I made Boeuf à la Bourguignonne. And it was perfect.
And I made potato bundles, stuffed squash, coconut shrimp, and panna cotta with strawberries in balsamic vinegar.
Recipe and more photos to come later, when my arms don’t feel like they’re going to fall out of the sockets because I cooked for hours.
For now please ogle at my perfection.
Hey Candy,
Where do u find time to plan this? i want to see pictures of ur kitchen it has to be massive! if i tried this at my house everything would be cold by the time it was on the table!!!!!
Amazing!
Sean.
Hahahahaha *(crazy laughter)* my kitchen is not big, I live in an apartment. I’ll show you pictures soon. It’s just that I have to time everything precisely, and prep a lot of things beforehand. Like, the panna cotta can be made 1-2 days in advance. The squash can be stuffed and refrigerated until ready to bake. The beef and stew can be made in advance then reheated. Etc etc. That way I don’t have a billion pots on the stove all at once :P
But I gotta say, it was the most work I’ve ever done in my life to prepare this meal, so it wasn’t easy….
What a wonderful meal and gorgeous photos! Can’t wait to see the recipes!
I take it this was your parental dinner? Success! Looks beautiful and delicious! I like how you switched the squash tops around, nice detail. Anyhoo, kudos to you! Fantastico!
Thanks Natasha :)
Summer – Every time I look at that picture of the squash with the tops switched, I think of clowns. I dunno why but I think it’s hilarious :P But thank you!
Oh my WORD. Hello gorgeous! I can’t pronounce it, but I wanna nom, nom, nom that whole plate of food.
I took 6 years of French, and I can barely pronounce it. But I can sure eat it! Hahah….
We had our engagement dinner a year ago and I cooked everything for it. I had to deal with dietary restrictions of no red or white meat and no salmon. M. and I and one other friend ate red meat, but the others didn’t. So, I made salad with peaches in a balsamic brown butter vinaigrette, crab cakes for appetizer, and a Mediterranean stew of roasted vegetables over couscous, plus tiramisu for dessert. I also started a couple days in advance. I roasted red peppers a couple days ahead for the main dish. I made tiramisu a day before. Then I cooked everything else the day of the party. Everyone loved the main dish. It was a hearty vegetarian dish. But man, that was a lot of work, especially when I don’t have any dietary restrictions.
Hummingbird – I’m getting stressed out reading your menu. But I can’t believe you made the menu work so well, it sounds so professional…are you a caterer for a living? :P I would’ve cried. I remember sending out the dinner menu with our wedding invitations, and people would actually call or e-mail me and request more descriptions of the food before they chose which entree they wanted. It. Was. Unbelievable. Since I had descriptions written on the menu already. If I were a wedding guest, I would choke down anything the bride and groom offered and not bother them with my ‘dietary restrictions’.
And mind you, these entree choices actually held up quite a few RSVPs for my wedding count, since these people actually wanted to come to our wedding, but were stuck on the choice of what to eat. I should really do a post (rant) on wedding etiquette…..
As usual, I’m sure I would have stuffed my face if we were eating there. I can never usually manage to eat a single serving of food except when I eat and Candy’s and then I go for thirds! Absolutely amazing – the beef dish requires some serious praise! And the stuffed squash always looks tasty!
Irish Pirate – you guys should come up here again and I’ll help stuff your face some more. Hahaha! No really…