Engagement Dinner

London Broil, mashed potatoes, spinach, Cava.

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Veggie and Goat Cheese Bruschetta

I was excited when I saw a recipe in Cooking Light for a veggie bruschetta with fennel as the starring ingredient. I love fennel, and it complements sausage, which is in two things I’m making this week. Plus, it was a great match for Sausage Bean Soup, which I made tonight – heartier than bread, but I didn’t feel like making a sandwich or salad.

Then, the grocery store was out of fennel. Damn you spring veggies.

Decided to substitute roasted eggplant, and sprinkle in some fennel seed. The result was delicious.

Impromptu snack: Five spice peanuts

Was making chow mein tonight (ps try adding five spice powder!) and crunching on peanuts. The two are a natural combo. I want to perfect this recipe into either a glazed nuts dish (tried once a couple years ago but wasn’t happy with the results) or a peanut cluster candy, but for now…

Fried plantains and fried lemon slices

Yeah, fun with deep fryer! Two pirate-y dishes here – Caribbean plantains and lemons – to fight scurvy.

Cork-style Avocado bread

Another appetizer I had at my fave wine bar, which I recreated to the best of my ability for the party.

White Sangria with rum

This could have been sweeter but was lovely and refreshing.

Easy Jerk Chicken Wings

This recipe could have benefitted from A) freshly made jerk spice and B) a dipping sauce of some sort, but the wings were nice and crispy.

Grog

Soooo happy we made this with success. What would a pirate party be without grog?

My basic rule of thumb was 4:1 portions of alcohol to non-alcohol here, as a guideline.

Grilled piri piri chicken

Piri piri chicken is a pirate bar appetizer with chicken chunks simmering in a spicy sauce. I basically recreated the sauce, but used it as a marinade for grilled chicken instead.

Cork-style alcoholic lemonade

Saturday’s Pirate Party was a huge success, and many recipes will be following from it.

This was the event’s biggest hit, drink-wise. I basically tried to recreate a lemonade I had at Cork, a wine bar in DC. It tasted pretty similar, and so delicious. Made it in a large pitcher, so the proportions will be hard to guestimate but play with the balance until you get it right.