Friday, December 12, 2008

Kitchen Adventures

After many scheduling challenges, I was finally able to get together with friends Hannah and Kort for some catching up over dinner. Kort is quite the cook, and I need more practice, so we stayed in had fun gabbing while chopping and stirring.

The menu was stuffed quail, asparagus and mushroom risotto, tossed spinach salad with cranberries, pecans, and goat cheese, and.....carrot cake with cream cheese icing. Yum.













First things first: I put on Christmas music.

Kort was in charge of the wine selection, and Hannah got some fabulous tawny port to go with the carrot cake.

















Then there was chopping the asparagus, as well as the carrots, onions and celery for the stuffing.














Hannah wielding the knife on the apples.












Once Kort pulled the quail out of the oven, Hannah and I picked off some of the garnishes. Those tosted pecans and apples slices were gooooood. The risotto gradually filled up the entire pan, especially once we added the asparagus and the mushrooms.





Then it was time to set the table and dig in!












































The cake, by the way, was DIVINE!!