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I've been reading old cookbooks again. Only these are the cookbooks that weren't particularly old when I came into contact with them the first time. They have become really old in the time that I have become middle-aged.
Anyway. Let's say you're planning a nice dinner with some friends. You're not going to imitate some nice dinner that you've read about, you're going to make the nicest dinner you can recognize as a familiar nice dinner. Familiarity is key. Your very own nice dinner, the way you would do it. Maybe the way it has always been done in your family, or maybe the way you have come to do it as an adult. What shape does it have?
-Do you lay out all the food for people to choose from and then find a congenial place to sit?
-Do you have a big table, and the food there when people sit down?
-Do you bring food in when people have sat down?
-Do you serve from the head of the table?
-Do you pass the food around?
-Does all the food come in at the same time?
-Does the food come in courses?
-If you do courses, what kind of food comes first? second? et cetera?
I have a reason for asking this, but I will not reveal it until/unless I get at least four responses. You don't have to answer every question. One of these questions is the one that set off this inquiry, but I won't say which it is.
On a related front -- that pastel de tres leches con rompompe y moras? (I used raspberries instead of strawberries because mora is almost roma turned backwards) -- it has a really weird method, where you beat whole eggs and sugar over hot water and you get them tripled in volume! who'd a thunk it? -- and then you beat in a little flour and some melted butter, which separates out during the baking, giving you a greenish rubbery greasy layer at the bottom which you peel off and discard, and a heavenly fluffy eggy part at the top which you dubiously soak in the rompope syrup you finally made out of Irish cream liqueur because there doesn't actually seem to be a bottled rompope liqueur in the real world (in the real world, rompope is a thing you make, like eggnogg), and then it comes out okay. Next time I'll leave the butter out and see what I get.
There's a reason I don't make dessert very often, and it's not because I don't have a sweet tooth.
Anyway. Let's say you're planning a nice dinner with some friends. You're not going to imitate some nice dinner that you've read about, you're going to make the nicest dinner you can recognize as a familiar nice dinner. Familiarity is key. Your very own nice dinner, the way you would do it. Maybe the way it has always been done in your family, or maybe the way you have come to do it as an adult. What shape does it have?
-Do you lay out all the food for people to choose from and then find a congenial place to sit?
-Do you have a big table, and the food there when people sit down?
-Do you bring food in when people have sat down?
-Do you serve from the head of the table?
-Do you pass the food around?
-Does all the food come in at the same time?
-Does the food come in courses?
-If you do courses, what kind of food comes first? second? et cetera?
I have a reason for asking this, but I will not reveal it until/unless I get at least four responses. You don't have to answer every question. One of these questions is the one that set off this inquiry, but I won't say which it is.
On a related front -- that pastel de tres leches con rompompe y moras? (I used raspberries instead of strawberries because mora is almost roma turned backwards) -- it has a really weird method, where you beat whole eggs and sugar over hot water and you get them tripled in volume! who'd a thunk it? -- and then you beat in a little flour and some melted butter, which separates out during the baking, giving you a greenish rubbery greasy layer at the bottom which you peel off and discard, and a heavenly fluffy eggy part at the top which you dubiously soak in the rompope syrup you finally made out of Irish cream liqueur because there doesn't actually seem to be a bottled rompope liqueur in the real world (in the real world, rompope is a thing you make, like eggnogg), and then it comes out okay. Next time I'll leave the butter out and see what I get.
There's a reason I don't make dessert very often, and it's not because I don't have a sweet tooth.
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