{"id":433,"date":"2010-04-30T14:42:04","date_gmt":"2010-04-30T19:42:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/foodiecuisine.com\/wordpress\/?p=433"},"modified":"2010-04-30T14:49:07","modified_gmt":"2010-04-30T19:49:07","slug":"potato-cauliflower-soup-sea-bass-oscar-and-dessert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/foodiecuisine.com\/wordpress\/general\/potato-cauliflower-soup-sea-bass-oscar-and-dessert\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside the Menu of a Dinner Party"},"content":{"rendered":"<h4>By Todd Barron @ FoodieCuisine.com<\/h4>\n<div id=\"attachment_434\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/foodiecuisine.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/IMG_2391.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-434\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-434\" title=\"Wine Glass\" src=\"http:\/\/foodiecuisine.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/IMG_2391-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"http:\/\/foodiecuisine.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/IMG_2391-300x200.jpg 300w, http:\/\/foodiecuisine.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/IMG_2391-1024x682.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-434\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dinner Party - Feb 2010<\/p><\/div>\n<p>\u00a0I\u2019ve been sitting on this article for a while and had to dust the cobwebs out of my memory for parts of it but here goes\u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>We had some good friends over in February for a small dinner party.\u00a0 On the menu we had Potato Cauliflower Soup, Sea Bass Oscar, and Dessert.\u00a0 I bought the dessert pre-made from the Fresh Market but other than that it was all me (with help where needed of course!)\u00a0<\/p>\n<h3>Potato and Cauliflower Soup<\/h3>\n<p>The dinner started with a potato and cauliflower soup that was quite easy to make.\u00a0 For the soup you need:\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><em>Makes 8 servings (I had enough for 2 events)<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>2\u00a0russet potatoes<\/li>\n<li>1 head of cauliflower<\/li>\n<li>1\u00a0yellow onion<\/li>\n<li>2 qts chicken broth<\/li>\n<li>1 Tbs butter<\/li>\n<li>1 Tbs olive oil<\/li>\n<li>2 cloves garlic (peeled and diced)<\/li>\n<li>1 tsp red pepper flakes<\/li>\n<li>Salt and pepper to taste<\/li>\n<li>Topping of choice (Prosciutto and shiitake mushrooms in this case)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div id=\"attachment_439\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/foodiecuisine.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/soup.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-439\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-439\" title=\"Potato and Cauliflower Soup\" src=\"http:\/\/foodiecuisine.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/soup-300x189.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"189\" srcset=\"http:\/\/foodiecuisine.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/soup-300x189.jpg 300w, http:\/\/foodiecuisine.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/soup.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-439\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Potato and Cauliflower Soup<\/p><\/div>\n<p>\u00a0The first thing you need to do is wash the potatoes, peel the skin off of the them, and dice them into\u00a0half-inch cubes.\u00a0 Next you need to core the cauliflower, wash it, and break it apart into 1 inch florets.\u00a0 The final prep work is done by peeling and dicing the onion and garlic.\u00a0 The garlic should be diced in much smaller cubes than the onion.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Now that everything is ready to go, turn your stove on medium high and put a <a href=\"http:\/\/rcm.amazon.com\/e\/cm?lt1=_blank&bc1=000000&IS2=1&bg1=FFFFFF&fc1=000000&lc1=0000FF&t=lostlogicinc&o=1&p=8&l=as1&m=amazon&f=ifr&md=10FE9736YVPPT7A0FBG2&asins=B000VYDOQ2\">dutch oven<\/a> on the burner.\u00a0 You do have a <a href=\"http:\/\/rcm.amazon.com\/e\/cm?lt1=_blank&bc1=000000&IS2=1&bg1=FFFFFF&fc1=000000&lc1=0000FF&t=lostlogicinc&o=1&p=8&l=as1&m=amazon&f=ifr&md=10FE9736YVPPT7A0FBG2&asins=B000VYDOQ2\">dutch oven<\/a> right?<\/p>\n<p>Put the butter and olive oil into the pot and when the butter is melted, add the diced onion.\u00a0 Cook it until tender and caramelized, about 10 minutes.\u00a0 Use a wooden spoon to keep the onions from burning or sticking while you cook.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Once the onions are carmelized (they should be somewhat brown,) add in the diced potatoes.\u00a0 Turn the stove up to High.\u00a0 Let the potato cubes sit in once place long enough to brown the sides but do stir the mixture enough to keep them from browning.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>After about 5 minutes, add in the cauliflower florets, red pepper flakes, diced garlic cloves, and a little salt and pepper.\u00a0 Use the wooden spoon to stir the mixture several times.