Formal Dinner - Photos Added

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Tomorrow I am preparing my annual formal dinner ( usually in January).
I will take photos and post the recipes later, but a teaser will be the menu. It is in French and the flip side is in English. My apologies to Patrice and the French speakers, as there are probably some terrible errors in wording en Fançais. The menu isn't shown as on the actual carte, but the text is all there.

Carte

Dîner Prepare Façon a` ma

Aperitif – Champagne bien

Hors de ’oeuvres - Champignons fourre

Salade - Salade d’ êté

Entrée
Côte de boeuf roti de Angus, a la incrustée Herbes de Provenance
(a’ pointe) , avec sauce au raifort
Coquilles St. Jacques au bacon
Gastronomique Pommes Boulangére - Pommes de terre cuit deux-four
Aspergs a la prosciutto avec bonne femme sauce

Pains – petit pains assortie, avec Beurre de Truffe

Vin – Vins pairé – Cabernet Sauvignon et Merlot

Le Douceur
Bombe “Aileen” - Créer spécialement pour Aileen
“Sucreé et à plusieurs couches” … comme Aileen

Digestif – Cognac, Bourbon, Scotch, “Old Coggeshall”, Lemoncello, Gran Marnier, Café


Menu

Dinner - prepared my way

Aperitif
Fine Champagne
Appetizer
Stuffed mushrooms
Salad
Summer salad
Entrée
Herb encrusted Angus Prime Rib Roast (medium rare), with horseradish sauce
Bacon wrapped scallops
Gourmet “loaded” twice baked potatoes
Prosciutto wrapped asparagus with lemon butter sauce.

Bread – Assorted rolls with Truffle butter

Wines - Paired wines - Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot

Dessert
Bombe “Aileen” - Created especially for Aileen
“Sweet and multi layered” … just like Aileen

Digestif - Brandy, Old Coggeshall, Lemoncello, Grand Marnier, Single Barrel Bourbon, Single Malt Scotch, Coffee

 

[Daniel Fairly Knives]

Sounds excellent! How did it go!

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

It went superb. The dessert was the hit of the evening. It was Da Bombe!

I will try and download the photos tonight and post them.

 

[john april]

is that antique glass in the corner cabinet ? i collect old bottles

 

[Stark Knives]

Can I be your friend and come next time?

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

is that antique glass in the corner cabinet ? i collect old bottles

Almost everything in the house is an antique, Most is 100+ years old. You would love the corner cabinet full of glass.

The corner cabinet is filled with old family glass.

There is a set of beautiful and colorful Persian glasses from Iran (wedding gifts from Judy's first husband's family), and other glasses from the Floyd plantation in Mississippi.

Then there is the beaded glass communion chalice from the Presbyterian Church of Senatobia, MS. In the mid 1800's, her great grandfather with his entire family and neighbors moved from North Carolina to Senatobia Mississippi and founded the community. They took the local preacher along with them. They built a church, and needed a chalice for communion. This vase like chalice was made by a glass blower in NC, and gave it to the church to use. Many years later, the church bought a silver communion set. The chalice was set in a display case. When the church moved to a new building about 100 yrears later, the Session contacted the family and offered the chalice to them. It came down through Judy's father to us. Judy and I used it at our wedding.

Up top in the corner cupboard is my grandfathers "medicine" set. He bought the green glass set of decanter, liqueur glasses, and glass tray in the early 1930's. He was not a drinker, but every September he went to the liquor store and bought three pints of rye whiskey, then went to the grocery for half a dozen lemons. He dropped by the candy store on the way home and got several strings of rock candy.
He slid the rock candy in the decanter, squeezed the juice from the lemons and added it, and filled the decanter with one pint of rye whiskey. Every night before bedtime, he took half an ounce of the medicinal elixir to promote good breathing at night and ward off colds. When the bottle was empty, he made another batch. Three batches would last all winter long.
He did this as long as I knew him. After he passed away, the set went to my parents, and after they were gone, to me. The decanter is heavily etched inside from the acidic content over half a century of winters.

Other glasses were brought back from China and Mexico by a traveling family member who had an exotic gift store in the 1930's.

The house has many other great family antiques. One that is in the storage until I move my work room from upstairs to the new shop (when it gets built) is a heavy 48" round table. It was a wedding gift from the Houston family (Judy's great-great uncle was related to Sam Houston's sister by marriage. He married immediately after the civil war, where he had ridden with Nathan Bedford Forrest. He so admired Forrest's courage and leadership skills that he named his first son Nathan Bedford Forrest Floyd. The table was shipped from Texas to the newlywed couple for their new home in the LA/MS border above Baton Rouge. It was the main table in the parlor at the plantation. The table was almost destroyed in a fire at the plantation in the 1890's, but the workers (freed slaves who stayed on as farm hands) ran into the house and carried it out. The rest of the place and all contents burned to the ground. The table was placed in a neighbor's barn until a new home was built back in Senatobia. The table was almost lost twice again. It was put in the attic of Judy's mom's best friend when Betty and Judy moved to California. The small California house they bought had no place for such a big table, and the friend said to just leave it with her until Betty or Judy needed it someday. Through a few moves, the table went with the friend, and ended up in her formal dining room in Birmingham. The friend later died, and the husband (an old Cajun fellow) moved back to Biloxi ... with the table. It had been 25 years since the family had seen the table. Judy contacted him through his daughter and he said, "That table is mine now." Not much we could do, so we let it go. Then Katrina came and destroyed the house. The roof went, the ceiling caved in, and 4 feet of water filled the place. When the storm was past, and the man was cleaning out what he could salvage, he drug the table out of the wreckage to the house of a friend. He dried it of and after a few months did a pretty nice refinishing job. He moved into a small home in a retirement community, and there was no room for the table. He put it out on his screen porch. One day he was downsizing the stuff he had and called his daughter to tell her to call Judy and have her come get the table (He probably thought she still lived in Gulfport). I flew to Gulfport the next day, rented a moving truck, loaded the table, and drove nonstop back to Norfolk, VA. The table is safely waiting its new home in Judy's "Lady Cave" when I remodel the upstairs workroom to make her a parlor-esque sitting room filled with many family antiques.

 

[Park Swan]

I'm drooling over here... the bombe looks insane

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

It was. Everyone said, "Oh, no ... just give me half of that." But, there was not a trace left on any plate in ten minutes. This was probably the best creation I have come up with yet. If the Queen came to dinner tomorrow, I would serve it to her.

 

[mete]

Very interesting menu ,a treat for the taste buds !