the other one in the couple

Last Thursday I cooked. It wasn't much, most of it was prepared ahead of time, and not everything tasted great, but I still cooked.

Cooking isn't that out of the ordinary for me, but since we started having these dinner parties, I hadn't. Normally cep would create this and that and the other thing while I would chop and mix and serve and clean. However, just last week we started a rotation of themed dinners. Of the two themes we drew, "the other one in the couple" sounded miles more interesting than "tex-mex," so I swallowed my pride and made some food for our small-ish party of 6 (with cep doing the helping this time).

My first "course" was bruschetta. I've made this many times before and many times better before, but I needed something quick that wouldn't leave people hungry early-on. I also tried to dress it up with some fancy plating, but "fancy plating" only goes so far when I'm producing it.

The main meal was our super-garlicy spaghetti. Crescent Dragonwagon (originally "Ellen Zolotow") has this amazing recipe that has even forced my father to reach for more heat-reducing baguette. Again, it's simple: throw X things in a food processor, boil some pasta, voila! Surprisingly, I enjoyed this just as much as the many times cep has made it. I'm thankful that our friends like garlic as much as we do, for I believe we were all still breathing it the next day.

The part of the dinner that I'm most proud of is dessert. I don't bake. I can't even pretend that I bake. I believe I've made both cookies and cornbread, both from mixes, so I really wanted to outdo myself (and others' expectations) this time. Cannolis. Sure, they weren't traditional, but I'm still sure my late grandmother would've been proud. Again with cep's help, I made cannoli shells from pizelles and a white chocolate mousse that everyone could eat. The most competent baker at the table even complimented them. It only took 4 straight nights prior getting the recipes worked out, a little crushed pistachio, and some chocolate chips before people were happy. I thought a vegan cannoli filling would've been interesting, but it never set and tasted almost exactly like the 2 cups of powdered sugar that went into it (surprise surprise).

The end of the night found both Dan and I winning rounds of Zombie Fluxx, a new game that Ian insists must come out again around Halloween. How odd is that? I won? And Dan? Craziness! It just proves that it was a night to surpass expectations all around.