Fall Dinner Party

Komi-style dates stuffed with mascarpone and Greek yogurt
Butternut squash soup with creme fraiche and chives
Cheddar-bacon-green onion souffles with salad
Roast pork tenderloin with apples and onions, roasted red potatoes with thyme, green beans
Pear-ginger strudel with ginger custard sauce

Guests: Nicole, Sullins and Brian

The dates were awesome. I bought maybe half a pound and could have used twice that. I may go buy some more to use up the extra filling. Beth found a great finishing salt at Williams-Sonoma with nice flat flakes that made the perfect sprinkle.

Creme fraiche is very nice in the soup. Sour cream works, but it's nice to spring for the extra creaminess.

The souffle recipe made what seemed like an awful lot of cheese base. I made a recipe and a half, expecting eight people, but the five of us ate half of that (so 3/4 of a batch) quite comfortably. Of course, that was as one course among many, so the larger serving might be better if it's the main event. The souffles did not rise to quite the towering heights I had hoped for, but I was a bit rushed so I may not have whipped the egg whites quite long enough. For individual souffles I kept the temp at 375 but dropped the cook time to 20 minutes.

Restaurant Week at Mockingbird Bistro with Mom tonight. First course was a chilled cantaloupe soup with prosciutto and lavender honey drizzled in the bottom of the bowl. The waiter said there were sweet peppers in the soup, which I guess accounts for the lack of overwhelming melon sweetness in the soup itself, so the honey made a nice accent rather than being overpoweringly sweet. I could figure out how to make this.

Cold zucchini soup - Next time, use one lemon and one clove of garlic. Two is too much. It also needs a base note, maybe some pine nuts?

Rosemary parmesan focaccia - to keep focaccia dough overnight, flatten it down after the first rise, divide in half, and put each ball in a ziploc to chill until the next day. Bring to room temp before stretching and baking.