Dinner Party Time
What happens when three families get together for some heavy duty cooking, eating & drinking, using Julia as their guide?
After the release of the movie, Julie & Julia, lots of foodies have done this so we thought it was our turn to pick out some menu items that looked like they’d go together, assign courses, pick a date and channel Julia.
Menu
French 75’s
Galettes au Brie (Brie Biscuits)
Champignons Farci (Stuffed Mushrooms)
Oeufs à la Diable (Deviled Eggs)
Chicken Friscassee
Caesar Salad
Le Colombier Vacqueyras 2007
Tarte au Citron et Aux Amandes (Lemon Tart)
My assignment was the Cocktail, Wine and the Dessert.
French 75 Ingredients
French 75’s
This cocktail was invented in World War 1 and supposedly named after the French 75 mm gun which was renowned for its kick. Here’s my recipe:
1 ½ oz gin
¾ oz fresh lemon juice
1 oz simple syrup
Champagne
Stuffed Mushrooms
French 75
Shake the gin, lemon & syrup with ice, pour into a flute, top with Champagne and garnish with a lemon twist.
Deviled Eggs
Of the appetizers, the brie crackers were not-so-good…..kind of bland, I thought. But the deviled eggs a la Julia and the stuffed, baked mushrooms (Lisa brought them both) were absolutely delicious. And necessary with our cocktail since the French 75 packs an alcoholic punch.
Chicken Fricassee before heating
The Chicken Fricassee tasted meaty, creamy and buttery. Carolyn made it in the morning to allow it to sit for a few hours and develop it’s flavors and we all thought it was good. Carolyn made some buttered fresh pasta to serve the chicken on.
Chicken Heated & Ready to Eat
Lisa made a Caesar Salad from Julia’s recipe to serve with the chicken. Crisp and lemony, it was refreshing against the richness of the chicken.
With our dinner we drank a Syrah from Le Colombier, 2007. It was the type of wine able to stand up against the rich flavors of the dinner and good enough to make us stop and say, “Wow, this is so good!”.
Le Colombier Vacqueyras 2007
Our final stop on the Julia dinner train was my lemon tart. Very lemony, very tart. Simply garnished with candied lemon zest and served with coffee.
Lemon Tart ringed with fresh mint
The perfect way to end a dinner that consisted of copious quantities of butter and heavy cream.
Julia's Caesar Salad
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