In a moment of arguable insanity, we donated a home-cooked dinner at our house for our school auction.  The auction was last April, and, naturally, given everyone’s schedules, the dinner didn’t take place until this past Saturday.

The good news about this is that the house renovations are finally complete and the artwork is all back on the walls.  So, here’s what our dining room looks like all decked out for the dinner.

dining room

We started off with an amuse-bouche of quail egg (with egg yolk, sour cream, and siracha filling) and lardo on top of toasted baguette.

quail egg amuse-bouche

Next up was apple rutabaga soup served with gougeres and Parmesan tuiles (the gougeres and tuiles were my only contribution to the main dinner—did I mention that I don’t cook, I only bake?).  This course was accompanied by a 2002 Dom Ruinart Blanc de Blancs champagne.

apple-rutabaga soup

The first appetizer was lobster citrus a la nage.  The wine was a 2009 Louis Latour Corton Charlemagne (a surprisingly good wine for a white wine—have I also mentioned that I’m not a fan of white wine?).

lobster a la nage

The second appetizer was scallops with shallots and bacon on Brussel sprouts slaw with a mustard dressing accompanied by a 2010 Clos des Papes Chateauneuf du Pape Blanc (a white wine for red wine drinkers).

scallops with brussel sprout slaw

The third appetizer was seared foie gras served on field greens with balsamic vinegar.  The wine was a 2006 Vietti Barolo Brunate.

foie gras

The main course was 72 hour sous vide short ribs with roasted vegetable jewels and potatoes Anna (note:  I was too busy eating this course to remember to take a photo).  But I remember the wine—a 2001 Rudd Oakville Estate Proprietary Red.

The pre-dessert course was a trio of sorbets (pomegranate, tangerine, and blood orange).

trio of sorbets

The main dessert (and the only other thing I made) was bittersweet chocolate soufflés served with espresso-caramel sauce.  The wine for both dessert courses was a 1990 Rayne Vigneau.

bittersweet chocolate souffle with espresso-caramel sauce

All the other courses were prepared by Jim and his two able sous chefs, John and Paul.

It was after midnight by the time the dinner party broke up, and all of us were surprised by how late it was.  It was so much fun that we hadn’t noticed.

P.S.  Fortunately, unlike restaurants, we do not have to specify how many calories each dish was.  But let’s just say that we averaged over a stick of butter per person in preparation.  Below are a few prep photos:

potatoes anna