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Continue stirring the onions, potatoes, and cauliflower florets for about 10 minutes to give everything a chance to brown.\u00a0 Remember that browning develops flavor and is a key element\u00a0to cooking non-bland food.\u00a0 Go ahead now and add in the 2 quarts of chicken broth.\u00a0 Stir.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Bring everything to a boil and let it boil for about 5 minutes.\u00a0 Reduce the heat to Medium and cook for 20 minutes.\u00a0 After the 20 minutes are up, turn the heat off and let the mixture cool for about half an hour.\u00a0 During this time you can work on the topping for your soup (See below for the Soup Topping recipe).\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Transfer the mixture, in batches if necessary, to your <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B000RRKQKA?ie=UTF8&tag=lostlogicinc&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000RRKQKA\">blender<\/a>.\u00a0 If you have a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B000RRKQKA?ie=UTF8&tag=lostlogicinc&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000RRKQKA\">vita-mix<\/a> blender, like I do, you should run it on High for about 1 minute.\u00a0 It should be completely free of lumps and very smooth.\u00a0 Pour the blend back into the pot and turn the stove to low heat.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>At this point you should get a clean spoon and taste the soup to see how much salt and pepper to add.\u00a0 Add salt and pepper\u00a0in small increments, stir, and taste again until it has the right seasoning.\u00a0 Keep in mind that the topping may add some saltiness to the soup.\u00a0 You should consider this as you season since you can not remove salt once it\u2019s added!\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Let the soup simmer on low for about\u00a010 minutes to allow the newly added seasoning time to assimilate.\u00a0 It will bubble but should not\u00a0spew soup everywhere.\u00a0 If it does, you have the heat up too high.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The soup is now ready.\u00a0 Ladle it into bowls, top with some of the soup topping below, and serve!\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Once nice thing about this soup, other than the fact that it tastes great, is that it\u2019s relatively low in calories.\u00a0 There is no cream involved but it comes out very creamy (especially if you let it cool overnight) due to the starch in the potatoes.\u00a0<\/p>\n<h4>Soup Topping<\/h4>\n<p><em>Makes 8 servings<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>2 oz Proscuitto di Parma (diced)<\/li>\n<li>6 shitake mushrooms (washed and diced)<\/li>\n<li>1\u00a0leek (washed and diced)<\/li>\n<li>Salt and pepper to taste<\/li>\n<li>1 tsp butter<\/li>\n<li>1 tsp extra virgin olive oil<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Heat a skillet over medium-high heat and add in the butter and olive oil.\u00a0 Once the butter is melted, add in the leeks and let them caramelize, about 10 minutes.\u00a0\u00a0Next add in the\u00a0Prosciutto and let it brown, about 2 minutes.\u00a0 It will\u00a0stick\u00a0easily so make sure you stir it constantly.\u00a0 Lastly, add in the shiitake mushrooms, salt, and pepper.\u00a0 Stir everything and cook it for about 3 more minutes.\u00a0 Once you are done, move the mixture to a bowl and let it sit on the side.\u00a0<\/p>\n<h3>Sea Bass Oscar with Roasted Asparagus and Potatoes<\/h3>\n<div id=\"attachment_440\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/foodiecuisine.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/seabassoscar.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-440\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-440\" title=\"Sea Bass Oscar with Roasted Asparagus\" src=\"http:\/\/foodiecuisine.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/seabassoscar-300x198.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"198\" srcset=\"http:\/\/foodiecuisine.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/seabassoscar-300x198.jpg 300w, http:\/\/foodiecuisine.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/seabassoscar.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-440\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sea Bass Oscar with Roasted Asparagus<\/p><\/div>\n<p>\u00a0The second course consisted of sea bass topped with lump crab meat and a\u00a0Hollandaise sauce.\u00a0 I served it on top of a Parmesan crisp, roasted potatoes,\u00a0and sided it with roasted asparagus.\u00a0 Typically anything covered with crab meat and\u00a0Hollandaise sauce is called \u201cOscar\u201d; hence, the name.\u00a0 The potatoes are present to help keep the diner from being hungry afterwards (potatoes are very filling but have few calories.)