let the games begin, or at least the cooking

pre-march or so, matt and i used to cook a lot. but...we've been in a hiatus of sorts.

the house-buying adventure began, which led to not much cooking and lots of packing. buying lead to moving and unpacking. and then a couple of weeks later, ruby was born, which lead to not fully unpacked and not yet a chance to cook. i mean, we cooked here and there, and threw things together, but that was the extent of it.

last sunday we planned to have some old high school friends of matt's over for dinner...and we decided to cook! on saturday we went shopping, figured out our menu, started to prep, and then matt checked his email and our little soiree was off! rainchecked for another time due to sickness. we had all of this food, and it was all fresh and wouldn't keep for another time, so we cooked anyway, and a few last minute replacements joined us for some delicious food and wonderful company. i love last minute get togethers!

i made this onion tart, which is one of my staples, and a fav. so so good.

you can find the recipe here when i blogged last summer about its deliciousness. do yourself a favor and make it sometime.

we had lots of pre-game food...including one of my favorite cheeses-saint andre triple creme, and some olive bread matt picked up

a delicious squash terrine that matt makes. the first time i had it, i admit i was dubious...but it is so so good. i'll try to find the recipe and post it on here. i promise, it's another go to recipe- especially in the summer, when squash runs rampant in gardens.

we sipped wine while we appetized and waited on the main course

which was fried chicken! the recipe is from thomas keller, and is in his ad hoc cookbook. we went to ad hoc last summer on our food-stay-cation, but alas, this wasn't on the menu that night. you can find the recipe here if you want to try it yourself! here, the 2 chickens that matt cut up. this is so his job and not one i will even pretend to take on.

working away at his fried chicken station

precision frying...

the final, amazing, worth the wait product!

i made some creamed corn out of the same ad hoc cookbook to accompany the chicken, as well as some barley salad with ricotta salata (not pictured.) this creamed corn recipe is pretty straightforward and simple, and won't make you want to tear your hair out, like other thomas keller recipes that take 57 steps and 38 sub-recipes to make a final product. you can find the creamed corn recipe here. yum yum yum.

we drank some more wine, because that chicken took a while!

and for dessert? a refreshing grapefruit granita i made from fresh grapefruits. so easy, so perfect on a summer night, especially after fried food. we added a bit of campari to add color and a little hint of bitterness. so addictive- i finished it off later in the week!

the best part of our impromptu dinner party? our kind guests washed all of the dishes. that is usually the bad aftertaste in my mouth after a lovely dinner party, but this time around i woke up to a sparkling clean kitchen and lots of good leftovers.

it's nice to be cooking again...

(although the two kids does throw a wrench in how quickly we can whip meals up)

wanna come over?