Coq au Vin Dinner Party

A few weeks ago I had some of my friends in Ft Lauderdale over to help me check-off one of my 2012 goals: making Coq au Vin from scratch. My parents actually had both volumes of Mastering the Art of French Cooking (which I have since adopted and brought to Ft Laudy with me), so I had ALL the recipes on hand for my dinner! But I had to do some menu planning  to make my dinner party EXTRA fabulous :)

After menu planning and spending nearly a FORTUNE at Publix, I got to work in the kitchen! To be quite honest, none of Julia Child's recipes (that I've made anyways) are that difficult or take that long. When I made Beef Bourgionon in the spring, it really didn't take ALL afternoon, but there were a lot of steps. The same thing for Coq au Vin. All-in-all, it maybe took 2 hours, but there were a lot of steps. Nothing complex, just a lot of steps. I set a gorg table, and used my favorite plates EVER (still) I got from John & Juan a few Christmases ago.

I decided on an app I made for the Orlando gays awhile ago: Pancetta Crisps with Goat Cheese & Figs. It's seriously SO easy and so delicious. And I randomly bought honey-flavored goat cheese at Publix that day, and I drizzled a little honey on top instead of the fig jam, and it was AMAZING! The boys LOVED them. (And so did I!)

I also made a delish Sparkling Pomegranate Cocktail which was so refreshing on a Saturday afternoon!

We had a green salad, which was easy and delicious. I mixed arugula and spinach, topped with some cherry tomatoes and thinly sliced red onions and a honey-balsamic vinaigrette:

Honey-Balsamic Vinaigrette

• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinager
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1 teaspoon dijon mustard
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• salt & pepper to taste

Mix first 3 ingredients, then stream in olive oil while whisking. Add salt & fresh-ground pepper to taste. (Okay, yes, I went there with the "fresh-ground pepper"... but honestly, it makes a big difference in recipes where the flavors are simple and easy.) This has become my go-to dressing for everything, it's just THAT good.

You can KINDA see the salad in this shot of the table.

Then we had the Coq au Vin, which was simply amazing. Julia Child makes some GOOD FOOD. I made some mashed potatoes (from scratch of course) and bought a few baguettes at the store (I would've made them but didn't plan enough in advance!), and our meal was complete with LOTS of red wine.

For dessert, I made Vanilla Panna Cotta with chocolate whipped cream. The easiest dessert but it tastes amazing and if you put it in classy glasses it looks REALLY fancy!

So that leaves me with ONE item left on my 2012 food hit list: croissants. I have 2 months and I feel pretty good I can find another group of friends to grin and bear it while I make some croissants.

Go out there and have a fun party and cook some good food!!