Another dinner party!

A year ago I hosted my wine group for dinner. There must be something about February, because I wound up doing it again this weekend! Again we had 8 people; this time we tasted syrah. Dinner was wonderful (osso buco, mushroom risotto, sauteed greens, salad, bread & cheese) and so was dessert! I made Meyer lemon pots de creme with sweetened whipped cream and my rosemary shortbread cookies. I also served samples of my nocino, which was met with general appreciation!

 lavender from the garden

The lemon pots de creme recipe had a different technique than the one I used a couple of weeks ago - that one had me whisk together the yolks & sugar, but the one I used this week called for the yolks & sugar to be continually whisked (by machine!) for 4+ minutes. I'm definitely going to adapt that when I take another shot at making the burnt caramel pot de creme - it made for a MUCH lighter texture in the finished product (I was also more diligent in pulling them from the oven while they were still quite jiggly).

 rosemary from the garden

My apartment looked great, and it was so fun to bring in flowers from the garden and from the tree behind my building.  AND it was fun to finally use the small glasses I've been saving for years for just this sort of event.

 plum blossoms from the hillside behind my building