\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>For this part of the meal you\u00a0need the following:\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><em>Makes\u00a04 servings<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>4 4oz pieces of skinned and deboned sea bass (fresh)<\/li>\n<li>8 oz jumbo lump crab meat (rinsed, free of shells)<\/li>\n<li>4 oz authentic\u00a0Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese (fresh grated)<\/li>\n<li>1 red bell pepper<\/li>\n<li>1 tbs butter<\/li>\n<li>1\u00a0tsp extra virgin olive oil<\/li>\n<li>salt and pepper to taste<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This dish is\u00a0much more complicated than the soup as it requires several techniques to pull off.\u00a0\u00a0You can skip the parmesan crisp, Hollandaise, and crab meat if you want something easier to do (and cheaper!)\u00a0 In reality the potatoes are not necessary but they do help in the appetite department.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>For your prep-work you should bring the fish to room temperature (covered,) wash and peel the potatoes, wash the rest of the vegetables, cut the potatoes into 8 slices each, and dice the peeled garlic.\u00a0 You need to cut the tough ends off of the asparagus and this can be done by bending a single stalk of asparagus in-two.\u00a0 Where it breaks is where you need to cut the rest of the spears.\u00a0 You should not be cutting off more than about 1 to 2 inches from the base though so use your best judgement here.\u00a0<\/p>\n<h4>Parmesan Crisp<\/h4>\n<p>This step should be done first assuming you only have one oven.\u00a0 If you have two ovens, you can continue on to the roasted asparagus and potatoes while the crisps cook.\u00a0 Go ahead and pre-heat your oven to 400 degrees.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>For this you need:\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><em>Makes 4 Servings<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>4 oz authentic\u00a0Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese (fresh grated)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div id=\"attachment_441\" style=\"width: 160px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/foodiecuisine.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/31X9A5BY07L__SL500_AA300_.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-441\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-441\" title=\"Silpat Baking Sheet\" src=\"http:\/\/foodiecuisine.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/31X9A5BY07L__SL500_AA300_-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"http:\/\/foodiecuisine.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/31X9A5BY07L__SL500_AA300_-150x150.jpg 150w, http:\/\/foodiecuisine.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/31X9A5BY07L__SL500_AA300_.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-441\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Silpat Baking Sheet<\/p><\/div>\n<p>\u00a0The first step is to place a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B001079VBG?ie=UTF8&tag=lostlogicinc&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B001079VBG\">Silpat Silicon Baking Mat<\/a>onto a large baking sheet.\u00a0 Silpat Baking Mats, manufactured in France, can be used in an oven\u00a0(if you follow the safety instructions) and are great for cooking things that cannot stick.\u00a0 You can\u00a0bake cookies, bread, cheese, and many other things without worry of them sticking.\u00a0 They aren\u2019t expensive and are worth the small investment.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Place the\u00a0grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese in 4 one ounce mounds on the mat and gently spread them into the form of circles.\u00a0 Each circle of cheese should be just thick enough to cover the mat but not so thin that the mat is visible through the cheese.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Put the baking sheet, with the mat and cheese on top, into the pre-heated oven and bake for about 15 minutes.\u00a0 I say \u201cabout 15 minutes\u201d because your results will vary depending on how thick you make the cheese crisps.\u00a0 The bottom line is that you should bake the crisps until the cheese is melted and bubbling.\u00a0 Once it starts bubbling, remove\u00a0the baking sheet\u00a0from the oven and let the crisps cool.\u00a0 You won\u2019t need them until later.\u00a0<\/p>\n<h4>Roasted Asparagus and Potatoes<\/h4>\n<p>I love to roast vegetables and follow a pretty basic recipe every time.\u00a0 If you read my article on roasting garlic the following will seem familiar.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>For this you need:\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><em>Makes 4 Servings<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>1\u00a0lb\u00a0red potatoes (washed, peeled, and cut into 8 slices each)<\/li>\n<li>1 bunch of fresh asparagus<\/li>\n<li>2 cloves garlic (peeled and minced)<\/li>\n<li>1 tsp dried rosemary (crushed in mortar and pestle)<\/li>\n<li>3\u00a0tbs extra virgin olive oil<\/li>\n<li>salt and pepper to taste<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Turn your oven up to 450 degrees and switch it to convection mode if you have the option.\u00a0 Convection-bake\u00a0activates an internal\u00a0fan that circulates air.\u00a0 This helps the food to cook evenly since the hot air cooks the food on all sides.