The Dinner Not Eaten-3/21/10


In all the days I've blogged about my cooking, I've never had a day like today. A friend invited us last night to come play tennis in their neighborhood at 7:00 tonight. The invitation did not mention a cookout. As I was finishing dinner around 6:15 tonight, the same friend called and asked where we were. The plan had changed and a group of our friends had begun grilling out at the tennis courts around 6:00 and they wanted us to join them. She'd forgotten to call me back and let me know of the change. Richard heard about the cookout and immediately asked if dinner could wait a night. I'd finished making it already but we hadn't sat down to eat so I agreed. Here are my pictures of the dinner not eaten. I did take a few bites to review the recipes but most of this meal will be eaten tomorrow from leftover dishes. I took the brownies to the tennis cookout as our last minute contribution.
The main dish I made tonight, the Chicken Cutlets with Asparagus, Capers, and Shallots on page 49 of this month's Bon Appetit, was pretty ho hum. It was put up against some pretty tough competition. Our friend, Cody, spent the day smoking ribs. Arlene and Matt visited a local independent butcher for some amazing hamburgers. In its defense, the chicken was moist and the light lemony sauce was good on the vegetables. It was just not fair to put this weeknight dish against some really great barbecue classics on the first really warm weekend of the year.
The Vegetable Slaw on page 22 was worthy of bringing to the cookout. (In retrospect, why didn't I?) The mix of greens had good variety of flavor and good crunch. The sweet-sour dressing was light and coated the colorful slaw well. The different flavors of the sesame and safflower oil prevented the dressing from just tasting "oily".
I was not as impressed by the Chocolate-Orange Brownies on page 21. I like my brownies gooey and these brownies were very dry, almost cake like. The orange flavor was a bit strange and didn't really complement the chocolate. They also didn't seem to bake well. The middle collapsed and the edges were too crispy in the time given.
Chicken Cutlets with Asparagus, Capers, and Shallots-B
Vegetable Slaw-A-
Chocolate-Orange Brownies-D

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