful French wines and great food.