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Put the\u00a0sliced potatoes into a large bowl and mix in 2 tablespoons of olive oil.\u00a0 Toss the potatoes with the minced garlic, rosemary, and salt and pepper to taste.\u00a0 I use about 1 teaspoon of salt and pepper for my taste.\u00a0 Once the ingredients are thoroughly mixed, pour them onto one side of a clean baking sheet.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Place the asparagus, spear by spear, on the other half of the baking sheet.\u00a0 Once it\u2019s laid out, drizzle one tablespoon of olive oil across the spears and then sprinkle with salt and pepper.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Place the baking sheet with the\u00a0potatoes and\u00a0asparagus\u00a0on top, into the oven for 30 minutes.\u00a0 Check the sheet every 10 minutes and move the potatoes around if they start to stick to the sheet.\u00a0 When the potatoes are brown and look cooked you can remove the sheet from the oven and cover with aluminum foil until needed later.\u00a0<\/p>\n<h4>Blender Hollandaise Sauce<\/h4>\n<p>You can spend lots of time making a pan-made\u00a0Hollandaise\u00a0sauce but I personally see no reason to do this since blender\u00a0Hollandaise is much faster to make and tastes wonderful.\u00a0 If the\u00a0Hollandaise sits too long, give it a quick blend to reset it to the proper consistency.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>For this you need:\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><em>Makes 4-8 Servings (greatly depends on how much sauce you give each person)<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>1 stick butter (1\/2 cup)<\/li>\n<li>3 egg yolks<\/li>\n<li>1 tsp <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Tabasco_sauce\">Tabasco Sauce<\/a><\/li>\n<li>2 tsp lemon juice<\/li>\n<li>salt and pepper to taste<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Melt the butter in your microwave\u00a0using a microwave safe measuring cup.\u00a0 I rarely use microwaves but melting butter is one thing it does well!\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In a clean blender, yes you can use your vita-mix for this as well, put the rest of the ingredients.\u00a0 I used 1\/2 tsp of salt and pepper for this go around.\u00a0 If you don\u2019t like spicy food you may omit the Tabasco Sauce.\u00a0 It\u2019s not really spicy though so you probably won\u2019t notice it.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Put the lid on\u00a0the blender but leave the lid insert off.\u00a0 Cover it with a paper towel and turn it on high for 1 minute.\u00a0 After the 1 minute mark, slowly pour the melted butter through the top of the lid into the sauce.\u00a0 It should take you about 30-45 seconds to do this.\u00a0 Let the sauce blend for a final 15 seconds and it should be done.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>A correctly blended\u00a0Hollandaise sauce will be thick and have a nice consistency to it.\u00a0 If you want it thinner you can use more butter or less eggs but I\u2019ll leave that up to you.\u00a0 Leave the sauce in the blender until you need it later.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>For interesting dinner conversation you can tell your guests about\u00a0Hollandaise Sauce.\u00a0 Supposedly, the King of the Netherlands had the sauce served to them on a state sponsored visit to France.\u00a0 It\u2019s also one of the (5) categorized sauces of French cuisine.\u00a0 In the 19th century, the chef Antonin Car\u00eame classified sauces into four families, each of which was based on a mother sauce.\u00a0 In the early 20th century, the chef Auguste Escoffier updated the classification, adding sauces such as tomato sauce, butter sauces and emulsified sauces such as Mayonnaise and Hollandaise. [<a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Mother_sauce#Sauces_in_French_cuisine\"><em>Sourced from Wikipedia<\/em><\/a>]\u00a0<\/p>\n<h4>Cooking the Sea Bass<\/h4>\n<p>Ah, finally, the fish!\u00a0\u00a0I leave\u00a0this part till last because fish cooks very quickly and the crab meat requires nothing more than rinsing it.\u00a0\u00a0Without further delay\u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Open the can of lump crab meat and rinse it to remove any shell pieces left over from the canning process.\u00a0 Be careful not to break the crab lumps as you do this.\u00a0 Let is drain and sit to the side.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Dice the red bell pepper and put the pepper dices into a bowl for use later.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Uncover the fish and season the filets on both sides with salt and pepper.\u00a0 You don\u2019t want to season it early as the salt will dry out the fish and absorb it (making it taste salty.)\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Heat your griddle on both sides to 400 degrees.\u00a0 If you don\u2019t have one, I highly recommend the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B002LFTTUO?ie=UTF8&tag=lostlogicinc&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B002LFTTUO\">All-Clad Electric Griddle<\/a>.\u00a0 It\u2019s expensive but very worth it.