Bastille Day

We celebrated Bastille Day last night with a lovely dinner party...if I do say so myself!

C&S, P, K, J-lo & I enjoyed good French music, food and conversation well into the night.

Dinner started with a lovely mixed field green salad with pears, cashews and a homemade basil balsamic vinaigrette. This is our favorite salad! I timed things out so there was actually a span of time between each course. We went to a wedding a few years back where we arrived at the table and had an appetizer...then there was dancing for 20 minutes or so...then salad course was served...more dancing...then dinner...more dancing...then dessert...it was awesome because the food was so good and it was great to space it out! So I took that idea and applied it here...no dancing tonight, but plenty of time to converse. This also allowed me to prepare the entree. The main course was my new favorite heart attack inducing dish by Julia Child, Supremes de Volaille Achiduc (chicken breasts with onions, cream and paprika), served with a basic risotto. About 20-30 minutes later we moved onto dessert...creme brulee!

Recipes for the vinaigrette and creme brulee to follow in an upcoming post.

The table...I broke out the clothe napkins!
But I need new chairs...I sat on the kitchen step ladder and I think J-lo sat on the foot rest.

The salad course, sans dressing...no pics of the dressing...oops.

All ready to start cooking. I did a bunch of prep work on Thursday night, so you see the bags of prepped onions, chicken, herbs chopped, etc. Also made the creme brulees on Thursday and finished those with the burnt sugar crust just prior to serving.

The Supremes and risotto plated up.

Back at the table.

The devils.

There were many of "those" moments while the group was eating this...the clink of a spoon...silence..."Mmmmm, ooooooh"...silence.....eyes rolling....hands on the table and then the proclamation...."Oh that's good." FUN! In honor of Em, I licked my ramekin.

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