This was quite the cooking adventure.
Bread bowl w/Spinach Artichoke dip. The dip was a bit acidic. I’m not sure why. The bread was delicious. I made the “big dog” version using a half recipe and a heavy sauce pan instead of a Dutch oven. I didn’t let it bake long enough to get a Lagerstrom crust (aka “burned”). However, it should have baked a bit longer because it sank a bit as it cooled. Not flat or bricked, but definitely shorter than right out of the oven.
Baked brie w/pear and crostini. The crostini were from my normal bread recipe but shaped as long, skinny loaves. I doubt that I will ever attempt baguettes again; FAR too much effort for too little reward. Moving the baked brie (with its lightly toasted pear top) from the baking dish, which was the wooden container it came in, to the serving plate was a disaster. It flowed out all over the place. I burned the first set of crostini. I hate broiling bread; it always starts on fire the instant I turn my back on it. Good thing I made a lot of bread.
Salad w/Caesar dressing. Our guest brought the salad. I had planned on pseudo-Caesar (mixed greens, not romaine) so I had the dressing prepped to mix. They worked well with each other. The salad tied in to the hors de oeuvres with roasted artichoke hearts.
Braciolie (which I found out is pronounce Brahzholi). A friend made this for us, once a long time ago. It was excellent. I stumbled across that video and decided to try it. It is very good, but it is not fast. Just as the video forgot to salt the meat before rolling it up, so did I. That is a very noticeable mistake.
Malted Chocolate Pecan Pie. This an attempt to fix the previous disaster. I used the new crust recipe. It looked good after prebaking. I didn’t egg wash it. The filling leaked through (or around or over), which caramelized the bottom of the crust. The filling turned out great. It was malted chocolate pecan, not the fudge brownie that I turned it into last time.
Marked Up 