Dinner Party Recipe Roundup

Over the weekend I had the bro and cousin Ga Wai's fam over for dinner and as is my style, I went the whole nine with my food selection. I l.o.v.e. to eat and when you love something, you gotta learn everything about it and try to do it yourself. And no half-assing either. It's gotta be hard core all the way. This is a trait that the MaMe passed on. Make no mistake, I am hardcore--from cooking/entertaining to my 10k cello practice time goal. But I don't even come close to the iron will, unwavering commitment to perfectionism that my mother shows in all aspects of life: from her perfect pitch, memorizing the Qs and As to her U.S. citizenship test despite not speaking English, to making the best chicken soup, tying the perfect bow, and cleaning a dish to sparkling spic and span.

So here's what was on the menu: Portabello and button mushroom salad over baby argula with shaved Parmesan, white truffle oil and coarse sea salt; Italian bread baked from scratch; wild mushroom and shrimp risotto with fresh thyme; clams with cajun andouille sausage, sage and Thai basil; peach cobbler (from scratch) with Haagen Daaz creme brulee ice cream.

I cribbed the salad idea from La Poubelle, from when Emily and I went after finding out that our favorite watering hole was closed for a private party. This turned out excellent!

The clams was an idea I got from Steelhead Diner. The last time I made this dish it was a lot more flavorful and this time it was a tad too watery, probably cus I put too much water in. I blame this from not having the right pot. I normally would use a wider pan but I used a 4 qt saucepan this time around. And I wanted to make sure that everything cooked so I filled up the pot with water.

The risotto was a combination of 2 recipes I found on epicurious and turned out excellent.

The last 2 baking items were from the Food Network website. I have very mixed feelings about it. The Italian Bread was Emeril's recipe and had a user rating of 5 stars. It turned out ok taste-wise and gave great tips on how to make a crispy crust but it took 30 more minutes than the recipe said. Also, he failed to mention the enormity of this sucker! I'm talkin the size of a 6 mos. old baby! The texture was also more dense than I normally like, def would not give this 5 stars.

The peach cobbler was Paula Deen's recipe. A whopping 862 ratings of 5 stars. Maybe my taste differs greatly from the rest of the users but this was maybe a 3 if I were being generous. She asked for a whole stick of butter and it was a lot. It was still oily when I served it. Paula Deen, you let me down. Southern food is your expertise. 862 foodnetwork.com users, you let me down too.