Dinners

This month, I've got two dinners scheduled not quite one week apart. They're both benefits. Last night (April 14) I cooked an Italian-theme dinner for 10, that had been auctioned off to benefit the Interfaith Hospitality Network, IHN, an organization that helps homeless families. It was billed as "dinner for 6 - 10, prepared in your home". The friend who talked me into it (who also was my wine expert and indispensable assistant, greeted all the guests & moved them through the courses, set the table beautifully, served, washed heaps of pots and pans, and sorted all my wine glasses), said that we'd probably get to cook in some fabulous kitchen. We went to visit the kitchen where we were going to cook, and nice as it was, mine's nicer. So we moved the dinner to my house, which means either I was robbed, or to put it more positively, my kitchen is pretty fabulous. I vote for the latter.

Next Friday, I am going to do a dinner at the supper club house, that I'm calling "April is the cruellest month". It's on the eve of our first outdoor farmers' market, where there usually isn't much fresh stuff to buy; mostly muffins, cheeses, meat, things that have been put by, and sometimes some wintered over vegetables. The title also seemed highly appropriate when we were having 18-degree weather the first week of April, and when we got 4 inches of wet snow this week. But it also turns out that April is the cruellest month in terms of schedule - one of my friends has always said that everything in Madison happens in April and May and September and October; you're perpetually double booked for those four months - so people are having trouble fitting the diner into their calendars. This dinner is a benefit for REAP.

Here are the menus:

Auctioned dinner

starters: individual pizzas: 1) Reggiano parmesan, & prosciutto, topped with spicey mixed greens and olive oil, and 2) 3 cheeses & sundried tomato

pasta: Fettuccine with artichokes

salad: Mixed greens with roasted beets, goat cheese and walnuts, with walnut vinaigrette, served with rosemary foucaccia

main course: Cotoletta Alla Milanese - Milanese Veal Cutlet; pounded to be tender, coated with a crispy crust, and sauteed in butter OR the same cutlets with chicken - served with wedges of lemon and broccoli, cauliflower & carrots sauteed in olive oil with sliced garlic & red pepper flakes

cheese course: Beemster aged Gouda, Italian Gorgonzola piccante, and Carr Valley Mobay, served with crackers, Marcona almonds, toasts made from La Brea Bakery bread, and dried apricots

dessert: tiramisu, hazelnut cookies and lemon cookies, Moscato d'Asti

Cruelest month, REAP benefit - http://schoolwoods.com/cruelmenu.html