Sunday Dinner: Six Friends & A Baby

Weekends lately have just been wonderful. We’ve done a great job of making the most of them – and this past weekend was no exception. Saturday night following our crazy long walk, we hung out at the Ankle abode for a few hours. A nice evening with friends… many of whom we hadn’t seen in some time, so that was really nice. Thanks, Ankle for a great party! 

Sunday we invited a few people over for dinner. Over the past few months it seems when we have dinners/meals – we end up with 10+ people, so we decided to intentionally keep this a pretty small group. We ended up with 6 1/2 people total (6 plus baby!) – a nice manageable group size. And if I do say so myself, the menu worked out beautifully. We had:

• Romaine, Red Pepper, and Fennel Salad – entirely inspired by the fact that we got fennel in our weekly veggie delivery and were not really sure what else to do with fennel besides throw it in a salad. It was a nice simple salad, and the fennel was definitely a nice touch.
• Garlic bread – as in, bread with garlic baked into it, not bread toasted with garlic on top. Mmmmm.
• Potato, Garlic, & Smoked Mozzarella Strudel – the same we made at our Sunday Roast – and it was as big of a hit this time around. So darn tasty!

I need to figure out how to seal up the puff pastry better... both times I've made this I end up with leaking cheese. Which, of course, is a delicious tragedy.

• Pasta Primavera. With homemade pasta, of course! One new thing I did learn this time around – 2lbs of pasta dough doesn’t work so well in the food processor. We started that way, but it just wasn’t forming a ball – so eventually I moved it into our Kitchenaid stand mixer with the dough hook – and it came out better than ever (though a bit dry – but that was my fault, not the mixer’s).
• Carrots glazed with balsamic and butter – a simple side dish that I’ll definitely make again. We made a half batch of the linked recipe, which was more than enough for 6 of us.
• For dessert, we made coconut pudding and served it with fruit. I’d do this again I think – it tasted good, but the consistency was a bit off. Too lumpy. Any tips on pudding making would be appreciated! 

If anyone wants a recipe not listed, let me know.

And while the food was good, the highlight of the night came from our 1/2 guest…

It was a great night with friends. Thanks to the Neumans, Matt, and Melissa for helping us end our weekend on a high note!