Debbie cooks for Cate – a virtual dinner party

CliqueClack Food’s writers are spread out all over the globe. This is pretty cool because it allows us to give our readers some unique perspectives that wouldn’t be available if we all resided in Boringtown, USA. Other than carpal tunnel syndrome kicking in at team meetings, there’s one other distinct disadvantage for me: I can’t throw a dinner party for the team!

I guess I always get in the party mood when summertime hits, and who would be more fun to cook for than our eclectic group of foodies? Sadly, it probably will never come to pass, but we can certainly do it virtually, right?

I’m going to start out by having Cate to dinner. I picked Cate because of her quest to become vegetarian, one recipe at a time. We aren’t vegetarians, but we do eat many vegetarian meals throughout our week, so I think I know what kind of vegetarian meals appeal to meat-eaters (at least Keith says they taste good!). So without further ado, here’s my menu for Cate’s visit:

I’d start out with munchies. Feta cheese with peppered honey and crackers would sit on my kitchen island, alongside black and green olive tapenade with goat cheese crostini. So far I’ve avoided those dastardly onions! We’d also crack open a bottle of Tohu Sauvignon Blanc, just because it’s delicious and Cate drinks.

When we move to the dining room for the sit-down portion of the meal, we’d make sure Cate gets to sit next to Owen, so that she wouldn’t be missing her daughter too much. We’d give Cate the job of bullying Owen to remain politely in his seat for the meal and to use his fork instead of his fingers. She’d love it.

For dinner, I’d serve curried chick peas and kale, one of our favorite crock pot recipes, and I’d leave out the onions for Cate. This is a hearty dish, full of flavor and texture; it’s healthy and satisfying and you never, ever miss meat while you’re enjoying it. A little brown rice and and an Indian-style cucmber salad (without the scallions) rounds out the dinner portion of the meal.

Dessert for Cate is simple. Since she’s back in the States for our little dinner party, she’d get zucchini chocolate chip cookies and vanilla ice cream, for a little taste of an all-American dessert that she might not be getting that often in Portugal.

OK Cate — how’d I do?

Clacked by Debbie McDuffee
on Jun 10, 2009 @ 15:00 EST5EDT