16th Century Feast

I am extremely fond of the old world, not necessarily the right term for what I mean, but anything that existed before myself. I seem to possess a sentimentality for things the way they used to be, although I was never there to experience them first hand.

This weekend, I hosted a "16th Century feast." It wasn't entirely 16th century, but it was definitely a feast. I invited all of my friends from Billy's Bakery, and prepared an extensive menu. I went to Murray's Cheese Shop on Bleecker Street and bought an amazing selection of cheeses: a simple Brie and a goat cheese with rosemary, a Morbier and a Comte de Saint Antoine, which I fell in love with on my first trip to the Franche-Comte region of France in High School and a Gruyere, an amazing alpine cheese from Switzerland. MMM. I made a spinach and artichoke dip with parmesan and colby jack cheeses which was paired with toasted slices of baguette.

For the main course, I roasted a chicken with rosemary, onions and butter. For those who didn't love chicken, and in theme with the century impersonated, I made a minced lamb pie. Potatoes were roasted with rosemary and olive oil, garlic butter asparagus and buttered green beans served as sides. I found buffalo mozzarella at the new Trader Joe's, and bought it immediately since it reminded me of my time in Italy, and made a caprese salad. I feel the need to have one at every formal meal, even if it doesn't fit the theme.

The dessert course was a chocolate croissant bread pudding which I made in single serve ramekins and strawberries dipped in chocolate and drizzled in white chocolate.

The party was a success and the random dishes seemed to mold together well. We played cards and told each other's fortunes with an old deck deck of fortune telling cards I had around and spent the majority of the night recalling entertaining mementos in our time working at the bakery. The room was lit by candles until they slowly drizzled down the sides of their holders and burned themselves out.