\u00a0 If you don\u2019t have a griddle right now, you can heat a large skillet on high.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Once the griddle or skillet is hot, put 1 tablespoon of butter and 1 teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil on.\u00a0 As soon as the butter is melted, place the fish filets on the hot surface.\u00a0 Let the fish cook for 5 minutes before flipping over.\u00a0 It should have a nice brown crust on it when you flip it.\u00a0 If it doesn\u2019t, leave it alone and wait to flip it.\u00a0 As soon as it has a nice brown crust flip it over and cook for the same amount of time until a crust is formed on both sides.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Remove the fish from the heat and let it sit for 3 minutes while you put together the base of the plates.\u00a0<\/p>\n<h4>Plating and Serving<\/h4>\n<p>Now that everything is done you can plate the food.\u00a0 I like to heat my plates up before serving as it keeps the food warm.\u00a0 Set out four plates and arrange the food like so:\u00a0<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Place the parmesan crisp down first<\/li>\n<li>Top the\u00a0crisp with 6 slices of potatoes<\/li>\n<li>Top the potatoes with a\u00a0piece of fish<\/li>\n<li>Top the fish with 2 ounces of crab<\/li>\n<li>Place two asparagus spears on the plate (one on each side)<\/li>\n<li>Drizzle\u00a0Hollandaise sauce over the crab meat<\/li>\n<li>Sprinkle the diced red bell peppers over the top<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>That\u2019s it!\u00a0 You are now ready to serve the entree. \ud83d\ude42\u00a0<\/p>\n<h3>Chocolate Cake with Raspberry Sauce and Chocolate Sauce<\/h3>\n<div id=\"attachment_442\" style=\"width: 160px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/foodiecuisine.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/cake.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-442\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-442\" title=\"Chocolate Cake\" src=\"http:\/\/foodiecuisine.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/cake-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-442\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Chocolate Cake<\/p><\/div>\n<p>I\u2019m not a baker, they are a different breed of cook altogether, but I am trying to learn various techniques in the realm.\u00a0 Who knows, I may even take on baking in the future.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In the meantime, I use pre-made desserts from various bakeries in town.\u00a0 For this dinner I used a chocolate cake topped with strawberries from The Fresh Market.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>I finished it off with a chocolate sauce poured over the top and a small pool of raspberry sauce on the side.\u00a0 I chopped up fresh mint and spread it over the dessert before serving.\u00a0 The idea is for the diners to eat a piece of cake along with a small bit of raspberry sauce in each bite.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>There is nothing low-calorie about the cake by the way so you may want to skip it if you are on a diet.\u00a0 I only eat deserts on the weekend to keep the calories down in my diet for example.<\/p>\n<p>All in all the dinner was a success and everyone seemed to enjoy it.\u00a0 I\u2019ve had a couple of dinner parties since this one and have used the soup recipe a couple of times since with great results.\u00a0 Give the above ideas a try and let me know how it works out for you.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Enjoy!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Todd Barron @ FoodieCuisine.com \u00a0I\u2019ve been sitting on this article for a while and had to dust the cobwebs out of my memory for parts of it but here goes\u2026\u00a0 We had some good friends over in February for a small dinner party.\u00a0 On the menu we had Potato Cauliflower Soup, Sea Bass Oscar, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5,6],"tags":[148,147,150,152,144,145,151,149,153,52,37,146,28],"class_list":["post-433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-tips-and-tricks","tag-asparagus","tag-bass","tag-crab","tag-crisp","tag-dinner","tag-fish","tag-hollandaise","tag-oscar","tag-parmesan","tag-party","tag-roasted","tag-sea","tag-soup"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/foodiecuisine.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/foodiecuisine.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/foodiecuisine.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/foodiecuisine.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/foodiecuisine.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=433"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/foodiecuisine.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":448,"href":"http:\/\/foodiecuisine.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433\/revisions\/448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/foodiecuisine.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/foodiecuisine.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/foodiecuisine.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}