Pre-Op Dinner

The other day, the man was surfing through the food channels on cable and was really inspired to cook. He muttered all evening about cooking and throughout his pedicure session, he pleaded with me to let him cook. I was kinda worried about him standing on his feet to cook all day. His left knee and ankles would swell with the strain.

"Call it a pre-op dinner if you will." said he. I had to cave in to that statement.

So we rounded up the friends for a hearty dinner of beef & oxtail stew with mash. We experimented a little with the salad and decided on a tangy raspberry vinaigrette dressing to complement the robust mains. 

Quite scary actually. We've never tried out this recipe. All we depended on was the man's memory of what he saw on tv and his finely honed culinary instincts. As said, a group of 6 is the ideal number to cook for. Amount of ingredients, attention to the process and most importantly, the quality of food would be kept optimal.

It was totally satisfying. Thank goodness the carnivores okay-ed the menu! They very nearly cleaned out the pot! I truly believe that washing the meal down with a bottle of Gravitas 2004 Pinot Noir had everything to do with teasing the friends' tastebuds. Heh.

The beef stock was made from scratch early this morning. Browning the beef reduced its strong beefy smell and the stew was left to simmer on the stove for 3 hours. The mash was seriously sinful. It filled us up fairly quickly. But we just couldn't stop spooning tiny globs into our mouths.

Decided to exercise off some calories by relegating the domestic help to drying the dishes while I washed off the grime. See, I is a good girl.