Dinner #6: New Venue, Same Results
Menu
November 11, 2017
Appetizers
Pumpkin and Goat Cheese Flatbread
Roasted Nuts with Herbs
Baked Brie with Fresh Crackers and Jam
Course One
Apple, Bacon, Cranberry, and Pecan Salad with Maple Vinaigrette
Course Two
Stuffed Acorn Squash
Course Three
Apple Cider Roast Chicken with Stuffing and Fresh Dinner Rolls
Course Four
Pumpkin Ravioli with Sage Butter
Course Five
Dark Berries Tart with Basil
Beverages
Homemade Apple Cider
Mulled Wine
Sparkling Cider
I don't think it'll surprise anyone that John and I aren't just founders of AJRB - we are also in a relationship. So as we grew in our cooking, hosting, and baking skills, we also were growing in our relationship. In life outside of AJRB, we had been together almost a year and a half now, so with John getting into his own graduate program in LA, and me taking a job there, we decided to take the plunge and move in together.
Cue scene change.
After having unpacked, we of course started planning when we could have our first AJRB at our apartment together. It came with a whole different host of new things to think about. As we were living in a one-bedroom apartment, how many people could we fit? How could we push furniture around to optimize space? Before, we had be focused solely on cooking and making the dinner experience great - now we had to think about ambiance of the apartment.
We also felt like we had to up our game, as we were not only asking our tried and true guests (who would be making quite a long drive now), but entirely new guests to experience AJRB - all in all, totally 16 people.
We had to think about not only how all these people could (comfortably) sit, but also were to put our three appetizers (a pumpkin and goat cheese flatbread, roasted nuts, and baked brie), and where to serve drinks. Our kitchen was much tinier, and once guests had all arrived, the room got warm very quickly.
Trying to implement some of the things we had learned to maximize our new, smaller space, we tried to create a strategic menu. Course One was an Autumnal Salad and Course Two was a Stuffed Acorn Squash. To serve guests, of which we had so many that we had two tables, we would call one table at a time to come up to the bar and be served buffet style. Those two courses went smoothly, though (of course) made a little too much. Course Three is where we changed things up a bit. Instead of our typical quandary, we served our protein there - one of the showstoppers of the evening - Apple Cider Roast Chicken with rolls and stuffing. It was a heavy enough course that people wanted to wait as John put on a show of rolling out the pasta and handmaking the pumpkin ravioli, which was served with sage butter.
And for Course Five, we kept it light with a vegan Dark Berry Tart topped with Basil.
But it would be remiss of me to mention - it was for this event that John first made homemade Apple Cider and, well, it was quite frankly a sh*tton of work and he said he would only make it for me once a year moving forward but wow, it was it divine.