Recipe testing gone awry…

As those of you who follow us know, we’re working on finalizing recipes for our cookbook.  Though it crossed our minds to steal our favorites from a variety of chefs (though we do look to them for some inspiration), we decided that might not be the most ethical thing to do.  So that means that after creating the recipes, we have to meticulously test them, type them and bug friends and family to test them to make sure we don’t have missing, unclear or just stupid directions.

So……One of our friends is moving, and I hosted a small dinner party.  Things started off well.  I flew home Monday after a great weekend in Oregon Wine Country, met the guest of honor, showed him our list of recipes and had him choose what he would like for his “last” meal.  He chose six things that were kind of random, but at least I didn’t have to come up with the menu.

David’s choices:

• Shrimp spring rolls with spicy peanut sauce
  Vegetable fritatta bites
  Fresh corn / basil salad
  Brussels sprout / fennel gratin
  Cheese ravioli with mushroom / shallot sauce (yes, Mom, I cheated and bought the ravioli so the recipe is only for the sauce, but it’s darn good sauce and easy ,too…)
  Lemon mousse with raspberry cream

Like I said, kind of random, but nothing was too tough…  We hit the store on the way home from dinner and the airport to do round one of grocery shopping. After that, I was pooped, so went to bed.  Maxwell (the pug) didn’t sleep so neither did I.  Still pooped, I got up early, went for a run to wake up and started cooking.  Didn’t work too well so I drank two diet Cokes and was off.

The prep in advance stuff was a breeze.  Made everything ahead except the mushroom sauce for the ravioli – one thing to stir while people are here.  I began sauteing the onions prior to people arriving (tip – this makes the house smell really good).  My mission was to finalize this recipe for the cookbook, but when people arrived I got sucked into great conversation, and I measured the majority of the ingredients, but then added more and forgot to measure.  Problem was, it was absolutely delicious.

So what to do?  The next day, I tried “cooking backwards”.  I used marsala wine in the sauce so I dumped out the wine, measured it, then filled the bottle up with water (will the wine spoil if I poured it back into a wet bottle?) to measure the difference.  Did the same thing with the box of cream.  This isn’t so bad – I’m on a roll….I think I backed into how much onion, mushroom, etc.  As far as chicken broth–My theory doesn’t work.

Moral of the story, if you’re prone to cooking by “dump” method and need to measure so you can share a recipe, either do it when you have a good note taker, or do it alone.

I have another dinner party on Saturday, this one after hiking two 14ers (we’re doing Belford and Oxford for those who are curious)….  Testing recipes made in advance for this one and nothing extravigant.  Looking forward to the Ginger Curry Fries and a nice glass of wine…