With entertaining, a rule of thumb is to not make anything you haven't made before. Well, we didn't exactly follow that. Our menu was a combination of traditional family recipes, Finer Things Club greatest hits (so far), and a couple of new recipes.
With this entry, we chose to highlight one of the new recipes we tried out and one of Bill's family recipes. The full menu is below:
The Feast: Maple Glazed Ham
Herb Roasted Chicken
Asparagus Gratin
Dijon Vinaigrette Potato Salad
Deviled Eggs with Dill
Roseman's Beans
Fresh Herb Rolls
French Apple and Pear Tart
Blackberry Macaroons
We'll give you the two side dishes, Dijon Vinaigrette Potato Salad and Roseman's Beans, which were absolutely delicious and big hits among our crowd.
The Dish: Dijon Vinaigrette Potato Salad
I've never been a fan of any kind of cold salad with a mayonnaise base. I find them way too heavy, and they spoil easily if you leave them out for a buffet like this. This recipe, which is adapted from Bobby Flay, is pretty light and very tangy with lots of flavor. We omitted the bacon so that this could be a vegetarian dish and all of our guests could enjoy it. Although EVERYTHING is better with bacon, this is still pretty tasty!
The Ingredients: 2 lbs. baby red potatoes
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
2 tbsp. dijon mustard
1 tsp. honey
2 cloves chopped garlic
Salt and pepper, to taste
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tbsp. chopped fresh basil
2 tbsp. chopped fresh parsley
The Directions: Rinse the potatoes. Cut the potatoes into bite size pieces. This should just entail quartering most of them, since they are baby potatoes. Use your best judgement.
Place the potatoes in a large pot. Fill the pot with enough water to cover all of the potatoes and salt the water. Bring the water to a boil, reduce to a simmer, and cook the potatoes until just fork tender, about 10-12 minutes.
Strain the potatoes in a collander and rinse with cold water to stop the cooking process. Be careful not to overcook the potatoes, because they'll continue to cook just a bit with the residual heat. If you cook them too much, you'll end up with mashed potato salad.
For the vinaigrette, whisk all of the remaining ingredients together in a large mixing bowl.
There is nothing quite like fresh herbs picked from a garden right outside the door. Courtesy of the green thumb of Bill Clark.
Once you've made the vinaigrette, toss the cooled potatoes until well-coated. Serve at room temperature or refrigerated.
The Dish: Roseman's Beans
This dish is a traditional Easter side dish from the Clark family. Since the ladies in Bill's family were here, he wanted to add a touch of home for them. Awwww, how sweet!
The Ingredients: 2 8 oz. cans butter beans
1 8 oz. can kidney beans
1 16 oz. can baked beans
2 tbsp. ketchup
1 tbsp. dijon mustard
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 sweet onion, diced
1/2 green bell pepper, diced
1/2 sweet red pepper, diced
Salt and pepper, to taste
The Directions: Rinse the butter beans and kidney beans, and combine in a large bowl with the baked beans.
Add the diced vegetables to the bowl:
Add the rest of the ingredients to the bowl:
Stir until combined. If you make this dish as part of a large meal, like we did, you'll want to do this dish first. After everything is combined, let the dish sit until about 30 minutes before you're ready to eat. This will allow all of the flavors to marry. Then, heat until everything is warmed through - we did so in the oven for the last half hour that the roast chicken was in there, at 425 degrees.
Things were so hectic in the kitchen, I forgot to take a picture of the finished product. Oops. There were so many things going on and we had been on the go all day. Just imagine that they look a bit like baked beans mixed with salsa and tastes a bit like heaven.
I promise that we'll make the Apple and Pear Tart and Blackberry Macaroons in the future so that you can too. They were just too delicious not to share. Use these recipes for your next pot luck dinner if you're in charge of a side dish. You can't miss with either of these!
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