Instead I have been pounding the virtual pavement looking for a day job to tide me over until things pick up in my culinary life. My new classes at the Pannery don’t begin until April and my gig at school evaporated. I do have a non-cooking job as a stop gap as of yesterday. I’ll be an exam scorer for a company here in town. Should be interesting.
While I was looking for at least semi-gainful employ, I plotted out the Oscar Extravaganza menu with my partner in crime and the husband put together an invitation that was suitably glamorous. The menu sounds worthy of Hollywood party but with some fun twists. It is also a little pricey but I think we will manage as I have become the priestess of quality on the cheap (thanks to Nashville’s burgeoning immigrant population and the bodegas and markets which supply them their foodstuffs).
We are planning on the following, of course the chef, cough, reserves the right to make substitutions depending on availability and cash flow:
A Victoria Cheese Display with accompaniments including home made fig salami
Beef Tenderloin with home made rolls and gorgonzola sauce
Smoked salmon and Trout with accompaniments
Salad Cups with Champagne Vinaigrette
Bagna Cauda with veg
Blini with (domestic!) caviar
Asparagus with proscuitto
Paté en croute
Parmesan popcorn
Spiced cocktail nuts
Mini lemon cheesecakes
Decadent brownies
Technically, I have already begun cooking because the fig salami takes about three weeks to cure. I found the recipe for it in a teeny book on the Italian institution of the enoteca (wine bar). It’s pretty much ground up figs and walnuts moistened with white wine, anise liqueur and balsamic vinegar then allowed to dry into a sliceable salami shape. If it tastes as good as the mixture did before forming and wrapping, it will be fabulous. But, I love figs in any form so there might be a bit of a bias. We will of course take pictures at the event (if one of us remembers) and post all the glorious (or gory) details.
Now to rustle up some lunch.
